Words From A Toddler Mom

  On the way home today, as I was talking to Madi, I realized something. There are some things that I say to her, on a daily basis, that I probably wouldn't have thought I would ever have to say prior to becoming a parent. Some of them are hilarious, if you take yourself out of the moment and just think about it. Having a toddler is a wild ride, but usually, it's downright funny.   Here are a few things that I find myself telling Madi...   Don't take your pants off in public. You shouldn't eat things off of the ground. (!!) You have to eat REAL food before you can have a treat. I want you to water the plants, not your clothes. No, you can't have a cookie for breakfast.
Don't punch the dog in the face. Be nice. Please don't throw things at Mommy while she's driving. Quit picking your nose. YOU HAVE TO HOLD MY HAND WHEN CROSSING THE STREET! Use your spoon, not your fingers. Please keep your clothes on. Don't stick that in the Blu-Ray player. I want the bath water to stay in the bathtub. Don't spray me with the water hose! -- too late. You need to say it nicely. Please don't throw my phone. It will break. You need to watch where you're walking. You're a big girl. You can do it by yourself. Brush your teeth. Sucking on the toothbrush doesn't do the job. Don't pour your food out on the floor. Are you sure you want to watch Dora? :( How about something else? Help me clean up your room. You can't lay on top of Brody. Don't take toys from Brody. You have to be nice to Brody. Don't lick Brody! If you chug that chocolate milk, it'll  make your belly hurt. I really don't want to hold your hand after you pick your nose. Eat your food. Please, eat? Why do you try to eat the bubbles in your bath? Yuck. If you take a good nap, we'll go play afterwards. Lay down. You have to hold on when you're swinging! I can't understand you when you have your fingers in your mouth. You shouldn't throw sand. No one wants to see your naked butt. EVERYONE sleeps. I promise I'm not making you do this every night to be mean. Please stay away from the pool. Puppies don't eat sticks and rocks. No candy for breakfast! (literally say this every morning)   Sometimes these situations can be stressful and repeating these things can feel futile. But hey, I remember my Mom complaining that I was like talking to a brick wall. So, I guess it's just payback. But really, reading through this makes me laugh, even though I've said several of these just today. While working in the garden, she turned the hose toward the wind and got me soaking wet. The water was freezing so I had no breath to tell her to turn it off. Needless to say, she thought it was hilarious when the wind died down and she saw me dripping. ;) Toddlers are work, but they sure keep you on your toes!   (Madi and Me is now featured on TopMommyBlogs.com! If you like reading this blog, vote for us. Just click the link, or the icon on the right side bar.)

The Joys of Motherhood

  Motherhood is a complicated road to go down. Here you have this sweet little person that you love more than anything in the world. Yet kids are unpredictable and can do things that leave you, for lack of a better word, speechless. Sometimes it's in a good way, though sometimes it isn't. I think that after the past few months, I'll share some of mine with you.   We were at the park today, and I was swinging Madi. She was talking about random things, babbling on in her toddler talk like a normal girl. Then all of a sudden she stares behind me in astonishment and yells, "HE'S NAKED! HE'S NAKED, MOMMY!" So I quickly look behind me and there's a man jogging on the sidewalk about 10 feet from us. He stares at her and sort of smirks at me and quickly jogs away. He had long running shorts on but no shirt. For the next hour at the park she would randomly say "he was NAKED" and Mom's would stare in half amusement half curiosity.   Then later, we were having lunch at Chickfila when she decided she wanted to take her pants off. She was determined to take them off. Luckily my Mom had her and we both convinced her not to strip down in public. But that wasn't without shrieking as loud as she could until everyone was staring. You know, the amusement curiosity stare I mentioned.   For some reason, she also has a new word. "Turd." She uses it correctly too, I might add. We were in the car and all of a sudden she yells, "Mommy, you're a turd!" and then giggled to herself. She obviously heard someone say it and it was amusing to her to repeat it. She also likes to tell people they "smell like poooop."   The other day she called me into her room with an uneasy voice. So I quickly went into her room to see what was the matter. She held out her hand and rubbed something gooey on my hand while saying, "EW!" I, being the mother of a toddler, just took it from her and put it on a napkin and placed it in the trash. Then I got curious, I said, "Baby, what was that?" and she nonshalantly replied, "A booger. From my nose."   But then, they do things that leave you speechless in the best way possible. Like the other night when she woke up in the middle of the night. I stumbled sleepily into her room and kneeled by her bed. She looked up at me and said, "Mommy, hold my hand." So I gave her my hand and she placed it in the middle of hers and fell asleep. It reminded me of when she was tiny. I used to just sit and watch her sleep, thinking it was the most angelic thing I'd ever seen.   It also made me think... Wait... What? That little helpless baby has turned into this hilarious toddler who constantly keeps me on my toes. But, that's part of the joy of motherhood... right?  

Our Girl Day

Today, Kylie spent the day with Madi and I. We went to The Woodlands Children's Museum this morning, then went to Chickfila for lunch, and then came home so Madi could take a nap.   They both LOVED the museum. It's really close to home, reasonably priced, has extremely nice workers, and has so many cool things for the kids to do.  

Like "sand" tables that are actually filled with rice.

The giant teeth were just cool.

And a giant Lite Brite!

A play grocery store with little grocery baskets, produce bins, tables, and a checkout station that beeped when you passed food by the laser :)

 

They also have this little craft station where the kids can help themselves. They made hats this time.

This part was new. They had a little science experiment station where they tested surface tension. Kylie spent a lot of time there.

 

Then we went to Chickfila to get lunch. We were all super hungry and Madi wanted "Chick a lay eye keem!" (Chickfila ice cream)

 

 

Then Madi was ready for a nap so we went home and once Madi went to sleep, Kylie and I did stuff. We wrote in our journals first. I wrote in Madi's some while she colored in hers, we did our nails, and used sidewalk chalk on the balcony.

 

She wanted to draw the solar system so she drew Earth, Mars, Saturn, and the Sun. For some reason that kind of struck me as odd. It seems like yesterday she wanted to draw horses and now she's drawing "Saturn's moons." Yikes.

 

This one is just cute because she has a crush on Clayton :)

 

Hopefully we'll have more days like today. Madi and I love having Kylie around and today was super fun. I told her, "you need to come over more!" and she was like "I KNOWWWW!!"

 

 

 

   

Transitions

I've been meaning to write this post since we moved in. I wanted to talk about how awesome Madi is doing sleeping in her own room and in her own big girl bed all night.   When Madi came home from the hospital, she slept in a little bassinet thing next to my bed. When I decided that she was too big for it (about 3 months), I tried to move her to her crib but she was so used to being elevated slightly and having her legs up (it was a strange, but awesome, bassinet) so she wouldn't sleep flat in her crib. The nights were tiring and nothing would help her sleep. All she wanted was to be back in the bassinet. So one night I made a makeshift nest for her in my bed. I rolled up a recieving blanket to hold her legs up and laid her on a pillow to elevate her. And voila! She slept like a rock. And I guess the rest is history.   Here we are now, she's a little over 2 and she's just now sleeping in her own bed. And I'll be completely honest... I'm sad about it. I loved having her sleep in bed with me. It was just her and I in our big bed and we could cuddle and talk and play until it was time to go to bed and then I could sleep right there next to her all night. I loved every second of it. If I could do it over, I wouldn't change a thing. We were both happier for it.   I was always worried about the dreaded day where I would have to transition her from my bed to her own. I didn't imagine it would be so easy though. Madi is a CHAMP at handling change. For real.   The first night in her bed, I laid on the floor next to her bed and made her lay down. She asked to get in my bed a few times but eventually she laid down and agreed to let me sing her to sleep. She woke up a few times during the night asking for me but once I would go into her room and reassure her, she would go back to sleep. No crying. The second night was the same way but she only woke up twice. The third night, I think she woke up once. And ever since then she has (mostly) slept all night in her bed with no fuss. She rocks.   I still lay on the floor until she falls asleep at night but she's afraid of the dark so I'm still trying to decide how to go about that one. During naptime I just lay her down, kiss her, and leave the room and she'll go to sleep on her own. Baby steps, I guess.   So that's that. Here's some pictures from the last week or so :)  

 Good morning!

 

Napping :)

Bought this for her room. I hung it on the wall and she looked at it and said "Aww CUTE!"

We went to Chuck E. Cheese the other day with my niece and parents. This girl LOVED Chuck E. (she's kissing him)

Running and exploring on the way to check the mail.

Changes

Lately things around here have been changing. We're adjusting to the new changes and are welcoming new ones in our life.   I started working at Madi's daycare as an Assistant Teacher. That means that Madi now goes to daycare full-time, instead of just three days per week. That was the hardest part for me, letting go of the days that I did have with her. But it is the best thing for us right now. Madi can see me from her classroom so we can keep an eye on each other throughout the day. I know that she is having fun with her friends and isn't upset, and she can see that I am nearby. Its a good thing for us both. The first few days that she saw me in the other room, she was upset. Her teachers said that she wanted to come in my room with me. But it only took around three days of being upset. Now, she pokes her head around the corner where she can see me and she will play peekaboo with me or stick her tongue out at me and giggle. Then keep playing. That makes me feel SO much better. I get to keep an eye on her and know she is learning and playing, while I get to help provide for our family. I truly enjoy my job and the people that I work with. I'm so glad that life has given us this opportunity and that Madi has adjusted so well.   Being a part-time student, a part-time teacher, and a mommy, I don't have as much time for blogging, which I absolutely love. But I've promised myself that I won't let this fall through the cracks. I do this not only for Madi, but for me also. I will only be posting once per week however. I feel like that is a good compromise. Maybe a couple times per week if time allows.   More changes are to come if things play out the way I want them to. But that is for a different post. :)   I will be posting again soon. Thank you for all of the support we are getting. For now, here are some pictures from this week!  

We saw Brody this weekend. She kept licking his cheek instead of kissing him! Then she'd giggle and say "I wick him!" She's goofy. Then he fell asleep on my chest for about 30 minutes. Swoon.

Getting lunch before going to daycare/work. She was making funny faces at me so that I could take her picture and then show her.

She's holding a picture of her Great Grandmother (Mimma) when she was around 1 or 1 1/2. They look SO much alike. So I took this and framed it for Madi's Mimi and Mimma. :)

Talking and taking pictures before bed. I love that sweet smile!

   

Potty Training is Complete

This week has been hectic. A lot of things have changed around here and Madi and I are still adjusting. But I'll save all of that for a later post. I just wanted to let everyone know how wonderful Madi is doing with her potty training.   We encountered some problems in the beginning with getting her to go #2 on the potty but that only lasted for a few days. She just had to move at her own pace. Now she rarely has accidents. Usually they are at school when she is preoccupied with something their class is doing. But all kids do that.   I also didn't use a reward system. Madi LOVES candy, but I refused to use that as a prize to get her to use the potty. Instead, I found that she really responded to me getting excited. So every time she would go #2, I would do a psycho-happy-freak-out-dance for her and she couldn't stop giggling. She looked forward to that, and it worked for her.   She still wears a pull-up at night, I've decided to hold that off for Christmas break. However, she doesn't wear anything during naptime and has honestly never had an accident while napping.   It's been one month since the potty training began and I'm happy to say, we lived through it! Madi is such a smart and adaptive little girl. All the milestones that I've dreaded getting to, like taking the bottle away, getting rid of the pacifier, and now, potty training, she has handled them ALL like a champ! Thank goodness.  

(doesn't she look so big?!)

  Right now, we're piled up on the couch, sick as dogs. We both caught a stomach bug from her daycare.  

    But hopefully we'll be back to normal soon :)  

Birthday Party Wrap-up

I just want to thank everyone that came to Madi's 2nd birthday party. She had a lot of fun (once she warmed up) and got a lot of presents. She loves them all so much she can't pick which one to play with next. (hard life, huh?)

I asked her on the way home if she had fun, and she said "had fun! Played with balls and babies!" Then she picked up her new lion stuffed animal that her Aunt Holly got her and smiled big. I'd say she approves. :)

So once again, thank you to all of the family and friends that showed up to celebrate Madi's birthday with us. Thank you to my mom and my niece for making the cake, which turned out wonderfully! Also, thank you for the wishes I received on Facebook and instagram. We appreciate it :)

(and with all that was going on, I only managed to snap one semi-decent picture. Oh well.)

What I Live For

The idea for this post just came to me. I'm laying in bed listening to Madi breathe as she's sleeping. I vividly remember doing the exact same thing almost two years ago. The first few weeks of Madi's life were the happiest of my life. She was absolutely perfect. But I won't lie, I was also terrified. Having a baby is truly like having your heart exist outside of your body. Suddenly my mind was consumed with thoughts of only her and her well-being. She was my soul. I wanted her to be happy, taken care of, etc. Those were all things I could control. But the things I couldn't control were the ones that scared me. I never wanted her to be hurt, or experience failure, or ever be discouraged. Looking down at her sweet face, to know that one day she might for some reason feel lonely absolutely broke my heart.

I still have those worries. I want her to make friends at daycare, be liked, etc. I guess that never changes, even when they're 40 years old with kids of their own. I truly do miss the days of her infancy. But I fall more and more in love with her every day. I got home from school today and she came up to me and sat in my lap. She looked up at me with her twinkly little eyes and said, "Mommy, I missed you." Those are the moments I live for. SHE is what I live for.