Parenting Check-in (October 12th)

[kh826]

Good Morning Parents!

Here is our roster for this check-in:

Parenting
healz413
Manada
kevinandjesse
foodislove
megd893
calsurb
andstilltrying
jazibel
kh826
karlamo
jgy
sherminator
mahler5
wittyandwaiting
kona
strings
mrsnorris
2mrsks (mrs&mrsk)
jennicole
amberreva

shemarie82

*If you would like to be added to the list, just let us know!

Also, if the group thinks it would be helpful to add a name/initial and/or birthdate for children to the roster, just let me know. I would be happy to add that.

So, tell us about your parenting experiences this past week? Any new milestones? Anything exciting in your house?

QOTW: For those who celebrate holidays with their kiddos, tell us about what you are looking forward to most this upcoming holiday season. Traditions you plan to pass along to your little ones?

*Halloween - Cute costumes planned?

*Thanksgiving (in the US - happy CA Thanksgiving to all of our Friends up North!) - Plans for travel? Baking? Other traditions?

*Christmas/Hanukkah - Gift ideas/plans for your littles? Things you are most excited to share with your family this holiday season?

*Other holidays and/or traditions? General Winter-time fun that you are looking forward to if you don't celebrate holidays?

[wittyandwaiting]

I never really jump in on the parenting check-in but here I am!

DS is 13 years old and overall a pretty amazing kid. In terms of milestones, definitely noticing that he is way more interested in girls and we definitely had to have a talk this week.

Yikes!

We have lots of talks but we came up with a few dating 'rules' together.

QOTW: This is the first year that DS is not dressing up for Halloween; it feels kind of weird. Perhaps we need to make a new tradition. I was thinking that we could do kind of a scary haunted house in our garage.

[healz413]

Ellis is 7w6d. Time continues to seem like it is flying and dragging at the same time.
We are at manada's mom's house and will probably be leaving in a couple hours to head home.
The first road trip has been going surprisingly well. If one of us sits in the back seat and we have a bottle to offer and there is no stop and go traffic, E will go to sleep in the car.
And we brought her Moses basket and she has made the transition well to sleeping in other rooms because we have that.
She's started smiling more and at people. That's really sweet.
I'm looking forward to being back home to our own routine where we are in charge of our schedules.
Tomorrow we have our 8 week shots at the doctor and then our rescheduled "6 week" discharge appt at the midwife.

QOTW: we haven't figured out a Halloween costume yet. We don't have plans for the day but we will probably put her in something for pictures.

We have been doing Canadian thanksgiving things this weekend. For US thanksgiving, we will fly to Chicago to be with my family.

For Christmas, we will do Christmas at M's mom's and then my family's. El will be only just over 4 months old so we won't do much in the way of gifts for her but I'm sure our families will.

[kh826]

William is 16 months!

He is a ball of energy, and at times we struggle to keep up! He is ALL over the place, and truly is so much fun. He has definitely developed a stubborn streak, and he has been seemingly testing us lately to see what his limits/boundaries are (things like standing on the couch, throwing toys over the baby gate, pulling on an internet wire, throwing his sippy cup, etc.). Last night he was "acting like a pip" as we like to say - I think he was overtired - and J went over to him and said "No" in a stern voice and also did the sign for No at the same time. William looked right at her and said No and did the sign right back to her. We had to try not to laugh, because though it was defiant and we don't want to encourage that, it was also pretty cute.

His new phrase for the week "I don't care." Great! LOL

He has also been enjoying saying "I did it!" followed by lots of clapping for himself.

We have been working on counting, and he knows that "2" comes after "1", but then he thinks every other number is also 2 (i.e. 1,2,3,2,5,2...).
Also, we started counting to give him warnings, and if we say "William, 1..." He says "Mama, 2!" and then laughs. So that tactic isn't currently working...

We have been working a little on using a spoon or fork to eat with, and it seems to be going well. He struggles a bit to get food on the utensil, but once the food is on there, he does well getting it to his mouth.

His current favorite toy is a stuffed doggie that he wants to carry with him everywhere at the moment. We took it with us to a park this weekend. I can see how it could get very dirty very fast. I feel like we should go buy another one and put it away as a backup.

QOTW:
1. We haven't made up our minds about a Halloween costume yet. J is super picky, and every idea that I suggest she doesn't think is unique enough. She had wanted to DIY a costume, but I fear we are running out of time. This will the first year that we take William trick-or-treating. We are planning to drive down to J's parents' house and then drive William around to about 4-5 houses of family members that live within a 10 minute drive of each other so he can show off his costume. Whatever that costume ends up being...

2. Thanksgiving - we are supposed to be going to my mom's in Boston... I have mixed feelings about it. I really don't want to travel at 32 weeks. I know lots of people do, but I just have this fear of preterm labor, and I just don't want to risk being out of state. I also don't want to be mega uncomfy in the car and also have to sleep in the super uncomfy bed in my mom's guest room. HAHA... I am just being bah humbug about it. I need to turn my attitude around because Thanksgiving is usually one of my favorite holidays.

3. I am PUMPED for Christmas! We decided this weekend that we are going to get William a kitchen set for Christmas as his big gift. I am really excited. I am also excited to decorate, but worried how our little tornado is going to do with the Christmas tree this year. I am looking forward to taking him to see Santa again (hopefully it goes well!), baking cookies with him, watching Christmas movies, listening to Christmas music, etc. I am a pretty big Christmas nut, and now that I am a mom I love it even more. I can't wait!

[jgy]

Big G is just over 2 1/2, and little g is 7w 4d. Like healz413, said, the time is flying by (it only drags during overnight feedings and when it's time to put Big G to bed).

Right now we are doing our best to enjoy little g, who is a total love. He's a very good baby; super sweet and smiley. He really only cries and fusses when he's hungry or gassy. Sure, he eats a lot, but that's what maternity leave is for, right? My milk supply is actually keeping up this time, and it's a totally different experience. I'm really enjoying this time with him.

Big G, on the other hand, is a complete shit show. We're trying really hard to figure out the best parenting strategies with him, but it is SO challenging right now. I registered for some webinar tomorrow that just happened to show up in an ad on my feed. I'm guessing that happened because this weekend I googled something along the lines of "Why is my toddler an asshole and what am I doing wrong?"

Luckily, Big G is still sweet and lovey and clearly needs and wants our love and attention. So I don't fear (well, not too much) that we're raising a sociopath, just that this age is a really challenging time. Last week I was reading some of the parenting/discipline suggestions here and I had to laugh because I was thinking "Hey, I remember when that tactic seemed like a great idea!" All the things that I was convinced would work for us? Not a chance. Ahh well. Onward we go. We will get through this.

1. Halloween - we're going to try asking Big G what he wants to be. I'm convinced that he has zero concept of dressing up and what that means, but we'll see. S seems to think he'll understand. We'll base little g's costume off of whatever Big G is. I'm guessing construction worker.

2. For Thanksgiving, we are going to S's family's in IN. I'm pretty stoked. I love it when G gets to spend time with his cousins, and I just really love hanging with S's family. I'm dreading the plane trip a bit, but the good news is that G has turned into a vidiot, so I'm pretty confident that if we turn on a movie he'll be just fine.

3. X-mas/Hannukah, it's my family's year but we're having a bit of a dilemma. My Dad is 83 and doesn't want to come to the midwest in the winter. Fair. We offered multiple times to fly to them (actually, I always assumed we would need to). My Mom doesn't want us to do that. I appreciate that, but at the same time I don't want to miss seeing my family and I want my Dad to meet little g. My Mom's solution is to have her fly out here with my Sister the day after X-mas. Not sure where we'll end up on this one. I mean, my Dad's Jewish anyway so while we've always done a family X-mas, the actual day/date has zero religious significance to him. I dunno. I've been avoiding this one.

4. General Fall traditions - well we went to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch last weekend and it was really fun. Other than that, I'm looking forward to generally being outside as a family and enjoying the fall leaves. That's about the extent of what I enjoy once the summer weather begins to fade. I truly hate winter out here.

[calsurb]

Nothing too new with the parenting front. Sarah is about 4.5 months old (I can't keep up with how many weeks she is anymore!). She's been sleeping in her own room the past week and sleeps for 12-13 hours stretches for the most part.

We bought an Eastern redbud tree to plant in her honor this weekend. We have a little house and yard, and I love filling it with plants and trees! So far we have an autumn blaze maple in honor of buying the house, and the redbud tree was chosen since it's so pretty with its magenta blossoms in spring and she was born in early June.

Regarding holidays, we're hosting my folks for Thanksgiving week. They haven't seen the baby since she was 6 weeks old-they are just itching to come up and see how much she's grown. For Christmas and New Year's, we'd love to fly to California to see all our siblings (they've all moved from Illinois to California in the last 2 years! WTH???). But, money is tight and the holidays make flights even more expensive. So we've looked into just renting a cabin in Wisconsin or Michigan for a few days over Christmas to do something different.

[2mrsks (mrs&mrsk)]

I am a failure at making baby food.
Attempt 1- grossed out face
Attempt 2- projectile vomiting
AHHH!!! I feel behind on this food thing. we are going to go back to basics but with real food instead of processed-- sweet potatoes, veggies one by one, etc.

Also, teething round 2- top 2 teeth. = whiny cranky baby.

he responds to us saying "mama" with "dada" sooo cute, but so annoying LOL. he shakes his head no appropriately and doesnt even know it. Ahh time goes so fast!! M had off today so they visited me at work.


*Halloween - R will be a crab. originally, M & I were going to be Piper & Red from OITNB but we are now thinking chef & waitress to go w/ R's theme.

*Thanksgiving - back to splitting it up dinner @ m's family & dessert at mine. AND black friday whooooo hoooo! i can't wait for all the kiddy deals!!! And, Saturday is my bday

*Christmas/Hanukkah - I have such a long list for R! so excited! vtech sit to stand walker is the #1, blocks, scout, fisher price laugh & learn. It's nice that anything he doesnt get can be rolled into his bday in march

[mahler5]

C is19 months

I'm planning on driving to KC tomorrow to see some family and run an errand while my mom babysits. I'm hoping to take C to the zoo in the morning so I should hurry up and go to bed!

So this will be quick.

1) Halloween -- I bought a koala outfit because C loves Koalas and I saw it at target. I'm not feeling very creative so that will probably be it. plus, L would get annoyed if I wastes money on another costume. It's pretty cute though.

Thanksgiving-- I'm pretty sure at my mom's.

Christmas- we will spend Christmas Eve with L's parents and after Christmas morning presents head to my mom's Christmas Day. I bought a lego advent calendar. I'm not sure what possessed me to do this as the parts are small so can't have C play with it. I'm hoping to so a toddler friendly advent calendar of some sort. It's not a tradition we ever did as kids but I like the idea. I'm hoping to so more with Christmas decorating too but also have worries of C destroying things or hurting herself.

We are also planning on buying C a play kitchen for Christmas. I'm super excited about it!

[2brides]

jgy, Have you looked up Raising a Spirited Child? I swear, without that book, we might have killed G. It also might be his age/new sibling. I have a friend with kids similar in ages to yours and she was lamenting her old child's poor behavior. I hope it gets better!

Our great homework streak came to a crashing halt last week. It ended with tears and a pinky promise from C and I we would do better this week. They just do so much better when they have a break once they get home (despite being in aftercare for 3 hours.) But sadly, a break once we get home is hard since we don't get home till 6 and they need to be in bed by 8.

Halloween - C is going to be a soccer player (Naymar in particular) and G is going to be Harry Potter. The excitement for dressing up is waning - typically the kids talk about it for months - this year they just decided. the candy isn't a huge draw since they still have Halloween candy from last year.

Thanksgiving - L's parents have come visit for the past few years. We often go downtown to one of the museums and then out for a late lunch/early dinner. No one is really wedded to typical Thanksgiving day fare.

Christmas - making Christmas lists is in full swing in our house. Carter has 1001 things on his and G has stuff like I wish to..."Have M love me" (his crush) and "Mom and Mommy be happy" (which elicited a long conversation to let him know we ARE happy.) Both kids are getting Chromebooks/netbooks for Christmas. They have an increasing need for a computer for school and this weekend it was evident as both needs needed access to a computer for a school project and both were fighting over my 8 year old Mac. IN addition, I am sure there will be PS4 games and a smattering of other stuff they want.

[jgy]

2brides, thanks! I ordered the book.

[kona]

O is 14 months.

All the teething this week. O has been up a lot more at night and asking to nurse more frequently. I feel bad for M since she is affected mostly. She really seems to be getting a LOT of teeth right now. I'm hoping she gets most of them very soon and we can move past this phase. We really need to get a solid sleep solution together.

Halloween- we don't really have plans. We bought O a pair of skeleton pjs that she will wear. We won't be taking her trick or treating.

Thanksgiving. M and I have signed up for a road race. My mom will be watching O while we run. I'm homing to just relax at home after that and get my mom to leave. Then I feel guilty for not asking her to stay but then she will be at our place all day. That's too much for me.

Christmas- no plans yet but I'm sure it will be a debacle as always. We had discussed doing the 4 gift thing for O but we really want to buy her a Cabbage Patch doll and won't do that without also getting her a truck. I also wanted to get her a little kids chair (knock off Pottery Barn style). We didn't really buy her anything last year and I think we are going to have to reign it in already this year.