The Journey of Parenthood…

Britt Monthly Summary ~ November

November was Britt’s last month being 2! Here’s everything she was up to 🙂

Games: Kye has been playing board games since around the time Britt was born. Britt just LOVES sleep. We could tell around 2.5 that Kye needed to start staying up a little later because he wasn’t falling asleep very quickly at night. That’s when his board game time started. Britt doesn’t have to stay up later. Most night she’ll go to sleep pretty quickly when we put her down and she still sleeps for a solid 3 hours at nap (we have to wake her up!) but I feel like she needs to be allowed to stay up a little later so she can participate in some of the game fun! Kye’s done great with it on the nights that she stays up (she’ll still be in bed before 7:30!) he has loved showing her the games and teacher her how to play 🙂

Don’t Break the Ice is her favorite!

Sick: Well. Britt made it 2 years and 11 months before getting sick for the first time! It still shocks me that it took her this long!!! I took her to the walk in clinic before her first Disney trip last year bc I was worried she was sick but she didn’t actually have anything wrong with her other than some allergies and molars. This time had a fever and during the night she broke the fever and had a nightmare. She came out of her room (first time EVER) and was in a strange sleep walking type trance. ZACH was freaked out which, of course, freaked me out! It’s like she was sleep walking? When I took her to the walk-in clinic we found out she had strep. Which was also what Kye got his first time being sick! Zach had to have his tonsils out when he was 18 (yikes) so it wouldn’t surprise me if at least one of our kids has issues with them. Britt hacks JUST like Zach does in the moorings and def has his allergy crud so it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s the one with the tonsil issues too down the line! She was a VERY easy patient and was back to feeling like herself quickly!

I was SO proud of how well she did at the walk-in clinic! When they did a throat swab on her she didn’t cry one bit! Big girl!!!

Yes, after the dr we went to Steel’s Jewelry (they were having an event and I had to stop by haha!). She was sick but still got that kid sucker 😉 

Since it was her first time being sick, it was also her first time on any kind of antibiotic. She just took amoxicillin but did develop this little rash on her face? It was mild and faded quickly but I thought it might have been a slight reaction to the meds?

Finger Sucking: Oh guys. I wish I could write some awesome post about what a smooth transition it was to get Britt to stop sucking her fingers. But that’s not the case. At all. Here’s what happened. Kye was a paci baby. I wanted to wean him from it at 18 months and asked our pediatrician for advice. He recommended waiting until age 2 b/c Kye would be able to reason and understand better. We only ever did the paci in the crib anyway so we didn’t mind waiting and it ended up going REALLY well when it came time to wean him from it completely (here’s how I did it!). It’s pretty funny reading back about weaning Kye from the paci…the last line of the blog post talks about how much harder it’d be to wean a finger sucker. Well. Here I sit!!!

Britt never much took to a paci. She just never really sucked on it…and we didn’t overly try it either. Pacifiers are a PAIN when used as a sleep prop. As soon as we stopped swaddling Britt she instantly put her fingers in her mouth. I didn’t worry about it and figured we’d tackle it when she turned two like we did with Kye. When she turned two we stopped allowing any finger sucking outside of the bed and that was EASY. She will forget (still!) but we just gently reminder her (usually we can just say “Britttt”)  and she removes them. No biggie.

Now that she’s about to be three though I thought I needed to get her to stop sucking them in the bed. I mean she’s 3. I know they are damaging her teeth. Britt was REALLY into wearing gloves around the house so I let her wear them to bed and thought I had this genius plan. Gloves to bed = can’t suck fingers. SO smart right?!?! Well it worked!

She didn’t suck her fingers AT ALL while napping or during the night while wearing the gloves. I showered her with praise. Gave her treats. Had her call G-Mama. Let her sleep with her Donald Duck.  I made a BIG production out of it and thought to myself “phhh I got this! This isn’t so hard!”

Then about 4-5 days later she announced she didn’t want to wear the gloves anymore to sleep. Nothing made her want to wear them. I could have offered her a million dollars (if she knew what a million dollars was) and she still would have chosen to suck her fingers over the money. I talked to her about it and tried to help her understand WHY she needs to stop sucking them. But explaining dental issues isn’t really something a 3 year old can grasp. I bought a book to start reading with her that got a TON of great reviews for helping stop bad habits: The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Habit
;We read it and talked about it and Britt agreed to get some of the medicine to put on her fingers to help. I bought Mavala Stop
and felt really guilty using it. I mean that stuff is NASTY. But both our dentist office and my dental hygienist friend, Kelly, recommend it. So I painted it on her fingers. And it worked for like 2 sleep sessions. And then SHE SUCKED IT OFF. Legit. Child didn’t care that it was gross. Her desire to suck her fingers was stronger than the yucky taste.

I also noticed that once we started trying to stop the bedtime sucking…the daytime sucking got worse. Instead of gentle reminders working, Britt resisted. She sucked them more and would “battle” us about not sucking them when we reminded her. I ended up deciding to STOP all efforts of weaning her from the fingers. I would MUCH rather not have issues with daytime sucking and let her suck them in the bed. Majority of the time she only sucks them to fall asleep and doesn’t leave them in her mouth while actually sleeping. She goes to the dentist in April and I plan to ask them then what to do. I did ask on my Facebook page about it and some of the stuff people had done to them by their parents made my heart hurt!!! Maybe I’m a softy but I just can’t imagine punishing her for sucking on her fingers?!?!

I asked the pediatrician what he recommended about weaning her when I went for Tess’s appointment and he said “death threats” hahahahaha That def made me feel better about not stressing over it for awhile. I liked the suggestion in the The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Habit
Mama Bear gives Sister Bear 10 pennies each morning to start the day and anytime she catches her biting her nails (or in Britt’s case…sucking fingers) she takes away a penny. I think that might work for Britt? She does well with positive reinforcement and she may like having the reward first rather than having to earn it. We’ll see! I’d love your suggestions and experiences!!!

(Sidenote: you will see in Tess’s summary from this month that we did start offering her the paci. Do NOT think it’s a coincidence haha. I don’t wanna deal with this issue again!)

Play: Britt is doing better and better playing independently. She’s just really growing up and I love seeing the things she comes up with. She often will now go play on her own (outside of her independent playtime) and isn’t always following me around anymore! 

Lining up blocks in a row 🙂

Britt LOVES to read. Whenever we have Mommy and Britt time (Tues and Thur moorings Britt doesn’t have school) she asks to read stories with me. Its always great snuggle time but I especially LOVE how she’s wanting to read to Tess now too 🙂 You can tell Tess was paying awesome attention haha!

Getting some work done 😉

Outside: From a VERY young age I remember Britt just loved being outside. When she was fussy as a baby we’d walk her outside and she’d stop crying right away. Britt is still very much an outdoor type girl (which is not like her mama!) She is just very happy outside. While I was struggling with PPD this month I made a big effort to spend a good bit of time outdoors and Britt didn’t mind one bit!!!

She is also a daredevil climber (which is also nothing like her mama haha!)

Silly Britt: Britt’s personality brings us all SO much joy and laughter. She’s just naturally silly and tends to always have the attention on her! She is so funny with her accessorizing and interesting choice of outfits she comes up with. I can’t wait to see how her personal style developed as she grows up!

She wore her outfit from her thanksgiving feast for several days….

Can you tell the child loves crowns? She also REALLY likes to wear her socks pulled up above her boots haha

And she loves wearing hoods. And wearing tennis shoes to match Mommy. 

And hats. LOTS of hats!

More About Britt:

  • During lunch one day I asked the kids if they wanted to play sports someday. Kye said he wants to play football for FSU when he’s a teenager. Britt said she wants to play sports too so I asked her which one she wants to do and she said basketball! 
  • Britt always says “see ya later mashed potato” (which I’ve never heard the phrase but I’m guessing it should be “see ya later mashed potata“?)
  • She is really into describing people according to their gender. She talks about who is a boy and who is a girl and always mentions our pets too
  • Britt correct us a LOT when we say things “wrong” Like if I called a cup a glass she’d say “silly Mommy you said glass and it’s actually a cup“
  • I realized this month that I had been slacking on disciplining Britt. With Tess being born and life being crazy I just hadn’t been as consistent with her as she needed me to be. Britt was pitching fits pretty often so I simply started telling her to go sit on the couch to pitch her fits. It works great 🙂
  • This month Britt decided she didn’t want to use her booster seat anymore! She’s slipped out of her seat a couple of times but that’s more due to her inability to sit still haha! 
  • She is, however, still wearing a bib. Girl is MESSY
  • We had the flu shot this month and I was very impressed with Britt. She went last and was so brave and did so awesome! Didn’t cry or anything!
  • Britt is a MEGA slooooowww eater. She also complains about the food a lot. And will do anything to avoid eating. Lots of distractions. She’s all about entertaining everyone and would literally not eat anything if it was up to her. This month it got a LOT better. I make piles of food and we let her no that no complaining is allowed. She can pick a pile (I’ve always read that it’s beneficial to give toddler’s choices and Britt is DEF a child who does well when given options) but she has to eat the entire pile. If we are all done with dinner and she’s still not finished we will set a timer for her for usually 10 min or so and she has that amount of time to finish her food. We do spank her if the timer goes off and she’s not done. Which I felt bad about at first but she would NEVER finish eating if we didn’t have some type of discipline involved. 99% of the time she waits until there is 1 min left on the timer and then she crams all the food in her mouth. Child is a prime example of WHY children NEED boundaries. I always joke that the way Britt sleeps is the way she lives her life…she has a big full size bed yet she sleeps riiiight on the edge of it. She pushes the boundaries and will always be right at that line! 
  • I could really tell a big change in Britt this month! She started the “trying 2s” when she was around 18 months old…and at almost three I think she’s easing out of this phase 😉 While she requires discipline (and I think she always probably will require more than Kye does? He is just such a typical first born that seeks to please us…whereas she isn’t motivated that same way!) and can still test my patience, overall she’s really become such a joy to be around. She has her own wonderful, unique personality and I love listening to her sweet voice and enjoying her cuddles and loving spirit. She has my heart! 

Emily Parker
Latest posts by Emily Parker (see all)

You may also enjoy:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *