Sweet Baby O is a wonderful and amazing sister. It took her a little bit to learn how to deal with her jealously of the new squish; nevertheless, she is now an amazing and caring sister.
She loves to gently kiss her brother on the head, play with him, share everything she can with him, talk to him. She proudly introduces him as “my Ollie”. Its heart melting.
It seems so far that our gentle parenting approach and treating her like her own person has been great so far.
Our sweet baby girl loves her dog. We got our dog shortly after we were married, and he has been around her whole life. She now loves that dog almost as much as me.
He is a chow-retriever mix of sorts and is a big softie. At first he realy wasn’t sure of what to do with baby O. I’m not sure if it was because he was scared of her, or was afraid of accidently hurting her (I understand that feeling) they are now thick as thieves.
Since O is learning how to thrown, she now plays fetch with her dog. I have to say that she is developing quite the throwing arm. it is so cute to see them running through the house and playing. She will grab the ball and start running, and the dog will wait where he was…watching. When she finally throws it, he takes off and she just stands there and laughs.Then as he runs off with his ball, she chases after him babling away.
There is nothing better than being a dad.
Big announcment over the past month or so is that O is going to be a big sister! How exciting! She already is getting jealous of her dog-dog, so it will be interesting to see how she adjusts to having a sibling. I’ll keep you all updated on if she will have a little siter or brother, we don’t know right now; nevertheless, we are all very excited.
So as a fair warning, it may turn into a bit of a pregnancy blog/daughter/future baby blog. I don’t see any problem with it.
O has been making me a super proud daddy lately. She is really starting to use her words now. She knows what she wants, and when she wants it. She knows how to get it too. One of her favorite snacks is a stick of string cheese. SHe knows where its kept in the fridge. The only things keeping her from going to town is the fact she has a hard time opening the fridge, and she can’t unwrap it yet.
She has also learned to climb on the table. We can be there sitting, eating dinner, next thing we know, there is a baby standing next to us. She will even reach over to our plates, stick her finger in what ever dip there is and say “yummmmm!” with a big ‘ol smile.
If you are just sitting and doing your own thing, and she wants a cookie snack, or a drink (coconut milk or water) she will stand betweeen the living room and the kitchen, point at the fridge and yell “drink!” It is actually quite adorable. It is also helping me figure out what exactly she wants.
It has also been a great manners exercise. Any time I ask her to do something, I always say please and thank you. When I fill her sippy or gyro bowl, she always says thank you has she toddles away. Its very heart warming to see how sweet and independing she is growing up to be.
So we are starting to explore the possibility of potty learning with O. Yes, potty learning, not training. We feel that by calling it “training” we demean O as a human. She is a human, not a dog, and you train dogs, and you teach humans.
We have had O a little baby toilet for a while, and we got it out for her. Now every time we go to the bathroom, O comes in and sits on her little potty. It is great. She understands that when she needs to potty, she goes to the potty. However, her little baby toilet is a little short for our super tall baby.
Fortunately we found a nice toddler sized potty for her. This one even has a removable bowl! Makes cleaning it alot easier. She has even used the potty a few times. It really is a great experience and a fun time.
Today’s blog post is just about how amazing it is to see children grown and learn. They grow so fast and learn so much, it is truly amazing. The mind of a child is something to be marveled.
O turned 18 months a few weeks back, and she has changed so much since her 1st Birthday already. Her hair is starting to grown in really good, and she is picking up it feels like at least one new word a day. She can even follow commands now!
Just last night, I was on the couch, and I asked her to bring me my phone for something. She smiled, walked over to it, and brought it right to me. I was stoked. Of course it is important to be polite and use your “please” and “thank you”s, because that is how we are teaching O to be polite. By being polite to her. She says please and thank you, and it is so adorable.
Children are a gift from God and deserve to be happy and loved. That is all that they need. Just remember that, and enjoy the ride. Toddlers are like their own little circus side show.
About 6 months or so ago, we were struggling to give O baths. She didn’t enjoy bath tub baths, sink baths, and her infant bather was too small at this point. (Shes a tall girl!) She would generally just sit and scream. It was really sad because up until this point she had enjoyed bath time. We were struggling to find a solution to this problem.
One day, after another failed bathtime, I went to take a shower, and told O’s mommy to let me try showering with her. I went and got in the shower, and her mommy handed her to me and thus began the experiment.
At first all she would do was hold on tightly to my shoulder. It was difficult to clean her, but at least she wasn’t screaming. She gradually would relax and let me clean her. Gradually we’ve made it to now where she will play with the water, and we play the naming game (she points and I tell her what it is).
I also feel like coshowering has really helped my bonding with her. Since O’s mommy exclusively breastfed until O started showing signs of food interest (she is still breastfeeding! Awesomeness!), O always wants her mommy. There is nothing wrong with that at all, and its great; nevertheless, as a dad you do feel a bit “out of the loop” on helping the baby. Besides holding her when she slept, changing diapers, and playing with her I couldn’t do too much to help it felt like. Now that showering her has become “my thing”, I feel like we have a deeper bond, and its a 10 minutes that I enjoy very much.
O’s Mommy and I are planning on doing home schooling and we are trying to start early with some Montessori learning while she is a toddler.
O’s Mommy found a DIY sensory bin on Pinterest, so today we put it into action. We bought a bin from Walmart, PVC from Lowes, and a hacksaw.
We measured the pieces, sawed away, and put it all together. It was a great time for the two of us.
In the end though, we built a perfect sized sensory bin with stand for our little girl to let her imagination run wild.
I highly recommend this awesome family activity.
So we have O a little Beco baby carrier we found at a baby resale shop before she was born. Now that our sweet girl is 18 months and starting to mimic everything we do, she loves to put her carrier on just like mommy.
The other evening when I was watching her, she brought me her Beco, wanting me to put it on her. We don’t own a Beco to carry her, and I’ve only seen O’s Mommy put it on her a few times.
Squirmy and impatient toddler with a confused dad made for an interesting few minutes.
What ensued was pretty cute.
It’s never to early to teach your children healthy and awesome habits. They are pretty cute when they copy you too. It makes me feel like a robot master.
So, the other day, I was getting baby O some snacks out of the pantry, and I realized that I have tasted quite a bit of her food and treats. So, I’m going to make a list here of foods that actually taste decent and are baby foods.
Baby O, So Wonderful 