That time we dropped $22 for a new lovey

I never saw Colin as the type of kid who'd have a lovey. When he was sleepy, we popped in the paci and he nodded right off. He's always been a pretty easy going little dude in that regard. However, a few months ago, Justin's parents went away to Charleston and came back with a gift for Colin. It was an incredibly soft, brown and white stuffed dog that we affectionately named "Puppy." Colin and Puppy quickly became BFFs and bedtime buddies. Colin would pull Puppy's string and listen to Brahm's lullaby as he gently stroked one of Puppy's ears. The one time we dared put Colin down for a nap without Puppy, he refused to sleep until the two were reunited. As soon as they were, little man relaxed and readied himself for his nap. Little stinker. At nap time or bedtime, I would go through a mental checklist: Clean diaper? Check. Paci? Check. Puppy? Check. And in the crib they'd go.

Meet Puppy.

Due to all the slobber loving Puppy has received, he has gone through the wash several times already. The first couple times, the process didn't seem to affect Puppy's music box at all. But the third time, we weren't so lucky. Today, I pulled the string to start the music before Colin's nap, and... nothing happened. The string didn't move, and the music didn't play. Whoops. We figured this day would come.

We did a little detective work and found the website of the company in Charleston that made Puppy. After tax and shipping, we paid $22.51 for a brand new Puppy. The plan is to replace Puppy Senior with Puppy Junior, clip Puppy Senior's broken string, and keep him around as a back-up in case Puppy Junior needs to be washed or goes missing.

If your kid is attached to a lovey, you'll understand why we had to buy another. You can't put a price on your little one's happiness, right? You also can't put a price on something that soothes your child to sleep within minutes. Can I get an amen?

Maybe we'll work on getting our next baby attached to a washcloth or something. Those are a lot cheaper to replace.

 

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Yes, please!

Last night, as the three of us were eating dinner (grilled cheese sandwiches and strawberries. Yum!), we thought we heard Colin say, "please." I offered him little bites of a potato chip to see if he'd say it again. And.. well, see what happened.

I know they try to teach the kids to say "please" and "thank you" at daycare, but I did NOT expect my sweet little man to be saying these words at 16 months! I am so proud of my little smarty pants and had to do a little showing off. :) There is nothing like being a momma!

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Toddler Tears

I don't know about you other toddler mamas, but it seems when Colin went from baby to toddler, his crying spells kicked it up a notch. It happens for all sorts of reasons. You might take his hand out of the dog's water bowl, for example. Wailing ensues. You might tell him "no" when you see him about to put your flip flop in his mouth. More wailing. He might bump his head on something, not very hard, but of course that triggers the end-of-the-world wailing, too.

Poor baby boy. I don't remember what started this, but he was fine a few minutes later.

Poor kiddo. It breaks my heart to see him cry, but it happens so often these days that it doesn't faze me as much as it once did. Especially when I know he's okay, and they're just alligator tears. We do comfort him if he hurts himself, but we're trying to ignore the mini-tantrums he's starting to throw when he's told "no" or has to have something taken away. (Seriously, why does he want to eat our shoes?! Gross!) How do you handle toddler tantrums?
 

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Call for sponsors!

Hey y'all! Just a quick word about sponsorship. I am currently accepting sponsors, so if you're interested, click the Advertise tab at the top of the page for more info. I would love to work with you! Right now you can use promo code newclient to get a 20% discount on all size ads. Ads run for 30 days. Or, if you'd rather swap buttons with me, I would be glad to consider that as well. E-mail me at sbuxsweetie at gmail dot com if you'd like to chat about sponsorship, or about anything at all!

And now, a picture of Colin with his big red ball. Have a great day!

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Just a little story

Once upon a time, there was a sixteen month old cutie who liked to color with markers. He colored and colored, and had a wonderful time. When he was finished, his mommy turned on cartoons and went to go to the bathroom. A minute later, the little boy walked in to see what his mommy was doing... and he had a red marker open, and in his mouth. He was sucking away on that red marker. By the time his mommy took the marker away (much to his dismay), he had sucked the (thankfully non-toxic) color completely out, and the tip of the marker was white.

Luckily, he did not, as his mommy feared, color on anything except the inside of his mouth.

And then his mommy put the markers away, as she should have done in the first place.

The end.

 

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Happy 16 months, sweet boy!

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Wordless Wednesday: Watching the Rain

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Things I never thought I'd do

Today I'm linking up with Melissa at Growing Up Geeky for her Toddle Along Tuesday blog hop! The topic for today is "Things I never thought I'd do." As a first time mom, I have definitely broken some of my own rules. When you're expecting your sweet, perfect bundle of joy, it's so easy to say things like, "My baby will be exclusively breastfed and a drop of formula shall not pass his baby lips," or, "He will never become dependent on the pacifier," or, "We will limit the amount of television he watches."


Yeah.


Newsflash: Breastfeeding is HARD. (If you're one of those women who never had trouble ever, I don't wanna know.) I firmly believe that a mother should do what's best for her child, and that she should do what she needs to do. Whether you feed your baby breastmilk or formula, he will be just fine. Colin was, after I threw in the towel at four weeks and started feeding formula exclusively. Guess what? He never did grow a second head or a third eye. He continued to thrive. I still experience some guilt over my short-lived breastfeeding journey, but I try not to beat myself up over it.

Oh, and by the way, pacifiers aren't the devil. Colin doesn't have them all the time; he mostly just uses them to fall asleep for naps and bed, and if he's sick or teething or especially cranky. We're not completely sure yet when we'll wean him from the paci, but I don't regret letting him have one. Plus, let's be honest. It's really stinking cute when he says "guggles" for bubbles with a paci in.

 

And, last but not least, the ever popular television debate. Meh, I'm not going to debate anything with you. I'm just going to say that for us, the Disney Jr. channel has been a lifesaver. Special Agent Oso makes Colin giggle and dance, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates helps him wind down for bed as he sits in one of our laps with his milk and watches. The kid loves TV. We don't let him watch all the time, of course, and there isn't a television at daycare, so it's not like he's addicted to the tube. We did break down, though, and buy a DVD player for the car, and his favorite show to watch as we drive around is Go, Diego, Go! He's even started singing along. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen.


The moral of the story, ladies... and I've said this before... is this: You do what works for you and your family, and I'll do what works for mine. You may agree with my methods, and you may not. Either way, it doesn't matter. Every child is different, and needs to be parented in a way that is tailored to his needs. Breastmilk or formula, paci or no paci, tv or no tv; our kids already have what they need most, and that is our love.

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Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mothers, mothers-to-be, mothers of babies in heaven, and mommy hopefuls waiting to be blessed with a baby... Happy Mother's Day! Being a mom is one of the greatest things in this world. I didn't believe in love at first sight until I met my son.

More to come.

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ROAR!

Colin has started singing along with his favorite Go, Diego, Go! DVD in the car. It is the cutest thing ever! See for yourself. He's pretty on pitch, no? Notice he starts "roaring" before they do in the video. Maybe I'm biased, but this kid is so smart! 




More to come :)

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Box!

Introducing the latest and greatest in imaginative play... BOX! 

The culmination of years of research, Box stimulates the imagination cortex in baby's brain and allows him to think in new and different ways.

Box will entertain your child for hours. Get yours today! Only $29.99, plus shipping and handling.


Just kidding. :) Forget all the nice, shiny toys littering the living room and nursery. This week, Colin's toy of choice has been the empty Luvs box we were too lazy to throw away kept for him to play with! He climbs in and out of it (which is actually quite impressive), pushes it all over the house, flips it over and throws random objects into it.

It's the little things, people.


Linking up with Melissa's Toddle Along Tuesday linky party today!

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Fighting Sleep

Boy, this parenting thing sure is a wild ride, eh? We have gone through so many phases of sleep.. or lack thereof. When we first brought our bundle of joy home, he slept all day and was wide awake during the night. It was rough. We were zombies.

Sweet, sleepy baby... awww.

A few months in, we all got several hours of sleep at a time. It wasn't optimal, especially now that we were both back at work, but it was the best sleep we'd had in a while and we accepted it with open arms.


Finally, the time came. Our sweet little angel started sleeping through the night. It was glorious. This happened shortly after he turned a year old. He would start to rub his eyes, we'd lay him down, and he would be out within minutes.


But suddenly, Colin is so busy and such a little sponge that he wants to do everything and see everything and how dare you if you try to confine him to that prison cell of a crib!!! Seriously, he is still my little sweetie pie... but for the past week or so, he's going through a phase (or at least I hope it's a phase) where he's fighting sleep until he can't keep those eyelids open any longer. I'll lay him down for a nap and he'll stand up immediately, looking at me like, "Hey Mom, wanna play?!"

Nice try, Mom, but I am so not ready to take a nap!

Good thing he's so darn cute. Bedtime has been harder, too, but last night wasn't so bad. He played - hard - until about 9 pm, at which point I made an executive decision that it was time for bed. He fought it at first, and cried for maybe a minute or two, but then he settled himself, lay down, and fell asleep. Hooray! The silence was peace to my tired ears. I hope this pattern continues, and that we are able to sort of re-train him to go to bed easily, like he once did.


Does your toddler fight sleep?

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Fingerprints

Sticky fingerprints all over the house,

evidence of a busy little explorer.

On the oven, the tv, even the windows,

they tell the story of our family.

So much for a clean house;

we have settled for the lived-in look.

Maybe today I'll wipe off those fingerprints,

but they will be back again tomorrow.

I have a feeling that one day I will miss them

on the oven, the tv, the windows.

But the fingerprints you've left on my heart

will stay there forever, dear little one.

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Peek-a-boo, I see you!

This week has been crazy. Like, really crazy. Remind me to tell you about it sometime. But, I want you to know I haven't abandoned you completely, dear readers, so here's a cute photo of my little monkey man trying to see if his whole head will fit through the slats of his playhouse.

TGIF! Have a great weekend, all!

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Toddle Along Tuesday: Bedtime Routine

Today I'm linking up with Melissa @ Growing Up Geeky and her cohost, Samantha @ On Pink Bears and Pacifiers for the Toddle Along Tuesday blog hop. If you've wandered over here from TAT, welcome! The topic today is "bedtime routines." Here's a little glimpse into our routine each night.

We've never set a specific bedtime for Colin, because he lets us know when he's ready to start the routine. Most nights, he is asleep by 8:30. He has always given off some pretty clear sleepy signals, like rubbing his eyes. When we notice the signs, we strip him down and run a bath. Bath time has been a nightly part of our routine since he was diagnosed with mild eczema and the dermatologist recommended bathing him often. He loves the bath, and he splashes around like crazy, plays with his toys, and reads his Baby Einstein bath book.

Rub a dub dub, who's that handsome boy in the tub?

After his bath, I scoop Colin up, dry him off, and go lay him down, either on his changing table or sometimes on the living room floor. We play peek-a-boo with the towel as I dress him in a night time diaper (we use Pampers Extra Protection dipes to keep up with his crazy amount of night time pee) and pajamas. If his hair looks out of control, I brush it. Boys are pretty dang easy in the style department, I have to say.

Once dressed, we sit on the couch together and he drinks some milk from a sippy cup. Then, he brushes his teeth (all four of them) while I supervise. We use a toddler toothbrush and Orajel Training Toothpaste, which is safe to swallow. Even so, we use a small amount.

Then, we make sure he has Puppy (his favorite stuffed animal / best friend) and a paci, and hubs and I give him kisses, tell him we love him, turn on his white noise machine and lay him down in his crib. We put him down awake and he is usually out within a few minutes. Sometimes he talks himself to sleep, and sometimes he throws his paci out of the crib loses his paci and we hear him saying "uh oh. UH OH." on the monitor. When that happens, he's usually not quite ready to sleep, so we'll sit with him on the couch and snuggle a bit longer until he's ready. When we time it right, he is awesome at falling asleep on his own and sleeps through the night. Please note: This was not always the case. During his first year, Colin rarely slept through the night. This is a fairly recent development and I am so grateful for it.

Sweet dreams, my little love.

So there you have it! What's your routine like? If you have multiple children, how has that affected bedtime?

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