We are getting ready for my baby girl to turn 2. 2!! It hits me all of the changes when I go back and look at all the pictures from when she was wee-itty bitty. Her face, hair, height, all growing in front of my eyes.
I haven't written in a few weeks because I truly was just exhausted. I would put her down at night and take myself to the sofa to watch tV, then lay there until I fell asleep, then get up and drag myself to bed. Every night.
Some positive changes, I think baby girl has turned a corner, so to speak, regarding her behavior. She is not hitting, biting, kicking as much and seems to be listening a little better. I have noticed that when it all started was when the second baby sitter started to sit more and brought her daughter w/ her. The daughter really likes baby girl, but it took her awhile to learn that baby girl needs space and doesn't like it when someone is in her face, or wants to pick her up all the time, etc.. School will start soon for my babysitters' kids, so that will take care of itself. Also, we started doing 'time out'. There is a bench in the house that she calls a chair. When she hits, or whatever, she gets a warning. She does it again she goes to the chair. She even knows the rules already. She was hitting the babysitter's daughter. I said she had a warning. She did it again, looked at me, and said 'chair?". Ummmm....yes, chair time. I am not strict w/ the 1 minute per age suggestion. I just have her sit until she calms down. Then, I get down on eye to eye level and say "I put you in time out because you X. We don't X. do you understand?". The funniest thing is when I ask her if she understands.....she makes up words that I have no idea what she is saying, but it's almost as if she's trying to say yes, I understand. Hard for me not to smile because she says it sooo seriously. Then I (or she) says 'hugs' and we call it a day. I'm sure there are more 'proper' ways to do it, but I just do what works for us. The two babysitters do it as well and it seems to be helping.
For her birthday.....we are going to have a small party just at the house. Have a little cake and call it a day. I just don't see the need to make this super big party when she doesn't have other little friends really, and would enjoy it here as much as anywhere else. Plus let's be honest, it's easier for me. i'm okay w/ that. My sister is flying into town, we will invite the babysitters, their kids, a few friends, and it should be some fun.
I've seen several blogs where people write letters to their children and I think that is neat to be able to look back on those....but my creative side is slow these days so I just want to document some of the things she is doing and how I've seen her change.
First is her hair. She has curly brown hair and it is finally growing in all over her head. Started as pretty bald, then mohawk-style, now it's filling in, and she even has this rogue curl in the back of her head that looks kind of rat-tail-ish. I haven't had the heart to cut it yet. She hasn't had a haircut, ever. Her hair grows out, not down.
Her personality.....she is still very independent. And now with words...."I do it"....."I color"..."I paintin'". She really loves crafty stuff where she can dig in w/ her fingers.....finger painting, painting, stamping, you name it. She also baked for the first time w/ the babysitter and loved that too.
It's funny because sometimes I wonder, does she really need me?, but then I get reminded when she is having a major fit all she wants is her mama to calm her down. Like today, she was screaming in the back seat and I asked her if she wanted to hold my hand.....and she did.
She is definitely into pushing boundaries.....she likes to test, but she also is simply curious about how things work. She'll try to figure out a toy, but let me tell you if she can't very quickly, she'll let you know. She is also impatient. One thing that has changed from when she was younger is she freely gives 'hucks' and kisses on her own throughout the day. She'll just be sitting next to me and say 'huck' and lean over and we hug. I do love that.
She still loves reading books.....she still goes over to pick one for her and one for me.....and bring over to read. One of her favorites these days is 'Tumper'......aka th.u.mper.
Her language has definitely increased where she strings words together now. My favorite is when I am heading to my room or somewhere and she runs after saying 'I coming....I coming'......The other one is 'okay'. She says it in the right context and is almost like 'okaaaay'. It's too cute. I told her this morning mama needed to take a shower and she said oh, okay. Like no big deal.
She is still pretty tall......just today we were in the store and someone asked how old she was and I said almost 2. She said WOW, pretty tall. why yes, yes she is. In fact the shorts she had on today were these cute pink ones that fit just fine at the beginning of summer.
She can put her shoes on all by herself. She can take off some clothes, but putting on is a bit harder.
There have been many challenging days with her, testing my patience and energy level, but I recognize a lot of myself in her in that she's independent, strong-willed, loving (on her terms), curious, inpatient, and darn funny at times. She doesn't belly laugh a ton, but when she does it is music to me. Nothing better.
Love this kid.
And on to the next one....he's growing exactly as he should be and I'm getting close to 30 weeks. He's very active now and moves a lot throughout the day--and really a lot around the evening. The Dr. asked that I start taking a slow-release iron during 3rd trimester and yesterday not so great, but today I feel better.....and dare I say have less fatigue. The Dr. did check all my labs and my iron was fine, but maybe it can still be on the low end of fine and create issues. Not sure but I will keep taking it. Also started an anti-heartburn. T.U.ms just wasn't cutting it, and it feels way better now. I am starting to get winded more easily and sitting/standing for long periods is getting harder. It puts so much pressure on my belly that my belly hardens up. I am definitely getting bigger in stomach this time because a shirt I wore throughout all last pregnancy is getting to the last button not being pulled. Oh boy! Still getting nursery together. It's been challenging to find exactly what I am envisioning furniture-wise, but we did get the bedding set and it is just too cute.
I had talked about moving due to allergies but we are just going to stay put for now. I wouldnt have the energy to move and It's time to just settle and get ready. Since nothing was put together before baby girl was born, since she was early, I really would like to have everything ready.
It's not too far away.....
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