Happy Wednesday friends! 

I didn’t realize it had been so long since I did an update on Zain but I found myself seeing the same questions coming in via DM on Instagram and thought I could cover it all here. I feel like my baby boy has grown into such a toddler and I won’t lie, it makes me sad. Although I love watching him grow and learn, if I see too many chubby faced photos from his first year I can’t help my cry my eyes out. 

I am also going to share some of our favorite gadgets we get asked about most often at the end of the post which should be helpful! 

How is he sleeping in the new bed? 

He is still going to bed between 7 and 7:30pm and wakes up between 6:45 and 7am usually. When we transitioned him out of his crib and took the side off we simultaneously started using The Hatch and it has been a lifesaver. I wrote more about the transition here but he essentially doesn’t get out of his bed till we come get him after his light turns green at 6:45. If your child is an early riser like ours my best advice is to set the light early and slowly move it back 10-15 minutes every few days. That’s what we did and it worked great! 

Now that we have gotten rid of the crib and transitioned him to a bed it’s been great! We are able to spend more time in his room because the layout has a better flow, he has way more space and was just so ecstatic to have a ‘big boy’ bed.

We ended up going with a Queen because his room allowed for it and that way if someone needs to sleep in there with him for some reason or we have guests that need to use the bed, it’s functional for more than just a toddler. 

I am planning on photographing his new room this weekend so I will hopefully be sharing that next week! 

What is he eating? 

Everything! Trevor and I both get home from work at decent times (when he’s not on call) so we like to eat together as a family around 6pm. I think Zain is inherently a good eater but my biggest tip to those that ask me about getting your kids to try more foods is to make eating a family affair if you can.

When we stopped putting Zain in his high chair to the side and slid him up to the table to eat with us, he wouldn’t say no to much. This obviously doesn’t happen in the morning since we are all never home together but we like having that time in the evenings. 

Current favorite snacks are any kind of bar, Pretzel thins with hummus, Sumo oranges, pears and obviously ice cream 😉 

How is his potty training going? 

I expanded on how we potty trained much more here but so far it’s been good! After that initial weekend, he was all in. I think waiting till we felt he was really ready helped a lot. I let him pick out his underwear each morning which he enjoys and we’ve only had a handful of pee accidents since we started. 

His teachers are great about communicating with them about the potty and he seems very aware of his needs so to say. He generally yells ‘the poop is coming!’ and runs to the potty 🙂 

Does he have tantrums? 

YES. I try my best to share my thoughts and moments of hardship as a parent on social media when I can because I certainly don’t want it to look like it’s all easy. At the same time, I never usually have my phone out during those difficult moments and also want to protect my child in a sense. 

For the most part, Zain is a great kid but all children have their meltdowns. His tantrums seem to have gotten more frequent over the past few months and we have been reading up on how to deal with them. He mostly gets frustrated about things he wants to do by himself that he can’t seem to get the hang of.

I’ve really tried to set aside more time during our morning and evening routines so he can dress himself, put his shoes on, wash his hair, etc so I’m not rushing and in turn getting frustrated with him and that’s seemed to help a lot.

On our good days, we really try to stay calm and talk through things with him until he can relax and take a few deep breaths. I know toddlers are going through a lot and whenever I lose my cool I feel nothing but guilt after so I try to keep that in the back of my head. 

How did he start writing? 

I shared a video of Zain writing his name on his art easel last week and was flooded with questions about it. I wish I had better advice but he has just always enjoyed coloring, drawing and writing. 

I feel like Trevor taught him how to hold a crayon when he started coloring and he’s always shown an interest in it. Once we got the easel for Christmas, he would always ask us to write things out and then want to try himself. 

He has been practicing his name for a little while and is getting better and better at it! I think the easel has been a huge help and I would definitely recommend it! 

Current products you can’t live without? 

Day to day there are a few things we use regularly that I would recommend and rounded those up below. We are still using our Uppababy Minu the most since it’s just so light and compact but will be researching double strollers soon so if you have any advice, send it my way!

We also still love his high chair since it’s the perfect height to push up to the table! I also included his art easel, supplies and a few toys below that I get asked about frequently!

Hope you are all having a wonderful week!