Author: althea

Nov. 19: Andrew’s eye teeth are coming in. He has been a very drooly boy the last week, and yesterday I saw the peek of a new tooth on one side.  Last night and the night before he was up and very unhappy in the night.  Poor boy…it’s hard to know he is hurting.  And I really would think that getting new teeth would hurt!  Bryan has been out of town this weekend, and both Friday and Saturday, Andrew really didn’t want to do the napping thing. Makes for some pretty long days.  But about an hour ago, he looked at his crib and said, “pAh” (pacifier).  I asked him if he wanted to nap and he said “nAh.”  Then he blissfully, quietly went to sleep.

And I am now taking this moment of quiet not to progress on any of my household needs or to-lists.  I’m browsing the internet and reading about toddlers.  That and letting my brain drift quietly about without worrying about Andrew destroying himself or durable household items.

I think I need to work on consistency about what Andrew is and is not allowed to do.  His Opinions are all-consuming for him, and last week’s passion is not necessarily an interest this week.  So I’m trying to figure out what behaviors to promote, which ones to ignore, which ones to really not want him to do but ignore, and which ones to stop.

And where is the line between “that is not allowed” and “that is not a good idea, let’s do something else”?  Can I keep those behaviors straight in my mind?  What if tomorrow a “not good idea” drives me crazy and then it breaks his heart because he tells me (with his eyes), “You let me do that before!!”

Or worse, when I let a “not allowed” behavior go because I’m tired or because he is cute or because circumstances make it difficult to effectively re-direct his very directed brain. hmmm

Our current conundrum is that Andrew likes throwing his toys down the basement stairs.  Wait, he LOVES throwing his toys down the basement stairs.  It’s an activity that excites him so much he pants.  And it is kind of a fascinating study in physics.  Soft cat toys land with a soft thump a few steps down.  Toy cars make a tremendous, very satisfying racket as they knock against every step.  Balls bounce down the stairs and roll all around the floor at the bottom.  Plastic creatures bang nicely and make fall far or near depending on how they hit the stairs.  Playing cards float or fall.  I would guess there are 40 toys on our basement stairs right now.

But the baby gate at the top of the stairs is only so safe.  And if he somehow broke the gate and feel down the stairs (like his dad did when he was a baby)…well that could be catastrophic beyond imagining.  So clearly as a responsible parent, I shouldn’t let him do this.  Or at least I shouldn’t encourage it.  I definitely shouldn’t stand at the top of the stairs and say, “Wow!  That one was loud!”

But the last few days I’ve thoroughly confused Andrew by alternating between forbidding, attempting distraction, and condoning the throwing the toys down the basement stairs game.  Setting the stage for a lifetime of consistent, dependable discipline.

Maybe next week he will pick a new behavior to try out, and myself, being a little wiser this time will step up my parenting know-how and resolve a bit.  It’s amazing the things that occupy my mind!

~Althea

Nov 13: I am shocked at how much Andrew changed in the few days I was gone.  He seems more worldly to me.  He can tell me about so many things.  I got home last night while he was in the tub.  “Bat!” he kept saying to me.  And then he showed me his tub toys and wash cloths.

It seems to me like he has gone from just being able to point to things that I name to now being able to, in his own little baby babble, tell me about all his toys.  And he is quite earnest about it all.  It feels just fantastic to be back at home with him again.

There was a good snowfall here over the weekend.  Bryan took some video of Andrew playing out in the snow.  At some point here, I might see if I can figure out how to upload video to my webpage.  I just downloaded the pictures from Halloween.
We took pictures at daycare and as we trick-or-treated around our neighborhood.
This way you can see yet more pictures of Andrew in his duck costume. I also have a few pictures of Bryan and Andrew reading and of Andrew playing with his new favored toy, his Ark from Granny Lu and Grandad.
“AAHK!”  he says.

Nov. 6: Andrew is rapidly growing into a little boy.  A little boy with Opinions.  For example, this evening, my little boy had an opinion about the state of the items on his bedroom shelves.  “Off the shelves” was his thought.  Therefore, all the board books, the paper books, the toys, the stuffies, everything was forcibly removed from the shelves to the floor. He accomplished this with rapid sweeps of his arm.
“Off the shelves,” you could almost see his little mind saying.

Now his mama who was sitting in the room with him had other thoughts.
“Read a book,” she thought. “Play with Noah’s ark,” was another thought.  “Let’s be silly and roll around on the floor,” was a third. But to these vapid suggestions, the little boy with Opinions said gently but firmly, “Nonono.”  The directive that we don’t treat our toys so roughly and wildly chuck our toys around the room was met with a rather obstinate and definitely negative response.

I guess the Mama is continuing to learn that her little boy has his own ways of playing with toys and the little boy is learning that sometimes reading books with the Mama is at least as fun as causing widespread room destruction.

The End

Oct. 29:  We have had a remarkably lovely set of weekends this fall.

Seems like more often than not, week days are gray and rainy, but then on the weekend we have great weather.  We just had Granny Lu and Grandad come visit us, and we had a great time.  It’s so nice to spend time together and to watch Andrew develop fun rituals with his grandparents.  I have a few pictures in the gallery from their visit.

A couple weekends ago I spent the day on Saturday visiting with Heather and Michael, who had come to town to plant a tree at her parent’s house in memory of baby Allan.  It felt good to see them again.  My heart is so heavy with them…

On Sunday, Oct. 15, Bryan and Andrew and I took a family field trip out to Door Creek Apple Orchard and then off to the zoo.  Andrew had a great time seeing some sheep at the apple orchard.  Then at the zoo, he was pretty entranced by most of the animals.  Pictures of the orchard and zoo trips are in our gallery.

I think that I neglected to post a link to our gallery of pictures of the weekend we went to the pumpkin patch with Andrew.  Our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm – Vermont Valley Community Farm – has several farm days.  We missed most of them this year, but earlier this month we made it to the pumpkin pick.  Andrew sure was cute, stumbling around the field.  Afterwards, we got him his first pair of hard-soled shoes.  Pictures of the pumpkin pick are in the gallery.

Last weekend we went up to St. Paul to see Maretta in her play, The Haunting of Hill House.  She was terrific, and it was so fun to see her in action.  We had a nice visit with her and with Kyle.  We rounded off the weekend with a trip to the Underwater Adventures Aquarium.  I especially liked the underwater tunnel where you could see sharks, turtles, and all sorts of cool sea creatures swim around us.  I think, however, that I was a bit more impressed than Andrew.

Bryan is out raking leaves now, and I should probably dig up my dahlia and plant some tulip bulbs!  Happy fall!

Oct. 29:  We just got back from our second annual baby Halloween party.  There were lions, a dog, a cowboy, a dragon, a young republican, a fairy, and a fluffy duck. I went a little crazy taking pictures of all these silly guys. They are so cute!!! 

Photos of the Haloween party are in the gallery.  I’ve also posted high resolution photos to Walgreens.com, and you can download copies there if you wish. Thanks to Jenny, Tom, and Cora for hosting a really fun event.

Oct. 15: I finally figured out how to log in to my website again!  At the end of September, I must have somehow reset the login, and I have been thwarted several times as I tried to update. Happily, we have been home this weekend, and during Andrew’s nap, I was able to get it working again.

Our little guy has been getting ever so engaged and active these last weeks.  I almost feel like I should change the website category section from Baby News to Little Guy News.  He’s outgrown nearly all his warm clothes from last year.  When I put him in them, they are a bit like high-water pants:)  So it’s all big-boy overalls and clothes.  And he’s so amazingly cute!

The last weekend in September, Bryan went to Michigan to spend time in a cabin with some of his Ann Arbor friends.  Andrew and I had what seemed like a long date.  We went apple picking and went out for pancake breakfasts, went to the zoo, hung out with Grandma, and visited Mum.  Pictures of the weekend are in the gallery.

The first weekend in October we traveled to Carleton.  I had a two-day meeting for an alumni committee on which I serve, so Bryan and Andrew spent a couple days exploring campus and Northfield.  Andrew ate his own Hogan Brother hoagie.  Actually, these days we’re ordering him his own children’s meals.  He’s been known to put away an entire hamburger by himself!

Andrew just interrupted me to tell me that he hears and airplane. He points at his ear and then at the sky.  Signs for “hear” and “airplane”

Aunt Melanie just sent us an amazing box of Halloween treats.  I have pictures in the gallery of Andrew’s new Spooky cat slippers, he new halloween counting book, and many other pictures of the little guy being adorable outside in our front yard. He’s getting where he can put his own hat on his head, likes to try to help put his shoes on his feet, and can follow pretty complex requests. In fact, on Friday when we went to visit Bryan at work, part way there I asked Andrew where we were going.  His reply, “Dada!”

Oct. 15: This morning Andrew and I set out to amuse some of our neighborhood by dressing him up in his Halloween duck costume and playing in the yard.  We made several people laugh:)

I was taking pictures to share with great-grandparents, but now you can enjoy them too. A Halloween prelude! 

Andrew’s first word was “quack-quack” and “duck.”  So being a duck for Halloween seemed like a perfect fit.  He wasn’t too crazy about the hat part of the costume at first, but while we were outside in the leaves, he didn’t seem to mind at all.

Must go now.  The little guy has piled my shoes and several books in the chair around me. And there is a suspicious smell I should investigate…

Happy Halloween planning!