Cutest thing!

We are in the middle of Hand, Foot and Mouth (post to come) so things are not totally awesome here, but the cutest thing happened when D was going to bed tonight and I just have to share.

We went in sat in the rocker like normal, but he was pointing at the closet. I had no idea what he wanted and told him to go get whatever it was. So he crawls over (he actually has taken a few actual steps this week!) and puts his hand on the dresser drawer that holds his blankets. 

He already had one blanket, but he wanted one more! I thought it was the cutest thing ever. His A&A blankets have been his lovey for months, but it's just now turning to obsession level. He will take them with him around the house (holding blankets is a huge motivator for walking) and randomly lay down on them. He has to have all of the blankets that are currently out. This weekend it seems to often be three. So I guess one is just not enough for him any more. And holding blankets is the best motivator for walking!

I'll take a blanket obsession any day! I have about 12 A&A blankets and he loves them all equally. Easy peasy and so comfy! He takes after his mama :)

(During the fever stage of HFMD...)

Worries.

It's a given. Being a parent = worrying. About food. About milestones. About danger. About the future.

But somehow I think we all think we are the only ones who struggle! I guess struggles feel the most isolating. (And we all know about the evil social media perfection syndrome. The hard stuff doesn't get as many FB posts. Probably because it's not usually possible to take a picture of your kid while they are melting down before bedtime. And allergies and illnesses and delays are hard to quantify.)

I do think there is a lot of honesty out in the internet though. I think I've been very honest, although I still worry sometimes when I post too many "perfectiony" posts that I'm leaving out the day to day reality.

So let's be real today. 

My biggest parenting struggles:

Meals - Constant pressure to keep it high calories but not constipating, to get the iron absorbed without calcium intake, to try to serve healthy foods, organic foods etc.

Bedtime - I've still got a great sleeper, but bedtime is getting longer and longer with more and more tears. Every time I succumb I feel like I have ruined bedtime for the rest of eternity. Ugh.

(I'm not going to put milestones on my list because although I think about it often and it's uncomfortable being on the low end of the spectrum, I just know that it'll allbr okay and that D is developing well.)

And I'm not even focusing on my constant struggle to try to cook, to try to keep the house somewhat clean, to get te laundry done, to get the laundry out away. I'm the opposite of a born home-maker and the struggle is REAL!

So what are your biggest parenting stressors. What makes you feel like you are the only one who understands?

Let's do some therapy!

A Summer SAHM Schedule

I had a great school year this year, but I am so excited that it's finally summer time! I truly love that I get to be both WOHM and SAHM. But while I love both, being a SAHM is hard! And I'm also really hard on myself. So I'm going into this summer with a plan.

The hardest thing for me is deciding what to do each day and with a toddler, if I haven't decided by 8:30 am, we won't be out off the house until naptime! I knew I wanted to have a schedule (and I'm not a Type A scheduly type of person) so the night before my official first day of SAHM-dom, I spent some time planning our weeks.

First, I broke down a typical day:
8:00 - Breakfast
9:30 - Snack
11:00 - Lunch
12:00 - Nap

So I figured I could have 1 or 2 activities in the morning, always out of the house and one in the afternoon that didn't require driving.

Then, I started with things that are scheduled. I'm joining a play group that meets Mondays at 10:30 and library story time is on Fridays at 10:30. Perfect. I also really want to get into an exercise routine and that would need to be a morning activity, so I plugged that in on M, W, and F.

Next, I listed all of the short and longer activity options: Sea World, Zoo, Children's Museum, Park, Beach, etc.

4:00 is the toughest time of day since my energy and motivation are lagging and traffic is bad, so I decided that would be craft/new activity at home time or a trip to the neighborhood park with the dog.

Here's my finished plan:

I don't expect to stick to this religiously or anything, but now when I'm wondering what to do, I have built in options already planned.

I'm on naptime of day 2 and we've already run at the bay, shopped at Trader Joe's, taken the dog to the park, and gone to the zoo! Not bad. (And I even got a blog post in. Score.)

The next goal is being productive during naps, but I'm trying to go easy on myself which is hard since I feel like I really have to make these two months count.

Stats @ 16.5 months adjusted (20 months actual)

Dylan is currently 19 pounds and 31 3/4 inches. Technically he hasn't gained anything since our last appointment a couple of months ago, but he's fitting in new clothes because of his height so I'm pretty happy with his progress.

It's challenging to dress Dylan. He can wear 12 or 18 months sleepers. He can wear 6-18 month shirts (18's a little big, but not terrible). But he is just barely growing out of 3 month shorts and some 6 month shorts are just too big! But pants are the hardest. His largest pair of jeans is Children's Place 6-9 months and they kind of stay up. Most days he wears 3-6 month jeans. So basically, he rocks capri pants. (But if this is the worst of our problems, I'll take it!)

Feeding is going great. We're off Prevacid and Dylan loves to eat all kinds of foods. Current favorites: cottage cheese, peas, black bean patties. And he FINALLY learned how to suck from a straw so the world of smoothies is now wide open.

Speech

I've been slightly concerned about Dylan's speech, mostly because of trying to compare Dylan with other babies and stories on the internet, so I want to share what my Ped said to hopefully make some of you feel better. Basically, Dylan occasionally says some single words, but not frequently and most of what he says is "eh." But every word spoken counts even if they never say it again. So even though he's not speaking in complete sentences (slight exaggeration) like some of his peers (mostly female), he's doing just fine.

Dylan really has had a language explosion recently. About a month ago, he answered his first question, "What does a cow say?" and I almost cried. But now, he knows when I'm asking a question which is cool, but every. single. answer. is "Eh." Even to the original, "What does a cow say?" But I guess this is normal. Recently he's been saying something like "dah" for "yes" which is a differentiated answer to a question, so that's good.

I'd say he has about 10-15 words, but let me spell them out so I have them for the future:

daddy
doggy
car
truck
turtle
yes
star
cup(?)
cow
moo
duck
outside
door
train
tree

(notice that mommy, mama, and mom are not on the list...maybe he think I'm daddy too? : /)

He basically does not mimic, although it has happened a couple of times.

And his receptive language is fantastic. He responds nearly 100% to "Can you give hugs?" He is responding to his name much more frequently than before, probably 75% of the time...as long as nothing else super interesting is going on. He will wave bye bye on command occasionally. We can say "Go get your blanket" and he will crawl to it and go to his room if he's sleepy. If you ask about a light, he'll look up at it. So all in all, he seems to understand a lot.

And it is AMAZING how nice it is to be able to communicate with him more (and get responses and communication from him). It changes everything.

Gross Motor

Dylan is still not walking, but I'm not really concerned. He has actually let us start practicing with him a little bit over the last week or so. What has worked best is walking on grass toward a ball that he then "kicks." But he still refuses to do push toys and refuses to practice walking most of the time. So whatever...he'll do it when he wants to. He's extremely coordinated and has great balance, so it'll come.

Personality

Dylan does tantrum a bit, but so far we haven't had any fall to the ground type and usually then don't last more than a minute or two. He responds really well to warnings i.e. "In a minute we are going to go inside." "Ok, it's time to go inside." I know he has no clue what a minute is, but the repetition of inside helps him understand that he has to get out of the drivers seat of the car soon. (Standing in the driver's seat and pushing all of the buttons is his absolute favorite thing to do in the world. We made him his own set of fake keys today because he has to have keys in his hand and he definitely understand where the key is supposed to go in the car. Thanks, Dad.)

But in general, he's just a super fun, happy kid. We get tons of smiles and laughter. He loves to read books and definitely has opinions on which ones he wants to read. Current faves: My Truck is Stuck, Baby Quiet Baby Loud, Llama Llama Nighty Night, and Fuzzy Duckling.

I'm hoping I can get back to a more regular posting schedule since it's ALMOST SUMMER! I'm changing roles at work next year and I've been kind of doing two jobs at once and it's been really crazy.