Two Years Old

My baby girl is growing up and with fresh snow on the ground she turned two a two weeks ago.   It's been quite the year of joy, advances, and challenges.    Overall it's been a wonderful year.

Firsts for the 24th month: Lots of sentences!  Fully weaned from mama milk, and sleeping through the night, early stages of potty training.

Yes, I'm calling it -  Mae is sleeping through the night.   Now that said it's not every night and often she still fusses enough that we have to go in and hug her once or twice - but she has stayed in her own room almost every night.    She's been sleeping in the pack-n-play and she loves it in there - must simply feel more secure than her little bed.  I'm happy with it - it creates confinement.  :)    So sleep is slowly coming to our house.   Hooray!!

Mae herself has also began to show interest in potty training - this mommy isn't quite ready to go fully force into the adventure - but Mae shows signs of being ready.  Like a week or so ago she stripped off her diaper, went potty in the little potty, and then came and told me that she had gone potty... and she had!!  Much rejoicing and many more times attempted but we haven't repeated this awesome spontaneous event.    She is pretty adorable and will sit there sometimes for a while and repeat what I've told her "takes time"  which just sounds so cute coming from her.    Mae also is happy to sit there while we sing Row Row Row Your Boat and play Patty Cake.  :) She does the motions and it's so cute to watch her try to 'roll it'!

Over Christmas we went and visited her  Aunt and Uncle and she fell in love with Uncle Kai!  Yes she is in love with Uncle Kai and when her birthday got closer I asked what she wanted for her birthday and she said "Uncle Kai...come here... come home!"   she also was very specific on what she wanted for her birthday cake:  "Purpul cake!" Our little princess got what she asked for in a quite birthday party themed to My Little Pony and family.  :)  A post to come on this specifically.

Mae's vocabulary has expanded a lot and she's doing great communicating to us what she needs, wants, doesn't want.  :)   It's nice to understand her with most things - although occasionally she still has her own language squeaked in there.     She and her brother love to laugh together and in the car they've very recently started to tell knock knock jokes to each other - there is nothing that is legitimate that anyone else would label these as jokes - besides "Knock Knock... Who's There"  but they enjoy saying weird things - most often Mae says "Cookie Monter" in response to 'Who's there' - somehow Ace works that out and doesn't tire with it.  Although he does tire with the Knock Knock game and will attempt to change it to "I Spy" which Mae doesn't engage with and so then the two of them are in the back simply saying "knock knock... I spy"  back and forth over and over.    Depending on my tolerance level, their volume level, and the length of the drive that tends to be stopped by intervention.   They also play pretty well together at home and Mae has gotten very good at playing hide and seek - which is great because then they can entertain each other when I'm trying to cook dinner!   They enjoy each other's company most of the time.  Most of the time.  ;-)

Health wise - Mae has had a pretty good run the last few months.  In general her 2nd year of life was an adventure.    She no longer has a food allergy though and we're quite thankful about that!!   She's itty bitty like her mama and weighs in at 19.4lbs and 30.3" tall (if you're wondering that's just a tad bigger than Ace was at 1.   However, I weighed 19lbs and was 30" at 2 as well - so I'm not concerned with her tiny stature.  :)

Favorites for Mae include at the moment: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (she'll stand perfectly still and engaged (zombied?) for a solid 10 minutes just watching it.)  She loves Printhesses, Ponies!!!, and her babies.   She's quite girly and loves to carry around her purses, wear hats, and change her clothes often - although her favorite outfit is simply a diaper.  It can be freezing cold and she'll be content (yet cold) wearing only a diaper - no matter how many outfits or layers we try to put on her - she'll strip them off quickly.  I hope this is a short lived phase.  She loves to read and some of her favorites still are Good Night, Moon,  Good Night, Gorilla, Fancy Nancy books, and the "Princess Book"  which is His Little Princess: Treasured Letters from Your King -  she loves to sing and clap and her dance is adorable.   She loves to say prayers to Jesus and has started to be repetitive in prayers.  She currently loves to touch my tummy as her go-to comforting option.   She's a joy.  

She eats like a bird, but can jug milk from a cereal bowl in no time flat.  She is adorable and we love her joy, her laugh, her smile, her scowl, and her strong willed personality.  :)  We can't wait to see what Year Three brings us!  No diapers is on this mommy's bucket list!   Happy 2nd Birthday, Mae Mae!

Sibling Update

I haven't really given a concentrated update specifically on the siblings.  Yes, that can be said with an ominous voice.   You see the last time I really focused on how they were doing was shortly after Mae became mobile.    Ace had been doing very well with that.   So how is he now???  How is Mae?

Overall the two of them are doing very well to not only to coexist together but also to play nice.  Ace is an extremely loving brother and for the most part patient.    He loves to take pictures with her and asks to pose for them.

Ace loves to tell us (the parents) "Look at your daughter!" when Mae is doing something silly. It's amusing. He loves to hold her hand, pick her up, show her how to do things and tell her things.   

Mae loves these things as well - to a point.   Mae is a typical little sister more and more each day.  She wants to do everything Ace is doing, she doesn't understand "that's his" just yet, and seems willing to explore every location her brother is.  She loves him a lot and wants to be just like him in many ways.

They have their moments of tug of war over a toy, a seat, or a piece of something - they scream refuse to relent without intervention - so you know - normal.   :)  These moment are still more the exception than the rule and that makes us pleased.  

We want them to continue to love and respect one another as their personalities and roles in the family alter and change.   They are adorable individually and together and I think if they work together could cause all sorts of trouble, in the fun kid-sort of way!

They certainly are off and about on their adventures.  Sometimes together, sometimes on their own.  But really, by choice or objection they can almost always be found togheter.  :)



Sweet Siblings

I thought it was time for another Sibling post - to check in and see how they are adapting and owning their roles as brother and sister.   After Mae first arrived Ace was in love.   He loved his sister from the moment that he knew she existed inside of my belly.   Then the question came, would he love her on the outside and the initial answer was a proud yes.   So what about now - nearly 8 months later?  Now that they are both mobile, chatty, and independent...

Ace asks to say good night to his sister every night, even asks if she can sleep in his bed.

He still loves to hug and kiss her.

They both let mom take their pictures. :)



He wants to talk to her all the time... he waits for her to be awake so he can say 'hi sister!'



They've enjoyed their tub time together and play nicely together.

He even is willing to let her eat his apple and climb all over him.





They have a good time with each other and love to play together.

 So even in light of Mae's new mobility, Ace is very patient and loving with his sister.   We're skeptical that this will last forever though once he isn't able to climb to higher ground to escape her... but for now he is 100% pro-sister.  :)  And loves her very much - and since the day she was born Mae's turned her head every time she's heard her brother. It's very sweet.

Siblings

And finally they meet...

This pregnancy wasn't been just about me and Loving Husband this time. It was uniquely more involving our son. Finding ways to help him understand that another person was inside mommy, that another person would be coming to live with us and share his world that had been exclusively his, and help him learn to love his sister before her arrival. Throughout my pregnancy I was very happy with how well he took to his sister. In fact, he knew it was a sister well before any confirmation of that fact.

Ace has been very attentive to his sister during pregnancy. He has wanted to rock 'her' and he sat in my lap, holding my stomach and we'd rock in the rocking chair. He gave her kisses, hugs, said good morning to her - almost every day. He wanted to see sister ALL the time and constantly was pulling up my shirt to say 'hi' to his sister. He wanted to buy her presents all the time. On one occasion while we were in the Baby Gap - he came over to me with a tiny stuffed bunny in his hands and asked "I get this for sister?" He was very loving - he didn't ask so he could have it for himself, he truly wanted to give it to his sister... and so we bought the tiny little white bunny. He pressed it to my tummy. I suggested that we put it in her bag so that he could give it to her at the hospital when he came to meet her. As soon as we got home that's what we did. For weeks after that - he would ask to make sure we had her present. He'd want to verify it was in the bag. After verification he'd smile and wander off.

I spend endless time talking to him about what would happen upon his sister's arrival. He knew that he got to go to Gran and Pop Pop's house and that he would be spending the night for a couple of nights. He knew that he would come and visit sister in the hospital and then still go home to Gran and Pop Pop's while mom and dad stayed with sister in the hospital. He knew that sister would come home with us after we left the hospital... and as much as I would have hoped for a more natural occurrence of labor - an induction was just what we needed to truly make this an easy transition for Ace.

On Sunday evening we finished dinner and packed up the car and headed over to the grandparents. Ace was so excited to be there and played around for a bit. I got all his stuff laid out for bed - Tiger, Chip & Dale all accompanied us as snuggly bed companions - not that he really snuggles with stuffed animals, but they do sleep in his bed with him at home - so the comfort of them at Pop Pop's was important to have too. We assisted in the bedtime process and there was some mild fussing and protest to sleeping there - he calmed down and we left. After we left there was one more round of sadness and then ultimately he slept through the night. Upon waking he enjoyed breakfast, some Mickey, and walks in the snow with Pop Pop.

His sister arrived just shy of 3pm and we called and said to come on over anytime after 4:30pm. We readied ourselves and the present - I had told Loving Husband that I would be disappointed (although not surprised) if after all that build up he shied away from wanting to give it to her now - the family arrived and Ace was all smiles. He came right up to the bed and wanted to meet his sister. He said "Hi sister" and rubbed her leg. It was so sweet... we captured a few family photos and then let him run around the room for a moment.


A few minutes of exploring and we asked him if he wanted to give the bunny to his sister and indeed he did. He climbed back onto the bed and handed it to his sister. Sister 'took' it and hugged it. We took some family photos with everyone, then Ace scampered down to run around some more. Gran and Pop Pop took over oogling our little girl some and then Gran and Pop Pop headed down to the cafeteria to get some dinner for themselves and bring us some back up when they were complete with theirs. Loving Husband and Ace went exploring around the hospital. Mae and mommy stayed in bed and snuggled with her bunny.


Upon return of everyone - we ate some dinner. Ace ate my meal that was provided by the hospital - and LH and I enjoyed the food the grandparents had brought up from the cafeteria for us. I scarfed mine down pretty quick. During our eating, Ace wanted to get a burp cloth to 'wipe sister' - he had helped pack the diaper bag and had decided that she needed two burp cloths in there and knew where they were - so he went and grabbed one. Sister didn't particularly NEED to be wiped, but we allowed him to 'help'. It was very sweet.

After we finished eating and around 6pm - Ace was getting ancy to go back to Pop Pop and Gran's. He understood he had one more night at their house. He gave sister back her bunny, gave her a kiss, said goodbye to mom and dad and left with the grandparents happily. It was very sweet and an excellent first meeting between siblings.