Another big update

I am loving having a boy and a girl and seeing all the differences with their development.  Except for girly clothes for her and obvious boy clothes for him, I have raised them without regard to gender.  Yet, they have innate preferences that appear to be gender specific.  Theresa loves her "babies." We only have a few dolls for her, but she loves to treat them with incredible care.  She puts them in their little crib and wants me to sing "rock-a-bye baby" in order to put them to sleep.  Oftentimes when I go to feed Theresa her bottle of milk, she runs and grabs her baby so that we can feed her baby too.  I did not raise her to care for babies, but she gravitates to them all on her own. 

In clear contrast, Raffaele never took to a doll, stuffed animal, or blanket.  I did try to introduce him to a little stuffed animal with which to sleep at night (hoping it would help him sleep through the night), but he did not care to have a doll.  With Theresa, I never made such an effort; she naturally drifted to her dolls.

The vocabulary and sentence structure differences are astounding!  On August 27, Theresa spoke her first five-word sentence:  "Mommy, where are you, Mommy?"  She's just over 16 months old.  Raffaele, at 18 months, still had only THREE discernable words and no sentences.  I'm blown away by Theresa's command of  language, especially after having had a late talker.  (Raffaele has a full vocabulary and speaks in long sentences now.)  On August 23, Theresa clearly spoke the word "delicious" and was trying to say "watermelon."  On August 21 she began to speak in two-word sentences, it being to me, "stand up."  It's amazing to me that in the span of six days, she went from two- to five-word sentences.

I took Raffaele to his first dentist appointment last Friday.  It turns out he has all 20 baby teeth -- I don't know when those last four molars arrived! AND he SLEPT through the dentist's entire exam -- a first ever for him he said!   His teeth and gums are totally healthy!  I am so pleased.  What a great appointment we had.

On August 25, Theresa gave Daddy her first kiss to him.  So cute.  I'm not sure if she actually puckered.  She's been putting her lips on me and saying "MA!" for A LONG time now, so I'm glad she finally got around to kissing him.

I love having Raffaele as Theresa's big brother.  He helps her so much.  The other day, Theresa was trying to get a crayon out of a bag, and Raffaele ran to help her, declaring, "Super Raffaele to the rescue!"  These are beautiful moments to witness.  He also defends her at the playground.  Not too long ago, another child accidentally pushed Theresa, and she fell.  Raffaele (who had witnessed this) came running from the opposite side of the playground, and as I swooped him up (because it was clear to me that he wanted to punish that child), he was yelling at the child, "NO HIT BABY!"

When Theresa wakes up in the morning, she wakes up with a word. Sonetimes it is "Elmo." The other day it was "mouse." Usually, it's "Elmo;" she must dream of him.  She also likes to begin her day by leaning on me to sit, and she wants me to read to her.  How wonderful that she loves book-reading!

Raffaele continues to be a picky eater, yet he has happily taken his cod liver oil every day for the past month. He's got a really interesting palate.
 
Raffaele wrote his name in capital letters on August 4.  He does quite a lot with letters and numbers and drawings.  I''m blown away by all the little drawings that he makes.  It's very creative.  I've been saving them or taking pictures of them.  He still doesn't hold a writing utensil correctly -- and I bought him something to encourage the right way to hold a pencil/crayon -- but he does pretty well the way he's holding the writing utensils.

Raffaele likes playing on the computer.  He loves a game that we got from my brother called Trainz.  It's amazing.  He builds the landsape, the village, the traintracks, he selects his trains, and then he runs his trains.  Finally, he likes to CRASH his trains.  So funny.  I'm amazed by how much he can build on the computer.  He loves it.
 
Theresa began counting to five on July 29.  She so cute.  She holds out all five fingers.

On Sunday afternoons, after church and lunch, we've made it a little tradition to go to the park.  They have a splash area there.  Theresa LOVES running through the water and getting soaked, and I have wonderful video of it.  Raffaele does not like getting wet very much, but the last few times that we've gone, he's gotten more into it.
 
We flew to NY recently for a little vacation.  I advised Raffaele of our impending trip beforehand.  When leaving Playtown the day before, Raffaele waved, "bye-bye, Playtown. I going airplane."  I'm not sure if he completely understood, but it appears he understood somewhat.

Elmo:  Theresa loves the Sesame Street videos on YouTube especially the ones with Elmo.  I've seen so many myself now, over and over again.  She loves Elmo.  Like I said before, I think she even dreams of him.
 
We had some wonderful, early sucess in potty training our three-year-old. He was going to the potty consistently whenever he needed to go! However, he is no longer consistent and will either sit or stand there urinating on himself because he doesn't want to be bothered to make the trip to the potty. It's not like we have a big house. The potty is a few feet away! He obviously knows what to do. I would think that he would see that the resulting actions required to clean him (even bathe him at times) after such "accidents" are a major inconvenience to him, but it appears he doesn't see them that way.

Potty Training my three-year old

Our family has been filled with the challenges (and joys) of potty training these past few days.  We actually began potty training shortly after Raffaele turned two.  I bought the Potty Training in One Day supplies minus the doll.  Raffaele understood pretty well what was (is!) going on in the potty training department, so I felt the purchase of the doll would be unneccessary.  He never did potty train in one day.  I do not believe that it was because we lacked the doll.  One of the things explained in the book for parents is that if you have a baby, you should have someone else care for your baby on The Big Day so as to not interfere with your Toddler's activities that day.  This is not a reasonable request for us because my parents are the only very close family  close by that could care for Theresa all day, but they do so much for us already as they are here three days per week, and we we felt it too much of an encumbrance to ask them to dedicate an additional day towards caring for Theresa.  So, inevitably, Raffaele did not receive the concentration from us that was needed in order to accomplish Potty Training in One Day, so this method was not a good fit for us.

As we felt that he does understand what is going on in the elimination department, we decided to try the Naked plus $75 method this weekend, or, as my husband calls it, "Potty Training Boot Camp."  Young Raffaele had no problem running around half naked all weekend, here in our home, of course.  He's quite comfortable, actually, and he doesn't even seek out additional clothes.  Sure enough, whenever he needed to go, he ran to the potty!!  He prefers privacy, so he closes the door and situates himself inside, all the while with me listening from the outside (if Theresa permits it).  Then, after the flush, he runs out exclaiming, "I did it!"  We are so very proud of him, have incredible celebrations, and offer him his reward which consists of gummy bears. I then proceed to speak to each gummy bear telling each one, "Raffaele used the potty and we are so proud of him."  He holds the gummy bear up for me so that I may properly speak to it while he has the biggest smile.  Then he says, "bye bye gummy bear," and he eats the gummy bear.  We proceed to do this with each gummy bear that I may have put in his little bowl.  One by one, telling each one what a fine job Raffaele did on the potty.

Today is Monday, so it is the third day of the Potty Training Boot Camp.  Raffaele did not run around naked today, however.  We had him in the toddler training pants, which are merely extra-cushioned underwear.  This worked out really well today as he continued to use the potty.

He is not completely potty trained at this point.  In Mr. FloridaWife's words, "he is batting 800."  We have had two accidents, all over the tiled area of the house.  So, fortunately, the method has not cost us the $75 since we've been able to quickly clean/mop over the tile.  Despite these accidents, I am not disheartened.  We shall continue throughout the week, either letting him be naked or putting the toddler training pants on him.  (We are putting a diaper on him for nighttime until some point in the future.)

Theresa, inevitably, and very adoringly, does not want to be left out of all the potty-training excitement, so she requests to go on the potty too, since it appears to be such a fun activity replete with praise, celebration, and gummy bears.  She doesn't quite say the "t" sound yet, so it is more of "panny" after Raffaele is done and she wants to go to the potty too.

Despite potty training appearing to appear like work, I am enjoying this wonderful phase in my little boy's life.  What a beautiful life-changing moment for him, which I get to share with him!

May your lives be filled with joy, and God bless you all.

What beautiful children

There are so many wonderful things going on with our lives.  Raffaele asked a nine year old to marry him the other day.  He does cute things like that.  At the playground the other night, he greeted each child that arrived.  He was happy to see one of the girls that is a regular visitor to the playground, and he wanted to offer her juice and cookies.  I learned a while ago to always pack extras, just in case another child wants juice and he offers.  So, I passed the juice and cookies over to him, and he offered them to the girl.  (I checked with the father first who was standing near by.  He found the whole scene endearing.)  Raffaele is really demonstrating some beautiful, helpful behaviors.  He keeps me happy.

Theresa has a set of skills that is so different from Raffaele's!  For example, she has SO MANY words all ready at almost 14 months old whereas Raffaele still only had three discernible words at 18 months.  I'm constantly amazed at the breadth of her vocabulary.  She does not, however, like to build with the Mega Bloks as much as Raffaele did at this age.  I keep trying to do Mega Bloks with her, but she has no interest whatsoever and she goes to something else. She does, however, love her "babies" very much.  She has two very cute little dolls.  The other morning, I prepared for Theresa her morning bottle of formula and she wanted me to feed her baby first.  My children's actions are constantly touching my heart.

A month of parties

I completed all of the coursework for my master's degree (MBA).  What a long almost four years that was.  I get to don a cap & gown in a couple of weeks.  It was a challenge, as I did it with two pregnancies and two babies and 95% of the time I did my studying while they were asleep, which became increasingly harder when our second baby came along.

Life has been going so well for us.  We are truly blessed.

We had a fabulous 3rd birthday party for Raffaele at the park.  I have always wanted to do a party at the park.  We decorated our pavilion in Curious George, and we invited our friends that have children close in age to Raffaele.  The park has a splash park, and that was fun.  You should have all seen Theresa!  The way she runs in and out of the water, getting completely soaked, and smiling with so much joy.  Raffaele had a great time with his little friends. We played pin the butterly with Curious George; this was a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey equivalent.  Then we had a Curious George piñata, which was the draw-string type (which I didn't even know about until the box arrived as a I thought all piñatas were the kind that got whacked).  The cake was, of course, a Curious George cake. 

Prior to Raffaele's party, just a month before, we held Theresa's first birthday party.  She loves Elmo -- she calls him Memo.  So, we our theme was Elmo and Sesame Street.  I think it went really well.  She's already walking really well, so she was walking all over the place during the party.  We had it right here at our house, and we invited all of our family and friends.  It was so delightful to see everyone.

We continue to be ever so thankful for our health and the health of our children.

Getting online is sporadic these days. Now that I'm done with my MBA, I should have more free time, although, I am trying to catch up on some of the projects that sat around undone when I was studying.

Peace be with you all.

Months of updates

I realize I am lagging in posts, so I thought I'd publish some updates over the course of the past few months that I've been keeping.

In bed March 10 in the morning, as we were all gathered, Raffaele held me and Theresa and said, "I love you, Mommy. I love you, baby." I'm so happy with my beautiful, loving little boy.

He did it March 11, too, only I was left out. He held Theresa and repeated, "I' love you, baby."
He has also told his Daddy, "I love you, Daddy."

It warms my heart to see what a loving, beautiful boy he has become.

Theresa constructed her first two-word sentence March 10. As I walked with her through the kitchen, and we passed the bottles, she waved at them and said, "bye-bye, baba." What a cutie-pie.

Theresa walked five on February 28.

Theresa's THIRD tooth finally came in (a little one one top). Must have been weird having only two bottom teeth all that time on February 19.

For dinner tonight, Theresa shared some of my Indian meal. She had tofu and peas along with some bread and applesauce. What a good eater!  February 16.
 
Theresa can climb over the ottoman which we use to limit her to the family room. She's so funny. All happy at herself on the other side February 11.
 
I think I want to participate in the commencement ceremony for my MBA. I have done this while working full time, through two pregnancies, and with two babies! And 95% of it I did when they were asleep. I feel the need to really celebrate this.

Theresa has begun to say her first word. She says "baba" for her bottle. She's so cute!!! Babababababa  February 7.  

If there's an item of food on his plate that Raffaele does not like, it "contaminates" the rest of his plate and he doesn't want to eat the other food. So we accommodate. I at least want him to EAT. A certain someone to whom I am strongly related was the same way and required different plates for all his different foods.  January 29.
 
For the first time yesterday Raffaele announced that he was hungry and that he would like some food. I about fell out of my chair! However, he's very picky. He had some yogurt and banana and a few crackers.  January 28.

I love how Theresa tries to clap. She keeps missing her hands.  January 28.

We traded in the Subaru for another car. Feeling nostalgic. That was the car in which we brought home the babies. We waved good-bye to it. Me and Raffaele were waving, "good-bye, car."  January 22.

Theresa won"t eat baby food anymore. Big people food now!  January 22

I bathed Theresa in the big bath tub tonight! First time!! She really liked the extra space. Then she engaged in a lot of splashing. She's just so cute!  January 21

Well, that's it for the infant tub. Theresa tries to climb out of it and walk around. Big bath tub now!  January 20

Theresa was 9 months old yesterday! Key stats: 21 pounds, 3 ounces, 29 inches long.  January 21

Raffaele went to his 2.5 year appointment today. (He was actually 2.5 in mid-November.) Key stats: 37 pounds, 38 inches tall. He's doing well.  January 8

Instead of "slippery," Raffaele says, "slippy." This actually makes more sense to me. If you are to fall, it's because you slip, not because you slipper.  January 1

Raffaele loves to play Tea Party with the set that Theresa received for Christmas. He pours the tea for him and me and loudly sips then offers cookies. Then he pours more tea and he pretends to spill his cup, and he says, "What doing?" like it's a big joke. He's so funny.  December 31

"Excuse me! Excuse me, cars!" This is what Raffaele says when we change lanes. So courteous!  December 31

It was a good run. We've cloth diapered for nearly 9 months, but Theresa is just WAY to active and squirmy and big.  December 30

Raffaele is so precious!!!! When I got home from work, he opened the door for me (which he always does), and then he ran and got and gave me the FLOWERS that he picked today, and he handed them to me all proud. He then proceeded to run circles around me. I love my beautiful toddler boy!  December 21

We hosted dinner with Father Michael last night. It's so wonderful and what an honor to have dinner and celebrate together during this season of Advent.  December 21

She must have been dreaming that I wasn't holding her. Theresa woke up crying in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Poor little one. I was right there, though, to hold her once again.  December 21

It's so cute to watch Theresa laugh in her sleep. I wonder what wonderful dreams she is having.  December 18

Raffaele has decided that he's the new family photographer. I can finally be in the pictures instead of the one behind the camera! AND his pictures are really good!  December 16

Tokens. Raffaele. We've entered the token phase. "Games" as he extends his little hand.  December 14

Every night we have a tree lighting ceremony at our house. It's Raffaele's little job to turn on the lights. Then we all stand there and applaud. He's so proud of himself.  December 14

My toddler the picky eater

Raffaele is a picky eater.  He just really has not had the desire for food.  Up until his 2.5 year appointment, he was still consuming about 6 bottles of formula per day.  It was the only thing he would readily agree to consume!  Plus he was getting all those vitamins, minerals, and DHA.  He's been really healthy.  Besides a slight cold once, he's never been sick; he's never had a fever.  We've been really fortunate.  So, at his 2.5 year appointment, the pediatrician told us that it was time to stop those bottles.  (Believe me, I have about six different sippy cups here plus all the cups with tops and straws in an attempt to get him to drink formula out of a cup, not a bottle, but bottle is the only way that he will consume formula.)  So, the Saturday morning after his 2.5 year appointment, I explained to him, "Raffaele, you are a little boy now.  No more nooks."  ("Nook" is his word for formula in his bottle.)  He repeated to me, "little boy."  He looked at me.  He said, "Little boy, no more nooks."  "That's right, Raffaele," I said, "you are a little boy.  No more nooks."

And that's all it took mostly.  No more nooks.  The first week, every now and then he would ask for his nook, but we would remind him that he was a little boy and no more nooks.  Once, just to be sure, he asked, "no more nooks?"  "That's right, Raffaele," we replied, "no more nooks."  And after the first week, there were no more requests for nooks.

I did pour his formula from the bottle into a cup in front of him several times and showed him that he could still have his formula via cup, but he would have none of that.  For him, he wants the full experience of formula in a bottle.

After the first week, he was still barely touching food.  By barely, I mean that for the first two years of his life, Raffaele has received 90% of all his intake from formula.  He simply refused to eat food.  It was as if he would rather starve than eat food.  Finally, at 2.5 years old, it means that he has a nibble here, a nibble there, and that's basically it.  To my eyes, he lost weight the first week of no nooks.

Two weeks post "no nooks" his eating picked up.  Now, he has between 1.5 and 2 waffles everyday for breakfast plus a cup of orange juice.  As a mid-morning snack, we offer banana, but he doesn't always take this; at least he'll eat a few crackers.  For lunch, and I'm not totally proud of this, but it's something, my husband takes him to McDonald's where he can run around and play while eating some chicken McNuggets and some fries.  (And by not proud I mean that I am aware that McNuggets are not the healthiest chicken, but at least he will EAT it.  It's that or he may simply refuse to eat altogether, which is how it went until he was about two.  So, we decided, let's get him to eat something, and we can work on more nutritional eating later. I hope this makes sense.  Besides, sometimes he barely only eats ONE McNugget.)  For a mid-afternoon snack, he'll have a yogurt, sometimes bread, sometimes crackers, lately he likes cheez-its.  (Just to interject here, YES, we have offered grapes, apples, mango, avocado, smoothies, puffs, cereal bars, pears, watermelon, oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, ETC., and he won't eat it.  These are all yucky to him.)  For dinner, there we go again -- I offer what we're having, for example, grilled chicken with spinach and rice.  However, he has his own agenda.  Sometimes he'll skip dinner altogether.  I have comfort in something that I read from Dr. Sears once that it is not uncommon for toddlers to skip dinner.  The other day for dinner, I was finally able to get him to eat ice cream -- well, it's something!  That's why we buy good ice cream.  He will drink apple or pear juice during the day, so that's good.  We've offered him cow's milk in a cup, but this is yucky to him.  I've offered almond milk as well, which I prefer, to no avail.

For added nutrition, I bought liquid droppers that have multivitamins, and I've ordered droppers with DHA -- I add these to his orange juice in the morning, and he can't tell that there's something added.  I tried to get Raffaele to eat a Flintsone vitamin everyday, but that only lasted one day.

Raffaele also has peculiar eating ways -- I offered him macaroni and cheese and I put bread (which he wanted) on the same plate, but he refused to eat the bread, because it was on the same plate as the yucky macaroni and cheese.  (For the record, we've made three different kinds of macaroni and cheese for him, and he is repulsed by all of them.)  So, I had to get the bread off the plate, but that wasn't enough, because the bread was "tainted" by having been on that plate, so he refused to eat it.  His habits change everyday too -- one day he wants his waffle with butter and syrup, and the next he wants it absolutely plain.  We have to ask, "how would you like your waffle today?"

Don't get me wrong!  I'm not writing this to complain, but rather to explain!  I think we are doing well now.  He's not drinking from a bottle anymore.  He's eating food.  The food that he eats may not be the most nutritious meals of grilled chicken, fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. that I would like for him to consume, but at least he is eating and he cooperates with eating what he does eat.  He's getting his vitamins and DHA now via the dropper that I can squirt into this orange juice.  I think he'll be fine.

Like someone said, Raffaele isn't going to allow himself to simply starve.  He will eat something.  It might end up being crackers and ice cream for dinner, but he will at least eat it.  As he grows older, we can guide him towards different foods and one day someday he'll eat what we eat for dinner.

How your time changes after having children

Everyday I think to myself, "today I'll write a post on my blog," but then the day goes by, and the next day comes, and the blog remains without a new post.

Having two children --- and I'm elated to be able to write that -- has restructured the way in which I spend my time.  It is a big change when the first baby arrives.  You have become so accustomed to spending your time one way, and now all of a sudden -- BOOM -- you have to spend your time completely differently.  Hours that used to be spent reading (either in book form, but mostly on the internet for me) are reduced to 15- to 30-minute reading spurts.  Time spent cooking or preparing food has been reduced to a few minutes spent reheating meals in the microwave.  Sleeping in on the weekends and having that extra time with my husband has been relinquished to cries of "Ma-MEE" from my toddler or the cries of our infant.  You learn how to do your housekeeping quicker and more strategically (like picking things up as you move from one room to another).  I've learned to multi-task even more.  (Add to that that I'm also working on my master's degree, and it's even more challenging.  More on that another day.)

I sometimes wonder, "what on earth did I do with all that time before I had children?"  Reflecting on that question, first I was in school and (since engineering is a challenging degree) I spent a lot of hours actually studying.  Then I worked, and when not working I had time to spend going to movies or going out.  (I remember I used to go the mall and window-shop quite a bit.)  Then my career took more time, and I had lots of business trips (all over the world), and on many projects, since they were so intense, I would oftentimes spend 12 or more hours working, and then I'd explore the countryside or the town or city on my time off.  I travelled a lot, domestically and internationally, before children.  I can also remember that I spent a lot of time house cleaning -- what a waste of time that was.  I can keep a house much quicker now.  However, I sometimes think to myself, "man, I could have done something better with my time like volunteer somewhere.  Why did I think that I had no time to do that?"

Then the second baby comes, and since you've already restructured your life, the new baby fits right into the family and into your new time schedule.  So, the second baby is not as big of an adjustment.

So, how do we spend our time now?  We go to playgrounds and parks (both indoor and outdoor), we've gone to nature centers, we go to children's museums, we go to the zoo, we read, we crawl, we run, and we play.  I regularly go through the local, free parenting magazine, and I check to see what interesting events are happening in my area to which we can take the children.  I know more about my local community now and all of the parks and events in it since having children.

It's different.  It's different in a really good way.  The last movie that I saw in a theatre was Cinderella Man, but that's okay, because soon we will all be seeing Cinderella, and I'll be able to experience that magic all over again.  The world as seen through the eyes of a child are a great delight; they see things that I no longer noticed.  They seem to think further outside the box.  It is at times exhausting and I oftentimes yearn for more sleep, but I wouldn't trade those feelings for the absolute joy that I feel because of our children.

First four word sentence

Raffaele spoke his first four-word sentence today! I am so super-excited! When I came home from work he pointed to my shirt and said, "what color is that?"  Earlier in the day, Mr. FloridaWife says that he also asked, "Marco, where are you?"  However, he's done "where are you" as an expression many times.  The "what color is that?" was totally new though.  I was so excited.  I put my stuff down and gave him a huge big hug and kiss (which I usually do anyway).  He's just so wonderful.  I love my 2.5 year old.

Tonight he decided to go to sleep with three of his animals -- the lion, giraffe, and monkey.  My little boy looked so adorable in bed with all his little animals.  I love raising a boy (and a girl - mustn't leave Theresa out!).

My small successes for the week - 14-Oct-2010

I'm participating in Small Successes on the Faith & Family blog. 
These are my small successes for the week:

1.  This week Theresa turned six months old which also means that I met my goal of having her exclusively breast-fed for the first six months of life!  I'm so proud of myself.

2.  I completed week one (of ten) of my MBA class (Entrepreneurship & Strategic Thinking).  Somehow I fit in.  I did my text reading by starting early in the week and doing 15 minutes here, 15 there, etc., and then I was able to get two hours (from 10pm to midnight) to chat with my teammates about our group project, and then I took an hour to furiously type up the response to the questions that I chose to do for our assignment.  After this class, I only have one more class to go and then the capstone course, and then I'll have my MBA.

3.  I downloaded all the pictures and videos from our digital camera and put them into my computer, into the various folders that I've established to organize these files.  I also went through them (as I usually do) and corrected red-eye, I cropped some, and I deleted some.  I hadn't gone through that exercise in about one month.

My toddler, the late talker

Ah, Raffaele's vocabulary.  It's expanding all the time, I am happy to report.

I do admit that he's a late talker, which is absolutely no concern to me, since I was a late talker too.  I've heard from so many parents who also have late talkers, and they blossom into their vocabulary and sentence structure just fine.  As they say, "you've never met a teenager that still babbles, right?"

Raffaele said his first three-word sentence yesterday:  "I see homes."  We were driving in the late afternoon yesterday to our local playground and looking out the car window through the bushes of the community that we passed he said, "I see homes."

That was his first "official" three-word sentence, anyway.  He's been speaking in what I call "phrases."  For example, he has said a variety of expressions such as the following: "Whe-A-YOU?"  "Whe'd-it'go?"  "How-A-You?"  "Whas-Dat?"  Etc.  I didn't realize how often I said these terms, and he picked up on them as single-type-word expressions to say.  He's done a great job.

His most versatile word early on was "stuck."  Stuck.  So many meanings.  If he can't get to a toy:  "stuck."  If he wants to be lifted out of the swing:  "stuck."  If he can't open something: "stuck."  It's amazing how they use their available words to convey what they mean to say. 

"This, this," as he points, must be my favorite.  It means that there's something about that thing at which he's pointing.  It's also quite neat that my husband and I have been able to figure out what it is that he is trying to say.  "This."  "Oh, this, Raffaele.  You want this."  Or "this opens like that."

The toddler UN could hire me as a translator.

Theresa rolls every which way and co-sleeping thoughts

Theresa started rolling from stomach to her back this week.  She's so cute.  When she's on her stomach and she's up on her arms, she can push back and squirm herself around. 

I continue to co-sleep with my dear, sweet baby.  With Raffaele, I hesitated in making that decision.  I'm a big fan of Dr. Sears, and he had advised to do it, but I had my doubts.  Well, Raffaele was such a spirited baby that bringing him into bed with us was the only way any of us would be able to get any sleep!  And then I learned to love it.  I should have trusted that this was the right thing to do from the beginning.  With Theresa, I didn't even hesitate.  From the day she came home from the hospital, she's been next to me in bed. 

Now, I do understand that if one has a baby that's a good sleeper, and they sleep all happy and fine on their own in their own little space, then I totally understand that co-sleeping is not something you need to do.  I admit that if Raffaele had slept really well from the start, that it's possible that we may have never co-slept.  But Mr. FloridaWife and I fell in love with sleeping with him.  He's just so yummy and cute to hold. 

I also work outside the home Monday through Friday, so co-sleeping gives me more time to hold my babies!

Anyway, back to Theresa.  She loves watching her big brother do stuff.  She laughs at him!  She's got the widest smile.  All gummy.  No teeth yet, although I suspect she's teething.

My toddler: first time seeing a cow

I took almost 2 1/2 year old Raffaele to Tradewinds Park today, and he saw a real cow for the first time.  As soon as he saw it, he knew what it was.  "Cow!"  About 30 seconds later he moved on to something else.  It's like, "yeah, cow, whatever, what's this interesting water shooting thing over there?"

 He really liked seeing the rooster, though.  I said, "cock-a-doodle-doo!"  And he was so adorable, looking at the rooster repeating, "cock-a-doodle-doo!"

I really thought he'd have more of an interest in animals since his favorite bed-time reading is a collection of animal books.  He loves to have us read these to him before he goes to sleep!  Ah, what a treasured experience it is to read to him.  I love it that he has learned to love books.

So, yes, the toddler mind.  I thought he'd make a bigger deal out of seeing real-live animals, but, like many of us, he studied it in a book, knows that it exists for real, and he seems to be content with that.

Extrapolating the exersaucer

We put Theresa in the exersaucer for the first time this week.  She really likes it, and I'm impressed.  Raffaele didn't really stay in there too long when we used it with him.  He'd bounce a little bit and check out the stuff, but then he was done with it.  He didn't like being stuck in there.  Theresa, on the other hand, seems to really be concentrating on all the little things that she can do on the exersaucer; she lasts in there for quite a little while, self-entertained, before she asks to come out.  I find myself extrapolating these events to sometime in the future to Theresa being a studious student and, perhaps, Raffaele learning differently.  He gets absorbed, sure, with stuff that interests him; the exersaucer did not interest him so much.  They are very different children, and I can see now that they will learn differently and have different strengths.

(Of course, I realize there's a lot of time ahead of us and children change, but I daydream of what's to come.)

It's Potty Time!

Raffaele used the potty today!!!  We are so excited.  We bought the BABYBJÖRN Toilet Trainer in July.  (If you know me, you'd guess correctly that this particular product was selected after researching all of the available potties and training seats, etc.)  Raffaele was 2 years, 2 months at the time, and I felt that he was exhibiting signs of understanding his toileting needs.  I decided that a little toilet seat that goes on top of the regular toilet would be best because being a toddler and all, he wants to do things like a Big Boy.  I know him.  I know my little man.  I know he would want to use the big toilet and not some little potty.

From the moment the toilet trainer arrived, he loved it.  In fact, he loved it so much that I sometimes found him wearing it on his head like a halo.

As I said, he was exhibiting signs of preparedness.  Every time he needed to have a bowel movement (or if the already had one and needed a diaper change), he would let us know.

So, tonight, using his limited vocabulary (which is just "diaper, diaper"), he told us he needed to go.  Seizing the opportunity, we put him on the potty.  He thought it was fun to sit there (as usual).  For two months now, we sing songs and read books while he sits there; nothing had come out.  However, tonight, something came out!  (Can you tell I'm excited?)  We're so happy to have shared this moment with him.  Let's see if this will be repeated soon.