What to do, what to do?

Most of my regular readers know that I have been trying to decide between twin beds, toddler beds, futons and whatever else for my little tot. I am not sure why I am putting this much pressure on myself since the little guy is still pretty content with his crib and loves to play in it each day. My mother-in-law said that I was dragging out the last bits of baby that is left of him. She said she thought that was a good thing! Maybe I should formulate a poll for readers to vote on what I should do. Potty train begins next month so I have to hurry and make a decision!

ABC Genius!

Each and every day our little William is absorbing so much information and is broadening his speech. He has gotten to the point that he can tell you what any letter of the alphabet is without it being in alphabetical order. He loves doing his daily lessons and cheers and claps for himself when he knows he has done a good job. I wish I had a proper video to post but if you have a toddler then you understand how hard it is to get them to sit still for more than 5 seconds. William is thriving and is showing signs of maturity by listening a little better and trying to make better choices. The evil mom "look" is finally working on him. I have to say that he has been really well behaved in the past month and is a lot easier to look after. I know they go through phases so I will enjoy it while I can! Perhaps we are slowly moving out of the terrible two's stage? I guess time will tell.

Preschool or not?

I was talking to my daughters and we were talking about William going to school. We refer to kindergarten as the start of school since neither of the girls went to preschool. They were telling me that out of all their friends, they were the only ones that never attended preschool before kindergarten. I have thought about what I will do with William. Currently my decision is to teach him at home and not put him in preschool. It worked with the girls and since I am a stay-at-home mom indefinitely then I don't see why I need to do it. I almost seem to be an outcast since I am the only mom I know that has never done the daycare/preschool thing prior to kindergarten. If I'm home I don't see the need to spend the money if I can teach my child one-on-one. We have the park/zoo/library at hand for the social part. What do you think? What did you do with your little one?

He finally gets it!

It is really exciting to see how much little William is flourishing with his vocabulary. The neat thing is seeing him interact with others as well as the TV. Yes, I do let him watch TV but only Nick Jr. and PBS Kids. I won't let him watch anything with commercials and of course there are limits to how much he gets to watch. I love seeing him follow the lessons that Moose and Zee teach in between programs. He is really into his letters and numbers and is starting to memorize them in order! He also like to point out everything and tell you 10 times what it is. He is becoming a chatterbox and I love it. It gets me excited to know that all I teach him is sinking in and he really does get it!~

Parent's Choice can save you $$

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of PBM Products.
All opinions are 100% mine.

It is no secret that I am a formula feeding mom. Not all of us are cut out to breastfeed so we have to do our research to find the right formula to feed our baby. I used the Formula Finder and compared what we used for William and found that he would have taken the Premium, Milk-based or Organic type of formula. Out of curiosity I even checked out the Savings Calculator and here is what I found out when I compared what we used and spent to what we could have saved using the Parent's Choice brand.

Savings / Year** : $634.91
Savings / Month** : $52.18
Savings / Day** : $1.74
Savings / Bottle : $0.43

This was really surprising and made me think of all the things I would have done with the savings. I could have purchased diapers and also could have added some money in William's savings fund.
You can sign up for a free sample here and you can choose from 3 types (the Parent's Choice Premium, Advantage or Gentle Formulas). Believe me, if I had to do it all over again Parent's Choice would be what I would go with. It would be nice to be able to purchase formula that would not break the bank!

WTH Wednesday

I just had to get this one out... If you know me then you know that I DON'T believe in co-sleeping or the "family bed" as I have heard it. I feel like it is especially unhealthy for your marriage and downright dangerous. Of course that is strictly my opinion and if you like sleeping in the same bed with your kid then good for you. Last night Dwayne brought the boy in our bed because he woke up because we were having a really bad thunderstorm. Normally he can only get in our bed if he is sick and having trouble breathing or he has a fever. Last night he kicked and squirmed and fought like mad. I personally like my face and ribs to be untouched while I'm sleeping. I have no idea how people do it. I really don't. It makes no sense that we have a king-sized bed and both Dwayne and I are stuck at he ends because William thinks he needs his head touching me and his feet touching his dad. He better get back in his OWN room, in his OWN bed. The end.

I was lied to

I wanted to say that to all of you who said that raising boys are easier LIED. I just can't see it that way. My girls have been a breath of fresh air. The boy has made my hair get even more gray. I have been told that diapering a boy is easier. REALLY?? If I could get him to stop trying to escape then maybe I can find the answer to that one. I tell him to stop. Apparently this means GO GO GO! I say no, he feels like I said yes. I talk, yell, scream and almost want to cry and it only makes him more out of control. I have had people say that girls = drama. Not the case here. Boys are hard. Very hard. The next time anyone tells me that boys are easy, I will offer for them to follow me around for a few hours.

This has never happened before

The strangest thing happened this morning. Brie was coming up the stairs and she has just gotten out of the shower so her wet hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She was coming to have me blow dry her hair and straighten it with the flat iron. Now Brie is William's absolute most favorite person that walks the earth. When he saw her he hid behind me in fear. He saw her and he started crying as if she was a stranger invading his home. I only see him react this way in front of people he does not know. How could this be?? For about 20 minutes he would not go near her and showed fear towards her. Brie sat in a chair in front of me so I could get started in blow drying her hair and half way through he recognized his sister again. He went on to being his usual rambunctious self and was handing over books for Brie to read to him. Once her hair was completely done he was laying all over her and climbing on her like normal. This was some very unusual behavior and we are thinking it might be because for the last week the girls have had friends over each day. There was a new person to meet daily. Perhaps he thought Brie was a new person! Have you ever encountered anything like this with your child??

School's out!

It's official that school is out for the summer and I am kinda sorta happy about it. Happy because I have great kids that are fun to be around but not so happy because it takes me off of my regular schedule. I am one of those planning, scheduling and list making type of moms. I get crazy when things are out of whack or if there are too many people in my face while I am working. I also really like driving the kids to school and picking them up. There is something about the calm of the carpool line aka Willie's nap time. I guess Willie will have to adjust to having his sisters around more. He is usually perfectly calm when it is just the two of us. Oh well, I am glad to have my kids around regardless of how they act ;-) Happy Summer!!

Wordless Wednesday and the monkey-frog!

William got this cute new chair over the weekend and says "bi-bit, bi-bit" every time he goes near it. He thinks the monkey is a frog!!

He'll sleep anywhere!

Poor guy was sitting in his high chair when the sleepiness hit! I just had to snap a photo :)

Really, really happy

I know I just posted a week ago about William's speech update but I just had to share that he has skyrocketed with his language in the past few days! He wants to point out everything he knows and tell me about it. He is recognizing and saying the names of objects in his books. He is also playing around with some of the letters of the alphabet. I am really happy about it and decided I will not look into a speech therapist for him. I guess it was about being patient and working diligently. He is really getting so much better. YES!!!

William's speech update

Many of you who either know me personally or follow the blog regularly know that William is a late bloomer in the speech department. He has been making some great strides lately and has become quite fond of a handful of words. We are encouraging his speech development as much as possible and are finding that he comes up with at least 2 new words each day. Here is a list of words he currently uses and his version of them.

• apple- apple
• bird- buud
• Brie- Beee
• Chardie- Shawdee
• tall dog- taw dog
• the end- dee end
• Head- hett
• Teeth- teef
• ears- eeezz
  
• sissy- seesee
• trees- tees
• up- up
• cup-tup
• water- watuw
• ball- bawll
  

I want my toddler to stop taking naps

Sounds crazy doesn't it? I really want William to stop taking a nap each day. This kid tends to take his nap between about 2:00-3:15 (during afternoon school pick-up). Don't get me wrong, it is probably the most peaceful part of the day but the problem begins at night. The boy thinks that 10:30 and 11:00 are acceptable bedtimes. He in turn stays down late the next morning and repeats the process. I would much prefer that he wakes up at the crack (I love getting up early) and goes to bed by 8 or 9. He really does not act any differently without the nap. I guess I will just have to see how things go over the summer since the girls will be around more. He changes when others are home in the daytime so I guess time will tell!

Question: At what age did your child stop taking afternoon naps?

False accusations

Ever have those days that you hear a noise in the distance and you automatically assume your little one is up to no good? Well William had been getting in trouble all morning and I had to keep "speaking loudly". I thought he was messing with the TV and cable box but instead this is what he was doing.

This really makes me mad

Why in the world does William not listen to me? If Dwayne is around William dares not to try any stupid stuff. The boy will look around the corner to be sure Papo is not around if he is about to do something. When I am reprimanding his butt he looks at his dad the whole time. It really makes me mad because I spend all my time and energy on him. I can tell him "NO" fifty thousand times and it is irrelevant. Papo tells him once and that is all it takes. It really makes me feel so powerless and weak on days that I feel like I am screaming and yelling to make him listen. Ugh, it's been one of those mornings already :(

Crazy sleeper

It got quiet so I had to go make sure the little guy was not in any trouble. This is how I found him. Of course after I snapped a couple photos, I shifted him into a more comfortable and safe position.

Wordless Wednesday

My coupon disorganizer ;)

Bath time question

Okay y'all better not laugh at me acting like a new mom....Just wondering, if you have a slippery tub is it better to use a bath mat or grippy things for the tub floor? We had textured tub floors where we lived with the girls so we never encountered slipping. In our house we live in now, the boy's tub is a bit slippery. I am not a fan of anything that can get mildew and I don't even allow him to have very many toys in the tub. Please tell me what you did with bath time and your toddler. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.

The one thing that can keep my 2 year old still

My boy generally is non-stop as any toddler boy might be. There is one show that he loves so much and it will actually keep him sitting in one spot for the duration of it. Thankfully it's about reading (his favorite activity) called Super Why! What a neat little show and it is full of great lessons in reading and grammar usage. I am so glad my boy loves it! Have you or your little one ever watched this show before?