20 Months Old Today!!!

In 4 months, I will have a 2 year old. What?!?!  

Part of me can’t believe it…but most of me can. I have watched her really change over the past few weeks.

She likes what she likes, and she is VERY clear about what she doesn’t like. Before she was born, I hoped that she would be a strong girl with a big, sassy personality, not afraid to speak her mind. My hopes came true, tenfold! 🙂 And I love that she is kind at the same time. She plays so well with other kids!

She is very specific with her choices now. Before, I could whip up just about anything for mealtime. Lately, she requests ”cheese” (mac and cheese) for almost every meal!  🙂

She thinks it’s hilarious to close the door on me and say ”Buh bye!”, and gives me the biggest hug when I open it again. ❤

She LOVES bubbles, dancing, cooking and Calliou.

She also loves giving anything and everything a ”bath” in our sink! 🙂 She wasn’t too thrilled when I changed her water table to a Valentine-inspired rice table. Looks like I’ll be changing it back soon!

She demands ”Elmo” from Siri .

Every time a Katy Perry song comes on the radio, she lights up. She has only listened to her about 3 times, but each time she loved it! Oh, boy! :-p

She loves exploring the refrigerator and looking at all of the food in there.  I’m tempted to get her a play refrigerator for her 2nd birthday. I wonder if she would love it, or if she would still prefer the ‘real’ thing! 🙂 She loves pressing buttons-especially those on the microwave.

She can clearly sing the ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ in ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, and she loves making up her own songs about Mama and Daddy ! ❤ She can finish all the sentences in her favorite books “Happy Hippo, Angry Duck” and “Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?” .

I can’t even list all of the words and sentences she is putting together. A few months ago, she had more than 100+ words. Some of her funnier sentences are “Mama, move please”  and “Burp. Excuse me!” . She is also really good about spontaneously saying ”Thank you” when she is grateful for something!

Lately, I find myself doing a lot more ‘redirecting’. Sometimes it sounds ridiculous “instead of throwing those pieces of food on the floor, let’s throw it in the sink (garbage disposal)! ” but it works a lot better than a blatant “No” (I try to save ”no” for non-negotiable, dangerous things).

She is starting to test the limits a little more every day, like looking right at me, smiling from ear to ear and saying ”Pinching!!!”  (and proceeding to pinch me). Little does she know, because of my preschool teaching days, I am used to more than 6 kids simultaneously”testing the limits” , so this is small potatoes. 😉

I love this age because every day, something new happens. She learns a new word. She does something funny that she never did before. I love it! 20 months is a big deal. At least, I think it is. I think a special treat is in order! ;D

Mmm, Mommy’s chocolates!!! I moved the stool over and helped myself!

Dreaming of Springtime…

I couldn’t help but think of all of the things I’m looking forward to doing with Livia once Spring FINALLY gets here.

I can’t wait to:

-Plant a tree in the front yard!

-Make DIY birdfeeders and watch the birds!

-Go on hikes! (Note: I have NEVER been an outdoorsy person, but I know how vital experiencing nature is for children, so now I’m actually really looking forward to this! )

-Plant a garden!

-Make our mailbox look nicer and plant some flowers around it!

-Take long walks on the walking mall!

-Eat lunch outside on the patio! Or have picnics in the backyard!

I still make sure we go outside at some point every day (even though lately we mainly just walk around the neighborhood), but there’s nothing fun about wearing tons of layers and having cold wind in our faces! Sigh…hurry up, Spring! 🙂

Livia Lately!

I wonder if there is a word ‘big’ enough to describe Livia’s personality. When she toddles into the room, her presence just says ”I’m HERE!” .

Her latest passions: 

-Pouring her own water. I got her a kid-friendly pitcher, and she is REALLY good at pouring her own water! She even holds her cup still! She seems so satisfied and proud of herself after she drinks it!  And sometimes she blatantly dumps it all on the counter. “Just because”, I guess. 🙂

-Sometimes, I turn my back for a second, and the next thing I hear is a light switch being flipped, followed by running water. I know it’s Livia in the upstairs bathroom brushing her teeth. Having step stools in the bathrooms and the kitchen has opened up a whole new world for her. I try to let her do as much as she can on her own. She sometimes needs help with her toothpaste (which she calls ”tee-tee” <3), but that’s really it. She also loves that we brush our teeth together. Sometimes she even brushes my teeth for me! 🙂

-BASKETBALL!” (she calls it “bee-ta-baahhh!”). Lamar is a basketball player, so this comes as no surprise. She loves watching it, and she LOVES playing with the basketball hoop Lamar got her for Christmas. Sometimes she pretends she’s playing basketball by throwing random objects and saying ”bee ta baaahhh!!!” 🙂

-Books! She can sit through the same story multiple times, which is awesome. We are still working on our ”1000 books before kindergarten challenge”. I lost track of which books we read during December and January. We went to the library for the 2nd 50 books list.  I know I could’ve easily filled that list with the books I know we read during December and January, but I decided to just start from last week.

-Pretending! She is now starting to pretend. I LOVE this, because I’m a big kid and I love to pretend, too! She put some magnetic letters in a cup and said ”coffee!” and gave it to me. I was overjoyed! She also pretends her toothbrush is an ”airplane” and makes cute little sound effects. She isn’t into dress-up yet. When she is, we are going to have too much fun!

-Asserting herself. She says “No!” with a big smile on her face. 😛 I try to remember to ask her questions where ‘No’ is a helpful answer. Ex. “Would you like a banana?” or “Are you hungry?” (instead of “Do you want to go to sleep?”).

-Getting into my makeup. I wonder if I have a future makeup artist on my hands! She uses brushes correctly, she knows how to use a ‘beauty blender’ sponge, and she loves putting lipstick on her stuffed animals. Today, she gave Lambchop a makeover. 🙂

-Caillou. (I admit, I let her watch some TV now)! She also likes to watch the ”Sprout Goodnight Show” after we’ve read our stories. She gets so excited about Chica!

-Dancing!!! She loves dancing to all types of music. If it’s a good, upbeat song, she’ll dance to it! She’s got some great moves, too! She also loves to twirl! She says ”twirl!” and spins around! 🙂 ❤

Eating

She hasn’t gone through a picky phase yet. She loves just about every food I put in front of her! I’m really thrilled that she loves quiche (so much protein!). And of course, she loves typical toddler food like Mac ‘n Cheese and chicken nuggets. I’ve been looking up some recipes for the healthy/nutritious versions of these foods. 🙂 Some days, she’s an eating machine, and some days, she just wants to play and I have to pretty much chase her around with a fork (lol!) . She LOVES her ‘junior chair’ from Ikea. It gives her the freedom to climb in and out of her chair without help, which makes her feel super independent. 🙂

Sleeping

This is the only ‘challenge’. There are nights where I have to keep putting her back in the bed for 3 hours (she just continuously climbs down). Then, there are nights where she still lets me wear her and she’s asleep within 10 minutes.  I’m working really hard on establishing a solid routine without the carrier. I still kind of use it as a crutch on ‘tough nights’.

Talking

Her vocabulary is out of this world! I stopped counting at 100 words, and that was a couple of months ago. Now, she puts 2-3 words together and it flows. She’ll say things like “Mama, open” , “Dada, GO” or “Mama, pleeeeease”. She also says “Oh noooo, happen?” 🙂 Today, I was chasing her and saying ”come down here!” and  she said “I DON’T!” (I could tell she was trying to say ”I don’t want to”).  It was too cute.

I can’t get enough of this girl!!!!

My favorite thing about her is her laugh. She has this HUGE, booming belly laugh. I love it! This girl is anything but timid. She’s my little rockstar!

#MommyChallenge: Empathizing with my toddler.

Over the past week or so, I can see a significant change in Livia’s behavior. ❤

She gets frustrated a lot, and I get it- she’s smaller than everyone around and can’t make all of the choices she’d like to. She also doesn’t understand WHY she can’t.  And that must REALLY suck!

It’s especially a challenge this week because we are on vacation with my parents at our beach house, so her choices are a little more limited. She doesn’t have all of her usual toys, and lots of stuff in the house isn’t ideal for a 15 month old to play with. There have been plenty of times that I’ve had to pick her up and move her to a different area, which she isn’t really used to- and she DOESN’T like it. We spend LOTS of time outside, so that helps!

I’m trying to limit the word “No” and only use it in situations where she’s being really unsafe and risks hurting herself (or someone else). Something that is working for me is replacing the word “No” with “Let’s”.

“Let’s give ‘high fives’ instead of hitting”.  “Let’s play with one of your toys. This can break easily.”  “Let’s find something else to eat”. 

When she gets mad, I try to remember the empathetic language one of my former coworkers, Susan, would use. I call it “embracing my inner Susan” :).  I’ll say things like “You’re angry. You really wanted to play with ______, but it isn’t safe. Let’s try____”.

Livia can sign “angry” and “sad” (and she actually connects “sad” to hitting!), so I’m encouraging her to use them when she is upset.

Yesterday, she said her first sentence “No, mine!” I was so excited!  Maybe it won’t happen again for a few months, but since then I’ve been trying to help her use 2-word sentences to express what she might be feeling (another challenge within itself).

So far, I’ve only come up with “No help” for when she wants to do something herself. Earlier today, she ran over to the outdoor steps (which she can easily climb, but they have big gaps in them), and when she saw me right behind her, she said “NO!! NO!!”. I could tell she was mad because she thought I was going to pick her up.  I said ” Say ‘No help'”.

It’s definitely a “one-day-at-a-time” journey, but with lots of hugs and encouragement, I hope things should be relatively smooth for her! ❤

A New Chapter Begins

Yesterday I said goodbye to the wonderful families I worked with for two years. I resigned from my job as a teacher. I miss everyone very, very much <3.

At the same time, I am overflowing with joy because from now on, I am staying home with Livia!

My first impressions of ‘Stay-At-Home’ life (so far)…

–I am pleasantly surprised at the large amounts of energy I still have at the end of the day.

(Then again, I am now caring for ONE child now instead of  five or six at a time).

-I am really excited about cooking and baking now. Not only do I have time to do it now, it’s also a great learning experience for Livia! Before, cooking was SUCH a pain in the butt! I’d get home at 5:40, scramble around to get settled in, try to whip something up WHILE Livia would cry and cling to my leg because she hadn’t seen me all day…it just wasn’t fun.

-I am actually on my phone MUCH less. I chose to stay home so that I could enjoy quality time with Livi. Quality to me = electronics-free. With the exception of sharing a few pictures, I’m not on there looking at Facebook or furiously browsing Pinterest. That is for nap time.

-I have been able to stick to a similar routine that Livia followed at school.  Our schedule is more flexible now, but I do try to go outside at the same times as she did before, sing the same songs, and build from the experiences she had in her classroom with her AMAZING teachers.

-I am  trying to re-organize our small space to make it optimal for learning. Lamar helped me move furniture on the patio so she can have her toddler table/chair set out there with an easel. The huge windows will give her a gorgeous view of the world below. I can see her having some playdates there! AND some messy, sensory fun! 🙂

-I actually have more of a social life. Ok, maybe it’s because I JUST quit my job and maybe it’ll be short-lived (hope not!). But for now, I’m loving visiting with former parents at my school and other people! (That reminds me, I have a coffee date in 30 min!)

 

All in all, I love it. I feel like I’m on a permanent vacation. This doesn’t feel difficult at all!  I couldn’t ask for more! Have any of my readers stayed home for any period of time? How did you like it?

 

HandFootMouth

We managed to dodge it like a bullet last time it was going around our school. This time, we weren’t as lucky.
I knew something was wrong last Saturday because she couldn’t sleep (she usually sleeps like a rock)! She was clearly tired, but she kept rolling around and kicking in her sleep. On Sunday, she just wasn’t herself. My little ball of energy was unusually calm and just wanted to be in my lap. I took her temperature and she had a fever of 101. It was the last week of school and I could not miss any more days, so my mom kept her home and took her to the doctor.  Before she left, I noticed she had what looked like a terrible diaper rash. Livia has never had a diaper rash, so I made sure my mom brought it up to the doc. Turns out it wasnt a diaper rash, but the telltale blisters of hand foot and mouth disease. Over the next few days, she developed little bumps on her elbows, knees, and feet. Luckily she didn’t have it in her mouth, so her eating wasn’t affected.
Hand Foot and Mouth disease is a virus that is very common at preschools and daycares. There isn’t a cure for it, you just have to let it run its course.  It causes a lot of discomfort, so Livia took Tylenol and some Benadryl. Ibuprofen makes her EXTREMELY hyper, so that was out of the question-she really needed to rest.  It has been a week now, and her blisters are almost completely dried out and she’s acting like herself again!
Have any of your little ones ever had Hand Foot and Mouth disease?

Helping Livia Self-Soothe Before Naptime

I’ve always been very hands-on when it comes to helping Livia sleep. I was either rocking her, wearing her, or just holding her until she’d eventually doze off. Now that she is becoming more independent and wanting to do more for herself (feeding herself, brushing her own teeth), I figured it would be the perfect time for her to try soothing herself to sleep (we’re on vacation for the next week and I’m around all the time).

But how? Where? Livia isn’t used to spending any ‘awake’ time inside a pack-and-play. Whether we’re at Grammy’s, Mimi’s,  or our home, I make sure she has the freedom to explore and choose what she wants to play with.  Keeping this in mind, I knew that putting her in a pack-and-play while she’s awake would probably be a challenge.

She naps happily on her mat at school, so the first thing I tried was patting her back while she laid on her travel cot. Once she was laying quietly, I walked away. When I peeked around the corner to check on her, she  had climbed off, gone over to my dad in the dining area and managed to get some lemonade from him. -_-

I decided that it was time to try the pack-and-play. I knew she wouldn’t just stay awake. “When she’s tired, she’ll sleep”, I told myself, unsure if I was reassuring myself or just trying to convince myself.

I  gathered 3 of her favorite books and put them in, I gave her a kiss and gently plopped her inside with them.

Understandably, her first reaction to my putting her in the pack-and-play was screaming and fussing. I would usually react by scooping her up right away. But this time, I decided to go into a different room and see what would happen next. I decided that, if 10 minutes went by and she was still screaming, she wasn’t ready.

After about 2 minutes, she grew quiet. I heard her sit down, and when I peeked through the doorway, she was reading one of her books!  She started rolling around with them, reading them laying down and throwing them around. She was relaxing by herself!

She stood up a few times and jumped up and down, sometimes babbling loudly and sometimes she’d whining, but then she’d go right back to reading. After about 10 minutes, she was laying down with her eyes half open. 3 minutes after that, she was asleep!

She has been asleep for about an hour now, and I am so proud of her! My big girl went to sleep without any help!

Beach Getaway!

On Friday night, Lamar, Livi and I loaded up the car and joined Grammy, Nonno and Zia at our beach house! Lamar had to leave today to go back to work 😦 , but I’m thankful we truly made the best of our time! Livia and I will be staying for the rest of the week !

So far, we have had one beach adventure. As predicted, my little adventurer LOVES it here. She didn’t stay still for a minute, running off, trying to “borrow”  other kids’ toys, and splashing in the water! Seeing her waddle around in the sand was priceless!

 

 

 

SAHM Envy

I love my class. I love my coworkers. I love how my job is like a big community. I love how Livia’s teachers are like her second family.

However, the SAHM Envy I feel sometimes is undeniable.  Weekends are gone in the blink of an eye. Saturday comes and goes, Sunday is almost nonexistent…then, it’s back to the long work week, and every day I am left with the day’s ”leftovers”, a few hours of ”quality” time with Livia, much of which is spent cooking dinner/cleaning up/getting ready for bed. Tonight, Livia fell asleep at 7:45 pm. We spent about 2 hours together today.

Sometimes, when Livia is asleep, I look at the ‘Stay At Home Mom’ groups on Meetup.com and imagine what life would be like if I, too, could bring Livia to Story Time at Barnes and Noble, have fun little playdates in the park, just the two of us…the spontaneity would be so beautiful.

Our mornings can be rushed sometimes, and I miss out on funny moments (like her pretending to put on makeup with my makeup brushes) because I am in a hurry to get ready.

Sigh…atleast we have a vacation coming up to look forward to.  

 

Random Cuteness

 Livia is a Daddy’s Girl!

 

 Livia LOVES the water. ❤

 

 She loves taking ALL of my makeup brushes out!

 …and my accessories!

 

This next series of pictures is my absolute favorite. I loveee how creative she already is!

Livi’s Favorite Game (the next 5 pictures): 

    (What is this broccoli good for?)  I find ways to use EVERYTHING as a basketball! (Play food, blocks…you name it!)!