Category Archives: Toddler

Coming to America + an amazing travel find

February 26, 2018

Hello hello! I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we had a trip to California planned — and that’s where we are right now. The girls and I flew out last Monday and KC will be joining us in a couple weeks once his busy season at work has ended.

The flight went ok. My parents were on the same flight but weren’t in the same row as us or anything, so while I did have some help, I did the bulk of the work myself. I would have said it was a very successful flight, but about an hour and a half before we landed Prim ended up throwing up, which kind of disrupted things a bit. (She’s been on some antibiotics that upset her stomach occasionally — poor thing.) Lark also had a giant meltdown as we were landing, but honestly, with babies this age it’s kind of to be expected on a flight that long. We had all been up since 6am Amsterdam time and by the time we were landing it was 9pm over there and Lark had slept a total of about 40 minutes broken into two naps on the flight, so she was just done.

One of the things I have learned after taking so many flights with kiddos is that some stuff you have to just let go of. I used to stress out about any noise my kids made and would be wracked with guilt if one of them was having a meltdown. Now I go into long flights knowing that the kids will make some noise and that they may have a meltdown at the very end after I have tried everything in my power to keep them quiet. Honestly, it’s par for the course and the people sitting nearby will survive. This is not to say that I don’t try to keep my kids quiet on the plane — I work my butt off to keep the kids calm and entertained (seriously, next time you’re annoyed that you’re on a flight with young children, know that their parents are way more stressed and worried about flying with them than you are. TRUST ME.) It’s more that I’ve come to accept the realities of flying with young children. Sometimes there’s noise, sometimes there’s a meltdown, and when you’re really unlucky, sometimes there’s puke.

Anyway, onto an amazing travel find! Lark is at the age that I think is most difficult to travel with. She’s mobile but not walking and doesn’t have good spacial awareness yet, so she wants to move around in her seat but doesn’t comprehend that leaning headfirst into the legroom area is a pretty bad idea. Also, if you’ve traveled with very young children you probably know about the special hell that is them dropping or throwing toys into the foot space and then having to contort yourself to try and retrieve them.

We had a seat for Lark on the plane, and while some parents opt to carry on a carseat for children this age, I knew that would never work for Lark. She is hardly ever in a carseat to begin with (we have no car in Amsterdam) and she absolutely hates being in the car in general anyway. If you’ve been reading the blog for awhile, you might remember that we brought the carseat on the plane when we moved to Amsterdam when Prim was almost exactly the same age Lark is now. After that flight I was firmly in the camp of NEVER bringing a carseat onboard. So if your kiddo loves the carseat — cool, more power to you. If they don’t love the carseat or you’re not positive it’s the best option for your little one — I’ve got something for you!

I came across this while trying to figure out a solution to the problem of flying with a crawler, but just couldn’t justify the price tag, even for 10 hours of sanity. I thought that there may be another cheaper option on Amazon and ended up doing a deep-dive into the world of inflatable footrests. They all have different dimensions, price tags and reviews, and so after literally drawing out the dimensions of like six different options, I ultimately landed on this one and purchased two — one for Lark and one for Prim. (I mean, look at that photo of Prim up there — all that wasted space where her feet are!)

I tested one of them out at our apartment first, inflating it myself, and it was doable — it took maybe a minute, taking it slow so that I wouldn’t pass out from all the deep breathing. However, I knew I would be packing Prim’s travel bed rail for our trip as well (we bring it everywhere with us — totally recommend!) which has a small hand pump, and so packed the pump in my carry-on (you can see it in the photo above — it’s that orange thing). This was such a smart move, as blowing both of these up at 35,000 feet would have been annoying, and because they fit so snugly in the foot space between the seats, it would be difficult to shove them into place after they were fully inflated. With the pump I was able to inflate them to about 90% and then put them into place and finish inflating them, so they fit tightly between the seats.

I covered the two seats and footrests with the airplane blankets we were given, which made things not only cozier, but much easier to clean up. If you’ve flown on a long flight with young kids you know that the seats often look like you’ve murdered a few sleeves of Saltines by the time you land, so I totally recommend the blanket trick. The blankets were also my saving grace when Prim threw up, because I just bundled up the blanket she was sitting on and handed it over to the flight attendant and ended up with a completely clean seat afterwards.

The footrests give the girls way more space to move around and even makes it so they could lay down if they wanted to (as though they would ever voluntarily go to sleep on a flight though — haha! Uggghhhh.)

If you’re going on a long-haul flight with a kiddo I can’t recommend this footrest enough. It folds up small so it’s not a hassle to pack it in a carry-on, and it inflates and deflates quickly. I stuffed a couple of the complimentary pillows into any open crevice next to the footrests so there was literally nowhere that toys could fall and get lost, which saved both my back and my sanity on the 10+ hour flight.

I’ll try to do another post about what I brought on the plane for traveling with the girls since I now feel like I’ve traveled enough to pack pretty strategically, and knowing what and how much to pack is one of the most daunting parts of traveling with kids, I think. (Because you can totally get into the headspace of thinking that you need bring anything and everything when you travel with kids — I totally get it.)

If you have any questions about traveling with kids in the meantime, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll respond as soon as I can!

Motherhood / Primrose / Toddler

Motherhood Update: Prim at 2.75 years

February 13, 2018

Saying: Prim’s chatters all. day. long. She is constantly asking questions and shouting out commands (we’re feeling very three these days). She is fascinated by counting and colors, and has recently discovered that asking “why” can lead to an endless conversation (funnnn). She is picking up more and more Dutch words from her weekly dance class, which is taught entirely in Dutch. (Her first Dutch word was “née,” which means “no.” So… not surprising.) It has been funny to hear what she has picked up there, as we have now reached the stage where she is learning Dutch words I don’t know and will regularly ask me, “You know how to do the [Dutch dance word]?” and then will whip out some new dance move.

Prim’s Favorite Things: We have Spotify Premium (because we listen to music all day everyday over here) and I recently discovered that there are a number of kid’s audio books available on the service. We listen to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh numerous times a day, followed by Stories for Children read by Danny Kaye (something from my childhood!)

Reading: Frog and Toad and Room on the Broom.

Latest trick: Prim picks up songs so quickly now. I recently started singing “Do-Re-Mi” to her (because she has this shirt) and I swear she had the whole thing down after I had only sung it to her a couple times. She is also coming home with new dance moves every week, courtesy of her Dutch dance class, and it’s so sweet to see her wiggling and shimmying around, doing “pirouettes” and “hoofd, shouders, knie en teen.” (Prim has been attending this dance class since right after she turned two, and it was the biggest mystery to us for the longest time because parents don’t watch the classes here. All the 2 – 4 year olds go into the room and they shut the door until the end of class — it’s so Dutch! Every week we would ask Prim what she learned in class, but she’s only started telling us and showing us specific moves in the last couple of months.)

Favorite toys: Prim is still obsessed with cooking in her kitchen, and will regularly sidle up to us and ask, “What should I make for ya?” (Despite our requests, the menu at Cafe Prim seems to be limited to coffee, pancakes, and salmon with lentils.)

Sweetest things: Prim is still the sweetest big sister. She works to include Lark in almost everything she does and has started reassuring her when she gets upset. Lark is going through the separation anxiety phase and will regularly lose it if I so much as leave the room. This is not my favorite phase by far, but it’s very sweet to hear Prim telling her “It’s ok sweetheart! Mama be right back, it’s just me down here.” (PS: I don’t call anyone sweetheart, so I actually don’t know where she picked this up. So funny and sweet.)

Favorite thing about this age: Between cutting 4 new teeth and suffering from the stomach flu, Lark has been struggling at night lately and waking up in the early morning. Prim wakes up when Lark is upset and will hop out of bed to turn on their nightlight, then sit in bed and “read Lark a story” to help calm her down (we keep books next to Prim’s bed so she can read if she wakes up or has trouble winding down). I often come into their room to nurse Lark after one of these episodes and Prim will tell me, “Larky’s upset. I talk to her and read her a story.” which is my cue to text KC all the heartbreak and pregnancy emojis.

Primrose / Toddler

Conversations With a 2.5 Year Old

January 29, 2018

KC: “Prim, what do nutcrackers eat?”
Prim: “CHIPS!”
KC: “Not nuts?”
Prim: “No. Chips. Not nuts.”

Prim’s 3yo cousin (running across the room): “I’m a lion!”
Prim (starts running): “I’m a lion too!”
Cousin (stops running, stands face-to-face with Prim): “No, you’re a rabbit.”
Prim: “Oh. What’s a rabbit?”
Cousin: “Y’know… (long pause, thinking. mimes rabbit ears over Prim’s head) It’s white?”
Prim: “Oh yeah. DISGUSTING.”

Prim: “Oh no! There’s a dragon under the table!”
Me: “Oh no!”
Prim: “Have to get him out!”
Me: “We have to get him out? What are we going to do?”
Prim: “Have to put your hands on his buns and push. All of us!”

Prim: “This pasta is de-lekker*, Mama!”
Me: “Thanks P!”
Prim (finishes pasta, hands me her bowl): “More garlic.”
*lekker means tasty in Dutch

Prim: “What’s chocolate?”
Me: “I don’t know, what is it?”
Prim: “My favorite food.”

Motherhood / Primrose / Toddler

Motherhood Update: Prim at 2 1/2 years

November 9, 2017

Saying: Prim’s language continues to surprise us. She was an early talker, and the things she comes up with is fascinating. She understands the concept of “after” now (“I want to listen to Prim’s music after Mama’s music.”) and is grasping daytime vs. nighttime (“It’s getting dark. I can’t wait to see the moon!”) Her speech is very clear for her age, but I love how she mispronounces words like oatmeal (OH-pa-meel) and sprinkler (sprink-lee-er). She also regularly asks, “What you doin’, Mama?” and yells “You ok, Mama?” across the room when she hears me drop something.

Prim’s Favorite Things: I picked up an 8oz BKR bottle when we were in Copenhagen, and it has proven to be a solid purchase. Prim loves that it’s more of a “grown-up” water bottle, and it fits well in the diaper bag and holds a full 8oz of water. It has a smaller footprint than the 9oz Lifefactory bottles (which we use with a sippy top everyday at home) so it’s perfect for using on the go. I love that the BKR is glass, since I try to avoid plastic with the kids, especially for eating/drinking apparatus. (There are some good metal water bottle options as well, but I personally think metal makes water taste weird, so I tend to avoid it just due to my own preference.)

Reading: Pumpkin Eye (a holdover from Halloween), The Friendly Beasts, The Night Before Christmas.

Latest trick: Prim loves helping me cook in the kitchen. As soon as she sees me heading to the kitchen, she will yell, “I want to help!” and race over to her step stool and pull it up to the counter. If I’m making dinner I will try to give her something to “cut” (she uses a kids butter knife), like a broccoli stem I’ll be discarding. Baking is much more of a “team activity,” and she will regularly help me scoop, dump, and stir. It does generally result in at least one ingredient getting messed up, but coming from a big Italian family with strong cooking roots, I’m thrilled that she’s taking an early interest in the culinary arts. (Our recent baking favorites include these pumpkin muffins and applesauce muffins.)

Favorite toys: Prim is very into “building towers” with her Legos and lining up her beloved Gruffalo blocks. She continues to be smitten with her “babies” and regularly puts them “down for a rest” or sets them up for tummy time.

Sweetest things: Prim is so sweet and considerate with Lark. She is very good at including Lark in her play, handing her toys (“Here you go, Lark!”) and looking out for her (“Larky needs some water!”) Two-and-a-half is certainly not without its challenges (Prim has discovered the concept of asking for “something else” and has made it her current mantra), but with her newfound language skills she is also readily asking us to be involved in whatever she’s doing (“You want to build a tower with me, Mama?” “You want some tea, Daddy?” “Here, you want to hold little baby, Larky?”) Hearing her sweet, inclusive requests is definitely one of the high points of this age.

Favorite thing about this age: Prim has started making up little songs and singing about what she’s doing. I know that she gets this from me (I am totally guilty of making up silly songs and singing about anything and everything). Hearing what her little mind comes up with is so hilarious and adorable.

Baby / Motherhood / Toddler

Our Daily Routine

October 5, 2017

I’m always interested in how people structure their days — especially other mamas. These little ones seem to really thrive on a predictable schedule, I suppose because they lack so little control over their own lives. It must be nice to have a sense of how things are going to go each day when you have pretty much zero authority over the schedule.

We obviously can’t stick to this schedule every single day, but I make an effort to make this their reality at least 80-90% of the time. Oddly enough, I think it’s this consistency that makes both Prim and Lark much more adaptable when we’re traveling and unable to stick to their normal routine. I also keep this structure somewhat flexible to account for the random days when the girls don’t sleep well or nap on the go, but the below is the general framework we follow on normal days.

Prim has been on a schedule for a long time, but I read a lot about routines after Lark was born because I was struggling with managing the schedules of an almost-2-year old and a newborn. I was a little frustrated with a lot of what I read because it seemed like most of the schedules were aimed at people who had a baby OR a toddler — not both. Given that many people have more than one child, I wanted to see schedules that accounted for more than one child in the same household. The only schedule I found that took multiple kids into consideration was the Moms on Call book series, which was really helpful in setting up our rhythm.

Now that Lark is older and the girls are sharing a room, their schedules are much more enmeshed and seamless, but it was not without some trial and error during the first months. Our schedule seems to be continually evolving to account for consolidating naps and nursing sessions as Lark gets older, which I think is normal. Now that Lark is down to two naps a day though, this will likely be our schedule for awhile, as she likely won’t go down to one nap until she’s a year old.

7:30am We get girls out of their room and bring them into our bed for a bit of cozy time and so Lark can nurse.

The girls often wake up around 7am, but after having a rough transition period when they first started sharing a room where Prim would wake up for the day at 5am (um, NO THANKS) I bought her a clock that lights up when it’s time to get up. She now knows that when the “light turns green it’s time to wake up” and will start calling for us after it goes on.

8:00am Breakfast

9:30am Lark nurses and takes first nap (1 1/2 to 2 hours)

11:30/Noon Lunch

1pm-3pm Lark nurses and Prim and Lark nap

The girls go down for their nap awake together and are generally in their room for two hours total, but usually only sleep an hour and a half of that time.

3/3:30pm Snack

4pm Lark nurses (some days)

I’m trying to eliminate this feeding.

5/5:30pm Dinner

I don’t prefer to eat dinner this early and I am working to move dinner back bit by bit. I started having them eat this early when I combined their bedtime routine because Lark could not be up past 7pm (she just can’t hang). I have now managed to push bedtime to 7:30pm (and usually not a moment later — Lark is very strict on this). I am dreading the upcoming time change a little bit, because I really don’t want them going to bed at 6:30pm.

6:45pm Bedtime routine starts

Girls take a bath together, pajamas on, read 1-2 stories, sing one song, nightlight + sound machine on, Lark nurses.

7:30pm Girls in bed, door closed