*Blink* Hey, What the hell just happened!?
When The Son was born he was an eight+ pound, wadded up, wriggly, pink blobby. He flailed about, and mewed when he was hungry. I could lay him down and he would, you know, lie there. That was less than two years ago. Now he is well on his way to being potty-trained. He speaks in sentences. He climbs. Oh how does he climb. If it is possible to scale, he is up it. If it is possible to climb out of, he is free.
This has posed a wee, okay, a major, problem at naptime and at night. Instead of sleeping, he is out of his crib in two seconds and is playing with his toys. We thought about just leaving him alone, because he can climb back in, but the child has already had one broken arm, we do not want him to get another when he falls from the high rail of his crib. The Husband took off the side rail to make it into a day bed. When The Son saw it he screamed “Broken, bed broken! Broken Mama! Broken Daddy! WAHHHHHHH!” He was absolutely inconsolable for TWO HOURS. That may be normal for other kids, but not for him. He is not a big crier, and his tantrums usually last less than a minute. We put the rail back on, he calmed down, and he has been napless for the last few days. THIS. HAS. NOT. BEEN. FUN. In fact, this SUCKS.
We tossed around the idea of moving him into a full size bed we already own, but it is just so huge to put him in all by himself. Wah. Mama no likey. So we started googling, and we found this. Granted, we chose it more for how it looks than anything else, but he loves it, and feels like he helped pick it out. It has been ordered, and will be here in a couple of weeks. My baby is not going to be sleeping in a crib. I was sure that I just brought him home yesterday. The first night he slept in the crib instead of the bassinet next to my bed I lay on the floor by him and sobbed. He was just so small! He was dwarfed in that huge crib. He needed to be by me! Or better yet, in my uterus. Sigh. This growing up thing is not cool.
Here he is climbing, of course. This time it is a tree.
Like Son
Have you ever heard that expression, like father, like son? Well, I certainly hope that it is true.
Happy Father’s day Husband. You have a great dad, you are an amazing father, and I fully expect to have a daughter-in-law say the same thing about The Son someday.
Filed under Family-blame the DNA, Parenting for Dummies, The Husband, The Son | Comment (1)That kind of Mom.
Yeah, I take pictures of pretty much everything The Son does. And then put them on the Internet. I wonder if we can use a 529 to pay for therapy? Here is the evidence of a normal morning at our house.
Parenting for Dummies
Alternate title: In which I clean off my camera, and smoosh the pictures together to make a post.
Now that I am a seasoned and experienced parent of 21 months, I thought it was time that I gave you Hey You’s no fail rules to raising a perfect child. If you follow these rules closely, your child will grow to be healthy, and well developed.
1. Boredom is never acceptable. Every minute should be planned to the fullest for optimal educational value.
2. Keep child away from the filthy aspects of nature. Under no circumstance should your child be allowed to put something they find outside in their mouths.
3. Proper hygiene is essential to good parenting. Make sure your child bathes daily in fresh, clear water.
4. After your child has bathed, make sure that they are fully dried before dressing. If you put clothing on a damp child, chafing may occur.
5. Let your child have plenty of friends their own age. Exposure to adults outside of the family should be kept to a minimum.
6. Rest is a top priority for any child. Make sure their sleep space is free of any objects with no possibility of falling.
If these simple rules are followed then, Voila! You will have raised a successful child.
Filed under Parenting for Dummies, Photography | Comments (4)Bleeding from the ears is normal right?
The Son has gotten so verbal lately, everyday he says something new, or puts together new short sentences. He has a few phrases that he will say over, and over (and over and over and over) and we have no idea what he is saying. He will say them louder and LOUDER because obviously his stupid parents are not bright enough to understand the perfectly clear linguistics of their genius child. The last few days he has been saying gecko? Gecko. GECKO. Mama! Daddy! GECKO! Anybody care to guess what gecko means? We finally figured it out tonight. You guess, and I will tell you if you are right or not later.
Filed under Parenting for Dummies, The Son | Comments (11)With a jump and a roll, off he goes.
The Son has been taking Toddler Gymnastics this Spring and he LOVES it. His favorite parts are the girls, but he loves all of the rolling, jumping, swinging, and balance beaming as well. His last class was this week, swim class starts week after next. If you are wondering if gym for toddlers is a waste of time, and money, I could not disagree more, seriously go check it out for your kids. Or put it in your to-do file right after get married and have children, ya know, whichever.
Here is The Son sitting on his dot watching Miss Trish show him how to do something.
Here is The Son waiting his turn to swing over the foam pit.
Here he goes!
I am ready Miss Trish! (isn’t Miss Trish the perfect name for a gym teacher? Like a piano teacher named Miss Melody.)
WHEEEE!
Climbing out of the pit and on his way to the slide.
That was awesome! What is next!
Vault front rolls!
And back rolls from the vault!
Trampoline time!
Ommf. The mat at the end is his favorite.
Sliding down from the trampoline.
Stretch and rolls on the ramp mat.
Yeah! Best somersault of the year!
We finish with a celebratory ice cream cone, of course.
Filed under Parenting for Dummies, The Son | Comments (2)Friday’s Read it or Rant: Mothering your nursing toddler
Mothering Your Nursing Toddler by Norma Jane Bumgarner
I very well may be the only one interested in this one, but ya know what? My Blog! I get to choose what to review, but it will be short. This is about Mothering! Mothering your toddler! Mothering your nursing toddler! Wow, that was a really good title for it, huh. It was pretty good, it did answer a few questions I had, such as why does The Son switch sides every thirty seconds? Answer, he likes a fast flow. Books like this are always good to read when you are having a bad nursing week, or feeling frustrated, or just in general wondering if you are a freak for still nursing. This book was a huge rah-rah yeah extended nursing, and to be honest…I like that. It may insult your intelligence sometimes, or Hey You may just know more about nursing than the average bear. There were a few things I did not care for, for example I really felt that it pushed reeeeaaaally extended nursing a little hard. Like if I do not nurse until he is four or five I quit too soon. Really? Wow, whatever. Also, it does not give much advice for nighttime non-co-sleeping nursing (my baby sleeps in his crib, in his room, with the door shut 87% of the time). This was a hard core AP parenting book (check out this for an intro to Attachment Parenting, so good it is on my favorites list.), so if you are not AP then this is not the book for you (and chances are you are not really nursing still anyway.)
The chapters on fathering the nursing toddler and marriage with a nursing toddler were excellent. This book really acknowledges how much of a family commitment breastfeeding is. I got this book out of our LLL book trunk, and it fits the LLL standards and beliefs perfectly, so a great read for my fellow LLLers. So in other words, if you plan on extended breastfeeding read this book BEFORE you have toddler so you know what to expect. If you disagree with Attachment Parenting and are Ferberizing your kids already, or formula feeding, then this is so not the book for you.
next up? Irresistible Forces by Danielle Steele.
Filed under Breastfeeding, Parenting for Dummies, Read it or Rant | Comments (2)