Stages of Early Childhood

Just wrote this one day, thought I would share.

  • Cuddly newborn: Enjoyable very tiny, snugly baby.
  • Sleepless baby: Just wishing they would sleep a big longer.
  • Settled baby: Seems to have sleep figured out. Isn’t mobile yet. Just kinda a cute lump.
  • Mobile mess: Learned to crawl. Not a good thing.
  • Adorable toddler: Begins to do things that are just so cute.
  • Wild thing: Does not have any boundaries. Constantly getting into everything.
  • Terrific two: Starts to say things like, “I love you,” and wants to help all the time
  • Terrible toddler: Doesn’t ever want to listen. Becomes very frustrated. Lots of tantrums. And they are supposed to get potty trained.
  • Discovery: Starts to listen a bit, and becomes semi independent. Loves to discover and play.
  • Inquisition: Won’t stop asking questions.
  • Growing up: Almost fully independent and begins to understand things and self regulate.

Photo Dump

Soccer

We’ve signed PB up for a lot of activities. Not because I want to do a lot of activities, but just trying to find something he likes. We’ve done t-ball, that was mildly okay, swim lesson that were decent but uneventful, karate that he tolerated but never liked, and yoga that was also a flop. So finally, we enrolled him in soccer.

And he liked soccer. Hooray! The first few games he played goalie, even though there isn’t a formal one. Then he got a little better and started to score lots of points. It was the first activity that he decided to do by himself at home too.

soccer1 soccer2

Spring

I love spring weather. The kids have been spending a lot of time outside, and it makes my life easier.

camera

slide

smiles
This kid is cute and sweet…but annoying. He rolls onto his tummy and gets stuck and cries. He tries to get a toy into his mouth and can’t and cries. And try to read a book with him, and he freaks out. He wants to be older than he is and gets frustrated all the time.

Lost

Baby H is an overachiever. He is super close to sitting up unassisted and he rolled over from back to tummy.

My camera is missing. Luckily it only had a few pictures from Easter. I’m hoping it will turn up somewhere. In the meantime, here is a dump of all my Instagram pictures. (My username is walkliz if interested).2015-03-01_1425250389 2015-03-05_1425592677 2015-03-05_1425592945 2015-03-13_1426271372 2015-03-22_1427043516 2015-03-24_1427166849 2015-03-27_1427485641 2015-03-29_1427637152 2015-04-05_1428193698 2015-04-09_1428548658 2015-04-11_1428718820 2015-04-14_1429052159 2015-04-16_1429217581

Random Holidays

Could Pi day count as a holiday? It certainly felt like one. Almost all of my siblings and families got together (which is a big deal because we live in four different states). We ate pie (of course), and swam and played disc golf. I was the female winner of disc golf, mostly because I was the only girl who actually finished. Here’s a good pie recipe in celebration.

Chocolate Pie
1 package chocolate chips

Microwave in increments of 30 seconds until melted
Add
1/4 c powder sugar
1 tb. vanilla
3/4 c whipping cream
Pour in a graham cracker crust and chill for a long time.

St. Patrick’s Day is also so random. It was fun to be able to point out actual shamrocks in our big clover field out back. I did want to do something a bit more exciting than just wearing green and eating Lucky Charms. So the leprechaun came to visit and dropped off some gold candy. Afterwards, Peter made a trap to try to catch him again. It was unsuccessful, but he might try again next year.

leprechaun

I’ve decided on pretend things like Santa Clause, leprechauns and such, that I will allow my child to decided if it is real or not. Peter asked if the leprechaun was real, and I kinda just asked if he wanted it to be or not. He new it wasn’t actually real, but since his pretend and real are not as distinct as an adults, he could play as if it was.

Maze

Peter drew this maze entirely by himself. Joe likes to doodle like this and would draw mazes for Peter all the time to do: He started showing Peter how to do it himself, and then he spent the next two weeks drawing mazes and getting better and better.

maze

Baby

I had a hard time the last two times I had babies. My emotions were not always under control, and both PB and C weren’t exactly happy to be babies. I wanted to have another child for lots of reasons, but one of them was so that I could actually enjoy being a mother to a baby, and feel like I was decent at it.

mom

My experience of being a mom to baby H has been nearly everything I wanted. I adore being a mom to him, and I get lot of big baby smiles. I remember in the hopstial when I first had him, I was content to just sit and enjoy him for hours. Although I have to do get things done now, the attitude is still there. I do a lot of attachment parenting–co-sleeping, and baby wearing–because I just like having him around. (It is also because it just makes life easier too.) Our relationship isn’t perfect (like the one night he about killed me and wouldn’t calm down and go to sleep all the way until midnight), but it is pretty good. And I’m very grateful for it.

baby