My baby is officially 2.5 years old 😭😭😭. Half birthdays aren’t really a thing here but there’s something about him being on the downhill slide to 3 that makes me so sad. It’s unbelievable how fast time really goes. I know people say that all the time, but you don’t know until you know.
There are times during the first three years of life when children are more susceptible to learning, called windows of opportunity. It’s during these times that they become interested in specific activities and tasks and information really sticks because their brains are most open to it. Right now, Quinn is very interested in pretend play and art, with some interest in letters and shapes. I’m using this opportunity to try to introduce some specific learning activities that focus on his interests. In fact, he has gotten so used to me printing things for him, I can’t print anything without him saying, “What you printing for me, Mama?” 🤦🏻♀️😂
We tried balancing some ducks.
We “mixed colors,” as Quinn calls it, about a million times. Dad had to get involved and engineer a volcano 😉.
We worked on matching.
We made “sprinkle tea,” which Quinn said was delicious and I took his word for 🤪.
While waiting for the real snow to come today, we made some fake snow with baking soda and shaving cream. We discovered that the baking soda will still interact with vinegar so we made it pretty, too 🙂. If you saw the video I posted about not getting his hands messy with ice cream sandwich, you can see here that he will, in fact, get his hands messy 😉.
Quinn attended to two activities for a record-breaking amount of time last week: painting (1:10) and snow play (1:05). I knew he would love the snow play, but the painting was something I thought would be a quick activity to keep him busy for a few minutes until Philip was able to play with him again, which is what he initially wanted. It started as a salt painting (draw on paper with white glue, cover it with salt, and then paint the salt with food coloring water), and ended with about 5 acrylic paintings. After painting a mountain of glue and salt that he proclaimed was for Iris, Mollie and Farmer John’s 4-month-old daughter, he wanted to move onto regular paint. The conversation we had while he was painting was amusing; he first told me that he was going to paint a peacock for Kiki. It progressed into a horse, a pig, a dinosaur, Sansa, and Sophie, and eventually, a wolf. He showed me where it’s eye, back, and mouth were, and I was warned not to touch the mouth because there was paint 😆. He told me it was perfect and when I told him I agreed and that I liked it, he said, “No, Kiki like it,” so obviously, my opinion didn’t matter. He was covered in paint by the time he finished so I just put him straight into the bathtub. His cousin, Haleigh, got him a bath set for Christmas that came with a washrag that he wants to use every day. It happened to be clean that night, so I gave it to him and told him to wash himself. He got some soap on the rag and started scrubbing his body. When he finished, he held up the rag and said, “Mama, look at all this pee!” He confirmed that he did, in fact, pee on it 🤦🏻♀️. Why are boys like this??
Quinn’s pretend play often involves being a pirate and stealing things or running from imaginary dinosaurs or tigers. When he’s thieving, he loves to run by me and pretend to steal my body parts or clothes. Just the other night, I lost my legs, pants, shirt, and boobs 🤦🏻♀️, which he thought was hilarious. The last time it wasn’t freezing outside, whenever that was, he was out riding his bike and kept coming over to pretend to steal from me. When he said he stole my jacket, I said, “Oh no, now I’m going to be cold!” He turned around and brought “it” back and said, “Sorry, Mom” 🥰. One night I was fidgeting with a metal puzzle that my dad gave us for Christmas and because Quinn didn’t know what to call it, he swiped it and said, “Haha! I took Mom’s that!” Philip and I laughed so hard 😂😂😂.
In an attempt to correct his F-word usage, which he rarely says anymore but does still sometimes, I just say, “We say ‘what the heck’.” He will usually go with it and repeat that phrase back to me instead. Honestly, I don’t care that much about curse words and think words are just words but there are times when they’re not appropriate. However, that being said, it is slightly disturbing hearing a two-year-old say, “What the f*@%” 😳. Anyway, one evening I was watching a video on my phone that Philip’s mom sent to me of her being funny and singing while she was driving. Quinn didn’t know I was watching something and just heard it come on and said, “What the heck? What’s that noise?” I laughed until I cried. I tried to tell him it was Nana singing but I couldn’t get it out. He kept telling me, “Stop laughing” 😂.
Quinn surprised me and Philip one day when he randomly said, “Q-U-I-N-N.” We looked at each other like 😳😳 and Philip asked him what that spelled. He said, “Quinn.” This shouldn’t have been surprising because we, Philip especially, have told him lots of times how to spell his name, making it a sort of chant like Blippi does when he ends his shows. The surprising part was that he did it unprompted and we had never heard him say it before. This was just one of those things that now clicks because of where he is developmentally.
That wasn’t the only surprising thing he has said lately. One day he was watching a video where there was a Mrs. Claus in it. He loves to ask questions and asked who that was. One of us said that it was Mrs. Claus and reminded him of how he met Mrs. Claus at playgroup. He responded, “Mimi.” Again, we looked at each other like 😳😳. I said, “What do you mean, Mimi?” He gave absolutely no indication when we were at the playgroup that he knew it was Marsha dressed up but then several weeks later dropped that bomb 🤣. He said a few more times that Mimi was Mrs. Claus. I just didn’t really know how to play that off. He hasn’t brought it up since. He also recognized a dad from a show he watches when he was dressed up as a pirate. I’ve told you the dads get blamed for everything when there’s a potentially scary situation, but that time was different. He wanted to know who that pirate was, and I honestly didn’t know because I hadn’t seen his face yet, so I told him I wasn’t sure. As soon as they showed the man’s face, which included a wig and beard, he said, “That’s Ryan’s dad,” which was very obvious to me. I wouldn’t have thought much of it, because, like I said, he always blames the dads, but he said it with such certainty that I think he actually knew it was. So, we can’t have him meet any Santas that we know next year, or he will ruin Christmas for everyone 😂.
Quinn is so inquisitive, which is wonderful and annoying at the same time 🤪. The conversations that we’ve had with him the last few weeks became so amusing that I started recording them—
Some gotta know ones:
Q: Where’s your coffee?
P: In the coffee maker.
Q: No make a mess.
P: *pours coffee into his cup*
Q: Now you drink it now. Why you put sugar in there?
P: It makes it taste better.
Q: What you put in it now?
P: I’m putting creamer in it.
Q: You be careful.
P: Where you putting that? (Creamer)
P: I’m putting it back in the fridge.
Q: Where’s your cup? What’s in your cup right there?
P: Water.
Q: What kind of water?
P: Umm.. clean.
Q: What kind of cup?
P: Owala. (Brand name)
Q: What kind of cup last night? *He noticed Philip filled up a different water bottle*
P: It was the same kind.
Q: Sit on the couch. I want to watch tv.
*Waking up from a nap*
Q: Why you kiss me?
M: Because I love you.
Q: I love you, too.
M: 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Some hard to answer ones:
*Sees a bus as we’re heading to Wal-Mart to pick up groceries*
Q: School bus.
M: Yep, it’s taking kids to school.
Q: What kind of kids?
M: ….the kind that go to school.
~Side note, he’s really on a “what kind” kick lately. He loves to ask what kind of cheese we’re using any chance he gets. Really makes you realize how many different kinds of cheeses are kept in this household 😂.
Q: Mama, where you going?
M: To check my sugar.
Q: Where’s your sugar?
M: ….in my fingers.
😂
Some just to confirm ones:
Q: Sansa and Sophie are my dogs.
M: Yep.
Q: Sansa a girl.
M: Yep.
Q: Sophie a girl.
M: Yep.
Q: They both girls.
Me: Yep, they are.
*While he was chasing Philip around the house, he noticed the singing chicken toy that I put up*
Q: That’s a chicken up there.
P: Yeah.
Q: Mama put it up. I no like it.
P: Yeah.
Q: No turn it on.
P: No, we won’t turn it on.
Q: I scared of it.
*Laying down for bedtime*
Q: Mama?
M: Yeah, baby?
Q: Kels. Where is Kels? (Kels is Kim’s cat).
M: He’s at Kiki’s house.
Q: Nala.
M: She’s at Kiki’s house, too.
Q: Kels has teeth.
M: Yep, Kels has teeth.
Q: I like Kels. He’s nice.
Some that just made us laugh:
P: What’s that pink stuff on your leg?
Q: Marker.
P: How’d you get that on your leg?
Q: Because I markered it.
*Philip came upstairs to see us on his break. He had to go back to work*
P: Hey Quinn, come give me a hug.
Q: I guess you go back to work now…
*Brings his tools and his ride on giraffe bike to Philip*
Q: Dada, I was riding my ATV and I got stuck. You can help me?”
P: Yeah, I can help you.
P: *Pretends to fix his giraffe*
Q: *Brings it over to me and flips his bike over*
Q: Mama, I was riding my ATV and I got stuck again!
*In the bathtub, playing with a squeeze bottle*
Q: It made a pop in the cup. I did it. It was on purpose.
M: It was?
Q: Yeah. I gonna wash me.
Q: *Toots in the water. Grins like an ornery shit*
M: What did you just do?
Q: I just toot on accident.
*Beating me with a pool noodle*
Q: Dar dar dar!
M: I’m gonna dar you in a minute.
Q: Dar me now! Here’s a pirate stick!
*Hands me a piece of foam flooring edge*
He never runs out of things to say, or ways to try to control a situation. I went to change his diaper the other day and laid him on one side of the couch in his room. He said, “Change over there!” I asked why and he said, “Because Dada change me over there” 🙄. Whatever. Another way in which he does this is by insisting on taking an object from whatever activity we are finishing into the next. This is called a transition object and is totally fine, it typically makes cleaning up less of a fight because we agree to allow him to keep one thing, but he must put the rest of them away. The problem comes when he wants to keep 3 or 4 things 🙄. Especially when those items aren’t even going to be needed or useful for the next activity and will likely just get dropped on the kitchen floor, where I will have to dodge them and be angry about all evening. The most annoying attempt at control comes when I specifically tell him to put something somewhere and he counters with a different location. For example, I gave him a piece of bread that he asked for the other day. He told me he was done with it, so I told him to put it on the kitchen counter. He said, “How about I just put it on the sofa table.” I said, “No, put it on the kitchen counter.” He said, “How about I just put it on the table.” I said, “No, put it on the kitchen counter.” He said, “How about I just put it on your desk?” I said, “How about you just put it where I told you to put it, or you go in time out?” He put it on the kitchen counter and then cried 🤦🏻♀️. It’s not always that intense but man, he can really get me fired up some days with the negotiating. Ugh.
He has started making up for some of his sassiness though by saying, “Thank you,” for things that we do for him. If he wants to go to the playroom and has a toy in his hand, I’ll tell him that I’ll carry it so he can hold the handrail while walking down the stairs. When we get to the bottom, he’ll say, “Thank you for bringing my toy for me” 🥰.
We finally got to have Christmas with Philip’s brother’s family two weekends ago. We hadn’t seen them in a bit and Quinn loved running around our house with his cousins, wreaking havoc 😂.
❤️
Quinn loved the Grogu chair they got him and Austin loved the life sized replica of his dog, Dexter, that we got for him. Overall, I think they all had a good time 🙂.
😂
I had two appointments last week, one with a Diabetes Educator and one with my OB. Five hours of drive time—yay. The nurse who did my Diabetes education will call me for a follow-up, so at least I won’t have to drive back there for a follow up. I was feeling okay after I left that appointment because, while my glucose log wasn’t stellar, it wasn’t the worst, and given my education (BS in Nutrition Science), and former lifestyle (teaching yoga), she felt as though controlling it through diet was doable. She instructed me to begin testing 4 times a day, instead of 2—fasting and 2 hours after each meal. We discussed my last set of blood work, taken in November, and especially motivating was learning that my A1C measured 5.5 and the onset of pre-diabetes is 5.7. She said regardless of pregnancy, I’m headed in that direction. Not helping the matter (or anything. At all.) is the fact that I’m much heavier than I’ve ever been, with or without baby weight.
Anyway, when I went to see my OB two days later, she decided to go the other route and prescribe me Metformin. While I’m willing to do whatever is best for the baby, and myself, I’m just really upset about the whole thing—like mad at myself for not working harder to avoid this. Being mad at yourself totally sucks, I would much prefer to be mad at someone else 😂. But there’s no one else to blame but me. I’m still just trying to process my emotions about having a potentially life changing medical condition. If you don’t know, it’s possible for gestational diabetes to stay after delivery and become type 2. I have an extensive family history of diabetes, so this is an issue I’ve been aware of and used to do a much better job of avoiding.
One good thing did come from my appointment though and that’s confirmation that having a tubal litigation during my delivery (I’ll be having another C-Section) is super easy and in my chart as my request. I was like, “So how hard it is to just get my tubes tied while having my C-Section?” She said, “Not hard at all.” I said, “Great, sign me up for that” 👍🏻. She said, “So this baby will complete your family?” I said, “Oh yeah. I’ll be 35 in March, and I just really hate being pregnant.” She said, “Those sound like two very good reasons.” You bet. I know I’m a broken record with my repeated complaints of complete and utter dislike of being pregnant. I truly can’t wait to feel like myself again; have my body back to myself (although not completely as I plan to breastfeed); be able to lose weight; not feel like every movement is a struggle; maybe ditch the disturbingly vivid pregnancy dreams that often involve my mom and leave me feeling off when I wake up. Even though there was a break for a few months, it feels as though I’ve been dealing with pregnancy for a year now. We found out I was pregnant last January. I had all of the first trimester unpleasantness for 10 weeks and then a disaster of a miscarriage in March. I had gained a little weight during that time and unsurprisingly, didn’t lose it when I dipped into a slight depression afterward. I became pregnant again in late June. By the time this baby is born in March, the date will fall just shy of one year since my miscarriage. That’s just a lot of time to have imbalanced hormones and no body autonomy. So, excuse me for being extremely over it all.
If anyone confuses my aversion to pregnancy for a dissatisfaction for motherhood, please re-read my past posts and really focus on comprehension. Having any vibe other than one that I completely adore my child is, just, well, wrong. I have no doubt that Baby #2 (who, no, does not have a name yet), will be just as delightful as his older brother. Okay, maybe a slight doubt as I’m also the baby in my family and I know how babies can be 😂. Having dislike for housing his growing pod doesn’t mean I will harbor any animosity toward him. Just the opposite, as I’m joyously counting down the days until his arrival at this point, as it will, guaranteed, be one of the best days of my life…for more than one reason 🤪.
To top off my awful diagnosis day, my toddler, who was very well behaved for his Aunt Lulu, but who had his routine disrupted and a super short nap, decided to test his mother’s patience all evening. He ended up in time out around 4 times, 3 of which centered around not cleaning up an intentional mess he made, then made worse. It’s really trying to have to do the hard things when you’re already mentally broken down for the day. When it would just be easier to pick the deck of cards up yourself but you have to resist for the greater good of the lesson. Even when Dad has to take over and your baby is crying for Mama. Ugh. He did it though. Eventually. He cleaned them all up and played “Mixing Colors,” as Quinn refers to baking soda and vinegar experiments, which happens at least once a week now. He said it’s his favorite 😂.
To finish off my rant, let me tell you how much fun it is to start taking Metformin. It comes with a complimentary colon cleanse that no one would ever want and lasts 2-3 days. When you’re done having the 💩 💩 , it gets replaced with gas pains so intense that you wish you could 💩 to relieve it. There may possibly be something that could be done or taken to help reduce some of these side effects, but I wouldn’t know because I got no information or a consultation when I picked it up from the pharmacy. Now, before I switched to mail order, I used to pick up my depression medicine monthly, and it came with 4 unnecessary pages Every. Single. Time. I understand that these are different classes of medication, but it would be very useful to have some sort of warning about these very common and well-known side effects—that I read about on the internet and have heard about from every person I’ve ever known who has taken it 🙄. . I decided to go ahead and get my COVID booster the same day I had my Diabetes Education appointment, 2 days before the metformin prescription. I’m glad I did because I was worried about having side effects from it and since I’ve been feeling lousy from the Metformin, I probably would have put it off longer. Luckily, I didn’t have any side effects other than a sore arm. Those first few (or 5) days after starting the Metformin were brutal, making me very irritable and intolerant with Quinn. I felt bad for how short I was with him. Even though I acted like a jerk (and let’s not pretend like he didn’t return the favor; bad moods are contagious), he told me he loved me and gave me a kiss without prompting on one of those days. Can your heart explode from loving someone so much?
I’m not the only who had an appointment these past few weeks. Quinn went for his 30 month well visit and Sansa did her follow up blood work to check her thyroid levels now that she’s been weaned off her medication. Sansa’s appointment was great—they came out and took her in, drew her blood, and brought her right back out. I didn’t have to get out and take Quinn in. She was done in 5 minutes, and I didn’t even have to wait for the results, they called me later to say that her levels were the same as last time (so they didn’t go up without being on medication) and we’ll follow up again in 3 months.
Quinn’s appointment went well, also. Last time we were there, he was going through a stranger anxiety phase and basically cried the entire time. He was much calmer this time and even talked to Dr. Gary. He didn’t need vaccines, but he did get his flu shot. Dr. Gary promised him a popsicle after he got his shot so while we were waiting for the nurse to come in to administer it, Quinn kept asking, “Where’s my popsicle?” 🤦🏻♀️ He flinched when she gave him his shot and almost cried but I gave him a hug, told him he was all done, and asked if he was all good. He said yeah and was ready to go get that popsicle 😆. He even left me to go with the nurse to pick one out. One of the other nurses asked him if he wanted a book and he said, “No, I getting a popsicle.” 😂😂 Quinn has a one-track mind when he’s doing something so don’t even bother asking him about something else. We left after that, and he told me it was a long walk to the car. When I put him in his seat, he said, “I wanna go home and watch tv and warm up.” 🤣
Some how, he grew 3.5” and is now in the 85th percentile for height. He’s still in the 50th percentile for weight, which is his normal.
“Mom, that boy is asleep, pay attention to me now!”
“I’m still the baby.”
Waiting on Dad to come up from work.
No comments:
Post a Comment