It's hard to believe that it's already April, and my little girl will be 2 years old in just over a month. Wasn't she just born?! We have been enjoying the nicer weather that we have had for the last two weeks - Grace is definitely an outside girl. It can get pretty ugly when we need to get her to go inside (as in total meltdown!!).
I started coaching middle school boys track in the middle of March and so far it's going pretty well. There's only 12 boys on the team this year so that is a little disappointing but probably good for my first year! Middle school track is so much less demanding than HS track - the season is only about 9 weeks long and there's just a lot less to deal with. I did find out last week that I will probably be coaching both the boys and the girls for at least the next few weeks. The other coach's mom has cancer and lives in Chicago and is not doing very well so she has to stay with her. I feel so bad for her - she's the same age as me and her mom is only in her 60's and she will most likely have to say goodbye in the next few weeks or months. I'm a little freaked out about coaching by myself, but Jeff is going to help out as much as he can and I'm just glad I can do this so the other coach can spend time with her mom.
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| Giving new meaning to a "bowl haircut" |
Grace is starting to show signs of the terrible two's...sigh. A few weeks ago Jeff brought home pizza for dinner, but it was only about 5:30 so I didn't want to eat quite yet. Jeff is training for the Bayshore Marathon (not sure if I've already mentioned this) so he decided to eat right away so he could get in a run before it got dark. Well, that was a mistake. As soon as Grace saw him eating she kept saying "Pizzie, pizzie" and even though I told her she and I would eat in a few minutes she just totally lost it. She doesn't throw a temper tantrum she throws a drama tantrum!! She just fell to the ground sobbing her eyes out like she had just found out her best friend died. And she wouldn't quit!! Even after we got her in her high chair and I was cutting up her pizza she was still bawling. If the drama is this bad now (over pizza!) I'm not sure I will survive the teenage years!
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| Finger painting! |
I've been trying to figure out appropriate ways to discipline her. Jeff and I have decided that we want to avoid any kind of corporal punishment but I never realized how hard it would be to discipline an almost 2 year old. She's still too young for time-out (I actually tried to put her in one and she thought it was hilarious and wanted to stay there for an hour, so that backfired!) so I've been trying to figure out how to match the consequence to the crime. The other day I was unloaded grocery bags into the pantry and Grace would not stop trying to take everything out of the bags. Since she has recently really started to love her baby dolls I told her that if she touched the stuff one more time I would take away her dolls. Well, she didn't listen so I took away her dolls and the drama began!! But I think it worked - I put her dolls back while she was taking a nap and when she woke up (my mom was watching her because I was at practice) she saw her dolls and told my mom "Bag, mess" (pointing to the pantry) and then went "wah-wah" as if she was crying. So something must have gotten through!!
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What a good dog - Toby is willing to be
dressed up while he's trying to take a nap! |
Grace's vocabulary still continues to amaze me. She has started to get really good at telling a story with one word at a time. For example, she will tell you "Dada, tractor, dirt" and what she's really telling you is that she watched daddy move dirt around in the yard with a tractor. Or she will say "moo, neigh, honk" and that means that we saw cows, horses, and geese on our walk. We've been trying to get her to say I love you more clearly (it sounded more like I lah lah) so I was going over each word with her and she did "I" and "love" pretty well but when I said "you" she pointed to herself and said "me". It cracked me up!! A toddler's mind is a pretty funny thing - last night we were at our church's child care center and she was trying to figure out how to get on a little climbing structure and I was trying to tell her the stairs were on the other side. First I told her to "go on the other side" but that didn't look like it was registering so I told her to "go around" and she started turning in circles. I think toddlers actually make adults work on their communication skills!
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| I'm ready to go! |
The other big news is that Grace went poo-poo on the potty a few weeks ago. I think it was more a perfectly timed accident than something that is going to happen on a regular basis, but I was still really happy! We've tried a few more times since then (and one time she even said poo-poo and ran into the bathroom and wanted to sit on the potty) but what usually happens is I will sit on the floor with her for 15-20 minutes reading books (while my butt goes numb!) and then we'll get off, put on a new diaper and 10 minutes later she will poop in the diaper. GRR!! But at least she's got the idea. While it would be awesome if she was potty trained before baby #2 arrives I'm not too concerned about it - I would be really happy if she was trained by the end of this year.
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| 24 weeks |
As for me, I think I am starting to hit the uncomfortable phase of pregnancy. I am almost 26 weeks, so I will be in the third trimester soon, but I feel like my stomach is already huge. I definitely think I am carrying this baby differently than I did with Grace - it seems like this time around it is more just in my stomach which makes me look (and feel) bigger than I am. A lot of people say this means it's a boy, I guess we'll find out!
