Conversations with a Two Year Old

Have you ever had a conversation with a two year old? It can be cute, but also very repetitive and needs a bit of guess work involved to keep a conversation going. I will be sharing just a few of my recent conversations in this post, followed by cute kid pictures.

Here are a few of the repetitive ones... ones that I have had at least 20 times with Grace, if not more, sometimes just a few minutes from the last time I had that particular conversation.

G-Pa? (what she calls my dad)
M- When do we see grandpa?
G- Church
M- That's right, after church

G- Gaga? (My mother in law)
M-When do we see granna?
G- Tap
M-That's right, you tap with granna

G- Ma? (My mom)
M- When do we see grandma?
G- Church
M- That's right, after church

G- A-Me? (What she calls her future aunt Jami)
M- When do we see Aunt Jami?
G- Run?
M- That's right, Aunt Jami and mom run together

(You get the idea)

Another repetitive conversation of late started after she got her shots last Friday... so it has continued for more than a week.

G- Ouch? (While pointing to a shot area)
M- Does it hurt where you got your shots?
G- All done?
M- Yes, your shots are all done for now, no shots today.

The above conversation has occurred as often as five or six times in a single car ride... it gets old, really fast.

There are a few animals that she is currently scared of- sharks and alligators. When she sees a picture of one of them, this is how it goes:

G- Ouch? (pointing to their teeth)
M- Yes, if a shark (or alligator) bit you it would hurt
G- No, no (Emphatically to the picture, like when she is telling the dogs no, so they won't take her food)
M- No, the shark (or alligator) won't bite you

Recently we went to a friend's house, and Grace encountered their talking, singing, dancing Elmo, and for whatever reason, it really freaked her out. So now, I also get this conversation on replay:

G- Elmo? (In a very scared worried voice)
M- Did Erin's Elmo scare you?
G- All gone?
M- Yes, that Elmo is all gone.

But the most commonly recurring conversation is about our trips to the park, which have become our daily outing.

G- Walk?
M- When do we go on the walk?
G- Nap
M- That's right, after nap
G- Swing?
M- Sure, you can go on the swing
G- Slide?
M- Yep, you can go on the slide too.

She is learning a lot, and very quickly, it is really exciting to see. She is pretty good on colors now, and will point them out as she walks by or sees something in that color. She knows a lot of her letters, and is beginning to understand counting too.

One last cute Grace story happened yesterday morning, when Blake decided to try to leave out the brown sugar from her oatmeal and see if she would notice. She took one bite, then went to the cupboard and started to get out the brown sugar for him. No fooling this girl!

Random assorted pictures since the last post. Note, many were already posted on facebook, but for people who read my blog without facebook, I wanted them to see them too.

How Life is like the Movie Groundhog Day

I'm going to make this fast, because I feel like this is being typed on borrowed time as Blake is downstairs with Remington, and wants to watch TV with me.

I feel like many days, my life is like the movie Groundhog Day in that many of the events are the same in essence, but I keep trying to make little tweaks to avoid the previous days mistakes. Some tweaks improve the situation, some don't, but I keep learning and trying to improve on them.

One of the biggest examples with this is trips to the park with Grace. We have made going to the playground a daily excursion after her nap. She loves going to the playground, going on the slide, playing in the sand, and being pushed on the swings. She hates leaving. So, every day I try different things to try to make the trip home easier. Blake had some good results with a special snack on the way home, but I goofed it up by letting her see the snack first. When we got to the playground, she just wanted to eat the snack instead of spending time playing first. I even got a full blown tantrum about it. Lesson learned...don't let her see the going home snack first!

I have Groundhog Day moments with potty training too, trying to figure out why and when she has accidents so that I avoid those kind of accidents in the future. These moments happen with Remington too, mostly with his sleep at night. I keep trying to have his schedule worked out so I only feed him once at night, and he sleeps soundly the rest of it...but with the minor daily changes, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and I have to keep trying to figure out what causes the difference.

Grace's tantrums are yet another area where many minor changes are made in attempts to stop or avoid the tantrums that come when I say no to her, she doesn't get her way, or we have to drive in the car somewhere (so pretty much all day long). I have had some success with dolls and roleplaying, some with stickers, and some with playing the game of "guess what made Grace mad" and then talking to her about it. Sometimes I have no success!

But unlike the movie, kids change all the time, so my changes are just guesses, and I get to keep trying!

Enjoy the random collection of kid photos from the last few weeks.

Snapshot of Life at the start of 2014

Life with an almost four month old and a two year old is not always easy but it is fun. There are challenging times like when I was nursing the baby with my daughter on my lap and talking to someone on the phone to schedule a doctor's appointment. Or when I felt ridiculous using my daughter's doll to try to teach a lesson about what to do when you're mad or how to tell Mom when you need to go to the bathroom. This, by the way, worked rather effectively. And I don't particularly enjoy when I have to leave my son crying somewhere because my daughter decided that was the moment she neeeed to go to the bathroom.

But, I love when my son starts to talk to me or smiles at me. I love seeing his determination to roll over. Which he has done both ways now...but only once. It cracked me up to see my daughter try to give the stick back to the tree on our walk yesterday. Or when she copied my using the doll to take the doll to the bathroom multiple times during the day. I love seeing her vocabulary grow even when I least expect it, and the cute way she says, "helwo." The conversations we have about shadows or just about her favorite people is how we set the foundation for a great relationship in the future.

My days are filled with the mundane of bathroom trips, nursing times and keeping two little ones happy, but I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014, May you be much less exciting!

Here is the 2013 jar of mementos.

It shows the tickets as the evidence of our growing interest in hockey, and more specifically the Ducks.

It has the tag from the marathon that I would have run if it wasn't for the biggest surprise of the year...finding out that we were pregnant with little Remington! Along that line, there is also the receipt from birth class, and his hospital tag from his Thanksgiving cut on the head, not from his birth, which was at home.

There are the tickets from our flights home with Grace back in March, and all of the significance that those carry with them as we became parents for the first time!

The only other little mementos are the ticket from the OC Fair in the summer, and a ticket stub from one of the two movies that Blake and I were able to see without the kids- World War Z (the other was Hunger Games:Catching Fire, but that stub didn't get in there).

Looking back over the year's blogs and moments:

January was mostly marked by a huge shift for me as I stopped teaching, waited for news about Grace, and let the news and knowledge of being pregnant sink in. I had a lot of downtime, and I wasn't used to the expectations of being a wife without also having the responsibilities of a job.

February brought a huge ray of light as we got the news Grace's passport was ready and we were able to schedule her visa interview. We also got to share with family and friends about our pregnancy, and we celebrated Grace's upcoming arrival with the shower for her.

March was one of the most exciting months of the year, as we had the up moment of the visa interview, the down moment when we heard we needed to send more information before it would be approved, the up moment of getting the approval, followed by the down moment that there was no escort for the trip, followed by the up moment of actually bringing her home! Talk about a roller coaster ride of emotions.

Looking back at the March pictures and videos, I can't believe how much she has grown since then! Bigger, taller, less skin and bone, gone from crawling to running, gone from a few words to over 50 and putting phrases together, sadness to laughing and smiling most of the time. We are so blessed to have her home!

April, May, June, July, August are all marked by just seeing her smile more, do more, and just thrive in her new home. It isn't about the specific events, but about the sweet memories of being a mom.

There are some cool moments of seeing Remington move inside my belly, and now knowing the little boy who was making those movements way back then.

September brought our son and made us parents of two!

He has been such an easy baby, even the challenges of having two kids haven't been as bad as they could, and he brings so much fun too... even if he is growing too fast.

October brought Grace's first birthday party, and November was marked by our Thanksgiving "fun" with his cut, and all of my new forays into doing Grace's hair. December was filled with all of the Christmas activities that I dreamed about doing with kids for years.

Previous years, my new year's eve look back was about the "stuff" that I did...this year... it's really about my kids. It is a whole paradigm shift, where my most enjoyment comes from seeing them as they grow and change. I have a love hate relationship with the changes, where I am so happy for their progress, but I miss their helplessness too... and I bet that won't get any easier.

As much as 2013 radically changed my life in more positive ways than I could have ever expected at the end of 2012, I am rooting for 2014 to be a much calmer year. I hope for a year filled with great times with the kids and family... and no huge life altering changes. :-D

Gotta end the year with some little ones being their cute selves:

Christmas with kids

Christmas with kids was filled with glee,
I couldn't wait for Grace to see what was under the tree.
At each family gathering there were presents galore,
Each filled with gifts they hoped the kids would adore.
Rem watched or slept as the wrapping was undone,
But later would find his new toys quite fun.
Grace knew how to get to the good stuff inside,
Though her frustration about waiting to play she did not hide.
I got gifts that will definitely be kept,
But Remmy gave the best when he just slept.
We were blessed for our families to share in the fun,
And we look forward to next year when our kids will be three and one.
And now without further ado,
Here are the pictures promised to you.