Follies In Motherhood: A Toddler is Born!

This month had many struggles for me, and it felt like it lasted so much longer than a month should (more on that later). There is always a bit of a bummed out feeling in January because of the holidays being over, but it was especially worse after celebrating Blair's first birthday. Valentine's Day cannot come soon enough!

My sweet, even keel, happy, playful baby is now a toddler! Blair celebrated her first birthday at the beginning of the month, and it seems surreal. I was flooded with memories from when she was born, how cold it was, how it hurt like %#@##$*& and how lucky we are to have two amazing, healthy kids. It is a bittersweet feeling, because I think we always will wonder "What if we had a third?" but then you also think how fortunate you are to have the ones you do.

These pictures of them both might be my all-time favorites. They certainly tell a thousand words! Glad I got to capture these on her last monthly pics.

Since Blair already had some cake for her birthday party, I decided she should try another first sweet treat: donuts! We headed out in the afternoon to grab some, and Blair sure thought she was cool!

A library in a neighboring town has an event for kids once a year in January to help boost their yearly budget. This is the same library that had the Ghostbusters event, so I knew it would not disappoint. For $2 you could play flamingo croquet in two Alice in Wonderland themed rooms. It was so well done and beautiful! There was so much attention to detail - everywhere you looked there was something to see. Blair loved it and ran around shrieking, but Colin was not impressed; he wanted to go back to the playroom and play with the puzzles.

Blair had her one year check-up and did amazing! She had to get 5 shots this time which was horrible, but I think Colin hated it more than she did. Poor kid was so shook over it!

We went to SkyZone for the first time in awhile too; it was supposed to be a preschool friends outing but the roads were garbage so only 2/20 kids went! We still had fun, and Blair loved to be bounced on the trampoline - me thinks she may be just as crazy as her brother!

This month we purchased a Y family membership. I signed the kids up for swim classes starting in February and it was $150 for them both since we were non-members. Since I plan to continue with swim classes (and other sports classes as the kids get older), I figured we may as well become members. It has a childcare area for the days when I need to getaway which is amazing. The first time I dropped them off, neither kid could've cared less! I expected that from Colin but it was my first time leaving Blair - she just toddled off!

This month has been somewhat torturous for me. Colin didn't go back to school until January 7th, so he had a solid three weeks off from school. Then, due to snow and extremely cold weather, he didn't have school for the last two weeks of January! In total, he went to school for 4.5 days in January, and to make matters worse, we were somewhat homebound and had to stay inside due to inclimate weather. I refuse to give into the iPad (even though it would solve my problems), so Mom had to get her Pinterest and thinking cap on to figure out ways to pass the time. I like to think I did a solid job; in situations like this the Dollar Store is your best friend!

Board games, crafts & coloring: I try to involve Blair in as many of these activities as I can, but she still likes to put everything in her mouth so I have to be careful and watchful.

Play-Doh: Always a solid choice that lasts a long time and makes a mess! Note to parents: don't even bother trying to pick up all those crumbs - just let it dry and vacuum up! Much easier. Or let the dog eat it and wait for technicolor poo!

Science experiments: we haven't been doing these as consistently as I'd like, but I've found as long as you have baking soda, vinegar and food coloring on hand the possibilities are endless.

Ooblek: this stuff was super cool. Its just cornstarch and water, but it takes almost a liquid and solid form continuously as you play with it. Blair did not like how it felt on her hands, and it took Colin some getting used to!

Treasures in frozen balloons: I put some small toys from around the house into balloons, filled them with water, and then we let them sit outside overnight. Once they were frozen, we peeled the balloon off and smashed the ice until we got the treasure out.

Frozen bubbles: I have always wanted to do this one and while it was cool, I think we needed a) better bubble solution and b) a better bubble wand. Popping them was by far the coolest because it almost looked like tissue paper.

DIY balloon filler: just some vinegar in a water bottle, baking soda in a balloon, put the balloon over the water bottle and allow the baking soda to mix with vinegar and voila! Baby scientists are born!

Floof (indoor snow): 1 cup baking soda + 1 cup shaving cream and you have this stuff! Easy to clean but I haven't let Blair try it yet! You'd think once she tasted it she wouldn't try again but the child loves dog food so...?

Dollar Store fun: I spent about $20 at the Dollar Store and it was worth it. These are just a few of the crafts & activities we came up with using the items we purchased, plus Colin got his own craft box. Worth it.

Pom Poms tossed into a Costco apple holder with each circle assigned a number of points. To make it educational I had him plug the points for each pom pom into the calculator to see who won. Easy!

Desperation mode: doing whatever it takes to entertain them, even if it is only for 5/10/15 minutes & even if it is more work for you. Note to parents: this often takes longer for you to assemble/clean up than it does for them to play with it.

Indoor picnic

Mooching off Mom's smoothies

Endless marble play

Setting up a grocery store with pretend food, paying for food, then making food in the kitchen.

This occupied them for 10 minutes.

This was the one they loved most, and the one that took a lot of work for Mom. The small one just wanted to pummel into every cushion so it involved lots of fort rebuilding.

A lesson in cause (disaster) and effect (mommy drinks)

And finally, when it wasn't dangerous just to go outside, we expended some energy in the great outdoors! I'm thankful that neither of my kids seem to mind terribly when it is cold outside, but when they are over it, man they are OVER.IT.

Playing Zombie tag (his idea!)

The spawns: a sweet relationship they have! Every now and then they play together, but Blair seems to want to play by herself a little bit more (me) whereas Colin really wants to be by her and play with her (Chris). I also think the learning gap is a bit big; Colin knows how to do much more than she at this point and he isn't always patient waiting for her to take a turn. He gets frustrated with her if she messes with something he's really working hard on, and we're working on teaching them both. But the moments they are quiet and happy and together - that's just IT for me.

Colin Colin Colin. He is losing his baby face more and more each day, and there are times when I look at him and can see what he'll look like as a teenager. He is learning so much (despite not being in school at all this month!) and his new favorite trick is writing letters and drawing faces. It is so cute and I cannot get enough of it. He knows the letters in his name, but hasn't quite gotten down the order of them - for example he will write "ociln" when signing his name. No rush on that at all!

Colin has become quite independent the last month or so as well. We don't do the chore chart anymore because he does everything on it without being told. He brushes his teeth and gets dressed by himself, recently conquering the ever tricky shirt. Sometimes he will get himself out of the bath, dry himself off, brush his teeth and get his PJs on and say "Okay I'm ready for my book now!" The only thing he does that could use some work is wiping the bum; I'll let you use your imagination on that one.

Colin is also very animated, and loves to read books to you and tell stories. Some of the books we have read to him so many times he can actually read them back to you, which is really impressive. My favorite is when he looks at picture books and tells the story based on what he sees, and does little voices for when people speak. If only I could freeze moments in time to have forever...

Some funny Colin stories:
- He called to me from the bathroom "Mom! It's another snake poop, and it has eyes this time!"
- When Blair was sick and I was taking care of her, Colin cleaned up her room and his room to help me out.
- While I was working in the classroom, the teacher was explaining the fire drill they were about to practice. She was saying how they were going to go outside but would have to come right back in, and Colin says "We are going to go outside but not play? That's the dumbest thing I ever heard!"
- We were laying in bed talking in the morning and he says "Ahh you stink! Go get in the shower!"
- We drove by an accident and he saw the lights and said "Um excuse me, what is this?"
- He loves to say "Are you serious?! Forget it, forget it."
- One day he did the "I'm watching you" move from "Meet the Parents" to me.
- He loves to go through the emojis on my phone and send them to people.

Last but not least, my baby Blair. Such a sweet loving ~~baby~~ toddler. She is so content and happy it makes me question what I did to deserve her. Her personality is really showing, and it is a funny one. Where Colin is very obvious about being funny, Blair seems to be quietly funny. She still leaves quite a mess in her wake; she loves to empty out anything she can (wallet, cabinets, dressers, toy boxes, crayon boxes, etc), and is able to open ziploc bags if it means she can dump it all out.

She also really likes opening her mouth!

She is fully weaned off breastfeeding, which is bittersweet for me. I am thankful I was able to do it for so long, but I think it was time for both of us, especially since she had no issues whatsoever and now sleeps through the night. And after a year of crap sleep, I'll take it! No surprise, she's getting all four top teeth at once. I swear it was nature's way of saying "Well done on the last year, we held off giving her teeth but now that you're done..."

Blair walks around everywhere now and is pretty steady on her feet; honestly she has to be with Carlo and her brother around. She still loves stacking and building blocks, and loves the talking books. We are also working on teaching her words, and she does try to repeat them. The closest she's come is "Yay!" "Dog" and "Wheee!"

She and Carlo still have a love for the ages. There isn't much he doesn't tolerate from her, though he has taken to biting and pulling her socks off.

Some funny Blair stories:

- Colin will sometimes spit in the bathtub when he's brushing his teeth and the other day I saw her watch him do it, then turn around and make a spitting sound into the tub!

- If the pantry door is open, BEWARE! Blair knows how to open Carlo's dog food container and will shove a whole handful of it in her mouth. Then I get to pick out wet, slimy dog food out of her mouth while she's completely unbothered by how gross it may taste.

- She also digs in the trash like a little raccoon and will throw garbage out onto the floor.