MamaBlogga

Rebecca was playing with one of our old cell phones and held it to her ear. “Hey-o?”

I used my “finger phone.” “Hi, Rebecca. How are you?”

“Gud.”

“What are you doing?”

“Nuffing. Watcha TV. Fee Ferm.” [Phineas & Ferb]

Rebecca really looked forward to her birthday this year (probably mostly because Hayden thought it was exciting). I kept having to tell her that it wasn’t her birthday yet. Finally, she got the message—whenever the subject came up, she’d say, “Becca birt-day! Nek week. Mon-ay.” [Next week. Monday.]

After her birthday, we (again, mostly Hayden) taught Rebecca her age. “How old are you?” we’d ask.

“Two!” she’d proclaim for the first week, and hold up her fingers:

After the first week, the answer changed. “How old are you?” we ask.

She’s still just as proud to proclaim her new answer: “Becca!”

Sometimes, Rebecca has rough naps. It takes her over an hour to fall asleep (though she seldom cries, so that’s good). One day, she’d been in bed for 90 minutes and started bawling. I came in to get her.

“Becca ‘wake,” she told me piteously.

“I can hear that.”

“Becca ky.” [cry]

“Did you sleep at all?”

“Uh huh.” She holds up her fingers the same as above. “One minnut.” (She also likes to tell me “one minnut” when she wants me to wait for her.)

Last week, Rebecca got sent to her room for the first time. She and Hayden had been fighting, so they both got sent to their room. Rebecca submitted peacefully, allowing me to lead her to her room, and sitting quietly in the arm chair there. She insisted I close the door. (This was probably because Hayden threw his usual screaming fit at the mere mention of being sent to his room, and as always, I had to physically drag him there. Maturity FTW.)

After Rebecca’s two minutes were up, I opened the door and invited her to come out. (Hayden was still screaming at this point, laying over the threshold to his room.) Rebecca preferred to stay in her room. Can’t say I blame her.

Later that day, something happened to upset her while she was in another room. “I go my woom!” she announced to her father amid her tears.

I found her there, laying on the arm chair, crying, a few minutes later. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I sad.” [Biggest frown in the world]

“Can I hold you to help you feel better?”

“No. Me’cine [medicine] help me feel better.”

Edited to add: whenever she thinks I’m upset, she uses her cutest, most innocent tone: “Sumping wong, Mommy? Needa Pinky?”

What are your favorite kid moments recently? Or what are your favorite toddler moments?

Saturday night I was putting Rebecca in the tub when she announced, “Poopy commy!” [coming]. We still have out little training potty in the bathroom, so I set her on that, confident that poopy was not commy, and went to tell Ryan.

A minute or two later, I could hear Rebecca crying. I headed for the bathroom and met her running down the hall. We went to check the potty.

Rebecca had peed in the potty! (I think it must have scared her and she thought she wasn’t supposed to pee there.)

(Story of the picture: Rebecca picked up a clean onesie on the couch. “Wait-dow [Rachel] jammas!” Next thing I knew, she’d put them on.)

Ryan and I praised her highly (and cleaned her up), and then put Rebecca in the tub. She said she had to go again, so I put her back, and she did.

After her bath, she insisted once again that she needed to use the potty, so I put her on once again. This time, however, she didn’t have as much luck. After a few minutes of waiting, she stood up and stuck her face into the potty chair.

“Poopy, come ON!”

What milestones are you celebrating these days?

Rebecca is growing faster every day. She’s well into the stage of toddler independence, with her cry of “Me? Me? ME!” when we try to do things for her.

But like all children this age, she has moments where that confidence falters, where she still wants to be the little baby that she still is. (“Becca,” she would correct me if she knew I’m calling her a baby.)

Nothing exemplifies this better than her cries of “keh me!” So I made a handy graphic to illustrate this:

What are your favorite “baby steps” toward independence?

Hayden’s more taken with taking pictures than being in them for the most part, so his latest video is things that he thought were worthy of filming:

And Rebecca’s is her three newest words

(They’re Becca, Pinky and milk.)

This giveaway has ended.

So the other day, I lost my mind. I got this email from a cloth diaper company, and although I’d poo-pooed the idea before (oh, man, what a pun), and I never respond to PR emails, this cloth diaper sounded so good I had to give it a shot. So I asked for a sample.

And then I kinda went off the deep end and bought a whole bunch of cloth diapers. (I have to have something to compare it to, right?)

The cloth diapers I got a free sample of are called Smartipants (these companies all have these ridiculously cute names). They’re in the style called “pocket diapers”—the plasticized cover and lining are sewn together and you slip an absorbent insert into a pocket in the lining. Smartipants use snaps for the outside closure—a row across the top to fit in the waist, and a few settings on the front to fit in the rise, to make the diaper very adjustable (it’s a “one-size” diaper—some other kinds you have to buy different sizes as your child grows).

Rebecca shows of her Smartipants

One thing that makes Smartipants unique is the design—with other pocket diapers, you have to pull the dirty insert out before washing (on a grossness scale of one to ten, that’s about a 4.5). With Smartipants, the insert is supposed to agitate out in the wash all by itself.

That’s pretty clever.

Especially since it does. Even when you stuff two inserts in there instead of one.

I’ve used the Smartipants diaper and insert three times this week, and it’s probably been one of my favorites of the styles we’ve tried. It did leak once—when I put her down for a nap in it, which turned into an extra-long nap. (Three hours is too long for just about any cloth diaper, but the next day I put two inserts in and her once-again-extra-long nap had no leaks—and no pulling dirty inserts out of the pockets.)

The snaps are super strong—and like many snaps, they’re a little hard to get off. The fit was good (Rebecca is light and short for her age, but somehow manages a serious pot belly and chubby thighs). They’re on the trim side as far as cloth diapers go (I haven’t found any cloth diapers that are as trim as disposables), and they’re the easiest to wash .

(Perhaps the best testament: I’ve already ordered a bunch more—you know, ones I have to pay for.)

If you’re ready to jump off the deep end, too—or if you’re already there —and in honor of my birthday (it’s tomorrow), I’m giving away a free sample of Smartipants for one lucky commenter! Comment on this post by noon MDT on Monday to be entered to win!

And lest you think this is an April Fool’s joke—seriously, I’ve been using cloth diapers exclusively since Sunday. I’ll tell you all about it next week, okay?

Several months ago, we taught Rebecca (or Werbecca, as Hayden says it) a sign for Hayden: patting her shoulder. She didn’t say much of anything back then, and we figured she might want to refer to (or tattle on) him every once in a while.

While we’re still teaching Rebecca lots of signs, we’re trying to encourage her to use her “words” more. For example, Pinky is probably one of her favorite things to sign about—she needs to know the whereabouts of her stuffed rabbit at all times. We taught her to tap her index finger on her chin to refer to Pinky (the sign for ‘red’; I figured the sign for pink was still a little challenging). If we ask her to “Say Pinky with your mouth!” she moves her finger up to tap on her lips.

Hardy har har, little girl.

About a week and a half ago, Rebecca finally found her voice—but not for Pinky. She started calling Hayden “Eee.” (Considering Hayden calls himself “Haydie” almost exclusively, it’s not that surprising.)

There is a drawback to this, however. She’s now rhymed all our names, and every hour or so she feels compelled to take roll: “Da-Dee? Da-Dee? Da-Dee? Mahmee? Eee? Eee?”

She’s also taken to referring to Nana as “Nanee”—which is exactly what Hayden called candy.

That’s pretty sweet .

What are your favorite new word stories?