Amelie is 12 Months!

I have a new one year old! Amelie has left her infancy and babyhood and has now entered the world of toddler! So what's new with Amelie?

Amelie has a definite sense of humor. Among the funnier things she does (after refusing to lie down during diaper changes a couple of months back) is she demands that I sing to her while she has her bottle and gets her diaper changed...on my lap. Her little maestro finger bobs up and down while her little mouth forms a milky smile. Sing, Mommy, sing! And not that song!
Amelie plays keep away with whatever object she gets her hands on...be it Alia's beloved Froggy or a piece of fuzz off the floor.

Amelie signs for sleep, banana, stars, more, and says "Yeah, shoes, bow wow" of which bow wow is her first real word.

Amelie walks around like crazy...we have counted 50 little wobbley steps in a row. She enjoys being in the center of groups of people. She is truly a social little girl when surrounded by people she is comfortable with.

Amelie, too likes to be tossed in the air when daddy comes home, although is quickly and easily frightened when there is the slightest bit of air between her and daddy's hands...unlike her sister who isn't happy until she hits the rafters.

Amelie now eats on her own and hates to be fed; if we put something on a fork, she gets it in her mouth. Amelie loves eating anything from pouches...you know, the Ella's Kitchen pouches? We take the top off and she sucks away happily. Amelie also drinks from sippy cup now, and has transitioned off formula for most part; in the interest of using up the last bit of formula, she still has an a.m. and p.m. bottle. She loves to eat smoked turkey breast, cheese, avacado, goldfish crackers, and as said before, anything in a pouch.

Amelie is outgrowing clothes left and right and is in the 97th percentile of height and 80th percentile of weight, which is what she has always measured.

Amelie is still much more of a baby at one year than Alia was. She still loves to be held during her early morning bottle, and cuddles in to my chest and drifts back to sleep when she's done. I have to say, the second time around, I'm not in such a hurry for Amelie to hit milestones and grow out of this phase....although she is hitting all of her milestones ahead of time. I treasure her little body going heavy on my lap after her bottle. I drink in the way her little pudgy hands grasp things. I know our time in this little wonderful part of her life is going to be gone before I know it so I'm focused on filling my heart with her sweet baby-self.

Twins...not Froggies

Yesterday while waiting to get Alia's immunizations up to date, there was a tandom stroller in the pediatrician's office with two tiny new babies in it. It captured Alia's attentnion that there were two babies. 


I told her, "when people get two babies instead of one, they are called twins". She pondered that for a minute. 


Then she looked at me and said "they're twins....not froggies". 


It was all I could do to keep it together. I always try not to laugh when she says things like that because I remember feeling like people were laughing at me as a kid and I hated it. But anyway, I replied, "you're right Alia. Those are twins. Not froggies." And she said "Yeaaaah" while nodding knowingly.

This morning, I was putting Amelie down for her nap, so Kori took Alia to her room to play quietly. When I walked in, Alia (who has been refusing potty training) was on the potty with no pants, and Kori was painting her little toes. Pink. How cute is that?

Thoughts from a stay at home Mom (ages 1 and 2)

I recently received an email from a long time friend that expressed concern that my life has become out of balance. Now to be fair, I do mention being tired a lot, and it's true that up until last month, I rarely had so much as 5 minutes in the car by myself because we have a 1 year old and a 2 year old. That's just the way it is. 

Now, my concerned friend very cautiously presented a few ideas. She stated that, "you need to build more time into your day for you.  I mean, even me, a single, working mom gets a pedicure when I want one - I have to!  It's what keeps me balanced." She went on to assure me that ,"I'm totally expressing my opinions here and don't intend to be pushy or shove my ideas of motherhood on you.  Just some ideas.  I'm wondering if maybe you feel like, because you're stay at home, you're supposed to be "on" and in Mommy mode all day long every day.  Well, in my opinion, that just doesn't have to be the case."

She suggested putting my eldest daughter in school more days/times. She suggested using my nanny in different ways to free up my time (which, let me tell you, 1-2 hours alone with these little ones is a lot for me, and I'm their Mom!!) She suggested that I "go to a coffee shop nearby and getting a coffee and reading a book. One hour or two hours won't hurt anything." She went on to mention that she takes 3 hours on a Saturday once a month or so for herself. 

After reading her email, I thought I should do stuff for myself every day! And then I was thinking back to when I was working outside the home...and I realized, I didn't take pedicure breaks then. I didn't go to a coffee shop and read a book during my business day. Can you imagine telling your peers, "guys, I'm outta here for awhile...I need some me-time".  And then it occurred to me that no matter how far women have come at being liberated and being able to have a choice in their careers, no one, even my progressive contemporaries consider staying at home to be a job. 

For the decade-plus I was in the paid workforce, I chatted endlessly with my peers about the challenges of our industry, the limitations of the company I worked for, the shortcomings of certain products, and the general stresses of the day. But now I realize that  Mom's that stay at home aren't allowed to bitch about their days or stresses to their friends without being labeled as "out of balance". Perhaps it's because somewhere in there, we all have held the opinion that being a stay at home Mom is the "after working my career, I'll slow down a little and stay at home with the kids." God knows I thought that and I had a very rude awakening.

Now this is all being said as an intellectual assessment, a comment on perspectives (including my own!). This is an awakening in my own mind because for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why when I had a hard time at work, it was considered the norm and accepted. But when I talk about a lack of sleep and being busier than ever in the home setting, it must be that I'm over-doing it because home shouldn't be that hard...especially with all the help I have. But isn't it funny that we never think that and Executive shouldn't be busy because he has a secretary?  

Alia is 27 months old!

Where is the time going? Amelie just had her 1st birthday and I still haven't written about Alia's past month!

Well for starters, Montessori is going amazingly well. We decided to move Alia from 3 mornings a week to 5 because the structure suits her and the days she doesn't go, she asks to go. She gets along with her teacher very well, and loves to tell us about her day's activities when she gets home. She is still indifferent about the other kids there, but that's a HUGE step forward from where we started when Alia was openly frightened of the other kids and refused to enter the classroom.

Alia's language development is blowing us away monthly! She has gone from referring to herself in the third person to "I" this month. She counts to 20, and has a real grasp of the alphabet. She identifies "D-like Daddy!" and "M- like Mommy" and "O-like Dr. O" (her pediatrician).

Alia's terrible 2's have prompted me to reach out and talk to other Moms about how to steer kids at this age. I bought a parenting book that gives me a lot of hope called 1-2-3 Magic, and although I've only read 21 pages, the tools I've already picked up work well.

Alia's favorite thing is still Froggy, Daddy, her Olivia books, or anything her sister is playing with. She loves Elmo, talking about her day, hearing stories of things we've done together, and waiting for Daddy to come home.

Alia began eating turkey this month after about 10 months of refusing meat. We can thank Costco samples for that...you just never know what she'll eat while out and about.

As a Mom I'm focusing on following the guidelines of 1-2-3 Magic by consciously showering her in love and affection and praise for the good things she does. I try to start out our day positive by playing peek a boo with her with a stuffed animal when I get her up in the morning. I find if she starts the day laughing, her Diva alter ego is more likely to stay repressed, and my Angry Mom persona can have a break too!

Alia makes us laugh. Her smile melts our hearts. She has that affect on a lot of the people in her life, from family to teachers to Moms of her classmates. We are so fortunate to have this wonderful albeit boundary-pushing little person in our lives.