Tiny Humans

Where We Are

My mind is all over the place lately with lists of things to do, thoughts about the upcoming holiday and baby coming, things to do with E… I’m as frazzled as you’d think haha. So here is a random brain dump of what’s going on with us lately.

E had his 18 month check up the other day. Everything looked great, the doctor was super happy, and this little munchkin gained TWO inches in the past three months!! He gained a pound, which is right on track, but the doctor was super excited for his growth spurt! No wonder he can touch the ground on his little car now. I’ve updated this post with percentiles, etc.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday at daycare pickup, E ran around the room as I chased after him trying to get him to put his jacket on. Eventually a teacher grabbed him and helped me wrangle him into his coat. Today he happily let me put his jacket on, waved to his friends, and marched out of the building.

18 Months

E is officially a year and a half old!

It’s been quite a journey, and in about a month we’ll be embarking on our next journey when E becomes a big brother. So before life gets super crazy, I wanted to post an update of what’s going on in E’s world. A lot has changed in the past few months, but even more has changed in the last few weeks. It seems like every day there is something new that he can do, or some new thing that is so adorable and makes me melt.

Small Things Worth Remembering

It’s a weird period of time with E.

I’m both excited for what comes next, but sad about what’s ending.

For example, his language. I’m really excited for him to be able to talk and communicate and to hear all the funny things he’s going to start saying in the next 6 months. (18 months - 2 years old is a GIANT language explosion). But I’m also going to really miss how he is now. He “talks” all day with great expression and passion.

No Fear

I never wanted E to be timid or afraid of life. So I’ve tried hard not to hover over him, and let him explore on his own. I’m aware that means he may get hurt from time to time in situations that I could have prevented, but the goal is/was to make him independent and confident. That’s what we’re supposed to do as parents, right?

Not the Best Holiday Track Record

Remember Easter this year?

I actually didn’t. Just the other day I was asking Tom if we made it to sunrise service on Easter, and couldn’t remember why we didn’t. Oh yeah, we were all super sick. We’ve actually been doing really well since then, even managing to dodge a few outbreaks of hand, foot, mouth at daycare!

The Slow Down

I was hoping I’d have more time. After all, I’m only 7 months pregnant, and I was crossing my fingers I’d have at least another month. But apparently this is it. This is where I’ve run out of time, energy and motivation apparently.

There is still a lot to do. There’s a baby to prepare for, holidays are coming up and presents need to be wrapped, cards need to be sent, and then there’s the normal things, like remembering to do laundry (or more realistically, remembering to put it away after its been washed), and getting myself dressed and out the door every day.

Carousels

I’m not sure why, but I really enjoy them. Maybe they’re made for small children, but I disagree. They’re one of those things that I can’t walk past if I see one. I want to ride it. And I usually do. It used to be Nicole that I’d drag on with me (okay drag is too strong a word, I think she likes them too!) and now it’s Tom.

Central Park carousel? Ridden it. Disney World carousel? Yup. Boston’s? Of course.

Always More Pumpkins

Christmas is going to be interesting this year.

Well, in more ways than one. But let me back up - I’m actually talking decoration wise. And no, I don’t have my tress up (yet!). I did start pulling out my Halloween/Fall decorations, though. Not all of them, but a few pumpkins here and there. It didn’t take long for a certain tiny human to notice… and demand that he be allowed to carry them around everywhere!

The Bike

It’s not really about the bike. Sure the bike may have set it off, but in reality, it’s more about being a toddler. Being a toddler means learning crazy amounts of new things every day, discovering emotions that are overwhelming at the best of times, and having little control over anything in your life. Together it makes for a frustrating existence. Oh, and did I mention your mouth constantly hurts because teeth are literally ripping holes through your gums?

So that’s where we are.

Busy Board!

I have to say, this may be one of my favorite trends in parenting lately. Yes, it’s a way to entertain and keep your toddler busy (YAY!) but it’s also super cool, and I want to play with it probably as much as E does!

They’re also super easy, and completely customizable. Basically you take a piece of wood, and screw on whatever random stuff you have lying around the house, or want to incorporate, and voila! You have something fun and entertaining that is teaching your toddler valuable life skills in the process!

RIP Flappy

The other morning, Tom was holding E while he opened the trash can to throw something away. From across the room I heard Tom laughing and saying “Oh no, don’t worry about Flappy in the garbage. You saw nothing!”

Remember our singing elephant? The one that my whole family hates, but E love so much? Well it officially makes the list as the second toy we’ve played with so much that we’ve killed the batteries. A singing toy truck from our neighbors was the first, and I’m pretty sure a singing laptop from my parents will be next since it’s been struggling and making some interesting noises lately. Are you sensing a theme? Our Bubba likes things that sing to him!

Fall Fun

Fall has something the rest of the year doesn’t have - these crazy big pumpkin/apple farms that open up for picking. Well that’s the general premise anyway, but they’ve become so much more than that. They’re comparable to amusement parks in their size and activities, and they’re only open for two-ish months in the fall where everyone flocks to them.

They’re so overwhelming that Tom and I are a bit afraid of them. We’ve been to all the big ones and have had bad experiences dealing with lines and traffic and getting lost, so we usually stick to the smaller and less intimidating ones. Of course that means they offer less to do while you’re there.

What We've Been Doing

A lot! The fall is always my favorite time of year. It seems like it always gets filled up with fun trips and visits and activities that we never get around to at other times of the year. There are holidays to look forward to, the weather is perfect, life is good! However, it seems like I’ll never get around to making a separate blog post about everything we’ve been up to, so instead I’m going to try and play a bit of catch up. So here are a bunch of random but good things we’ve been up to.

Also in completely random updates, E has 4 teeth! We have no idea when #3 and #4 came in - we flipped him upside down the other day (the only way to really check) and he has a mouth full of teeth up there! But since he only has 1 on the bottom, we hadn’t noticed. I guess that’s a good thing though. (Although now that we know they’re here, we’re thinking back on a cranky week last week and wondering if that’s what was going on!)