Year Two

Meredith’s 2nd Birthday Stats and Favorite Things

January 27, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

Meredith has been two basically since she was about 13 months old… once she could walk, run away, and communicate, etc., she wasn’t taking orders from anyone! Seriously, I thought I was the most stubborn person in the world, but I was wrong. Very wrong. Strong-willed doesn’t even begin to describe this girl!

Last time I was at Target with her, she threw such a tantrum over items I wouldn’t let her put in the cart that a very kind lady offered to push my cart to the parking lot for me while I carried her, kicking and screaming under one arm like a football to the car! We rarely go to the store anymore and instead try to get as many wiggles out as possible at the park or anywhere she can run wild and free. Being strapped down in her car seat, stroller, shopping cart is usually a recipe for power struggles. The upside is that she learns quickly and is very independent… from washing her hands and singing the ABCs to buckling her own seatbelt, to getting a snack, to putting on her clothes and shoes, she wants to do it all herself! She’s observed the twins turning on our Alexa device to play a song or a show and now tries to order Alexa around herself (“Lexa, play Daniel Tiger Naaaaaayhood”)!

She consistently makes the twins cry from her hair-pulling and wrestling antics and she is the master of her favorite game, hide-and-seek. She will snatch a prized item, such as my phone, wallet, my entire purse, or a Sharpie and will hide under our dining room table or drapes, throwing cards everywhere, trying to login to my phone, or going through every item in my purse like a little mouse! She’s sooooo quiet that it sometimes takes everyone in the house several minutes to find her. Sneaky girl!

She’s also bubbly, full of energy, constantly talking and singing and is the biggest cuddlebug. Even though we ALWAYS read exactly three books at naptime and bedtime, she still innocently asks for one more book and jumps off my lap to grab one, hoping I will give in just this once. What she is in stubbornness and sneakiness, she makes up for in friendliness. She’s better friends with some of the twins’ friends than they are! All of the kids at preschool love to play with her when we drop off or pick up the twins and she is definitely not shy with anyone… so different from the twins! She constantly makes us laugh and loves life!

Her prayers are always heartfelt and usually include some mention of “chicken, cookies, Sammy, and Sammy” (she can say Amelia, but for some reason, she usually calls both of the twins Sammy!) Amelia came up with the idea of throwing a little party on the day that she finally called her Amelia, and when she did say it, everyone was clapping and so excited. After our little impromptu dessert “party,” she continued to point to both twins and call them Sammy. We’re not sure if she’s doing it to bug us or if she really can’t tell that they are two different people or what! She also loves to look at family pictures or old photo albums, and usually points to the twins and says, “Meredith!” We don’t know what goes through that little toddler brain of hers, but she is funny!

We love you, Meredith!

A few of her favorite things…

Interestingly, Meredith is the same height and weight as Samantha was when she turned two! Amelia was one pound lighter.

Happy birthday, lovebug!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Milestones, Year Two Tagged With: 2nd birthday pics, Meredith's 2nd birthday, meredith's 2nd birthday stats, unicorn birthday

Wubby Funeral

April 27, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

R.I.P. Wubbanubs!

For the past few weeks, we have been preparing Samantha and Amelia for the “assisted death” of their beloved Wubbanubs. While they have used them mostly for naps and nighttime the past year, we decided it was time to say goodbye permanently. S and A are extremely attached to their Wubs and we knew getting rid of them would be no easy task. In reading up on the subject and talking to friends, we ultimately went with one of our friends’ suggestions– to have a Wub funeral.

We prepared the past two weeks by reading Samantha and Amelia a book about a little girl who gives her pacifier to the pacifier fairy who uses it in fairy land as a boat, an umbrella and a flower. We’ve also been talking all week about how S and A are big girls now and how big girls say bye bye to their Wubs. The girls played along, seemingly oblivious to what was coming.

Friday was overcast and cold– the perfect day for a funeral!

On the afternoon of the funeral, Samantha picked some flowers in honor of her Wub and took one last suck. The girls have had several Wubs over the past two years: a caterpillar (lost in San Diego), several monkeys (all lost– who knows where), several giraffes (lost), a red dog (the pacifier part broke off), and for the past few months, a duck and a giraffe.

After doing a ceremonial snip of the pacifier, Amelia took some time alone to say goodbye.

Per our friends’ suggestion, we bought some balloons and explained that the Wubs were going bye bye in the sky. Amelia seemed to understand what was about to go down from the get-go, while Samantha was simply excited to see balloons.

The terrible realization of why Daddy was tying the Wubs to the balloons dawned on Samantha. Panic set in.

Amelia gave up her Wub voluntarily and was very nonchalant about the whole ordeal.

We said a few last words about how much we’ve loved our Wubbies the past few years and how big the girls are now that they don’t need one anymore. Amelia stood there, solemnly, looking very grown up, while Samantha became frantic.

One last time!

We handed the balloons to the girls, the idea being that they would voluntarily release their Wubs to the heavens. It worked for Amelia who waved goodbye, let go of her balloon and ran down the hill to play.

Totally backfired with Samantha!

Samantha became hysterical, screaming and refusing to let go of the balloons. She then proceeded to start popping them (smart girl!) and since we didn’t have back-ups for lift off, Jake and I had to tear the balloons away from her and let them go ourselves.

I’m sure any money I’ve saved on dental work will be negated by therapy costs in the future.

Fare thee well, Wubs!

Narrowly clearing the trees.

After the funeral, all the girls would talk about was how their Wubs went bye bye in the sky. And how they would now get a “prize” and a “treat.” Pretty sure they invented that last part.

I’m thinking the girls should go into hostage negotiating. We ended up taking them to pick out a new ball and toy, mostly because they made us feel so bad. Parenting fail.

The ball and steering wheel toy (she picked it out) distracted Samantha temporarily… until bedtime.

Permanently traumatized.

Friday night bedtime was arguably the worst bedtime we’ve had in two years. What’s usually a 15-minute to fall-asleep time once Jake leaves the room became an hour-and-a-half of screaming plus catching a second and third wind of hyper obnoxiousness.

This included, but was not limited to, jumping on their beds, opening their doors fifteen thousand times, running around the playroom, slamming the shutters open and shut, dumping every item of clothing out of the dresser drawers, throwing hair ribbons all over the room, and chucking toys at the door.

At one point, Amelia seemed tired of the shenanigans and read quietly on her bed while Samantha continued to throw tantrums. She didn’t seem too concerned about the loss of her Wub and matter-of-factly explained to me that, “Wubs…bye bye…sky.”

Both girls eventually passed out and woke up a few times at night crying for their Wubbies. Total guilt trip. Knowing it’s all for the best didn’t make us any less sad for the girls.

Don’t tell S and A, but I saved the stuffed animal portion of their Wubs for their Baby Boxes. Maybe one day, I can give them to the girls without them becoming hysterical. We originally thought we might give the stuffed animal part to the girls after waving goodbye to the pacifiers, but that just seemed to make Samantha even angrier, so we hid them away instead.

The next day wasn’t any better with the girls refusing to nap AT ALL. Watching them try and fall asleep was like watching a fish out of water– they flailed about, moving their mouths, not knowing what to do with themselves. I was about to give in and run down to Buy Buy Baby for a new stock of Wubs, when Jake arrived just in time to talk me off the ledge.

Fortunately, the second night post-Wubbies was light years better than the first and the girls went down in under a half hour.

On Day Three, I had intense anxiety about the girls not napping again, but they went down fine and had a normal bedtime to boot.

Today, Samantha picked up one of our Shutterfly albums and went ballistic when she saw a picture of her as a baby with– you guessed it– a Wub in her mouth. Cue what I refer to as the “Limp noodle tantrum” wherein she goes completely floppy and flails her appendages dangerously, making it near impossible to move her.

Once she calmed down, Amelia and I had a very rational conversation with her in which we explained being a big girl is fun– she gets to go swimming, doesn’t have to wear diapers, and gets to run around the park. Babies don’t get to have fun like big girls. This set Samantha off even more as she proclaimed she wanted to be a baby. Can’t argue with that logic.

Samantha calmed down a bit at the second mention of swimming, and while she had a few hysterical moments right before nap, she fell asleep, sobbing.

I can’t decide who had it worse– the girls, or Jake and I after enduring this weekend with a fair amount of guilt/sadness mixed in. I have to admit, it was a little heartbreaking seeing Samantha so attached to her Wub and thinking about how fast they are growing up. Now that Wubbies are gone, the last vestiges of their babyhood remain their muslin blankies, which they now cling to for dear life everywhere we go. It truly was the end of an era.

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Year Two

PJ’s and Pancakes

March 23, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

Our original plan for the girls’ actual birthday midweek was for Jake to take the day off and take the girls down to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, but with Jake working like crazy for a big trial coming up, that didn’t end up happening. Plan B was better. PJ’s and pancakes morning!

The girls didn’t know quite what to do with their stack ‘o flap jacks.

Definitely not the usual green smoothie, eggs, or oatmeal.

Samantha was very serious about slicing them just right.

Amelia wasn’t afraid to start digging in.

I’m fairly certain the funfetti sprinkles and blueberry agave syrup canceled out the whole wheat.

After cleaning up breakfast, it was clear we needed to burn off all that sugar, so we had a Girls’ Day Out at their favorite local park.

This cutie is two!

Peekaboo Amelia.

Peekaboo Sammy.

Hey– it’s your birthday? Me too!

Later that evening, we met up near Jake’s work for dinner and some entertainment. The girls are obsessed with trains, so it was the perfect easy, no-hassle birthday treat.

Tee hee.

We spent all of two seconds on the ferris wheel before it broke.

The girls’ disappointment quickly disappeared when they spotted the carousel. To make up for the ferris wheel no-go, they just HAD to ride the carousel four times.

We figured one time around per year in age per girl was about right.

Without fail, Samantha always wants to choose another horse as soon as the ride starts.

Telling mommy which horse she wants next.

Doesn’t matter if it’s brick, grass, sand, dirt, wood, tile…Samantha loves to flatten out on every conceivable surface and pretend to take a nap. She giggles while we pretend not to see her and call her name.

A good day to turn two!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Milestones, Year Two

Two turning two

March 11, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

Last night, five minutes after tucking Samantha and Amelia into bed and turning off the lights, I heard the undeniable sounds of giggling and the pitter patter of feet running across the bedroom floor. After fifteen minutes in which the girls were clearly not sleeping, I burst open the door to re-tuck them into bed. What I saw could only make me laugh, even though it had been a long day and I was ready to NOT see them until the morning.

As soon as I opened the door, both girls jumped in the air in surprise, clutching the purses they had received for their birthdays, which they had presumably spent the past ten minutes filling with bows stolen from the closet. ALL the drawers from the dresser had been pulled open and clothes were strewn everywhere, the monitor had been pulled from the plug and two very guilty-looking little almost-two-year-olds were gleefully scampering toward their beds.

“GET BACK TO BED,” I half-whispered, half-shrieked while chasing across the room. Still giggling, S and A waited for me to pull up the covers and place their Aden + Anais blankies and Wubs next to them, giving me their most “angelic” looks possible. As I looked into their eyes and kissed them goodnight again, their blue eyes looked up at me, seeming to say, “How could you possibly get mad at us?” And they were right.

Until they were at it again ten minutes later.

For the next thirty minutes, I listened to the girls playing, giggling and creating messes I didn’t want to deal with until morning and waited for them to collapse in exhaustion, which they eventually did. As I listened to their toddler shenanigans, it hit me that S and A really are as “two” as any two-year-olds could be.

Gone are the days of semi-toddler, semi-babyhood. Gone are the days of telling people their ages in months. They will now be paying customers on airplanes. Their cribs have been sold off or in storage in the garage. Undies and pull-ups have replaced diapers. The last vestiges of their babyhood– their Wubs and blankies– are still in daily use, but even those will surely fade away into history as the year wears on.

I’m not wistful or complaining or lamenting the fact that time is going by way too fast. I’m merely acknowledging that we now have two who are two and making a pledge to myself to savor all that being two will entail in the coming year.

Even as I type this, the thought of two turning two is slightly terrifying, but while I have no idea what awaits us this year, I am excited. Excited to see how the girls will grow. Excited to see how their individuality develops. Excited to see how their relationships with each other will develop. Excited to experience life through two two-year-olds’ curious eyes.

Jake and I feel doubly blessed that we get to come along for the ride.

Happy 2nd birthday to our sweet girls, Samantha and Amelia. We love you so much!