~~~~~ May 2006 Mamas & Sweet Toddlers- Happy Holidays this December! ~~~~~ - Page 3

[ecoteat]

Max, we use the Gerber training underwear. They just have an extra layer between the legs. They are pretty cheap, and are nice quality. But until Phoebe is accident-free (she's so close!) she usually wears a waterproof nylon cover too. Buying AIO waterproof training pants seemed like such a waste, and she'll wear the undies long after she doesn't need the covers anymore. We bought covers from pottypatty.com. Bummis makes them too.

We'll be hunkering down with a Nor'easter tomorrow. Looks like it might be a snow day Monday! Even if it isn't, we might have to miss school because we have a gas leak in the building no one knows how to fix! The gas is turned off, but there are strict rules about serving hot lunch, which we can't do. It's completely ridiculous. We've already had 3 "snow days" and none of them were because of snow! We'll be in school until July at this rate.

[Ducky5306]

Hi mamas..

I just got a call and my older brother (1 of 3 older brothers) got robbed last night at gun point they held a gun to his head and he had over $900 on him (he was leaving a bday party at the casino) granted he makes a good living as a hair stylist, thats alot of money for anyone to lose this time of year and to have a gun put to your head.. I can't imagine how horrible that must have been : We are all just so thankful he is okay..

please keep him/us in your prayers..

[~*max*~]

Oh Jackie, I am so sorry to hear about your brother. How terrible! I will keep him in my thoughts & prayers.

[ecoteat]

Jackie, that is so awful. I can't believe how terrible some people can be. I'm glad your brother is ok!

[~*max*~]

I just wanted to pop on & wish everyone very happy holidays!!!! I hope you all have wonderful holidays w/your families and safe travels to those who are on the road. I'll be thinking about you all. :

[**Mia**]

Hi everyone, a quick wish for happy holidays

I've just finished wrapping the LO's gifts and am popping off to bed, our trip was thankfully uneventful and I'm so happy to be back home with my LOs.

And Jackie, how scary! I'm just glad nothing physically terrible happened to your big brother!

[Peppamint]

Just wanted to pop in and say Merry Christmas! I hope you have a lovely day with your little ones and families! :

[Ducky5306]

Hoping everyone had a very, very merry christmas!! lucas and I both got very spoiled! he got a full drum set from my mom that he loves! now i need some ear plugs.. lol

[Mamabeakley]

Happy Happy Happy to everyone.

I had a wonderful Christmas. There is not much in the world cuter than a 4 and 2 yo opening their presents.

I feel awful (whine, whine). But DH is being wonderful about taking care of the kids so I can rest. It helps that this is his slowest time of year at work. Only 5 more weeks of awfulness to go :

[~*max*~]

Hello everyone! I'm glad to hear everyone had a nice holiday. Ours was great. The kids had a wonderful time & are now happily playing w/all their new loot. The roller skates were a big hit w/my older three and LO is really enjoying all her gifts as well. She got a bit overwhelmed w/all the presents & excitement (we had three separate gift exchanges, one w/each set of grandparents and then ours on xmas) so we had to work on toning it down a bit for her. She was very happy to open one gift & play w/it right then, as opposed to the frenzied openings my big kids do.

Enjoy your weekend all!

[Ducky5306]

X-posted in toddler but wanted to ask you guys too

"Weird question but i was just wondering if your toddler draws pictures? DS has been drawing since about 18 months and since about 2 y/o i can actually tell what he is drawing! over halloween it was always pumpkin or scarecrows and now he drew me this (without ANY help, heaven forbid i offer to help him ever, lol)

(Snowman)

http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/share....tate=RETRIEVED

He is left handed, No one else in the family is.. we all wonder where he got it from.

I didn't know anyone with toddlers to ask if their toddlers draw.. thanks :thum

he has been so inconsistent with hitting milestones= crawled early at 6mo, 1st step at 8mo, walking by 9mo, no words til 18mo, and only really started talking around 2y/o but was completely potty trained/learned by 23 months! so he was all over the place but i guess it all balances out in the end..

thanks and happy holidays!

[ecoteat]

Jackie, that drawing is amazing! Phoebe still just does whole-arm scribbles, mostly. She'll do a roundish motion, but can't quite draw a circle yet. Also, Phoebe LOVES drum sets. DH has one and she climbs up there and rocks out all by herself. Lucas will have a blast!

We had a lovely Christmas. Phoebe got a few nice toys that she is really enjoying, some books, and lots of clothes. Just a few minutes ago, while nursing to sleep, she asked, "is Santa Claus going to come while I am sleeping?" Her verbal skills amaze me every day. Yesterday, out of the blue, she said "I have a big vocabulary!" A week or so ago (stop me if I've mentioned this already!) she asked how to spell Amy and when I spelled it, she said, "it has a Y like Wyatt does!"

Max, of course roller skates were a big hit! And Phoebe also wanted to play with each toy and read each book right away. It was so cute when she'd open a book and snuggle up next to me right away to read it to her.

[Peppamint]

Sounds like you all had wonderful Christmases, yay!

Our Christmas was the most relaxed we'd ever had and it was just soooo nice all around. All three of the kids loved their gifts and we all enjoyed having my brother with us again.

The day after was another story as the 5 day old baby of a client died of fatal congenital heart defects. The funeral is tomorrow and I know I'm just going to do a lot of bawling. On a better note, I think I've found a preceptor and will be officially apprenticing this spring. :

[ecoteat]

BBM, how awful about that baby. I was once a nanny for the kids of a neonatalogist. She often talked about what an emotional roller coaster it was caring for tiny, sick babies. I hope your client's family can heal peacefully from such a tragedy. Did they know before the birth something was wrong or was it a complete surprise?

Earlier today there was something popping around my head that I wanted to post here, but I can't remember!

I did also want to talk about nursing and weaning. Phoebe and I are still loving nursing, but I'm starting to think it wouldn't be so bad to guide her to weaning in the not-so-distant future. (I know--how wishy washy can I be!? But this is a huge change of heart from a few months ago when if dh even mentioned weaning he got an earful!) But she currently nurses when she wakes up, a couple hours later, and 1-3 more times before bedtime. Then she nurses 1-2 times during the night. That's a lot. I can't even wrap my head around going from 5-8 nursing sessions a day to zero. How? The only idea I've had so far is to start talking about how someday there won't be milk anymore and she won't nurse anymore. And then when it gets closer to her birthday, if it looks like she's up for it, do a countdown to stop when she's 3. She might go for that, if we made it fun, like an Advent calendar or something. And I think if we connected weaning to celebrating her birthday, it would be a positive thing. I always had this sense that I wasn't fully onboard with CLW, but I had never been able to envision an end before this week. Oh, I'm so conflicted. Who here is still nursing? How did/will you wean, and when?

[Ducky5306]

Hey mamas!

BBM- i'm so sorry for the family of that baby

ETA: Is this the family? http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1017851

So sad..


Amy- Lucas still nurses but we've cut down alot, started just by dropping one nursing at a time (normally he would nurse when he woke up, before snack time in the morning, after lunch, after dinner, and to bed) now he has pretty much given up napping : lol so that one is done with and slowly i cut out the other day time ones (dropping about 1 a week) started in Oct and now we're down to only nursing at Night and maybe a rare nap if its been a busy day.. He gets upset if we talk about not nursing so i don't bring it up alot.. I just try to do other fun things during his normal nursing times during the day.. its hard because reading book/snuggling always leads to him wanting to nurse so we have to save that for bedtime but we do other things like crafts, art, building blocks, or most days we play outside alot (I know this doesn't work for alot of your northern mamas, but its still in the high 70's here) Good luck and let me know how it goes! i'm feeling pretty done with it most days but i'm trying to hang in there!

[Peppamint]

Originally Posted by ecoteat

BBM, how awful about that baby. I was once a nanny for the kids of a neonatalogist. She often talked about what an emotional roller coaster it was caring for tiny, sick babies. I hope your client's family can heal peacefully from such a tragedy. Did they know before the birth something was wrong or was it a complete surprise?

It was a surprise... he became symptomatic when he was 4 days old after previously checking out fine during the usual newborn exam at home and a checkup with their family doctor. Heart defects often show up around 3-5 days old.

Ducky- no, that's not the same mom. The funeral was today actually.



As far as nursing goes, Audrey weaned a couple of weeks ago... it was gradual and she was down to once/day. Then she would occasionally skip a day and then one day I realized it had been a few days since she had asked to nurse. She did ask to nurse around 2 weeks after she had last asked but was easily distracted... between AF visiting and no milk I knew I would have that horrible nails on the chalkboard feeling. So her age of weaning falls in between the other two kids (dd1 at 20mo and ds at 32mo). Do what works for you and Phoebe!

[Ducky5306]

[QUOTE=busybusymomma;12877530]

Ducky- no, that's not the same mom. The funeral was today actually.

QUOTE]

wow.. how sad for both familes.. i just came across it in "new posts" and thought it was the same family since they both had congenital heart conditions/defects but now that i read it, you said 5 days the other baby was 5 weeks.. i got confused..

[~*max*~]

Hi all. Ducky, that drawing is awazing. I think you have a budding artist on your hands! LO is still just enjoying scribbling and choosing her colors. But, when my nephew was this age he was drawing faces and he is now a very talented artist. Funny story about the first time we knew he had talent - one time when he was around 2 or 3 he had been sent to his room by his mother for misbehaving and he was not happy about it. He had a big easel in there. When his mom went up to talk to him the easel was full of angry faces! He had never drawn anything like that before. It was so impressive that he was able to channel his angry feelings into art even at such an early age.

BBM, I'm sorry to hear about the loss of the baby. I cannot even imagine what the family is going through. They are in my thoughts. But yay for you having an official apprenticeship!

Amy, my kids were a bit younger when I weaned so I may not be much help. I stopped night nursing first, then cut down on day nursing until it was only just before naps & bedtime. I then shortened those nursing sessions and finally just stopped. Phoebe is so bright, that I'd think she'd need more of a logical explanation. I might try explaining that mama's milk is starting to go away now that Phoebe is a big girl and try cutting back some feedings to get you both used to it, then I think your countdown to three w/a big celebration would be a special, loving transition.

Mamabeakley, I feel for you! I always had tough first trimesters too. I hope you're feeling better soon.

Mia, glad you had a nice trip and a good holiday.

My kids are on holiday break, so yesterday we spent the day w/my closest girlfriend & her kids. (There were 7 kids all together!) We had such a nice time, even though she & I barely got to finish a sentence. We try to get together once a month. Our kids are like cousins, so it's really special to me, especially since you all know the situation w/my sister. Today my mom & I are taking the kids to a matinee.

I hope everyone has a great day! :

[**Mia**]

Happy New Year mamas!

New thread here