2.5 Years and 32 Weeks

Lily and I had a photo shoot done today documenting 32 weeks of pregnancy for me and 2.5 years for Lily!

The Quest for the Perfect Play Cafe

Trust me, when you become a parent your vocabulary quickly expands with all sorts of new words. Jumperoo, bumbo, bugaboo, moby wrap, robeez...and play cafe. I had never heard the words "play cafe" before having Lily. Shortly after her mid-winter birth two and a half-years ago, however, I was bored, sleep deprived, and seriously jonesing for some cheap out of the house entertainment that was baby/mommy/child friendly. And then another mom started throwing out names like Jungle Java, Urban Toddler, Pump it Up, and Chelsea Tree House. I was intrigued. What are these places? I asked. I soon found out. They were Baby-Mommy havens. They had climbers, bounce houses, play kitchens, dress-up clothes, infant parks, wireless internet, comfy chairs and coffee bars. Now, each of them had some of these wondrous amenities, but none of them had the whole package.

Fast forward a few months, and we move to The Hills and leave our beloved play cafes behind. No matter, I thought. Certainly there would be plenty of play cafes in and around The Hills. Alas, none of my findings over the past 11 months has been even close to perfect. Bounce U is great for Lily, but not so much fun for me. The toddler/preschool play area at the local Jungle Java is tiny and boring for Lily, plus there is a constant stream of big, fast, old kids who infiltrate the little kid area even though the sign clearly says 3 and under. Somerset Mall has no play area, of course, and the one at Great Lakes Crossing is always packed and leaves Lily clinging to my leg instead of running off to play.

But then...last night while chatting with my work friends at book club, one of them mentioned a place that had pretend play areas, ride-on toys, a big, safe climber, an infant park, wireless, good food,coffee and comfy chairs. Kid something...I can't remember the name, she said. Hmmmm...I thought. Sounds too good to be true. When I got home I hopped on my laptop and started googling like crazy, trying to find this elusive new play cafe. Finally I found it. KiddieKlub. Okay, bad name, I thought, searching their website for clues to its level of perfection. The pictures on the website didn't really show all that much. Mostly faces of seemingly happy children without any real shots of the place itself. Well, it could be crap, I thought, but at least we'll go check it out.

I packed up Lily and we were off. Less than 15 minutes later I turned into a shopping center and saw the KiddieKlub sign. I got Lily out of the car and grabbed our stuff. We walked to the door and slowly opened it. Laaaaaaaaaa! It was perfect. Bright and wide open, with a big, but not too big climber, plenty of pretend toy areas, a big infant play space, nice comfy chairs, wireless, a full cafe with good healthy food and yummy coffee drinks. We stayed all morning. Lily happily played on the climber, the slide, rode little bikes, pushed baby dolls in strollers, and looked at books. I parked myself in a centrally located cushy chair and surfed the net. It was lovely. We've already made plans to return next week to our new favorite play cafe, and I know it will become a regular hang out for us after #2 is born and I need a place to take Lily where she can play and I can relax. Hooray for our new, perfect play cafe!

She's All Growns-Up and She's All Growns-Up

My baby is sleeping for the first night in her big girl bed. I guess that means she's officially a big girl instead of a baby now. I don't even think I can call her a toddler anymore--as she certainly doesn't toddle. Ever. Stands on one foot while she smoothly lifts her other leg, straightens and bends it with perfect balance, yes. But toddles, no.

She won't be 2.5 for another week yet, but in many ways she seems so much older to me. Her play has become richly imaginative, and her attitude and bossiness is much beyond her years. I wonder where she gets that from?

I keep waiting for the day to come when she turns into a terribly difficult child, and maybe when her baby sister is born she will. For now though, I would really like to tilt the hourglass on its side, allowing the sand to rest a bit, since my baby is growing up unbelievably fast.

L is for Lily!

Potty Training

Lily and I are now on day three of house arrest. Yep, that's right, we're potty training. We haven't left the house since Friday night. I've actually assisted in the potty training of many children in the past eight years--they just happen to be children with autism. No matter, I thought. I'll just use the same techniques we used with those kiddos with Lily. I've been prepping Lily for about two weeks telling her that when summer came there would be no more diapers. "What happens when summer comes?" I'd ask, expectantly. "No more deepers!" she'd answer excitedly.

Day one we woke up, took off her diaper and put on her underpants. After she had been up for about an hour and a half I took her to the potty. And there we sat. And sat, and sat, and sat. Husband went to the store to get provisions for breakfast. We still sat. Husband returned and made breakfast. We still sat. Breakfast was ready. "Come on and eat before it gets cold!" said Husband. I thought about cold eggs. Yuck. I thought about the fact that Lily hadn't peed in three hours and had been sucking down copious amounts of chocolate milk, juice and ice water. Hmmm...At Husbands urging, Lily and I emerged from the bathroom and went to eat breakfast. Maybe she'll just tell me when she has to go, I thought. Right. Two minutes later she peed in her highchair while happily munching a bagel. I took her to the potty, glaring at Husband. I cleaned her up, changed her underpants and took her back to breakfast. "Lily, when you have to go pee, just tell Mommy or Daddy, okay?" I urged. "Okay!" she replied. Ten minutes later she was still finishing breakfast and peed again in her highchair. "Uh-oh!" she said. "I peed in my highchair!" Yes. Yes you did, I thought, glaring again at Husband. Wash, rinse, repeat. About an hour later, Husband took her to the potty where she peed pretty much on command. For the remainder of day one she had many other successes including a poop (I never thought I'd be so excited about a poop before) and two more accidents. Day two she had one and a half accidents. Here we are on day three and so far she's had zero accidents and two pees and a poop. Wooo-whoo! See how exciting my life has become?

Mommy: The Job

I played hooky from work today. I'm exhausted, run down, have a headache, and am nearly nineteen weeks pregnant. I work full time and have a two year old. I decided to stay home today when I realized that I have not had a full day to myself for the past two years, three months, one week and five days. That's a lot of time to go without having a single day to your self. When this next little one arrives, I'm sure things are going to get exponentially busier, especially since I'm planning on only taking 6 weeks of maternity leave before returning to work. Yikes.

I've had the pleasure of seeing a few friends go from one child to two. I've read about their sleepless nights, their failed efforts to balance the needs of two little beings, their mounting stress as they realize that they can't possibly do it all. I have a pretty good idea what I'm in for, and it isn't going to be pretty. I'm sure there will be times I'll be asking myself why we decided to have two children. I'm hoping that the times that I question are fewer than the times that I look at their sweet little faces and realize that Mommy: The Job is far more rewarding than a full night's sleep.

Spring!?!?

So its April in Michigan and I'm on Spring Break. Yesterday we woke up to three inches on snow on the ground. WTF. No matter, I thought. I'm not about to let this crap weather ruin MY vacation plans. So I bundled Lily up, threw her perfect yellow spring dress in a bag and drove over the river and through the woods to the mall to see the Easter Bunny. Having dealt with Somerset Mall's holiday festivities before, I called early in the morning to make sure I wasn't going to get there at 9:30 and not see the HaHa (as Lily calls bunnies) until 4:30. "Nope, you should get right in," said the lady on the phone. Sweet. We got there and after a quick costume change, Lily was in her "Easter" dress, ready to see Hester Fairweather, the bunny herself. She loved it, and was by far the best kid there (if I do say so myself!)