Is this the lip balm?

Just a week ago, I've been teaching you how to recognize familiar things and expressing it with your words. I find that you are slower in your verbal skills than Aidan. I want to teach you how to use your words to communicate with me. 

Every evening, when I get you ready for bed, I put lip balm on your lips after washing/brushing and putting lotion on your face. It's the same routine we do every day. I use a pretty distinctive looking lip balm- the EOS lip balm that is in the shape of an egg. I started asking you, "Is this the lip balm?" while pulling out random things from my bathroom drawer wherein you will say, "no." Eventually I will pull out the lip balm and you will recognize it as your lip balm and break into a big smile and shout, "Yeah!" 

I think it's a hit!

I got this ice pop kit at work so I thought it would be a great idea to fill the mould with orange juice and give it to you as an ice pop treat. I gave you one today and you looooooved it! I think I might make smoothie pops next time. It will be good since you hate eating fruit. 

Hip hop performance #2

The weather was horrible today. It was so rainy, windy and cold. However, it was a good day because you were good. I was actually listening to the radio on the drive to your dance class and Roz from Roz & Mocha (KiSS 92.5FM) was talking about a video he had seen that made him cry. I was curious to know what this video was so while I waited for your class to be over, I checked it out. Basically it was a video that taped a few moms and what they thought of themselves as moms. All of them were pretty negative about themselves (which is understandable because that's how I feel 99% of the time). And then the video goes on to show the children of these moms and what they thought of their moms. Take a look and it will make you cry. As quoted from the website the Stir, Making our children happy can be so simple. They don't care about parenting philosophies or long-range plans.
For kids, a trip to the ice cream shop, snuggling, or being tucked in each night are the things that make them happy. It's easy to beat ourselves up about all the things we don't do perfectly or the little mishaps that happen every day. But while we are doing that, we lose sight of all the things we are doing right. Like our little ones, we should focus on those seemingly simple moments that make them feel so special.

I didn't expect to see another hip hop performance so soon (as the teachers let us in last week), but it was a pleasant surprise. All of you guys were so cute.

First dance performance

After last week's tantrum fiasco, I wanted to make sure you would go to your class today without a hitch. I talked to you all this week preparing for your dance class. I kept asking you all week, "Aidan, are you going to cry at dance class?" Where you would answer, "No!"

I then kept saying, "Remember, if you listen you get EVERYTHING. If you don't listen, you get…" And you would answer, "NOTHING!" Lately, you've been acting up and just being a total nightmare. It's really draining daddy and I out because we're already tired as it is. Every day is just go, go, go and having to deal with tantrums is just so… hard.

Luckily, you were pretty good today. You went in your class without any hesitation and I even got to go in near the end of the class to observe you. Because of your good behaviour I took you to Walmart where I treated you with your own Batman umbrella. You've been asking me for your own umbrella and it was the perfect day to get it as it was rainy. I even treated you with your favourite lunch- a cheeseburger (hold the pickels) happy mean at McDonald's. This is what happens when you listen!

Rough day

I know it doesn't look like it, but it was a rough day today. Mommy is sick with a cold and so are you and Aidan. Aidan's nose has been runny all day and you've also had a bit of a runny nose. Mommy lost her voice and my throat is swollen. I'm just really burnt out these days.

Daddy asked me last night that his friend James asked him to go to Las Vegas with him this week. Daddy asked me if it was ok with me and I said yes. I know that just means more work for me, but I know daddy deserves time alone to enjoy himself. He always tries to make it up to me so I can't get mad. I just hope that Aidan will behave while daddy is gone. Sometimes Aidan drives me crazy!

You were playing on the mat in mommy's office while I was doing stuff on the computer.
Aidan was trying to nap. He takes forever to fall asleep!

Dennis' friend James bought this doll for you. It's almost as big as you!

When Aidan is home with me this is how our day usually goes:

- Aidan wakes up and goes to mommy's room.

- Mommy is usually exhausted so I take Aidan pee and we go back to mommy's bed while Aidan rolls around and talks to himself. I usually don't get any more sleep :-(

- Mommy brushes Aidan's teeth and makes Aidan breakfast- usually waffles or pancakes. Today was pancakes. I put Aidan in his high chair while he watches his morning cartoons.

- Mommy goes upstairs to get dressed and ready. By this time you start waking up. I change your diaper and go downstairs to check up on Aidan. By this time he is finished with his breakfast. 

- Mommy feeds you solids. Today was butternut squashed with rice cereal mixed in (since you refuse to eat rice cereal on its own). After solids it's breast milk.

- After everyone is fed we go downstairs to play. 

- After a while you start getting tired so I put you upstairs for naptime. 

- Around 12:30pm we go back to the main floor so that I can start prepping Aidan's lunch. 

- After lunch mommy puts Aidan down for nap time. He usually takes a looooooong time to fall asleep. 

- You wake up while Aidan is in his bed trying to nap. I feed you breast milk and feed you solids again.

- I try to do some work in the office or watch TV while Aidan naps. You are usually playing on the floor or in your play pen this time.

- When Aidan awakes we play some more in the basement. 

- Mommy puts you down for a nap again.

- Around 4:00pm is when I start prepping dinner. Aidan is watching cartoons again while I prep.

- Around 5:30pm I put on Skype so Aidan can talk to his Vancouver grandparents.

- Daddy usually comes home around 5:50pm or 6:10pm, but today he went to the casino with his friend James.  

- After dinner Aidan plays again in the basement while he has his milk and cheese.

- At 8:00pm that's when I put Aidan to sleep.

- After Aidan sleeps I put you to sleep.

- I wake you up again around 11:00pm to breast feed you so that it will last you the rest of the night.

- That's it! Phew~

Here's a drawing I did while we were playing in the basement. Aidan was so happy. It's of his
socks that he wore today.

I had very ripe bananas so I baked banana muffins today. They were delicious!

So why was it hard today? It's because Aidan doesn't listen! I'm trying not to yell and spank anymore because I've noticed that Aidan has started talking back and even trying to hit and spit on me. I know the easy way to discipline is to yell and spank, but it's only good temporarily. Today I was trying to discipline Aidan by not talking to him in a raised voice and talking positively to him. For example, when he says to me, "I'm going to beat you!" I'll respond by saying, "Aidan, please don't say that to me because it hurts my feelings. Can you not say that?" He will repeat it again and I will repeat what I say back to him and also add, "Aidan, I love you. Do you love me too?" Whereas he will nod. Then I say, "Please don't say that to me again." And he will respond by saying, "I will not do it again!" 

Aidan does do it again, but I guess this is something that I will have to repeat over and over.

I think Aidan was tired today and when he is tired he is very difficult to handle. Even putting him to bed was a feat because he kept coming up with every excuses in the book to not go to bed. He was telling me he wanted another bedtime book, he was too cold, he was too hot, etc. etc. He threw 3 tantrums while I was trying to put him to sleep. I'm beyond exhausted, but I have to feed Kendall now before I go to bed :-(

Being a mom is not easy!

Snippets of feedings with Kendall

You will only eat applesauce.

I started feeding solids with you by introducing rice cereal, but now that you've had applesauce (so far you've had rice cereal, oatmeal, banana, puréed apples, puréed pears, sweet potatoes) you won't eat anything else. It's gotten to a point where I have to mix applesauce with these things to even get you to eat. My friend, YJ, told me I introduced fruit too early. Today I tried getting you to eat sweet potatoes sans applesauce and you wouldn't have it. You were spitting it out, shaking your head, sucking on your thumb and you even threw up after gagging. I don't know what to do. Aidan didn't have a problem at this stage. Now he is a picky eater, but back then he ate everything! Help!

Here's a few snippets of feeding solids to you now. As you can see it's quite a battle…

Don't mess with daddy

I took this photo of you right after you got "meh meh" (spanking) from daddy.

You have been acting up lately- talking back to us, throwing huge temper tantrums, crying when you don't get your way and saying bad words (i.e., hot Jesus [I think you learned this from daycare]). We were trying to put you down for a nap today, but you were not having it so daddy lost it and gave you a pretty bad spanking. I usually don't butt in when you are getting in trouble by daddy because I don't want our parenting to be contradictory. It also takes A LOT for daddy to get angry so you can imaging how bad you get sometimes. However, you were crying so much and daddy was so fed up with you that I had to go into your room and calm you down. I calmly explained to you why daddy got angry and that he did that out of love. This was the sad face that was staring back at me. Inside I was pretty torn up, but I knew that I can't baby you or else your bad behaviour will continue on.

Just keep on trying

Daddy and I didn't want to give up on your skating lesson fiasco that I talked about on this post. Daddy had asked me to look for community centres around us that offered recreational skating so that he could take you again. You already learned the basics of raising your arms and learning to balance on your skates so all you needed was to practice on your own. You have a tendency to get frustrated easily when things don't go your way so daddy and I talked to you many times before today on never quitting when things don't work out. We were lucky enough that many of your favourite TV shows showed the characters skating. When I saw you watching those shows I talked to you about how even if they fell they didn't cry and they just got back up and tried again. I told you that if you wanted to skate you had to keep trying and never give up. I think that is the way to get through to you- repeat things over and over to you so that it brainwashes you. Keke. For example I would say, "Aidan, remember Justin (from the TV show Justin Time) fell when he was skating on the ice? And he didn't cry, did he? No… He got right back up and tried again. Aidan, it's ok to fall down. Everybody falls at the beginning. What's important is that you keep trying. Did Justin cry when he fell down? No… So is Aidan going to cry when he goes skating?" At this point you would shake your head and say, "No. I will not cry! I will keep trying!" I think that worked because you were totally eager when you went skating with daddy today.

Daddy actually took a day off today so he wanted to take you skating. The recreational skating was open at 6:30pm-8:00pm so we had to wait until then. The weather was horrible- it was raining and snowing at the same time and super windy.

Kendall all bundled-up in her bear suit at the skating rink.

Daddy putting your helmet on. He actually wasn't paying attention when he was buttoning your
strap because your skin got caught and you started shrieking/crying.

I had to calm you down. See the tears behind your cage?

There you guys are.
Kendall and I were sitting in the stands watching you guys skate. I had my coat over Kendall
because it was pretty cold.

I think kendall was quite warm. She slept the entire time :-)

At the beginning you were doing really well. You were standing up on your own and MUCH better than your last skating lesson. However, after a while you started getting a little wobbly. I took a video of you falling on the ice and you started hitting the ice in frustration crying out, "Bad ice!" Haha.

However, you didn't quit. That was the important thing. You got up and tried again. Here's a video I took of you skating on your own. This was the first time you did it on your own. I was so proud of you!

Advent Calendar: Make popcorn & watch a movie

Since you love watching movies I wanted to do another activity where it involved watching a movie. Daddy had taped a hockey movie on PVR so I decided to show you that. Plus, it was perfect because the movie that he taped was about a boy with magic hockey skates. You threw a huge tantrum on your second last skating class that daddy had to take you out of the class. He was so angry with you and let's just say you got in a lot of trouble that day. I didn't want that experience to traumatize you so I thought showing you this movie would be a good opportunity to teach you a lesson that even if you fall you should never quit.

Chocolate boy.

Look at that belly. You've been holding your bowel movements so you tend to look bloated by
the 2nd day.

Movie about to start.

Aidan gives the movie a thumbs up.

Popcorn all ready for you.

This little boy was also not a very good skater. He fell, but he never quit. What a perfect
lesson to teach you!

You were so happy watching your movie and eating your popcorn. It was a successful day :-)

You're stuck!

I hate the terrible 2's… but oh wait, you're almost 3 1/2 now…

Ever since you were a year and a half it's been hard controlling your tantrums. At first daddy and I tried the spanking method, but that just made you hit us back so we stopped that for a while. Then we tried putting you in time out, but that didn't work- you would not stay in time out. Then your Vancouver grandmother told us about the "stuck" method that she saw on a Korean reality show that is very similar to the American Supernanny show. She said that the "teacher" made the parent hold the child between their legs while they are throwing a tantrum or about to until they calmed down. She said that this clutch made it impossible for the child to get out. She said while the child is throwing their tantrum the parent was to talk, in a stern voice, why they were there. Sometimes this would last a couple of hours depending on the child, but in the end it would work. We've been trying this method for a month now and I'm liking it. I can't do it in public for obvious reasons, but you seem to stop your screaming/crying after about 10 minutes. Daddy usually doesn't have the patience for it and I don't know if he knows how to do the clutch perfectly (you seem to escape when he does it), but I like it.

1st skating lesson

Today was your first skating lesson. We actually enrolled you in the same skating lessons last year when you were 2, but it was a total fail. The skating program said you were too young at 2 to register, but daddy practically begged them so that's why they took you in last year. However, I know why they don't encourage 2-year olds to register. You threw a huge tantrum in the change room and we couldn't even get your skates on. We had to leave right away and got a credit for it. Both daddy and I were very weary about how you would take it this year, but we've been slowly prepping you for the big day. We made a whole shopping day of it when we bought your skates and helmet. You were so excited leading up to today because of it. We even talked to you about it for a few weeks telling you that you were going to go skating with daddy and you would be wearing your new helmet and skates. We said, "Aidan, no crying when you go skating, right?" You nodded and even pinkie swore to mommy promising that you would be a good boy. We were still pretty worried and even put on your skates outside of the change room just in case you threw a tantrum, but we had nothing to worry about. You were so calm and excited. Mommy and Kendall watched from outside the skating rink where it was warm, but it looked like you were having a blast. The only person that looked like they were struggling was daddy. I could see him struggling trying to keep you standing because at the beginning you were flailing your arms and falling over. I couldn't stop laughing watching him holding you.

There you are sitting with other toddlers your age. You are wearing the blue and red jacket.
Look how cute you guys look with your little helmets.

The first class was basically teaching the kids how to stand up. You struggled at the beginning,
but I think you were getting much better near the end. You were even holding your arms out
to balance yourself.

Here's a video mommy took of you in your skating lesson. Look how you're listening to the instructor.

I like your underwear!

As I had mentioned in an earlier post about getting you underwear, I went out with Kendall yesterday and picked up 6 pairs of Cars underwear and a Cars potty training seat from Walmart. Since you were home today I decided to present it to you as a surprise for you to wear. You were so happy and excited. You picked out the red one to wear today. I kept you sans diaper almost the whole day and you only made 1 accident. I can't believe I didn't try this sooner. You loved your underwear so much that you wanted to wear it to bed. Since I'm not confident that you won't wet your bed I tried to put on a diaper. You started whining so I had to put your underwear over your diaper to keep you happy.

Here's a video of you posing with your new undies:



For the bedtime training I'm reading a book that my friend Erica gave me about the 3-day potty training method by a mom of 5. She mentions in her book that I must not give any liquids 2-3 hours prior to bedtime and to make sure you go pee at least twice before bedtime. She says it is important to throw out all the diapers away in her 3-day method and to keep the child from wearing a diaper to bed, but I'm going to take the bedtime potty training a little slow. She says that the first night there will probably be an accident in the morning, but the trick was to explain to the child that wetting the bed was not a good thing. She says that it helps to wake up the child 1 hour before the usual wake-up time to take the child potty and even sleeping beside the child at night. That way when the child stirs at night you can wake up the child to take them potty. This will teach the child that it is ok to wake up to go potty.

As for pooing, you are struggling with that a bit. You tell me every time you have to go pee, but with poo you are a bit embarassed and won't tell me. I have to watch out for signals- excessive farting, a deeply concentrated expression from you that lets me know that something is amiss. The important thing is not to scold your child for having an accident. You should always encourage, but at the same time, sternly explain that peeing/pooing anywhere other than the potty is not good. 

So your impetigo is not as bad as last time. I checked your belly this morning and noticed that it is already starting to scab over. Last time we waited too long and it spread all over your body and you were in a lot of pain. This time around you only whimper when I'm giving you a bath as the water is hitting the open sores. I hope that it heals in time for next Tuesday when you go back to daycare. I have to be extra careful around Kendall. I make sure I wash my hands every time I touch you. 

DIY reward chart

I've been thinking about making a reward chart for you for a while now. The idea came to me when we were thinking of ways in how you can potty train in a positive way. I thought a chart that you can fill up with stickers would be something that you would enjoy filling and it would encourage you to act positively. It's especially important now since you are at a terrible 2 stage. I bought a few things at the dollar store yesterday and got working on it today.

I bought several sheets of foam in different colours. I then punched 1" punches in a contrasting colour and stuck
it on the foam sheet. Each round punch is for a sticker. This one is for the potty reward chart.

I bought these sheets of foam letters at the dollar store that I used to label each reward chart.

I bought a box of stickers that you would enjoy- things with cars, airplanes and happy faces that I'm going to be
using as the stickers for the reward charts.

Here's one I made for sleep. I basically made reward charts for things you have a hard time doing. One being
sleeping. I thought creating a chart for you to go to bed without throwing a fit would be something good for you
to have. 

I stuck the chart in your room by your bed. Before bedtime I ask you, "Aidan, do you want a sleep sticker?" You
always say yes. I then explain to you that you can only get it if you go to bed after you stick the sticker on the
chart. And it works like a charm!

I made a potty chart for the washroom. This one is right by your potty.

I'm hoping this will encourage you to go potty so that you can get a reward sticker.

Lastly I made one for your play room. This one is for tidying up. You can see here that you already
got a sticker for doing that.

The chart is hanging right by your kitchen set. It really helps to keep things orderly in your play room.