Toddler Tribulations

Today was the Halloween parade and party at David's school. As you can see, he is a dragon this year. He hasn't wanted to get into the costume at all. In fact, the first time he saw it, he ran away from it. It's been laying around the house for the last week. He's been giving it the stink eye, but at least he hasn't been running from it. I tried putting it on him Wednesday night, but he freaked out before I even got his legs into it. Today at school it was the same but I managed to wrestle him into it. He was very clingy after I got it on him, and he didn't like the other kids touching his tail. He hollered out, "NOOOOOO!" every time one of them got close. Also, he refused to wear the hat. That is, until the teacher said, "Let's go outside." It was like someone flipped a switch. As you can see from the pictures the hat was fine. The costume was fine. He was happy as a clam.

We were a little late getting to the checkup, but here's the info. The Boy weighs 30 pounds, 4 ounces (90th percentile), is 34.5 inches tall (90th percentile), and his head is 20 inches around (95th percentile). He can say tons of words - mama, dada, moo, no, outside, baby, kitty, bye-bye, juice, go-go-go, one more, eat. He gives the best hugs, he blows kisses and waves bye-bye. This week he started kissing us on the lips. He puckers up and says mmmmwah when he kisses. He loves playing with his blocks - now he stacks them instead of just knocking them down. He's pretty good at throwing a ball (or whatever else is handy) and he's spending more time in the bounce house. He is as rough and tumble as ever. In the swing he wants to go higher, in the buggy he wants to go faster, it's always, "Mo', mo', mo'!"

You know what's a bad gift for an 18 month old? A stick horse. Oh sure it's cute and fuzzy and makes little clippity-clop and other horsey sounds. David is adorable when he's riding it. (In case you're wondering, yes, I showed him how to ride it. There was lots of ye-hawing and imaginary hat waving. Cousin Marnie would be proud.) And after 30 seconds or so of riding it, the horse becomes a killer sword-club-poker-ninja weapon of death and destruction. I don't so much mind the wild swinging in the middle of the living room. But that leads to whacking toys with stick end. Yep, he's figured out that the stuffed horse head end doesn't do much damage so he flips it upside down - it has better balance that way you know - and whales on anything that stands still long enough. Yes, it's hard on the toys, but it's harder when he turns his attention to me. He thought that was a great game. Mommy makes funny noises when she gets hit with the stick.

Also giving your child a giant stick to play with is like extending his arm by 3 feet or so. He can reach all of the stuff we've put up or blocked off - the end table where we set our drinks, the shelves with breakables on the wall, and the bazillion dollar TV. The stick makes a really cool noise when you just run it along a textured wall too, or along the baby gate, or smack it repeatedly on the wood floor.

Oh yeah, it's an awesome toy! In retrospect, it was a very poor purchasing decision on our part. That's why most of the time poor stick horse is in time-out in the spare room, along with the coffee table that he likes to climb on that used to be in the living room and the rocking chair that he likes to stand up in that used to be in his room. David doesn't quite get the concept of time-outs for himself yet, but he sure does understand getting a toy taken away.

Aunt Wendy came by a couple of weeks ago to visit with us. She brought David some surprises. He got some new clothes, a coloring book, a giant Tigger, and this cool car pool float. Once I got it blown up and he realized that the horn honked, he was all over it! He has carried it all over the house and loves crawling in and out of it. At this rate, it may never see the pool.

Yeah, yeah, it's a month late and I'm a bad mom. I had to reschedule it a couple of times due to floods and such. So anyway...we went to the doctor this morning and he was an angel in the waiting room. But as soon as the nurse called his name, he started crying. I can't really say I blame him. Nothing good ever happens to him when we take him there. He doesn't always get shots, but it never exactly rains cookies and raisins there either. (It's our new favorite snack. Go with it.) He cried all the way through the weighing an measuring too, even though this time he got to stand on the scale by himself like a big boy. His is 32.5 inches tall (85th percentile). His head is 19.5 inches around (95th percentile), and we are holding steady at 28 pounds (90th percentile).

After the nurse left he was all sunshine and roses. We played with all the toys and read some books. When the doctor came in, David got to hold the ear and eye scope thingys and play with them. The doctor handed them over willingly, but it made me nervous. I can't imagine those things are cheap and I kept imagining it hitting the floor. David showed the doctor how he can throw things away. He tore the paper off the exam table bit by bit and took over and dropped it in the trashcan. And he stomped his feet and danced around for the doctor.

Then the doctor left and the nurse came back in and he went hysterical again. Of course he wasn't happy about getting the shots. We didn't have a bottle this time because we only do bottles in the morning and at night, but I gave him a snack and some juice and that fixed him right up. He was fine as frog hair by the time we got to school. He ran around playing with his friends for a little bit. When I left, he had flirted his way into being picked up by his favorite teacher. But I did manage to get a good-bye wave.

For the past couple of weeks, The Boy has been going to sleep at a decent time (before 10:30) sleeping completely through the night for at least a couple of nights a week. So I was thinking The Boy was all aboard the sleep train and we could ride it for awhile. Yeah, well, we've had a major derailment. Catastrophic even. And did he ever pick a doozy of a time.

So we're sitting at home around 7:30 on Saturday night when I get a phone call from a coworker saying our building is flooding so I need to go up there. David, being Captain Helpful, says he'll come too because he may be able to turn the water off. (I have since suggested to him that his motives might not have been entirely unselfish as he had been with The Boy since 7 am. I got a shrug and a half grin in response.) So we have no sitter, the three of us loaded into the car and headed off. Yep, there was a flood alright. There was water pouring out of the doors and under the windows.

Most spots in the building had at least an inch of water and it was spouting through the floor in the warehouse like a fountain. What that meant for me was a lot of work to come. What that meant for The Boy was a parking lot full of water and a handful of cars. He was in hog heaven for about two hours. He had tons of fun running though what was essentially one giant puddle. Then the sprinklers came on and that was awesome too. He was soaked by the time he and Daddy had to leave because it was bedtime.




So I finally left the office around midnight, wet and sweaty and soooo tired. I showered and crawled into bed, only to be awakened two hours later by The Boy. Apparently he decided it was time to get up. No amount of rocking or patting or milk or duct tape was getting him back to sleep. So the two of us were up. For two hours. And was up and raring to go at 8! He only took a 30 minute nap between 8 & 4 and he was crabby and whiny all day. Then he slept til 6 and was up until 11:30. I'm telling you this kid fights sleep like nothing you've ever seen.

So Monday rolls around and it was a wretched day of hurry up and wait at work. The building had STANK all over it. It was humid. The carpet was soggy. There were fans and dehumidifiers running so you couldn't hear anything. And one of the A/C units went out. Oh, and I worked until 10:30 - that would be PM. I left thinking how nice it would be to get home, take a shower, and stretch out in the bed. The house was all dark when I got home, which was a good sign. I tip-toed in and took my shoes off, but noticed that David wasn't in bed. Hmmm...I turned to go into the living room, and there was a little face looking up at me over the kiddie gate. And it kept looking at me til midnight!

So, the last two days, he's been so tired in the mornings, I've been able to get up and get everything ready for us to go. And The Boy is getting to eat his breakfast in the car. Thank goodness for Gerber Cereal Bars! If this doesn't change soon, I'm going to be mainlining caffeine and NoDoze. I'm not exactly sure what we did that got his sleeping schedule so out of whack but I never want to do it again.

We have such a big boy! My mom loaned us a small table and chair set (acutally doll furniture) that he was using at her house. He had so much fun dragging it around the house and sitting and reading at it, we decided we really needed to get him a permanent set. So shopping we went, which Daddy loves like a root canal! But The Boy and I prevailed and we ended up at IKEA, which Daddy loves like a rabid possum. Apparently everyone else in the DFW area was also at IKEA, which made it so much more enjoyable.
But the childrens' area has all of the furniture out so David could climb all over it, which he really liked and we could see how sturdy every thing is. We ended up with a Svala set. The real fun came when we got home and it was time to put it together. Normally, I read the instructions while Daddy does the assembly. But this time The Boy decided to be Daddy's assistant. He has his own set of plastic kiddie tools, but he quickly abandoned those in favor of the "big boy" tools.

We have quite the manipulator on our hands! Daddy was just getting ready to run to the store really quick. The Boy saw him getting ready and went and got his own shoes and took them over to Daddy. He batted those big blue eyes and used that big old grin and sure enough, Daddy couldn't resist. He helped The Boy put on his shoes, then picked him up to tell him good bye. But his plan was foiled again when The Boy started blowing kisses to me and waving bye-bye.

Every so often David will start talking crazy about getting a dog. As much as I try to explain to him that we are not "dog people" he just doesn't get it. And he always wants a dog at the most inopportune time.

"Hey let's get a dog!"
"Aren't we going on vacation in two weeks?"
"Yeah..."

"Hey let's get a dog!"
"Umm...we're having a baby in two months." (This was last year. Don't freak out ya'll!)
"Yeah...."

And honestly now that we've got The Boy, I can't imagine having to deal with a dog too. Or even a cat for that matter. Cleaning up after one poop machine is enough to deal with, thank you very much. The Boy doesn't shed and we trained The Boy to fetch much more quickly than I think we could have trained a dog and definitely a cat. People don't look at us funny when we bring The Boy everywhere we go. The Boy doesn't sniff people's butts. We don't need a leash to take The Boy for a walk. Though sometimes I'd like one. :)

Plus, we get a lot of the benefits of having a pet. He's always glad to see us when we pick him up from school or come home. He loves to snuggle. He'll let you know if there's something in the backyard.

And pet toys are cheaper than kid toys.

This is a month old, but here is David splashing in his crab float. You can see how much fun he has in it. Yes, I believe it's one of the recalled ones but he's never more than an arm's length away from either of us when he's in it. And since I'm not much of a diver, I don't take him into the deep end in it. If you don't like it, you can come take it away from him.

Another first - a trip to urgent care! The day care called me to tell me that he was pushing one of the little chairs in the classroom around and it tipped over and he fell. And cut himself pretty good. And there was blood...not much...but some. And could I come take a look? Seriously? A trip that usually take about 15 minutes, I made in less than 10. In five o'clock traffic. When I got there, he was a pretty happy kid. Except for the GIANT gash above his right eye, I wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong. We went home and consulted with Daddy and decided it was best to go to urgent care.

Waiting for the doctor. Can you see what's wrong with me?

He was perfectly fine until the nurse came in and snapped on her rubber gloves. Then he had a throw down screaming fit...before she ever laid a hand on him. It was all downhill from there. They cleaned out the cut and decided it was straight enough to just glue it shut. And he was fine for the rest of the night. But I think all of the poking and prodding at it made it worse because by the time we got home, you could definitely tell what was wrong.


And it didn't look any better this morning. Poor kid looks like he was in a fight.

Didn't you hear? It's the hot new holiday. All of the cool kids are celebrating it.
No?
OK, I'm just lousy at getting stuff up in a timely manner.

March! March! March!

Rest! Rest! Rest!

David's school had a parade on the Thursday before the Fourth of July holiday. That is a parade in the loosest sense of the word. They marched the kids out, ran 'em around the parking lot one time, took their pictures, and ran 'em back inside. Why so quick? It was 412 degrees outside. You ever had a parade in an oven? I don't recommend it. Anyway, all the kids made hats - David even kept his on for the whole parade. His class also made noise makers. Nobody was happy with just one and they all kept trying to take everyone else's. Afterwards, they had snacks and all the kids drank roughly four gallons of juice to rehydrate. David wasn't interested in his patriotic cookie, but he ate three helpings of raisins.

Here is our low rider floaty. We use this in the evenings when the pool is mostly in the shade. I think he likes this one better because he has a little bit more freedom to move. He is a fiend for the water. Bath time, swim time, splash time, if there's water, he's there.

We went to the Dallas World Aquarium a couple of weeks ago when David's aunt Nancy and uncle Mike came to visit us. Like any tourist, David read the brochure so he could tell us which way to go. I'm not even sure he saw any of the penguins in that exhibit.


The next animal we saw was a toucan I think. I'm not sure if he thought it was cool or if it made him nervous.


He got tired of being in the stroller, so he got to ride on Daddy's shoulders for awile.


We saw lots of things - birds, monkeys, snakes, bug, fish, and sharks. The shark area was very crowded so we didn't get to stay there long. But we got to see some rays up close.


By the time we got to the flamingos at the end, he'd had enough.


Then we all went down to the Sixth Floor Museum - which he slept through - and walked around on the grassy knoll. It was a fun but exhausting day.

Here are some pictures of David (in his cool shark shorts) at Splash Day last week. The director was nice enough to email them to me. They get to have Splash Day every Tuesday, weather permitting. He LOVES it! He hates the water shoes though. We're having to buy size six shoes for him because his little fat feet won't fit in the fives anymore. You can't really tell from the pictures, but his little (big?) round belly pooches out over the top of the shorts. Adorable! It doesn't do any good to pull them up because as soon as he gets away from us, he pushes them back down.

That's the only reason I can think of for my laid back, cuddly, sweet natured baby boy to suddenly turn into kicking, screaming, tantrum throwing, uncooperative mess. Three months ago or so, he only cried when he was hungry, tired, or poopy. We've been slowly building to this point - a little fit here, some fake crying there. Now he's way past crying. He squinches his eyes shut, clenches his little fists and shakes them while he's screaming. We go straight from happy baby to hysterical screaming at the drop of a hat.
Things that will set of a tantrum:
1. Washing his face
2. Changing a diaper
3. Combing his hair
4. Dressing him
5. Putting him in the bathtub
6. Taking him out of the bathtub
7. Not letting him past the baby gate
8. Not letting him stick things in the electrical outlets
9. Taking that thing he's not supposed to have away
10. Putting him in the car seat
11. Picking him up
12. Putting him down
13. Looking at him

It doesn't help that he's so smart. He's had the kicking thing down for a couple of days now. And he knows buckling him into the car seat is more difficult when he wiggles. But this morning he put the two together, along with using my arm as a spring board - screaming bloody murder all the while. It was an ordeal. Luckily, for now at least, the fits are very short. He's on to something else pretty quickly. But I have a feeling they're going to get longer and more frequent.

Also, I have a better understanding of those people who let their children run wild in in the store. I'm not condoning it, but I sure do understand it. What you don't see at the store is that this woman has already fought 100 small battles before ever leaving the house. She's been up to her elbows in poop. She's cleaned food off the floor, walls, and ceiling. She's said, "No." roughly 67 times. She's pried 43 objects from her toddler's grip. She's changed clothes twice already because she's suddenly discovered that she's wearing someone else's food or poop or both. She's rearranged the furniture and baby gates in the house to keep little feet and little hands from where they shouldn't be. So if she gets to the store and Junior wants to pull all the bouncy balls out of the bin, fine. If he wants to open and close every single door in the refrigerator section a bazillion times, great. If he wants to run down the aisles screaming, fantastic. It's fine because Junior isn't making a mess at home. It's great because it's something new and different to entertain him. It's fantastic because it burns energy and with a little luck, Junior will be so tired when he gets home that he will sleep a deep and peaceful sleep. And while he's sleeping, she will look at that precious sleeping face and know that when he wakes up, he will be the laid back, cuddly, sweet natured baby boy that she remembers, even if it's only for a little while.

Aunt Wendy came over this weekend and David sure showed off for her! She got to put that new camera to work. Here he is dancing to Jack's Big Music Show. It was the highlight of the weekend.

Things were pretty slow around our house this weekend. We relaxed, went to Costco, fished a raccoon out of the pool, did laundry. That's right - a raccoon. David found it when he came home Friday after work. So he got to drain the pool and clean it. Yeah, it was hard work, dragging out the power washer and hosing down the sides. I know how much he hates using his power tools. :) Really it was time consuming more than anything else. Then after it was filled back up 40 hours later, (I'm sure our water bill will be a bazillion dollars this month) he had to take a water sample up the the pool store to get it tested. Good news - no racooties in the water! Yeah, David rolled his eyes too.

As for the kiddo, he has 5 teeth now. We're hoping those molars come in soon so he can chew things up better. He loves music and will clap and bob his head when he hears it. He's already got more rhythm than either one of his parents so that's a plus. He really likes watching Jack's Big Music Show on Noggin. He seems to like Laurie Berkner's music the most. I should have known we had a music lover on our hands. Here he is at Aunt Tina's playing the piano.


He has also given up his morning nap at daycare, which works out well for them. But now he wants to take a nap around 6:00, which is killer because then he won't go to sleep until after 10. So sometimes we take a detour to Target on the way home to pep him up. He likes watching all the people and riding in the buggy. Plus he can't sleep in the buggy....or so I thought.


He's really starting to express himself. I know he's saying, "No thanks, I'd rather not have my diaper changed just now." when he's kicking all over the changing table and trying to crawl off of it. When he goes all spaghetti legs and crumples up on the floor wailing like a banshee (no tears), he's just saying, "If you'd do it my way, we'd all be a lot happier." With tears it's either, "Can't you see I'm playing here people?" or "I'm so tired. Feed me and let me go to sleep."

For those of you thinking about having children or who have wee small kiddies who are still in the just sleep and eat stages (I'm looking at you Pam) this is what is to become of your living areas. I didn't believe it when more experienced parents said it would happen to us but it did. I thought, "Oh, no. Not us. We'll be able to contain it." I can't think of one room in the house (including bathrooms) that doesn't have something belonging to The Boy in it. I kind of like it though. It makes walking from one room to the other more of a challenge. Especially in the dark. Without your glasses.

This is just a quick post that I should have done on Friday but didn't. We had our one year doctor visit and everything went fine. We pretty much paid $20 to have the doctor tell me that he is "big for his age, but perfectly healthy." He weighs 26.5 pounds, is 31 inches tall, and his head is 19 inches around. That puts him in the 90th percentile for everything, which is good - maybe we'll end up with a Bears linebacker out it! He had to get two shots, which he wasn't thrilled about, but he got food right away and that always makes things better.

The doctor says he doesn't have any food restrictions now, so we can start weening him away from formula. He likes pretty much every food we've given him. He's not really fond of watermelon, but he likes his veggies. He loves his puffies and crunchies and feeding himself. And ice cream, not that he gets much, but the child is a fiend for ice cream. He's definitely got my sweet tooth.

David had an Easter egg hunt at school. On Sunday, we helped him color eggs. By helped I mean that we did all of the egg coloring while he ate some snacks. Then he drew on some paper with crayons and Daddy helped him put some stickers on his drawings.


He has also learned how to drive the tricycle that he got for his birthday. He just needs a little bit of help to get on, and then he takes off. He doesn't know how to peddle it yet, but that's fine with us. That means that we still have a chance to catch up with him.

We took David to get his first haircut last Saturday. He did really well, and of course he charmed the pants off the lady cutting his hair. He looks more like a little boy now instead of a baby.

Today after school, we went to the park with Gunner and his mom. Gunner is one of the David's classmates. He's still in the older infant room, but he should be moving into the toddler room with David any day now. We had lots of fun climbing, going on the slide, and just checking things out. Gunner showed David how to climb down stairs backwards, which I hope David will pick up on. He makes me so nervous when he slides out of the bounce house head first.


David showed Gunner how much he likes to swing. He had a little bit of a meltdown when I took him out of the swing. I actually had to pry his fat little hands loose - he just wanted to keep going. He fell asleep in the car within 5 minutes. I will try to post pictures tomorrow if I get a chance. I had to sneak out of the living room to get this much done. If I go back in there now for the camera, the boy will have an all out screaming fit.

David loves to jump. Here he is in his crib getting ready for a diaper change. This is also how he normally wakes up from his naps now. We don't hear him cry. We hear him jumping up and down in his bed, yanking on the rail. And you can see that he's a pretty talkative guy. He keeps up his end of the conversation pretty well.

We had David’s first birthday party on Saturday, April 4. I think things turned out pretty good. He had his first real cake with icing. He had a ball with his presents and all the balloons. He’s still not too sure about the jump house. He’ll get in it, but David or I have to be close enough for him to touch. And he slides out of it head first so we have to be there to catch him. I think his favorite toys were the blocks, the Lightning McQueen futon, and the Lightning McQueen car. He plays with the blocks quite a bit and they will keep him entertained for a good 20-30 minutes at a time. David likes crawling all over the futon, especially when he’s tired. He won’t just lay down and go to sleep, but he’ll flop down on it and lay there for a minute and then jerk his head up and grin at us. He knows that it folds up somehow, but he hasn’t quite figured out how to do it himself. The other favorite toy is the Lightning McQueen ride on car. It has lots of lights and makes lots of noise and there is no off switch that I can find (thanks Debbie!). He can get on it all by himself, but getting off is a little trickier. He kind of tumps it over and slithers off of it, but he’s getting there.