Monthly Archives: December 2006

Youthful Tendency Disorder

Ah, thank goodness for The Onion, that online bastion of satire without whom we would never find out about a new, horrible disease striking kids all across the US: YTD or Youthful Tendency Disorder.

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We Have a Root!

Things my 3 year old says that crack me up. I think this probably speaks more to my level of maturity than anything else.

  • “No, that was just fireworks.” When asked if the toot she had signaled a poo.
  • “No, Dad. I want it straight up!” When witnessing her Dad trying to dilute her juice with water.
  • “Mom, we have a root!” Upon seeing her infant brother turn his head to the side and open his mouth in classic baby rooting.
  • “It’s just a skidmark.” When asked if she just had a poo.

Spanky New Look…Same Old Content

Somehow I’ve found a bit of time (4am) to upgraded the site. I’m using the wonderful GluedIdeas theme and have added the WordPress widgets plugin (for those of you geeky enough to care). So far, both have exceeded my expectations and if you are running WordPress you might want to check them both out.

And Baby Makes 4

It is really amazing how much calmer you are when you have a second baby. With The Girl it took forever to change a diaper. Three years later with The Boy, I’m like a Nascar pit crew.

I also forgot that new babies don’t do much more than poop, eat and sleep (during the day, not the night), which is good because anything beyond that right now would be a struggle. It’s not the new baby that we’re having to spend so much energy on right now – it’s The Girl. I guess I wasn’t really fully prepared for the extent of her adjustment period, but suffice to say it’s been difficult for her.

Not that she doesn’t love her new brother – far from it. She is overly eager to help and hyper curious as to what he is doing at every single moment of the day and night, which has led to some long nights and stressful days as we dance along the fine line of correcting her handling of the little guy and crushing her enthusiasm.

To say she has been emotionally tender is an understatement. Little things that she normally took in stride have become emotional obstacles for her. We’re finding that we spend a lot more time with her, helping he adjust to this new little person and not feel that she has been pushed aside, or that she is loved any less. Add in some Christmas hype and you’ve got a tender ball of emotions.

As for the regression to babyish behaviour we were expecting, it hasn’t really happened. She is going thru a soother phase, but she plays with it for a couple of minutes before discarding it, so that hardly seems significant. I should note that she never used a soother when she was a baby, so there is a novelty element to them. Not that we were planning on using a soother with the Boy, but some overly eager Nurse in the hospital eager to quiet him during his overnight stay in Neo-Natal gave him one.

On the upside, since she has become a big sister, she has taken the unilateral step of finishing off her potty training. The day her little brother came home was the first night she decided to sleep without a diaper, just her underpants. It’s been a week and so far, so good. And 2 days ago, I was summoned into the bathroom to witness her first #2 on the toilet – an event that almost made her Mom cry (at this point, those of you who do not have kids are bailing out of this post, wondering what the hell it is about poo and toilets that turn parents into socially inappropriate idiots). So, in terms of baby regression, I think we’ve come out ahead.

It’s a Boy!

Our family has expanded! We have an 8 pounds 2 oz baby boy…Mom and The Boy are coming home today. It was not the smoothest of ordeals, but we had great support from our midwife and doula. I’ll expand on why I am a complete advocate for the midwife/doula route at a later time when I have more time (ha, yeah that’ll happen soon). Suffice to say that everyone is out of the woods and ready to come home today.

In the meantime, thanks to Phil over at A Family Runs Thru It for turning me onto this piece of YouTube video. It’s really a beautiful piece that speaks volumes about the importance of treating kids as individuals.