Tag Archives: Toddler

Three years, six months

October 26, 2018 12:00 | Leave a Comment |

Time is a funny thing. Part of me still can’t get my head around the fact that Juno is three and half when it feels like it was just yesterday she were this totally adorable, wriggly, happy baby. Another part of me feels like it’s been way, way, waaaaaaaay longer than that.

This whole having a toddler thing is hard, much harder than when she was a baby. Juno really was a unicorn baby – slept through the night, happy 99 per cent of the time, laid-back and easy-going. I can look back now and see she really was the world’s easiest baby and we totally lucked out.

Suffice to say the transformation into a toddler has been… challenging. She’s not quite so laid-back these days and is very, very definite about what she want and when she want it. I’m sure this is all perfectly normal toddler behaviour and in comparison to some toddlers, she probably would be considered laid-back and easy-going.

For us though, it came as a bit of a shock and we definitely weren’t prepared for it. I guess we thought that Juno would continue to be the unicorn child – cooperative, happy, extremely cute and lovable. She’s still all those thing but maybe a little less cooperative then what she was. It has been amazing to see her personality emerging and to listen to hear rapidly developing vocabulary. She is a sweet, lovely little girl. (But if you asked her, she’s not a little girl, she’s a big girl!)

But the shouting. Oh my gosh, the shouting and angry tears have started. I do not enjoy being manipulated but there’s nothing we can do about it. Knowing it’s an important developmental stage is not helping. We’re working on trying to stop her shouting at us when we don’t do what she wants but I have a feeling we’ll just have to wait it out.





Posted in: Juno! | Tagged: , ,

We have a threenanger

April 26, 2018 16:12 | Leave a Comment |

Happy third birthday to our threenanger, Juno.

It’s certainly been an interesting ride.

You’ve gone from a chilled-out, calm baby to a defiant, adorable, intense and fun-loving toddler.

You are definitely a child who knows her own mind and wants what she wants. Immediately. With no delays.

It’s amazing to see your personality forming and you becoming your own person.

I get that where you are now is an important developmental stage but gosh, you can be exhausting when you want to be. All we can do it ride it out and live in hope we’ll survive it.

Having said all that, you’re an awesome little kid. You have such a bright spark inside you. You just shine.

And to be honest, we all know you totally own me.

Posted in: Juno! | Tagged: , ,

Time is just flying by

October 26, 2017 09:00 | Leave a Comment |

So hard to believe that my little baby is now two and a half. Juno is definitely not little nor a baby any more.

A lot has happened in the last six months.There have been two sets of grommets in her ears to help with her persistently blocked eardrums (first lot didn’t take and had to be removed). The change has been startling.

Physically she’s come on in leaps and bounds. She always seemed okay but I never noticed that she wouldn’t actually climb that much. At the playground she would stick to the easy stuff and avoid anything that required her to use her entire body. But that’s not the case now! Now she’s a little monkey and wants to climb stuff that’s way too big and hard for her and she has to be guided towards more appropriate things. Most toddlers are absolute klutzes so we put it down her disinterest in climbing to that rather than anything else but it appears we were wrong. She obviously had wonky balance so was reluctant to do too much physically.

Her speech is also coming along albeit far more slowly. We have two and three word sentences now which is good but there’s still a lot of babbling going as well. She had a hearing test about three months ago which showed a huge improvement from where she had been. Interestingly though, help – which she was saying clearly – has become pout or pelt. Not sure what’s going on there. I’m constantly saying help to her and she will repeat clearly but when she asks independently, it comes out as pelt. Eh… I’m sure it’ll resolve itself. We have an appointment with Juno’s speechie in two weeks so we can discuss it then.

I have to be more careful in what I’m saying as Juno now seems to hear everything and will often repeat what I’ve said. Um yeah, that’s not so good for someone who’s been known to swear like a trooper. Really don’t want her dropping the f-bomb at childcare. I think I might get questions about that.

Speaking of childcare… The other big event in Juno’s life is that her childcare centre moved into brand new purpose-build digs. The new centre is amazing. The old one was just that – old and very rundown so it’s wonderful to see the kids in a brand new environment with new toys and play areas. It’s also more convenient for me so I’m pretty happy about that, although I think I might be the only one.

I initially thought we might avoid the terrible twos but no, they struck with a vengeance about three months ago. She’s still a pretty calm little kid but when she loses her cool, wow does she lose it! It still baffles me that someone so small can make that much noise. Mostly we try to ignore them when we know she’s faking it but when she really loses it, the only thing to do is try to cuddle her until she calms down. Unfortunately food bribes also work but I only get that one out when I’m desperate. I’ve really learnt that that there’s no reasoning with a two year old who’s mid-tantrum. Sometimes nothing will work except letting her get it all out.

It’s amazing how quickly she is growing up. I’m not sure where the last two and a half years have gone.

Posted in: Juno! | Tagged: ,

104 weeks, 24 months, 2 years

April 26, 2017 06:00 | Leave a Comment |


Happy second birthday to my bright, hilarious, chatty, wild-haired, adorable Juno.

It’s still so very strange to have a piece of my heart running around independently of me. You are can be so many different things all at once – precious, annoying, shy, loud, quiet, sad, happy, fierce, silly, sombre.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I decided it was a good idea to try and have a child and it has been so much harder than I thought it would be. But it’s also been, by far, one of the most rewarding things I’ve done. You’re an ace little kid.

Don’t let the world change or extinguish the brilliant spark that’s inside you.

Posted in: Juno! | Tagged: , , ,

We have a toddler!

January 26, 2017 17:52 | Leave a Comment |

When did that happen? How do we have a 21 month old? It feels like it was only yesterday I was being walked into an operating theatre, enormously pregnant and about to have a c-section. Suffice to say, life has been quite different since that moment 21 months ago.

Juno is almost running (eep!), getting into everything, loves books and is generally an ace little kid. I am eternally grateful that somehow I ended up with the world’s most laid-back child who sleeps through the night. Of course she has her infuriating moments – she’s a toddler – but on the whole, we totally lucked out.

She returned to childcare last week after a three week break over xmas. She’s now in the toddler room on Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays. On the whole, the change has been okay. She’s a little unsure when we first arrive in the morning but that seems to wear off pretty quickly – usually as soon as she sees something to play with. We’ve had to nearly double the amount of clothing she has for childcare though. I thought three outfit changes would be enough. Uh, no. When I went to pick her up at the end of her first day back, she was in the room’s spare dress! She went through every item of clothing in her bag. The next day was a similar story with nothing left in her bag but she was still in her own clothes. She is yet to come home in the clothes that she left the house and I don’t think she ever will.

There still hasn’t been much development in her speech. She has more words but seems to have difficulty pronouncing the first letter of words with two or more syllables. Book is ook, duck is uck, woof is oof but she says yes, no, uh oh, oh no very clearly. The odd thing is that that says words – or rather makes sounds – in her babbling that have two or more syllable just fine. The dropped first letter only seems to occur when she’s consciously trying to say something.

Her hearing test in December showed that she is suffering from mild hearing loss that would be affecting her speech. But it’s caused by ear glue and not damage to her ear drums. We have a follow-up hearing test in a week so we’ll see what that shows. If the ear glue hasn’t cleared up, she may need grommits which means going to a Ear, Nose, Throat specialist. If it has cleared, I’m guessing we’ll be off to a speech pathologist.


What are you doing, mother?

Posted in: Juno! | Tagged: , , , ,

Blink and you miss it.

October 26, 2016 08:00 | Leave a Comment |

Miss J is 18 months old. 18 months!!! When did that happen?

It’s been a wild ride. Everyone talks about how hard it is when you have a newborn but I’ve decided that’s a crock. It’s hard regardless, it’s just different. Every stage in development has its challenges and just when you think you’ve got it under control, something new pops up.

Juno is curious, bright-eyed and loves getting into everything. She’s definitely mastered walking and has recently starting climbing the stairs on her own (which is nice because she’s getting heavy!). She’s also very into books at the moment and loves being read to. Which makes me a little proud – another book worm in the family 🙂 The only problem is that she also loves turning the pages and often won’t wait for the person reading.

We only have two clear words – no and up – which is a slight concern. So the next logical step is for Juno to have a hearing test. She talks all the time but it’s all babbling (which does sound quite lovely because it’s very musical). Not panicking, just wanting to find out if anything is up. I figure the earlier an issue is discovered, the better the chances are of it being fixable. However, she communicates very clearly – especially when she says no and pushes whatever she doesn’t want away with her hand. I guess I would be a good deal more concerned if there was no non-verbal communication.

So… at 18 months, Juno:
* weighs – 12.25kg
* height is – 81.5cm
* head circumference is – 50.5cm
* currently sporting a black eye from banging her head on a shelf.

She’s gained two kilos in six months, grown 6cm and her head is so far off the chart it’s ridiculous. One day she’ll grow into her head. LOL

Posted in: Juno! | Tagged: , ,