Growing way to fast...

Ally is 14 months old now.  I know I say this all the time, but seriously she is growing up way too fast.  She is now a toddler.  She officially started walking on Saturday, September 8th.  She was taking a step or two in August but it wasn't consistent or with any frequency.  However, when we hit labor day weekend, she was off and running.  It was great because Paul and I were both there to see it.  She just took about 7 steps and hasn't looked back since.  I need to figure out how to post video on here, because we have some adorable footage or her just walking around.  It's about the cutest thing ever because she frequently has something in each hand, sticks her belly out, and walks around a little bit like a drunken sailor.  But an adorable one at that!

She is eating so well now.  I remember all the struggles we had with baby food and I think she just was a late starter with eating.  She just is a girl who likes things on her terms.  Now that she is eating real food, she'll eat it all and loves it all.  We also finally got her over to whole milk.  For awhile she refused even that unless it was in a bottle and warm or would only nurse.  Now, we finally have her drinking milk from sippy cups.  Again, it was all on her terms.  We just kept offering until one day she actually took it.  I always kept offering the alternatives for her, because I knew she'd switch over when she was ready and she did.  And actually, we have Ally off the bottle way before we had Sam.  He was still getting a bottle of milk at nap and bedtime until we was about 16 months old.

However, the one thing that will be a big change coming up for her is that over my fall break (in two weeks) I am going to cut out the nursing.  I am still nursing her at night (it was morning and night until late August) and finally feel that we are ready to stop.  I have absolutely loved nursing her and the bonding we have had together.  I also haven't been in any rush to stop because in all honestly she could be our last child and in a strange way I will miss it!  I think it is such a great bonding time I have had with her and that it really is this miraculous thing that your body can do to provide such great nutrition for you child and I will miss being able to do that.  Not to mention the extra points I was allowed to eat each day because I was still partially nursing on weight watchers...  Oh well, my goal is to stop over fall break, so we will see how it goes!  However, even with the nursing sessions ending at night, I will still rock my baby girl to sleep until she no longer wants us too.  Here is a photo from tonight:

Ignore the tired look on my face.  It was really dark in her room and the flash on the iphone is not flattering at all!  Paul and I have a different way of putting our kids to bed then a lot of our friends, but it works for us, and it works for our kids.  Sam got nursed to sleep every day for 13 months.  Then he got rocked to sleep until he was about a year and a half.  He finally got to the age where he just wanted a book and then go to bed on his own.  We will keep the same thing up with Ally.  Even when we finish nursing, I will keep rocking this little girl until she no longer wants me too.   There is something so calming and so great about watching her fall asleep on my shoulder every night.  I need this snuggle time with my baby girl because I know it won't last forever.

Her sleeping habits have also returned to the way it was when she was little.  Ally loves her sleep.  We start the bedtime process around 7:30 to 8:00.  And she is asleep by 8:30.  If you let her sleep in she'll go until about 8:30 every morning.  When we have to wake her up during the week, we go in her room at around 7:00 am and she looks at us, then rolls over so she can go back to bed.  She definitely loves her sleep.  She is also usually on two naps a day.  During the weekend when we let her sleep in we can do only one, but when she has to get woken up early, we really need her at two naps so she can make it to her bedtime without being extra cranky.

She absolutely loves mac and cheese and peanut butter and jelly.  She is also pretty sure she is a big girl and will take the spoon away from you when we try to feed her applesauce or yogurt and want to do it herself.  Here is a photo of what she normally looks like after dinner:

 You can just see from the look in her eyes that she is going to be a stinker.  It's crazy how much personality has come out in the last few weeks.  She climbs onto everything, wants everything she can't have, and has already learned her fake cry.  Sam will knock her over (sometimes on accident sometimes on purpose) and she'll stop, look at us to make sure we see her, then start crying and scrunching up her face.  It is so stinking adorable.

She still only has two bottom teeth, but I am sure any day now the others will come in!  She so far loves balls.  She is happiest when she has a ping pong ball in each hand.  She also loves pushing her shopping cart.  She is still so content to play by herself, but unfortunately that doesn't happen very often.  Sam is in the phase of taking what she wants.  However, she will usually just find someone else to play with until he comes over and takes it from her again (more on that later...). I can't wait to see what the next few months bring with her.

  

Sam is now 33 months old.  He is getting so big and talking so much every day.  We can literally hold conversations with him now on car rides and over the phone and know exactly what he is talking about.  His favorite things are cars, trains, and anything outside.  His new favorite food that just shocks us is cheeseburgers and pickles.  He has never had an interest in them before now, but now that's what he requests.  

It is getting so much easier to eat out now as a family.  Sam and Ally will split a meal and if we can get a table outside during nice weather it is a very pleasant experience.  The above photo was from Noodles and Company and Sam and Ally ate an entire bowl of mac and cheese.  All we have to do is bring a fruit side and the kids are set.  

Now on to our concerns for Sam.  He has had a really rough adjustment to going to daycare two times a week.  First, he has been sick constantly since enrolling.  I know this is to be expected but a week and a half ago we almost took Sam to the ER for his breathing.  Paul worked from home that day and kept Sam with him to keep an eye on him.  His breathing was rapid and shallow and he wasn't moving very much at all.  Also, we knew he was really sick when we asked him if he would want to go outside or go for a car ride the night before and he asked to stay home.  We got him in for a doctor's appointment at 11:00 on a Tuesday and when he got there they checked his oxygen levels and found that they were really low.  He got a breathing treatment there and it rose a bit which was good or else he would have been admitted into the hospital.  They think what happened is that he just kept having a sickness after sickness and his lungs started building up drainage in them.  So we had to start him on an antibiotic, steroids, and breathing treatments.  It took about a week and a half to get him better but he is finally back to normal I think.  If he gets sick again they might run blood work just to make sure there isn't anything more serious going on.  I did stay home last Wednesday and they checked his oxygen levels for me again at a follow up appointment and it was at 99/100 which makes me feel so much better.

Another  problem with daycare is that he just has such a hard time going.  We had been so fortunate to keep Sam with family for the first 2.5 years that us leaving him is just throwing him off.  Poor Paul drops him off at daycare and Sam starts crying saying Daddy don't leave me, daddy don't leave me and holding his arms up in the air to be picked back up.  I think this week we finally had some progress with him being there, and I believe there were a few less tears then normal, but still, it is so hard and makes me so jealous of all those moms out there who get to stay home with their children.  

Sam switches each day where he goes.  And I know that is hard on him.  On Monday's he is with Paul's mom, on Tuesday he's at Goddard, on Wednesday he's with my mom, Thursday is at Goddard, and Friday's are back with Paul's mom.  So it gets confusing for him I am sure.  He has started waking up at 5:00 in the morning and I really think it is due to stress.  He has also started biting his nails which I am hoping we can break that habit soon.  He was doing it today at the dolphin show at the zoo:

I know that school is important for him.  He is with other kids his age and learning things that I don't think to teach him.  For example, they all drink out of regular cups, not sippy cups.  I never would have thought he was ready for that at this age.  He gets to paint and do fun activities with the other kids.  I know it's good for him I just really pray that things start to go more smoothly and he stresses a little bit less about being left there.  It is so hard that when we ask him what he did at school that day, he answers "I cried at school".  

We are also really needing to work on sharing and not needing to be the center of attention.  I know it is normal two year old behavior.  But he really is taking toys from Ally left and right.  He gets upset if she takes something from him.  We really have to work on getting on him immediately when he does this and making him give the toy back to Ally.  He also has issues with Ally's personal space.  He sits on her constantly, pushes her over, and pretty much squishes her onto the floor while laying on top of her.  Ally usually just laughs and thinks it is hilarious which doesn't help Paul and I teach him that this isn't appropriate behavior.

Because Sam has been sick the past few weeks he has gotten a lot of one on one time with my mom.  He has absolutely loved this.  He gets very excited to go to Grandma's house.  He also has gotten picked up early from daycare the past two weeks and gets to go to my mom's house for lunch and nap.  Mom has had to pick up my dad from radiation treatment and take him home a few times so Sam has gone along on errands with my mom, and she has stopped by my step-brothers shop with Sam so he can see Reva.  Sam got to sit on some big machines there and had a blast.

So he's had some really fun days, we just have to work on getting the drop off at daycare less upsetting to all involved.  We are thinking about making a picture chart that he can move a magnet each night so he knows where he is going the next day.  I really do think he is starting to get up at 5 from the stress of not knowing where he is going even though we try to tell him several times a day.  I never thought I'd be wishing for a 7 am wake up time again, but even 6 would be better then 5 am!

I am hoping to attempt the potty training with Sam over my two week fall break.  So... maybe I'll have another post in a few weeks about how that is going.  I have already decided that if it doesn't go well I'm just going to try again at Christmas Break.  I'm not going to force the issue on him with all the other things he has going on right now that are stressing him out!