Difficult

That sums up our lives with Robbie at the moment. He's testing his boundaries and when he doesn't like the rules we've set in place he definitely makes it known to everyone that he's not happy.

Something as little as changing his bum has turned into a game for him, instead of lying down for us he chooses to run in the opposite direction so that we'll chase after him. What's the big deal, right? He's a toddler. With me being the pregnant state I'm in I can't run after him and refuse to make it into a game... if I chase him around the kitchen table he thinks that I can chase him around parked cars in the parking lot. So we've given him choices: a) get bum changed and go back to playing or b) time out. The tricky thing is that he knows what a time out is and what it entails... some times he chooses to go lay on the mat in a time out where he just sits there and talks to himself. When the time is over and we go to take him out of the time out he doesn't want to leave!! Do you leave him in there until he's ready to say sorry (which has gone as long as about 5mins)? If we leave him in there then the question is: who's in control at that point?

We went to the park today and he didn't want to hold our hand on the way there or on the way back. Thankfully Colin was there and carried him home, if he doesn't hold a hand then he doesn't get to walk like a big boy. I can't be chasing after a toddler out on the streets in my state, it's just physically impossible now.

He's trying so hard to be Mr. Independent and we try to give him as much of it as we can. He wants to read his bed time story to me know, I have mixed feelings about this. I love when he reads to me during the day but at night he tends to drag things on and to prolong story time for as much as possible (when I give him a hug/kiss goodnight I have to give his water bottle a kiss, Pooh Bear, his shark, the sharks eye, the sharks mouth, the sharks nose, etc) So I've had to make the call that Mommy & Daddy are the ones that read the bed time stories, this afternoon he didn't like my decision so he went to bed without a story.

I'm hoping his recent behavioral issues are due to his teeth. He still has bum rashes which have been kept under control thanks to Grammie and Grampie's recent replenishment of Nelda's Paste. This afternoon he peed in his diaper followed by him saying "doo doo" and then he started to cry as he spread his legs apart and got onto his tippy toes. It was obvious that his pee was stinging his bum, during the diaper change we found a little bit of blood on his diaper - but oddly enough, no red bum, just a tiny blood dot under his scrotum.

On the positive side of things, Colin and I were able to go on a little trip to Vancouver and we had a wonderful time! We got to re-connect and spend some well needed quality time together. Colin was in heaven walking down Robson St with his Starbucks in hand while walking into the Lacoste store... and all the sushi the town had to offer. Janet Jackson did not disappoint, we had AMAZING seats and we were literally an arms reach away from her. She had a catwalk that encompassed the pit area (where we were) and she spent a lot of time on it looking into the crowd - I froze when she looked at me, what do you do when your childhood idol looks at you and smiles?! I cried several times throughout her show, she sang a lot of her classics which brought back so many emotions from my past. It was almost therapeutic to see/sing with her.

I spoke to soon...

When Robbie asked to watch TV and I said no, let's play instead - he proceeded to have a temper tantrum on the floor. I sat down to let him figure himself out, after a couple minutes the crying turned into whimpering and then silence....

HAHAHAHA! He's never done this before!! He's been out for half an hour now, I guess I'll just let him sleep there.

No Naps?

For the past two days he hasn't napped, we've put him to bed and all he does is talk to himself and his stuffed animals. We've gone in there to remind him that it's night night time and he says night night back to us but he doesn't settle. Regardless, he needs some down time so we leave him in there until he hollers "mommy" (usually about an hour and a bit) but for the rest of the day he's extra clumsy and a little sensitive. On the bright side, these no nap days have meant that he goes to bed earlier.

The non-napping could be associated with his bum, he has a pretty bad rash on his tush that was causing him a lot of pain last night. Perhaps his 2yr molars are coming in? Regardless, I'm going to have to pick up some more bum paste when we're in Calgary.

"FASTER!"

It seems as though my waddling pregnant butt can't keep up with this toddler. As we were on our way home from the park he asked if he could have a slurpee (a fruit smoothie) I told him mommy would make him one as soon as we get home. So he starts pulling me by my finger and kept repeating "faster mommy, faster!" I couldn't keep up so he let go and he went running up the sidewalk and into the house.

He's also discovered the word "listen". I don't think he fully understand what it means, but it's pretty cute when daddy and I are having a conversation and then Robbie pipes up with "listen!" followed with a bunch of Robbie babble.

Robbie's Hidden Talent - Singing (videos)

Updates

Well here's my attempt at covering everything that's been going on these past couple of weeks.

• Robbie and I went for a walk with Sarah and Claire (Sarah's pup). Robbie met a lady bug! He put his finger out right next to it and it walked onto his finger!! Robbie kept saying "bug, bug, bug"! It was really cool to see him discovering.


• We went to go see Elmo this past weekend. One of our friends at the radio station in Calgary was able to get us as well as her boyfriend (who has a 3 yr old) tickets to the show. So Robbie was Naomi's date for the evening! As soon as the house lights were turned down and the stage lights lit up he was enamoured with all the music and lights! He kept on turning back to me and saying "Elmo.... Big Bird" he sat on my lap (got a better view of the stage if he sat on me) for a good 45 mins but then he started getting anzy (he had just woken up about 10 mins before we left for the show). We wandered around and got some goodies from the gift shop. At intermission they were selling Elmo balloons and (of course) Robbie wanted one. He was really good about waiting his turn in line but as soon as we got a balloon he wanted to hold onto it, he didn't want it tied around his wrist and made it known to the whole world. So I tried to tie it around his belt loop.... he didn't like that idea either, he also didn't like my final call that I'd hold onto it until he was ready to have it tied somewhere. I ended up calling Grampie for a pick up a little bit before the show ended, we were both hungry and had had enough stimulation for one night.


• While we were in Calgary, Grampie took Robbie on 2hr trips to the park! They would come home and eat some food and then Robbie would nap for - get this, 4 hours!!



• After seeing Elmo and all the Seasame Street characters he is obsessed! I'm on YouTube all the time searching for video's for him to watch (Play with me seasame is usually on while he's napping) He's got a Seasame tool belt which Grammie and Grampie gave him last Christmas that's the hottest toy now (he's never shown interest in it before). He woke up this morning and immediately goes to the belt and asks me to put it on and then names all the characters as he puts them into their appropriate holder.


• We got to go to Heritage Park while we were in Calgary and Robbie had a blast! As soon as he saw the big train he squealed with excitement. We were able to go on it several times so he was totally in his element and kept on yelling "all aboard the train!" Grammie bought him an ice cream cone while we were there and he had chocolate ice cream EVERYWHERE - but boy did he ever enjoy it!


• He officially has his full set of teeth (minus the 2 yr molars)


• I picked up a cook book for picking kids and I must say that our first day was a major success! You puree squash, broccoli, beets, etc and they're sneaked into all the baking and cooking. I made a spaghetti pie last night and Robbie had 2.5 servings!!! We made a big deal about him eating at the big boy table and how he got to have his own napkin and it was a big success. He sat at the table with us and kept on asking for more! In that dinner there was broccoli and carrots that were hidden. I can't wait to do some baking and make some other nibblies with healthy veggies in them!!


• He's so interactive lately... such a little parrot! When a TV show comes on and he knows the theme song he'll try singing along to it, if he finds it funny he'll start laughing, if someone's in trouble he'll say "oh no! what are we going to do?"

There's a bunch more pictures on his website :)

The Pregnancy

http://ournumbertwo.blogspot.com/

For people who aren't aware of Eggberts website!