The Whiny Ones

:) 

You’ve heard of the terrible two’s, right?  Well, we haven’t gotten there quite yet, but right now we’re suffering through the Whiny Ones.  Dominic continues to be a “Stage 5 Clinger,” whining when he’s not being held, grabbing onto my leg for dear life as he whines “Mama” repeatedly, and wanting to stay with Mommy 24/7.  Not to mention that Dominic’s naps continue to be shorter and pretty inconsistent in length (if he decides to fall asleep at all) although that has improved the last few days.  A lot of this seems to be thanks to his 2 bottom incisors, which I actually can now see are about to pop through.  For a few days I was giving Dominic Ibuprofen every 6 hours to keep both of us from being miserable.  Oh how easy I had it when Dominic was toothless and content doing his own thing all day. 

I’m reading a lot on this whininess in books and online, and apparently it’s normal around this age.  It appears that the separation anxiety has officially arrived.  What I’ve read is that as Dominic is walking, he is realizing that he can walk away from me, and in turn, I can walk away from him.  That idea does not make him happy.  Before he was cognitively able to understand that concept, I guess he just thought I was his personal slave that wasn’t able to leave him ever.  The scariest thing is that I read it will last till he’s around 18 months old.  That’s 5 months of this!  To make matters worse, I just read that the "Terrible Twos" can actually start around 18 months old.  If it starts around 1  1/2 then, I don't really understand why it's infamously called the Terrible Twos.  

Walking around in the backyard

But anyway...looks like Dominic is off and RUNNING now!!  He started running last Thursday upstairs where it is carpeted in our hallway.  Of course, it ended up with him falling down on the floor, but he just laughed proudly that he was running in the first place.  Because Dominic is now a full-time walker (yay!!), I had to get new shoes for him.  He was wearing soft-soled shoes (baby shoes), but after only a few weeks of walking in those, they were falling apart.  I bought him a pair of inexpensive "big boy" tennis shoes, but since I’m expecting him to move up to the next size soon, I waited to buy him a nicer pair until then.  I also got Dominic some sandals in the next size up because I felt we could have used them at the beach when we were there recently , so I’m sure he can wear them in the summer.  Anyway, Dominic is walking even better now that he’s wearing his new big boy shoes, not to mention that he looks completely like a little boy now.  I guess he's really not a baby anymore. 

Along with walking and running comes what I like to call Dominic's “war wounds.”  He has started looking like a professional boxer (just picture Rocky) as he’s been getting bumps, bruises, pump knots, and scrapes all over the place recently.  I’m proud to say that typically Dominic doesn’t usually cry when he falls down (unless the people around him react).  When it’s bad though, he will bawl, not evening taking a breath at some points.  It’s horrible, but all I can do is try to calm him.  In the last couple of weeks, Dominic has scraped his hand on the ground, scraped his elbow somewhere, gotten a pump knot and bruise on his forehead from bumping into the side of a table, cut his forehead by butting it into Brian’s tooth, and gotten a huge bruise on his cheek and mark on his nose from falling on the sandbox.  The biggest one of all was when he fell face-first onto the corner of the wall that sticks at out at playgroup.  I've never seen a bruise appear that fast, and the pump knot was as big as a golf ball.  The swelling has gone down at this point, but he still has a scrape and bruise left.  Luckily, these little guys’ regenerate cells so quickly that the bumps, bruises, and scrapes go away much more quickly than they do for adults.  I guess this is just something normal for kids especially active, little boys.  I just hope that people don’t look at Dominic and think we beat him or something! 

The picture doesn't even do the "goose egg" on Dominic's forehead justice!

With the weather getting warmer, we've been outside a lot more recently, which of course I love and so does Dominic.  Brian filled up his sandbox the other evening, and Dominic loves playing in it.  He also really likes swinging now as well as walking around the backyard and the deck, being pushed around the neighborhood in the buggy we gave him for his birthday, and mowing the grass with his bubble mower.  Being outside with him is always so refreshing for the two of us.   

swinging outside with Daddy!

playing happily in his new sandbox! 

With Dominic becoming more and more of a toddler these days, we’ve made some changes in his activities.  First of all, we started back in the mommy-and-me swim class at Dynamos a couple of weeks ago, which we’ll be doing through early May.  Around the same time our swim and tennis club will open for the summer.  So he’ll be very comfortable with the water by then and on his way to learning how to swim for real over the summer.  I used to be a swim coach and instructor, so it's extremely important to me to teach him.  The first day of swimming it was cold outside, making the air cool even around the indoor pool.  As a result of being cold and his recent separation anxiety/teething behavior, Dominic was especially clingy.  We missed the 2^nd lesson to go to the beach, but the 3^rd lesson last week went very well.  Dominic was back to splashing and having fun in the water.  He really loves the pool!  I can't wait till the summer! 

in the locker room before swimming

I think I've also basically decided to stop going to the story time.  Since Dominic turned 1, he graduated to the “Mobile Mother Goose” story time at the library for one year olds.  We went to one, but it was way too overcrowded.  I really liked the new story time librarian, but I don’t think he was getting anything out of it with so many other kids talking, yelling, and crying.  Perhaps we’ll try it again another time, but I’ve been told it’s always like that.  Adding to the cons list is the fact that the class is at 11:30, Dominic’s nap time, which I'm being much stricter about in an effort to get him napping better again.  

Another change to our schedule is the move of our Thursday playgroup (as Brian calls the “Young Moms Playgroup”) to Tuesday afternoons.  I think the morning time was proving to be too difficult with new toddler napping schedules and all.  Finding a time in the afternoon was challenging as well since most everyone has a different nap schedule especially Dominic due to his later wake up and bedtime.  We put Dominic down at 9pm, so he and Brian have plenty of time to spend together each day, plus it keeps his wake up time later.  Of course, this will change when Dominic has to wake up for pre-school in a year and a half.  I would just shift his nap schedule for playgroup like I had been doing in the mornings, but like I said, now that his naps are so crazy, I’m trying to keep his schedule as consistent as possible.  Once he and the others are on a one-a-day nap, I think/hope coordinating schedules will be a lot easier! 

Since Dominic has 6 teeth at this point – and 2 more on the way – I bought him his first real "big boy" toothbrush.  It’s a Sesame Street one with Cookie Monster on it.  I had been using a little rubber one that I put in my finger and then put my finger in his mouth.  I end up getting bitten by Dominic most of the time wearing that brush.  Since toddlers his age are not supposed to ingest a lot of fluoride, I use special toddler toothpaste, which he doesn't seem to mind. Dominic actually loves getting his teeth brushed especially because Brian and I sing a dorky, little song that we made up about brushing teeth while we brush them.  J

brushing his teeth with his 1st big boy toothbrush

Dominic continues to babble all of the time and has started repeating a lot of the sounds we make.  He continues to say “Dada” in the happiest voice possible regarding Brian, “Mama” mostly in a whiny voice directed at me, and then also repeats “ow,” “yeah,” (or “yeah, yeah, yeah”), “ice,” “Nonna,” and “egg.”  He still has no meaning attached to these words, but we love when he says them regardless, as does he!  Dominic also loves the attention he gets whenever he claps his hands together or waves to someone.  His favorite place to clap is on the changing table where I usually will sing Pat-a-Cake to him, and he waves randomly but mostly does it when someone is leaving.  He continues to shake his head no to us too, a true sign that he’s a toddler.  I dread the day when he can actually say the word "no" to me.  

swinging :)

I recently boxed up all of Dominic's baby clothes from the first year of us life.  It took 3 big plastic bins plus some smaller ones.  Seeing how small he was and what little outfits he could fit into not so long ago was so sad.  It amazes me how much my baby boy has grown up in such a short time.    

playing in the sand is so much fun!