On Saturday, my "babies" had their half birthday. This isn't something we celebrate (do others?? I'm not sure...) but there just happened to be a fair in town. Now, if I were a good mommy blogger, I would have remembered to bring my camera to the fair to get pictures of them being big kids and riding rides by themselves. Remembering three kids seems to be all my brain can handle, though, and the camera was left behind. We had to settle for Billy's iPhone which is normally fine but on Sunday is self-destructed before we had a chance to transfer the photos. So, ya...no pics. But what we had was a very cute shot of them in the car-merry-go-round ride. They chose the same car - Collette was in the front and Sebastian was in the back. They loved it. I got a little choked up at how big they seemed, riding all by themselves. Another one of those unexpected milestones, I guess.
2.5 has also been an age of "advanced" play. They are interacting with their toys (and each other) in more meaningful, developed ways. They collaborate in games, simple as they may be. Like jumping off the porch, throwing matchbox cars over the fence or taking turns dumping sand on the rhododendrons. Recently, they acquired some dinosaur toys. They know a lot of the dinosaurs names already so I tried to teach them which ones were meat eaters and which were plant eaters. They took it to heart:
On the flip side, we seem to be confirming the theory that the half years suck. The whining has reached epic proportions. Things were going so well, I had been slacking on the discipline. Now its back to counting them all the time. For those of you who also do 1-2-3 Magic, do you count for whining? If so, always or just in certain instances? And what about crying? For us, whining and crying is a fine line but I feel awful sending them to time out when they're crying. I feel like I am denying them some mommy comfort that they need. Then again, they (yes, they - its not just Sebastian anymore!) cry over ridiculous things like my suggesting that they wear a rain coat or serving lunch that doesn't involve yogurt and fruit.
Sibling rivalry has also been peaking. Sebastian is in a "dat's mine!" phase, and even takes it out on poor Matteo. But mostly it's just Sebastian and Collette fighting over toys and/or space. I have a feeling that Billy and I will have to give them some quality one-on-one time to get through this stage of toddlerhood. I just hope the second half of their third year in life isn't as rough as the second half of their first year. Because I really did not enjoy 18-24 months old...
But back to the bright side:
They are still happy kiddos over all!
We don't celebrate 1/2 birthdays, but I know some people who do. Especially ones with kiddos whose birthdays are so close to Christmas. And that make sense to me.
ReplyDeleteMy guys had an awesome time at the fair too. They were barely tall enough to ride that car-go-round ride by themselves, but luckily, no one was really checking.
Yeah, the whining and crying stinks. My guys didn't really get into it until they turned 3, but there's been no sign of it stopping since it started. I'm hoping things will improve once we finally get a stretch of decent weather and can be outside most of the day. We'll see...
Oh the whining! Yes, I absolutely put Cameron in time out for whining or if the crying is obviously because she isn't getting her way. I'll keep in mind that the half year is a tough one...we have a few months to go and I'm already sick of the whining!
ReplyDeleteoh no, you mean the whining gets worse?
ReplyDeleteI don't celebrate the half birthdays simply because I forget until they're past!!! :)
I think i need to do something like a small cupcake next time. RIght now I'm in the middle of party prep.
All invites are addressed and ready to go out.