Confession.

Confession: I get really irritated when I hear childless people talk about their “day off”. I do love my boys more than anything, but oh how I miss sleeping in and then wondering, “what shall I do today?”

Mommy hormones

You know how pregnancy hormones make you crazy and so emotional? I used to cry from watching commercials on tv. Chris would just look at me like wtf..? Anything with a baby in it – happy or sad – made me cry. It was a solid two years of emotions.

But the weird part is it hasn’t gone away. And my baby is 15 months old. I still tear up when I see the Publix holiday commercials. I can’t watch Grey’s Anatomy when it’s an episode with a sick baby or child. I can’t even read the news  because if I see anything with a child in it, I will burst into tears. I’m crazy!

The boys have a new favorite movie – A Turtle’s Tale. It’s the story of Sammy the turtle and his 50 year adventure around the world, searching for the love of his life who he met the day they hatched. They find each other a few times throughout the years, but they keep getting separated. It’s a really good movie – for one of those straight-to-DVD ones. At the end there’s this part where he’s so sad and just swimming around with sad music playing in the background. I’ve seen it at least 10 times now – I know how it ends – they find each other and live happily ever after – but the other day I just started crying. Chris thought I was nuts. “But he’s had such a hard life! *sniffle* He just wants to find Shelly! He’s so sad!”

And the end of Toy Story 3, where Andy goes off to college. He hugs his mom and he is TALLER than her. Oh. My. God. That just breaks my heart.

Stupid mommy hormones.

Croaks – do you see them?

I was just reminded of a funny story. It’s one of those where it happened so long ago that you can’t tell if it’s a real memory or if you’ve just heard it so many times that it feels real.

When I was 2 or 3 years old, I scared my mom – totally freaked her out. I told her that I saw creatures floating around my room at night. They looked like clusters of dots, they ate grapes, and they were called Croaks. One night I was so scared that I climbed into bed with her, but there were croaks in her room too. I pointed and whispered, “Look, there’s one right there. It just landed on the bed.” Thinking of it now.. my poor mom. She probably thought I was like the kid from The Sixth Sense or something. In reality, they were just a product of my sleepy eyes finding imaginary shapes in a very dark room.

So what did she do? Her child was obviously possessed and something had to be done. We took a trip to the grocery store, went down the cleaning aisle, and picked up some “Croak spray”. That night, and several nights after I assume, she sprayed the Croak spray around my room before bed. Magically, the Croaks disappeared. And coincidentally, the Croak spray left a nice, fresh smell in the room

This is one parenting tip that I’m holding onto… just in case seeing Croaks is a genetic thing.

Aidan Jude – 15 months

Not sure how this happened, but it seems our little Aidan is a big toddler now! Here are some things going on in the world of Aidan right now:

• He is such an AWESOME walker!! I always think it’s strange when people say “oh no, he’ll be walking soon, and then it gets hard!”, because for me, with Logan AND Aidan, it got sooo much easier once they walked. You can’t set down a crawler outside, unless you want dirt and leaves and who knows what all over their hands. And he can play on the playground now, which he loves. Also, baby shoes are adorable
• He is looking so much like a big kid. Which I love and hate at the same time. He’s thinned out a little since he’s so active, but he is still a pretty big guy Luckily, his squeezable, kissable, chubby cheeks are still just as cute as ever. Seriously, they are my favorite cheeks in the world.
• He is a classic younger sibling. And by this I mean instigating, following Logan everywhere, and stealing toys/cups/food/anything from Logan (sorry Amanda, but you know it’s true). As the oldest of my family, I subconsciously tend to side with Logan, but Chris, being a younger sibling, is usually advocating for Aidan It works out.
• He LOVES to eat! Everything. And lots of it. I have to cut him off, because he will eat until he throws up. In fact, I’m trying to think of something he doesn’t like, and the only thing that comes to mind is chicken. He won’t even eat Chick-fil-a.. what?!
• His favorite toys are plastic donuts!! You know the rainbow colored ones that stack onto the yellow stick thing. He’s always got a donut in hand. It’s hilarious. I’ll have to put together a collage of pictures of him holding the donut sometime. He also loves Batman! He carries around “baby Batman” (Little People Batman toy) and drives him around in the Batmobile and says “vrrrr vrrrr”

Aidan’s next bear picture will be in August (at 18 months). Logan has one coming up next month when he turns 2.5.

Wine O’clock came early today.

Wine spritzer at 5:01pm? Yep, that happened.

Honestly it’s amazing I made it to 5:01 today. Logan’s hands are like trouble magnets today. What is with that?!

Sensory activity – Bean Box

As I mentioned in a previous post, we’re incorporating sensory activities into our daily routine. Logan’s speech therapist suggested using dried beans and scoops. This activity is fun and encourages the scooping and dumping hand motion – which is needed for spoon-feeding, writing, opening doors, etc.

I am SO glad I made this for him! It cost under $10 for the whole thing – plastic container with a tight fitting lid, set of measuring cups/spoons (Target $1 section! woohoo!), and lots of dried beans (4 bags seems to be plenty). I also added a small plastic bowl to the “Bean Box” so he has something to dump the beans into. You could add cars, plastic animals, and other small toys. I laid down a towel on the floor before starting this activity, and kept encouraging him to clean up the beans as they inevitably fell out of the box.

This is NOT for little guys though. And surprisingly, I only had to stop him from eating them twice during the entire 25 MINUTES (!!!) that he played with this… once was when I first opened it up for him and he took a big handful and attempted to eat them. But aside from that, he really had a blast with this!

One on one time

It was only a matter of time before my perfect nap scenario was gone. The boys no longer nap at the same time. It is difficult not having a break at all during the day, but I’m trying to embrace the one on one time I get with each of them separately.

During Aidan’s nap time, Logan and I have been doing some “school” activities – things that Aidan is too little to participate in, and that make Logan feel like a big boy. We draw on our easel and practice letters and numbers, we color, and I’ve recently started adding a sensory activity each day (water, sand, cooking, etc.)

Logan doesn’t learn the same way other kids do. I’m slowly realizing that to get him to focus and participate in learning activities, he needs sensory input. If I let him play in water for 10 minutes before starting an activity, he responds SO much better. Here are some activities we’ve been doing…

Playing with water in the sink. Everything gets wet, but he loves it!

Coloring with BOTH hands

My big boy.

And sometimes we just cuddle.