In one of Parenti’s talks he refered to his son (who was still a babe at the time) as a “Red Diaper Baby”. I thought it was amusing. Just trying it out.
Anyway folks, how’s the fam? How are you?
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After discussing it probably 100 times we finally implemented a daily screen time limit. Kid is handling it very well and keeping herself entertained reading way more and drawing and shit. One of the best decisions I think we’ve made.
My wife had to go into a partial hospitalization program but is getting discharged Friday. 7 days a week for 5 weeks, 7am-6pm for most of that. Everything leading up to that was tough and a little traumatic. It’s been tough taking on lots of extra duties and I’m starting to feel a little burned out today. The change was hard for our toddler but I kept everything going and we had to hire help so I could still work part time.
I learned I’m capable of more than I thought and overall have more confidence in myself, especially being on my own with a 3 year old and our then 4 month old for several days and handling it fine. But I’m looking forward to her being home every day again for a variety of reasons. Also worried about things getting bad again so we’ll see if the DBT skills from her program help.
Toddler has mild sleep apnea, I was finally able to take her to the ENT and her adenoids and tonsils are fine. So just staying on a nose spray for now. Baby has had a bit of a cold and is sleeping extra but otherwise is a happy smiley kiddo and almost sitting up on his own.
That’s tough! I glad you were able to weather the storm. Its stressful having two littles like that. Mine are 3 and 1 and for a long time it felt impossible to be alone with both of them. But the oldest is s real helper I’ve learned. Realizing you can handle watching both of them is a real weight off the shoulders. Although its not really the same I remember it being hard on my oldest when my wife was saying at the hospital after kiddo2 was born. Kids are adaptable I feel, she adapted quick anyway.
Sitting up is huge! Being able to hang out with out having to hold them make everything more fun.
One of my boys would cry at the slightest thing last night. I could swear he was getting sick so they’re staying home from childcare. He seems good now but he had been given panadol to help cope
It’s potty training time, and the kid is crushing it with no pants (a week in and we’ve got unprompted potty use for all purposes 🎉). Add the barest hint of fabric and all that good work is out the window. Love too be doing this much laundry.
I feel this. Our toddler does pretty good overall if she’s naked and was starting to do ok with just training underwear but started refusing to wear them. Only wants diapers or naked. Usually after taking off her clothes and running around the house yelling “naked!” while laughing.
Training was hard. I didnt want one of those little potties in the room, and insisted on going to the bathroom. This was idealism. The reality was, kiddo needed to go but wanted to stay in the room. Having the little potty in the room meant there was no friction. Less friction made the experience more positive and encouraging. Which lead to more confidence and less anxiety. Once they were confident that they knew when to go and could hold it, we would offer to go up stairs to the bathroom. We got a little seat that sits on the potty making it their size. We just recently gave that seat up and now they use the full size toilet.
Yeah, we got Oh, Crap! on the recommendation of some other leftist people in our Covid Baby cohort and it’s been stressful but mostly manageable. Got a little potty for the room, big potty adapter on the way. The hard part is really just keeping it up with half the week in daycare; they’re supportive, but it’s hard to beat dedicated home time for building the habit and we obviously can’t send the kid to school without pants.
I think the biggest surprise was how much language development exploded at the same time. Way more phrases, practically conversational. I dunno if it’s just two things that happen to line up, or if the additional self-awareness of controlling your bathroom time does something to your brain. It’s been really great aside from the occasional floor shit. 🤣
