Relaxing Doesn't Make Babies

Not a baby anymore

Jun 9, 2013 — 1:04 am

We have a walker! It’s amazing how fast they pick up on it. She’s been letting go to stand for some time now, May 25 she took five-ish tiny halting steps with encouragement. Then right around her birthday (June 4) she started standing up and walking, just because. Now it’s common to turn around and see her wobbling her way across the room, looking pretty darn pleased with herself. Then she’ll trip, land on her knees, and continue on her way crawling.

We also have two teeth coming in, also the week of her birthday. One is now clinking, the other wasn’t quite through yet when I checked the other day. She’s not very fond of me sticking my fingers in her mouth. She’s not been sleeping her best, but it’s not been horrible either so for that I am thankful! Kate was unbelievable – screaming all night long, only sleeping on my chest, sobbing during the day. Ember’s just a little whiny and wakes frequently at night. I don’t even bother dosing her with anything unless she seems really angry and can’t sleep.

I made a cake for her birthday, mostly because I love cake and why wouldn’t I make a cake if I had half an excuse? But also because it was her birthday and I wanted a photo. I gave her a slice of cake on a plate, took some photos, and even gave her a fork. Why not, right? I’ve never given her one before (she’s nabbed Kate’s a few times), or even a spoon at the same time as food (too messy), but she really seems to get excited about the concept. And there I stood blinking as she used the fork to eat the cake. She held it properly, stabbed the cake, brought pieces to her mouth to eat. Perfectly. What just happened here? I guess she has a lot of experience with other tools, she’s always loved using drumsticks and toy screwdrivers and spoons. She has very good fine motor control.

Her two favorite things in the world right now are my keys and my pants drawstring. (The drawstring on Den’s hoodie was a favorite all winter.) She gives a shriek/yell when she hears my keys and will dive right out of my arms for them. She sobs when I take them away. What is so utterly fascinating about keys? I have clipped on a few spare no-idea-what-these-do keys, and my entire ring is different things on a caribiner so I can un-clip what I need without disturbing her.

She also has a longstanding obsession with climbing onto Kate’s little trampoline – she holds on and bounces! Now she is obsessed with Kate’s little toddler chair. Ember absolutely loves climbing up to stand on it, turning around, sliding down to sit on her bum, then sliding down and forward until her feet touch the ground and she stands up. Then she shrieks with laughter, turns around, and flings herself back on it. I think she may be a climber. I already caught her standing on the arm of the chair, holding the windowsill.

She’s not big on toys. She likes objects, like Little People, that can be dumped out of bins and tossed around. She’s started putting things into containers now, which is really cute to watch. She likes scribbling on the magnetic drawing pads we have, she’s been doing that for months now (see above about good fine motor control!). Mostly she enjoys dumping out containers. Or, even better, throwing things into the bathtub. Any chance she gets with the bathroom door open she beelines in there and throws all available tub toys and shampoo bottles into the tub with their satisfying clang-clang-clang noises. For her birthday I (we) got her a sippy cup and two board books. Super fancy this year!

So happy birthday to Ember, who has suddenly morphed into a toddler. I’m not all emotional, just kind of left gaping at the year that’s gone. Also thinking that I have a lot of scrapbooking to do. Damn I’m behind.

So fast

Jun 22, 2013 — 12:29 am

It’s really crazy how fast they change. Just a month ago I had a crawling baby with no teeth. She was most definitely a baby. Now I have a full time walker who has three teeth poking through and at least three more coming soon. I look at her walking around my house and I’m just so puzzled – proud, but puzzled. How do they figure it out so quickly? How does she look so much older in such a short time span?

She is thrilled with herself, of course. Once she realized she could take steps all on her own she was obsessed. She, unlike Kate, learned to stand up on her own at the same time as walk, so she was just constantly standing up to walk a few steps and fall to her knees… then she’d stand up and do it again. Once she could walk in a straight line she was pivoting and turning and now she’s almost running. Okay, it’s more like drunk-zombie-toddler-fast-walking but it’s considerably faster than the halting movements of a week ago.

I am actually quite happy about the walking because it makes my life in public a whole lot easier. Babies crawling around on dirty public floors is kind of gross. Now I can put shoes on her and let her toddle around in stores, parks, libraries, wherever. She’s also less likely to find things to put things in her mouth, which is all to the good.

::

I have been getting plenty of chances to give Kate cuddles lately, as she is seeking attention and doing a lot of Ember-mimickry, so fake-crying, climbing onto my lap, pretending to learn to walk. It can be frustrating, as generally she wants attention because Ember is getting it… and Ember is getting it because she’s miserable about those teeth and the lack of sleep they bring. But regardless of the poor timing I still really try to put aside some time to snuggle my big girl. She’s wearing size 3T now and I am just amazed at how big she has gotten. She’s still not tall for her age, but they certainly do sprout legs! Legs and arms and even her torso is so long!

She also unfortunately is getting a little bit sassy. Not sassy in a crazy way, but I will stop what I’m doing and quirk an eyebrow at her as if to say, “Excuse me, what?” Namely she has taken to yelling demands at me. “I need a cwacker,” doesn’t work (now why wouldn’t that magically whip me into getting her a cracker, hmmm, let me think on that…) so clearly yelling “MAMA MAMA I NEED A CWACCKEEERRRR!” is going to succeed. Right? Yeah… no. I try to stay calm and just say, “That is not how we ask for things,” but sometimes I snap at her just a little. Especially if she’s been using her really loud voice repeatedly. On the plus side it doesn’t take much to remind her of manners and she’s getting pretty good at asking nicely… you know, when she wants to.

Bathrooms

Jun 30, 2013 — 12:30 am

What is it about children and bathrooms? Do they glow to child-vision? Play beautiful symphonies? I just can’t figure out why it draws them in. Actually, yes I can: it’s the water.

We keep our bathroom door closed in general, due to dogs and cats and small children, but now that Ember is hustling around it has to stay shut ALL the time. The girl is obsessed. If it was just throwing toys into the bathtub I could deal, but she now tries splashing in the toilet water. Yuck. She is fast, too; the second that door cracks open she’s bee-lining for the door and scooting in. Some days I feel like I waste half my day pulling her out of the bathroom and shutting the door. (How does it always end up open? Are there ghosts in this house? Perhaps ghosts named Kate and Natalie?)

Kate is past playing in the toilet or unraveling toilet paper (though I caught her a few times carefully tearing square after square of TP off the roll and throwing them into the toilet), but she loves the sink. She has a step-stool we keep in there (because clearly it’s not crowded enough in my very small bathroom) so she can reach, which is very handy, but she loves washing her hands and drinking water from the faucet. I admit sometimes I let her do it – errr, pretend I don’t see her – just to occupy her for a few minutes, but after a while there is water puddles all over my bathroom and she has soaped and rinsed her hands twelve times so enough, get out of my bathroom.

The real problem is the combination of the two of them. Kate is figuring out how to open the bathroom door – it’s a little sticky, so more difficult than others in the house, and now that she’s potty trained if there’s one room I want her to be able to get into it’s the room with the toilet. But, being three, she is slow as molasses. She’ll open the door and then stand in the doorway, hanging off the door handle.

“Mama, look!”
“Yes?”
“I did it! I opened the door!”
“Yes you did, now go potty!”
“Mama! Look mama!”
“I saw! Now go potty! Close the door!”
“Hahaha. Look mama…” (this is when her attention span wanders and she starts playing with the bathroom scale or cupboard door)
“Kate, GO POTTY. Close the door!”

Then time runs out, Ember reaches the door and shoves it open to dash inside. Kate’s now saying, “No Ember, no!” and then shrieking for me to come get Ember because she’s touching the toilet. Well, right, that’s why I wanted you to close the door to keep her out of the bathroom, since she does this every damn time.

Even worse is when I want to use the bathroom, say to brush my hair. Kate opens the door and comes running in to “help” me and “do it too”, which from what I can tell generally involves banging the step-stool into my legs and shoving me away from the sink. I trip over Ember, who is dashing for the toilet, and often I don’t grab her until her hand is in the toilet water, so I get to wash her hands off. I escort Ember to the hallway, where she starts sobbing, and turn around to the door being shut in my face. I open it (carefully, bonked noggins happen) and start convincing Kate to please wait in the hallway, as Ember does another beeline for the toilet – this time I catch her before she gets past me. By the time I’m done both kids are wet, whine-crying and my hair is still not brushed.

I suppose I need to purchase a toilet lock.