September 20, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized |
It’s been overcast and gloomy in my part of Georgia for many days now, nearly feels like weeks. The forecast calls for more of it too. I like it because it means it’s not as hot, and it reminds me that fall is indeed coming and that soon I’ll smell that crisp cool smell of falling leaves and moist dormant grasses.
Look what I found, Petite Purls colored M&Ms:
A fun crochet hook that came in handy in a dark room with a sleeping baby:
Pigtails make the world a better place.
So do smiles.
September 13, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized |
It’s like toddler brains are pre-wired to explode at 2 years of age. It’s simply amazing. While really and truly the first whole 2 years in and of themselves are filled with amazing developments, 2 years old is just a time to cherish and enjoy. BG now speaks in full sentences and her responses are so fun. just the other day she was making her stuffed horse walk up the kitchen wall and I said to her “are you making your horse climb the wall” and she replied “Yes momma” in a calm yet duh sort of way, as though she was being so patient with me for stating the utter obvious. I loved it. I love when she says something with a tone or expression I had no idea she could comprehend let alone use correctly. I love the little things she always says to me like “oh momma” or “here we are!” and “All done (and she always leans her head to the side to say that one)”.
She is so cute and funny when she says “Bad Bug!” and squishes up her face and says it in a mock-deep-scratchy voice. Or when she says “shew fly shew” and waves her hand in the air with a furrowed brow. She has so many sweet and cute little things I would love to document but can’t keep it all in my head. She is a bright little thing and loves to push me and my husband to the very edge, but with as much calm as we can muster we handle those terrible two’s as best we can.
Back when she was about 18 months old and really enjoyed testing me by standing on the couch, I took her on nanny-911 style. You know, you say no, take them off and wait for them to do it again, and repeat over and over and over (but you don’t say no more then once or twice, after that you just keep taking them off and place them someplace else, in our case, her beanbag). That was a hard week, but after that she never tried to test me that way again. Recently she has tested both my husband and myself with bed and nap time. She will scream and cry and it’s so very sad. The husbeast thinks she’s having some separation anxiety form a recent (although short) trip he took. So he totally nanny-911′ed her and within 3 quick sessions (a nap, a bed time and then the next day’s nap) she totally stopped the crying. He wouldn’t leave the room unless she was in her bed, and as soon we he saw/heard her get out, he immediately went back in and calmly got her back into bed. It’s a wonderful tactic that has come in handy more then once, and been great to quickly solve and issue before it escalates into a pattern. It takes a very particular state of mine though. You have to mentally prepare yourself to do it a million times and you must remain calm during the entire process.
DH has been great with her, taking her to the playground nearly every day in the evening before dinner during the week. On weekends we take her to any sort of kid-centric event we can find. Fairs and festivals have been great. Just this weekend we took her to a small festival and it was one of the first times we where able to get her to leave without crying. You see, BG is a lot like me and my husband. Very active as a child, and amazingly focused on something if she likes it. So much so that nothing else in the world exists. So she could literally, play at the playground or a beach for an entire day, and still cry when you try to leave. The pool, the carousel or anything else that she enjoys. She’s very well behaved otherwise, but in this she is not. You can’t get her away from anything fun (can you blame her?) but it doesn’t matter if she’s tired, hungry or even flat out exhausted, she will focus on whatever this joyful thing is and nothing will break her from it. Even half an hour later in the car, even the next day she will still lament over that fun thing we took her away from.
So this weekend we went to a festival and I very artfully got her to leave, while petting sheep and goats no less. I actually got her to walk away from live. animals. I like to think it’s my superior parenting skills but honestly I’m sure it was just luck and just MAYBE a bit of maturity on her part. I felt like I was playing chess, walking back to the car being very careful in what and when I said things to properly distract her and get her to focus on the path ahead. Counting cars, catch up with daddy, do you see that baby ahead of us? Look at that little girl walking in front of us, can you catch up with her? Anything to get her moving towards the car. Then the trick of getting her into the car-seat. DH and I refuse to brib with candy or anything we would not normally want to give her, but we always make sure there are some toys in the car that she likes, or my personally favorite the “breakfast bar” as she knows it which is a very healthy oatmeal bar or my new favorite, a little plastic “adult” cup that I poor a very small amount of water in and she drinks from like a big girl.
Then today she left the playground for the first time without a tantrum, and got into the car-seat without any problems. So maybe she’s learning that leaving something fun doesn’t mean never going back again. I hope so. She does great at restaurants and shopping trips, rarely gives us trouble at those. It’s the things that truly bring her joy that become difficult.
After about 2 weeks home alone BG and I started to not get along so well. She was clearly bored, and a little jealous. It became very difficult to breast-feed the baby when she was around. She would want to climb on me, and it’s very hard to prevent then while you are breast-feeding. Mostly thought, BG was bored. She is a very active child and as with a newborn all you do is feed, feed and feed some more, it really has restricted me from being able to do a lot with her. So we decided to pop her back into daycare for a little while. I hope to take her out by 3 months, and have plans to enroll her in toddler gymnastics and other fun things to keep her entertained after. It was not what I planned, it was not ideal (hello broke!) but it’s making BG the happiest and ensuring that we all have the best relationships possible during this hard transition period. Mostly I worry about the germs but we have already decided if Swine Flu breaks out at her daycare we will pull her out.
The one thing that bothers me most about all of this is the whole judgment from other women. If I speak to anyone who recently had two young children (within say 10 years or so) that are very close in age, they all know that depending on the type of child you have, something like this can almost be essential. It also depends on your family life, we are fairly isolated as far as not living within a convenient distance from family and nearly all of our family still works full-time anyway. I’ve heard other women say that pre-school or daycare for SAHM’s is what rich women do so they can get pedicure’s. This makes me sad to hear women say things like this and judge one another so harshly. Why are women so hard on each ot
her? I have a lot of wonderful women in my life luckily, who have re-assured me this is a good decision. Most of them know BG and are aware of how active she is, and we know this makes not only her happier, but our whole family happier. I go pick her up at 2:30pm, so it’s not a very long day. I am especially excited that they are doing to begin potty training her soon. She’ll be able to see the other children do it which is always a wonderful motivator for a toddler.
When she is home in the afternoons alone with me, I can plop her into the high chair with some finger paints and she is very happy, she loves to do any sort of art and this is the best way for me to be able to breast-feed the baby. It seems I should buy stock in Crayola.
She had her 2nd Birthday and loved all of the attention and most particularly has continued to talk about cake (even though she hardly ate any) and blowing out the candles (her favorite part). She is at such a wonderful and adorable age, while it is filled with many difficulties, most of which I won’t write about because I really prefer to just forget them. It’s going to be so fun to watch her go from 2 to 3!
September 13, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized |
It seems it’s time for an update again. I have not taken nearly as many photos of LG as I would like to but it’s a bit harder with a toddler running around. It’s been funny this time around. Last time I always said how I don’t compare babies yet this time around I keep comparing LJ to BG. I finally realized *why* I have been doing it. I wanted some validation that she’s easier. All I ever heard growing up was how I was the easiest baby in the world, and often the second child is easier. I hate those sort of assumptions, like the old wives tail about how second babies often come earlier. As it turns out it is an old wives tail indeed. It’s a crap shoot, like if you will have a girl or a boy. 50/50 chance and really most of the time babies come around the same time. Obviously many women have them earlier, and as it turns out many women have them later.
Snuggled in a hand-knit blanket from Claudia.
So I kept hoping she would be easier, just so I would know she was and feel some sort of relief from it. But as it turns out she’s about the same as BG. Different, harder in some ways and easier in others. But really, just about the same. So I’ve been trying to force myself to let go of this need for some sort of validation that she is any “easier”. A baby is a baby and they are all hard work with lots of rewards so just let it go! This self-realization has been wonderful.
I love baby yawns.
The one thing about LG is she likes to be held, a lot! She also doesn’t fall asleep after nursing which means I get very little hands-free time. I have been watching a lot of movie’s and tv shows online to pass the time. She’s sleeping at night like this – 4 hours, 3 hours, 2 hours. This is nice because she goes right back to sleep after each feeding if I pat her on my shoulder, so then we go lie back down together. Sometimes we can sneak another 2 hours sleep in after the last one. I long for a 5 or 6 hour sleep though, dreaming of it (literally).
She spits up a good deal more then I am used to, and I started feeding her a little more stretched out (or avoiding feeding her every hour) as she was over-eating and spitting up more because of it. This little stinker gained 3 pounds in 4 weeks, about 3 ounces a day. Doctor’s look for a baby to gain 1 ounces a day, or 1 pound. Though breast-fed babies tend to gain faster in the beginning, she still is above average. She’s certainly not tiny!
A hand-made quilt from Aunty Sarah.
We have lots of hand-made goodies arrive, and I am very excited for her to get to wear all the hand-knits from BG. In particular the
pea-pod cardigans. I have not gotten to knit a stitch yet which is depressing but I’ve been too busy doing other things on the computer to knit. I really can’t wait to design some patterns for her and the “newborn” once I worked on before she was born is slowly getting away from me. I ripped it out twice and have an idea how to fix it but now I just need time to knit it before she gets too big. At this point I’ll have to knit a 3 month size and offer both sizes. I had so wanted to make it a special newborn pattern but I should have finished it before she was born.
So things are great here, she’s healthy and adorable. She’s laid back and while she fusses if you put her down for 2 seconds, she really doesn’t cry that much at all. She has the sweetest little whimper that could break anyones heart. She’s a fuss bucket in the evening but thats fairly standard with babies at this age and we are just totally pleased with her. Speaking of “we”, DH has been my hero, and I am reminded daily of why I love him and cherish him. He’s a wonderful dad and a great husband.
As far as how I am feeling, I went out to Old Navy last week and got some “normal” clothing (target had nothing good for some reason aside from really cute PJ pants). The Yoga/Active section of ON had some cute stuff and I feel mostly normal with some cute cargo pants and comfy shirts. Makes me feel a bit more human, as my body is going to very slowly return back to normal. It’s some re-assurance to me that last time it was 9 months before I really felt whole again, so it’s easier to worry less and be more patient this time. Now I just need to have my roots fixed, and maybe one day a pedicure (I am averaging 1 a year at this point though and I had one right before LG was born so it may be a while!), then I think I will feel pretty fabulous!
My name is Brandy Fortune, and I design knit-wear for kids. I love Crème Brulée, Sci-Fi, 70 degree weather and reading a good book in bed. I spend my time knitting, sewing, taking pictures, co-editing the web-zine Petite Purls and raising my two daughters. This website chronicals my adventures in both parenthood and design.
