Since Rowan was born I have been home on maternity leave for the past 6 weeks. It has been a mix bag being home all the time. Apart of me likes being home, but apart of me is going stir crazy! It has been nice to have more time with Liam, although he is going through his terrible 2 phase, which also is mixed with some jealousy of the new arrival. Overall I would say he's doing pretty good considering his situation, but he's had his share of meltdowns...which basically means he's a normal 2 year old. Since he's been stuck at home for more than he would like, we've been giving him some time to run around on the main floor, and I mean he RUNS. Our main floor is open, and not really kid friendly, so we have to watch him like a hawk. He gets into anything and everything that he's not supposed to. But it's good for him to have a change of pace, and it burns off some energy. We got him some snow pants and a winter jacket a few weeks ago. We've tried several times to put them on him, but he just fights it. I had to bribe him with a piece of chocolate the first time we got it on him. But then he wouldn't put gloves on, so he was only able to go outside for a few minutes. Every time since then he just refused it, until yesterday. He's been watching Curious George plays in the snow DVD, and I asked him if he'd like to go outside and play in the snow. He actually agreed, and didn't fight me at all putting the pants and jacket on. He did a little with the gloves, but did put them on after a little convincing. He was able to play outside for about 20 min. or so, and he had a blast! Hopefully he will continue being good about that in the future too, he really needs that outlet. Over the past month or so he has really improved his steadiness on the stairs. We are there to spot him, but he can go up and down without any assistance now. And if he's paying attention to what he's doing, he has avoided falling by sitting on his bum and going down that way. His language continues to grow, and he's starting to better be able to communicate what he wants. He is also very aware of the sounds around him. If he hears a truck outside, he will run over to the window to look at it, and he will say 'truck'. Also if he hears a plane above us, he will say 'airplane'. He got a kitchen set for Christmas, and since it's a toy the water from the sink is pretend, but he thinks it's broken, we thought that was pretty funny! He's pretty good about play cooking, and it's fun to watch him. His other favorite play time activity is play-doh.
One major milestone he had over the past month was he started to climb out of his crib, so we had to change it to a toddler bed. This has been quite the challenge for all of us. He doesn't like being left in his room, and he doesn't quite understand the idea of staying in bed and going to sleep. He usually cries when we leave the room then plays with his quiet toys until he gets so tired he just flops over asleep on the floor. We sometimes will go in after he's asleep and put him in his bed, but he just falls out onto the floor shortly after. This new development has also created a problem for nap time. He often will take 1 -2 hours to fall asleep now, which means he's sleeping till about 5pm in the evening. Most of the time he wakes up mad and cries for up to an hour sometimes. And then he's not tired at bedtime, around 8pm, and it takes another 2 hours to fall asleep making it 10pm! Then he sleeps in in the morning, making him not very tired when nap time comes around at 1pm. We are not sure what to do about nap time. We know it's important, but it messes up his bedtime. We have been doing 'quiet time' where he is offered a chance to take a nap or play 'quietly' in his room. This also gives me a break to either take a nap or get some much needed stuff done around the house. Anyway, this issue will change when I return to work in six weeks because he will be getting up earlier, and might be tired by nap time again...time will tell. I have realized being a mom over the past 2 years that when issues arise they tend to go away so quickly because the child's needs change so quickly!
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