Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

Our big trip home is going great. We are catching up with friends and family, and Jack is getting to spend time with his cousins and extended family. We are excited to help Jack build bonds with his cousins, but he also is one of the youngest boys at family get-togethers. I am glad he sees boys who are potty trained and have great vocabularies, but I am apprehensive about the roughhousing and the borderline bad language of his older cousins. Don’t get me wrong, his cousins are only acting their age, but it is still unnerving at times. It is a double-edged sword having a bunch of cousins who are all boys.

It boils down to the fact that our son is growing up and he will hear words like “butt” and “poop” from his classmates sooner or later. We are not living in a bubble, and we know that daddy uses far more naughty words. The point is that our little baby boy is going to be more boy than baby over the next few years, and we need to get ready for it. Overall, Jack is benefitting from our very loving and very well-intentioned family right now. If he learns what “butt” means then I would rather the explanation be from me than from another random kid on the school bus.

This weekend my family and I are heading back to PA for a much-needed vacation.  We plan to relax and visit with family and friends as well as baptize Tate.  Jack and I haven’t been home since last summer, my husband hasn’t been to his parents’ house during the summer since they have lived there (over 5 years), and Tate is going to meet his extended family for the first time.  We are very excited to say the least.

In the past, I always dreaded the airplane ride with a child.  Jack is not one to sit still longer than a second, especially in a confined space.  I’m hoping this year that he will actually enjoy the flight and want to learn all about the airplane.  Luckily, Daddy will be along for the ride. The past three summers he has been deployed and we are so happy to have him with us this year.  I hope we can time it right, so that Tate will sleep during the flight.

Now that we have two kiddos, traveling means twice as much stuff and double the duty.  We are now a little more experienced with things we need and things we don’t need.  I’m hoping not to pack the entire house, but I’m sure the luggage will be overstuffed just enough that we’ll meet the weight limit by an ounce.  Thank goodness Southwest doesn’t charge extra!

Stay tuned for fun stories about our trip home!

Driving around town and seeing the bright yellow school buses brings back fond memories of my childhood. I loved the bus stop. It is where I met most of my neighborhood friends and I loved sitting in the back bouncing all around. It also lets me know that school is back in session. The school districts in our town started two weeks ago which seems a bit early to me leaving not much of a summer to enjoy. Jack started the full time fall session of preschool last week. He was so excited and ready to take on the world.

I am excited for Jack to start school, too. It not only gives me a semi-break in the mornings, but will allow me to spend some quality time with baby Tate. Jack attended a summer session that was more of a mother’s morning out/play time. I wanted him to experience what school was about and get him used to what the next year would be like. The three year old classes go five days a week. I was a little apprehensive about sending him all five days since this is the first time he has ever been enrolled in any kind of organization. After speaking with friends, all of them said it is a good idea to send him every day. This would allow him more social interaction, learning and getting in the routine for Kindergarten. It hasn’t been quite a week since he started so I’m going to see how he adjusts. I think he’ll do just fine and amaze us every day.

I attended an open house the day before school started. The kids met their teachers and played while the parents went to a meeting to learn about all the information the school has to offer. I was a little overwhelmed with all the rules and regulations that both children and parents must obey. I am assuming every school has to be cautious in what they do. It is a very well liked school with a great curriculum and wonderful teachers. You may remember a post of mine back in February about how my husband and I waited in line for four hours starting at 4:30am to get our son registered. I hope this school lives up to our expectations.

Today, Jack used the potty all by himself without any help from an adult! I never thought this day would come, but with great pride he/we have made yet another milestone.  This includes, pulling his pants down, going to the bathroom, pulling his pants up, flushing the toilet and washing his hands.  I can’t express enough how happy I am about this goal we have finally reached.  With school — where he has to be “fully” potty trained — starting in just four days, my nerves have calmed down. I have been a nervous wreck all summer about it.

I have written a few posts on this blog about Jack and his potty training updates.  I’m hoping this will be the last post I have to write.  It’s been months since we started this adventure, and it has slowly ended with success (as most training does).  All the bribing with candy, stickers and Thomas underwear really paid off. Let’s just hope I am not jinxing it as I write this.

There are dozens of ways to potty train your child. I have friends who used books, videos and methods from their friends. For us, putting him in underwear right away and letting him learn by accidents and accomplishments is what worked.  As a side note, Jack is still wearing a pull up at nap and bedtime. We are working on getting rid of the pull up all together.  Having another baby in diapers now isn’t easy on the bank account.

To everyone out there struggling with potty training: it WILL happen eventually.  I never believed it, but today I am boasting loudly that it’s finally my son’s turn!

Over the last month my life has changed in many ways.  Baby Tate entered the world and has brought us much joy.  I was lucky enough to have my mother spend an entire month with us.  With her help, she made things seem pretty manageable and gave me hope that I could be a wonderful mother of two.  Unfortunately, she had to return to PA a few days ago and go on about her life.

I have been dreading the day/night when I’m by myself and my husband is at work.  Thinking about tending to the two children all alone makes me a bit uneasy.  Jack has been having a rough time getting to bed at night, and Tate’s feeding schedule is about every 2 hours.  Making sure dinner is cooked and fed, bath time, brushing teeth, reading, telling stories and convincing Jack that there are NO ghosts in our house seems to take up my entire night.  Trying to squeeze in a feeding can get a little tricky to say the least.  To my amazement, I have been able to juggle everything the past few nights.  Jack has been such a great big brother.  He seems to find something to do when I have to tend to Tate.  Sometimes it’s playing with the breast pump, which makes me chuckle, but to him it’s some kind of cool machine that makes funny noises.

I know that within weeks I’ll be on a routine and getting more sleep.  Before my mother left, her advice to me was to take it day by day and things will go smoothly.  So far, her advice is working and keeping me sane.  It’s funny to think that I felt this way with one child (and a high maintenance dog) and now I have two.  Despite all the stress and panic, our kids mean the world to us and we couldn’t be any happier.

My fellow blogger, “Monday Mom,” and I both have children who fear the dark.  Jack is frightened at night as well. He must have his night and dresser light on when he goes to bed.  If it isn’t bright enough, a ghost will come out of his closet and get him.

I remember as a child I had a fear of the dark, too. In fact, I think I still do when I’m home alone at times. I Googled this issue to see how other parents handle this or what the pros have studied.  I learned that these fears are a healthily developing imagination and growing knowledge that the world does not revolve around them.

One of the best things to help treat this issue is to have a good lighthearted chat with your child. I have had many chats with Jack about this, and it’s usually long after the bedtime process begins. I don’t want to dismiss his fears in any way, but want to get the point across that no ghosts live in our house. Most nights it’s an hour evolution getting Jack to sleep. If he doesn’t fall asleep on his own while we are reading books, storytelling, singing, or me rubbing his back, I know it’s going to be a long night. Having a newborn in the house to care for already has me sleep deprived, so finding the patience gets a little challenging.

Another point the article made was playtime during the day while using their imagination can sometimes backfire since those “characters” can fuel inventions of demons during the night.  To me, that makes perfect sense.  For example, Jack loves to play with his trains and create different problems for them.  The Diesel engines are the bad guys and seem to cause a lot of problems and heartaches with the other trains.  When Jack doesn’t like someone or something he calls them a Diesel 10 which is the scary train. Perhaps, the diesel engine is one of the contributing factors to his fears.

All of these fears have started over the last few weeks, specifically, when baby Tate arrived.  I don’t know if this is Jack’s way of getting extra attention, one on one, or if he really has these fears cooped up in his head at night.  Maybe it’s a little of both, but all we can really do as parents is comfort them with the reassurance of safety and hope that will help their fears disappear.

After several weeks of rescheduling, I was finally able to get Jack a dentist appointment last week.  This was his first visit, and I wasn’t sure exactly how he would do with someone poking and prodding around in his mouth.  At home, he does pretty well with brushing.  His daddy and I still help a little, but he has learned to brush around every tooth, rinse (and spit out) with water and he has graduated to “big boy” toothpaste.  He thinks big boy toothpaste is very “spicy.”

We arrived at the dentist and had to wait a few minutes in the waiting room.  There was a kid corner with toys and books.  One of the books was the Berenstain Bear book about a visit to the dentist.  We quickly read it to give him an idea of what the dentist will do in his mouth.  Kudos to the office for supplying this book, because I am pretty sure it made him relaxed and excited to get his teeth cleaned.  We walked back to the chair and met the hygienist.  She was extremely nice and had her own method, or should I say tricks, on how to clean a preschooler’s teeth.  She explained every tool she used in his mouth and what it was for as well as complementing him every time he listened to what she asked of him.

Jack ended up doing a great job. I had positive thoughts, but was prepared to hold him down in the chair if I had to.  Sometimes I think he does better with strangers than with me… kind of scary.  The dentist came in and took a final look and said his teeth looked great and had lots of space for his permanent teeth.  To that I said Yippee, no braces in the future?!  Unfortunately, if his permanent teeth are anything like his mommy and daddy’s were, I think we are out of luck and he’ll need a lot of orthodontia.

We are set to go back in six months for another visit.  We’ll see if he is just as successful then as he was last week.

It’s been one week and two days, and as a family we are all making adjustments being a family of four.  Tate William entered this world on July 5^th.  He has lots of blonde hair just like his brother.  As a matter of fact, he resembles his brother in many ways.

Tate has been doing great!  He basically eats, sleeps and poops and falls right back to sleep.  He has been letting me sleep a lot more than I ever could have dreamed of.  Don’t get me wrong I’m still adjusting to the midnight snack screeches from across the house.

Jack has been doing a wonderful job as big brother.  I didn’t know quite how he would handle it, but so far he has been such a big helper, and I’m so proud of him.  He wants to hold Tate all the time, and he will get me anything I ask for.  I am hoping this lasts for years to come, but for now it’s so sweet to watch him help out.

We are so blessed to have Tate in our lives.  He has been a joy to have around, and I find myself staring at him all the time.  I know how fast they grow up, so I am cherishing every cry, every silly face and those big blue eyes when they are opened!  Off to another feeding…

If you ask any child (except for the extremely healthy ones) if they prefer cookies or carrots I think we all know what the answer will be.. cookies, of course.  Jack would jump up out of his seat to answer that question.  Why is it so hard to get our kids to eat healthy fruits and vegetables at meal time?

I can remember when I started feeding Jack “real” food he would eat ANYTHING.  I thought to myself that this was going to be a breeze and I wouldn’t have to have those battles my parents had with me at the dinner table.

Well, apparently I thought wrong.  Over time Jack has become pretty picky with what he will eat and not eat.  Almost all veggies are out except for one or two, and he is now starting to dislike fruits that I knew were a guaranteed hit.  He would rather snack all day and not eat anything at meal time.  I’m sure this is similar for other kids, too.  I have tried sneaking in veggies by chopping them up very fine and mixing them in with pizza, sauces, pancakes,etc.  However, most of the time he can tell the difference between my “secret “recipes and the real ones.

I read an article stating that taste buds in kids and babies are located not only on their tongue, but on the sides and roof of their mouth.  As they grow, the taste buds begin to disappear from the sides and roof of their mouth, leaving taste buds mostly on their tongue. As they get older, their taste buds will become even less sensitive, so they will be more likely to eat foods that they thought were too strong as a child.  I know this holds true for myself.  I disliked veggies when I was little and now I love most of them although, I still can’t bite into a tomato.

I’m looking forward to the day Jack says.. “nummy” to the taste of grilled veggies!

We are narrowing in on less than a week until our second son arrives into the world.  I can’t believe how quick this pregnancy has flown by. I owe that partly to Jack for keeping me so busy and also moving to a new town and getting acquainted with everything.

This past weekend, my friend hosted a baby shower for me. It was so beautiful and generous of her. I immediately came home and got to work.  I washed everything and put it in its place, hung a few things on the wall, and made sure the nursery was ready to go.  I am just waiting on one sweet little boy to make it complete.

I have been making to-do lists like crazy lately.  I always have them around, but it’s starting to get out of control.  My husband is about ready to kill me with tedious tasks I ask of him daily. I want to make sure everything is perfect and in place before the baby arrives. I guess the nesting syndrome has kicked in. I find myself doing ridiculous amounts of laundry, cleaning, organizing and making sure Jack gets a lot of attention.  On the other side, I am trying to get as much rest as possible.  It seems to be quite a challenge when there is so much going on and being 38 weeks pregnant makes it hard to catch some Z’s. The last three weeks have also been filled with runny noses, sore throats and coughs.  I think all three of us are finally on the mend.

Although, my nesting habits have taken over, I think we’ll all be happy once the baby arrives and there isn’t much to worry about except for baby and Jack, of course.  I wish I had this energy/motivation every month to clean and do the random things around the house that must get done.  As I always say…Someday it will get done!