no eatin'

I have to accept it. I have to accept that s is a squirt and that at the rate that she is going she will be a squirt. She and g are dissimilar again in that way. To this day, she rarely eats more than 4 oz of food at a sitting. More often her nanny would only feed her 2 oz and about an hour later would feed her the second 2 oz.

g at this point ate 4 oz a sitting and drank 8 oz at a time. s have at times drank 7 but we are surprised by that since it is so rare. A side effect of so little food means that she wakes up more often at night to eat.

I guess I grew in the school of thought that the happy eater is a happy child. This was further reinforced by little g who never had a problem eating. I thought I could just let go since it seems that I was the only person who had issue with this. The ped does not seem concerned.

I recognize that it is probably more my issue than it is hers. I think I will still have to move her towards having 5 meals a day instead of 10 but I just have to accept that will take time.

g's first daddy portrait

 

I was pretty amazed that she finally got it. I have been trying to get her draw something other than circles and lines for the last few days. Today after doing her usual cutting and pasting, she said she wanted to draw a picture of Daddy who she says she misses. I didn't even have to help her on this one...well, maybe a little verbal coaching. I told her to draw the head, then the eyes, then a nose, then a smile...you get the picture. She did it. She even drew in some glasses.

She loved her portrait so much that later on when I cut out a house and a little portrait of herself, she asked to cut out her Daddy as well. When we pretended that she was leaving her paper house to go to the imaginary park, she said that Daddy had to go with her and push her on the swing. Then Daddy took her home and put her in bed.

Awwww....shucks.

This is the picture of the "artist" and her work. This is also g's first picture with her "snazzy" new haircut. It's growing on me. I think the shape of the cut emphasizes her little chin. Cute.

Two Different little people

I have to get over the idea that I have one child in two bodies. I do in fact have two separate and very different little people. It is definitely not a case of one being better than the other. They are just different. After I had g, I was lulled into complacency. Though she was never an easy child, we have "figured" her out. We know what she liked and disliked, and mistakenly thought that most children (or at least my own future children) would like and dislike approximately the same things, that they would approximately have the same temperament, etc, etc.

Well, s took that concept and smashed that to bits. She has chosen mainly to do things her way. From the simple physiological standpoint, they don't look much alike. g had teeth at 5 months and had a few of them already by 10 months. s (at 9 months) finally sprouted her first set which have only begun to peek out. Where g is a voracious eater (her eating has become legend), s can take it or leave it. Today she might drink 7 oz of milk at a session, tomorrow she refuses more than 3 1/2. Solid foods is still a chore for her whereas g attacked it with gusto.

I could go on. I have come to this realization a little late or maybe I just refused to let go. Letting go has been difficult. I see g growing up so quickly. She is now almost 3. Her little personality is set. She is funny to talk to and she loves to be the comedian. Her stories are a little far fetched still but at least she creative. In a twisted way, I might be wishing to relive a little of g's babyhood again in s. I don't know if that is the case really but I have no choice but to see them both for who they are.

Van Saun Park

Otherwise known as the Bergen County Zoological Park. I got a tip from one of my mommy groups that this was a nice zoo to go to. I had pretty low expectations especially since after going to the zoo's website (or lack thereof). The website consisted of hours, ticket prices and not much else.

I figured it was pretty close to our home. At the worst case, we could all go to Ikea and try to get g into the ball pit again (she was less than an inch shy of the 36 in minimum.) I packed some snacks for g, some food for s and off we went.

At 10:30, the 2 parking lots closest to the zoo was already full. We got lucky and got a space just as someone was leaving. The zoo is part of Van Saun park so parking is not limited to zoo visitors. From reviews I have read online, parking seems to be a bad situation. On the bright side, there are many lots around the park.

The zoo was small as all the online reviewers had stated but it was really well maintained. Another plus is the train ride and the carousel. Both of which were very fairly priced ($1/piece) The carousel was a welcome surprise. It was really well maintained. The animals on the carousel does not look like it has been worn or weathered.



The only drawback is the food concession. There was a choice of hotdog or pretzels and that was it. There was a "roadside cafe" outside the zoo that has a slightly expanded menu (chicken fingers, grilled cheese, etc) but not that much more of an upgrade. My suggestion is BRING YOUR OWN. Everyone else seem have gotten the memo. There was more than ample picnic tables, benches strewn everywhere (inside and outside the zoo).



There were age separated playgrounds which was cool and a large area where people were grilling and throwing parties. I saw at least 4 birthday parties complete with man on stilts going on. There was also a clean bathroom for everyone's use. Nice.

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better park experience.

More gratuitous photos:

g at the beach

This is g with her first sand castle. We had thought that the beach was going to be a bust since g doesn't like sand. Apparently what she doesn't like is sand IN her shoes. When she is barefoot, she doesn't mind at all.



g and the "big" waves

Potty Training (g style)

Just in case you have not heard...g is fully potty trained. I would like to say record time but I think that honor still belongs to D (S's son) who was potty trained in a day. g potty trained herself really.

Finally at 22 months, g decided to potty train herself. Gmom had been on a campaign to potty train her since she turned one. Aside from the physical impossibility of that, I really didn't think she was ready. Why physically impossible? The "official" definition of potty trained is being able to "say" or know that she needs to go to the potty, toddle to the bathroom, pull down her pants, do her business, wipe herself clean and pull her own pants back up. At one, she had just learned to walk and wouldn't have the balance to bend down and clean herself much less pull up her pants without tipping herself over.

Anyway, fast forward to 22 months, we have been doing a small campaign to convince her to go to the potty for a few weeks. She was never interested though. She has gone to the extent of even holding it until we put the diaper back on. This went on for a bit until we went on a trip with K's family. A, K's son, has been potty trained for a while. g noticed while they were playing that A wasn't wearing a diaper and K told g that she should tell me when she needs to go and that she doesn't really need a diaper. She took that comment and pondered.

She repeated that phrase for a few days. She also made a connection with Ikea's ball pit. There's a policy for that play area that everyone in there should be potty trained. So we have been trying to play this card for a while but she didn't seem to care much. Now she put K's comment and Ikea's ball pit together. Within days of our return from that trip, I decided that maybe she was finally ready. We used the pull-ups for a day until I realized that she treated the pull-up like a diaper. So that night, we went to Target to pick out underwear. She chose a Dora and an Elmo pack.

The next day we went cold turkey. She chose the elmo underwear. We expected that we would have to do a load of laundry every day, but in fact, she went to bathroom from the first day onward.

She has had a few accidents, mainly during wake up time first thing in the morning. Sometimes she doesn't quite make it and would drip a little but on a whole, she went in the potty for both #1 and #2 within a week.

YES!!!!

Speaking of Hershey Park

I usually post a review of any spot that the family c find ourselves in. However this time around, there doesn't seem to be much to say.

Short version: Not worth the trip until the kids are older.

Long version: We spent a few hours in Hershey Park. It was a nice ride and we made it there fairly quickly. After lunch, we started exploring the park and found that aside from handful of rides, there really wasn't much for the kids to do. By the time we had gone around searching for rides to take, it was pretty much the end of the day.

Nice thing though is the small zoo that they had in the premises. We also really liked the chocolate factory tour and of course, g loved the samples. This is one of the several "firsts" of this trip. This was her first taste of chocolate and she is hooked.



Here was her first solo ride. I thought she might freak out when the ride began but she handled herself like a champ.

This trip marked the first trip she has taken diaperless. Yep, our baby is potty trained. We had bought a travel potty for just this purpose but she didn't even need it. She went in the adults potty and never had an accident.

Aside from this, there was nothing much else for a toddler. Too bad.

Another gratuitous shot

I just got a new camera so there will be many gratuitous shots to come.

Here's one of s while we were waiting for her sister to wake up from her nap at Hershey Park.

My little squirt

Despite having thunder thighs, little s is still an ounce shy of 17 lbs, putting her in the 10th percentile. She's a shorty as well, measuring just 26 1/2 inches. I think she might have gotten my height. The ped doesn't seem too concerned as long as she is growing....I guess.

Yet again this is another departure from her big sister who never strayed from the 50th percentile. Little s reminds me constantly that she is very different from her sister. It is good that she is very much an individual. It can be difficult as well because just when I think I have gotten a handle on this mommy thing, s comes in and blows up all the rules. So once again as parents, we are left to make it up as we go along.