Whisper, please!

What is the age when a child is typically capable of whispering? In the Toddler Busy Book the author suggests working on inside/outside voices with toddlers, and I have tried that, but Nadia just doesn't seem to get it. She laughs when I whisper. She thinks it's funny, but she hasn't tried to imitate me. Invariably when I am taking Ian up to his crib for a nap she will be shouting "MOM!" from downstairs as I go up the stairs with Ian. I get really frustrated, and then I try to remind myself that she's only 21 months old. I think it's easy to have unrealistic expectations for your oldest child once the second child arrives. She seems SO big compared to him that I think sometimes I expect something that isn't reasonable for a child under the age of two. She's still rather young herself!

Yesterday was a glorious day! Ian's first nap was 45 minutes long, and his second was one hour long! YAHOO! I took Nadia outside during the first nap. I played with her some and also got some yard work done (for example shoveled and carted a few wheelbarrow loads of dirt). We were going to put the dirt in the holes left by two bushes I wanted to get rid of, but since it took all day to dig out two small bushes, I no longer have any desire to ever remove these two big ones. They can just stay put! We weren't sure what to do with all this dirt. I put 4 loads up close to the shed around the two sides that are not in the area enclosed by the fence. It's really not ideal but at least only a little grass will be killed and more importantly Nadia won't be climbing a mountain of dirt anymore. We need to spread some grass seed where the dirt used to be as it obviously killed all the grass. I put 3 loads in the flower bed in the front yard, and I didn't quite finish the task due to time constraints and also because Paul said he might use some of it to level the area where we're going to put her sandbox. During Ian's second nap, Nadia was also napping. This was the first time in a long time that the overlap between their two naps exceeded 20 minutes. I printed some coupons in Paul's office, did some cleaning downstairs, and then went outside and worked on that dirt pile some more. I will definitely be able to get more accomplished around the house if I can have one hour a day when both are napping. Since I got a decent amount of sleep the previous night, I wasn't tempted to take a nap. It actually was a good feeling to know I could take a nap but didn't feel the need to take one. Life is starting to get in a more sustainable rhythm. :-)

Gabby was here for about 90 minutes. During that time I worked on weeding and mulching. I spread about half of the mulch.  I'm hoping today to make some more progress. The lawn still needs to be mowed, but I don't think that will be happening today.

 The only problem with my shopping trip was that I called Paul on the way there and when I he told me Ian was still up I asked him to not give him more milk so I could nurse him when I got home. Well Ian ended up screaming for 15 minutes and didn't nurse much when I got home. I think he just wanted to go to bed. His first stretch was about 7 hours, and I think it would have been longer if he had gone to bed earlier. Also, I had clogged ducts that kept me up for awhile. I had planned to pump when I got home. Next time I'll stick to that plan as he didn't nurse enough. His second stretch was only one hour long, and I didn't fall back asleep right away so I am feeling tired this morning.