Terrific Twos

Trying on her sister's clothing

Most parents fear the manifestation of their toddler's assertiveness, otherwise known as the Terrible Twos. While our toddler certainly is not lacking in displays of assertiveness, the Twos have brought a lot of positive changes with them.

A case in point, sleep. Not only has she started to sleep through the night more often than not, but she has also started falling asleep on her own. She no longer wants to share our bed, and she actually shoos us away from her room around nap time and bedtime with an adorable, but adamant "go". Her independence could not have come at a better time!

Speech is another area of vast improvement. While she hasn't stopped making sounds and pointing to communicate her needs, her vocabulary has grown exponentially in the last few months.

If we had known her sister's arrival would have led to all these positive changes, we would have had her a lot earlier!

Looking pretty in a hand-crocheted sweater

Helping Hand

At 3 weeks of age with big sister!

I do not remember the exact moment I realized I needed some help; it was more a general realization that our toddler was getting too much screen time. Although we have banned television, our toddler is the proud owner of both an iPhone and an iPad. The iPhone is non-functional as a phone, but serves as a means of viewing photos and playing games using age-appropriated applications. It was previously my phone, but with a few broken buttons including the volume switch, it had become useless as a phone.

My husband received the latest iPad for his birthday last month, and so too his old iPad went to our appreciative toddler.

I was nursing the baby the other day, and looked down at my toddler. She was expertly maneuvering her iPad, bringing up YouTube clips of children singing "If you are happy and you know it", and dancing along. She then opened an application, and started taking photos. Bored with that, she started playing with one of the few dozen game applications.

It dawned on me that while my husband was at work, we were spending much to much time indoors. And I thought to myself how nice it would be to have someone that could entertain my toddler while I took care of the baby.

As of this last Monday, I enlisted the help of a University student. She will work 3 days a week, 8 hours per day until the end of August. My mothers's helper, as we call her. I wasn't sure how my toddler would react. So far, she had only been cared for by her mother and father, or my sister and mother. As it happened, our toddler loved her from the get go. After only a few minutes, she was proudly showing off her toys to her new playmate.

Thus far, they have mostly gone to the park, or played around the house. My helper also prepares meals, and tidies up during our toddler's nap time.

By the end of the week, I felt as though a heavy burden had been lifted. I was still able to spend the day with my children, but I no longer had to rely on digital devices for entertainment.

I do not know why I hadn't thought of it before. I had forgotten how time-consuming nursing could be, and had overestimated my energy level. I haven't seen my toddler this care-free in a long time, and I find myself less anxious and more energetic. Rather than opening closet doors and pilfering through our personal effects while I nurse the baby, our toddler is now appropriately gearing her energy towards play.

Years ago, I would have never thought that one day I would consider taking care of just one infant a vacation!

Bad Words

Mischievous!

We had shielded our toddler as much as possible. No television; only supervised play with other kids. Yet it happened; she picked up a bad word.

Last week, we had a play-date with my cousin's daughter, who is an adorable toddler 2 weeks older than Baby #1. Anything our daughter laid hands on that belonged to the little girl was greeted by "that's mine." I remember thinking thank goodness that word is not part of our daughter's vocabulary.

Two days later, as I was putting away one of our toddler's toys, she grabbed it, and clearly and emphatically said "miiiiiiiiie". She left out the n, but I knew what she meant. I was shocked. She has since repeated it on several occasions. I have been doing my best to ignore it. Perhaps if she never hears the word again, she will forget it...

I told my cousin about the word my daughter had picked up, and inquired about where her daughter had picked it up. They don't send her to daycare, and supervise all of her peer interactions as well. As it happened, she had been watching a kids' program with a character that was a "bad example" and very selfish. His signature phrase was "that's mine". It was made clear to the viewers that "this is not how you should act".

Unfortunately, as far as our children go, a bad example is still an example...

2 Months and Counting

Magic

First time painting

As a new parent, there are many "magical moments". I thought I had experienced them all with my first daughter. It would take a lot to impress me the second time around.

And then just like that, our 7-week old proffered a perfectly magical moment. She fell asleep while nursing, as she often does. While still asleep she started hiccoughing. After about a minute, she hiccoughed so loudly that she startled herself awake!

Smiling!