What's Millie doing these days?

Millie is now 2 1/2 years old. These last few months have been quite a ride with our preschooler. She has grown by leaps and bounds. She is almost fully potty trained. Bedtime is the only time she tells us she has to "go." Maybe it's a stall tactic. So, we're waiting for the day when she tells us she has to "go" all other times of the day. Other than that, she stays dry while she's awake. I have to admit though that I remain anxious every time we go out (which has not been a lot), afraid she might pee her pants.

As many of you know, I bought two books recently on parenting a strong-willed child because Millie's behavior had been textbook "terrible twos." Disobedience everywhere. No matter what I asked/told her to do, she decided to do the opposite. This was especially hard to deal with when I was out alone with both children (one on my hip) and Millie screaming/kicking/wailing in the aisle. Her behavior made me wish I could just walk away and pretend she wasn't my child. It's hard not to feel embarrassed. So far, one of the suggestions from one of the books that has worked for me is giving Millie two choices: I say nonchalantly "do this or time out/no movies/no dinner (just kidding)". Works like a charm. I've found my wonderful child and it's a beautiful thing.

She's learning so much I hardly know where to begin. It hasn't been real structured though- I need to get better at that. Specifically, Millie loves discovering and acting out opposites like open and close, in and out, that sort of thing. She's tracing letters with chalk which I am amazed by! She purposefully hides toys and books either from us or Camden. She can count pass 10 and she usually does it in a playful way. When we say "me too," she says "me three," then we say "me four," and back and forth until about 14 or 15. It's pretty comical. She jokes around a lot (wonder where she got that from). She likes to ask silly questions. When potty training, I would ask her "Where do we peepee?" She answers correctly "in the potty," and then goes on to ask "Do we peepee go in the sky? in the tree, in the toy," and on and on.

She is more opinionated now about what to wear, eat and play with. She is all about dress up and dressing up her baby brother too. He's such a sport about it. They play so well together- praying it stays that way.

Last weekend, Matt and his Dad started constructing the kids' new backyard playset. I snapped that photo to capture her efforts towards the building project.

Our visit to Steed Dairy Farm

Fall is in the air! We celebrated the cool weather today by going to our local Steed Dairy Farm. It was the best family fun experience I've had all year! Let me tell you this farm had things I've never seen all in one place before. Matt said they should have season passes. So here goes the list of fun:

a jump pillow, a corn kernel "sandbox", horse swings made out of tires, a baby calf born just minutes ago, a preschool only playground with a pipe slide, loads of sand everywhere for Camden's enjoyment, shaded picnic tables throughout, Chick-Fil-A!, adult pipe slides three-stories high, rubber duck races using manual water pumps, big hayride and toddler hayrides, a clean petting zoo, a milking cow, photo opp displays, pumpkins, corn maze, and cows galore!

Oh man, have I worn you out yet? It was AWESOME! We even got our hands-stamped to go back tonight but we didn't. Instead, we went out for ice cream at Brusters! To top it all off, I have my husband back and the kids slept in this morning until 8am! Maybe they're training themselves for the time change??

Needless to say, today was a perfect day!

Camden turns 13 months old!

Our Mister Messy-Mess is already 13 months old. He has spent this last month transitioning to one long nap a day, sleeping from 7pm to 7am (most nights) and getting into everything off-limits.

Here's what he's doing:
- he's said his first real word "that" while pointing at "that"
- imitates a whale "ah-ooh-ga!" He learned that from his new Go Diego Go dvd. He'll say it whenever he's asked what sound the whale makes. It's so funny!
- he's figured out how to get a laugh out of you too. He'll repeat whatever he's doing that you're laughing at over and over again.
- he kisses and hugs all the time.
- he's signing more, all-done, yes and no. We're working on "please" and "thank you".
- he loves playing peek-a-boo.
- he loves chasing the vacuum cleaner.
- he's strong too! he can move our iron bar chairs across the room.
- he loves taking things apart and putting them back. He's becoming his sister's clean-up helper.
- he opens, shuts, climbs, slides, stands (for about 5 seconds), marks with chalk, throws, rolls, and catches a ball.

This month he's experienced some discipline and more "no, Camden" scolds. He's been in timeout most days since September 27th for getting into the dog bowl, Millie's potty chair and our fake plants. For timeout- I put him in the pack n'play for a minute. He handles it well. That's where he has solo playtime a couple times a day anyway.

Camden is still in love with his mama. He nurses 1-3 short times a day. I see an end to breastfeeding probably this month, unfortunately. He's just so busy, and his food intake is a lot more. His favorite food is yogurt, and he could eat it for every meal. He has no problems drinking his milk from a sippy cup or straw or my glass. And for the record on average, he eats more than his sister does.

We love our boy!