Lilah turns two!

Dear Lilah,

Two years old already!  It's been an amazing two years.  You are such a sweet, spunky, smart, talkative, adorable little girl.  It's so much fun being your mama!

In the past few months you have become quite the chatterbox.  You have been speaking in complete sentences for quite a while now and will often copy everything we say.

You are so completely adorable right now that the other day I was asking your daddy if we could stop time and keep you at this age for a while longer.  It also seems like we are on the cusp of more challenging behavior, which I wouldn't mind putting off a little longer.

You are potty trained!  I guess I can say that.  You still have accidents sometimes, but you're doing fairly well and there doesn't seem to be a reason to turn back now.

The truth is, it is now over a year after your second birthday* and I just realized that I never finished this post.  I've pretty much taken a year off from blogging.  And so, as it goes, I have little recollection of what your sweet little self was like when you turned two.  I think I'll just wrap it up with some pics of your fun cupcakes from your 2nd birthday party, and get to work on your 3-year post before I forget that too!

I love you, my little lady.

Love always,

Mama

*In case of confusion, I back-dated the post so it would be easier to find. :-)

potty training #2

That's right...potty training.  Feel free to not read this post if it doesn't interest you.  I don't think I ever blogged about potty training Caleb.  I have some good stories for sure, but none I really would want to share with whoever finds themselves on my blog.  Anyway, I'm doing it this time because it was a blog post that led me to try potty training Lilah the way that I did.  We'd been thinking about doing it for a while.  In fact, we'd introduced the potty to Lilah months ago and she was already using it sporadically.  She seemed ready, and we decided to take the leap.  So we bought undies, planned a potty party, and on November 9th (about a month before her 2nd birthday), we let the potty training begin!  I decided to try out a method that a friend of mine had used (and blogged about here).  She got the idea from another blog, but the general method seems to have originated with a book written in 1979.  I didn't end up doing everything that I'd read about, but I followed the general idea.

The night before, I made the final preparations for our potty party.  Lots of undies, snacks to make her thirsty, drinks she doesn't usually get to drink, new doll, potty books from the library, fun new soap in the bathroom, m&m's and stickers for going potty.

We woke up in the morning ready to go!  Jason and Caleb had planned to be out of the house the whole day so that Lilah and I could focus solely on our potty party.  Caleb was so excited that when he woke up, he made this:

One of my favorite moments of the day.

But onto the potty party.  I tried to keep it upbeat and fun.  Lilah loved all the snacks and the fact that I'd give her more whenever she wanted.  

We stayed on the wood floors for easier clean-up of accidents.

We went to the potty periodically (not every 15 minutes...that would have driven us both crazy).  The morning went surprisingly well.  No accidents!  Then we had lunch and I put her down for a nap (in her undies, although I didn't have high hopes that she'd keep them dry).  She woke up wet, but we got her into dry undies and headed back to our potty party. 

The afternoon was harder.  She was starting to get more resistant to the whole thing.  We were both a little tired of just hanging out in (one part of) the house.  Despite this, she continued to stay dry!  Until just after dinner time.  She hadn't eaten much for dinner, of course, since she'd been snacking all day.  But she was sitting there at the table.  All of a sudden she said something like, "I don't want to go to the potty," and promptly peed in her chair.  And that, right there, was a preview of what was to come on day 2.

I had read that day 2 could be rough.  I also felt that, while day 1 in some ways had gone great, I hadn't had much opportunity to teach her the importance of peeing in the potty versus her undies.  And I wondered whether our day devoted to potty training had really accomplished much.  I wondered if she would she have still stayed dry all day except for one accident at the very end if we had just treated it like a normal day.  Anyway, day 2 did not go so well.  She was resisting the potty and had accidents throughout the day.  But it seemed to me like she was just asserting her independence.  It wasn't so much that she had accidents because she wasn't recognizing her need to go, it was more that she was just choosing to go in her undies.  Defiance.  Somehow the woman who wrote the blog post that my friend references had no experience with this.  She potty trained four kids using this method and not one of them was not excited all along about going to the potty.  Seriously?  The excitement wore off pretty quickly for Lilah.  Of course, as I mentioned before, she had already been using the potty for some time.  So that could have taken away from the excitement factor I guess.

Day 3 we headed out of the house to run errands and she did better.  I think she was tired of being in the house and focusing so much on potty training.  As the week continued, there were encouraging moments when she actually told me that she had to go, and discouraging moments when she had multiple accidents a day.  But now that we are one month in, I can say that the accidents are relatively rare, and, for the most part, we've figured out what works.  I wouldn't call our experience "Potty Training in One Day," but I'd call it a success!

21 months

Dear Lilah,

You are three quarters of the way through your second year of life!  Pretty hard to believe.  These past few months have brought some fun changes.

You are talking all the time now.  Even using complete sentences!  This is spurred on by your brother who often says, "Lilah, can you say...?"  It's been fun to watch his excitement when you say a word for the first time.  It has also been nice for me that you're so good at communicating because we haven't had to deal with the frustration that can come with a struggle to communicate.  There are times when I can't seem to figure out what you're trying to say, but you are patiently persistent and I can usually figure it out eventually.  For a while, your typical affirmative response was "yeah", but recently I started saying, "yes?" when you said, 'yeah," and now you're usual affirmative response is "yessssssss."  It's pretty cute. You're also into nodding.  Very emphatically.  Sometimes along with a yes, sometimes all by itself.  I love it!  You can't say l's yet, so you pronounce your name "yiya."

Another thing you've begun to do recently is sing.  You love singing.  Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star was the first song you learned, but you've extended your repertoire to about six or seven songs.  The latest favorite has been the Alphabet Song.  You can pretty much sing the alphabet on your own now.  You can also count to ten mostly on your own, although you tend to start a few numbers in and stop at nine for some reason.  I was just looking back at a post that I wrote about your brother when he was about your age, and there were a lot of similarities.  He was also a chatterbox and knew a few of the songs that are now your favorites.  One of your favorite places to sing?  On the potty.  You have begun to use it somewhat regularly in the past couple of months.  I bought you some underwear the other day and am thinking about taking the leap soon!

You are still as sweet as ever, but you aren't afraid to make your opinions known.  Usually by yelling or crying, but also with the occasional swat.  We are working on that.  You can definitely be dramatic, collapsing on your back on the floor in tears when something doesn't go your way.

You pick up A LOT from your brother.  Some things are fun, like the faces you make or the funny things you say sometimes.  Other things are habits I'd really rather you wouldn't imitate.  But among the good and the bad that surface in your relationship with your brother, the moments when you are of one accord, playing sweetly together are the best ever.  The other day I was remarking to Dada that you and Caleb were playing nicely together for the longest amount of time you had ever had.  Usually, it doesn't take long at all before one of you does something that makes the other very upset.  But you are pretty forgiving.  And you love your brother.  When you wake up in the morning, "Bubba??" is one of the first things you say.  If he's up, you'll run to find him and say, "Bubba!!"  It melts my heart.

We are seeing more and more of your fun personality shining through these days.  You love to accessorize, and come up with some pretty hilarious

  You are so much fun, my sunshine.  I can't believe you will be two years old at the next Lilah update!!  I'm doing my best to enjoy every day I get to spend with you.  I am so thankful for you!

Love always,

Mama

Caleb turns five!

Dear Caleb, My sweet boy, where do I begin?  I can't believe that you are five years old!!  This birthday seems like a huge one.  Five means you'll be starting kindergarten, which is the start of a whole new, big, long chapter of your life.  You're really a big kid now! You have been actually been a little apprehensive about the whole kindergarten thing, but I think it’ll just take a little settling in and you will love it.  You do seem to enjoy learning, and you continue to surprise me with your intelligence.  We haven’t made it a point to push you to excel at academics at the age of five.  But you just seem to soak things up without a whole lot of effort.  You’ve begun to read, and although you usually aren’t interested in trying to read new books (at least with an audience), you’ve been reading words on signs more and more lately.  Half the time I ask you if you knew what the sign said because you’d read it.  I’m not sure how else you would have known it, but I guess it just still surprises me. You say most things properly these days, but there are a few words here and there that you don't pronounce correctly.  My favorite is calipitter (caterpillar).  But even that one I recently heard you say the correct way.  Another sign that you are growing up, and some of those cute little things you do are disappearing as time passes.  The nice thing is that there are many new and fun things to come.  I am so blessed to be able to watch you grow into the man you will one day be. This was the year of superheroes.  It started here... You went to your buddy’s superhero-themed 4th birthday party about a month and a half after yours.  Prior to that you hadn’t known much about superheroes.  But it opened up a whole new world for you.  When you filled out your “All About Me” poster at the beginning of the preschool year, you said that you wanted to be a superhero when you grew up.  For Halloween, you decided to be spiderman.  For Christmas, you put a bunch of superhero stuff on your wish list.  And then you wrapped up your fifth year with a superhero party of your own... You continue to enjoy sports, but haven’t yet joined any teams or focused too much on any particular sport.  You did learn to ride a bike this year though!  Last summer you really weren’t interested in your big boy bike.  Dada had taken the pedals off so that you could use it as a balance bike, but you always chose your tricycle over your bike.  Early this spring, I guess you decided you were ready to give it a shot.  You started learning to balance on it.  Mostly on your own.  A few weeks later, we decided it was time to put the pedals back on.  Dada did, and before long you were pedaling away!  All we needed to do was help you get started for the first few days and then you were on your own.  Pretty impressive. It's also been an interesting year as I've watched you grow into your role as a big brother.   And oh the things your sister learns from you. There are moments when you are super sweet with her.  They are my favorite.    Those times when you laugh out loud together.  Those times when you decide all on your own that you are going to help her put her shoes on her feet or a barrette in her hair.  It's fun to watch how proud you are of yourself because you are the big brother and can do so many things that your baby sister can't do yet. There are other moments when you are a little less accommodating.  But having to share the spotlight has been a big adjustment for you, I'm sure.  And in the moments when I am able to step back a bit, I remember that I need to give you a little more grace.  Okay, a lot more.  This mama gig is not an easy one.  And you have the sometimes unfortunate position of being my firstborn.  I am continually forging my way through new waters with you.  And I make mistakes.  But you are helping me to become a better mama so for that I am thankful.   I love you to the moon and back, my sweet boy.  Here are a few more pictures from your fifth year.  And here's to a fun-filled sixth year!

18 months

Dear Lilah,
 


Oh my sweet girl...18 months old!?!  It's so crazy how time flies.  Sometimes I wish I could just stop it for a while.  But then I realize that I'm enjoying this moment just as much as the last.  You are so much fun right now.  Turning into a little person with a spunky personality.  You continue to fill my heart with so much joy.

You're a full-fledged toddler now.  You've been walking for about three months and are still a little stumbly sometimes.  You have recently begun to insist on walking down the stairs (with help, of course) instead of being carried.  You also just moved out of your infant car seat.  You were no where near the weight limit, but you had just about reached the height limit.

Your vocabulary has been exploding lately.  And the things you say are so adorable.  You have started saying please (peas) and thank you (often "tee too" like your brother said it when he was your age), which is sweet to hear.  Your most popular word lately is okay, which you usually pronounce "otay."  For a while before you started saying that, you had been saying "ohhh" to mean yes.  I think that started because sometimes when I'd be trying to figure out what you wanted and when I did figure it out, I'd say, "Ohhh, you want...".  So you started saying "ohhh" for yes.  Which was really cute.  But I'm loving the otay too.  Even when you say it in an over-dramatic whiny voice (which you often do), it's adorable.  

 I think you are enjoying the fact that you can communicate with us more easily now.  Your other most often used words are still dada, bubba, and hi.  Every day, multiple times a day, you say, "Dada?"  I tell you where he is, and then you say, "Bubba?"  I tell you where he is, and then you say, "Mama?"  I say, "Mama's right here," and you say, "Hi Mama!"  You still love animal noises and can tell us what a dog, cat, monkey, cow, lion (tiger and bear), owl, sheep, duck, rooster, horse, pig, donkey, and snake say.

Your hair is long enough now that I can put it in pigtails.  And I do.  Almost every day.  I'm still not that excited about the thought of having to do your hair all the time.  But I love how cute you look in pigtails.

We recently took a trip to CT and you got to see your MorMor and MorFar and Aunt Carrie and Uncle Mark and your cousins and even second cousins and lots of other relatives and family friends.  It was such a treat for all of us to get to see so many relatives and friends and for you to meet some of them for the first time.  You have this little evil glare you give people sometimes and you pulled that out a lot on our trip.  It was pretty amusing.

Your brother is still a pretty big fan of yours.  He's realized recently that you're old enough now to be able to play with him.  So he's started to try to get you to do that.  Of course, he doesn't really realize that you aren't always able or willing to do whatever it is he is trying to get you to do.  So he gets frustrated sometimes.  Often.  But hopefully he'll keep trying. 

It's amazing the things you get away with that your brother never would have at your age.  Mostly in the realm of treats.  Which you love, of course.  Here's a little snapshot of you enjoying your granddad's homemade ice cream:

 I adore you, sweet Lilah Jane!  It's so much fun being your mama.  I'm looking forward to seeing all that the second half of your second year brings.

Love always,

Mama