~*~ Toddler Check-in ~*~

adoxyinherear

OMIGOSH, I'm the worst. How's everyone? How are your littles? Challenges? Funny stories?

If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do with the money?

MJM3108

RusalkaSings said:

OMIGOSH, I'm the worst. How's everyone? How are your littles? Challenges? Funny stories?

If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do with the money?

You're totally NOT the worst! You happen to parent a toddler, and they kind of take up most of your time!

This is my first toddler check in! I have some serious mixed emotions about the fact that Ben is already 1.

We are good, but so very tired of snow (we've got over 2' on the ground already with another 4-6" called for tonight) and ready to get outside and play! My little guy is all over the place and seriously not happy about being confined in the house all the time. We've got to get him into some activities outside the house. No real challenges right now, sleep is great, the transition to WCM is going really well (up to 4 oz WCM in each bottle) and he eats like a champ! He is also almost exclusively walking now, and I am pretty sure he ran yesterday. (Dear God, help me!)

If I won the lottery tomorrow, there are a few things I'd do: Pay off all our debt, buy a house, start a college fund for Ben, and invest some of the money. I'd also tithe on my winnings to my church and make a sizable donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in my mom's memory. Then would be a huge family reunion for my whole family- we haven't all been together in ages. If possible, I'd pay for my grandparents to move to the states. They live in Switzerland, and we tried to get them to move here a few years ago and they didn't want to. Now they want to but can't afford to. I would also start my catering business/ food truck full time! 

martinimomma

DS is good.  Like mrsjessica, we are ready for the snow to be done (getting 4-8"today...again...) and we are all a little stir crazy.  Poor DD has barely breathed outdoor air her entire short life, given we all had nasty colds in the fall and the winter weather has just been horrible.  On the upside, I've had plenty of time to research double strollers since we've barely been out all at once since DD was born (and when we were we just used 2 strollers - which the nanny can't do and we can't do if one parent tries to take both of the kids out at the same time).

We are going on a couple weeks now of no diaper area rash for DS, which just makes life so much better for him.  He was doing well with potty training but is backing off a little now which has me concerned -- the sooner we get him out of diapers the better off he will be as far as his repeated rashes, so we need to keep that moving!

If I won the lottery tomorrow I'd pay off our (moneypit) house, the cars, and my parents cars.  Then I'd sock the rest away in the most tax-advantageous way possible to make sure some of it survived to pay for DS and DD to go to private high school (public schools are not great here in the land of lincoln and near-bankrupt Illinois) and decent colleges.  And enough for DH and I to retire someday.  Since that is not looking like anything that will be remotely possible for us ever at this point.

KJsbabe

We are good. DD had been saying new words every day and constantly surprises me with what she knows. She said Gram and Pop this weekend, which really made my IL's day! Some words I didn't even know she knew, like truck. We don't have a truck and I don't remember ever mentioning them to her, but she knows the difference between a car and a truck. 

We're starting to make some real progress on weaning. DD still BF 2x a day, but she's slowly starting to cut back on the length of feedings. Just a few weeks ago we were at a good half hour per feeding and now she's cut back to about 10 mins. I really want it to be her idea to drop these last two. Also in this transition, since I'm not nursing her to sleep at night any more, she's been asking to go into her crib awake and puts herself to sleep. I'm kind of amazed! I thought I'd be rocking her to sleep until she was 10, but I'm certainly not going to argue with it! 

If I won the lottery, I'd do the normal things. Pay off all debt (house, cars, student loans, ect). Probably do some home improvement things. DH would want a fancy car. Set up a trust fund for DD to pay for college, wedding, and whatever else. Then I'd put the rest in the bank and live off the interest. Probably do some traveling somewhere in there.

ETA: I forgot my cute story! We have a picture on our wall of DD that she loves to look at. Every time we pass it she has to name everything in it. So she'll say "booook, sheeepy, teh-de (teddy bear), hat" and then points to herself in the picture and says "you!" Haha! I guess we need to work on the you/me/I consept! 

KJsbabe

theresat858 said:

I'm okay - exhausted but happy for the reason :-)    I'm watching DH paint the deck by himself right now, and he's not much of a handyman, so that's pretty awesome. (though the large amount of paint he got on the stucco that's a different color = less than awesome). 

We've been fighting something every since DD started at the new preschool at the end of Jan. Now it's the never-ending head cold.  At least it has not been affecting her sleep much, and her snotty nose seems to bother me more than her. 
She has started talking up a storm lately....and making up stories. Today at Target she kept saying "poopoo" like she had a dirty diaper...but her diaper was clean. 

Our challenge has been swim lessons. I guess we didn't start them soon enough. DD likes the water but HATES swim lessons - she hates being held to my side and being shown how to kick, and really hates going under.

I'm sure there have been funny stories but I can't think of any right now.

Buy a new house - bigger. And go to Hawaii. And quit work to be a SAHM.

DD hates swim lessons, too. She either cries or says "out out out!" all class. We did a round of classes during the summer when she was 12 m and she hated them then, too. I hoped that it would get better as she got older, but no such luck. I think next time we attempt them I'm going to have DH take her. She's a big momma's girl so maybe if I'm out of the picture she'll be more willing to try things.

adoxyinherear

I'm kind of a mess lately but I really think the weather is starting to get me down, too. We're supposed to warm up today and tomorrow so I'm going to try and take DD to the zoo tomorrow afternoon. I've never wanted snow to melt so badly. 

The usual challenges lately. DD is getting more willful by the day, so I've started trying to offer her choices. I'm hoping for some serious language growth in the next month to give her a little bit more control. 

Today is actually her half-birthday! 

I bought her an IKEA table and chairs off of Craig's List ($20, woot!) and she just climbed right up in the chair, sat down, and signed and said, "eat," because it is her favorite activity. Now she'll bring her toys up there and just sit and play. She's getting to be such a big girl.

I would love to win just a small lottery, enough to pay off my stupid student loan debt. If I didn't have these loans to repay I could afford to stay home with DD, and that thought just eats me up. 

melly918

DS and I are on mid-winter break this week and of course it starts with him getting sick on Sat and me last night. Seems to be the stomach flu which I have never had in my adult life. Ugh. I hate this. DD was also sick in her crib last night but she seems absolutely fine. 

Her language continues to grow so quickly. I video'ed her seeing herself on the iPhone and she screamed out her name. Now every time I show her the clip she giggles and covers her face. It's so cute. Challenges: still not taking a sippy/straw well. 

If we won the lottery, I would rehab my house and sell it. Get a new place. Also get a new SUV that I want. At the auto show recently, I fell in love with the 8-way car seat controls and found out they are only available on higher priced models which we can't afford. Also the money would pay for the kids private school tuition unless we moved to a better district. 

FmrAFBrat

Right now there's not a lot of new things going on with his speech. Sometimes I totally understand him other times it's a battle. I feel like we are on a lull. On a bright note it's been warmer so hoping to get some walks in. On a funny note DS has been stacking all his toys on the couch. It is driving me crazy. He also refuses highchairs and booster seats, as well as his food on his plastic plates. He stole my plate tonight even though it was the same thing.

If I won the lotto I'd pay off my student loan and go for number 3. I really would like to me a SAHM and be able to send the boys to Montessori for elementary or home school them. I kinda think there are way to many issues with a lot of schools. I'd also want to figure out a way that no one knew we won the lotto....especially some of my family.

adoxyinherear

FmrAFBrat said:

Right now there's not a lot of new things going on with his speech. Sometimes I totally understand him other times it's a battle. I feel like we are on a lull. On a bright note it's been warmer so hoping to get some walks in. On a funny note DS has been stacking all his toys on the couch. It is driving me crazy. He also refuses highchairs and booster seats, as well as his food on his plastic plates. He stole my plate tonight even though it was the same thing. If I won the lotto I'd pay off my student loan and go for number 3. I really would like to me a SAHM and be able to send the boys to Montessori for elementary or home school them. I kinda think there are way to many issues with a lot of schools. I'd also want to figure out a way that no one knew we won the lotto....especially some of my family.

I would love to send DD to a Waldorf school. We have a great one in the area but it's around $7K a year and I just feel like there's no way... it depresses me how terrible public schools can be, and how our government's response to falling behind other countries in education is just to do more of the same stuff that hasn't been working. Sigh.