MamaBlogga

Rebecca hit an important, long awaited milestone this month: potty training! She was so excited to pick out her own “unnerweaws!” (Minnie Mouse). She was less excited for the actual potty training (though she did like the floppy buns I pulled her hair into; “my siwwy eaws!’ [ears]).

We did the Toilet Training in Less Than a Day method again. Although it lived up to its name with Hayden, it took two or three days for it to really click with Rebecca.

(I know. I’m disappointed potty training took three whole days.)

But now, three weeks in, she’s doing absolutely great! She’s afraid of “big poddies” (I had to bring her home in the middle of church yesterday to get her to go), but very good at waiting until we get home.

We’re proud of our big girl!

What milestones have you hit this month?

(Another U note: I taught our preschool for the U week, right before General Conference, so I taught the kids who President Uchtdorf [counselor/assistant to the Prophet] is. When Hayden was learning the planets with Nana this week, she was reviewing and tried to get him to name a planet that began with U. “Planet Uchtdorf!” Hayden declared.)

I haven’t blogged about my kids in a while, it seems, and then they’re growing up so fast, I don’t know where to start!

This morning, Rachel used the couch to stand up for the first time! This is her last week, using the rocking chair (also the true first):

She’s still growing, but not quite as fast as she used to be. She was almost average sized at 4 months (a first for one of my children!), but at 6 (really 7) months, she was closer to the 35th percentile in weight. (Height was at the 98th percentile, but since she’s not abnormally long/tall, the doctor and I think that was probably a mis-measure.)

Rebecca is growing, too! She’s officially two and a half today. Lately she seems to be speaking much more clearly. For example, she doesn’t say “pea’ bu’ saas” but “peadut butter sammatch.” She still doesn’t say her r’s, favoring y’s and w’s instead. (“Diapehy” is a favorite of mine.)

She started having serious problems with bedhead, so I tried to get her to use scrunchies. If I did her hair “wike Tinkie Behww!” or to match mine (“We matsh?”), she was excited to let me touch her hair (a first!). I got her a few scrunchies at the dollar store last week, and she lets me do her hair almost every day now.

Hayden is learning new words. He likes to sound out words often these days (Last night: “G-g-g-gum. G! Gummmmm. M!”). He loves preschool, especially when it’s our turn to teach/host. He’s also experimenting with more photography (revolving around his latest favorite toy) and self-portraiture.

Warning: extreme closeup!

I fear I’ve created a monster, though: last week, I showed him the folder of Internet bookmarks I had just for him. I showed him how to open the browser. I showed him which link (of the 2-3) led to PBS Kids games. And now all he wants to do is play on the computer! (We have a few rules, of course: he has to ask first and get off whenever we tell him to.) It’s a little annoying during a lot of the day, but makes for a quieter quiet time. (And Rebecca happily taking naps again is helping with that, too!)

I love that they’re growing and discovering new things ad getting more independent, but I’m always sad to feel their early childhood slipping away.

What milestones have your kids hit recently?

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?

I think the more kids you have, the more you realize that “this too shall pass.” The fussy period isn’t fun, but it’s easier to remember that it doesn’t last all that long when you’ve survived it before (multiple times).

On the other hand, you also realize that the good times—the first smiles, the intent study of your hairline, the incredible cuteness of tiny toes and feet and hands—will be gone equally fast. And you look at all the adorable things your older kids are doing, and you can’t begin to capture them all.

Personally, I wish I could get down all the new words Rebecca learns every day—she’s become an amazing mimic and can string together up to 5 words. I wish I could list all the words she knows, but I doubt I could recall more than a quarter of her vocabulary. She’s also learning to count and say the alphabet (and she won’t even be two for two more weeks—the benefits of having an older sibling who gets counting and alphabet books).

I wish I could record all Hayden is learning, too—how he puts things together, physically and mentally. He’s learning new concepts and words every day, too (though he already knows so much that it’s not the exponential growth Rebecca is seeing). He loves to run and play outside, and he likes to read books.

Rachel, of course, doesn’t do a whole lot, but I find myself wanting to hang on to these little moments the most with her. She’s already grown so much that I can just feel the rest of her babyhood slipping through my fingers.

Just thinking about the things I’m “missing” because I don’t have something recording my kids’ every action makes me a little anxious, reminding me that I’m missing out more. But just being aware that today is slipping away makes me pay more attention, even if I can’t leap up and get the video camera and coax a repeat of some spontaneous cute thing.

And it reminds me to keep paying attention—to treasure these little moments as they’re happening—to live in the present.

How do you treasure today?

Photo by Erik Fitzpatrick

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?

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?