Tracey Ann -- Two-and-a-Half

Our first born, our oldest daughter, our spunky, joyful, sassy, confident baby girl, Tracey Ann, is two-and-a-half.

Here is what she is up to these days:

•  She loves to climb and jump -- there is almost nothing on the playground that she will not play on... and our rule is basically, if she can do it by herself, she can do it.  There are a few climbing parts that her legs are too short to reach, but the majority of the park is within her comfort zone.
• She loves to swim.  She had a blast at Grammie and Papa's pool and by the end, she was trying to talk herself into going down the big slide all by herself -- she never actually did it, but had we been there another week, it would have happened.
• She likes to sing and dance... not all the time, but randomly when she feels like it.  She sings "If your happy and you know it," "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," The Alphabet Song, and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"  In St. Louis, Tracey was playing with her cousins, Zivah and Mayah (who are just 3 years old, and 18 months old) and they were getting a little carried away, so I suggested that we dance.  I put music on my phone and Tracey and I started dancing like crazy, and Zivah and Mayah just stared at us like we were nuts.

• She loves Howard and Caroline but is starting to struggle a little bit more now that they are mobile and interactive... and playing with their own toys.  She often will want whatever toy either Howard or Caroline has.  With two little siblings, she is turning into a little leader... she will often commit either Howard or Caroline to something that she isn't quite ready to do... like go off the diving board at Grammie and Papa's house, "Airoline will do it!"
• She has such a diverse interest in terms of toys and playing, which I love -- she will dress up like princesses with her cousins, she will use her toy hammer (or a real hammer if she can get her hands on one) around the house, she loves to build with blocks, she likes puzzles, she will twirl around in dresses and say she is 'Princess Tracey', she loves to paint and color, she loves play-doh, she loves animals and friends of all ages.
• She speaks in complete sentences and some of her words are so adorable... like "popwocle" (popsicle), "Airoline" (Caroline), "Zeebah" (Zivah)... I can't think of any more right now, but I will have to write more when I remember them.

• She does not sit still very well... whether its in church, or at the dinner table, or when we're helping her siblings, and I'm not sure if we are laxed parents or if it goes along with her being a toddler
• She is doing really well with potty training as long as we are at home.  When we go somewhere else, it sort of throws us all off in terms of potty training and we use pull-ups in those situations.

Tracey is such a joy.  She is so much fun, and so challenging and keeps us running and busy all the time.  She reminds me of the little girls with a curl... who "when she was good she was very good and when she was bad, she was horrid."  I certainly would not describe Tracey completely in those terms... but when she is good, she is very good... and when she is bad, she is very challenging.  It is a new aspect of parenting to work at shaping a child's character with every decision we make and every disciplinary situation we enforce.

 

We love you, Tracey and we love watching you become the sweet, loving, kind, curious, attentive little girl God has created you to be.

Its Just Different

When Tracey was our only child people would occasionally see me do something as a mom (nurse, clothe diaper, use hand sanitizer, whatever) and say, "Just wait until your second..." meaning, I suppose, that whatever thing I was lovingly doing for my first child would go out the window with my second child.

I resented this comment every time I heard it because I didn't like the implication that I would love my second child less than the first... or protect my second child less than the first.

Even commercials play on this concept -- that the second child is different:

Well, I didn't just get a second child... I got my second and third children five minutes apart and I can say with full understanding, after the first, the subsequent children are just different.

I still DO NOT like the implication that a first-time mother is doing something unnecessary, or is too uptight or anything like that.  She has just been entrusted with the greatest responsibility of her life and she is terrified.  Everything she does, she is terrified and she is allowed to iron her baby's onesies, or make her own baby lotion if she thinks it is best for her child.

All of that being said, things are different with babies two and three.  For one, I am constantly trying to keep up with, keep tabs on, and maintain discipline with their older sister, two-year-old Tracey.

When Tracey was a baby, I was very selective about who held her, and I was always anxious to get her back in my arms where she belonged.  Don't get me wrong, I love Howard and Caroline just as much as I loved Tracey at this age... but I don't have enough hands.

When we are surrounded by family, which we were on our summer travels.  It was not at all uncommon for Tracey to take off out of the room, disobeying me, and I would give the baby I was holding to whomever was closest to me so I could catch up to Tracey and enforce whatever the situation at hand needed.  I often didn't really know who had the baby I was holding until I came back into the room.  It is not that I love the twins less -- it is that I love them so much, I would rather have them in the arms of a family member, than rolling around on the floor, or jostling uncomfortably in my arms while I chase their big sister.

One Aunt in particular makes it a point not to hold babies until they are practically toddlers.  She is a nurse and so well versed in the dangers a strangers many germs can pose to babies.  By her own choice, she didn't hold Tracey until Tracey was nearly one year old.  She started to refrain from holding Howard and Caroline for the same reasons... until Tracey needed me to run with her to the potty in a desperate effort to make it in time -- and suddenly this Aunt was holding Caroline, not because she was a relative insisting on holding a baby... but because we needed her help holding a baby while I ran our toddler to the potty.

It is not that a mother is irrational or unreasonable or overprotective with her first, and more careless with her second... it is that she now has to be overprotective for multiple children and she has to mentally evaluate every situation that arises.  What is that best option for the most number of children?  Probably being held by a relative rather than set down on the floor. 

Now a mother of three, am a I an expert?  Absolutely not... but I do things differently with twin six-month-olds (and a toddler) than I did with one six-month-old.  Its just different.

Home Sweet Home

We are home.  We had a great three weeks with lots of family, two cities, a couple thousand miles on the road, one toddler, two babies, one dog, one cat, one marriage... and we made it.

I will try to post some about our vacation soon... but I'm still recovering from the trip and the travel.

But, we made it.

... and we had fun...

Remind Me

Please someone remind me the next time I am fortunate enough to be taking a picture of my grandpa, my mom, and my three children... hand off the camera and jump in the picture so that it is actually a picture of four generations.

These pictures are close... but I'm missing.  We have Great Grandpa (his girlfriend), Grammie and Children... but no Mama!

New Favorite

I have a new favorite picture of my dad...

 

Cuties

These cutie-pies are learning what humidity is while we're visiting Grammie and Papa in Michigan.

1000 Words

1000 Words