what are your happy baby/toddler memories?

[harrietsmama]

I know our kids are hitting a difficult point in life - going through puberty and the chaos it brings. I thought it might be nice to start a thread of our positive happy memories of when they were cute little monsters and we couldn't wait for them to talk, or for their tantrums to stop, and then the preteen/teen years hit and we wish the could stay little

My favorite from my daughter, playing barbies:
'Bahbie has a beaver so she has to go to bed!

(she meant fever)

[BelovedK]

He used to call his bathing suit a "baby suit" and suntan lotion was "sunteen lotion"

He used to hang on my leg and climb up my body, he is still affectionate, I am lucky, he still is loving and says "I love you" to me every day

[Dar]

I, um, actually haven't found the teen years to be especially difficult...

I loved spending time with Rain when she was a toddler, but I also love being with her as a teen... it's different but no less wonderful. Twelve and thirteen were rough, but since then it's been 99% sheer joy... much better than, say, 5 and 6.

We just moved to a new city, and we were going through a bunch of stuff and deciding if we needed to keep it (yes, it would have been better to do that *before* we moved it all, but...). We found the greatest video of Rain at 10 or 11 months old, chewing on a cardboard videocassete case and just running around the room and laughing hysterically... and then there was another one from a couple of weeks later, on her first Christmas. Her two favorite presents were a stuffed Barney and a baby doll, and she just lit up when she opened each of them. I believe her comment to Barney was "Bah-ee! Wowie!" and then she picked her up and hugged him and carried him all around the room.

Oh, and the little toddler words are so cute! I love "baby suit"! Rain used to called hats "hatons", because apparently I would always ask her, "Do you have your hat on?" or "Do you want your hat on?"

Well, now I really want another baby!

Dar

[harrietsmama]

Awww these are so cute! I remembered a couple more...

Harriet had a little friend she spent a lot of time with and he used to call her 'dit' when they were about 18 mos.

When I was pregnant with her brother she called him 'kipin' instead of Crispin, then when he was born, (she was there) she would say baby kying! baby kying! and for the first several months, every time he cried, she would say it in the most urgent voice and come running, sometimes down 2 flights of stairs, and come kiss him on the forehead repeatedly until he calmed down. He did very quickly for her - what a mom saver! They are still very close and both very affectionate.

My kids have also been pretty easy other than trying to feed them (sigh) but I wanted to put this thread here for all the distressed mamas and daddies that are going through such hard times with their older ones

[Arduinna]

Honestly the teen years have be so much easier and better than the toddler ones.

I think nursing and co sleeping are my best memories of when she was little.

[jellybellyxoxo]

eehh I could go on forever... I'll just do DD1 fir now.

For DD1-
1) Age 4 (i know not really a toddler any more but i love this story)-She had this talking barbie doll house. It would say the funniest things. It had a talking door bell and and phone and baby changing table. Her best friend who lived down the street had one also, so one girl would being their house to the other one's. They would always copy some of the things that the doll house said. Their favorite one was "pizza guy pizza" (in a deep voice) "thank dude" and they would walk around the houses saying that, taking turns being the "pizza guy" and the "dude". It was so annoying, but i was sad when we gave it away...

2) Age 3-When we were potty training her at night, she said one night "My pull ups don't fit me anymore. I want to wear undies". DH and I had already put a mat under and everything, so we agreed that the worst that could happen was that she's wake up wet. We made sure she went potty before bed. She woke up dry in the morning. She wanted to try it the next night, and we said yes. Fast forward 2 weeks- she hadn't had a wet night and she said to DH and me- I TOLD YOU I COULD STAY DRY. DH said no, you said your pull ups were to small. DD said "that was my way to say that i was ready.

[chiromamma]

Nursing and the family bed. God. I miss that SO much.
: :

[canadianchick]

I miss nursing and co-sleeping also. She was soooo little.

When she was two-ish, she used to say 'buck buck' every time we got in the car as a reminder for everyone to buckle up. My sister and I still laugh and tell her she sounded like chicken. She also used to call popsicles 'pop sicsic'. We love watching videos of her when she was little. The time has gone by so fast..... she started her period this summer and is now taller than I am. Wow! My little baby is growing up! :

[momto3wantingmore]

So many things, hmm to narrow it down when my son was first talking he would say "mommy, I want a ham damnwich, a ham damnwich is gooood" Everyone who would hear it would just look at him in horror until they realized he what he was trying to say just mispronouncing. He also used to love to play the hide the binkie game lol and when I found it he would just run around and squeal and laugh. :

[harrietsmama]

Originally Posted by momto3wantingmore

So many things, hmm to narrow it down when my son was first talking he would say "mommy, I want a ham damnwich, a ham damnwich is gooood" Everyone who would hear it would just look at him in horror until they realized he what he was trying to say just mispronouncing. He also used to love to play the hide the binkie game lol and when I found it he would just run around and squeal and laugh. :

That's so funny! Harriet came home from a visit with Grandma saying regularly and for about week - 'Gamma say godammit, gamma say godammit' with a big grin on her face like she knew there was trouble there but not for her

[spruce]

Quite a few of my kids are sleepwalkers.

My Dd1 (now 15) used to take out all her frustrations of the day during her nightwalks. I had to keep babygates up WELL past the baby gate years, so she wouldn't get down the stairs and/or out of the house without me knowing.

My favorite night was the time I was in a wedding in another state, so we flew down and slept off our schedule in a barn/garage of our friend's in-laws-to-be. She woke up at 3 am, as I was chatting with my friend (the groom), and walked almost INTO a kerosene heater, all the while yelling about how she was GOING TO HER PLAYROOM, and WASN'T VERY HAPPY RIGHT NOW!!

Now my 4yo gets night terrors and has started sleepwalking. Oy, vey!

love, penelope

[harrietsmama]

Originally Posted by spruce

Quite a few of my kids are sleepwalkers.

My Dd1 (now 15) used to take out all her frustrations of the day during her nightwalks. I had to keep babygates up WELL past the baby gate years, so she wouldn't get down the stairs and/or out of the house without me knowing.

My favorite night was the time I was in a wedding in another state, so we flew down and slept off our schedule in a barn/garage of our friend's in-laws-to-be. She woke up at 3 am, as I was chatting with my friend (the groom), and walked almost INTO a kerosene heater, all the while yelling about how she was GOING TO HER PLAYROOM, and WASN'T VERY HAPPY RIGHT NOW!!

Now my 4yo gets night terrors and has started sleepwalking. Oy, vey!

love, penelope

Lol, sleepwalkers sure are fun! my dp, who is my adult child sleep walks too and we had to start locking the fridge and we have several complicated locks on the door because he would try to cook in his sleep ( I woke up one morning to some defrosted, beautifully prepared tilapia filets, buttered, garlic, all laid out on a cookie sheet to bake - thankfully he didn't get to the oven part) or we would wake up and all the stuff from the porch would be in the living room and the living room stuff outside, or there's the time he woke up against a TREE, and the time he woke up STANDING IN THE ROAD WITH A BEER IN HIS HAND probably thinking he was going over for a beer with our friend across the street.

[momto3wantingmore]

oy how scarey! I was a sleep walker and I remember how scared my mom would get.

[spruce]

Wow, Heather, what a scarey situation for you and your DH!

I find the silly sleepwalking moments pretty entertaining. It's the night terrors that really freak me out..."I *am* looking at you!" as he shuts his eyes tight and screams because he has growing pains. My poor little guy.

love, penelope

[smillerhouse]

From my son, now nearly 18: He has these huge eyes that would take everything in. He star5ted waling at 7.5 months . We would get these tiny sandals for him.
My dd, now 15: She swam and dove befroe she could talk. She loved topick up catepillars and roly polies. Sallie

[harrietsmama]

Aww, so cute! Yeah the sleepwalking can be scary, but we have it pretty contained now, plus the doc gave him some pretty knock down sleep meds that keep him in bed.

[alima]

It's me who's having trouble with the teen years, not ds (he's great, I'm missing my snuggly little baby )

When ds was 2 or so, he used to wake me up by crouching at the foot of my bed at the crack of dawn and wait for the slightest little glimmer of me waking up, a sniffle, a flutter in my eyelid. Then he'd leap up and yell in the happiest voice "Good Morning Mommy! The sun is up and I'm hungry!", all in one breath. How could I not wake up to that?

I cherish most the memories of breast feeding, co-sleeping (not that long ago memories, ds co-slept till 10), and going out for daily walks. How excited ds got just by seeing a squirrel or fire truck, and how a glass of milk and a cookie could solve any and all problems.

[spruce]

Today I put my 2yo's hair in braids after her shower. The kind with a hairband at the nape of the neck, then a braid, then another hairband. My 15yo helped pick out the colors for the 2yo's hairbands, and kept her entertained while I braided.

Then, my 15 took her shower, and afterward asked me to do her hair the same as her sister's. We went to the library and the park with them paired up as twins. I almost cried.


My 4yo is a very visual person. My 12yo dd has very long, beautiful hair, which she sometimes finds hard to care for. EVERY time my 4yo sees a picture of a princess or someone from the Renaissance, he says, 'Look, Mama, it's "A!"' It makes my 12yo feel wonderful that her little brother thinks of her as a princess.


love, penelope

[harrietsmama]

Originally Posted by spruce

Today I put my 2yo's hair in braids after her shower. The kind with a hairband at the nape of the neck, then a braid, then another hairband. My 15yo helped pick out the colors for the 2yo's hairbands, and kept her entertained while I braided.

Then, my 15 took her shower, and afterward asked me to do her hair the same as her sister's. We went to the library and the park with them paired up as twins. I almost cried.


My 4yo is a very visual person. My 12yo dd has very long, beautiful hair, which she sometimes finds hard to care for. EVERY time my 4yo sees a picture of a princess or someone from the Renaissance, he says, 'Look, Mama, it's "A!"' It makes my 12yo feel wonderful that her little brother thinks of her as a princess.


love, penelope

Awww, that's so awesome!!!! My kids are very loving and affectionate to each other too and it makes me so happy!

[heartmama]

Ds age 2--He loved pacifiers and had a tin cup of pacifiers on his toy shelf. Picture him with a pacifier in his mouth like Maggie Simpson, reaching down and picking up another pacifier and thoughtfully putting that one in his mouth too, then grinning and giggling at me with two pacifiers in his mouth, pleased with his evil genius!

Ds at 2 toddling up to every coffeehouse counter we visited with a 'sample' sized cup in hand, reaching up to the cashier and placing his own order 'Decaps, peas!!' (Decaf, please!).

Bittersweet memory--me reading alone in a bookstore. I hear a shuffling breathless sound, try to tune it out, realize the sound is closer, realize other readers are glancing up in annoyance, then I see....dh brought ds to the store, ds spotted me, ds was running full tilt in my direction, panting like a puppy and grinning from ear to ear, before throwing himself into my lap. At the time I felt a little embarassed and hid my enthusiasm, just gave him a little hug and spoke quietly to encourage him to quiet down too. I've always felt so bad about that! Even all these years later. I shouldn't have minded what other people were thinking