Goals and Teeth

Lilah's been a mess lately. Between nap changes, Jade being out of town, and being a typical toddler, she's just been completely nuts, and her and I were in a real rut with our communication. I realized that maybe I was focusing on too many diversion tactics, too many strategies for avoiding melt downs, so I narrowed the scope this week. My goal was to identify feelings. Identify my own feelings out loud to Lilah before they became intense, and to help her identify her own feelings before they became too intense. It's really incredible how successful this was. There wasn't one major blow up all week, all were avoided through talking about how we felt before it became a crazy struggle. Lilah still had her typical toddler tantrums, but nothing that escalated. Each time she was able to calm down easily when I started trying to talk her through her feelings. By the end of the week Lilah was becoming fairly proficient in telling me when she was feeling angry or frustrated, and pinpointing the reason why. One time she was mad because Bill (the cat) wasn't standing close enough to her. One time she was mad because he was too close. It seems like a lot of her frustration comes from her being so particular. Hmmm...wonder where she gets that from?

In Minels news... Poor guy. His stories are always at the end of the post. It's more like he's the exclamation point of the day though, not an after thought. Miles is working on five new teeth, all at once, which has put him in quite a miserable state, and for a child that is never miserable, that's saying a lot. It's harder to see him so sad because he's never upset. My independent little guy has been so clingy all week. It seems like today we've finally gotten him over the hump though and he seemed to be feeling better. Miles has started cruising all over the place, but does it sparingly. He has to really want something, and if he does, he's moving fast. Usually food is the motivator, but this week he's shown pretty big interest in the bath water. He HAS to be in the bathroom to watch the water pour into the tub, and he'll jet from Lilah's room to the bathroom so fast you hardly notice he went anywhere.

It's fun to see the things that spark his interest because he's usually so contemplative. Lately the Minels' Favorite Things list includes: bath water, food (Pirate's Booty especially,) the metal lunchbox, playing catch, chasing Lilah as she runs around the house, and head butting.

Since I wasn't great at blogging this week, here are some highlights:

Lilah played a game yesterday where she threw imaginary cakes up into the air. The point of the game was to sit around and watch the cakes until the timer beeped, then we could imaginary eat them.

Miles had fun playing catch. I would throw the ball into his lap and he'd laugh hysterically, then pick up the ball and hand it back to me. Compared to Lilah's antics, this highlight could appear boring, but Miles is seriously the sweetest baby and so much fun. Remembering him cracking up while we played this incredibly simple game was such a highlight of my week.

Lilah: Can you do me a favor?
Jade: Sure, what kind of favor?
Lilah: A pink favor.

What???

Me: Let's put on your jacket.
Lilah: ACTUALLY it's a sweater.

Where Does Snow Come From?

I asked Lilah today where snow comes from thinking that she wouldn't know how to answer. She told me it came from the trees. I'm just constantly blown away by her intelligence, and she's just barely two. I'm seriously freaked out about how smart she's going to be one year from now, or ten years from now.

And in the world of Minels...

We have one top tooth and another coming through! He's pulling up and starting to cruise. That boy can sure get around, especially when food is involved, he'll high tail it to the nearest cherio or piece of pirate's booty.

Elmo at Work

Today at playgroup, Lilah picked up a little plastic phone and proceeded to call Elmo. She was keeping me informed about the conversation the whole time, and it was really quite interesting. Apparently Elmo was at work! He was very very busy. I asked Lilah where Elmo was working, what he was doing, and didn't expect her to answer my question or even understand it. She immediately responded "Elmo is doing very busy working things. He is working very hard." So frekin hilarious!!!

Lilah has to be this adorable and amazing to make up for her spaziness. She has been on a fairly long stretch of not napping. Either fighting her naps, taking super short naps, or not napping at all. The last two days she has chosen the latter, which doesn't make for a happy mama when I'm already at the brink of insanity with Jade out of town. I know my two year old is secretly 30 years old, but I'm soooooo not ready for her to stop napping... To her credit, she did give me about 30 minutes of playing in her room happily before calling for me to get her. She would have given me another 20 minutes or longer if I put on Caillou... Actually, on any normal day (one where my husband is home in the evenings) I wouldn't so much mind for Lilah to not nap. I would really enjoy doing some crafts or learning activities with her during that time, and could probably sneak some Internet time in there for myself while she's busy. I just don't understand why she has to toy with dropping naps all together when I'm doing the single mommy thing! She's probably just helping me get some sense of perspective, helping me appreciate normal days more. Lilah's good for things like that, amping up the crazy to make the rest of the days feel like a dream.

Chocolate is the Cure All

Lilah: Can I have a sepshal (special) treat please?

Me: Are you hungry?

Lilah: My tummy hurts.

Me: Are you hungry? Do you need to eat?

Lilah: I need some chocolate.

Me: Chocolate? If your tummy hurts then you probably shouldn't eat chocolate...

Lilah: Chocolate will make my tummy feel better.

Hm, ya don't say? I'll have to try that next time. It sure seemed to work for her! hahaha!

Words of the Day

There have been too many good things said today... I can't possibly remember them all (and it's only the afternoon! Lilah's on a roll today.)

"Mama I'm too tired to walk right now. Please git me."

"What are you asking me to do?" (I was asking her to put my shoes back where she found them, but was saying it weird. Most adults I know don't know how to clarify that well!!! I was truly amazed at this one.)

"I need pink lips... RIGHT NOW!!! I need it to feel good mama!" (pointing to my colored lip gloss)

Sanity amidst the chaos

Lilah has been such a super spaz lately. She just has this crazy energy and I can't seem to give her enough of an outlet for it right now. I don't know if it's the weather, being cooped up in the house more than usual (although we still tend to leave the house once a day) or maybe my energy is low and she's feeling that. Who knows!?

Seems like every day this week there has been so many blow ups and catastrophes. Yesterday Lilah head butted Miles when they were squirreling around and she got a bloody nose and just totally lost it. While trying to hold her and contain the blood, Miles is accosting us both and smearing the blood everywhere. The day before that she was throwing stuff literally all day long, a habit that has been long since extinguished, but has recently been revived. I felt like we needed to be living in a padded cell with helmets to keep us safe from the whirlwind of toys constantly flying through the air.

This is all just typical life with a 2 year old and a 9 month old, nothing new or unique going on here. Mix in a bit of the stomach virus and puking with all this energy, craziness, chaos, and it can just be total maddness.

I'm focusing on letting myself off the hook for having weeks like this though. There's nothing that can't be cured by a little shopping trip or extra cookie! At least that is simple when nothing else is. The older I get, the more straight forward I become and the easier it gets to take care of myself, to revive my spirit and boost my energy for the next day.

Today, so far so good thanks to the kiddos both sleeping in till 7:30, my cute new bra that makes me feel NOT frumpy for the first time in 3 years, and putting on lip gloss instead of chapstick.