Tag Archives: toddlers

My Poor Baby!

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 6 June, 2014 None comments

My poor baby has been everything but healthy since he was born. He has continually been sick and I can’t seem to understand why. In and out of the Children’s hospital, doctors office and canceling many appointments to avoid the “hustle and bustle” of life to help get him back on track.

Here we are today and he has had a temperature ranging from 100.2-104 for the last four days. He starts off the day really cool and as the day progresses, he’s burning up. The next day, he starts off really hot and throughout the day it goes up and down but never away. The doctors office had me bring him in today to check him out. Two and half hours later, no cough, no cold, no ear infections, no nothing!!! How frustrating it is to sit there for 2 1/2 hours for what seems to be nothing except a high possibility of contracting some other sickness.

This time the trauma came from strapping a bag on his private parts to catch any output of urine. The little man hasn’t been drinking or eating so I have had to force fluids yet again. It took 2 hours for any output to come our way and finally my sweet baby was able to tell me when he did. I was so proud of him. We made a big deal about it as he was so scared about this foreign bag strapped to him; hoping this begins an exciting phase of potty training once he begins to feel better.

They tested his urine and all came back good. They have no area to pinpoint why he has such high fevers other than he simple is that child who gets sick all the time. My natural reaction as a mom is to assume something bigger is taking place that they haven’t yet caught. Two trips to the children’s hospital, many doctor visits and continual sicknesses make me a bit curious. They reassured me yet again today that it must be a viral infection. Hoping this is true but annoyed I keep visiting the doctors for no reason but to waste my sick child’s time.

The doctor did reassure me that at some point in a child’s life they will experience sickness on a very frequent basis, whether the first three years of their life or once they reach kindergarten. That comforted me slightly.

So….our fourth day of fevers is almost over. They advised me to push through tomorrow forcing fluids. If by Saturday or Sunday, the fever still persists than we must return for more testings. Praying for him to wake up with no fever and an appetite is all I can hope for right now. After no sleep last night and dealing with an unhappy child, I am ready for some good times to come!

Moment of Truth: The healthy times with your child often make you forget how blessed you are to truly have a healthy baby. Sickness and disease is running rampant throughout the world and the healthy little ones need to be embraced and we as parents need to be thankful. Our prayers need to go towards the sick babies and families that are suffering emotionally, physically, mentally and financially. Our family has only begun to taste what this really looks like and I pray we don’t continue down this road with frequent hospitalizations.

Thought of the Day

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 23 May, 2014 None comments

My son as every parent says, does nothing wrong. :) Okay that isn’t where I am going with this, but my son does not hit his friends and does not show aggression in a physical manner. But for some reason the other day he decided to partake in this action. The children I am watching stay from about 8 am to 5-5:30 pm. While their mom was at our house to pick the kids up Cooper decided to get upset and take a big whack to the little boys head and let out a large scream. Sharing has been a very tough thing to learn lately. He has done a fabulous job considering he does this three full days a week. When this incident took place I was mortified! I did not want his mom to think this happens all day long while she is at work because it doesn’t. Cooper does not hit…….. until now.

Two days ago the same occurrence proceeded to happen before my very eyes. Same situation, mom had just walked in the door and was chit-chatting and all of a sudden, the toy helicopter landed abruptly upon this little boys head. I was mortified yet again. I couldn’t fathom what had just happened and let alone while his mom was here for the second time. Again, this does NOT happen all day long but how do you explain this while she has visually seen this take place two times now?!

As the night proceeded I began to contemplate the scenario. I’ve begin to believe that by the end of the day Cooper is simply done sharing his toys and is ready for them to leave. He has to share all day long and is constantly being nagged by me to share his toys. He’s young, doesn’t have siblings and for the first time has regular friends here playing with HIS toys. I think this could be our culprit; he just wants his toys back. It’s the end of the day, friends are leaving and hungry bellies and tired eyes begin to take place. Poor little guy!

Moment of Truth: I’m glad Cooper does not hit on a regular basis but WHY does it have to occur when his mom is around!? The ugly moments you wish no one saw making you feel like a poor parent. “He is really a good kid” you think to yourself wishing that that was the side she saw as well.

Wonderful Accomplishment

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 3 May, 2014 None comments

Last night I was trying to get my son dinner, bath and bed. As usual we were playing outside for over two hours to have him rudely awakened to coming inside. My son would live out side and be the jungle boy if I let him. He loves outside no matter how long we are out there, he never wants to come back in. It’s a fight every time.

Tonight, was no different than any other night. He cried coming in and didn’t want to eat dinner. In the midst of this the neighborhood cat was stomping around and popped up to our door (it’s a glass door) and Cooper got so excited. So, trying to distract him and make him happy, I held him and out we went. We followed the cat around but this cat unfortunately was not scared of Cooper and wanted to be petted. Trying to scare him away as I did not want my son touching a stray cat, my great idea went south pretty quickly. Down Cooper went, around the house following the cat trying to pet him. Finally, the cat wanders off realizing not pets were being handed out. Crying once again, we head back inside to attempt dinner!

I’m starting to realize the evenings are everything but easy. My intentions are great, but do not work out in my favor most of the time. My husband gets home in the midst of the chaos unfortunately adding to the scene almost every night. Although his intentions are to come home and play with Cooper, his late arrival can be challenging with a tired, hungry boy refusing food. If you are following me, my patience has evaporated by the end of the day. :)

Tonight, after I got Cooper wrangled inside for the second time, Michael walks in the door at 6:40 (20 minutes before his supposed bedtime) to take him back outside….ugg all my hard work defeated once again. While they were out there, Michael took his dinner trying to sneak bites in and be helpful. Although this didn’t work, he started the negotiation process. Cooper is too young to negotiate and truly understand what that means but to my surprise Michael was able to negotiate one round of staying outside a little longer if he took a bite. Not sure if Coop really knew what he was doing, but this was quite the surprise to me. It was pretty cute to see the boys out there negotiating play time over chicken nuggets.

A few minutes later, we get him bathed and on to dinner one more time. I saw Michael had some chocolate chips that he snuck to Cooper without me seeing. He had one left and Michael tried to get him to do the same thing, take a bite of chicken and get the chocolate chip. That did not work and ended quickly. The desire for more chips were an immediate reaction that I was left to conquer.

I decided to test this theory and see if Cooper really knew what was going on and if he simply had me deceived that he was too young or if he simply has me wrapped around his cute little finger. Pulling out five small chocolate chips, I repeated the same thing. “One bite of chicken, one chocolate chip!” Finally, five minutes goes by and he’s just livid. I decide to put the chocolate chips away to not reinforce bad behavior as we have previously done.

As I put them on the counter things got worse, but only for a minute. I offered him the same thing “one bite of chicken (or strawberry), one chocolate chip.” He reached for the strawberry and proceeded to place it within his tiny mouth. He rapidly chewed it and received a chocolate chip. His cute little smile and poofy cheeks while trying to eat the strawberry and the chip at the same time was pretty adorable. Pointing his finger asking for one more, he grabbed another strawberry and received another chip. The third time, he reached for the last THREE pieces of strawberry and shoved all three in his mouth before beginning to chew. Super cute and smiling so large while juice dripped down his little chin was a laughing moment we both shared together. This moment made my day and to see him not only take to the negotiation process but to finally shove it all in so he could be done quicker was beyond me.

Showing me all the strawberries were gone!

We laughed together and he received the last three chocolate chips for such amazing behavior! OR….shall I say because he is the cutest child on the face of this earth and we are now sharing jokes together as mommy and son. :)

Moment of Truth: Once realizing my negotiation skills worked, it was a reminder that it wasn’t about negotiating but the simple fact he and I worked together and accomplished a task and it all ended in smiles. :)

Moment of the Day

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 2 May, 2014 None comments

Oh my! Do you ever have those moments you can’t believe just happened? You do not want to tell anyone because you are embarrassed but it’s too funny to keep quiet. This is exactly what happened to me while I was standing over the toilet this morning.

We have begun the slow process of trying to gain interest in potty training with my son. He actually has absolutely no interest in his little skunk potty. I bought him this cute little potty as he thoroughly enjoys saying “ewwww” for anything and everything. I told him that skunks say “eww” when you go potty hoping this would spark a fire in him to want to begin the process. Since that hasn’t worked, I began allowing him in the bathroom when I go. (I know, the things we do as parents) We stand over the potty and say “buh-bye” potty when we flush! He loves to do this so much so, that when I tell him I have to go potty, he runs back there waving buh-bye. He also will try and flush the toilet just to watch it go around and around even when we haven’t used it.

Okay, so now that I already shared more then I would prefer with you, this morning we had the same routine. I told him it’s potty time and we run into the bathroom. As we are standing over the potty waving buh-bye, he throws his hands in the toilet swirling around his little hands yelling with extreme excitement “buh-bye, buh-bye, buh-bye.” I reacted quickly but not quickly enough. This little man splashed potty water all over the floor and had quite the mess to clean up. Being the germ-a-phob that I am, I was hoping scrubbing his hands was enough to truly clean them.

Sweet baby trying to show me his teeth because he refuses to smile for me. :)

My little stinker really became a stinker today. Loving on him through the blessed moments knowing we’ve had a lot of rough moments this past month. :)

Toddler Two’s

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 27 April, 2014 None comments

Not quite wanting to jump straight in and call it the terrible twos, I decided I would give Cooper the benefit of the doubt as the past two weeks have been pretty ridiculously crazy. Between my mother-in-law passing away, Cooper being hospitalized, mommy and daddy taking off for a couple of days to only be rudely awakened to my arrival home along with 2 additional children all within the same hour. With all the chaos I feel I can’t get too upset with Cooper. My patience this past week has been tested and tested with Cooper’s whining and crying and food tantrums while grasping the ropes of having three kids to care for.

Yesterday was a brutal day. Everything we did he wanted us right by his side to partake in his activities. The screaming and hitting that begins to follow the let down is horrific. This is a side of my child I have never seen before. It all began after we were hospitalized, he was a perfect gem prior and it is almost as if they unleashed the two-year old tantrums for us. Learning how to communicate with a child that cannot reason is extremely difficult. Feelings of inadequacy fill my soul as I begin to feel like a horrible parent with a child that is hitting me for not getting his way. Trying to figure out what lines of discipline are appropriate for his personality and age is the challenging part.

I blame the hospital for this child that now screams and hits me because I sure don’t know what light switched got turned on or off since that wretched night. Previously, I could say his name with authority and he would look at me and instantly stop. Now a days, that means nothing to him. The battle of him learning boundaries and testing limits has been fascinating and difficult for him and I. The simply fact that a child is growing his little brain enough to understand when mommy says no doesn’t mean that he still can’t do it, is actually fascinating. Their little minds and souls are beginning to take place and explore their big and beautiful world while mommy sets limits on their big and beautiful world is now confusing. Taking the time to remember his little brain cannot process like mine, is a good reminder to help want to teach him rather than get upset.

Realizing I can’t implement perfect behavior is hard considering we really were blessed with a well-behaved child to now shaking in my boots trying to figure out if we took the wrong child home from the hospital. This cute little man can quickly wrap me around his little finger to get what he wants, but now……life has changed. Those cute little moments are not so cute anymore. The cute behavior in asking for more treats is only a sugar high that can’t be contained. Those cute little moments of wanting to play with his train table are now taking apart the track and throwing them across the room. Those cute little moments of wanting to snuggle are now anything but a snuggle! Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a doll and beyond adorable! But it’s those little moments that cloud my mind of the good times! I know he is learning, I know this is all normal for his age and development, but what I don’t know is how to not feel like a bad mom while trying to figure out what works for us!

Realizing raising my voice will only complicate the situation or scare him because I am supposed to love him and his little mind cannot separate the two and spanking is not for our household is a battle of learning what works for him. He can’t quite understand timeout but he can understand it a lot more than when I raise my voice. Having done this a couple of times, I feel horrible after knowing it accomplished nothing and ended up making me feel horrible! Ahhh– the battle of learning even more as a parent as every child responds differently.

Something about raising children simply doesn’t get the acknowledgment and respect is so deserves. Every mother out there knows what I am saying. Every man out there is oblivious to what it really takes to raise a child, implement proper behavioral skills, show love and teach respect along with all the household duties that follow. This is beyond a mans imagination and because we do it, they do not have to worry about it because it’s already done. I want to thank every mom out there for their job in raising their children and the immense pressure it takes to want to raise your child the best possible. God ingrained in women how to care and nurture for their family. He ingrained in the men how to be a hard worker and provide for their families. This is a blessing that we’ve been given and in the little moments that seem monumental, remember God gave you everything you need to make it through the next moment of bliss or tantrums.

So, with that, I will set out on my day to take the opportunity that maybe today we can take a positive step in learning our boundaries together and implementing something better today that wasn’t there yesterday.

Moment of Truth: Raising children is character building. Are you raising them to have confidence and respect, or are you teaching them how to walk all over you and get what they want because their attitude is too much sometimes that you quickly give in?