Felicity is getting so big! She is picking up signs left and right, understanding so much more of what we say, following simple instructions (well... sometimes ;) ), and is so active! She is enjoying things that are SO much fun for me, like starting to do pretend play (pushing her baby around in a stroller, pretending to drink from her play cups), coloring with crayons, and bringing me books to read all day long. She will select a book and then back up until she reaches me, and plop in my lap. I am really enjoying her love of stories! Felicity now "tickles" us by doing wiggly fingers and making a high pitched noise. She is enjoying our (almost) daily walks with the neighbors so much more than she used to, and will relax in the stroller, eat her snacks, sing and talk. At the park, she does most slides by herself (!!!) and is now trying to climb ladders...terrifying for mommy! Felicity's language seemed to explode overnight and she's picking up a new word every few days. Her current word list includes:
dada
mama
moo
uhoh
no no
Addie (one of the children I babysit for)
choo choo
meow
hi baby
zoom
amen
quack
yucka (what I say for yuck/yucky)
There are parts of her growing up that are making me really sad, though! Even though her independence is super precious and exciting, it can also be hard sometimes. She has an opinion and doesn't always want hugs/kisses like she used to and is slowly learning to interact with other children as we struggle through age appropriate but hard things like hitting, throwing, sharing, etc. The hardest part so far, though, is self weaning. I didn't think Felicity would wean this early. In fact, I thought I would have to encourage it in the future (for fertility meds) and dreaded that day, as I have always liked the idea of baby led weaning. So, in a way, I am grateful that the process has begun. But, on the other hand, I never imagined it would start at 14 months! A little over a week ago she decided, cold turkey, that she no longer wanted to nurse to go to nap or bed at night. Those are 2 of the 3 times she nurses in a day, with the other time being when she wakes up between 4 and 5 and joins us in bed. Luckily she has not dropped that one yet, because I don't think my mommy heart could take it all at once! I'm hoping she keeps that at least a few more months. Though it's nice to have Steven be able to put her to sleep (he could before but not without me nursing her first unless I was not home), her weaning has also made the bedtime process *very* lengthy. We are trying a new routine, now that her old routine has gone out the window, but I think the combination of her quitting nursing at those times plus all the things she has going on developmentally was a recipe for disaster for bed time! Thankfully she is still sleeping well once she goes down. I'm happy to see my girl growing, healthy, and becoming independent but, man, it's also really hard! We went to baby story time today, after not having been for about 2 months due to nap time, and it became very, very apparent that my girl is a TODDLER. We will be moving up to toddler story time next week. Toddlerhood comes with a lot of hard changes, but it is also a blast. Although I can't wait until my sister has her baby (any day now!) so I have a cuddly newborn to love on again :).
Long time no see! As you'll see below, I've been pretty busy lately. Felicity keeps me on our toes, I keep us active (for both our sanity :D), and I've picked up quite a few more babysitting hours to help our finances and give Felicity exposure to other kids. I also haven't had much inspiration to write, but hopefully that will change soon :).
TODDLERHOOD IS HARD. I am so glad Steven and I have been (slooooooooowly) reading a parenting book for a while now, because we are already having to use some of the things we've learned! I guess I didn't expect to have issues until Felicity was closer to 2, which is probably naive since I've spent most of my adult life caring for small children in one capacity or another. But it still surprises me that at 14 months she is exerting so much independence and showing just how impulsive toddlers can be. I think it is exacerbated by the fact that she has always been ahead physically and her little brain hasn't caught up yet. I am beyond blessed with a husband who has a large say in our parenting- who wants a large say, and has been willing to do the work with me to figure out our parenting style, and then to find practical things to do or say when situations arise. We have settled on gentle/positive parenting, which is a nonviolent way of disciplining, guiding, and teaching your children. It seeks to have children behave because they want to and understand why they should, rather than out of fear or demanded compliance. The word discipline is derived from the word "disciple", so we like that positive connotation rather than the negative one it usually carries. I need not mention that, like all parents, I'm sure we will struggle and falter along the way, but having a framework to work from has already proven helpful to us. I have found so many great resources that fit how we'd like to parent/are learning to parent, so I thought I would share some of them here in case they might help someone else along in their parenting journey:
Aha! Parenting is probably my favorite and, though it can become an overwhelming rabbithole, pretty much addresses anything you could ever want to know from infancy through the teenage years. I have already gotten so many ideas from this site! I signed up for their emails, too, and some I delete because they don't apply, but some have great tips and reminders.
This blog post only addresses throwing (our current target behavior), but the principle they use to deal with throwing can apply to so many other behaviors. As we learned in the social work world, all behavior is communication. I particularly find practical, hands on (rather than ideological) ideas helpful. Giving me things to say and do in a given situation, from a gentle framework, is so helpful to us as parents who are in that very frustrating moment with an impulsive toddler. Instead of sitting there trying to think of how to react or, worse, reacting poorly because we *don't* think, we can take a statement directly from this post. That's not to say that's how it always happens, of course, but it's a vast improvement on not having any practical ideas in our tool kit!
Janet Lansbury's site is a bit harder to navigate but is also really helpful with ideas and, what I really love, information on development (cognitive, social, emotional, etc). It's easy to think your kid is a jerk if you don't know what's going on and why, and this website helps you to realize what things they are lacking at various ages, what things they're gaining, and how you can help them.
And last, L. R. Knost is my favorite book resource. She has lots of great stuff online, and on her facebook page too, but her book (The Gentle Parent) is what we are going through slowly and is actually in 3 parts with one being a workbook to help us, which I'm really excited about getting to.
Last but not least, the cutie pie who inspired this post!
