September Older Toddlers and Preschoolers

[gertdog]

Where is everyone? Chasing rambunctious and contrary little children? That's what I've been doing, anyway. :)

Ryan started in a new class at school last week- there are 8 kids at his school that are within 4 months of age, and the director decided to create a class just for that group. There is only one teacher, but none of the kids in the class are full-time, so there's a max of 6 kids on any given day. The teacher is new to the school, but seems great- she has a really nice mix of warmth, enthusiasm and patience, and relates really well to the kids. Ryan is coming home grubby, happy and tired. I asked him last week if he liked his new teacher and he nodded yes- and then said "Sometimes I love her, Mommy." Too cute. I'm bummed that we'll almost certainly have to decrease Ryan to 2 days/week sometime this fall due to my job ending at the end of December.

I have my 20-week ultrasound next week, and assuming all is well we plan to tell Ryan that his days as an only child are numbered. ;) Any tips from moms of 2 or more are welcome!

[Megan James]

I realize that I am actually now a "preschool" mom and not just an older toddler mom. Rebecca has her first day of preschool tomorrow. We went to a picnic and open house for the preschool last week and I am really excited about it. We switched daycare's about 2 months ago and I've been mostly happy with the new place but am missing some things about the old place. But with the new place comes the preschool 2 days a week (Rebecca will be walked there by the daycare provider) and I'm really excited about that. The main teacher at the preschool seems really good.

We're now a 2 kid family (William is 2 weeks now) and slowly adjusting. Rebecca is for the most part doing well but seems to pick the times Will is being most fussy to demand attention.

Oh add to all the above that we are making another attempt at potty training, this time with jelly beans as a bribe. So far she's sat on the toilet a bunch (reward=2 jelly bellies) but yet to go pee (4 jelly bellies) or poop (a big handful). Several times she's gone in her diaper less than 10 minutes after sitting on the toiler. It's only been 2 days so I'm trying not to be frustrated.

It's probably not a great time to potty train but 2 kids in diapers is too much! I use cloth and wash my own. The volume of diapers a newborn goes through is insane! With the 6 poops a day and then he seems to wet an insane amount (like more than Rebecca..). Plus 3 or 4 of my large sized pocket diapers have reached the end of their life and I really don't want to buy new ones at ~$15 a shot. So we are trying to get by on less diapers for Rebecca and it's tough. I'll use some disposables to fill in the gaps but don't want to do that for too long. Plus between the two of them the volume of dipes to be washed is almost too much to wash every other day and I am not ready to wash diapers EVERY day. Yes I realize I signed up for this with cloth but I also assumed Rebecca would be out of dipes by 2 1/2. Not so.

[greta]

Stephanie,
Why don't you come up to Niskayuna on the weekend of Sept 19th and I'll give you a crash course on three! Two will seem like a piece of cake. :)
Greta

[lisas3575]

LOL, Greta! Nice to see you! I can barely, barely handle one-- so I am in complete awe of you with three. I got a typically snarky email from my mom saying that she doesn't think I appreciate that I have 4 days "off" from Owen with daycare, and get to talk to adults for 8 hours, that she never had that and raised three kids without much help from my dad. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: It annoyed me on so many levels but also served as a good reminder to pull up my big girl panties and quit complaining about how difficult he is.

We're on our third week at the new daycare and I'm super happy with it. Owen loves it too, and is doing really well there. Yay!

My FIL sent me this article (http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/08/noxon_essay/) today and I got a huge chuckle out of it, after a horrible start to our Monday morning. Sometimes it's just nice to be reminded that I'm not alone! He makes some good points. ;) Beware of some NSFW language.

[gertdog]

LOL, Greta! Nice to see you! I can barely, barely handle one-- so I am in complete awe of you with three. I got a typically snarky email from my mom saying that she doesn't think I appreciate that I have 4 days "off" from Owen with daycare, and get to talk to adults for 8 hours, that she never had that and raised three kids without much help from my dad. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: It annoyed me on so many levels but also served as a good reminder to pull up my big girl panties and quit complaining about how difficult he is.


This made me laugh- not at your expense- but because I have been a little panicked about the idea of having Ryan at home, with his through-the-roof energy levels, along with a newborn, and I've been telling myself, well, my mom was home with me and my younger sister until I was 5, and millions of moms manage two or more kids, so stop worrying! Then my mom, on hearing my plan to reduce Ryan's daycare days after the baby arrives, says "Oh no, how will you manage???" Me: "Well, you managed somehow." Mom: "Oh, but you were never as high-energy and challenging as Ryan is. He's going to run you ragged." Gee, thanks Mom, NOW I'm worried. And thanks for the vote of confidence!

Lisa- I'm so glad you're happy with the daycare decision!

Greta- I think I'm taking you up on that offer... :D

[lisas3575]

Megan, I can see how two kids in cloth diapers = mountains of laundry. We ended up kind of splitting the difference with disposable vs. our cloth diapers, mostly because DH could never get on board with them. :rolleyes: Anyway, it had never occurred to me at the beginning that we could use both, it was a black or white issue to me. Maybe you can switch your DD to disposables and use cloth for your DS since he's going through more of them? Just another option. :)

Potty training is hit or miss here too. He does really well at daycare (the group mentality I think) and not so great at home. We're plugging away though, and not making an issue of it.

I tried a little Love and Logic this morning (Lara, are you out there?? :D) on Owen-- getting dressed for the day is always a battle, so I told him the car was leaving in 5 minutes regardless of if he had clothes on or not. He rode to daycare in a pullup and socks, and was sooooo upset about it. :D He cooperated quite nicely putting his clothes on in the car when we got there. I was terrified that he'd think it was fun to go naked and that would be the new battle. :eek: We'll see if it made an impression tomorrow.

[LaraW]

I tried a little Love and Logic this morning (Lara, are you out there?? :D) on Owen-- getting dressed for the day is always a battle, so I told him the car was leaving in 5 minutes regardless of if he had clothes on or not. He rode to daycare in a pullup and socks, and was sooooo upset about it. :D He cooperated quite nicely putting his clothes on in the car when we got there. I was terrified that he'd think it was fun to go naked and that would be the new battle. :eek: We'll see if it made an impression tomorrow.

I remember putting Natalie in the car and taking her to Target once wearing a shirt and one sock. No panties, no nothing :eek: It was really cold that day and the whole way there I was trying to figure out what I would do if she didn't want to get dressed when we got there. Luckily she got dressed. :p

Stephanie, Natalie is a super high-energy kid. She has always gone to school 2 days/week and I am home the other 3. We do a LOT of playing outside, playing at the park, etc. When Colin was a baby and was taking a nap in the AM, we would use that time to play in the backyard. If you don't have a swingset in your backyard, it might be something to consider. The other thing is that if you have a baby bjorn, the new baby can be put in there for walks, etc when he/she is a newborn and not on as much of a schedule. Colin was born in January and he seemed to stay warm enough if I put a sweater and hat on him, and then I put my coat on over the bjorn and kind of closed it around him. You will get into a routine :) That was my biggest fear of having 2, just the logistical juggling of them both but it has (mostly) worked out. At least for now. Ask me again in 20 years ;)

[cchhbb]

I usually lurk here, although have a 3 year old. My DS1 was taken to school one day in his jammies and thought it was great. A huge battle started.

DS2 one day wouldn't let me dress him and I had to take DS1 to big school. I just put him in the car completely naked. He screamed the whole way. DS1's teacher got him out of the car during carpool and almost died to see DS2. I ended up getting DS2's preschool teacher to dress him that morning. DS2 and I haven't had that problem again. He usually dresses himself before he comes downstairs.

gertdog, you'll do fine at home with two kids. DS1 is extemely high energy and we still spent a lot of time outside when DS2 was born. Everytime DS2 slept, DS1 and I were outside in the yard, sometimes in raincoats.

[gertdog]

Hey, we had a potty success this morning! Since Ryan is (ahem) very regular, we know that within 10 minutes or so of leaving the breakfast table there will be a dirty diaper. So, I've been asking if he wants to sit on the potty right after breakfast. Today he did, and sure enough he went in the potty. He was SO pleased. We'll see if this goes anywhere or if it was only a one-time thing. I was relieved to learn that none of the other almost-3s in his class at school are potty trained yet.

Yesterday I stopped at the grocery store before picking up Ryan at daycare, and when we got home I asked him to put a new bottle of hand soap in the downstairs bathroom. He came back a few minutes later, looking stricken, and said "the soap is all gone, Mommy." Turns out he'd taken off the pump top and poured the entire bottle down the sink drain. I have no idea why. Our sink was very foamy for a while! He seemed so distressed about it that I couldn't get mad. Guess hand soap is on the grocery list again this week. What goes on in those little brains?