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

Florida Beach Boys | Wordless Wednesday

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

Toddler Baby Had 104.7 Temperature - 1st Flu

Our 21 month old has been sick for 7 days total :(

The nurses said it was the flu, but it seemed like something else because he only vomited when he had a bottle of milk and it was just little bits. I was scared that it was West Nile Virus (we're in Florida) or Meningitis. Aside of running to the store and getting what he needed, we all stayed in bed with him for 72 hours.

His temperature was up and down the first 48 hours; his fevers ranged from 102 to 104.7 degrees in between doses of medicine.

As per the nurses advice, were switching between Advil and Tylenol every couple of hours; putting his overheated and weak body in a tepid bathtub each time his temperature increased and while waiting for the fever medicine to kick in. We did this for 48 hours until his temperature went down to "normal" fever levels and then for 2 more days.

I had to force our poor baby to drink. He would not drink out of a cup, but would take a bottle, so I would squirt a little in his mouth when he cried and that would prompt him to drink a bit each time.

Our baby had diarrhea for days. He did not have a solid bowel movement or meal until today; 7 days later. This may seems normal to you, but our baby went through 2 packs of diapers on the 3rd day. His bottom is still red and sore :(

We had just moved him to size 6 diapers and had to go back to size 5 because of the weight that he lost. His belly was completely flat; his little body swam in the size 6 diapers by the 3rd day.

Although he is my third child and I should understand that children get sick, this was his first real sickness in 21 months and nothing like my other 2 children experienced.

This was his first flu ... In fact, this was his first real sickness in general.

It was a frightening experience and we are so grateful that he is ok.


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Hurricane / Tropical Storm Isaac | Pray for Haiti, Dominican Republic and New Orleans

(Our toddler baby in his life jacket. He can finally fit it now).

We had quite a scare this weekend. They said to prepare for a hurricane! It ended up being Tropical Storm Issac ...

At first, Bay News 9 said that we were to expect a hurricane over the next few days. They said that "Hurricane Issac" would go through Florida and might end up as strong as Hurricane Katrina; they just weren't sure how bad it would be.

My heart dropped to my feet in fear while my husband went into MEGA survival mode. He filled like 30 gallons of water from our water filter; he had my 13 year old son get into geer and they ran to the store to buy candles, diapers, batteries, canned food and junk foods that did not need cooked. He was worried that our water might become contaminated again (happened earlier this summer) and that we might end up without electricity (as always happened when we have bad storms).

I worked hard to hide my fears. We watched the Lorax while my husband stayed on the radar website.

Our greatest fears came from memories of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Those thoughts alone had my husband glued to Klystron 9 reports while chatting live with them online. I tried to make sure everything was organized enough to handle a toddler that does not swim and a teen that is not as strong of a swimmer as I would like him to be. I was REALLY worried that a hurricane would be the first and last time our baby would wear his life jacket. I felt sad that this might be his first experience. I started to think that if the hurricane was not too bad, we could all camp out in the bathroom until "things" settled down. Yet, what would we all do in there with an energetic toddler? Read by candle light while the baby bathed for hours? How would be keep a toddler entertained during a hurricane? The kids and I ended up watching Dr Seuss's The Lorax to take our minds off of things. Cute movie!

Hurricane Issac became Tropical Storm Issac ...

Fortunately, the radar predictions shifted from Hurricane Issac to Tropical Storm Issac, and they were still not sure what we should expect. I felt a little relief as we had a tropical storm this summer and we managed just fine. Regardless, some of our local counties shut down schools for Monday and some post offices were closed (depending on which county). All of this going on while the Republican National Convention was taking place in Tampa, FL. I prayed to God, though was still scared. There is always the ULTIMATE wonder about "THAT" time being here. I went to bed resolved that "thy will be done" ... it felt Titanic like until I fell asleep.

I was relieved to wake up and find just a few cracked tomato branches in the yard. It was breezy and cooler outside, though nothing even close to what the last tropical storm was like for us. I watched the Klystron 9 weather radar soon after waking and saw that Tropical Storm Issac would go up the gulf coast to the west of Florida, though my heart felt burdened by the fact that the storm will end in New Orleans. I am equally sad for the people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. There were more deaths as a result of this Tropical Storm Issac.

I am asking all of my friends to pray for the families in Haiti and Dominican Republic, and that God will protect those in New Orleans. Pray that Tropical Storm Issac will not be a category 2 hurricane once it hits New Orleans.



In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Babys 1st Time Playing In Sprinkler w/ Brother (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) "Love Is" ... Wordless Wednesday

This was our baby's 1st run in the sprinkler and he loved it!



Water in his face, grass on his shoes and legs, toddler baby having a wonderful time playing in the water ...



Big brother making the water sprinkler experience even more special for our baby. I watch and appreciate the beautiful relationship between brothers that are so far apart in age! Their love and my love for them ... it overwhelms my heart and reminds me that this is the love our Father in heaven has for us.

Happy Wordless Wednesday

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Baby Won't Sleep - Toddler Will Not Nap

Our 18 Month Old Toddler Baby Won't Sleep

I am blown away with frustration and fatigued these days. I just do not know what to do! Our toddler baby won't sleep alone anymore and he certainly does not like to nap at all. Well, let me rephrase that last statement. He does go to bed alone at 9:30 pm - 10:00 pm at night (after a little rocking by dad and a little crying once placed in bed), but he gets back up in the middle of the night and refuses to go back to sleep unless in the bed with us. If we put him in our bed until he goes back to sleep and then put him in his crib, our baby will get back up again and again and again until we finally give up and put him in bed with us. None of us get sleep if we do not put him in bed with us. Although I love having our little "bundle of joy" close to my heart, I do not like how he tears me up in my sleep (he moves all over the place in his sleep; he pulls my hair and "plays" with my face in the mornings) and uses his feet to push his father on the edge of the bed in the mornings. He needs to start sleeping in his own bed.

I blame this all on my husband ... Just kidding :)

It has taken my husband MONTHS to understand and admit that I was right. I tried to explain to him that it was OK to lay the baby in his crib before he fell asleep, but he insisted on rocking him to sleep each time. I also let him know that it was OK to let our baby cry (with some comforting in between), so that he would get used to going to bed alone, my hubby did not listen. I shared all of the advice and experts articles on getting baby to sleep ... I pleaded with my husband for months (since our baby was almost a year old) and he gave me such a hard time about just laying our baby down to bed; stating that our son was "just a little baby" and "he will grow out of this". I told my husband that he won't be saying that when he has a spoiled child to deal with and he just ignored me.

I am not sure what to do at this point ...

In our baby's first year of life, nursing was my bonding time with our son, therefore rocking became my husband's time with the baby. This was "all good" for the first 6 to 8 months; the whole family rocked and comforted our baby. I began asking my husband to stop rocking him all of the time as we approached our baby's 1st birthday. Our baby had weaned himself from breastfeeding, so it was a great time to teach him to sleep through the night because he no longer nursed. My husband refused to adjust. He was not ready to stop rocking the baby to sleep, and I understood completely because it was an odd adjustment to go from breastfeeding to not nursing at all, so I did not complain about his rocking the baby to sleep all of the time. Now, our baby wants my husband to rock him to sleep and then wants to snuggle with me when he sleeps. I do not know what to do at this point; we have comforted and loved our baby to our own detriment. Yet, he is a very happy boy :)

He became our toddler baby with lots of changes ... Napping is the 1st.

By 14 months, he had stopped taking 2 naps a day. It was an adjustment for us, though kind of exciting because we presumed that he would start sleeping though the night. Our toddler baby used to get up by 8:00 a.m. - napped by 1:00 p.m. - went to bed by 10:00 p.m. - and slept though the night sometimes.  Once we thought that one nap schedule was established, it started taking longer and more rocking to get our baby to sleep for his nap and bedtime. He also started waking up at night and refusing to go to sleep unless in the bed with us. My husband starting to become frustrated because he had to rock our son for over an hour each time; sometimes our baby would not sleep at all and then become unbearably cranky and fall asleep at 3:30 or 4:00pm. Everything just became a mess. My husband started getting impatient and telling me to rock him; which I would not because he carried it on so long instead of just reading the articles I sent him and following the instructions. I finally started laying the baby down, letting him cry for a few minutes and then settling him. My husband got tired of the crying, so he changed the process to rocking our toddler baby and then laying him down. Now that our baby is 18 months old, he still gets up before or around 8:00 a.m. and goes to bed at the same time, but his nap is either later than 1:00 p.m. or he will not nap at all. It is rough either way because our baby starts getting cranky around around 12-12:30 p.m. as if he was ready to nap. The difference is that he does not settle to nap and remains cranky for quite some time.

Well, that backfired ...

Now our baby flips out if my husband rocks him and then lays him down. It is to the point that our baby won't sleep in the afternoon (he will not nap until almost evening even though he is getting up at the same time as usual).  We have to go in and settle him for longer periods of time ... if we do not, he will not stop crying. He gets so upset that he cannot nap. Tonight, I finally took over and put our baby to bed directly after bath (we played for quite a while after the tub in hopes that it would tire him out). He fussed for like a minute, talked to himself for about 10 minutes and then fell asleep. Regardless, of how he fell asleep tonight, I know that he won't sleep though the night. The plus is that we no longer have to rock him to sleep at bedtime. I guess that's a step in the right direction ...

I am interested to know if you have suggestions as to how we can get him to take a nap at his old time (1:00 p.m.) and sleep though the night. Our toddler baby will not stop crying (really, he just gets angrier no matter how tired) long enough to go to sleep.


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child