Despite the fact that I can barely move anymore, I decided to throw a little Easter party. I don’t consider Easter a major holiday of any kind, but it was a fun opportunity to get a little crafty. I love organizing parties of any kind!
Aiden was the perfect age this year to appreciate the fun of an Easter egg hunt. I didn’t really play up the ‘Easter bunny’ aspect, as I could care less about whether he buys into this particular mythology or not (and yet I’m sensitive about Santa?), but instead focused on making the day fun.
We made some coloured eggs the day before (BTW, the dye is not super toddler friendly), as well as some cupcakes, and on Easter we laid out various chocolates and some little toddler-friendly surprises in the courtyard. I don’t really see the point of presents on Easter (where the heck did that come from?), but I wanted some non-chocolate goodies, so we put out bubbles as well as big eggs with stickers and whistles and animals that grow from pellets. The toddlers just wanted the chocolates, of course.
While Easter did create a few moments of tension (I want a cupcake! More chocolate!), it was well worth it. Aiden loved the Easter egg hunt and has continued to be sad that we can’t do it again. Sometimes we hide things around the house now just so he can ‘hunt’ for them.
I think Aiden’s really going to get into scavenger hunts this summer!!
To borrow one of Aiden’s favourite phrases, he’s getting “bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger,” which is true in oh so many ways (except his weight). As Aiden puts it, he’s getting “like a man like Daddy,” but for now he’s not a man, he’s a “big boy.”
I haven’t posted much this past month – it’s been a busy one. I haven’t enjoyed being pregnant with what is apparently a big baby, and it’s made for a stressful month.
Here’s a snapshot of Aiden at 29 months:
- Weight: 28lbs. Still.
- Favourite foods: carrots, apples, corn, sausages, pizza, crackers, applesauce in squeeze containers, Oat bran cereal
- Is very developed, emotionally. Able to express things such as “I’m getting tired” or “I’m upset”, though also has an active imagination, telling us he’s hurt, tired or sick to get attention, Advil or more tv time
- Asked to stop wearing his sleep sack at night. Uses a toddler blanket, sometimes.
- Can recognize the whole alphabet, mostly without mistakes. Is learning lower-case letters. Can sing the whole alphabet song (though only if nobody notices – he’s shy about singing)
- Is very excited to meet his baby brother. Talks a lot about the baby and is very curious about how he’s growing. We’ve had to explain some details of how the baby is born, as he thought it would ‘break Mommy’s tummy’.
- Has been throwing more tantrums. Age and household anxiety likely play a part (when Mommy has to say ‘no’ to many things, it makes it hard on him)
- Was potty training excitedly for one week and making great progress. Started to develop major anxiety over any mention of the potty. Likely me getting hurt and sick in one week added to his general anxiety. Back in diapers.
- Has a very active imagination. Loves to pretend to be dinosaurs, in particular. Knows many dinosaurs by type, with T-Rex being his favourite.
- Aiden’s favourite phrases: No way, poor Aiden, roar, Mommy want to read a book?, where are we going?, wait a minute, I’m sick, want some?, steam on you! (with trains), I need it
- My favourite Aiden phrases: I love you mommy, I’m taking a break, Where’s Mommy’s baby?, that’s funny, that’s strange
It caught us a little by surprise… Aiden wanted to begin potty training. We’ve had a lot of wonderful playdates with Jessica & Zayden during Spring Break and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Aiden wanted to be just like Zayden… who just began potty training. He got very upset one morning when he didn’t have underwear and had to wear his diaper instead.
Our “plan” was to put Aiden in his big boy bed this month then potty train during the summer; turns out, we were missing several key parts to convert Aiden’s crib (he’s upset about this almost every day) and the potty training wish came early. I wasn’t sure Aiden was ready, but how can you ever really know? Given he knows when he’s doing something in his diaper and his new desire to try, we figured we’d give it a go. I knew he had “most” of the signs.
After some emergency shopping for some big boy underwear and some cloth training underwear, we were set to begin. Our first day was mostly accidents. Once Aiden had a success and realized candy was involved? Well, that was a great incentive. He seems willing to go pee at the drop of a hat.
Aiden still has accidents, even at home, but he’s making progress. He’s not confident of his own ability to hold his bladder yet, though he did stay dry during his nap today (even with his diaper) and overflowed his night diaper (likely a big pee let go at once). He doesn’t completely void his bladder when he’s sitting either, which means he can have an accident even right after a success. But his skills are slowly developing.
Since nobody in this family enjoys staying at home, we’ve ventured out early. That’s just the reality of how we live. He goes out in his cloth trainers and is learning to ask to go pee when it’s time. He tends to need to be told to pee after one hour – his max point before he has a little accident. At least for now.
Being naked at home has helped Aiden be able to use the potty whenever he needs to – and it’s very often. It’s a fixture in the living room, at least for now.
We’re all VERY tired. Aiden has unfortunately been going through a bad sleep cycle, making us all more grumpy than is ideal in this situation. There have been a lot of tantrums in this house in the last 3 days.
We have, however, survived 3 days of potty training. It hasn’t been fun, but we are making progress and Aiden seems excited about that. Hopefully his bladder control catches up – I don’t want to back-track on potty training now that we’ve started, so I’m hoping his body catches up with his emotional readiness.
Wish us luck – I hope I’m not still reporting lots of accidents a few weeks from now!
Aiden loves reading. He can (and has) spent hours in a row reading. Most other parents call us “lucky” for having a child who loves to read. Indeed, in many ways we are. But, until they’ve spent several hours every day reading books… well, we set limits. ;)
We have a set of shelves in our living room that organizes most of Aiden’s toys and has one shelf that can hold about 15 books. I rotate books into this shelf every few months, as these serve as Aiden’s primary reading when he’s downstairs. He would prefer to read (or watch tv) to playing with toys, so we often negotiate that he play before he reads, or he reads X number of books then has some playtime.
Aside from this unscheduled reading time, Aiden reads 1-2 books before his nap, spends about 30 mins reading after his nap (most days) and reads 4 books before bed. All of this reading is in his room where most of his books are.
As much for our own sanity as for Aiden’s benefit, we have a large collection of books. Most of our books have come from swap meets or library book sales, though many have been purchased or given new as well. We tend to be overwhelmed when we get new books, as Aiden wants to read them constantly, so I actually visit the library very infrequently. We’ll see if that changes in the future.
Aiden’s new bookshelf arrived just today – I’m SO happy with it. It definitely beats having some books up too high on his hutch, stuffed into his side table, or simply piled up on the floor. I’ve taken away a few dozen baby books, moving them to baby #2′s room, and now have a fairly organized system for his books. He has a dozen or so anthologies, which I’ve organized into his side table shelf, and the rest have a new home on the above shelving unit. Off-season books, or books he’s not ready for, are up on his hutch.
I <3 organization.
Toddlers are picky eaters. It’s one of the only things in their lives they have control over, so you really can’t blame them. As a baby, Aiden would eat almost anything I put in front of him (except fish). As a toddler, not so much.
Though he does like his food with some pizzaz (heck, he’ll ask for hot sauce on a quesedilla), he has definite preferences for types of food and how its presented to him. He also goes through food phases where a much beloved food (butter chicken) can suddenly become one of the many foods on the “no yike it” list.
Though we try not to cook for Aiden, our cooking choices are definitely impacted by what Aiden will or will not eat. We try to offer him a variety of healthy foods, so we tend to cook meals where we can set aside items he may like before mixing, saucing or spicing them up for ourselves, if necessary. We will also less frequently make foods he has never enjoyed, which is kind of a pity when we like those foods ourselves.
Aiden likes foods unmixed. He prefers his vegetables steamed only (no sauces of any kind) and doesn’t like most foods that group together (stir-fry, casserole, etc). In some cases, we can deconstruct the meals, taking out the food items he’s likely to eat and presenting them separately. I recently discovered that he will in fact eat fruit salad – if I re-separate out the constituent parts. Go figure.
I wish feeding a toddler was a straightforward thing, but it’s not. There are mysteries to every food critic, including mine, such as:
- Why will Aiden only eat cheese that is melted? Or Babybel (sometimes)?
- Why will he eat Mexican rice, with carrots and corn, but not other rice dishes?
- Why will he eat skin on apples but not touch fruit like kiwi or strawberries (because they look like they have seeds)?
- Why will he eat steak with a sauce on it but not the broccoli with the same sauce?
Our Picky Eater Tactics
We’ve tried many things to get Aiden to eat a more varied diet. Some of them have worked. For example, I can get Aiden to eat more fruit if I offer peanut butter for dipping. The same trick has not worked for vegetables or other food, however, as he doesn’t like other dips of any kind or even ketchup.
I’ve found that if I offer a plate of food with at least one food I know he likes, in a smaller quantity, that he will sometimes continue after that food onto others. Sometimes cutting food into new shapes, or involving him in its preparation, will work – but mostly not. Bribery (yes, tried it) works to get Aiden to eat more of a certain food, but won’t compel him to eat other foods he’s rejected at that particular meal.
We repeatedly offer Aiden new foods to try. To give him credit, he does try a lot of foods – some of them are just spit out after a few chews or rejected after a couple of bites. Other times, persistence pays off. This past week, Aiden has tried a strawberry, ravioli, oatmeal and brussels sprouts. He’s been offered these many times before, and even used to like some of them, but had rejected them for a long span of time. We typically just place the food on his plate – a verbal question on trying the food will always be met with a ‘No’.
We will continue to make progress, and have set-backs, I’m sure. This piece of advice has helped me a lot in struggling with this issue: consider a toddler diet as a week-long balancing act. Some days they may eat a lot of protein, others a lot of fruit. So long as the week seems to balance, don’t worry too much about the day-to-day.
Is your toddler a picky eater? In what way?
