Updates All Around.

Eating:

Remember my Food Wars post? I realized recently that I never really gave any follow up to that, which is really kind of typical of me. First of all, thanks to everyone who took the time to give me advice and suggestions, or just to commiserate with me. Seems like picky eating is a toddler epidemic.

Having said that...dare I mention that things have improved in the eating department? (I'm currently knocking on wood 5,000 times.) And all I did differently was change my attitude. I started giving Camden a plate of whatever we happened to be eating for dinner, and then turned my attention to Matt, or anything other than Camden's plate. Pretty much? I spent the first five or ten minutes of dinner totally ignoring my toddler. (Previously, this time would be spent negotiating with Camden: "Take one bite of broccoli and I'll turn on Mickey" or trying to make eating into a game: "Daddy's going to take a bite at the same time as Camden!" Rarely did any of these tricks actually work.)

Guess what? Ignoring him worked. I'd watch out of the corner of my eye as he stared at his plate and pushed the food around a little bit. After a few minutes, he'd almost always try one bite, which usually would lead to several more. That's not to say that there aren't nights when he still flat out boycotts dinner, because there are (just way, way less often). On those nights, I simply take him out of his chair and finish my dinner. When I'm done, I'll offer him yogurt or a banana, which he gladly accepts.

I think it's safe to say that, for now, we've come to a peace agreement in our Food Wars.

Sleep:

Sleep has been interesting around here lately. For the past several weeks, Camden has pushed his bedtime back later and later. It's not unusual for him to fall asleep anywhere between 9:45-10:30 every night. Considering his regular bedtime used to be 8:30ish, I wasn't exactly pleased with this latest development.

The first thing I considered was that maybe he wasn't needing as much sleep anymore. He's approaching 2 and a half, and I know that sleep needs change with age. So, I tried cutting out his nap one afternoon a few weeks back. He powered through the afternoon with no problem but was a hot mess of meltdowns around dinner time. But? He fell asleep very easily that night by 8pm.

So, I decided to just follow his lead when it comes to naps. If he looks tired in the afternoon (and most afternoons, he still does), I attempt a nap. On the days that he naps, he goes to bed later than I'd like but sleeps later the next morning too (usually until 9ish). Occasionally, he'll have a day (like today) when he's still wide eyed in the late afternoon and I let him skip a nap. He was in bed by 8 tonight. I figure this will just be a gradual, trial and error process while he's phasing out his nap, and I'm just going to roll with it.

Speech:

Camden continues to go to speech therapy twice per week and his speech continues to grow by leaps and bounds. He currently uses 3 and 4 word sentences regularly and will even toss a 5 word sentence in here and there sometimes. I have no problem understanding about 75% of what he says, which I think is age appropriate.

His sentences don't exactly flow yet-- they are very choppy. For example, tonight he wanted to say, "The Easter Bunny is going to bring Daddy & me Reese's Pieces." What he said was, "Daddy, Me, Eah Bunny, Rees." So, he clearly makes his point, but it's not a perfectly flowing sentence, and sometimes he'll get his words out of order. Instead of saying, "Daddy has dirty shoes", he might say, "Dir-tay, Daddy, soooos."

We're primarily using Kaufman cards with him now in speech therapy and he continues to respond well. We are beyond thankful for his progress. It's so wonderful to know what's on his little mind, and he certainly doesn't hesitate to share with us!

Preggers:

I'm heading into week 14-- the beginning of the second trimester. There are days when I wake up feeling perfectly normal and days when I still run straight to the bathroom with my hand clasped firmly over my mouth. I remember this being the case during my pregnancy with Camden too-- the "morning" (ha-- all day) sickness gradually wore off over a period of weeks. It wasn't like a switch that flipped off at the start of the second trimester, as much as I was hoping for that. I'm starting to get a relatively normal appetite back, though the thought (and smell) of chicken still turns my stomach. Such an odd aversion, and one that makes preparing dinner tricky on many nights.

Once again, my parents rented a doppler for me (through Stork Radio-- highly recommend them, for anyone in the doppler market). It's so wonderful for daily reassurance, considering I haven't had an ultrasound since 6.5 weeks and won't until I'm 18 weeks along. With the exception of a couple of times early on, I've been able to find the heartbeat easily and quickly every day. Camden really enjoys listening to the baby too. I even caught him holding the video monitor to his bare stomach one afternoon, attempting to listen to his own baby. I didn't break it to him that not every electronic device is capable of listening to the inside of our bodies. I also didn't break it to him that he is not pregnant.