After 16 days off, I have welcomed the return of our routine since the new year hit. There are exactly 9 weeks until my due date (March 12) and I intend to enjoy the last bit of what I know to be our “normalcy” before everything changes once again! We have been keeping busy with our usual activities by…
Playing trains
Cooking
Playing outside in the snow or just going for walks
Given the cold snap, any time the temp goes above 25 degrees it might as well be July. Some sledding last Friday didn’t end well.
Don’t you love the burst feature on the new iPhone cameras? Haha.
Let’s see what else do we do. Oh, well, we eat…(true confession: sometimes Ashton will eat only corn chips and sour cream for dinner and I call it mexican night)
We cry
We push things around
And we hang out with Dad.
Ashton probably hangs out with Mom (ahem, ME) a lot more than he hangs out with Dad, but Dad is not as good at taking pictures as Mom so there is far less documentation of said hang outs. Just for the official record.
Anyway, besides all that, we spend our time at the indoor playspace, “cook” in Ashton’s new “kitchen”, etc. The days, let me tell you, tick on by. I do need to figure out a way to encourage some independent play because whenever we are home, Ashton really needs to be entertained and it is not only exhausting but I get nothing done. If I try to do the dishes he will pull at my arm or leg and drag me towards his toys saying “Mommy COMMMMMME!” If I don’t go, he whines and cries. Right now it’s easy for me to drop what I’m doing and just go play. How do you tell a 2 year old that you’d rather clean up than open the playdough for the 17th time in two hours? You don’t. But in a couple of months when it’s not the dishes I’m tending to but a newborn, it won’t be that simple. He’s not going to have my full attention whenever he wants it so I best start preparing him. I just don’t know how.
In other news, I’m happy to report that December 31 was the last night Ashton got a bottle before bed. I stuck to my new year’s resolution and the night of January 1, I went about his bedtime routine like normal and he only asked for it once, accepting my answer that he was too big for a bottle and Mommy didn’t have one for him. And we haven’t missed it any night since then. Finally, something that was EASY! Bottles down, paci’s…not so much. I think I’ve mentioned that along with potty training, I’m not ready to touch that yet.
The Flonase is really helping with the drool situation. Actually, I think it is a combination of Ashton being more aware of it plus the allergy/inflammation relief, but either way I am going to stay this course and not pursue getting his adenoids out right now. He hasn’t worn a bib in a pretty long time, at least not consistently.
Two other big boy things: we are phasing out of the highchair. He often prefers to sit at the new kitchen peninsula on the stool. I only put him in the highchair for the messy things but he really resists. And he now sleeps under a blanket. This seems silly but now when I put him to bed, instead of him just rolling over in his crib, he’ll say “Blanket please” and I lay it over him. He looks up and says either “thank you Mommy” or “Cozy!” And I’ll say “Yes, you are warm and cozy” and he responds, “Ashton warm and cozy”. I swear, sometimes he puts his head down and sighs with contentment. But this is important because now for most of the night he will stay under it/in the same spot, which is a step towards being able to transition from crib to toddler bed. Before, he was doing acrobatics in his sleep and there was just no way I could see him not having four walls to prevent him from falling out. So we’re on our way with that.
NILL FAMILY news 
