Baby KERF

As we approach 2 years old, Mazen’s toys are getting out of control. I have had the mentality of “the more the better” in his toy baskets thinking that variety would keep him interested, but of course the opposite seems to be true. There is so much clutter that he just ignores most things.

We have multiple toy (and book) stations throughout the house:

-Living room toys (his main set)

-Bedroom books (overflowing in a box and a bin)

-Bedroom small toys (in another bin)

-Outdoor toys on porch

-Big toys downstairs under stairs

-Small downstairs toy basket

-Chest full of misc toys, puzzles, legos, etc.

-Train table toys

Of all of these, he probably only plays with about 10% of them on a regular basis.

So I took over on a big toy sorting project and weeded out the ones he never really liked that much. His reading nook is now a reading nook again!

I put all baby toys (rattles, plush animals, etc) in a bag in our attic for a future baby and donated a few randoms that were hand-me-downs that he never found that interesting. He’s also not really into stuffed animals, so I donated a few of those too (like the freebies that come with books and things). Some of his least favorite books were put back on the big shelf to be read at a later date. Maybe he’ll like those more when he’s older.

Now his toy baskets have space to breathe and he can find his favorites faster. I’m making a point to rotate toys in and out so they keep their coolness. So far so good! Mission accomplished.

Tell me your toy tips!!

Remember Jem!? My mom recently found my kindergarten lunchbox. It’s 26 (!) years old or so yet in great condition. I was debating giving it away when my mom suggested I use it to store some of Mazen’s smaller toys.

Mom is filled with good tips on parenting. She said she used to have a special basket of toys that I was only allowed to play with at naptime. It got her a good hour break for years – even after my naps were over and we had Quiet Time every afternoon. She would change out the toys and add new little trinkets to keep me excited about it.

We’ve been struggling a bit getting Mazen into his crib for naps. He’s obviously tired and once he’s down he’ll nap for 2+ hours, but it’s convincing him to settle down that’s the problem. Stories, singing, rocking – they all get him tired but he just wants to stay up for the fun when it’s time to get in.

Thus, the Lunchbox Surprise was born.

I’ve been filling the box with a mix of his smaller toys – Tegu blocks, big legos, wooden toys and new book. We’ve been at it for a week now, and so far it’s been a hit. When he sees it in his crib he gets excited to climb in, and I say goodnight and leave him playing. Within 10 minutes he’s sound asleep. The cutest part is that he packs everything back up before he finally goes to sleep! And now he asks for his “prize.”

Now before some of you go crazy for allowing him to have anything but a sheet in his crib, I wouldn’t do this if he were anywhere near the “putting everything in my mouth stage.” Mazen hasn’t put anything non-food in his mouth for about a year. So I feel comfortable. And I make sure the toys are big and sturdy. I also watch him like a hawk on the video monitor until he’s asleep since he’s getting to the age where he might try to climb out of the crib.

I’m sure this won’t last forever, but for now it’s been a fun and helpful change. And I’ve had fun planning the surprises!

Yesterday you reached up to me and said “Hand.” You wanted to hold hands while we walked, and I hope you want to for a long time.

We went to the park this week, and I followed you up the big play set to the really steep slide. I know you are brave enough to go down it because I have seen the video your dad made of you going “wheee!” but when you got to the top you hesitated, asked me to sit with you, and we went down together again and again and again.

You have learned the word “MINE!” and use it appropriately. You also like to point out what is “Mazen’s” and “Mommy’s.” I was drinking a glass of wine and you looked up and said “Mommy’s juice!” Yes my sweet boy, Mommy likes her juice!

You love to play with my hair. If I wear it in a bun you tug at it until a strand comes loose that you can twirl.

I was going through my repertoire of songs I sing at bedtime and started on “Happy Birthday.” You sang “Happy” with me each time I did. At the end of the song, I paused before I got to “You” and you finished the line for me with a laugh. Your first song!

You were sick with a fever and woke up at 5:30 in the morning crying for me. I went in to pick you up and after telling me that you were NOT going back in your crib, I took you to my bed to see if you would sleep there. You have never wanted to co-sleep…there is too much fun to be had in a big bed! But this morning you snuggled into my arms and then rolled off of me and scooted your body into mine like a spoon. We slept like this for an hour. You don’t remember but you were flapping your hand in my face while you slept. You must have been dreaming about something funny.

This afternoon while we were reading stories before nap we both laid down together cheek to cheek and you turned your head toward me and said “Kiss!” A moment to remember!

I look forward to the days when Mazen and I can cook together (and when he can cook for me! Ha!) In the meantime, we’ve started to get him a little more acquainted with the kitchen. There are whole sites out there dedicated to ideas for kids and kitchens. Here are simply four small moments I captured.

Moving cut potatoes from the board to the tray. He loved this “game” and the knife was far away.

Stirring the pancake batter…gently

Salad spinning GO GO GO! Then we eat the lettuce. And by eat I mean he tries it (a start!) and then spits out most of it.

And lately, watering the garden. His new favorite evening activity with Dada! He gets soaked just in time for bath : )

If there’s a theme this month it’s “talk and play and play and talk!” Mazen has become quite the expert at both.

He wakes up in the morning and says “Pway outside?”

He gets down from his high chair and says “Pway bus!”

He truly understands that play time is the best time.

He is finally really able to mimic words we say too. If we say “Can you say Pumpkin?” He says “Pumpkin” back. (Although at this point it sounds like “Put-tin”!) I even got him to recite the entire alphabet after me!

Speaking of the ABCs, he’s picking up on those a little. He knows the letter A and can point it out. His alphabet puzzle he calls “the ABCs” and before naptime once he said “ABCs in crib!” He can say his friends’ names too, which is super cute.

We’ve also been working on counting and he understands that you move your finger from object to object to count. He knows 1, 2 and 3 but we haven’t really moved past those yet.

Mazen’s word for tissue is “nose” because so many times I grab a tissue and say “wipe your nose!” It’s very cute – he actually goes up to the tissues and says “nose” when he wants to wipe his, which is also something new – caring about hygiene!

He doesn’t like his nose to run AND for the first time he doesn’t like a wet or dirty diaper. When he wants a change he grabs his diaper and says “POOT!” Haha. We’re not really sure how he chose that word, but at least we know what it means. Diaper changes are SO MUCH BETTER than they used to be. I guess because he finally realizes they have a purpose!

We’re working on saying please and thank you as well. While he doesn’t use them all the time, he will say please unprompted if he really wants something. That’s a sign to me that he knows what it means! There’s nothing cuter than a baby saying “Pwease?”

M is absolutely obsessed with little trucks – his fire truck in particular this month. He and Matt make fire truck noises and helicopter noises all day long. M can hear a fire truck siren in the distance hours before I will ever notice it. He also knows when the train is going by our house despite the fact that it never “choo choos” and just chugs quietly in the background. He still loves his Pumpkin, Elmo and George dolls.

This past month I went on my first two-night trip away. Although he cries when I leave him with a babysitter, M was too cool when I left for Miami. He just looked at me and said “Byebye!” and kept playing with his friend Slyvia. When I got back from New Orleans a few months ago he stood up in his crib thrilled to see me with a big “MAMA!”, but this time he just glanced at me and gave me a look like “Oh hi mom. I’m reading now, but I’ll greet you in a minute.” Too cool, I say.

Then we spent the whole day together and I could tell he was really glad to have me home : )

He’s not too cool at bedtime. He still loves to snuggle and asks me to rock him and sing to him every night. He’s actually started singing himself, which is really cute and sweet. He still loves to play with me and on me. Mommy Bounce is one of his favorite games – that’s the one where he jumps on me! He’s 32 pounds and starting to hurt me more when he plays rough. If he steps on my foot with his shoe on it really hurts!

Another first this month was throwing up. Since I was a little girl who threw up a lot, I have been worried about what would happen when I became a mom with a child who threw up. The first time it happened he started to dribble out of his mouth a little. I wondered if he was throwing up and thought it wasn’t so bad. But this is one of those “You’ll know when you know” situations because suddenly there were gallons of vomit erupting from him onto the kitchen floor. It was like an adult amount! He was very scared and I felt horrible for him – horrible enough that I picked him up right after for a hug. The cleaning it up part was soooo gross. Luckily it was a twice-and-done sickness and he was at the playground by dinnertime.

On a more positive note, M loves buttons and things that go beep. Elevator rides are incredible adventures! He learned how to jump and say “Wheee” when it starts to move.

And guess who can say his own name? Cute.

Some stats:

Weight: 32 pounds and counting

Height: No idea

Clothes: 2T, some 18-24

Nap: at 1:30 for about 2 hours

Bedtime: Between 7:30 and 8

Waketime: Between 6:30 and 7

Likes: Playing outside, bread, swingy with dada, couch time with mommy, Kids Zone, Curious George, fire trucks, watering the garden, ice cream

Dislikes: Teeth brushing unless he does it all himself, nap time until he falls asleep, when trucks don’t fit inside other trucks

We have always known we’ve wanted two kids (if nature allows us). Maaaaaaybe three but probably just two. Matt and I were each one of two and we were 4 and 3 years apart in age from our siblings.

When Mazen was born I always said we’d get to his second birthday and then start thinking about #2 so that they would be at least 2.75+ years apart. Even though I got pregnant pretty quickly last time (3 months, 2 if you don’t count the first short one), you never know how long it will take. 

I want to be able to have full conversations with Mazen before I have a newborn in my arms:

“Mazen, can you please hand mommy that water?”

“Mazen, what do you think about this or that?”

Of course, I know having two kids is never easy but I think the more communication we get down, the better off we’ll be. I have several friends with 2 under 2, and they are truly super moms!

Despite all of this being pretty well though out, I still have worries that I’m falling behind. I tend to think of the moms with kids Mazen’s age as being the girls from my “class.” Like in school – your peers went through the same things you did at the same time. Well, many of the women in my senior class are already pregnant again – or have newborns! And those in “grades younger” than me too.

There are definite pros to having kids back to back, but I think I’m one who would do better mentally with them farther apart. I relate kid spacing to going to grad school right after college. I knew I couldn’t have gone straight to grad school or I wouldn’t have enjoyed the process. I needed a break to get a job and reset my buttons. When I did go back to school, I appreciated it so much more because of that time off.

For me, babies are similar – I want a long break. I will know it’s time when I get excited about doing it all over again. I’m already excited because there was so many wonderful parts to it, but I’m also hesitant to dive in just yet because I remember how hard it was.

I have my hands very full with my one toddler and feel that we’re in a really good groove right now. I need to trust my gut that waiting a few more years is what is best for our family.

The 2s!!! We’re almost there – 20 months feels so much bigger than 19 and so close to 24.

As expected, talking has taken off. I lost track of new words! I’m sure he’s over 100 words by now, and he knows several sentences: “Mommy eats crackers” is our favorite. I watched this video about 100 times!

Notable new words this month include play, bacon, bunny, glasses, cake, leaf, bike, soup, surprise, nice, cracker, fall, dinosaur, raisin and happy. After Grammie and Pea left I asked him: “Mazen do you miss Grammie and Pea?” And he said: “Yes.” I think he really understood!

We had a rough month sickness-wise. M had his first ear infection when I noticed his ear was draining (ew). He did a round of amoxicillin. I have to say I was excited to see the prescription – my first whiff of that stuff brought brought back tons of memories of childhood! What flavor is in there that makes it so marshmallowy good?

The day after he finished his last drop he woke up with a fever at 5:30 in the morning. I took him to the doctor and she saw more ear infection. We weren’t sure if it was a new one or the old one not yet healed, so we had round of antibiotics part 2 – a stronger one this time. The next morning Mazen woke up with a coupe cough, so we went back to the doctor and came home with steroids. I hated him being on all that medicine, but I wanted him to be as comfortable as possible and get well soon.

The steroids were awful – M had a really weird couple of days. His cough was long better, but the medicine made him really cranky and fussy. He’s normally a pretty happy guy, so it was hard to see him so mad. As soon as he was done with the 3 days, he was back to normal. Hope we don’t have to go through that again.

Mazen used to be great at taking medicine from a syringe, but after the gross tasting steroids he started refusing it. I’m patting myself on the back for thinking of the idea to let him sip it from the little medicine cup. He LOVED being allowed to take it that way and luckily the medicine was going down easily again.

In more exciting news, M got his third haircut. Matt cut it at home, and it didn’t go so well despite all kinds of treats. But once we found the first combination of cookie and Sesame Street, he sat relatively still for the last little bit. We don’t want to take him to a real barber until we know he won’t scream his way through! I love his little haircuts though – so cute!

I know some of you think M is a great eater, but other than select healthy foods, he’s gotten really picky (as is to be expected).

Loves: PIZZA, all breakfast foods, apples/bananas/pears/strawberries/watermelon/oranges, bread of all kinds, yogurt, milk, ice cream, sweet potatoes, sunflower butter, noodles, mac and cheese, broccoli, green beans, juice, ketchup, tomato sauce, smoothies (green ones too), cheddar bunnies, pretzels, any kind of squeeze pouch.

Used to love but now hates: Cheese (sad), most fish (although he ate sardines and smoked trout randomly recently), lots of meats.

Won’t touch: everything else.

I find myself automatically defaulting to his favorites because I know he likes them instead of continuing to come up with creative ideas. I do offer him new foods from our Cook Smarts dinners almost every day, but I feel so defeated when 9 times out of 10 he rejects them immediately. I’m going to try harder this month to figure out creative ways to get him to eat well. And just like with us adults, the key is being organized and prepared with healthy food ready to go.

A big change that happened this month is that Mazen has started to tell us when his diaper is dirty. This is the first time he’s shown any awareness that he is even wearing a diaper! I’m sure some would say that this is also the first step to potty training, but we are really in no rush for that. Plus he tells us after, not before, he goes.

I did buy the two potty books and he is fascinated with them, but when I suggest he sit on the potty he refuses, so I’m not pushing it.

For a few weeks diaper changes FINALLY got calmer, but then a little diaper rash turned the tables again and he fights every change. I’m talking thrashing and trying as hard as he can to get away. Ugh – this is such an issue right now. I have changed him standing up (which we are quite good at now) and on all fours but he hates it every which way.

Also to note on the hygiene front, M has started to want to wipe his nose when it runs. He often tries to use his shirt, which is thoughtful but gross, so I’ve tried showing him where the tissues are. Half the time he goes for one! He has also wiped his mouth after eating a few times. I’m so impressed by this awareness!

Mazen tends to nap in waves – for a few weeks he’ll wake up after only an hour and a half or so. But suddenly he does a week of 2+ hour naps. It’s totally unpredictable and I can’t think of anything that correlates with this other than what goes on in his little brain.

One really cute thing he has been doing is backing up into my lap. When it’s time to put on shoes or socks or read a book he sticks his little bum out and backs up – beep beep beeeeep – until he falls in. The cutest! Matt also taught him to walk backwards. And speaking of beep beep beeeeps, he loves anything that beeps, including the dishwasher, alarm clocks, phones and more. If he hears one beep he responds with a BEEP himself!

We’ve been doing a ton of playing outside and running around. M running is just the cutest thing – he runs with his arms flopping in the wind. He loves the new slide I bought at Target and has grown really attached to his Elmo and George dolls, which he carries everywhere.

At bedtime Mazen often whispers “ni-night” to his friends unprompted: “Ni-night Saya, ni-night El-nor, ni-night outside.” He also loves it when I sing, and if I stop humming he lifts his head up and says “MO!” I think that’s the first anyone has every requested that ; )

He loves making silly faces and any kind of excitement – if a room of people clap he lights up with joy and claps too!

Xoxo to my little pumpkin! He’s such a mama’s boy and I love him so much!