The 3s- Part II

I wrote my first post about the 3s a little over a week ago amidst the chaos of toddler sickness, pregnancy exhaustion and surgery recovery.

We're out of those crazy woods so I now feel the need to add another 3s post that is a little more...shall we say...positive.  So here is The 3s- Part II.

1)  They are thinkers.  They are thinking about stuff all. the. time.  For example, as we were driving home the other day, she said "Mommy, when the snow melts, I am going to pick a pretty flower!"  She was obviously thinking about the seasons and what happens and came up with that all on her own completely unprompted.  I love it.

2) They try and act big.  She calls me "Mom" way more often than "Mommy" these days.  And my heart simultaneously swells and breaks to hear her sound like such a big girl.  Tonight when we were in the car she said, "Hey Mom, it is dark outside!"

3) They are still very literal.  When she was playing with Anna the other day, Anna told Kona to pick up the ball.  Callie said, "But Kona doesn't have any hands!"

4) They are INQUISITIVE.  An example from watching a basketball game last night:
Callie: (after seeing a player fall down) What happened to that guy?
Chris: He fell down.
Callie: Why?
Chris: He got kneed in the stomach.
Callie: By who?
Chris: By the little guy.  You can't see him right now.
Callie: But who did it?
Chris: That guy. 
Callie: But why did he do that?

And it went on...and was adorable.  And hilarious.

Other times she asks us to rehash conversations that we just had that she just heard.  When getting Cal and me in the car this morning, I saw our neighbor for the first time in a long time and he congratulated me on the baby.  We had a 2-second conversation and then Callie I and had the following conversation.
Callie: What did he say?
Me: He said congratulations.
Callie: Then what did you say?
Me: I said thank you.
Callie: Then what did he say?
Me: He asked when the baby is coming.
Callie: What did you say?
Me: I said July.
Callie: Then what did he say?

Etcetera...etcetera...etcetera...

All of this she had just heard live as it happened the minute before.  So funny.

5) They still like to cuddle *SOMETIMES* and we relish it when we get the opportunity.

She may not look it, but she's happy to be back on Daddy's lap after not being able to for awhile.

6)  They are so incredibly sweet.  My most favorite thing that she says to me (quite often) that shows her excitement and understanding of her future sibling is, "What do you think Hamsie is doing in there?" and then gives my belly a rub or a kiss.

So I really am loving the 3s right now...she has her tough moments, but so do I, and the good and joyful moments outweigh the rough moments by a lot. 

Weekend Wrap-Up

So this is where pregnancy brain comes in to play...trying to remember stuff that happened in the past.  Thank goodness I am in the habit of taking pictures, or I'd have no idea what to post on the weekend wrap-up.

Saturday
First off, Callie found Heena! 

Heena is a seal she got from my parents about a year ago that mysteriously disappeared months ago.  Want to know where and how she was found?  First off, she was up WAY to early on Saturday morning, so we told her to just play in her room for a little bit.  Then she decided to empty out her entire drawer full of sheets and blankets.  And because of that she found Heena who was stuffed INSIDE a pillow case in the drawer.  No idea how that happened, but I have a feeling a certain little person had something to do with it many months ago...

Anyway...the other exciting part about Saturday was that Callie earned her "new dress" sticker on the potty chart, so we went to Southdale in search of the perfect "sparkly" dress.

We found it.

And it hasn't come off the rest of the weekend...except for sleepy times.

She rocked it at Andy and Beth's baby shower and had fun playing bubbles with Donald and Amy.

Sunday

Auntie Mari came over in the morning to play and we had story time before nap time.

This was minutes after we took the dress off to prepare for nap time.

Then Cal and I went to the condo to spend the evening with Boom.  Dress back on.

As far as Hamsie goes, he/she is 16 weeks along and I'm told by my babycenter app that he/she will be growing like crazy in the next few weeks.  I'm most definitely obviously pregnant as I've gotten a couple comments from strangers.  And I have had my first real craving of this pregnancy (though I didn't have very many with Callie, so we'll see)...sparkling fruit punch.  Like Tahitian Treat that you may have enjoyed as a 12-year-old but not since then.  I kept thinking about it all day on Thursday and Friday.  Finally today I got some fruit punch and mixed it will a little Sprite and it was AMAZING.

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

Auntie QOTD

Auntie Cat told me this one from last weekend when she was at our house.  And a little background knowledge for you- when other people are around, Callie doesn't really want much to do with Chris or me.  She usually tells us to go away.

Last Sunday Callie, Cat and I were eating dinner in our kitchen and Callie repeatedly told me to "go check on Daddy"...like many many times.  I finally left and went downstairs.

Callie: (turning to Auntie Cat) Good!  Now WE can hang out. 

Gosh she sure knows how to make her mom feel special.

Favorite-Things-Phone-Dump Friday

We made it through the week and things are looking up.

Chris' arm is okay...he's still in a lot of pain and uncomfortable, but he is able to move it around more and is able to do more things to help himself. I'm still in charge of socks and bandages and assisting with getting his shirt on, but I can handle that. :)

Callie no longer screams out "NOSE" every other minute and is feeling much better, so that makes for both a happier girl and much less frazzled parents.

We have Kona back after an extended stay at G-ma and G-pa's so our house is starting to feel normal again (and with the limited ability of either of us to do much housework, it is cluttered and messy, which I guess is our normal anyway).

Our potty chart has been working and Callie stayed dry the ENTIRE day today.  That hasn't happened in probably a month.  Therefore, tomorrow we are going shopping to buy the first dress she earned. 

See?  Progress.

On to the pictures...

Favorite Thing #1: Playing in the snow

Favorite Thing #2: Playing in the snow with Grandma!

Favorite Thing #3: Above zero temps meant we could get this crazy doggy outside a little bit!

Favorite Thing #4: Dinner at the Suurmeyers and making valentines

Favorite Thing #5: The princess has a tiara

Favorite Thing #6: I *think* I felt little flutters tonight while typing this!

 Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Fighting Back

Yesterday I blogged about the 3s.

I'd say it was a slightly hormonal and emotional response to the frustrations of toddler rearing we've experienced lately.

Today, I decided to start fighting back.

My first tactic is to address the selective hearing (otherwise known as the I REFUSE TO LISTEN TO A WORD YOU SAY IF YOU ARE MY PARENTAL UNIT).

I'm totally using reverse psychology. 

If I want her to come with me upstairs, I say "YOU CAN'T FOLLOW ME!" to which she says "YES I CAN!" to which I say "DON'T YOU DARE!" as I'm marching up the stairs with her giggling right behind me.

Victory.

If I want to get her dressed, I say "OKAY I'M GOING TO GET DRESSED NOW!" and pretend to try and put her clothes on, to which she says "YOU CAN'T PUT ON THOSE CLOTHES, THOSE ARE MY CLOTHES!" to which I say "NOPE! THEY ARE MINE! THEY FIT ME!" to which she says "NO THEY DON'T" to which I say, "OH YEAH?? LET ME SEE IF THEY FIT YOU" and then totally get her dressed while she giggles.  Same scenario with getting her coat, shoes, or hat on.

Victory.  Victory.  Victory.

I don't know how long I'll be able to milk it for, but she is pretty entertained by it now, so that is my new favorite strategy.

My second tactic is to address the ridiculous potty training regression that I think is making me want to rip my hair out, or at least giving me some gray hair.  So we're going back to the positive reinforcement chart and upping the ante.  Suckers and little toys are no longer the big ticket items.  They're little tokens along the way to getting new dresses, books, and a princess movie.

I made it and explained it to her while she was in the bath tonight.  Surprise, surprise, she immediately said she has to go potty.  So we got her out of the bath, put her on the potty and HOLY COW was there a pee geyser that came out of her.  I haven't seen her pee that much in a month.

So...I'm hoping that is a good sign and that we just need to do some hardcore bribery.  I'm not above it at this point. 

That's all I got for now...we'll keep you updated on the progress.

In the meantime, if you have any other strategies for the above issues or any other toddler-related frustrations, feel free to send them our way.  We clearly need all the help we can get. :)

The 3s

Sooooo...here's a couple of thing we've learned about three-year-olds.

1) They can sense weakness and they POUNCE...not unlike predators in the wild.  They are just super cute predators that kill with boundless energy and selective hearing (like when you need them to be calm and listen the most).

For example:  Callie was home with Chris today (with some help from Anna this morning- thanks Anna!) and by the time I got home he was on the couch and Cal was frantically playing and I could tell the difference in energy level between the two was gargantuan. 

The following conversation occurred:

Callie: (in her loudest most whiny voice possible, handing Chris a play-doh container) OPEN IT! OPEN IT! OPEN IT!
Chris: (in an obviously exhausted and irritated voice) Chill out for once.  Calm down.  You need to ask nicely.
Callie: (looking between the two of us and sensing our irritation with her lack of manners) Please.
Chris: Okay.
Callie: (smiling slyly) Just kidding!  Sometimes I test you.

OMG our 3-year-old just admitted to testing us.  I have no idea where she has heard that or if she even knows what that actually means, but she is right.  Which leads me to point #2.

2) They test boundaries like nobody's business and it has taken all our energy and mental (and physical) capacities to keep up with her and remain consistent.  Hence why we have brought in reinforcements (aka grandparents and aunties) so much lately...neither of us have been up to "the test" that she so obviously loves putting us through.

3) Just when you think you'll never survive the 3s, you have a mommy/daughter date night that melts your heart and sparks some hope that your little predator can be a cute cuddly teddy bear. 

Until she pees (nonchalantly) in her pants for the 50th time and tries eating your chapstick for the 24th time and yells out "NOSE!" to get her nose wiped for the 66,533,225,678,854 time and you're ready for bed by 7:00 but toddler bedtime isn't for another hour and you wonder how in the world 60 minutes can feel so long when a 90 minute nap time can feel so short.

So I guess that whole last rant brings me to my final point.

4) Expect the unexpected (seriously this potty training regression is throwing us for a loop), treasure sweet and quiet moments ("I love you, Mommy. You're the best mommy."), celebrate small victories (it only took her 30 minutes to fall asleep tonight instead of an hour!) and make sure to have a healthy stock of Kleenex and chapstick on hand.

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Mother's Guilt Edition

Holy moly.

We made it through the weekend, though there were points that I didn't think that would be the case.  Between Chris' shoulder recovery, Callie's nose, and my general pregnancy exhaustion, we were quite the group.  Once again our families stepped up and stepped in and Callie had sleepovers Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at either the condo or G-ma and G-pa's house. 

When she has a cold, her normal sweet disposition is completely overtaken by some sort of monster creature.  I'm not kidding- because she spent so much time with family during the whole ordeal, we have witnesses to the terror.

And here's where my mother's guilt comes in. 
1) I know that she is completely miserable.  It was obvious by the amount of crap coming out of her nose and how red and chapped it was. 
2) I know that when I'm that miserable I am crabby too.
3) But I could seriously NOT handle her attitude with everything else that was going on. 
4) And therefore, I felt SUPER guilty because I'm her mother- the one who is supposed to be able to comfort her the most, and I just couldn't handle it.

Ugh.  But she got lots of TLC from other family members and I was able to concentrate on helping Chris recover and also rest myself.  So once again, THANK YOU Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Cat, Boom and Bops.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

We did manage to get our hands on a couple of pictures from the weekend.




Dancing to a Tangled song

Sleepy times at G-ma and G-pa's house

 Thankfully today things were better with both Chris and Callie.  Callie still has a faucet for a nose, but it doesn't seem to be as congested and uncomfortable and she was back to her sweet self...mostly.

Chris has been drug-free since last night and trying to keep it that way.  He's hoping to get back to work tomorrow but he can't do that if he's still on drugs, obviously.  We'll see how it goes... there is still a lot of recovery that needs to happen.  He's been able to take his arm out of the sling but it is still pretty painful if he tries to move it around.  It is still a big improvement from the past two days.

As for me, I'm just tired.  My nausea has lessened quite a bit, but the exhaustion is still pretty constant.  Hamsie is 15 weeks along today and I'm looking forward to (hopefully) starting to feel him/her in the next few weeks.