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Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Miss Priss

In case anyone was about to accuse me of only posting positive things on my blog, here's this: Julia is driving me crazy! I mean, look at that face...she is TROUBLE, with a capital T. She's in a big hitting phase, one I thought was getting better, but then it reared its ugly head again this morning. I don't mean that she hits Will when they're fighting over a toy, or she's frustrated and can't express herself. That, I could at least understand. But, sometimes, Will will be across the room, minding his own business, and Julia will get up from whatever she's doing (seemingly out of the blue) and walk over to him just to hit him. Really? That is just not okay.

Then, there's the food throwing. Someone is very particular about what she will eat and how much. And, I guess because she doesn't have words to say "all finished," she just throws whatever is on her tray when she's had enough. Or if she's mad. Or if it's not what she wants. Or if you haven't given her her milk fast enough. If you show her food that she doesn't want, she shakes her head vehemently. This pattern continues until you offer the thing that she DOES want (which changes every meal), at which point she will smile and nod her head. Of course, I'm the dummy who keeps giving her these choices, but see the food throwing issue described previously. I really don't know how to get her to eat AND quit this nonsense. I think it's mostly an age thing, because we've tried all tactics we can think of to stop the madness.

Of course, most of the time she is sweet. And she's learning so many new things each day and developing her little personality (stubborn, independent, strong-willed, from what I can tell). We're not going to sell her to the gypsies just yet, but toddlers are supremely frustrating. Good thing she's cute!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Wednesday Will-isms

The other night Will and Julia were taking a bath together, and Will was sitting in the front, next to the running water. My younger sister has vivid memories (which she has shared with me many times) of me always getting to sit in the front of the bathtub and always "hogging" the hot water. As an attempt to prevent Julia from being scarred for life like Melanie apparently was, I told Will that he and Julia were going to have to switch out. He could sit in the front for a while, then it would be Julia's turn. (As a side note, Julia LOVES sitting in the front because she loves to drink the water out of the tap...lapping it up like a little dog!)

I asked Will several times to switch with Julia, and he just wasn't listening. Finally, I moved him to the back of the bathtub. This greatly upset him, and he let me know why: "Sitting in the back hurts my feeeeeelings!"

Ah yes, the hurt feelings argument. Maybe we need to turn down the psycho-babble a bit over here at our house.
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Will's class has been learning about "community helpers" this month--doctors, teachers, firefighters, police, etc. On Friday, they have a chance to dress up as their favorite community helper for school. (Another side note--this is a completely annoying assignment because who really has a full police outfit for their child? And of course, my child won't tolerate just a police hat or accessories because he tells me that that's not what real policemen wear. SIGH.)

Anyway, I was asking Will what community helper he wanted to be--thinking that I best get to work creating a costume--and he first said he wanted to be a firefighter.

"Oh, that will be great, Will. You can wear a red shirt and your firefighter hat. That will be perfect."
"Hmm...no. I think I want to be a knight!"
"A knight? Have you talked about knights at school as part of community helpers?"
"Well, knights save people. That's HELPING."

As usual, I couldn't argue with him.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Wednesday Will-isms

Will has been learning about the days of the week at school. He knows some of the names, but definitely can't associate the names with actual days or keep track of time at all.

Each morning, Will asks me if we're going to school that day. On Saturday, I told him, "No, today is a day we stay home with our family. Do you remember what that day of the week is called?"

"Um, Home-day?"
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The other night, Will and Julia stayed at Hulie and Bubs' house overnight. Apparently, Will had a tough time going to sleep and kept coming downstairs to talk to Hulie. Finally, she told him something along the lines of "you need to get sleep so that you can grow up and be big and strong" so that he would hopefully go to bed.

Will's reply? "Hulie, sometimes I don't want to eat good food and get lots of sleep and do stuff to make me get big. Because when I get big, I have to grow up and not live with my Mama and Daddy anymore. And I don't want to not live with my parents so I don't want to get big."

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Do You Speak Julia?

Julia is rapidly increasing her vocabulary. Some things, like Mama and Dada, are easy to understand and identify. But, there are certain "words" that she has that might be tough for the average person to comprehend. So, I present the Julia dictionary:

Rock = Chair (as in rocking chair), rocking horse, or "hold me in your arms and sway"

Bock = Sock, shoe, chicken (as in the sound a chicken makes)--either a picture of a chicken or a piece of chicken that you eat, or toe. You really have to use your context clues on this one.

Night-night = Blanket or "I want to go to bed"

Yak-yak = Telephone or "I want to talk on the phone" (I find this one hilarious.)

Dee-Dee = Baby

Wuh-wuh = Will

Ma-at = Cat (I think it's a combo of 'meow' and 'cat')

Ooh-OOH = Dog (as in the sound of a dog barking)

Bu-uh? = Book or sometimes belly button

Bubbles? = Bath or "I want to wash my hands"

Nack = Snack or ANY food item

Miiilll = Milk or ANY drink

Ooh! (while pointing to diaper) = I need a diaper change

Uh-UH = "I want that! No, THAT. THAAAAT! Not that, THAT!! Why can't you get this???"

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAEIEIEEEEEE = "My life is so hard. No one understands me! I never get what I want!! Why can't anyone HELP me?!?" (We hear this one a lot lately. It's usually accompanied by someone throwing herself on the ground. Typically, it's Julia. Sometimes, it's me.)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Wednesday Will-isms

"Two more minutes, Will."
"Mama, if you say two more minutes and I say 'Four more minutes! or Five more minutes!' that's called pushing it."

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The other morning Will came and got in bed with us around 5 AM. We were skeptical that any of us would get any more sleep, but he actually went right back to dreamland. Around 6:15, Julia woke up and Zach went to get her. Around 6:45, Will woke up, and seeing that it was just him and me in the bed, leaned over and whispered, "Mama, you want some more time to sleep by yourself?"

Blissfully, I got to do just that. Will bounded out of bed and went to find Daddy, and they all let me sleep for another hour!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Weekends

Two weekends ago, we had a really craptastic weekend. Be very glad that I was never able to do a full post about it because it would have been whiny and self-serving. Zach returned home from a business trip with the swine flu and then was in bed all day on Saturday. It was cold and rainy all weekend (like it's been EVERY weekend, it seems). We couldn't go anywhere, couldn't see anyone. I was annoyed and angry at the whole situation, even though it wasn't that bad and wasn't about me and I really had no right to complain.

Once last weekend rolled around, I was ready to make up for it. I had a spa day on Friday (my day off), and then Zach and I had a date night at Bettola. Everything about that day was fabulous (except for the never-ending rain). Saturday morning (still raining), we packed up the whole family and met some friends at iJump, which, as their website will tell you, is the largest! indoor! family! entertainment! center! in Birmingham. iJump didn't disappoint, despite the throngs of people and undoubtedly large quantities of germs. The children loved the inflatables, the obstacle courses, the giant slide, etc. Julia had fun in the toddler room, and Will LOVED playing games in the arcade and winning tickets to be redeemed for tiny choking hazards. The best part was, it wore them out so much that they both collapsed for excellent naps when we got home. It was a good thing, too, because the fun wasn't over for day. That night, we had Allen and Kathryn and their family over for dinner. The boys played really well together, and the little girls were really cute. I told the girls that they better learn to like each other because we were pretty much going to force them to be friends.

By the time Sunday rolled around, I was exhausted from all of the fun, but it wasn't over yet. It was time for the circus! While Julia stayed with a babysitter, Zach, Will, Bubs, and I headed to the circus. We had a good time, but Will didn't seem as enthralled by it as he did last year. And we had an issue with the never-ending merchandise opportunities, but that's another story for another day. Will missed his nap for the circus, although he hasn't been napping very much on the weekends anyway. But, he was worn out, which didn't help the situation. That night, we had an early dinner with my mom at La Paz and then all went to bed as soon as we could.

I was glad we had such a fun, full weekend, but it seems we may have swung in the opposite direction. In trying to make up for the previous weekend, I packed too much into the next weekend. While it was fun, it was tiring. And, I think I forget that the children, especially, need some downtime. While it makes me stir-crazy to sit around our house, that's what they need sometimes so they can recharge after a week at school. As with everything else in my life, I'll have to work to find a balance.