1. First, I must mention that the usual hostess of the QTs, Jennifer Fulwiler, is in big time need of our prayers and well-wishes. She is currently pregnant, has a genetic blood-clotting disorder, and was just hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism in each lung. She has been sent home with medicine to treat the clots (which are still there) because surgery is too risky with the baby on board. Oh and did I mention she already has 5 kids at home? Honestly, if I were her I would be terrified at the thought of blood clots in my lungs. SO - major prayers that she and the baby come out of this safe and healthy.
2. Contemplating whether or not to grow out my bangs so they can be pinned back and tucked behind my ear. I still think I want to keep the super short hair, but the part of my pixie cut that confounds me the most is my bangs. They only look right about half the time, if even that. I feel like they would be easier, and more feminine, if I could just sweep and pin them to the side. The only problem: will this take me out of the realm of hip and trendy haircut and into the realm of soccer mom???
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| The bangs are still too short to clip, but this is pretty much what I mean. SO - what do you think?? |
3. For a short while there, I was feeling pretty good as a parent of a toddler. I had reached a comfort zone of a good routine, fun activities, smooth (for the most part) days and nights. But I am suddenly feeling the pressure of a bunch of transitions that I feel like we "need" to accomplish with Josiah. And I am overwhelmed. What are they? Oh let me tell you.
4. Potty-training. Josiah is 27 months old. A bit over 2 years. We have been talking with him about the potty since he was 18 months. He LOVES reading Too Big for Diapers over and over and over and over. Yet he still doesn't show any interest in going on the potty. He doesn't even want to sit on it fully clothed. Other signs he isn't ready - he still wakes up with very wet diapers, he does not tell me when he has a poopy diaper, and he does not hide or go somewhere private to poop. All things that point to being ready for potty training, or so I am told. I don't want to spin my wheels trying to force it on a kid who isn't ready. Not to mention the whole thing intimidates me, so of course I am more than happy to procrastinate. It's just that I don't much want a three year old in diapers. So when to start?
5. Picky Eating. I think that I have mentioned on here before that we have had a bit of difficulty with Josiah's eating from the very beginning. He obviously has a very sensitive mouth, something which he cannot be blamed for. While he is far from the most extreme case I have heard of, this has led us to getting into the habit of feeding him the same handful of things we know he will eat for every meal. I don't see a problem in accommodating his preferences at breakfast and lunch, so long as he is eating healthy food. But I feel it is important that he eat whatever we are eating for dinner - or close to it - and that he be able to eat a variety of foods. This is what I think in my head. But the reality of enforcing that means he often goes to bed without having eaten much at all for dinner unless we give him one of his 2 or 3 usual dinners. I know that it is partially a behavioral issue, and so if we want to see change we have to stick to our guns. BUT BUT BUT - he is still so young! Still to young to really reason with! And he is SKINNY. This kid cannot really afford to lose any weight. And so the thought of putting him to bed whimpering with hunger (like last night) makes me feel like a terrible TERRIBLE mom. (Even though I KNOW he isn't starving, I fed him plenty of good food the rest of the day.) A huge part of me thinks this is a battle better fought six months or a year from now. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND. He isn't eating enough vegetables, and I worry he isn't getting enough protein. He was slightly anemic, thankfully he isn't anymore, but that is still a concern of mine. He just needs more variety in his diet. (Yes, I know all about hiding vegetables in other foods, and he takes a multivitamin - believe me, I am trying all the tricks that are out there.) Also, I don't want to continue to reinforce that if he holds out, we will just feed him whatever he wants. So....what to do?
6. Big Boy Bed. This one isn't as big of a deal, just something that got kind of sidetracked. We put the toddler bed in his room. He slept in it for one nap and one night. And then he didn't want anything to do with it again. That was well over a month ago, maybe two. Of course having him securely trapped in his crib has it's advantages, so I got lazy about it. He is starting to ask about the big boy bed again, so I guess maybe now it is time. But in the mix with everything else, it is just another thing to fret about.
7. SO combine all those things with other things like concerns about whether or not I am giving him enough developmentally appropriate play, battling one sickness after another this winter, and the imminent arrival of a sibling (!!!), and I am little thrown off balance. Mountains out of mole-hills? Can someone please talk me down from the crazy?
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You can visit Hallie at Moxie Wife if you want to join in the QTs today. You know you should.
And for even more fun, Grace at Camp Patton is doing a linkup of birth stories in honor of the arrival of her baby boy last week. Guess what I will be reading all weekend?
Happy Friday!
11 comments:
ah yes. Judah in the same place with the potty training - no interest. I'm not going to worry about it yet.
As for eating, will he take the squeezy pouches? When Judah is picky, he will almost always eat those, and so when I'm desperate I go back to giving him one of those. They have some with all kinds of good things in them, but they're more expensive.
As for the big boy bed, we are in a TINY little apartment and Judah is sleeping in his packnplay in the laundry room. He is starting to fill it up and this makes me angsty because... what now? There is no room for a big boy bed! I'm actually considering buying a fold out cot if he gets too big for the pack n play before we leave for the field.
Most of that sounds familiar, from just a few years ago with our kids. Mountains out of molehills isn't a kind way to put it, but let me just say that you worry about stuff like that a lot less (or hardly at all) with the third kid compared to the first kid. Still . . . you've gotta get through it, and decisions do have to be made, so it's hard not to worry. I can pretty much guarantee you are well within the category of "good parenting" and also that no matter how hard you try you won't get everything right and will do some things that are less than optimal/may leave unintentional baggage. That's where (hopefully) letting them know beyond any doubt that they are loved and a big dose of reliance on grace come in, IMO.
Our little finally jumped out of is crib so I am sure we are going to hear about needing to transition to a toddler bed at his 2 yr appt. Unfortunately we live in an older house and his room doesn't shut. And he is independent and thinks he can do things such as: open the knife drawer, get out a knife and attempt to cut pieces of fruitcake. Or climb on a step stool and drive to pour himself a cup of water. Sorry, no help from me on this! As far as potty training, he might regress a bit when the next little arrive but then again, if he is still in diapers when the next one arrives, he may see that babies wear diapers and now that he is a big brother, he needs to wear underwear.
LOVE the squeze pouches. If you make your own baby food or do smoothies, you can be reusable pouches from http://www.littlegreenpouch.com/pages/the-features or http://squooshi.com/pages/how-to-squooshi
Yep, I started buying the pouches again a few weeks ago.
I think the cot is not a bad idea, but is there anywhere you can just put a mattress on the floor? Lots of friends have gone that route, probably what we would have done if we did not find a cheap toddler bed at a yard sale.
Wow, that's a lot of big changes to contemplate all at once, especially with a new sibling coming soon. I guess maybe pick which one seems the most pressing/likely to work at the moment and focus on that?
My son didn't potty train till the last few months (he was 3 at the end of May). Despite what I was reading online about how all children are ready by the time they're 2, and if you delay it's because you're a lazy parent and so on, there's no way he was ready. Knowing that boys' nervous systems don't start giving them the necessary feedback until about 6 mths after girls' do, I waited till he could tell me not only when he'd done something in his nappy but also when he was about to do something, was dry for long periods and showed an interest in using the toilet (he's been too big to sit comfortably on the potty since he was 2).
We had a couple of days of success, then it all went downhill as he plunged into a negative stage and we had a couple of weeks of stress and getting angry with each other. I then backed off completely and, much later, I instigated a no nappies at home rule. From the first day, this worked fine. I offered him the choice of pants or nappy when we went out, and he religiously stuck to nappies until just before Christmas. Since then, we've had no nappies in the day and hardly any accidents. The whole process has been much less stressful than I've seen with families who tried earlier. As far as I could tell, their children were only toilet-trained in that they weren't wearing any kind of containment system! Waiting worked for us.
On the eating front, have you read Carlos Gonzalez's book, My Child Won't Eat?
http://www.amazon.com/My-Child-Wont-Eat-Mealtimes/dp/1780660057/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
I know a lot of people who swear by it. That said, most toddlers suddenly narrow their food choices at around 18 mths and don't broaden their horizons again till around 3 1/2. Some people think it's a natural instinct to protect them at a time when they gain the ability to move away from their mother.
It's tough when you feel the pressure, isn't it? Remember, in the long run, it won't matter how old he was when he managed any of these transitions, but choosing between a more pressured or laidback approach will make a big difference to you all both now and in the future! Good luck! You aren't the only one trying to make these decisions. :-)
Take this with a grain of salt since I have no children and have never potty-trained a child. But I am told by my parents that I also had zero interest in potty training, and I think this is a fairly normal thing for boys. While changing diapers probably isn't fun (again...zero experience here), if he has no interest in potty-training you're probably just setting both of you up for a stressful disaster if you push it too soon. It seems to me that it would be better to let him come to it on his own. When he's ready, it'll probably happen fast. One day he'll just decide he's done with diapers.
Hair: try no bangs. J-bird: you are doing better than I. He eats okay but still in a crib, with a diaper, doesn't know Numbers colors letters etc. Oh well he will learn one day right?!
Hair: try no bangs. J-bird: you are doing better than I. He eats okay but still in a crib, with a diaper, doesn't know Numbers colors letters etc. Oh well he will learn one day right?!
Hair: try no bangs. J-bird: you are doing better than I. He eats okay but still in a crib, with a diaper, doesn't know Numbers colors letters etc. Oh well he will learn one day right?!
Josiah is still in a crib and diapers - so I am not sure how we are doing better! :) He does know numbers, colors, etc, but that is just because that is what he is interested in! Not all little boys have the least bit of interest in those things.
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