14 month old’s first time running in the grass

Week 182 motherhood with 3 year old and 14.5 month old:

March 7 to 13, 2024:

• Last week, we stayed home the entire week to recover from our colds.  Funny I had just bragged about attending EarlyON 5 days a week the other week and last week, we went 0 days.
• I had a transcript due the following Tuesday and so DH took the kids to his parents’ place so I could do some work.  I ended up doing a fair share of work in the morning and had some time in the afternoon.  It was the Oscars the next night so I actually spent the entire 3 hours they were gone to watch and finish watching Oppenheimer lol.  It was incredible I got that time to finish a 3-hour long movie but I also felt a lot of mom guilt for staying at home like I used to do when I was single and just splurging the time on a movie.
• I was able to get into my bed for the first time in a while to sleep a bit and suddenly in my dream, there was a beige square thing saying “ma ma”.  Turns out it was the 14 month old calling me from her bed.  Dream interrupted lol.
• DH went with the 3 year old in the store to get his new eyeglasses.  When the clerk handed her her hat (I guess it had fallen), she cried because she wanted to get it herself.  These are what her typical tantrums are like these days.  She always insists on doing things herself and doesn’t like it when someone steps in to do it for her.  Thus, I always have to remember to ask her, “Do you want do this or do you want me to do it?”, etc.  Little things will set her off otherwise.
• DH and I finally were able to escape/leave the house without the two little people to go on a dinner date.  It was basically our Valentine’s dinner do-over because the child came with us last time and fifth-wheeled us.  Despite us getting to have dinner by ourselves for the first time in a long time in a restaurant, we felt rushed to finish up and go home once we were done eating.  We couldn’t have grandma look after the kids for too long.  I think we were out for about 2 hours.  It was still really nice though and we have decided to try to have date nights like this at least once a month.  Let’s hope we get to do it. 🤞
• The 14 month old likes to sit at the bottom of the stairs for some reason lol.
• The 3 year old is getting better at sitting by herself more consistently when we go out to eat.
• March 11:  The 3 year old pooed in the toilet right before bathtime successfully.  She peed in the toilet the next day of her own regard too!  She wore underwear for the first time.  It didn’t last though and she was back in diapers the next day.  However, she did go to the toilet more often to do her business.  Finally!!!  I was wondering when she was going to stop refusing.  Perhaps it was that time at EarlyON when she saw another girl going to the potty that encouraged her.
• The 3 year old discovered my camera on my phone this week and has been taking photos of me.  I’ve got a lot of random ones from her perspective and it’s interesting to see.
• It was warm that one day this week and we were able to take both kids to the park for the first time this season.  It was really nice for the older kid to go down the slide and run around again.  It was the first time that the 14 month old was able to walk and run around on the grass too.  Yay, warm weather!
• The two kids went down the double slide simultaneously too.
• I don’t know why the 3 year old had to grab dirt and put it on the slide.  I told her that it would be dirty for the next person coming down the slide and she said that she wanted their butt to be dirty…
• When we were coming home from the park, the 14 month old was sitting in the front part of the double stroller.  The 3 year old was running alongside me for a short bit until she was tired.  She obviously didn’t want to walk home the rest of the time and we couldn’t carry her all the way home either.  She ended up sitting inside the car seat and taking off her shoes and snuggling inside.  It was so funny to see her entire body sit inside it and it reminded me of how she was so tiny and small when she came home from the hospital inside that exact car seat too.  Funny to see her big head inside the small car seat bundled up.
• The 14 month old knows to put things back when she found them.  She was rummaging in the cabinets and then put the packs of seaweed back when she found them when I told her to.  She listens and follows instructions well.
• The 3 year old had the Creative Chefs class where they made guacamole and chips (her first time back since recovering from the cold and she seemed reluctant and harder to warm up again).  They actually had the kids make the tortilla chips by cutting and making shapes out of the tortilla wrap and then baking them.  It is a healthier way to have chips and dip than the store-bought chips.  So thoughtful of the staff to think of it like this!  Unfortunately, the child didn’t want to cut the shapes by herself and I made the first couple for her.  I made a rectangle, triangle, “star”, and heart.  Then she ripped up the rest of the wrap, which I was glad because I didn’t want to do most of it for her.
• For the guacamole, when gathering up the ingredients at the front of the room, the child actually said she didn’t want any avocado.  But how could that be because that was the main star of the ingredients.  I explained to her that she didn’t have to eat it if she didn’t want to but let’s try to make it with the avocado anyway.  Good thing she was okay with it.  She didn’t take any red onion because she doesn’t like spice.  We diced and cut up the tomato.  The skin of the tomato was tough to cut through and so I did basically all of that part for her too.  I also scooped out the avocado (it was perfectly ripe by the way and so beautiful) for her too.  She didn’t want to mix the guacamole together either, so I basically did everything for her lol.
• In the end, the bowl of guacamole was really nice and perfect.  Her tortilla chips turned out great too and she enjoyed eating them.  I was glad.  This was one of the first recent Creative Chef classes though where she didn’t make most of the food herself.  She had been doing so well in the other class last month.  Ah, well.  Progressions and regressions.
• We went to the bank a couple times this week and the 3 year old was so good about staying in the seat next to me (or sitting on my lap) and eating snacks.  She wasn’t afraid of the male staff (I guess he didn’t try to talk to her anyway) and even at one point said the room was smelly so I told her to stand near the door and she did.  She wasn’t afraid.  We’ve come a long way for her to be unafraid of new strangers like this.
• During the Creative Chef class, I asked one of the fellow facilitators about the next intake of Journey to Kindergarten classes and she told me that the Markham location had a waitlist that was full already.  I was really surprised.  She told me that they want to reserve it for the kids attending that school.  The registration for it hasn’t even begun for it and yet the “waitlist” is full?
• After the class, I actually saw the supervisor (I think that’s who she is) and asked her about it too.  She told me that the location was full already and that she could put me on a list for the summer program.  Uh, but that would be in July and August.  I wanted to put my child on the program for May, not the summer.  I reiterated my question to her and that was when I realized that she was purposefully not answering my question and diverting it to another answer.  I felt in my gut then that even if I tried to ask her a third time, she wouldn’t have the honest answer for me.  I was really disheartened and disappointed that someone working in the early years education program was like this and completely unhelpful.  She didn’t even answer my question but diverted me to something else.  I left the EarlyON location feeling so much disappointment.  I had to console in DH who told me that a lot of people working in the management positions tend to be like that.  They are only looking out for themselves and for numbers.  I felt so disheartened; I’ve worked and interacted with people in the education field before.  They are usually so helpful and willing to help parents and kids get the very best out of situations.  In this case, I felt like she was shielding the program from others.  I realized it too late but I should have told her that I attended the Learning Together Conference and I knew that there were going to be intakes across Markham too for the program.  The way she was answering me was just non-helpful, non-transparent, and heartless. …