Did I Do That?

We have cabin fever. It is awful and we all stare longingly out the window dreaming of days where we play outside.

During the summer we run to the stop sign at the end of our street. Lately, Mya has been asking on a daily basis if we can run to the stop sign. When I tell her it is too cold, I draw the line at 11 degrees, a tantrum is sure to follow. I get her feelings of disappointment, I'm feeling it too.

Today we offered to take her out in the balmy 34 degrees. We got her gear, pried the high shoes off, and pushed her feet into the snow boots. The only problem came about when she saw the pants I picked out for her to wear. "NO! I will NOT wear those. They don't match my outfit!" Yikes.

I think I have created a monster, a fashion conscious one, but a

monster none-the-less!

BooBerrie, where are you?!?!?!

Enzo has a lovie. His name is BooBerrie and he sleeps with him, carries him around the first 2 hours of the day, must have him at nap time, and rubs his soft little arms around his face to fall asleep. So to say we MUST have him around is an understatement.

As we head upstairs we often ask, "Where's BooBerrie?" Enzo usually turns his palms up to the sky and adds a questioning grunt, as he cocks his head to the side.

Over the holidays BooBerrie was tossed out the mini-van door without anyone noticing. Well, except Enzo noticed. We thought his tears were hunger, diaper, or exhaustion related so we kept on our way. Little did we know that BooBerrie was sitting alone in the parking lot of the Antique store where we had to stop for a potty break.

The next day Antonio searched (thank you Google Earth) for the correct Antique store and called them up. Low and behold BooBerrie was there! There he sat for a week until Dindah and Paw Paw were on their way to Columbus to pick him up.

Now we are much more diligent about keeping tabs on BooBerrie. However, we are always asking at bedtime, "Where is BooBerrie?". The other day, I just couldn't find him so I put Enzo to bed with his stand in, the less popular Woofie. I came down to finish loading the dishwasher and here is what I found.

NO!

All of the sudden Enzo is turning into a toddler and the baby moments are slipping away faster than I care to acknowledge.

As hard as it is to lose sight of your baby it is equally exciting to see our little guy grow in abilities every day.

It is really fun to witness his growing vocabulary. The list includes: Momma, My-ma, Dada, Nonna, Dindah, Paw-Paw, ball, dog, night-night, wow, whoa, bye, yo-yo (yogurt), and oh-oh (cheerio).

When times get tough, Enzo has a hard time expressing himself and his frustrations. Often times his big sister is the victim of biting/hitting/hair pulling. It is frustrating for all involved. He goes to Time Out after such "crimes" are committed. The Time Out is more for Mya's benefit as she quickly stops screaming when she sees he is being corrected. Antonio and I often look at each other in frustration thinking he's never going to "get" what Time Out means thus stopping the trouble behavior.

Today something clicked for Enzo..... Mya and I were working on play dough, crafting a dinosaur. Mya gave Enzo permission to take Elmo for a walk in the stroller. He smiled and took off. He abruptly stopped at the Time Out chair, removed Elmo from the stroller, placed him on the chair, pointed at him and said, "NO!"

So now we have a new word to add to the list. And maybe, just maybe, he understands what a Time Out really is!

The Breast is Best

We have all heard the saying amongst those in the La Leche and pediatric world that "The breast is best!" when it comes to feeding your infant. I completely agree, but also know my methods for feeding my children (bottles, nothing too fancy!) were more than close to second.

Needless to say, Mya has not observed a lot of breast feeding. She has been around it, sure, but never really noticed what was going on.

Today a friend was nursing her beautiful baby girl while Mya and the other kids ate their lunch at the table.

Mya looked at the mother and said, "What is she doing?"

Answer, "I'm feeding her milk."

Mya, "Buuuut she's on your body, on your boooobies?!?!"

I explained that babies get milk two ways, from a bottle and from their mommy's body. Then I crossed my fingers the conversation was over. It was.

Two hours later, Mya was in her rocking chair with her shirt lifted and Elmo up against her chest. She looked at me and said, "Elmo is eating me, just like ______."

Dodged That Bullet!

The dreaded envelope arrived in the mail....JURY DUTY.

Good news, it was for Antonio, not me.

Bad news, he shows up and finds out if he is selected he will have to serve during his whole holiday break, except Christmas Day. I was really bummed. I talked about it with some friends and surprise, surprise, Mya's listening ears were on.

To our delight he got out of serving on jury duty, and in Mya's excitement she announced, "Daddy has dirty bootie!"

Selective hearing + Brutal honesty

Trying to establish "who's in charge" with a spirited child has proven to be very difficult. Luckily for all involved, Mya has been blessed with sharing her life with an equally spirited mommy! I can go all day and night establishing rules, setting boundaries, loving, having fun, and of course dancing.

But this post is about the hard part, discipline. It is so hard to discipline and be consistent, but we are seeing the fruits of our labor. One of the down sides of being so consistent is that Mya has started repeating back to me catch phrases such as:

These are the rules.

Do you hear me?

Are you making good choices?

Here's the thing (followed by rule, rule, rule).

Sophie, HUSH!

Are you listening to me?

Last night, after 4 returns to the bed, we break out the big guns. "If you get out of bed again, you will lose all your binkies. It's your choice. Do you hear me?"

Mya tips her head to the side, "I don't wanna hear you."

High Shoes

The first thing we do every morning is pile into Mommy and Daddy's bed. Mya drinks a box of milk, Enzo has a bottle, and somewhere in between I sneak sips of coffee.

Antonio delivers the beverages so we can stay warm and cozy. Today when he left to go to work Mya exlaimed, "Have fun Daddy! We'll have fun TooooNIiiiight!"

Enzo has about 10 minutes in the bed before he MUST get downstairs to play. Mya, in the meantime, has taken off her socks and observed me as I put on my slippers. Enzo and I make it downstairs first and as we stand on the tile floor she asks, "Is the floor cold, Mommy?"

I inform her, "Yes, it is. Your slippers are right there, or you can put your socks back on."

"No thanks, I want to wear high shoes."