Tag: toddler

An Artist Blooming

Marie Haigh1 Comment

Since Elly had her 1st birthday and officially became a toddler, I have had an intense desire to introduce her to the world of drawing and coloring.

My first attempt didn’t go well due to her intense desire to jam everything in her mouth, despite buying markers designed especially for her age. After such a failure, the crayons were hastily packed away. I try to be a lax mom, but the thought of Elly crapping a rainbow of colors made me nervous and a bit sick to my stomach.

Last week, I finally had the privilege of mailing Elly original artworks to her grandparents. What changed? I tried letting Elly draw with the humble pencil. For the first five minutes, it was a perfect match. Elly held the pencil between her thumb and middle finger, like she had been doing it all her life. Then, she proceeded to flip through her notebook and draw on the pages as inspiration hit her. I was thrilled and quickly ran to get the camera.

After those first five minutes were up, things started to go downhill quickly. Elly chewed the eraser off and spat it out. When she turned the pencil around and bit off the lead tip, I called the drawing session to a close.

Certain that surely somebody designed pencils for kids, I searched online for a fatter pencil that didn’t have a tasty eraser on the back end. Leave it to Crayola to have exactly what I wanted: Write Start colored pencils.

After ten minutes of drawing, Elly still tries to eat the pencils, but she hasn’t managed to snap the lead tip off like she did with the narrow #2 pencil nor is there an eraser to eat. Plus, she loves the designs on each pencil. I think her favorite is the apple pencil, which of course is the red pencil.

Toy Envy

Marie Haigh2 Comments

Last Saturday, we attended a birthday party for Penny, who was turning 2. Elly had a wonderful time being around so many kids her age, yammering to anybody who would listen, and playing with Penny’s toys. She particularly liked Penny’s toy laptop and her water table.

Although Elly still has an “out of sight – out of mind” mentality at her age, her Mommy does not. Heck, I was just as amazed as Elly was with Penny’s water table. I had to buy one!

As soon as it arrived, I put it together, threw Elly into her new bathing suit, and invited our neighbor Irene over. Both Elly and Irene had a great time playing with the water table.

Even Jake approved; it’s the perfect height for lapping up a drink of water.

Elly and I Hate Being Idle

Marie Haigh1 Comment

We thought it was a phase that she would grow out of. More accurately, we were hoping it was a phase that would only last a month or two. Elly is almost a year and a half old and she still hates riding in the car for longer than 20 minutes.

On Saturday, we drove to a friend’s house to celebrate their daughter’s 2nd birthday. Elly fussed on the way there after quickly growingbored of her musical frogger and other toys I had packed. Once there, she had a great time running around and playing with the other children. Most children would sleep after such an outing, but not Elly. I can count on one hand how many times she has fallen asleep in the car. Rather than sleep, she strained against the straps to her car seat desperately trying to get out.

I know how she feels.

I hate sitting still with nothing to keep my hands busy. Thankfully, I can knit, which is exactly what I did. I cast on for the hexagon afghan.

Once Elly is old enough, I’ll teach her to knit. With a little luck, it will make her enjoy car rides more.

Hiding Indoors from the Heat

Marie Haigh2 Comments

Last week it was too hot to play in the garden. After biking to the local splash park for two days in a row, I needed a break. So, on Friday we stayed home. It seemed like the perfect excuse to try out a craft idea I found on BabyCenter’s website: finger painting.

2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp and 1 tsp water
food coloring

Mix the water and flour together using a fork or mini whisk. If necessary add additional water, a teaspoon at a time, until you reach a good consistency for painting. Dye the flour-paint in your child’s favorite colors via food coloring.

Expect a mess.

I draped our dining room table with an outdoor plastic tablecloth. Then, I taped waxed paper to the cloth. I strapped Elly into her booster seat. To save her outfit, I hunted down Dan’s old apron. Finally, I stepped back and let the magic happen.



When she stopped painting on the wax paper and started painting the arms of the chair, I called a stop to the festivities.

Later in the day, Dan and I discussed setting up a craft area for Elly in the basement so that our dining room set might survive her youth.

Outgrowing Diapers and Pull-Ups

Marie Haigh2 Comments

Our little girl, whom I affectionately call Elly Belly, is not very little at all. She flew off the growth charts in weight at 3 months old when I was exclusively breastfeeding her. She remains an inch off the charts to this day. Her height isn’t far behind in the 95 percentile.

Having spent time searching the internet for answers on what to do when your child outgrows size 6 diapers and what to do when your child is gearing up to outgrow size 4t-5t in pull-ups, I thought it might be of some help to parents with chubby children if I compiled my findings here.

First and foremost, ignore the critics. The only person you need to listen to is your pediatrician. Odds are there is nothing wrong with your child.

A word about the diaper sizes:
Being a first time mom, I thought the weight range listed on the diapers were time-tested and accurate. Perhaps they are if you have a normal size child. If you have an Elly-sized child, take the weight recommendations with a grain of salt. Elly outgrew all the diaper sizes long before she reached the upper weight limit listed on the boxes.

So what does come after size 6 in diapers?
You have a few options:
1. Pampers does carry a size 7. We opted not to use them due to the overwhelming smell of baby powder.
2. You can switch over to pull-ups. I would recommend the Huggies training pants because they can tear open at the sides, which is a nice feature when your child is still having her bowel movements in diapers.
3. You can switch over to cloth diapers. I found Green Mountain Diapers to be a great resource when deciding which supplies to buy. Keep in mind that you need that same grain of salt for weight recommendations. Elly outgrew the cloth diaper covers listed up to 35 lbs when she tipped the scales at 30 lbs.

Now at 17 months, Elly is wearing pull-ups sized 4t-5t when out on the town with Daddy or when gardening with Mommy.

It’s the largest size carried by Pampers and Huggies. So what comes after pull-ups?
Again there are a few options.
1. In disposables, the next tier contains youth diapers, such as Attends Briefs.
2. Disposables offer another option: nighttime diapers. Pampers offers Underjams, diapers designed for children who haven’t mastered potty training at night. These go up to 65 lbs compared to 50 lbs with the pull-ups. But, who says they can only be used at night? Go ahead and use them during the day.
3. You can switch to cloth diapers. You’ll have a limited selection, since most AIO and pocket diapers will be too small or won’t allow room for growth. Elly is currently wearing toddler-sized pre-fold diapers with Bummis XL diaper covers. Both should continue to fit her in the coming months. However, we’ll have to switch to a different design when it’s time for potty training. I have my sights set on Happy Heinys Training Pants. They have a wide selection of sizes.
4. Switch to cloth, but use underwear. Mumtaz Soakers on Etsy offers both lined underwear, which is really for the child who is currently potty training, and nighttime waterproof underwear, which can be used during the day for the child who isn’t ready for potty training.

Of course, you could always hope that your child becomes potty trained before she outgrows the pull-ups. Unfortunately, our Elly has shown no signs of being ready for this step.