Boys will be boys...

I used to think my daughter was a handful when she was between the ages of 1 and 2. She put everything in her mouth, touched everything, didn't listen, would ran away from me and had the occasional temper tantrum.

Then I had my son. I now know the meaning of the terrible twos. This boy is a HANDFUL! He's a climber. Everyday I have to remove him from various places he shouldn't be, or places he finds himself stuck. His current favorite thing is to climb the toilet, then, using the toilet paper roll as a step, he hoists himself into the bathroom sink so he can turn on the faucet and brush his teeth.

And the boy has a temper. Should you dare tell him "no, please don't climb on the kitchen table during supper", or "stop ripping that book into a million pieces" he gets angry and throws things, or tries to hit me, or melts into a puddle on the floor and kicks his feet and yells. Good times.

But he can turn it off like a switch. One minute he's all angry tears and whipping his banana at my head, and the next minute he is sweet as sugar and giving me hugs and kisses and snuggling on my lap.

He had an appointment at at the health unit today for an immunization. He started off behaving pretty well. He let the nurse measure and weigh him and sat pretty well for about 5 minutes waiting for his needle. But then the nurse had a million and one questions and he got bored and started roaming the office, then he started climbing the furniture. And then he tried to open the door and leave, 67 times. So the nurse brought out some paper and crayons hoping it would entertain Alex and Carly for a few minutes. Carly sat nicely and coloured two pictures. Alex spilled most of the crayons on the floor, picked a select few and attempted to draw on the office walls with them. So, I tried to distract him with a snack. Crisis averted. He finally got his needle and took it like a pro - no tears even. They require you to wait in the main reception area for 15 minutes after a shot to make sure there is no side effects. This is where it really went down hill. He didn't want to play in the toy area (which I can't blame him - the toys were pretty lame!), so I tried to give him another snack, which he had one bite of, gave me an evil look, then spilled the entire baggie of craisins and teddy bear crackers on the floor. Then he thought it would be fun to try to leave building out the automatic doors. After chasing him twice I grabbed our bag, called Carly over from the toy area and left 10 minutes early. Mommy is exhausted!

The rest of our day went surprisingly well after our morning escapade, despite the fact he only napped for an hour.

Carly made me giggle while we were in the waiting room of the "rescue centre" as she calls it. (A little too much Dora & Diego maybe?) I'm convinced she will be a performer of some sort when she grows up and today she confirmed that. She wanted to play "school" since there was lots of books and little tables in the waiting room. I asked if she wanted to be the teacher, and she said "No Mommy, you be the teacher and I'll be the audience!"

Worn Out!

We had a pretty busy day. I was up early with Alex and cleaned house a bit and tackled some laundry. Then off to the gym for my work out. The kids love the daycare there, and get to play with their friends, since I work out with their Moms.

Then, rush home for Alex's nap, lunches, then back in the car to head to Fort Saskatchewan to play at the water spray park. Such a pity Sherwood Park doesn't have something like this yet! We soaked up the sun, played at the playground, then came home to make supper. The kids are having a quick bath then it's early to bed because Mommy needs a break!

Did I mention my husband is out of town for work. He's been gone 5 days so far and won't be home for another week. I'm going to need a lot of patience to get through the next week. Thank goodness for good friends. On Tuesday my good friend is watching my munchkins so I can go to the hairdresser and read trashy celebrity tabloids for 2 hours. I'm counting down the minutes....

Stuck in the middle

My baby isn't really a baby anymore. When I take him to the park, he doesn't need my help on the play equipment. He no longer walks or crawls anywhere...he RUNS. I find him on top of the train table, the kitchen table, the bathroom counter, the toilet...everywhere he's not supposed to be. But then he gets a boo-boo, or wakes up cranky from his nap, and suddenly he's my little baby again. He wants to hug and snuggle and have me rock and sing to him. That boy has me wrapped around his finger.

Alex weaned earlier this month. He was down to just one or two nursing sessions per day, and after 15 months of being on a restricted diet due to his food allergies (eggs, milk), I was more than ready to be done. It was bitter-sweet. I am so happy to have my body back, be able to eat whatever I want, etc. however I do miss our morning nursing session & snuggle time in bed. It's been replaced with a snuggle and snack on the couch while watching morning cartoons and waiting for Carly to wake up for breakfast. The major upside is Alex is FINALLY sleeping through the night. FINALLY!! Of course Carly's been waking up once or twice per night, but I'm finally getting more than 2-3 hours of sleep in a stretch!

In other news, I'm happy to have sold our baby monitor today. Got a decent price for it too. I have a bag of baby stuff to sell on kijiji soon...just have to find the motivation to photograph and list it all.

Best Friends?

It's been a rough year and a half, but my kids are finally at an age where they can play well together. For the longest time, Carly had to have every single toy that Alex showed an interest in. Then it was the other way around for awhile. Then Alex learned that he could get what he wanted by screaming and shrieking. That was a painful few months. Much pushing, hitting, yelling and time outs have occurred in the past year.

It was music to my ears tonight to hear them playing dress up together in Carly's room. They were sharing and giggling and not fighting. Ahhhh.... I have waited for this day.

Carly just turned 3 last month, and Alex is 19 months old. All of our playdates are with 2 other kids that are Carly's age, so Alex has learned to be a big boy, so that he can play with Carly's friends too. He loves playing with them just as much as Carly. I find it interesting though, when we are at the playground, or at the gym daycare, I see Alex gravitate towards kids his own age. Must be tough acting so mature all the time.