Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Gratification in the smallest things - including number 2

I may have perhaps mentioned before that Toddlers are my favourite age.  Watching them learn and develop is a real joy.  They look up to you like you're the most amazing person. Hearing my daughter run up to me when I pick her up at daycare, filled with smiles screaming "daddy daddy daddy."  Well it sounds more like "da-ah-day, da-AH-dy, da-duh-dy" as her fonts steps fall on sync with certain parts of the word forcing an extra syllable.

Yes - to be real, she does have her moments where I just want to do a Homer Simpson.  The meltdowns in the store, in the driveway, in the bedroom, near the potty, at church, at daycare.  Most of the time I just want to crack up and laugh - sometimes I actually do.  Unfortunately for me she's at the age where she understands laughter and my reaction sometimes makes the situation worse as she gets even madder.

We're trying to potty train her - which is not going smoothly. I'm trying to be patient, but it's tough when she just sits there humming to herself, reading books and enjoy sitting on the toilet.  I tell her to pee, and she feigns a  push and giggles.  Nothing, no pee pee she exclaims as she hops off the potty to excitedly put back on her pull-up.

There really isn't a rush per say except that number 2 is on the way.  No, not that number, 2, but rather baby number 2.  People ask if I'm excited, not really - I guess I'm so busy I haven't had time to think about it.  I'm really focused on work, home, church, toddler and making my wife comfortable in the 8th month.  The nursery is ready, the clothes are almost unpacked (except we don't know the gender).

However - a good chunk of preparation for the new baby is the preparing the toddler herself.  She's old enough to understand, but old enough to also be jealous.  My wife and I have already made a commitment to each other that I will make an effort to spend more time with our toddler and she will with the baby (remember, I much prefer toddler's to babies).  Hopefully this will quell feelings of jealousy while she acclimates to the new addition.  The other half of preparing her is the ending of the night time bottle (done), move to the big girl room and bed (done), out of the diapers (getting there) and discontinuation of the soother (its' only for bed right now, soon to be gone).

I've heard that toddlers can regress when a new baby arrives.  I'm not too worried about that - it's normal.  What I'm concerned about is that it may be more difficult to cease certain habits and behaviours after the baby comes home if they haven't already.  Hence, that is the pressure / rush to get some of these things done.

The countdown is on - the baby is coming, just pray for me that baby number 2 comes out healthy and with few complications and that my daughter's number 2 comes sooner and with few complications :)

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

My daughter is now two!

The toddler years are by far by favourite age.  Honestly, I don't care much for babies.  Yes of course they are cute, no one can deny that.  But, they are so boring.  They just lie there, that's it. 

Toddlers - they are the best.  They are easy to impress, responsive, always looking to show you something new.  They want nothing but your attention.  Everyday is something new.  A new word, action (if you're lucky a hug).  Recently for my daughter's birthday I got her a little cedar playhouse.  It's a rather modest structure - about a 1 1/3 metres by 1 1/3 metres (4 x 4ft for the American friends).  I can only tell you the reaction from my daughter was marvelous.  I hadn't even finished it when she came bolting outside - yelling in excitement, grabbing a screwdriver to hurry the process along.  The other day I just found myself starting and watching contently while she busied herself inside the playhouse.

The other big change - the move to the big girls bed.  I painted the room months ago so as not to bother a pregnant wife too badly with the fumes.  We decided on a twin mattress as opposed to a toddler mattress figuring she's going to outgrow it quickly - so why waste the time and money.  The bedframe allows us to put the mattress right on the floor, so roll outs are not a big concern as the drop off is minor. 

The first night was tough as she made every opportunity to escape her bedroom - but she really took a liking to the bed.  Before, she would mumble about going to bed in the crib.  Now, she actually runs excitedly to her bed, ready to sleep in her big comforter.

Of course there is a downside to everything - yes it's really exciting to see her grow up and into the big bed . She's actually sleeping better at night (she doesn't wake me up anymore).  However, with a good night's sleep and mobility out of bed, that means 7am wake-ups.  Before we could get her till 8:30-9:00am if we were lucky.  Nope, Saturday morning, 7am, *patter patter patter* I hear the little feet thumping on the floor - "hi dada, hi dada" in my face.  Yes of course it was awesome to wake up to an excited little body, not so exciting at 7am on Saturday.

So back to why I love toddlers.  They are just the most amazing age - between 2 and 6.  They are funny, full of wonder.  My daughter sometimes loses thought in wonder at something simple.  Some folks absolutely hate white clovers.  My daughter is ecstatic when a couple of white clover flowers poke their heads above my lawn.  She bends over and collects a few to give to me as a gift.  In our harried rushed life, we always have a place to go, a place to see, appointments, shopping, whatever.  There are times thought that I realize appreciate when my daughter reminds me to slow down.  I'll catch her actually stopping to smell the flowers, admire something in my garden.  To her, understanding what's going on is important.  We're so busy most people could likely not recount various occurrences in their surroundings.

Either way - toddlers rock.  I couldn't wait for her to turn two and I'm going to squeeze as much enjoyment out of it - at least until the expected baby turns two.