We Will Rock You

Leo is currently obsessed with the Queen song, "We Will Rock You". He loves to sing it in the car at the top of his lungs no matter what is playing on the radio. He sings it while running around the house. He was singing it in the shopping cart yesterday and another mom stopped me to say her son loves the same song.

Here he is enjoying his favorite song and Serafina totally hijacking the video.

Oh, Serafina

Doesn't she look darling? Like the sweetest girl in the world? Well, let me tell ya, she's a menace. And I don't mean that as one of my strange little terms of endearment. I mean she really is a menace. Today we had to take the toddler chairs that go with our art table out of the house because she constantly dragged them into the kitchen and helped herself to whatever was on the counter. She also managed to get up on a dining room chair and sample multiple banana muffins that were cooling on a rack. She is able to reach into the kitchen drawers and open the dishwasher and pull out sharp objects. Leo wasn't like this. We childproofed the house for a less adventurous child and now we have to beef up security. She's a different kid. We say it all the time. She's so much more physical than he was at her age. Not only did she crawl and walk sooner than Leo, she's able to climb really well. Surprisingly well for a pudgy little girl. And once she's up she likes to bounce or do other movements that just about give me a heart attack. Luckily, she doesn't fall often and when she does, she handles it well. Of course, I can't help but think she's going end up right back in a cast.

But her climbing and rifling through drawers isn't what's really worrying. A little while ago, Serafina stopped talking. She had been saying about four or five words consistently and they disappeared. It's normal for little kids to use words and then stop and move on to other words. But this isn't what was happening. She just didn't say words. Her babbling seemed to significantly change too. A lot of grunts, groans and whines, not a lot of baaa, maaa, daaa. Also, there was a lot of screaming. We wondered if it was her hearing. The pediatrician noticed fluid in her middle ear, but a few weeks later it was gone. She also acknowledged that our concerns were valid, but told me she would look into further at the 18 month check-up since she could start talking again before that. But the kid can hear and understand a lot. You tell her to get her shoes, she gets her shoes. She'll also get anyone else's shoes that needs them. She's helpful like that. So what was going on? She's smart, bright, loving, but not talking. Sure, she's young and everyone has stories about kids who talk late and grow up brilliant. My friend didn't talk until she was almost three. The issue was that she had been talking, and stopped. It is always terrifying when your kid is making milestones and regresses. Tom theorized that she was spending her development energy on gross motor skills since she had to relearn to walk a couple times because of the cast. I could totally buy that, but the timing seemed off. Of course, it could be that her brother is such a chatterbox, that she never gets a word in edgewise. We would vacillate between being convinced she was fine and being certain there was something wrong. I almost called the pediatrician a number of times and laid awake at night worrying. Granted, I might be a more worrisome parent than most because of the experience with my brother, but I don't know since I never really reveal just how much I worry (it's a lot, trust me). Though parenting is made up mostly of worrying, a little bit of diaper changing and a snot wiping, and a smidge of sandwich making.
What to do other than worrying? Well, we talked to her a lot, loudly and repeatedly. Every night when I laid her down in her crib I told her, "I love you and tomorrow you will talk." Well, a couple days ago, she was wearing a shirt with an owl on it. I said, "owl" a few times and she said, "owwwwlllll." I was pleased but couldn't get her to do it again. Then Friday evening, I held up a ball and she said "bawl". I got her to do it a few more times. I carried the ball around in my pocket and would whip it out and say, "Serafina, what's this?" She answered correctly. As soon as Tom walked in the door, I had Serafina demonstrate her word. I felt a little less worried. Over the last two days, she's added "more" and "doll". She's a little inconsistent with both, but we'll take it. She's almost up to the same word count as before and hopefully she'll just keep adding to her vocabulary. I still plan on discussing the whole thing with the pediatrician, but my anxieties have eased a bit.
It's tough to know your baby is normal and feel lucky she is but still be so fearful all the time. I've tried not to talked about too much since no one wants to hear a mother whine on about what could be wrong with her kid when the kid is so clearly okay. My friends and my mom have been very comforting and kind about it. Never making me feel too crazy for being concerned but always reassuring me that everything would be okay in the end. I know they are right but I can't always fully convince myself. Ugh, parenting is hard.

Snoozer Bowl Sunday

The Superbowl just isn't that interesting when your team isn't in it...or when you're three. It doesn't help if you skip taking a nap. Leo had been doing well with the napping last week. Monday and Tuesday, after he played in his room without sleeping, I took him in my room and laid down with him. On Wednesday, with the promise of ice cream at the mall, he napped in his own room. He did well the rest of the week until today. Oh well, at least Tom was home to give him a lap to sleep on.

The weather was spectacular today, so before the game we got outside to enjoy it.
Blowing a bubble.
Success!
Serafina enjoys it.

Leave it to dad to soak the kids while watering the plants. They thought it was great.
Mom's lap is in high demand.

Bulldozer

Santa forgot to bring Leo a bulldozer. He got plenty of other toys on his list, but the absence of the bulldozer was noticed once the hub-bub died down. Tom told Leo that if he ate a good dinner for one month he could have one. Isn't that blatant bribery, you say. Absolutely. When you have a kid that is a very inconsistent eater, you do whatever it takes. Leo did well with the promise of the bulldozer, except for the final night. But he choked down enough to get the big prize and fell very in love.

He took it for sharing at school today.
I was snack mom and helped with a Valentine's craft. I snapped some pictures too since I volunteered last week to make the yearbook for the class. I've made a photo book using shutterfly before, so I think I can handle it, but it was definitely one of those experiences where as soon as I said I'd do it, I felt regret. Oh well, I have plenty of time to agonize and obsess over every background, caption and photo. Currently I have tons of pictures of my kid, but not a ton of his classmates. I'm relying on the other parents to submit their photos, otherwise this yearbook is going to be very Leo heavy. Oh and I've been worried about Leo's scissor cutting skills. It seems like he's having more trouble than the other kids. I bought a good pair for him to practice with at home. When I was in the classroom today, I realized what is probably the problem. The teacher knows he's a lefty, but the other moms don't, so the mom helping him with a cutting project, had the scissors in his right hand. And when I say he's lefty, I don't mean he uses both but he prefers that hand. He's truly a lefty. Everything is left for him - coloring, throwing, kicking, eating. We were butting heads for the longest time when I was helping him put on his shoes and he would pick up his left foot when I was holding out his right shoe. I finally adapted my technique. I'm 80% sure that Serafina is lefty too, but it's a little early to say for sure.

After school, he really wanted to go to a park to try out his bulldozer in the sand. I knew he would have trouble sharing and if other kids at the park caught sight of it, we would have issues, so I took them to a park that is sorely under-used. It's really a great park, especially if you want to be completely undisturbed.

Here's my cutie girl, enjoying some sunshine.

Speed Bump

Nicer baby

Here's what Leo said after Serafina tried to take his crackers: "I want to get a nicer baby at the hospital. Brielle got a nice baby at the hospital. Everyone got a nice baby except us."

First real field trip

Leo had his first real field trip today. Early in the school year the class walked to our local park, but today they went on a school bus to the library for story time. Can you tell how excited he was?
In preparation, the class made this cute bus craft. Leo told me the face on the left is the bus driver, the mohawk guy in the middle is Leo and the face in back is Kennan (a boy from his class).
Pumping up Serafina. He loves to get in her face and say "little girl" over and over.

Meeting up with his "buddies" for his field trip - twins Cuba, Cora and their mom, Courtney.
So excited to see Brielle, he can't keep his feet on the ground.
"Look, here comes the bus."
The class stops to pose for a picture.

Loading up.

After story hour at the library, the bus dropped the kids off at our local park. The kids had snacks and played. I brought Serafina in the bike trailer and we stayed for a while playing and eating lunch. The weather was amazing.

By the time we got home, the kids were dirty and tired. I was optimistic it would be a good napping afternoon, especially since Leo napped without too much resistance yesterday. But alas, he didn't sleep. When he came out at 3pm, he played for a little bit and then asked to sit on my lap. He got comfortable and promptly fell asleep. Really, kid? I let him stay there until 4pm when Serafina was fed up with being left in her crib.

Here he is looking pretty fried after I had to evict him from my lap and his nap was over.