My toddler.

My ‘almost’ 2 year old is ‘almost’, ‘almost’ 2 years old! He is growing into his own, he is so funny. He totally defies me, telling me ‘NO’ for just about anything, but on the other hand he would surprise me with the occasional “OK, mummy”…

Routines are how I manage 3 kids, and part of my routine is to get them all to nap at the same time. Today, the room was quiet; the newborn was sleeping on my chest, the preschooler on his bed… As I was watching the toddler, he sits up in his bed and starts singing so loud that he wakes up his brothers. He sings for exactly one minute, then goes back to sleep…

Toddler-hood is an interesting time… For both toddler, and mom!

He is the happiest… although he constantly falls and bumps into things, he is the most thoughtful… although his brother is a bit of a bully with him, and he is the most analytical… although he is not even 2 yet! He can take anything apart… investigate it… then put it back together!

Watching kids grow up… one of the joys of parenting…

Pavlov’s kid.

No, this post is not about the child of Pavlov, instead it is about the theory of the scientist named Pavlov and how I am using it to train my son.

My toddler is still having a hard time sleeping in his own bed, every night it seems like he comes into bed with us, he is even in our bed when its time to drink his milk… So, my husband’s bright idea is to hold the milk bottle over his bed! It sort of works… I guess… He comes to his bed, finishes his milk, and then comes back to our bed! I am not sure if that was the desired effect?!

The bottle is already associated with bedtime in his mind, so the plan was to form an association with the bottle and his bed, which would lead to his mind automatically forming the association between bedtime and his bed… or so the theory goes…

I guess that a toddler defies all logic…

Back in our bed last night… having territorial fights with the newborn, who occasionally end up in bed with me. when I forget to put him back in his crib from feedings I am not sure what else to try; I am thinking that its just a phase.

At least no one is fighting to get in bed with my husband!

Kids, do you have enough?

Someone told me recently that she heard that having 3 kids is easier than having 2 kids… and having 2 kids is easier that having just 1…

There is some truth to this… it’s not that its easier, but more likely we’ve gotten used to having kids and have more experience so things seem easier. I think back to when I just had my first son, I was stressed all the time, and I couldn’t wait for my husband to come home from work… (well, that part didn’t really change)

Today, I am managing all 3 kids with my husband out of town on business…

I have figured out that when we have our first child, we don’t want to miss a moment of their lives (I remember even falling asleep over his crib watching him), but now I feel justified in ignoring them sometimes… like when I need to update my blog for example.

So, in conclusion… having 3 is NOT easier! Its just that we are more experienced, don’t feel the need to experience all their “first times” anymore, and we just learn to ignore certain things… and we’re used to having no sleep… like last night when it seemed like the baby wanted to be fed every 2 hours, the toddler was wet every 2 hours, and the preschooler was having a bad dream every 2 hours!!

At least my husband was having a nice, undisturbed night! Anyone needs me to go out of town on business??

Who’s judging you.

Kids eating fries? Not my kids!

I could not believe that people gave their kids burgers and fries, or even ice-cream and cake… or even took them out to restaurants… of course this was before I had kids!

Talk about judgmental… Thinking that I would be so different from all these other moms who obviously didn’t care about the health of their kids. And if I ever saw kids in a restaurant or the mall throwing a tantrum… well, lets just say that ‘my’ kids would never behave like that!

Fast forward to today… feeding my son ice-cream for lunch while at the mall. Although they were pretty well behaved, like every other mom, I have come to realize that to keep your sanity… you just cannot sweat the little things.

In general, my kids eat well at home… they love broccoli (I think that most kids do)… so fries and ice-cream at the mall does not really worry me much any more… right now I am trying to figure out how to get my 3 year old to stop sucking his thumb, and my ‘almost’ 2 year old to stop sucking everyone’s socks!

At least both the newborn and I enjoy when he is sucking his pacifier.

Kids, are they equal?

Newborn babies cry a lot, at least so ‘they’ say.

We were alone with the newborn last night, as my eldest wanted to stay with his grandma, and in true second child spirit, so did the toddler.

So my husband and I were alone with the baby, and he really cried a lot (the baby, not my husband)… even from the time that I left my mom’s house with him… did he miss his brothers? Although it was his feeding time, and I felt guilty about starving him just so that we can get home a little earlier, I really wondered if he was missing his eldest brother’s constant chatter while in the van… He cried a bit before he went to sleep… and then he cried a lot this morning… my husband’s answer is to give him a pacifier and put him in his crib! My actual words to my husband were “pretend that he is a newborn baby”…

I guess that it is just natural that we give less attention to the children that come after the first one… I guess its not very fair… I guess that we should treat them equally… I guess we really can only try to do the best we can…

My grandmother has a really wise saying, she had 9 kids and when asked about which one she liked best, her answer’s always the same… she says “I have 5 fingers and they are all different, but if you cut off any one, would the pain not be the same?”

It seems like its true… we can only really appreciate our parents when we become parents ourselves!