I find it challenging at times as a parent to know which battles to choose. For example, I'd prefer that Nadia would feed herself. Sometimes I insist upon that, and other times I do feed her. The reason I don't prefer to feed her is because I'm usually trying to feed Ian or myself, and that's enough to keep me busy! It's not that she can't feed herself. For whatever reason, she wants to be fed most of the time lately.
Ian used to sit happily in the shopping cart at the grocery store, but for whatever reason now he just wants to be held. That is a battle I've chosen to fight as he's just too heavy to carry while pushing the cart and getting groceries. He's starting to get the message as he no longer cries during the whole time. Now he just cries part of the time.
We've gone through many ups and downs with how Ian has handled Mommy getting a shower. Sometimes he has played happily or watched tv. Other times it's been a major tragedy. I never had these issues with Nadia. I used various things such as the Jump Up to keep her happy while I showered. This week he's decided not only to scream during my whole shower but also to join me in the shower. On Wednesday he came into the shower for the first time. I thought the hot water would change his mind. Nope, he still wanted to be held. When Nadia was his age, she hated the shower. It was a negative consequence used during part of potty training. I learned a lesson on Wednesday, and stripped Ian so that at least if he joined me in the shower he'd be naked and not get his clothes and diaper wet. He joined me again today. Let me say it's not easy to shave your legs and shampoo your hair while holding a 24 lb toddler. I'm not sure I want to allow this to continue. Maybe I'll start showering at 6:00am now that he's not getting up as early.
I've gotten him around 6:40am the past two days. He has fussed off and on prior to that, but he never was really crying. Both days he took a morning nap, which means he woke up too early. Yesterday he only took one nap. He slept in the car from 10:00-10:40 en route to Hershey. Today he fell asleep on the way to Nadia's last swimming lesson. One downside to having him take his naps (or at least the first half of his nap) in his crib, is that he's now crying for at least a few minutes when I put him down at night whereas before we started the nap training he wasn't crying at night. As for his nap today he cried for 40 minutes and then was quiet (but awake) for 10 minutes and then slept 30 minutes. I went and got him even though it hadn't been 2 hours. I thought that since he had taken a nap this morning maybe all he needed was a short nap. I was wrong. He slept in my arms for 80 minutes after I got him from his crib. I guess I should have let him cry like Karen said I should if he only sleeps for 30 minutes. I was also afraid he was going to wake Nadia up.
I hadn't brought our "boat" to the pool in over a month. Today a mom had a couple of flotation devices that her twins weren't using. I asked if I could borrow one, and Ian liked it this time! I had tried him in this same thing awhile ago, and he hated it the first time. We three had fun holding hands and going around in circles singing in the pool today. Some other people started singing with us (songs such as "Do you know the muffin man"). They said the water temperature was 83. It felt a lot warmer than that. I actually was wishing the water felt cooler, and I rarely have that opinion. It's been really, really hot (triple digits). You know it's going to be a warm day when it's in the 90's at 9:00am. I think the temps are supposed to drop some on Sunday. We haven't been to the playground lately. I want to go again, but I'm not walking there in this heat! We've either been at the pool or inside.
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