10 reasons why it’s hard being a toddler

While Kyle’s babyhood went by too fast for me, I’ve really enjoyed watching him grow as a toddler.  Especially since he turned 2!  He has such a personality, and his high-energy is so contagious.  Of course, there’s the other side of toddlerhood where I often find Kyle frustrated, mad or crying. This is obviously not a fun moment for either of us, but sometimes I just have to laugh.  If my son could write, I believe this is a post he would write.  So from a toddler’s point of view, here are 10 reasons why it’s hard to be a toddler:

1. I have too many rules to remember. Like, don’t bite your brother, don’t put your hand down your mom’s shirt or down your diapers, no jumping off the stairs, dessert is AFTER dinner, etc…
2. My eye level is aligned with everyone’s crotch.  That’s why I throw tantrums all the time.  You would too!!
3. I’m too short to see what’s on top of the counter. I know there’s a cookie there but my parents are denying it, and I have no way to prove it.
4. I have a younger sibling now and everyone is buying them gifts except I’m the one that truly appreciates presents. I mean, I’m the one that’s ABLE to unwrap them all, not my younger sibling.
5. I’m older than my baby brother but I have to go to bed before he does.
6. I want to do everything myself but “adults” won’t let me, like press the buttons on every machine possible or hold my new baby sibling without help from others.
7. I have to share my stuff with some kid I just met. And this is coming from my parents and I still don’t believe they are good at sharing themselves.
8. While I love playing the drums, I go absolutely nuts if my dad tries to play.  Same goes for air hockey and T-ball.  I can’t really explain it, but that’s how I want things done, so stop asking me “why”!!
9. I love my mom so much that I want to spend every single second of the day with her, including her time in the washroom.  She keeps on saying that she wants “privacy”.  I’m not sure what it is, but what does privacy offer that I can’t???
10. I don’t understand what the big deal is with potty training.  There’s all this talk about using the potty, rewards, being a big-boy, wearing underwear, etc… but come-on, why would anyone not want to wear diapers forever? Besides… I’ve seen those depends commercials.  I’ll be back in diapers eventually, so why bother getting rid of them in the first place???

Imagine celebrating the holidays every month! Now you can, with the Baby Trunk {Review}

Opening Happiness Every Month is Baby Trunk’s tag line; and this perfectly describes their unique service.

Imagine receiving a package every month with 4 or 5 products from the best brands for your little one.  Each package is customized based on your child’s age (newborn to 3 years) and gender so they can be utilized immediately.  And who doesn’t love receiving packages in the mail.  I know I do, especially those that are surprises.  That’s how I felt when I received my first Baby Trunk package in late October.  I tore it open and found 5 items in the box that fell under the theme of “The Little Monster Box”.

The items include “Boo Bunny!” book, a race car (by Green Toys), a (organic) Giraffe Lovie Blanket, a Toy & Surface cleaner and packages of Organic Baby Food.  Total retail price of the five products is approximately $50.

Not only are these products organic and environmentally friendly, but they have all been selected and approved by mom’s, not endorsed by the companies that they are purchased from.  So you know you are receiving quality, useful products for your family.

With so many of our family and friends expecting their first (and some their second) baby, this makes for a unique and special gift idea.  I know I would love to receive it 😉 (hint, hint, wink, wink). I’ve already purchased one for a friend of mine.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go on Baby Trunk’s website (www.babytrunk.ca) and register

2. Choose a plan…. (added bonus, shipping is free!!!)

$35 / month

$105 / 3 months

$175 / 6 months (1 month is free)

$350 / 12 months (2 months are free)

3. Look forward to your Trunk delivery (or have a close family or friend anticipate the arrival of their amazing gift).

In order to receive the next Trunk in time for the holidays sign-up before December 12th, 2012.

Happy Holidays & Happy shopping 🙂

My 2 year old son only wears brand name clothes

Most people assume that if they have boys, they won’t run into the same issues that girls typically have.  Specifically, issues relating to clothes.  Well, not so and I have a two-year old boy to prove it.

Kyle has decided to show us his independence through his choice of clothes.  Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as the colour.  In fact, Kyle insists on wearing brand name clothes only.  Now, I’m not talking brand name like Hugo Boss, Louis Vitton or Lacoste.  I’m talking, Elmo, Thomas, Cars and smurfs.  Unless it’s one of those, he refuse to wear it.

The problem is, 80% of the clothes he owns, are not his brand of choice.  About a year ago, when I went to Joe Fresh, I found tons of great shirts for him size 2T (about a year out).  They were all on sale for approximately $3, so I couldn’t resist buying them, and smiling to myself about what a great super saver shopper I am.  Well, I couldn’t have been any more wrong!  I’m lucky if I’m able to persuade him to wear any of those shirts.

Some of the tactics that I’ve used include: “The Elmo shirt is itchy, mommy needs to wash it so you HAVE TO wear this one until the Elmo shirt is clean”.  Or, “look, there’s a backpack on this shirt, just like Dora.  Don’t you want to be like Dora?” and my all-time favourite “look at the _____ (fill in the blank with whatever animal is on the shirt).  Let’s go and try to find this ‘animal’ today”.  I’m usually lucky enough that these work, especially if he hasn’t spotted one of his favourite shirts.

I’ve even decided to go and purchase a few more of his brand name shirts, but then my husband keeps reminding me that we have a closet full of clothes that he’s never even wore.  He’s right, I can’t justify spending more money on 2-year-old clothes.  I just have to do laundry more often I guess!!  During a more recent shopping trip, I just let Kyle pick out the clothes. While they didn’t have any of his favourites, he did choose two. One had a cool dinosaur on it, and the other was of a bulldozer.  And since he picked it out, he hasn’t minded wearing them all that much.

Girl or boy, do your kids have any funny / frustrating phases like this one?  I’m sure that just like every other phase, this one is sure to pass.  But in the meantime, please share your secrets with me.  I’d love to hear 🙂

The fall of America, the rise of “Honey Boo Boo”

Up until a week ago, I’d never heard of the  show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (on TLC).  I saw a friend’s Facebook status mentioning Honey Boo Boo but not knowing what she’s talking about, I overlooked it.  Coincidently, about an hour later, I saw previews for Honey Boo Boo and decided to watch it.  To say the least, I was shocked.  I didn’t even realize that the toddler girl was Honey Boo Boo.  I thought the show was about her mom: a white trash, redneck, mother of four who got pregnant with her oldest daughter as a teenager.  This woman doesn’t have much tact, and she definitely does not look her age (which is my age actually).  At first I thought the show was a joke, and then I realized the premise is actually based on beauty pageants for kids (spinoff from Toddler’s in Tiara’s).  I have to admit, when that little chubby, funny girl gets all glammed up, she looks really cute.  But that’s besides the point, and not to mention, I’m not a big fan of beauty pageants for young children anyways.

All that being said, I couldn’t take my eyes off the show.  In fact, the following night I tuned in again and realized that there was a marathon of the show running all night.  I’ll admit, I stayed up and watched two of the episodes.  Here’s a few things I kept thinking as the show progressed.

1. Why isn’t Child Services taking these kids away?

2. They must be making enough $ from the show to move somewhere better.  Or at least, away from the train tracks that are IN their backyard.

3. Why someone would want a pig as a pet inside their house is beyond me.  But then again, none of their other decisions really made sense to me.

4. Why would someone in the low-income bracket spend all of their $ on beauty pageants.

5. Is the saying “that’s a hot mess” going to be the newest popular tagline like Paris Hilton’s tagline “That’s hot!”?

6. This show is a mash-up of various reality shows including: Toddler’s in Tiara’s, Extreme couponing, and swamp people.

I think one of my favourite parts was having them talk about “dieting” (the 12-year-old daughter weighs more than me) as they were all sitting on the couch, snacking on what was probably a bag full of heart attacks waiting to happen. Another classic favourite was when they went to their local department shop to search for “deals”.  Their local department store turned out to be the local dump.  This family really took it to the next level, including rolling one of their daughters in an old, scummy, used-up mattress (gross anyone?). I also think it’s pretty funny that they have to write out what they’re saying as part of the show (not close captioning) because of their “accents”.

I wasn’t surprised by some of the twitter feeds going around a few weeks ago including “America is in trouble when more people tuned in to watch Honey Boo Boo than the Republican national convention” and “Obama recently claimed he’s never been more optimistic for the future of America. Clearly, he hasn’t seen ‘Here comes Honey Boo Boo'”

The problem is, I can’t stop watching this show.  What is it about this show? I guess I am a reality TV junkie… Does anyone else out there feel the same way??

The smartest toddler on earth – and despite what his grandparents think, it’s not my son.

A few weeks ago, while I was at the Toronto Zoo (my favourite new kid-friendly place in Toronto), I met a stay-at-home dad and his 27 month-old son, Jacob. We started chatting as the father overheard me speaking Hebrew with Kyle. He told me that he’s teaching his son four languages: English, French, Hebrew and Mandarin. Half an hour into our conversation, I realized that I might have just met the smarted toddler on earth.

The father, very casually, started explaining to me that his son can say words that he spells out to him. To “prove” it to me he said “Jacob… what does b-a-l-l-o-o-n spell?” and Jacob, on cue, says “balloon”. Father: “And Jacob, what does s-h-a-r-k spell?” and Jacob replies back “shark”. And so on, and so on. I’m not sure if the dad noticed or not, but my mouth was wide open, speechless, the whole time this was going on. When this back and forth stopped, I finally said “well… Kyle is a model!”

I know the father wasn’t trying to be malicious or even show-off. In fact, he was telling me that he believes that his son is able to do all of this due to the TV show Word World. While maybe some of his amazing ability might be due to this show that his father insisted he watch, I was sure there was more to it. As the conversation progressed, the father told me that his own father spoke 11 different languages, and he spoke about 5 different languages. And so, I figured that it must be genetics. When I tried to point this out to the dad, he still insisted that he only had the TV show to thank. Modest? Maybe… But haven’t scientists being saying all along that kids shouldn’t watch TV before the age of two because it’ll make them dumber or something like that? If that’s the case, this guy just proved this theory wrong!

Later that day while our kids were playing innocently enough in the big sand box in the zoo, I pointed out the cute backdrop which was a small part of a dinosaur skeletal. I couldn’t finish my sentence fast enough, when the dad asked his son what type of dinosaur it was. So not only does Jacob know spelling at the young age of 2 years and 3 months, but apparently, he knew the names of over 200 dinosaurs and would recognize them just by their skeletals. AND….he was in the process of learning which ones are herbivores and which ones are carnivores. All I could think of was the fact that I could only pronounce the names of five dinosaur’s and that’s only because I recently learned them because of Kyle.

Wow! I kept thinking over and over while the dad spoke.  While Kyle’s vocabulary mostly consists of the word “Ga”, I didn’t even try to compare the two kids. I just realized that each one is unique in their own way. But I couldn’t help stop thinking that I might have just met the smartest toddler on earth.

Have you ever met or know, or have a kid that you think is kid-genius?

P.S. If you haven’t voted for me for top 30 mom bloggers in Toronto, you can do so at this link: http://www.torontomomnow.com/2012/vote-for-your-favourite-toronto-mom-blogs-of-2012/  It’ll take 2 seconds; Maya Fitzpatrick mayahoodblog.  Thanks 🙂

My son and I are on a first name basis

At our home, I speak Hebrew to our son and my husband speaks English.  So when we were deciding what we wanted him to call us, naturally John wanted to be called Dad or Da-da and I wanted to be called Ima (mom in Hebrew).  When Kyle was born, we repeatedly told him who we were. Me, Ima and John, Da-da.  Of course, it wasn’t until Kyle was over a year before he said any real words.

I don’t want to brag, but Kyle’s first word was Ma-ma.  Not exactly Ima, but he actually meant me when he said it (not his favourite toy or stuffed animal, but me, really!).  His second and third words were Ball and Goal, respectively.  About a month ago Kyle started calling me by my first name.  It wasn’t just a simple Maya but usually, it was a very demanding, loud cry for help that sounded like MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYA!!  And from then on, it was “Maya, Maya… Maya,…Maya, Maya, Maya…Maya!”

Why can`t I just pee alone?!?!

For those of you confused by the title, you should know that I have an 18 month old son.*

When I was pregnant with Kyle, I heard that I wasn’t going to get much sleep or alone time with my husband.  But I was never told that I also wouldn’t be able to go to the bathroom without the accompaniment of my son.  Of course when Kyle was a little baby, if he was awake or not in his crib, I could take him into the bathroom with me and put him in his bouncing chair.  But as he got older and more mobile, I assumed he should be able to continue to play wherever he is as I’m only an ear shot away.

Mickey Mouse is Sleeping

When Kyle was turning one I started reading toddler books.  I knew that Toddler behaviour will probably be a challenge for us since a) John and I were both a hand-full when we were young and b) Kyle had that “wild”, rambunctious attitude about him as a baby.  One of my favourite books was called Toddler ABC Guide to Discipline by Michelle Smith with Rita Chandler.  I liked the advice (actual actionable steps), and the writing, but mostly, I liked that it was a VERY short book and a quick read.  Too many advice books, although helpful and full of information, are not great as reference books, for when you really need to look up advice based on the situation at hand.

Top 10 things a stay-at-home parent of a toddler can’t live without

My favourite part about New-Years is all of the countdowns and “top 10 / top 100” lists.  So here’s my top 10 list of things a stay-at-home parent of a Toddler can’t live without.

I would love to hear what tops your list for staying sane!

10. TV.  Specifically, Treehouse and Disney Junior.  Kyle’s current favourites are the Mickey Mouse Club, 4 square and roll play.  Both channels are also available on-demand :)*

9. Three-wheel stroller for walks outside in the snow during the LONG winter months.

8. Music to jam out to and dance to (instruments are an added fun). Kyle is currently perfecting the “knee-bend” dance and has surpassed his dad’s dancing ability.