Well, we are in full swing with toddler-dom. Corbin now reaches most everything dangerous in our house. I've caught him with kitchen knives twice (Dad has been taught to put them in the sink or far back on the counter). We throw great tantrums getting into the carseat, before most naps, and fairly regularly now for bedtime. We prefer pushing the stroller rather than riding in it (so as to stop and fill the cargo area with all the rocks we find on the ground). And he can destroy the living room (and kitchen, bathroom, and my own bedroom) faster than mom can load the washer.
Ah yes, we are living the toddler life.
There are some fun things, however. I love watching him make new discoveries (the key word there is "watching" as opposed to walking in to the next room to discover the new discovery). Some new discoveries:
• Lifting the toilet seat
• Flushing the toilet (fortunately, we've only made it that far. Aside from a binky which got thrown away after its swim in the white ceramic pool, nothing has been flushed down--as far as I know).
• New words: He can sign "more" and "please" although he isn't always willing to do so. He understands the words "drink"and "eat" for sure, as well as "hug" and "kiss" and we are working on signing "thank you".
• Giving hugs and kisses. Definitely my favorite by far. The first day I realized he understood this, I think I asked for a million hugs.
• "So soft" is something I say when he lays his head on his pillow pet or a blanket or anything soft. So now if I say "so soft" he lays his head on me or whatever I am holding. It's really sweet.
• Rocks. This kid loves rocks. Our neighbors have all rocks (desert landscape) and they are so nice to Corbin. Good thing because I think he steals a handful of rocks each time we walk by. We rarely walk farther than the corner anymore because he could sit and play with their rocks forever.
• Candy. Much to my chagrin he has discovered candy. It seems like kids quickly connect the sound of rustling packaging with delicious sweet treats because Corbin somehow always knows when you are holding candy. And he makes his intense desires known!
Another new development for us has been making new friends. We are so excited to be getting to know neighbors and ward members...finally. It seems like it has taken a long time to get acclimated to our new area, and I was really missing my old ward. But yesterday we met a mom with a boy Corbin's age at a yard sale across from our house. She lives down the street and came over tonight to introduce her husband to us. They are really sweet and I'm glad they live so close.
We also went tonight to visit a couple from our ward who has a baby boy that will turn 1 this month. The wife is from the Philippines so it was fun for Dustin to talk mission areas with her and mission foods, etc. She is a convert to the LDS church and so we will get to teach her new member lessons. I am so excited to be working as a missionary again. I've missed feeling a part of the work (my own fault, right? Many are called but few choose to do the work...)
Corbin loves being with other kids, but tonight I realized that he needs LOTS of wind down time before bed, especially if he's been stimulated by playing with other kids. He had a pretty bad tantrum before bed tonight. I am going to do my best to be home from 4:00 on in the evenings so we can have quiet time before bed. He just seems to do better that way. Sleep is a real battle right now. He's waking up multiple times in the night again, which is really frustrating. But I am praying for patience and I feel like the Lord is blessing me with the help I need.
We also made another discovery today. I call it play-group church. I wish it existed every Sunday, but today was Stake Conference so they had the auxiliary rooms set up for overflow. We checked it out and sure enough, three other young families were in there, toys on the floor, kids wandering the space, Cheerios and books to be shared among all. It was so nice. I heard about half of what was said in the meeting, but it was more than I would have heard wandering the halls with Corbin.
The most interesting thing I noticed, though (interesting for me as Corbin's mom), is that when nap time approached and you could tell that all the kids were needing to go home for naps, where the other kids wanted to be held or cuddled, drink bottles, etc., Corbin seemed to get more and more wild. It was evidence to me of what I read about in my sleep training book. There are different types of personalities which she lists in there, and I had pegged Corbin for a "spirited" boy. People have told me that he seems mellow, so then I questioned it. But in this book, she says that spirited children need more wind-down time before sleeping, and that they are prone to tantrums when they get overtired or over-stimulated. The trick, she says, is to avoid the tantrum by getting them down for naps or bed at the first sign of tiredness. The difficulty for me in that is that I can't tell Corbin is getting tired until he is so wild, I realize he is overtired. He just gets more and more wound up until I'm going nuts, and think, oh wait, he needs to be sleeping. Enter total tantrum...
Oh well, they are only little for a short while in the eternal scheme. I will try to keep remembering that.
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