Sleepy Sleepy

I'm so tired.  I'm not complaining, I'm just saying.

Barnes & Noble Story Time

I have begun taking O to story time at our local Barnes & Noble store.  They offered story time at the Barnes & Noble where I lived previously but I never attended mostly because we were already attending a story time at the library (which was closer to my home).  I was searching for activities in the area of our new home and I decided to give the Woodland Hills Barnes & Noble a shot.  Boy am I glad I did!  Miss Jennifer, the facilitator, is great! We have attended twice now and both times my son has had a good time.  The first time we attended there was a curious george theme.  Miss Jennifer read books and the kids got to color curious george pictures.  In addition, there was dancing to songs such as  'if you're happy and you know it' and the hokey pokey! O did want to leave a little early (I think it got a little too chaotic for him) that day, however by the time we got to the car he was crying because he wanted to go back.  He kept saying "more" while getting in the car.  I let him know that we would attend the following week and I kept my word.  Last week the theme was Thanksgiving.  Not only were there stories and coloring pages associated with Thanksgiving, but this time there was a craft project as well.  Each child got a bag with materials to make a centerpiece for the table.  How thoughtful! The bag contained a paper plate with a square of floral foam attached.  Also included were fake plants and flowers as well as a flag that said Happy Thanksgiving.  O had a blast putting the centerpiece together.  We brought it home and placed it in the center of our table.  He is so proud of what he created and I of course, am proud of him too!

It is so great that we happened upon the Barnes & Noble story time.  The unfortunate thing is that the store that we have been going to is closing.  The good news is Miss Jennifer is going to begin a story time at the Calabasas store which is not too much further.  If it continues to be more of the same, it will be well worth the trip.

Monday Fun Day ~ Pine Cone Turkey

Since Thanksgiving is this week it is only appropriate that we complete a holiday craft for Monday Fun Day.

We have recently been completing A LOT of yard work.  As we happen upon pine cones, my little guy collects them and now has a bin full of the cones.  Pine cones are fantastic.  They can be used by themselves or with other fall items to create a centerpiece or decoration for the home.  In addition, they make great craft components.

Today we made turkeys out of pine cones.  I was able to find lots of ideas online for how to create our turkeys.  Some people had created their pine cone turkeys using a pom pom for the head (a styrofoam ball or wooden ball would also work).  I found feathers, tissue paper, and pipe cleaners used for feathers.  You could also use felt or construction paper, colored leaves  if you are fortunate enough to live in an area with fabulous fall foliage, or painted cardboard from a left over box or paper plate (the plates with the slight accordion style edge work well).  I was most inspired by the turkey from AmazingMoms.com

Today we chose to use feathers for one turkey and pipe cleaners for the other turkey.  We made the head and neck out of felt,  used plastic googly eyes, and construction craft paper for the bill and wattle (that's the red, dangly thing).  We first constructed the face.  Then we attached our feathers by sticking them in the pine cone.  We didn't have to use glue, but depending on the cone it may be necessary.  We then glued the head to the bottom of the pine cone to complete our turkey!  This is what we accomplished.

Love The Way You Learn

Do you ever question whether your toddler is on track with development? When my son was 18 months old he had no true words.  Despite me reading to him several times a day, he barely said mama and most of the time it came out as 'ma'.  He called all objects 'ma' or 'ba'.  When we had his 18month check up at the doctor, she stated that usually at 18 months if a child is not speaking any words, she recommends a hearing test.  I knew my son didn't need a hearing test.  He could comprehend everything that we said.  I would talk about taking the dog for a walk and he would go grab the dog's leash.  I would say "where are my keys?" or "where are your shoes?" and he would quickly go on a mission to find them.  Wouldn't you know, he always knew exactly where my keys were! So, obviously he didn't have a hearing problem.  We decided to see how things went over the next few months and at 21 months he had several words that he said.  Not many, but a few.  He attempted to make animal sounds and while they weren't perfect (or in some cases even the right sound), they were the same sound every time.  I was still questioning if he was delayed in his speech development.  I was comforted by the fact that a couple friends with kids my son's age said that their kids were at a similar speech level.

My son will be 24 months [2 years- Wow!] on Sunday and his speech abilities have rocketed since that 21 month mark.  In fact, as I am writing this it is hard to believe that we had that concern just three months ago.  Slowly he began saying more words and correcting the animal sounds to more correct sounds.  Now he is repeating many of the words that we say throughout the day.  I make a huge deal out of every new word that he says and then we continuously practice the word.

He is not stating phrases yet, but he is able to verbally communicate his needs and desires instead of whining and grunting! Recently we have been doing some pre-school type activities each day.  We have a letter of the day type of learning happening and it is amazing.  He is really taking to it well.  In addition, I have been letting him watch "Super Why" which he loves! When the letters show up on the screen he says them out loud.  I am shocked at how many letters he knows.  It won't be long before he is speaking more than I want him too! - Are we there yet? I don't wan't to! NO!

Oh well, I love that he is learning.  I love that he is speaking.  I love that he is growing.  He is so much fun!

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Bedtime Bliss ~ Our Long Journey

It took almost two years, but finally, finally we have bedtime success! Let me start at the beginning so that those who are where I was don't feel so alone.

Bedtime has always been a struggle for us.  As a result, we developed what some would consider bad habits.  I tried several techniques described either in books I read (books that I loved and thought for sure would work for us), found online or were used by friends and family to try to get my son to bed on his own and at a reasonable hour.  We have always had a bedtime routine (the typical bath, book, bed type) but my son would not go to bed on his own.  Yes, I am sure if I implemented the cry it out method it would have worked eventually, but I just couldn't do it.  I was in a situation where my son had to be sleeping before being put in his crib for well over a year.  On top of this he was going to bed way too late for a little guy at around 10pm.  He wasn't lacking sleep as he would sleep late into the morning and take a lengthy nap in the afternoon but my husband and I never had time to ourselves in the evening.  Mom and Dad should really have some Mom and Dad time.

For a year I nursed my son to sleep day and night. After that ended I would get him to sleep by putting him in his swing (yes we used it way too long) or rocking him until he was out and then would ever so carefully place him in his crib.  Then I got pregnant and my pregnant belly just couldn't handle the bending over into the crib towards the end! It was hard enough to rock him on my disappearing lap! So we transferred to a toddler bed.  Again, I tried to get my son to go to bed on his own, thinking this was a new, exciting way to get him on board.  Nope.  Now he could not only scream, but get out of bed over and over again.

I think part of the problem was that we were in a one bedroom apartment.  My son could see my bed with me not in it and hear the tv in the other room or Mama and Papa talking.  He wanted in on the action.  If we got the boy to sleep at an earlier hour he would wake at least once prior to us going to bed and we would have to start the process of getting him to sleep over again.  This usually meant turning off the tv and lights even though we weren't ready for bed ourselves.  My son wasn't able to soothe himself back to sleep.  When we put him to bed later in the evening he tended to stay asleep and when I was pregnant, this is what I cared about more than his bedtime.  A full night of sleep was my priority.  If I was woken in the middle of the night it was rare that I could easily fall back to sleep.

I felt guilty for a long time about our bedtime habits.  I was ashamed that my kid stayed up so late in the evening.  Then I found that I was not alone.  I spoke with other moms who were in my same boat and I began to feel more normal.  Perhaps my son's body had its own internal clock that was set similar to my own rather than to kid time.  I did, however, continue to feel a bit ashamed to still be using his swing.  I mean he was four months from being two and he was still using a swing to take naps and get to sleep at night?  No bueno.  This continued until we had the baby and moved into our new home.

Once we moved, I explained that the swing was now for "E" and we would have a new routine for going to sleep.  I started with bedtime.  I began rocking with "O" in his bedroom (this was key: the rocking chair didn't fit in the bedroom in our apt. so it was in the living room) and immediately we saw a difference.  The first few nights I explained to him that he was a big boy now and big boys go to sleep in their big boy beds awake and stay there until they fall asleep etc.  I explained that I would be in the other room and would come back to check on him.  He willingly went into his bed and for about a week stayed there..... all night!  I was ecstatic!

Then we went through a testing phase.

Challenge Is Good

The past three months have been some of the most trying months of my entire life, yet some of the most amazing things have come of those trying times.  I gave birth to my second son "E" on September 17th.   We bought our first house and moved in September as well.  For those of you who have followed my life, you know how badly I wanted to have more space, how much I stressed over having space for our growing family.  I am so thankful to finally have the home I have been waiting for.  It isn't perfect; it comes with many imperfections, but it came move in ready and was recently remodeled in the right areas.  I have a fabulous eat in kitchen, which is good since it seems I spend much of my day in there.  We have enough space for all of our belongings and then some.  We even have a pool in the back yard - yes, we have a yard!

installing the water filtration system

I can't say that it feels like home quite yet.  We are far from settled - I mean, I did just have a baby a month and a half ago and have a wild 'almost 2' year old - but we are getting there.  Did I mention my husband changed jobs in September as well?  He now has a commute.  That means we needed another car of course..... so we got a mini cooper! I love it. Love, love, love it! I don't get to drive it much, but I find opportunities.  You know, run errands on the weekend, a quick trip to the market in the evening.... its my 'me time' vehicle.  Logan or "O" as he has begun calling himself, enjoyed the dealership too!

O at the Dealership

Yes, there have been many changes in my life, but I am welcoming them - even if it is tough at times.  Being a homeowner comes with a whole new set of challenges.  Having a baby seems easy compared to having to deal with the plumber who has been here no less than four times since we moved in, the gardener who does next to nothing, the pool guy who informed me the pool leaks, the ant and flee problem that came with the house, the broken sprinklers (you should have seen me trying to turn the water off in the dark after my neighbor came to introduce himself and let me know my sprinklers were flooding his yard).  Why was the lever that said on this way and off that way not working?  My husband, who was working late that day, said it was supposed to work so why wasn't it working? Lovely wet mess I was.... and why must it be so damn hard to get cable hooked up?  It took two weeks and four different people to finally get the job done.  Don't they know that this girl needs internet service?!  Come on people! Change is good though.  Really it is. It's good for me to be challenged, to have to travel out of my comfort zone, to have to deal with and work through my social anxiety and be pushed to what I thought were my limits - because what I am learning is that I can handle much more than I ever thought possible.  

I'm also still adjusting to my perceived isolation from friends.  I am still technically in Los Angeles, yet I feel so far away from everyone.  I am sure this will change as time goes on; as I find activities and other moms to interact with.  After all, I know this was the right move for us. The neighborhood is nice and neighbors are friendly.  I have big, tall trees in my yard, a fabulous view of mountains, and when I look up in the sky at night I can see many stars which is something that I have missed and appreciate so, so much!

Freedom To Choose

The election is now over yet the chatter still remains.  Although my child is not even two, I feel its important to teach my young one about being American.

Part of being American means having a voice.  We can all vote, make choices and speak our minds.  Yesterday I worked with my little guy to teach him a bit about voting.  We tuned in to Sesame Street as they had an episode about voting.  Children were able to vote for what to have to eat for instance.  We then drove to the polling place to submit our voting ballot.  When we submitted our ballot we got stickers that said "I voted" which was exciting for the little guy!

When we came home we practiced voting (making choices) throughout the day.  We practiced saying the word vote and I printed some coloring pages about elections and voting.  My little one is a bit young to understand the process of election, but he is the perfect age to begin making choices.  We incorporate choices into our everyday activities;  Everything from what to eat or drink to what pajamas to wear to bed.  Choosing a bath or  shower and choosing what play activity to engage in.  

While he may not understand all of the elements of voting for president and proposition measures, he is learning that he has a voice.  His opinion matters.  His choices have an effect, an outcome that he has control over and this is a lesson that I want my child to learn young and never ever forget.