play mommy!

aaaaaaaah...winter break! that means i again have time to write all the funny things k does! and having been off the past few days, there are plenty of moments to share! i will start with last night though.

i sit here typing, still half asleep because i had a severe lack of sleep last night. at about 1, k started crying because he lost his pacifier. i went downstairs, got him a new one (because i am not looking for one in the dark!), covered him back up, and went back to bed. less than 2 hours later i hear, "mom! mommy! moooooooooommmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! play mom!" oh no honey...it's not time! so i go back down, make sure he has his pacifier, and i talk to him about how it's still time to sleep. i put his music on, and he tells me good night. so went back upstairs to see the lights on the monitor flashing. i sat on the edge of the bed just waiting for him to call me again. and then i heard it. the bang, thud, wail! i ran down the stairs to find him at the bottom. i'm not sure if he fell trying to get out of the crib and ran to the stairs, or if he got out of the crib safely (a new favorite hobby of his) and tried coming up the stairs and fell somewhere between his room and the stairs.

i scooped him up and cuddled with him in the recliner until he stopped crying. now it's about 4. he still thinks it's time to play. daddy came down to cover us up and make sure everything was ok. k wants to pet the cat, he wants to roll all over. ummm...hon...it's 4:00. it's time to sleep. so i try to reason with him...if we sleep for an hour more, we can get up and play. "ok mommy!" so now the two of us are going to sleep for an hour in the recliner so we can get up to play. UGH! i'm not looking forward to this, and apparently neither is k. he rolls around fidgeting and changing positions for a while. when i look at the clock it is 5:09. neither of us has slept. we both found a comfy position around 5:30 and slept for a little bit.

now as i sit here tired as can be, k is playing in a large box, sitting, leaning, and tipping it over so he can fall out and do it all over again! but the box just hit him in the head, so i m ust go and wait for the tears!

walking the line

over the past few days, i've realized not only how dealing with toddlers is stressful for adults, but also how hard it must be for the toddler! toddlerhood seems to straddle the fine line between independence and asking for help. every day the toddler wants to show off his independence, and even when you know they're frustrated, they don't want your help. you don't want to see your child frustrated, but you want to encourage the independence.

take for instance keegan's new obsession...getting dressed. it doesn't matter how many layers of clothing he already has on...if he finds a shirt, he must put it on. he generally tries to put it on like a pair of shorts first (which kind of makes sense...i mean there are places for the legs and all!), and then he gets it on his head...generally sideways. the whole time i'm saying "oh look at you! way to go buddy!" and he gets one arm in, and claps. YAY! then the other arm goes through the neck hole, and he can't get it out. but i can't help him because he refuses to let me...it's too early. after 5 minutes though, i don't fcare if he lets me or not, and i don't care how mad he gets! i back his arm out through the neck and tell him to try again. this time there is much more success, and he is very proud of doing it all by himself :) then he finds a pair of shorts and tries to put THOSE on. keep in mind he's now wearing a pair of shorts and 2-3 shirts. but his leg goes through the shorts, then the other leg...through the same leg hole. and he pulls them up as far as he can, and he claps...and depending on the shorts, they might get all the way up to his waist! so now he's walking around the house with 1 pair on the correct way, and with two legs in one hole...but again, he did it himself.

another new feat is getting the juice off the counter. and this is purely my fault. i'm lazy...i fully admit it. when i take the juice out, i pour my glass, and leave the pitcher on the counter. i'm only going back in 15 minutes for another glass anyway, so why bother putting it back in the fridge? i HAVE to get better at this now though, because keegan can reach the counters. and back when he was too short (which i swear was just last month!) he'd come ask for juice. life back then was grand! now he sees the juice on the counter and pulls it down...the top flying off the pitcher, juice spilled all over the floor, keegan covered in juice...and little calls for "hep! mommy! hep! joooo! hep!"

one time he will ask for help immediately though is when he changes the TV channel from what he wanted to watch. up until recently, keegan was a disney kid...watched it in the morning while we had breakfast, played with it on in the background, etc. but within the last week or so he has fallen in love with sesame street. not sure how it happened, but i won't argue with it since i really can't stand disney's special agent oso. now, keegan can fully work the remote. he knows what buttons change the channel, he knows the volume, mute, and last channel. he can also turn the tv on and off. he'll watch sesame street, and sing and dance, and point out elmo and cookie. it's very cute to see it! LOL! and i will go off and make a shopping list, find coupons, take a quick shower...whatever. he'll play with the remote, turn it up and down, on and off, change channels back and forth, and mute/unmute. sometimes though,, he changes the channel to where he can't get it back. and he'll run up with the remote yelling "mommy hep! oh no! elmo!"

ok really? you're blurring the line even more now sweetheart! you'll put clothes on so you can't walk, you'll drag juice off the counter, you'll climb stairs, go on the slide...you don't want help with anything! but elmo disappears and it's the end of the world? geez!

lunch with daddy

well i was supposed to be at an inservice for work this afternoon, but as keegan and i were leaving for the sitter (an hour and a half before the inservice started, just to make sure i got there in time), i couldn't find my keys. we searched the house for nearly half an hour before i called pat to ask him if he had them in his jeep. he called a few minutes later and they weren't there. so keegan and i kept looking. he kept bringing me pat's spare set saying "mommy! keeeeeeeeeeeey!" yes honey, those are keys, but we're looking for mommy's keys! a minute later he would come again with daddy's spare set, so proud that he found the keys! we looked more and more, and then it hit me...they're in my bowling bag...still in the jeep, aren't they? so i called again, and had him run back to the jeep. sure enough! so needless to say, i did not make it to the inservice. and that was a blessing in disguise! the power went out at pat's office, so he got off half a day early, so we all got to go to lunch together!

so we went to perkins...it's close to the house, we hadn't been there i a while, and keegan can be semi-loud and it's ok! we walked in and he again, said hi to everyone he saw. the hostess went to get us a booster seat, but by the time she got back with one (which was less than a minute) keegan had already climbed up and sat on the chair and begun looking at his menu like he just does this all the time! we got him in the booster, and life was grand. he de cided today that he wanted a cheeseburger (this was a first, as it is usually mac and cheese or chicken strips). he also decided that he should be the welcoming AND farewell committee to every person there! he was also the baby detector, whispering "baby!" every time he saw one! talk about multitasking! he colored while we waited for our food, and continues daying hi and bye to everyone as they walked past the table. we were sitting pretty close to the entrance, which meant there was a lot of traffic! and then the flirting began...

a little older lady walked past, and keegan said "bye!" and blew her a kiss. she had to stop and say how cute he was, and talk about what he was going to eat, and say how cute he was again. a few more ladies walked past and he flirted, smiled, giggled, and blew kisses. then a teenaged girl walked by. keegan said hi, smiled, batted those baby blues...and got no response from this girl. he was heartbroken! but the hostess saved the day! she was all too willing to flirt back with him! she couldn't get enough of his oozing cuteness that she kept walking by so he'd talk to her and she could tell him how cute he was! and he smiled every time and said "noooooooooo!" in that coy little voice. i have to admit...he was especially cute! lunch came, we ate, he did great! then the waiter brought him a cookie. it is at this point he started to dance. and when keegan dances, everyone in his presence must also dance. so he'd take a bite of cookie and start bopping in his chair, waving his arms, and giggling. then he says, "mommy!" so mommy must also dance. then "daddy!" and daddy must dance. and God forbid if you stop dancing...he'll call again!

something tells me that my child is very food motivated. a few months back he started dancing around the house when i made him french toast. last week he wrote a song about grapes...and today he rocks out because he has a cookie!

anyway...these are the moments that make me wish i could stay home with him all day...to see the excitement in everything he does! sure, being home in the summer gets to me because he's not always that cute, and he's not always dancing. he hits, he throws tantrums, he cries. but i look past those because the great moments are so much better to remember! makes me wish we could do lunch with daddy more often! i know that as much as i miss, daddy misses more because he doesn't get the summers with him. i bet daddy wishes he could do lunch more often too!

birthdays

i've come to the conclusion that i never need to wrap another present for my son. he has no desire to open them! we had a small gathering at my parents' house the weekend of his birthday about a week ago. mom and dad got him a toddler trampoline. he LOVES it! so when he had no desire to open anything else, i put it off as mom and dad rock with a great gift, so he just has no interest now. but that's not the case! we had another gathering this past weekend...and he had LESS THAN no desire to open a thing! he sat on my lap and i opened the first gift with him. and by "with him" i mean he sat on my lap while i tore the paper, trying to make it as exciting and appealing to him as i could. nothing! he got up and got something to drink. i called him back several times to see his presents, and he still wanted nothing to do with it! so i began just opening each card, reading who it was from, and in my best (or lamest, whichever you prefer!) toddler voice, i shouted "thank you!" then i proceeded to open the gifts and say "oh it's what i always wanted!" everyone laughed, and we had fun. so the next day when there was no audience, i thought we'd "open" his presents again to see his reaction. every present was "oooooooooooh!" and "woahhhhhh!" so it's not that he has no interest in stuff...he just doesn't want to work for it! why unwrap it when someone will undoubtedly unwrap it for you, and then you can play with it till your heart's content? but i'm ok with that. it means that at christmas, i can just get one of those giant bike bags and put everything in it and not stress out over getting all the wrapping done in time! i'm looking forward to that now! LOL!

shopping adventures

we ran some errands this morning, and the adventures and silliness started right away! our neighbor has landscapers fixing some work, and as we were getting in the car, k spotted one of them. "hi...hi...hi...hi...hi..." until this poor guy noticed him and said hi back. well we can't just leave it at that now, can we? i get him in the car, all strapped in, and i close the door. as i'm walking around the car to get to my door, i hear this high pitched squeal, followed by laughter, followed by that coy "nnnooooooo!" that he jokes with all the time now. i turn to see the guy playing with him through the window. it was great! i get in the car, k blows the guy a kiss, says bye bye, and we're off!

we get to the first store for a quick return, so i didn't even bother with a cart. this is a mistake. we got to the counter, and k threw himself on the floor and started crawling around. by all rights, i probably needed both hands to carry in the storage bins i was returning, but sacrificed one so i could hold his hand. i had to let go so i could get the bins on the counter though. i quickly pick him up, sign the return slip, and we leave. on the way to the car, i give the, "remember how we talked about being a big boy?" speech. he smiles, gives me a hug, and we're off to the next stop.

we get to the grocery store, and enter through the produce section. i have never been in this store before, so i stop to figure out where the heck i am going. as i'm looking at the signs, i hear k yelling, "mama! ball! ball! please? ball!" i look around, and there are no balls to be found. there IS, however, a crate of watermelons that he's pointing to. poor baby! i don't think he's ever eaten from a whole one, so he doesn't know what it looks like! we walk past quickly. we get our shopping done, as he says, "hi...hi....hi" to everyone he sees, and only stops when someone answers him. he decided (with some encouragement) that instead of the ball (watermelon) he wanted grapes. so before we left, we went back and got some grapes. he carried them all the way to the checkout, and even put them on the belt. in the checkout lane, he takes his shoes off. i only know this because an employee walked past to let me know that one of his shoes was on the grate under the cart, and she didn't want me to miss it. i am in front of the cart at this time...when i quickly push him through so he doesn't push the buttons on the credit card thingy again and they have to start over (yes, this has happened!). he takes off the other shoe and immediately puts it in his mouth. ugh! part of me wants to keep his shoes off when we go to the store now so he doesn't eat them, but i might be turned away because he's not wearing shoes (heard this morning that a mother and 6 month old were asked to leave a burger king in missouri because the baby wasn't wearing shoes). we pay, we get to the door, and we are on our way to the car...where no less than 3 people walk past and pinch k's cheeks or pat his hair and tell him how cute he is. really people? is it just ok for you to touch strangers' children? i don't know you, i've never seen you, and i probably never will again. do you think i want you and your germs on my kid? the answer is no! but i grit my teeth and smile, simply because at 9 AM, it's all elderly ladies...and i know that's just how they are.

on the way home, i am feeding him grapes. i keep a small dish in the car for these occasions. i give him a bowl of grapes, he eats, life is good! then i hear, "oh no! ma! uh oh! hep! hep! hep! (that's help). than God for the red light just then because i think something is terribly wrong. i turn around, and he's handing me a grape...it had a piece of stem on it, so there was something wrong with it. i remove the stem, he thanks me, pops it in his mouth, and smiles. he then starts singing a song. "doops, doops, yay doops, la la la!" it took me a minute in the store, but came to the conclusion that that's how he says grapes. do you remember what it was like to be so excited about something so small that you had to make a song out of it? life doesn't get better than that!

where did you find that?

i'm convinced that toddlers are like chipmunks and squirrels. case in point: phantom pacifiers. we have a ton of pacifiers. one day we'll have 7 or 8, and the next day we can only find two. where do they go? mostly he drops them in the middle of the night, and while looking for them, it falls between the slats in the crib and bounces under it against the wall. and when we pull the crib out and find the pile of 3 or 4 that we've been missing, it still doesn't account for the 3 or 4 more that are still missing! where on earth do they go? recently, i figured it out!

k generally only uses them for sleep times, but will on occasion steal them from bed and walk around the house with them. when he has it out of the bed, we take it and usually put it somewhere he either can't find or can't reach. problem solved. so why then does he come out of random corners of the house with another one in his mouth? because he hides them and saves it for the right occasion. the other day he pulled one out from under the corner of the bed in our guest bedroom...that we had JUST cleaned for company last week. when did he find the time to put one there? and why today did i find one stuck behind a book on my bookcase? he hides them! and then when he feels like having one and he can't get one because we've taken them all and put them where he can't get them...he goes to his hiding place and get's his fix, like a squirrel with his winter stash!

potty time

i need to understand the logistics of making a toddler potty. now i understand that boys are supposed to stand when they pee, but let's face it...my two year old does not have the aim and control required to perfectly hit that 4 inch bowl. so he sits, like many boys first training/trying. here's what i don't understand. the box said it had a sort of splatter guard. the guard is actually a half inch bump in the front of the potty cup...it's kind of like a wall. did they really expect that to work? granted, overshooting doesn't happen often, but that's because i generally watch very closely to make sure i don't get hit, and if he starts to pee, i point it down. this morning, however, he woke up a bit earlier than normal, after he was up a bit later than normal. i was tired, and didn't pay attention as closely as i usually do. and boy did that splatter shield fail me! and then to make matters worse, k thought it was REALLY funny. as he peed on me (because eventhough i realize what's happening here, my reflexes were a little slow so the floor and i got a bit wet...but i did make him finish in the cup!) he said, "ha ha mommy! funny!" anybody want to potty train my kid? he's cute and fairly obedient most days...you can keep him till he's fully trained and then i'll take him back. i don't think i'm cut out for this time in his life. and to all you sitting there and laughing your heads off...oh just you wait till you have boys! you'll get peed on for a minimum of 3 months, and it won't be funny then! ok, yeah it will...

american idol season 22?

i'm just writing to prepare everyone for american idol season 22, where my child will no doubt win the hearts of millions! such feeling...such passion when he sings! he closes his eyes and just pours his heart out in song. and the dance moves! oh my!

in all reality though, he's so cute when he tries to sing along with the radio or ipod. he yells, and then drops into a softer voice. then he closes his eyes and screams while stomping around the room...that's dancing. not sure what i was like when i was that little, but if he is anything like mommy, he'll blossom into a powerhouse! LOL!

it's amazing...

that when you take pressures off a child, his life and your become easier! yesterday was a no tears day. i moved k's potty back into his bedroom, and he had no problem sitting on it! and this morning already, he went potty twice...on the potty! he says "oops!" while he does it though, so that's kind of funny. but already he's doing better OFF the program than he was ON it.

learning about everyday things is the same too. he learns so much, and it's not even close to forced. kids these days are forced into so much...piano and dance before they can walk, 3 different languages before age 8, and the pressures of sports, not to mention educational pressures. so many parents are focused on getting their child ahead and ready for school that they aren't allowed to be children! there are actually workbooks for parents to teach their kids skills that used to be taught in school! now i'm not talking about reinforcement packets for the 3rd grader that is behind in math and needs some extra support...i'm talking about alphabet worksheets, math, counting, matching, etc. for 2-3 year olds. this is where i'm torn. as a teacher, i should be happy that kids are learning at such a young age. but at the same time, i don't think that sitting down with paper and a pencil at the age of 2 is an appropriate way to learn.

a couple weeks ago, k ran up to me with a letter magnet in his hand. "mommy! B!!" i was fully prepared to tell him the correct letter, when i saw that it was indeed a B! it's probably 2 weeks later, and that's still the only letter he knows for sure, but i'm ok with that! i'm not going to sit him down with some worksheets when he can be out in the world learning about it! he loves his books, and loves to be read to. we have a look and find book, which is his favorite! there are lots of animals, and he loves making the animal sounds. yesterday he learned that birdies say "tweet!" he practices his sounds all the way to the zoo, and then roars at the lions! at this age, that's how i feel kids should learn! today in the book, he saw a heart next to a lion. "was dis?" he asked. i told him it's a heart, and that he has a heart too! i showed him where his heart is, then asked him where it was. he poked his belly a couple times saying "is here." then he giggled because i think it tickled.

i am amazed every day trying to see the world through his eyes...

3 day potty training: day 2

yesterday was a very trying day...ok, it just plain sucked. k cried all day every time we ran to the bathroom. no wonder he slept so soundly all night! i do have to say that i was surprised he got up completely dry. with as much as he peed last night, i thought maybe he'd just never be done! looking back though, with as much as he peed last night, he clearly had no liquid left in him! so he got up dry and we went to the potty...nothing, because again, he had no liquid left in his body. or so i thought. as soon as i put the waffles in the toaster i noticed a tiny drop of wet on the front of his underpants (which i've been told my my husband this morning, "ummm...no big boy calls them underpants hon."), so we went to the potty, which he did NOT want to do. we sat there a couple minutes and there was nothing. which leads me to believe that his insides are much like his mother's, and he just sneezed and lost control of his bladder momentarily! TMI i know, but it's a fact of life! anyway, we get back to the waffles, and i hear, "oh oh oh!" and by the time i turn around there is a puddle on the floor. i take him to the bathroom kicking and screaming. i put him in the shower to clean off his legs, we put on a new pair, i cleaned the floor, and we ate our waffles. then while daddy was getting dressed he said, "i think he needs to go!" so i ran, scooped him up and got him into the bathroom, crying his eyes out! he sat, nothing. he stood up and protested putting on his underwear (the preferred term according to hubby) and scooted behind the toilet, and proceeded to pee on the floor.

it is at this time that i decide this is crazy. many people have had overwhelming success with this program...i just don't think it's for us. when i was semi-training him myself, sure there were accidents, but he didn't cry every time he had to be on the potty, and he didn't protest getting clean stuff put on. my house didn't smell like pee (and again as i said yesterday, maybe it didn't and i just imagined it because i knew he had peed on almost every surface in my house), my kid was happy, and he actually enjoyed being on his potty.

so i wiped his legs again, and told daddy to get me a pull up. that's right...i didn't throw them all away. why not? because if this didn't work (though i did have very high hopes that it would) i needed a back up plan. "but why do you need back up if you think it's going to work," you may ask. because i'm a big "what if?" person. i'm the person who will pack 8 days worth of clothes for a 3 day camping trip just in case something happens. what if it rains? what if the wind blows my shirt off the clothes line? what if it's super cold at night? i have to be prepared. i was not prepared for this to fail as miserably as i feel it has, so i in turn feel like a failure. but i did what i felt was best for our family. and if k is in diapers for the next few months, i'm fine with that as long as i have my happy boy back again!

3 day potty training: day 1

since i now have the time to dedicate to potty training before i go back to teaching next month, i thought we'd try the 3 day potty training method. my son will be 2 next week, which apparently is the perfect time to try this method! this, and the following two posts will be my honest and full account of what's going on during these very trying days.

day 1

k woke up at about 8. for the past couple days we have been talking about big boy underpants, and how to keep them dry. he has been throwing his own diapers away because they're "stinky" or "peeeew." and he's so cute when he says that! so this morning we threw away the diapers that were left, and the pull-ups. this meant there was no turning back! we put on a fancy pair of buzz lightyear underpants, and so began our potty training journey!

after breakfast he started to pee in the kitchen...of course right after i asked if he had to go and he said no. i told him to let me know when he had to potty. he said ok...and then peed. i scooped him up and ran to the bathroom with him. now to understand what happened next, you have to also understand the layout of my bathroom. it is quite narrow. the door opens to the left, and just out of reach of the door on the right is the sink, and on the door is not a regular knob...it is a handle. i am not a thin girl, so to get to the toilet, which of course is all the way in back of the bathroom, many times i have to go in sideways because the area is so narrow until you get past the door and in front of the sink. in my rush to get the poor kid to the potty, i neglected to do this. as i ran in holding him in front of me, my belt loop got caught on the door handle pulling me backward (with a peeing child in my hands, mind you), and causing me to back up and free my pants from the door before making it to the potty. needless to say, we didn't make it. we cleaned up and put on a new pair of underpants. lightning mcqueen this time.

the remainder of the morning was fairly uneventful. a couple accidents here and there, but a few times, we did actually make it to the potty to finish! YAY! many times we did not, but that's ok! we're both just learning. k laid down for his nap after lunch and woke up dry. WOO HOO! after nap is when things got hairy. by then it was about 3:00. up until then, we had gone through 5 pairs of underpants. from 4-4:30, we went through the remaining 5 pairs i had prewashed. why? because he would start to pee, we'd get to the potty, he'd finish, and we'd put on a clean pair...only to have him walk out of the bathroom and pee all over because apparently he wasn't finished. so we'd go back to the bathroom, finish...again, WAIT a couple minutes to make sure, change the underpants, he'd walk out and pee...you get the picture? 5 times! at this point, i give up! his legs smell like pee because there are only so many times you can wipe it before the smell just gets stuck. and maybe they didn't stink...perhaps i imagined it. at any rate, i decided it was bath time. we waited until daddy got home so he could run into the basement to get a pair of underpants out of an unwashed package. i managed to throw in the wash the pairs he had wet, in addition to the remaining unwashed pairs, since this was clearly not going to go as smoothly as i had thought. then from dinner around 6, until bedtime at 8, we went through another 6 pairs...not including the one he's sleeping in.

lost to the 3 day potty training method day 1...17 pairs of underwear, my sanity, his patience, and many tears, both mine and his. at this point, potty training=1, mom=0.

the saving grace is that now when he starts to pee, he says "uh-oh" and runs to the bathroom...at least that's what he did before daddy got home. when daddy is home, he cannot be away from him for a minute! we shall see what tomorrow brings! this was described once as 3 days of hell with a great turnout. i hope so! i don't think it's just going to take 3 days at this rate, but again...we shall see what tomorrow brings.