From the too cute files...

Daniel gets into a lot of play-acting: superheroes of all kinds, firemen, policemen. A park near us put in loads of new play structures recently, one of which is shaped like a fire truck. The whole area is peppered with bells that the kids can ring by stomping on them. He spent a good portion of our afternoon there yesterday stomping and ringing and yelling "Fire!" and then racing for the fire truck.

After watching some cop shows with Daddy, Daniel started talking about how he's going to: "Put handcups on you!"

Handcups. It's too cute! I haven't the heart to correct it.

A Full Day

Finally got in for Daniel's four-year appointment a bit belatedly. I wasn't really realizing that we would be getting three shots today. You'd think I'd be a wee bit immune what with all the pokes kids get but his pain still drives me immediately to tears.

On the flip side, I'm still tickled at my little chatterbox telling the doctor all about school and his teacher Miss Katie and firetrucks and I like the red ones and the green ones - the green ones are the airport fire trucks, you know. And then he held up the toy dinosaur that he had brought with him and proclaimed that there are no more dinosaurs - They're all stinked!

Shots wiped the both of us out a bit, and so it was only after a nap that we hit the park to enjoy the glorious Fall day. A little boy around Daniel's age popped up and said What's your name? Daniel.

What's your name? Matt.

Let's play together! And the two proceeded to chase around and around the playground for the rest of the afternoon. Loving my little social butterfly!

Kids and Recess

When I hit junior high and high school, there was a bit of a fiscal crunch going on. (Sound familiar?) The schools started trying new and creative ways to cut corners.

Our day began earlier, but eliminated one entire class period all together - if I remember right, we ended about 1:15pm. Study hall was gone. Many "electives" started going by the wayside, and even lunch got eliminated at one point. It was replaced by a "snack break." I don't really remember the duration of said break, but thankfully that was one change that didn't last long.

The NY Times has published a good article on the importance of recess. We are just starting our venture into this whole idea of school where Daniel is concerned. But I am seriously considering clipping this and filing it somewhere for easy access.

Gremlins

We've finally been making strides with the potty training around our house.

Peeing on the potty. Check.
Pooping on the potty? Go away Mommy (while hiding out in his bedroom).



The thing is: all these behaviours are totally my idea.

Hey Daniel! It's time to use the potty!
OK!

But if Mommy shuts up about the subject he will happily pee in a Pull-up any time of the day or night. Any ideas as to how to transition to that "Tell me when you gotta go, OK?" stage?

My favorite was last week when the "potty gremlins" mixed it up with the "I don't want to go to bed gremlins," and he figured out that "using" the potty meant he didn't have to go to bed just then. I don't want to discourage any thoughts of using the potty, but that was just fooling around.

Sand in my dryer

Daniel has decided that he loves the water. Well, make that the beach as not only do you get to splash in the water, but dig in the sand to your heart's content.

We've had several trips to York, Maine. It's a wonderful area and a great beach. I'm always left a bit nervous around strong waves and undertow and the like, but the kid is jumping right in. The favorite headgear of the moment is his army helmet. I've seen more than a few grins as my pint-sized soldier has run screeching across the sand looking for all the world like he's storming the beaches.

The local Memorial Beach has been the scene of some "Tiny Tot" swim lessons this past week. They play games and work on getting used to the water... no problem there, although I occasionally have to do a redirect if he decides to head for some digging in the dunes when he should be listening to his instructor.

I'm trying to shake everything out, but a fine coating of sand seems to be coating everything. Any tips for getting it out of a clothes dryer?

SuperMommy - 0, DestructoKid - 1

Our condo can be a tight space. It has been great for a couple, and even worked pretty well for a couple plus baby. Now that we have a 2.5 year old in our midst I despair over ever catching up with the clutter cleaning.

How is it that toys can be strewn from one end of this place to the other, and the only help I can muster up from the little one is if it's a "grown-up" chore? Move the laundry from washer to dryer, and I've got a little assistant. Sweep the kitchen, and I've got an extra pair of hands. Don't get me wrong, I love that "little helper" part! But the rest of his time is spent leaving toy bits in his wake as he moves from room to room. I've started working the ol' vanishing act on some particularly pesky items. So far we are missing one set of legos and several Little People sets. The tool bench went MIA for a few weeks, only recently reappearing - and is in danger of going poof once again. Nothing seems to work about picking up toys, so I'm resorting to a little Mama Magic.

If only that could have saved our kitchen screen. Three weeks to get the re-done frame back from the local hardware store. It does make for a convenient way to get rid of any toys that Daniel decides to drop through the hole in the door...

Girlfriends

Daniel and a little girl we met at playgroup have taken a shine to one another. It's nice, because her Mom and I have met outside of playgroup now, as well as just coordinated times to visit in the playspace. I like the consistency, and it is fun to hear Daniel pipe up with, "Where's Marisa?" He's still in that stage where he plays around other kids, but I am seeing more and more actual interaction. I found the two kids flopped on pillows in the reading corner and giggling together the other day, and wished I had brought a camera with me.

And we Moms can use it to our devious advantage at times, when it comes to easing transitions from one activity to another: Oh look Daniel, Marisa and her Mom are leaving! Let's go too! (And vice versa.) Someone (usually Marisa, I think) suggests holding hands and Daniel thinks that's OK, so we all grab hold and troop in a conga line out the door to the cars. No fuss, no muss - Yay!

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I finally caught up with Pamela, one of my bestest girlfriends, the other evening for a dinner out. She and I met at work years ago, and have been friends ever since... A general gabfest over crabcakes and short ribs and followed up by a luscious "peanut butter thing" dessert is good for the soul, don't you think?

Hubbub-bub

The days of Christmas around here have been sort of a merry melee. Daniel and I were blessed with a cold each (a re-blessing for me, harumph). H worked Christmas eve - day, and then that evening we traveled out to his mother's house to spend some time with her, an auntie, a cousin and another uncle. A crank on his home turf, the change of scenery did Daniel some good. He bopped around the house looking for the trucks that his uncle keeps stashed away for just such an occasion.

We tried to gift H with the opportunity to sleep in on Christmas morn, as the sleeping in thing doesn't happen much these days. Daniel still hasn't quite copped to this whole presents / celebration thing... his reactions were pretty funny at times. What? More presents? For me? Cool!!! I hope H enjoyed the sleeping-in thing because I thoroughly anticipate that Daniel will be into the pre-Christmas buildup next year and that probably won't be happening again!

Another trip to the mother-in-law's house on Christmas Day resulted in a nice meal, twice as many people in her little house, and yep, more presents! (We have doubled our car collection, including a ride-on dump truck, among many other nice things.)

I got a big giggle out of Daniel sitting side-by-side with his three year old cousin Nicholas in their Gram's rocker watching Shrek the Third. Nicholas spilled some water, and his auntie popped off his shirt to haul it off to the dryer. Daniel thought that looked pretty cool, so despite being pretty dry he insisted that his shirt had to come off as well. Two blond shirtless monkeys giggling and watching movies was a cute picture indeed.

We're in cold recovery, and trying to keep H well. And trying to get back on a schedule again.

Reporting in, and wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

Winter Denial

For someone who has lived in Michigan, frequented the wilds of Wisconsin and now resides in New England I had a healthy dose of winter denial going up until recently. The SAHM gig pretty much allowed me to miss the extended commute/gridlock many folks in this area suffered a few days ago.

Staying indoors with a 2+ year old has led to me contemplating removing every stick of furniture from his room and replacing them with one of these, however. He could sleep on one of these, couldn't he?

Do they make kiddie treadmills? (Holy cow! They do!)

Add to this - Mama dragging her heels about buying the little guy boots for the season. Last time he grew out of the darn things before we had any sort of weather! The shelves were bare at Target yesterday, and we got hit with at least 6 inches of the white stuff today. On the to-do list: 1) Find a new spot to buy boots. 2) Figure out how to velcro the mittens so that they actual stay ON his hands for more than 0.2 seconds, so that 3) we can spend some time outdoors to burn off the daily ENERGIZER TODDLER energy buildup that happens around here.

Toddler Whiplash is Brutal

I occasionally have to remind myself that this little person I am parenting is just that - a little person, who is perfectly capable of getting up on the wrong side of the bed some mornings.

We had a nice visit to the favorite playspace on Thursday morning. Daniel had a chance to tear around the place and I got a chance to chat with a Mom I am getting to know. We were both trying to maneuver our kids into leaving around the same time when Daniel suddenly popped up with, "Marissa hold hand! Marissa hold hand!" She thought that idea was pretty cool, and since Daniel had his Mama's hand, she had to have her Mama's hand as well. All linked up the four of us trooped to our respective cars, which was pretty cute.

Flash forward to Friday morning, and we met up with Marissa and her Mom at the local library and Daniel was in a bit of an, um, mood. Not with Marissa, he thought playing with her was great. If he lost her in the crowd of kids in the library on this cold November day he would wind up twisting this way and that saying, "Mrissa? Mrissa?" The mood was reserved for anytime Mama wanted to corral him a bit, or even just a general sit-on-the-floor-for-a-few-sobs or angry kicks. I'm not sure if it was over-stimulation due to the volume of kids around? And he and Marissa chasing each other giggling around the stacks in the young-adult section seemed to be a favorite activity. Maybe we should have tried to find a baby gym instead... and now I'm actually wondering if I should show my face around the library anytime soon...

Ah, toddler mood-swings. From everything I've read, it's just all about being a two-year old. Even the part about reserving the temper for Mama. I guess they do it, just because they can. They know that Mama isn't going to go away. It doesn't make it any easier on my patience, though.

Balance

Our favorite family playspace has a wonderful selection of playgroups, parent classes and parent/child activities. They run in 8 week sessions, break for just some "drop in" time and start the next 8 week session.

Demand can be high for some activities, so they usually ask that you rotate out. This usually puts me in a bit of a quandary, as Daniel's favorite is just to jump into a playgroup. The playgroups are loosely structured - they usually plan some sort of craft or sensory activity (boy did he love digging in the rice and beans!), but kids are free to do whatever they like in the play area.

Alternatively there are more structured classes involving music or motion, or kids in the kitchen, or art. We tried a motion class, and Daniel was the kid "ping-ponging" around the room pretty much ignoring any directions and doing what he felt like. I'm torn about what to try next... While I think it's good for him to be exposed to classes with more structure, I would catch him looking longingly at the door to the playspace while we were in the other class. I cherish that independent spirit in my little boy who knows what he wants.

Ack! There's a Mouse in My House!

We were invited to our first Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. Daniel was over the moon yesterday! I had recollections of ol' Chuck from when I was a kid, but hadn't considered him for the two-year-old crowd. Boy was I wrong.

There were video games that were more suited to the older kids, but there was also a climbing structure and arcade games of all kinds. Daniel was drawn to the barnyard ones that had eggs rolling down a chute, and if you dumped the bucket just right you scored points. Another had ping pong ball "bees" that you caught in a net and dumped into the honeypot and you earned points for how many... all of these arcade games earned you tickets that could be cashed in for prizes at the end. There were kiddie rides of every stripe, Bob the Builder and the Teletubbies among others. I almost didn't need the pocketful of tokens because by the time I started something up Daniel was noticing some other ride or doo-dad and he was off and running again.

The tables for pizza and cake sat near the stage that had an animatronic Chuck and his cohorts up there playing instruments and singing. This fascinated Daniel to no end, and even when I dragged him out of there he was chattering about "Doggie guitar" and "Song!"

The festivities ran through nap time though, which led to an overtired and somewhat cranky toddler. He was struggling to keep his eyes open and pretty much zonked on his father's shoulder in time for bed. By that time I was wishing for open space on the other shoulder as it was a day of Mama running to keep up.

As we were getting ready to go out this morning, I had to convince Daniel that no, we weren't going to see Chuck E. today... Uh oh.

Festival O' Fun

Both of my sister-in-laws sing with bands, and this afternoon one of them was playing at a local festival. You know the type: blow up bouncers and slides for the kiddos, a couple of carts with hot dogs and hamburgers, fried dough and ice cream. Earlier in the day there were a lot of vendors selling crafts and other things. The evening was pretty much devoted to the music, and later some fireworks.

I was amazed. I think it was one of the first times that we have gotten Daniel in front of live music like that. We all know he loves his country music videos, but to see him get down and boogie to the live music was fun. He and his cousin Nicholas chased each other around in front of the band, squealing and laughing and joined by other random kids from time to time.

Daniel did have one casualty of the evening. I took my eyes off him for two seconds, and a bigger kid not watching where he was going pretty much flattened him/knocked him off his feet. The Mom swooped in right away, but instead of even offering up an, "I'm sorry" she just scooped up her kid and exited. It makes me a bit angry. I know it wasn't intentional, but my kid had the breath knocked out of him - it took him a minute to gather up enough air to even start screaming - and he now looks like he has a bit of road rash down one side of his face.

We got everything calmed down, and Daniel went back to the music. I would occasionally try to stop him and get him to drink some water... I even tried to steer him over toward the kiddie bouncers at one point thinking he might need a break. This just earned me a wail of, "Dancing!"

I finally made a decision to head for home, and was preparing for a fight to get to the car. When I paused because a song I liked had just started, Daniel looked at me and said, "Go Home!" He's nothing if not a kid who knows what he wants.

Personality Plus

Maybe it's because of the stay at home mom gig, but sometimes I am totally knocked sideways by the changes in my little guy. I am so close every day that they sort of sneak up on me. You take this tiny baby home from the hospital, and just love them to bits but let's face it. As one of my friends said to me: It's pretty much eat, sleep, diaper, repeat.

There is the first smile, first word, first steps... and somewhere along the line this whole personality pops out and this realization hits of a "real boy" in there. I had Daniel out and about in the car and running errands with me a few days ago. My head was down in the front seat as I rummaged around in my bag looking for something. I heard a giggle and looked in the back to discover Daniel wearing the Country Weekly music magazine he had been paging through previously as a hat. I could just tell by the sly grin that he must've been doing that for a little bit, and finally giggled to get my attention (and because he couldn't hold it in any longer.) The grin got even wider as I nearly fell over in my seat from laughter...

This is a kid who was so focused on seeing the tractor at the farm yesterday that I was literally running to keep up with him. And a kid who was so excited at the prospect of picking out a punkin' that I felt badly about steering him away from the super-humongous-ginormous pumpkins because we don't have the room.

I worry sometimes that in all the "dailiness" of "being a Mom" and being the caretaker that I lose sight of some of those "joy in the pumpkins" moments. And I pray that I never squash such impulses in him, and just enjoy my little boy with the plus-sized personality.

It must be the full moon...

It's Jekyll and Hyde day so far here at the DmF house.

Yesterday H and I were having one of those conversations, just going over the day. I casually mentioned to him that I thought I might take Daniel to drop-in playgroup on Friday morning, and do a grocery run in the afternoon.

Daniel has started dawdling on the steps as we try to leave the house. We have two sets of stairs to get to the garage, all of which he usually wants to do himself. This involves lots of sitting and standing holding Mama's hand, as well as getting to touch every thing/texture within reach. I'm trying to remember to leave the house with plenty of lead time so that my patience doesn't wear too thin. Today as I was trying to coax him a bit: Don't you want to go to playgroup? He looked up at me all blond curls and big blue eyes and said: Groceries? Holy Cow I forget what little sponges a two year old can be! I wasn't even talking to him about this yesterday.

Baby Hyde came out to play at the playgroup just a bit later. I usually get complimented on my little angel-face, so it was a bit disconcerting to have him screeching at every turn and about nearly every thing. I'm hoping to nap the bad mood out of him, or the grocery trip this afternoon is going to get interesting.

Seasonal

A big thank you to the guys who started mowing the lawn around our complex yesterday at 7:45 ayem thereby ensuring that the toddler won't sleep in.

I poked my head in the door and he popped up like a jackrabbit saying, "Noise! Cut grass!"
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I love Fall in New England. There is a crispness to the air, pumpkins, apple picking, Fall colors. H and I even married in October. While it was tempting to try a costume wedding, we went for Fall splendor in an old church complete with pew boxes and a reception at an old New England home in the area.

I'm facing the coming winter with a bit of trepidation, however. Daniel is a bit of a bear if I don't get him out somewhere each day to burn off a bit of the toddler energy. H is of the "just bundle 'em up and get 'em out" strategy. Personally I find that harder to do the colder it gets, but then I'm a bit wimpy when it comes to the wind chill. Any ideas what to do in the wintertime other than replacing the living room furniture with a jungle gym and climbing wall? I'm trying to get prepared here.

Playgroup a Go-Go

Sigh. I don't know what it is. Sometimes I think I must have lost my Mom's Club ID. I mean, I've got the kid and everything, but I was sent home from the hospital without the secret handshake or something. Why is it so hard to meet other Moms?

I've gone from a job I had for nearly 10 years of my life, to the life of a SAHM in The Kingdom of the Toddler. It's a life that has its joys, don't get me wrong. But I KNOW there are other people living here, and I'll be darned if I can find them some days.

We've been bouncing between two playgroups. Playgroup A: smaller, great leaders, am finally starting to feel recognized, like I belong and likewise for Daniel. We are recognizing in turn other Moms and kids, conversations are starting to feel more natural... things are just sort of progressing nicely where I can feel some relationships starting to widen and expand a little. It feels good. Since they have been between sessions, they are operating on "drop-in" time - which means plenty of opportunities to visit. We are about to swing into a regular session, which will limit available time outside of your "scheduled" playgroup.

We keep trying Playgroup B: larger space, more kids of a wider age range, loads of stuff to do. The most I can seem to bring myself to say is: The leader is nice. Daniel had fun. And I always leave there mildly discouraged. For such a larger group, you'd think there would be at least a Mom or two a bit more welcoming. Instead I feel in sort of a clique-y junior high, where Moms are in various states of watching and not watching their kids. This includes the charmer who was taking big mouthfuls of the rice that was in the sensory table for the kids to play in, while Mom was busy chatting about her shopping elsewhere.

H thinks I need to cut my losses and start looking elsewhere. I think I agree, but this is hard.

Boys, Boys

Daniel has sort of connected with a little boy named Edgar at our playgroup. Edgar's Mom and I were talking, when we started hearing some crashing noises from the next room. We investigated, only to see two little figures peering into the dollhouse, with the two of them taking turns sending each wooden piece of furniture crashing down the dollhouse stairs.

And all I could think was Aww, how cute! He's learning how to play with the other boys!