TWO!

Well, it's been awhile, busy busy around here.  And another birthday snuck up on us- Toby is 2!  He was so happy all day today.  Unfortunately I had to work but there were no tears at the morning drop off.  We had a quiet family dinner tonight with Toby's favorite- spaghetti, and blueberry birthday cake.  We got him a new pillow, duvet and bedding for his special day- we'll see if it helps him stay in bed all night!

On his 2nd birthday, Toby is:

• 32 lbs and just shy of 35" tall- an inch taller than his sister was at the same age.  Wears mostly size 3 clothes, but some size 2 or 18m pants. 
• Mostly potty trained.  For two months he's been a rock star, pees, poops, nightime.  Just in the last week he's had quite a few accidents, a bit of a  regression I guess.  Woke up dry this morning for the first time in a week and had no accidents today!
• As sweet as ever.  He really is a gentle soul- sensitive, quiet, thoughtful.  And funny, energetic, and loud too.  
• Still waking up several times at night.  Yawn, I really hope this stops soon! 
• Teething again.  Just popped his 3rd two-year molar....  only one more to go.  Maybe he'll start sleeping better when teething is over with.

Toby loves:

• Playing with Willow!  She directs him in all kinds of imaginative play; picnics, doggies, restaurant.
• Anything that moves.  Trains especially.  I'm convinced boys are wired to be drawn to things with wheels, and all things that go.
• Sweets!  I dread giving him treats.  His reaction when I don't give him more is very dramatic.  He screams and cries for "more treats, mooooooore.  please?  Mummy, pleeease" and then the temper tantrum starts.  His tantrums are intense and there is no reasoning with him.  It's usually easier to skip the treat all together. 
• Dora the Explorer.  He loves the show, thinks Boots is the greatest ever.  And Swiper.
• Singing, dancing, music, being outside, playing the piano, bouncing on his bed.

Toby Can:

• Count to 10.
• Identify most colours correctly.  Gets tripped up on red/green/yellow.
• Remember the words to his favorite books and songs and will read/sing along with me.
• Melt my heart!  He is generous with I Love You's and tells me at the best times.

Mo-mo Fairy- YAY!

I'm so happy to say that the soother is gone! For weeks every night before bed I asked Willow if she was ready for the mo-mo fairy to take her pacifier and replace it with toys, candy and money (this is what Willow decided the fairy would leave her).

2 Thursdays ago, after bedtime stories I repeated "Hey Willow, I have an idea, why don't we put mo-mo under your pillow for the mo-mo fairy?".
"No," she answered, "on Thursday".
"It is Thursday honey".
"Oh, OK" she said and kissed her soother and placed in under her pillow. Really? Yay! That was easy! (but took several weeks)

3 or 4 days, a bit of whining, a bit of protest, some change in routine and we're fine. When she naps it has to be in my bed, watching cartoons to distract her. We put a little light on her wall beside the bed that she can turn on and off- so she can read books by herself before she falls asleep at night. Business as usual. She loooovves her new teddy bear, a soft little guy the mo-mo fairy left her. She's never been attached to dolls or stuffies, so I'm thrilled.

Willow and Teddy, or Mo as he's sometimes called.

Now, to tackle night-weaning Toby!

28 months

Willow is 28 months old, 2 1/3 years old, 2.3333 years old.


Her manners are impressive for a 2 year old. She says please and thank you for everything, and "Yes Mom!" or "OK mom!". She still throws a tantrum here and there, but mostly she's just a joy to be around.

Loves the slide!

Bed and nap time are a breeze lately- especially since 'mo-mo' has been sleeping during the day. Willow is so excited and happy to be reunited with Mo-mo that she loves going to bed. As I leave her rooms she squeals "Love you Mom! See you when I wake up!". It makes up for the years of bed-time battles. There is usually still one or two wakeups during the night, usually for a drink of water. We've tried giving her a full sippy cup for her dolly to hold until she's thirsty- but she drinks it all right away. She's been giving signs of readiness to nighttime potty train. Sometimes she'll get up soon after going to bed to pee, and usually runs from her room in the morning right to the washroom. She is dry 90% of the time after naps, and about half the time in the morning.

Willow watches kids at the fair, instead of the animals.

Not so sure about the pigs. Lately she crosses her arms in her shy defensive stance.

I hope her shyness eases up soon. She loves being out, especially around other kids but she is too frightened to play with them. After an hour or so she ventures out a bit but usually plays by herself. She is quite observant and knows what is happening with everyone all the time. The other day at the chiropractor she took a boys car (I had no idea, I thought it was an office toy). She played with it for awhile, until the boy was leaving. She grabbed my hand and ran after him to give it back. She was super shy and wouldn't even look at him as she held the car out, but I was impressed with her gesture as well as her awareness that it was his.

Keeping an eye on the other kids as she finger paints at Playgroup.

Watching the kids play at her cousins birthday party.

Willow's favorite toys lately are arts and crafts. She loves her water colour paints. She colours, paints with water and loves play doh. She just got some construction paper with scissors and glue and spent all morning cutting paper into small bits. She also loves the sand box, helping me garden and digging in dirt. I love that she loves getting dirty outside but also twirls when she has a pretty skirt on. She's girly by nature, but isn't afraid to get dirty to have fun.



*Love*

Sleep

This is my whiny post about sleep.

I haven't slept a full night since well before Willow was born, thanks to pregnancy nausea and heartburn. As an infant, Willow woke hourly, until about 8 months. As she was finally waking less, we moved. To this day, she has slept through the night- oh, about 10 times.

The first time she slept through was the first night we had Toby home. Or, we were all just so tired from the previous nights labour & delivery that we didn't hear her crying. Sometime in the spring, around her 2nd birthday she began sleeping through a couple of times a week. The other days she woke 2-4 times. This progress only lasted a few weeks and we're back to the 2-4 wake ups every night. Lately, she wakes telling me she has to pee. Wanting to encourage night-time potty training I get her to the potty and she sits there. And doesn't pee. Last night I waited 30 minutes before carrying her kicking and screaming back to bed.

Toby has been a completely different sleeper, right from birth. I'm so glad, because it confirms to me that I didn't do anything wrong with Willow. It's just how she is. Or, as I'll get to in a minute- she suffered from acid reflux and I just didn't know there was something that could be done.

Toby slept through the night around 8 weeks. For one glorious month, I was only getting up a couple of times a night, with one kid. At 3 months his waking increased dramatically- 6 or more times a night. After hearing from our family doctor and naturopath that he had acid reflux I brought him to a chiropractor who helped improve his sleep almost immediately. He slept through the night again at 6 months.

For the last 2 weeks Toby's naps have been short, and nights have been rough. He wakes just a couple of hours after bedtime, and doesn't fall back to sleep easily. At first I thought it was the 8 month growth spurt, but it seems to be going on too long. Tooth #5 may also be bugging him. I am hoping the chiropractor can help him (and me) out this week. I am so tired.

I really don't know how to explain how tired I am. Before having kids, I needed about 10 hours of sleep to feel good. Now, a good day is about 4-5 broken hours. If I get 3 hours in a row I feel like a million bucks. And when both kids sleep well, I still don't sleep good. I toss and turn, like I forget how to sleep. I'm just not used to long stretches of sleep- my body isn't either. I wake up with a sore back from laying down too long.

Whah waah waah, I know. I've got really great kids so it shouldn't matter how much sleep I'm losing. I'll make it up later, right? I just wish I had more patience when I'm tired. I feel so guilty for being annoyed by the attention Willow needs, or frustrated at Toby's crying. All because I'm so tired. My sister was a sleeper like Willow. My mom tells me I have about 4 more years before I feel rested again.

Yawn. I'm so darn tired. Did I say that already?

A few more sweet photos of Toby sleeping. If you're wondering why I'm not posting any of Willow- it's because SHE NEVER SLEPT. I'm not kidding. And in those brief moments she did sleep I wouldn't dream of getting a camera out and waking her up.

Toby sleeping on his Birth Day.

Toby napping well, 1 month old.

.

Toby sleeping through Christmas.

Toby asleep in the swing, 4 months.

OK, I lied. There are TWO photos of Willow sleeping. Here she is, on her Birth Day.

Willow catching a quick nap on the couch.

The reason you haven't seen many blog posts from me lately is because of the sleep funk we're in. Hopefully it's over soon.

Yawn.

Wordless Wednesday (sweet sleepy boy edition)

Teeth!

Toby has 4 teeth. All in four weeks. A much easier teether than Willow, thank goodness! First one came just a week shy of his seven month birthday. Number two came two weeks later and the next two within the following two weeks. Whew.


Other news:
Willow has two 2-year molars coming through too. We've got a happy house right now!

Toby is pulling himself up. He uses toys, the couch, me. Still not crawling, but he gets around pretty good by pushing himself backwards, or doing a little sit-belly flop-sit-belly flop routine. I can't believe how fast he gets around a room!


Willow no longer says "I", instead it's "My". I have a hard time explaining to her how to use pronouns properly, so I just try to speak correctly myself. She'll get it eventually.

Toby has been sleeping through the night since he got over his last cold (about 3 weeks). Naps are going well too, 2 hours in the morning, 1 hour in the afternoon. About 10 hours at night. He's been getting so much sleep he was up until 11pm a couple of days last week. This is quite a shock to my system - so much that I'm having a hard time falling asleep. I still get up with Willow once or twice, and I'm having a really hard time. I think I need to write an entire post about sleep deprivation - that to come.

Potty training has been pretty much smooth sailing since day 2.... and finally Willow is starting to get up from bed to pee. It happens within the hour of going to bed and is a huge pain to take her diaper off, but I'll encourage it. She's in a diaper just for naps (wakes up dry about 1/2 the time) and at night. I can't wait until she's diaper free!

We've had some nice hot summer weather here and have been taking advantage of the deck. We spend alot of time out there, blowing bubbles, in the pool, enjoying meals and playing with 'bouncy bouncy' balls. Willow likes to spray my herb garden and potted plants with the spray bottle. Keeps her busy.

When the wind blows

I named my blog 'When the wind blows' because Willow loves Rock-a-bye Baby. At the time I first started the blog, she was asking me to sing it every night. Sometimes twice. And then she just stopped. The first few nights I'd ask "Do you want me to sing Rock-a-bye Baby?". She'd say, "No mom, Daddy now". And that was that. Willow is such a girl of routine it surprises me every time she changes something. It happens more and more now that she's 2, asserting her independence and finding out who she is.

Every day I think about how quickly these little beings change. Toby's physical changes are more obvious right now; going from sitting to on all fours, rocking back and forth. Pulling himself up on toys and then falling down. He's going to be such a little boy, full of energy and into everything. Already, he sees something and lunges for it not caring if he's going to fall on his face in his attempt.

Willow is really unpredictable in her moods. For awhile she was in the "terrible two's" and having multiple tantrums daily. They slowed as I found ways of talking her through them, and distracting her. She's been very pleasant and talking up a storm until yesterday when she got a cold. She is really starting to play by herself (for at least a few minutes of the day...) and make believe play with her dolls. She was talking to me tonight and then all of a sudden said "uh oh, Iggy's crying", and went out on the deck where her doll Lily was. She picked her up and rocked her, "awwww, it's ok Iggy". In the last week Lily's name has changed to Iggy. Willow had no trouble saying Lily before. I tried to call her Iggy, and Willow got upset. "NO Mom, Iggy".

My goal this week is to take some video. As our camera collects dust, my babies are growing up!

The weeks fly by!

No post for a week! It's been a busy week. Visit with the aunts and cousins on Monday, doctor & chiropractor appointments on Tuesday, shopping on Wednesday, playgroup on Thursday and some photos on Friday (today). And lots of naps in there too. I need to thank the universe that naps haven't been a struggle lately- and I've gotten a few in myself! That, and Toby is sleeping through the night again. It's like a switch flipped and we're back to where we were in February. It's so strange, I wonder what caused his 3.5 month sleep nightmare. Reflux? Teething? Hunger? (in the last 2 months he gained 4.5 lbs and only .5") Whatever it was I hope it is over forever.

Toby is 20.9 lbs now and just about 28". At the same age (minus 3 days) Willow was 20.75 lbs and half and inch shorter. I compare them alot, but just for interest's sake. They are such different kids it amazes me. Willow was much quicker to roll over and sit up, but Toby was smiling and babbling first. Willow first commando crawled at 6 months- but it was another 2 months before she crawled on her knees. Toby is up on his knees already, not moving but rocking back and forth. Hates being on his tummy so I can't see him ever commando crawling. I look at Willow's baby book and I can see what is to come- crawling, pulling up, standing without support, walking.... I can't believe it goes so quickly. They are also different in their sleeping, eating, and nursing habits. Toby is very sociable and laughs and smiles all the time. Willow was always pretty shy and wouldn't interact too much with other people. Here are some of the photos from today. I was photographing my nephew Tyler (2 months) so we played around a bit before they arrived. They love each other so much- I think it's evident in these pictures.

Toby on his best behavior

I get this face often

Tyler and Toby in matching outfits. Ty is just over 2 months old, Toby is 6.5 months. These two are going to be trouble!