Age 2 Part 2 | Lip Picking, Nose Digging, Sneaking Toddler & Poopy Diapers Flying

"I guess we're never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy ..." ~ Seal

2 1/2 is a busy age with awesome conversations, play and a few bad habits!

I have to admit that life has been CRAZY since he turned 2 1/2 years old. It has been months of him sneaking around to tear off poopy diapers, lip picking, nose picking and sometimes he even has a little taste of his finger (YUCK). I am starting to wonder WHAT'S UP with that because he is so persistent about the picking. When not the lip it his is nose. I am frustrated that I cannot make him stop and hopeful that it will resolve on it own ... sooner than later!

Here's what life is like every 10 minutes or so these days (he is just about 2 years 10 months old) and so busy! I am grateful that my husband and teen help a lot!

Me: Max, are you picking your lip.

Max: NOOOOOOO (in a very loud and matter of fact like tone), I'm picking my nose!

Me: Well, stop picking your nose. It's yucky!

(Hiding my laugh - I go to Facebook to share this funny moment with my family. I look up because it's so quiet to find that HE DISAPPEARED)

Me: Max, where are you?

(No answer. I look in his bedroom because that is the only place he could be ... all of the other doors are locked to him from getting into everything. He jumps a mile high when he sees me because ... he was picking his nose in private this time - LOL.)

Me: What are you doing Max?

Max: AH, NO, it's the nose monster!

(He sounded just like a cartoon character, LOL, now I'm a nose monster? OK?)

So, I instruct my nose picking toddler to follow me out of his bedroom (to the living room) and I sit at my desk to write a post. I look up to see if he's come out of his room ...

Low and behold he's there with his pants at his ankles and quietly taking of his diaper - YIKES!!!

Just so you know, he does not poop on the potty, so we're potty training his way (uh hum) where we have to telepathically sense when it's time to dash from the pulled diaper to the potty because he likes to work independently these days - You know?

Our toddler is almost 3. He picks his lip and nose. He pees on the potty. He rarely poops on the potty!

We've had some crazy crazy crazy potty training moments this month ...

He will pee on the potty pretty much every time and often lets us know that he has to go. On  the other hand, he will not tell us when he has to poop and he rarely poops on the potty at all.

This has been a stage of poopy diapers flying everywhere and his sneaking into Desitin, wet wipes, bathrooms, wiping poop on windows and dropping poop on the floor. It's not that we aren't watching him, but that our 2 year old is so fast. We can do nothing solo in the house any more. Going to the bathroom, doing dishes, washing clothes, typing on the computer, getting everything ready for a bath, etc., is all a two parent job with this particular son (my other children did not require this extra potty training care at all). One parent has to literally sit with our son while the other parent does what is needed.

Believe you me, there is no more poop schedule or estimating when it is time, it is like our son can make himself poop, too. For example, if he has a temper tantrum that requires our putting him in his room (he gets like this sometimes when he's exhausted), we have to listen well and peek in whether he is crying or not because sometimes we come in to a poopy mess. It is something he started when he turned 2 and is inconsistent about, therefore we cannot assume that is how his body reacts when angry.

LORD GIVE ME STRENGTH!!!

We've have to watch our little bird like a hawk these days! he's so fast, creative and independent at almost 3 years old.

In motherly love,
Lea

2 Year Olds Are Terribly Terrific | Time To Retire "The Terrible Twos" Cliche

Terrific 2 Year Olds | No Such Things As Terrible Twos

One would think that we would have ditched the term "terrible twos" by now. I absolutely hate it and feel like I was brainwashed to feel this way with child #1, though just did not see it that way by the time my 2nd child turned two and I certainly do not see it with child three. I think two years old is the most incredible stage in a child and parents life. It is a true transition from "baby" to "toddler" ... They are absolutely adorable in their Ds (demands, development and drama - LOL) - Two years olds are "terribly terrific" and we should start using that instead. Please make sure to LIKE and +1 if you agree!!!

I am using this post to link up to the past and future posts of what to expect when your baby turns 2 years old. From Potty training to potential potty mouth situations; temper tantrums and touching moments ... Terrific Twos!

2 Years Old Toddler Training

Potty Training (2 Years Old))
Potty Training our two year old has been quite an experience. It actually becomes more challenging as we move forward. Our 2 year old is awesome about not peeing in the pool (we know because he goes before we get in the pool and has to go immediately after his swim) and between diapers, but will not go without a diaper by his semi-tantrum choice and will not poop on the potty at all.

2 Years Old Independent Qualities

Toddler Reading, Playing, Helping (2 Years 2 months 23 Days)
This age reminds me of my 2nd son's favorite movies called Baby Geniuses. In the movie the babies had advanced universal knowledge and could speak a secret baby language, but 'cross over' at age two to become the toddlers we are all familiar with (learning to talk, reason and toddler development). I do believe our baby crossed over at 2 years one month old because he stopped talking as much as he had before (it was like he was speaking in sentences at age 1), though started doing all of these wonderfully amusing and developmentally appropriate things a few months later: reading to himself, stacking huge block towers, wanting to play trains, puzzles and drive his car without anyone pushing him. Best of all, our 2 year old became passionate about helping around the house.

2 Years Old Toddler Play

Order (2 Years 3 Months Old)
At first I thought our 2 year old was OCD or Autistic. Many moms have confirmed that his lining up cars, blocks and stuffed animals is just his toddler way of created order in his world. He continues to play like this as the months progress. By the time he was 2 years 4 months old, he would ask me to sit with him ("play with me mommy") to line up a lot of cars with the purpose of racing. He would not let me help at first, though this changed by the time he turned 2 years 6 months. He now likes us to sit and "play cars" which still consists of lining up his cars to "make em race" but every car goes in the line now.



In motherly love,
Lea @ Mother Baby Child

Best Bath Toy for Toddlers | Perfect Gift

Munchkin Foam Letters and Numbers - Toddler's Favorite Bath Toy

I would love to share the video of our baby in the tub, but my husband would kill me. So you'll just have to imagine our toddler's excitement at bath time based on what I explain here. He absolutely loves taking a bath and it is a fresh experience after going through the pre-teen years with a son that we had to bribe to take a shower - LOL. Our toddler loves swimming, bubbles, dumping his water cup and playing w/ his other toys, but the majority of his time and excitement from taking a bath is based on playing with his Munchkin Bath Letters and Numbers. It has been like this since he turned 2 years old and depending on whether your child is still "chewing", this could be the best bath toy for him / her, too. These Munchkin Foam Bath toys also make affordable toddler gifts for friends and family members. What I do with our toddler, is separate the letters and numbers for him so that he is not confused nor overwhelmed while playing. I also break up the letters into about 12 at a time when we are using those for bath time. He prefers the foam numbers right now, so that makes it a bit easier to keep him focused and consistently learning the numbers / number combinations.

I didn't think to share this info until last week when our son started counting on his own. He is not always sequential, but what he was doing is pairing up the foam numbers and saying "2 reds, 2 orange, 2 purple, 2 blues, 1 green, 1 yellow", so counting in pairs basically. We normally line them up on the side of the tub or wall to count the numbers in order or play games with them. He loves playing with the foam bath toys!!! We love the time spent with him, too. Plus, it was SO REWARDING to watch him do his "own thing" and it end up being something that I did not think to point out to him, yet. It is just too cool how our children love to show us what they learn on their own.

Additionally, the Munchkin Bath Numbers and Letters and Numbers are non-toxic and the recommended age is 3+ but we started using them at 2 years old to break up flash card time. 

I chose to use them for our toddler and buy them for his cousin's 2nd birthday because they were both so crazy about flash cards and learning their colors that I knew it would not be long before they put the foam letters and numbers to good use. My husband and I just avoided any biting by using them bath time only. As I mentioned above, you will have to gauge when your child is ready, but just know that you can have hours of educational fun each week by using these in the tub :)

NOTE: The Little Tykes foam bath toys have a history of being toxic, so please be careful.

I think we got ours at Walmart, but you can save time and check out Munchkin's other foam bath toys by using one of the Amazon links in this post.

I hope that your toddler enjoys as much as ours does. If you have already used foam numbers and letters in the bathtub, please do not hesitate to share your experience with them, too. Do / did they make learning colors, letters and numbers easier for your child?


In motherly love,
Lea @ Mother Baby Child

Toddler OCD | Wordy Wordless Wednesday

Cars Turned In The Same Direction ... Always!

I know this is Wordless Wednesday, but I am wondering if your 2 year old does this, too? This picture was taken a few weeks ago when I noticed that he was walking the cars over and facing them in the same direction. He has since graduated to lining the cars up against the wall with the fronts facing outwards or directly beside each other on the floor.

Today our toddler lined up 6 signs from his train set. He really took his time to line them up meticulously and facing him), slid the little train past it once. As soon as the train went past, he picked up 3 at one time and looked. He then picked up the other 3 signs (all 6 in hand) and put them away.

I love watching all of the quirky "things" as much as the athletic and creative gifts he has, but he has been doing things that make me wonder whether it might be OCD or not because I do not remember my other children doing the same things so young. Does this look familiar to anyone?

Anyways, Happy Wordless Wednesday to you :) Thanks for stopping by!


In Motherly Love,
Lea @ Mother Baby Child

2 years, 2 months, 23 days | Our Toddler Is Loving, Playful, Smart | Not Sleeping All Night

Our baby is now 2 years, 4 months and 23 days old.

This is an incredible time in our lives. Our toddler is a busy little 2 year old boy that consistently demands that we understand he's a person capable of thinking on his own. The best part of it all is that he starting to share new talents with us. This makes 2 years old such beautiful stage and makes me appreciate life so much more. He loves to play outside, color and tumble. All of the sudden, he has begun counting everything and the alphabet has became extremely important to him. Our 2 year old does creative things to let us know what he understands now. For example, he uses exaggerated body language for words he does not know or if we do not understand what he says. This increased communication makes attending to his needs easier and he knows it. I really like that our little guy is so energetic that he can hang with me on walks; he loves to run and explore nature. The only major problem we have is sleeping. Our toddler crawls out of the crib and fusses for at least an hour at bedtime. Our 2 year old is still not sleeping through the night and we are getting tired of being tired. Aside of the sleep problems, all is well in our 2 year old toddler world. We are all enjoying him :)

The following are some of our 2 year old milestones ...



Our toddler becomes more loving each day and always wants to "ELP"!

He showers us with kisses and hugs all day long. It is so cute because he will sometimes kiss the full length of my arms (on both sides) and feel very proud about it. On the other hand, our 2 year old has also become very clingy and demanding of moms attention. He has gone back to digging in my shirt and snuggling in like he did a year ago after weaning. Regardless, he is one sweet loving boy when he is not having a "NO" tantrum :) There is also not a day that goes by where he does not offer to help. Our little guy has an innate desire to "help". He is sweetly insistent and always shows up at just the right time to do his part. This is something that I will continue to foster in him for sure. He now knows how to make smoothies, sort laundry by color and make sure that mommy does not forget the bubbles per load, and he will help load or unload the dishwasher with the quickness (I always feel like we are playing that timed pop up game, Perfection - LOL)



Our little boy loves playing cars and trains and trains and trains ... 

We noticed that it was time to retire some of his infant toys when he started pushing cars all over the house while making the "vroom vroom" sound. This was around his second birthday, so we struggled on what we could get him to help manage his time. We ended up buying a train set a few weeks after his 2nd birthday. Our toddler has been entertaining himself with this type of creative play ever since. Sometimes the train set stays together. Most times he reconstructions what his brother created as the perfect rail road world. It is not unusual to have days where every inch of the living room, kitchen walk way and office becomes his train table. I love looking to the right while working and knowing that he is over there using his imagination. I hear him saying all kinds of things :)

He is just starting to speak clearly, though can sing the words of his favorite songs. BOY does he have a lot to share loudly. He loves music and dancing so much!

Max went through a phase where he stopped speaking clearly. It was like one day I could understand him saying that he wanted to go outside or "I like dat", and then it just stopped. I was like freaking out by his second birthday because his cousin was speaking so clearly over the holidays and he was not. Now, I cannot believe the things he is saying. For example, today he was excitedly screaming, "Mum an octopus an optopus. It is so cute". This little boy is counting everything (mostly 1 to 10 though missing number 5 each time; sometimes he will count up into the 20s). He also says his ABCs with pride. He starts off in order and then shouts out pieces of the alphabet in different orders except when singing. I signed him up for AbcMouse.com and he loves it. He has absolutely no desire to use the mouse to do anything on that site (he will only touch it when I don't want him to), but he will sit through 1/2 of their alphabet books in one sitting. This is not because of me. He loves them that much. He will loves the number activities and does them both at the same time. Max also loves to sing. He knows the words to a lot of his favorite songs. His favorite TV shows are very theatrical like Sesame Street, Umizoomy, Super Why, Barney, etc. I find comfort in the fact that he can express himself these ways.

He started getting good at larger puzzles around his 2nd birthday.

There is an alphabet one that he is particularly fond of and will sit in his high chair playing with it for over an hour. By now he knows pretty much all of the alphabet and characters on the puzzle pieces (i = ice cream, x = xylophone, etc). He can do this a few times without getting bored with it because he loves the pictures so much. It is so cool to see how he started recognizing the alphabet all of the sudden and I have to attribute that to Your Baby Can Read, Super Why and our working with him a little bit over the years.



He loves playing blocks and letting us know that he can associate the letters and picture.

We bought him wood blocks a little over 2 months ago because I felt that he was ready to build more than what he was doing with the mega blocks. That is when I noticed that he found great satisfaction in stacking and there was no changing it. He immediately started building little 5 block towers. He built his first 21 block tower just 8 weeks after and counted them out loud with me. He is extremely meticulous about how his blocks stack. He prefers that they are not twisted at all and all having the same type of pictures showing on one side (the side of the block tower that faces him as he builds). Anyways, I was totally amazed when he grabbed a bunch of cars and trains to drive them carefully around his tower of blocks. He did it just once to see if he could and then was satisfied. I have to believe it was to see if he could do this without knocking down his tower of blocks because I went to disassemble it just after and he went crazy when I removed a block. He spends quite a bit of time showing us that he knows which letters and pictures are on his blocks. This week he has been lining them up and counting blocks on his own.



Our 2 year old LOVES to read ... In fact, he LOVES books.

A great portion of our day is focused around which book Max wants to read or not. He also relocates them from the bookshelf to the floor and furniture every single day. He will sit and read on his own. He has recently started stacking books at the corner of my desk. They are usually around the same size books and he is perfectly content to leave them with me after he has about 10 or so stacked up. Sometimes he just counts as he stacks them. Sometimes he will excitedly chant what he likes about them as he is stacking them. He will scream if I remove or adjust any of the books while he is stacking them. It is a trip. Our toddler is also extremely passionate about reading the store flyer. It is really cute when he is sitting with us, though can become rather frustrating when he insists on going through the grocery store ads while I am working or need to do something else. It is not like the books where he will sit to read on his own, Max will insist that you read store flyer to him before he claims ownership. After we go over it with him and spreads it all over the place to read for quite a while. TRUST ME, it is not cute when you are trying to go to the bathroom and the flyer starts coming under the door while your toddler is screaming his head off to read. Regardless, I am grateful that he wants to learn everything - that I do not want him to eat - like Tombstone pizza, Weight Watchers ice cream and all over the produce specials about 10 times in a row :)

Our toddler started climbing out of his crib last week.

Meanwhile, he had just jumped on our bed for 15 minutes beforehand. I never let my two older ones do this, but our toddler is so energetic that it helps wear him out. Plus, Max loves to jump and count. The fact of the matter is that our son climbed out of his crib 4 times that first night. I tried doing everything from putting him back without a lot of attention to being firm, there is really not much I can do when his mind is set to climb out of the crib. I just push the crib against the wall because it blocks his favorite climbing side. We do feel fortunate that he has stretched crib sleeping out this far, though are a bit overwhelmed as to what to do with him at bed time and in the morning. He gets up at the crack of dawn and cries until I put him in the bed with us. He beats me up for a while until I let him crawl down as start to our day. What is even worse is that our toddler still does not sleep through the night. I am like 2 years without more than a few good nights of sleep and it is really taking a toll on me; especially since I am still trying to lose the rest of my "baby weight" and know I need my 7 to 8 hours sleep to lose weight (check out my weight loss journal). The kicker is that our 2 year old cries SO VERY LOUDLY that if feels like a fire alarm goes off each night and morning. UGG! It is rather frustrating. Yet, my middle child has always had sleep problem (not as loud). It might be that our toddler has ADHD.

Lastly, is the expected "NO" and 2 year old tantrums.

Yes, he is pretty good at both of these, though is not as persistent as my older two were. I guess it is because his NOs mean "No" most of the time, so we do not deal with a lot of tantrums because he is frustrated that we should have understood "yes" ... this can get challenging at times. I have learned to stop asking him if he wants to do this, or if he wants this or that. I now say, "OK, it's bath time. You love taking a bath" or I brink both types of cereals because he usually just waves me off with the one he does not like and it's a really nice non-verbal / non-tantrum way of communicating :) C'est la via!


Well, that's about it for 2 years, 2 months and 23 days :) I hope these 2 year old milestones were helpful and / or entertaining to you. I know they are for us each day, so I couldn't wait to share!

Don't forget to check out 2 years old (part 2) - Poopy Diapers, Lip Picking, Nose Picking


Happy Wordless Wednesday :)
Lea @ Mother Baby Child

Potty Training 2 Year Old Toddler Boy - Dad & Mom Are Doing The Potty Dance For Sure

It's a joyful week in the Hunt home :) Our toddler has started potty training; WOO HOO!!! Our younger teen has gone to bed at a decent time for the past few nights. My oldest son (who is sadly not talking to me) just had a baby girl named Harmony. Our dog made his first "autotune video", web work has been steady for me and I started a work at home business that is starting to grow. In fact, quite a few new people joined our 90 Day Weight Loss Challenge this week and I am excited for them. All in all, not everything is perfect around here and I will get into that another time, tough I have remained faithful that the Lord will resolve all issues and grateful for the blessings despite storms.

Potty Training A Boy Is Not Hard - Just Wait Until They Are Ready!

Potty Training has been a walk in the park compared to buying the best potty chair for our son. Although, Max had only "let go completely" and had a full pee one time on our potty, has gone a few drops twice in his potty chair on many occasions and had one full pee today, too. He has always liked to sit on the potty and loves the extra attention that he gets when he does his "duty". Yet, it has taken Max a week to fully comprehend that he can pee it all out at one sitting. He is doing really well so far!

Knowing When Toddler Boy Is Ready To Potty Train

We introduce potty training a few times over the past year. We started around 1 years old, and have kept a potty chair in the bathroom ever since. He loved the entertainment of the potty chairs, as well as using them as a seat and stool while in the bathroom. Yet, our son was totally uninterested in potty training prior to his second birthday. I know that our 2 year old is ready to potty train because 1) he keeps taking his diaper off when very wet, 2) he pulls at the elastic on the thigh areas of his diaper (stretching it to get in the diaper), and 3) our toddler gets extremely cranky if he wakes with a saturated diaper. Another contributory factor, as to why he can start potty training now, is that he is really good at not urinating when not wearing a diaper. On the other hand, his "gift" at holding his pee prohibited our toddler from fully releasing while sitting on the potty chair. It took his over an hour of holding his pee before he released all of the way. I am thinking that he will get over this as soon as a potty routine has been established for him.

Choosing The Best Potty Chair / Worst Potty Chair In My Opinion

Regardless, today, we received our BABYBJÖRN Potty Chair and BABYBJÖRN Toilet Trainer in the mail. One would have thought that my husband struck gold when our box arrived; I have never seen him so excited. We ordered the both the BABYBJÖRN Potty Chair and BABYBJÖRN Toilet Trainer from a woman on Ebay. Aside of a few Thomas the Tank Engine stickers on the potty, both were in perfect condition and cost just a little over $20 for both potty seats; saving us over $40 including shipping. We wiped them down with bleach, set the potty in the living room and the seat on the toilet, took our baby our of his diaper and proceeded to familiarize him with both of them. We were all so excited to see that our baby fit comfortably on the BABYBJÖRN Potty products because this is our 4th potty chair. I really do not feel like buying another one. NOTE: Aside of our son having to learn how to sit on the BABYBJÖRN Potty Chair without bumping his private area (took a few independent attempts to sit alone) on the high pee guard, he was more comfortable with using it. We chose the BABYBJÖRN Potty Chair because of that high pee guard; most of the animated potty chairs were lacking in guard areas and seat room. We chose the BABYBJÖRN Toilet Trainer because of the decent sized pee guard and seat with a whole that looked large enough for a toddler. It snaps to the toilet seat securely, our son fits in the contoured design well and sat in it comfortably today. I think it will work well for him, but I will have to report on that later. NOTE: I did notice a red impression line on his bottom and this bothers me. I do wish that the BABYBJÖRN Toilet Trainer was made with a softer seat.


BABYBJÖRN Potty Chair and BABYBJÖRN Toilet Trainer

Our first potty chair was the older version of the Fisher Price Cheer For Me Potty. I bought it about a year ago from a local garage sale, and it was our best potty chair. It was in excellent condition, with an awesome pee guard and was very sturdy. Our baby loved sitting on this potty chair for extended lengths of time. He listed to the music and played with the flusher a lot. Unfortunately, his older brother broke the sound button on the back of the potty chair. Our baby lost interest in this potty chair when it could no  longer entertain him.


Original Style & Newer design of the Fisher Price Cheer For Me Potty

Our 2nd potty chair was a newer model of the Fisher Price Cheer For Me Potty. It was not of the same quality as the older model. The plastic was not as solid, the seat / guard area seemed smaller and the sensor did not work as well as the other potty. Most importantly is that Fisher Price had replaced the pretend toilet paper holder, that he LOVED because it played music, with one that really held toilet paper. We could not possibly use that toilet paper holder as intended with our adventurous little boy; he wanted to play with the toilet paper too much.



Our 3rd potty chair was The First Years Disney Pixar Cars Potty. Aside of the colorful design, stool capability and very soft seat, The First Years Disney Pixar Cars Potty was pitiful to say the least. Although this potty chair has a very soft seat, it is way too small for toddlers and has an extremely small pee guard that makes it almost impossible for a 2 year old boy to use. The seat cushion is removable thus prompting our son to remove and try to play with it all of the time. The one interactive feature on this potty chair is a little clutch that makes a "rev" car sound. This feature kept coming loose when he used it thus encouraging him to get up and lift the seat (very annoying when trying to get toddler to focus on potty training). The whole plastic area under the seat cushion would pull apart at that time. This potty might work for boys potty training 1 years old or younger, though has not been a comfortable and reliable option for our son. We wasted our money on The First Years Disney Pixar Cars Potty.

Well, this is all that I have to share about our potty training experience so far. I hope that this information was helpful to anyone trying to decide which potty chair is best and some details on potty training a 2 year old boy. I would love to hear about your potty training experience through the comment section of this blog or our new Google+ Moms Community. See you there!



In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child