The next J.K. Rowling

Thank goodness Teagan is happy to have stories read to her, because if she needed me to make up stories to tell, she's be sorely disappointed. She asked me to do a puppet show with Lalaloopsy colouring pages (yes) and I had to make up a plot on the spot. It was very sad. To give you an idea of how terrible my storytelling is, Teagan tried to imitate my style. Sad indeed.

"Ladies and Gentlemen...Once upon a time there was a girl named Crumbs Sugar Cookie. She went to sleep and it was nighttime forever. Then a wolf went to her rainbow and said "Wow! You're way up high!" And the wolf went to sleep too. The End."

"Ladies and Gentlemen...There was a girl named Jewel and Cat and they were excited to run with the wolves and the good wolves and the rubber duckies. They ran and ran and then there were no good wolves and they fell out of the tree."

"A jewel named Cat was excited to have a picnic with good wolves in the trees. They fell down."

Soon to be bestsellers, I'm sure of it.

Hide and Seek - Tips from Teagan

Yesterday, I had the privilege of participating in a game of Hide and Seek with Teagan, my three year old. I had a lot I wanted and needed to do, but decided to take the time to play with her, which hasn't happened much in the last two months for some strange, cute little reason.

I am so glad I did. It's the first time we've played that she's really gotten the concept. Usually she suggests Hide and Seek and insists I hide with her, leaving no one in the role of seeker. I don't have to tell you it's rather a boring game to play that way. Just spending those 15 minutes taking turns hiding and seeking while the baby slept peacefully in his swing made up for the other 8 hours of the day that were frustrating and difficult. I need to remind myself to play more often. Besides a little recharge to the ol' Mom Battery, I also picked up a few helpful hints when it comes to playing Hide and Seek with Teagan.

1. Be sure to giggle as conspicuously as possible. Especially if you're in a room that echoes.

2. When you plan to hide in a different room, be sure to slam the door as hard as is humanly possible.

3. Mutter "Ow!" and "That hurt me!" as loudly as possible when you're wriggling under a table a few feet away from the person who is counting.

4. When your opponent is having a hard time maintaining their composure while counting in the face of #3, ask astute questions like, "Why you laughing, Mom?" and carry on conversation while you make your way to your "secret" destination.

4. Hide in plain sight every so often to throw your opponent off.

5. By all means, if you find a good hiding place, reuse it multiple times. Waste not, want not.

6. Sound hide-and-seek strategy suggests you hide in the exact same place as your opponent did on your next turn. They won't see it coming.

7. To speed things along and thwart your opponent's (read: mother's) plans to squeeze under a desk, simply skip the numbers 4 through 9 when counting aloud.

And there you have it. A hilarious take on what used to be a fairly boring game. She is at such a fun age, where she's able (but sometimes refuses) to communicate what she wants and we're able to reason with her...unless she's tired, hungry or otherwise cranky. Of course, said communication isn't always 100% effective. It feels more like a game of Mad Gab then anything else at times. Especially when it comes to playing together and her trying to tell us exactly how she'd like the puppet show or the role play to go. I always do it wrong, making it frustrating for both of us. Take today's direction, for example.

Teagan: "You be chicken liver pirate witch."

Me: "Um, what?"

Teagan: "Chicken liver pirate witch."

I mulled it over several times, changing consonants and altering emphases.

Me: "OH! Jake and the Neverland Pirates witch?"

Teagan: "Yeah." I believe this was made more confusing by the fact that she doesn't watch the show, nor do I believe there is a witch involved. She then went on to hand me a "magic wand" and tried to tell me precisely what to do with it - at whom it should be pointed and what they would turn into.

The other day she wanted to pretend it was cold inside our house and brought me a hat, scarf and mittens to wear and wanted me to shiver. Then she caught snowflakes on her tongue. The more I pay attention and play with her, the more I'm in awe of her creativity and imagination and am able to let myself be silly...when no one else is around.

She has very specific ideas for how she wants things to play out when it comes to role playing, so yesterday's impromptu, unscripted game of Hide and Seek was a breath of fresh, understandable air. Love my little lady.

Teagan's Previous Lives

Since Mason's birth, Teagan's been asking whether she did the same things when she was a baby.

While I'm changing his diaper: "I peed in my diaper when I was a baby." True. Also yesterday, but that's for a different entry.

While I'm getting him dressed: "I weared dat when I was a baby." This particular sleeper with football helmets all over it? Not so much, but sometimes she's right.

I suppose all this talk of when she was a baby has caused her to ponder on what else she's done...and from the sounds of it, she's been around the block.

"When I was a monkey, I eat bananas."

"When I was a Mommy, I weared makeup on my face."

"When I was a snowman, I melted."

"When I was a boy, I weared dat sweather."

No wonder she seems to think she's so much older than three.

2 Months of Mason

STATS (at 2 month check-up)
- Weight: 11 lbs. 12 oz. (50th percentile) - hooray for average!
- Height: 22.4 inches (25-50th percentile)
- Head circumference: 41 cm (50-75th percentile)

- size 1 diapers

- kissed some Newborn clothing goodbye and bumped him up to 3 months

- has the most darling dimple in his left cheek - smiling or crying. I prefer the former.

- his right eye tends to drift in the wrong direction but he's got a few more months before it's a concern.

- fantastic hair - it's the first thing anyone comments on.

- his skinny, little chicken legs are starting to fill out. Catching up to his cheeks. (Those are the next things people comment about.)
- he issues a very manly grunt instead of crying at times.
- started to sing and coo - finding his voice.

- great nurser, feel very fortunate it came so easily.

- even better vomiter - it's unreal.

- cries only when he needs something and stops as soon as you figure out what it is.

- sleeps in our room in a fun little contraption I wish I'd had with the first. A rock 'n' play sleeper which fits neatly on my side of the bed so I barely have to move to pull him up to nurse him.

- it's been hard to put him down, he's such a great snuggler.

MASON MOMENTS

I learned that I'm not cut out for babywearing, or may need some practice. I spilled a large dollop of sauce on poor Mason's head at dinner one night.

He met his Auntie Nicola when she came to visit this month. He was blessed on the 1st of December, the first week we met in our brand new church building and he behaved very well.

Love at First Sibling

I know they have the rest of their lives to fight and hate each other, but at least for the last six weeks, Teagan has loved Mason with all her little heart and soul. She was nervous at first, just because he was so small, but she loves to hold him now and won't leave him alone. She's always reading to him, or "helping" me change his diaper and picking out things for him to wear. We tried to eat dinner the other day while he was fast asleep in his bouncer and she refused to eat until he joined us, so we dragged him over next to the table and she plopped her time out chair right beside him and kept him company. So sweet. I took all of these in the first 8 days of Mason's life...I know I need to cool it on the photography but they are so cute together. At the moment. Maybe subconsciously I know it will end soon and I want to be able to remember "the good ol' days"!

1 Month of Mason

STATS (at 1 month appointment 12.5.2013)
- Weight: 10 lbs. 6 oz. (50-75th percentile)
- Height: 21 inches (25th percentile)
- Head Circumference: 39 inches (50-75th percentile)
- size 1 diapers
- 0-3 months clothing (tried to squeeze him into Newborn sleepers for too long)


- Two words: THE HAIR. Inspiring comments since his first appearance.
- Chubby cheeks
- Chicken legs
- Dark blue eyes...so what if the right one drifts in the opposite direction every once in a while?
- Really content - only cries if he needs something
- Got days and nights sorted out really quickly
- Took a binky in the hospital with no problems (YAY!)
- Started taking a bottle when only days old (DOUBLE YAY!)
- Furrows his brow and looks concerned far more than a newborn with minimal problems should
- Prefers the baby swing to the bouncer
- Loves being held - and has hardly been put down since he was born!

MASON MOMENTS

I forgot how small babies can be. Even though he was more than 8 lbs at birth, he feels incredibly tiny and fragile. I know that babies are super resilient and the risk of me doing irreparable damage is minimal, but it doesn't feel that way when I'm holding his entire body in the crook of my elbow. I have a hard time putting him down - he snuggles like a champ, smells like a dream and sleeps like a log. Love my beautiful little man.

Zero to Six Pees

We're up to our eyeballs in diapers over here. Teagan "helped" me by sorting he newborn diapers by Sesame Street characters. Size is irrelevant - it's very important that Mason wears Elmo on the right day.

 

They are the perfect size for her babies (not so much for Mason anymore) and GG made up a wee diaper bag for her to carry around. It's more than a little bit adorable. If only she'd change actual dirty diapers.

At the moment, there are three of us in diapers. Never thought I'd live to see the day. I pulled one of Teagan's out one day and it was comically large in comparison to Mason's teeny tiny newborn ones. And then to add insult to injury, I grabbed one of my hospital issue beauties and nearly cried. 

 

There's so much truth to the fact that a toddler needs to choose when to potty train. Proven by the fact that Teagan finally showed an interest in the whole affair exactly four days after her brother was born. I'd been trying to get her to sit on the potty for weeks and finally gave up, planning to pick it up when she was ready. We took both kids to see the doctor and she asked about potty training, to which I responded that Teagan had absolutely no interest. Then, to make me a liar, she sat on the potty as soon as we got home - thanks to GG. GG was able to convince her to sit on the potty until something actually happened.

The look on her face when she heard the pee hit the bottom of the potty was absolutely priceless. That success lit a fire in her and she was hooked.

She peed in the potty six times that first day. SIX times.

I was so excited she was actually doing it that I promised her a piece of Halloween candy each time she peed on the potty. After a few days of her peeing every few minutes and consequently rotting her teeth, I had no choice but to scale it back to a single Skittle and a fun size chocolate bar for pooping.

A few days in, she actually threw a diaper on the ground and stomped on it, yelling, "Diapers are for babies! I a big girl."

We had a few pairs of big girl everywhere, but they were 2T and 3T, so Sneaky Cheek was at an all-time high, and as they were hand-me-downs, they weren't really characters she was all that interested in. GG suggested we have her pick out some big girl underwear, which she likes to call "everywhere" so we headed to Target, my happy place. We talked to her about all the possibilities and she decided she wanted Minnie Mouse everywhere. And even in the face of Doc McStuffins, the Disney Princesses, Dora AND Bubble Guppies, she came home with Minnie Mouse. A girl of her word indeed.

So far she has been fantastic. And while I'm not able to lift her, in light of my incredibly recent surgery, things are going well. She has a stool in each bathroom and I've only had to lift her onto the potty (sometimes from the bathtub) a few excruciatingly painful times so far. I'm cautiously optimistic. But life just got a whole lot more complicated. And messy.