Monday, March 28, 2011

Arrrgh...

Y'know, I try to schedule my days so D and I are out and about and doing things either until we need to get home to feed her lunch and then nap or until she passes out. Today we had a lovely Moms & Muffins shindig at a MOMS Member house and then plans to go see a presentation of Cinderella at our neighborhood library at 10:30am. Sweet. That would probably last an hour, we'd come home, I'd make her lunch, play a little and then she's off for nap.
Well, trust her father to just mess it all up. It turns out that I was not able to take D to the library but coordinated with G to meet me and take her while I had to head home for lunch.
They came home at 10:55am. WTF?!! When I asked, G said, "Well, she wanted to walk so then she was just interested in walking and hanging on the sidewalk so we did that and then we headed home." DARN HIM!!! Yeah, they come home and he immediately jumps on work calls...leaving ME to stop doing my work and having to entertain D. Greeaattt...that's, like, 2 hours shot.
Does it seem like I'm a little bit irritated. Yeah, I kinda was.
I mean, really...I'm a mother by nature of having given birth. However, had I wanted to be a nanny, I would've applied for that position...I'm just sayin'. Run along and go play by yourself please D.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

A curious incident

Last night was interesting. Backstory - ever since D was a wee baby we have put two rolled up hand towels in her crib. At first G did that as sort of support next to her head. One on each side. Then as she got older these hand towels just kind of became her "security blankets" of some sort. There are two sets, green and pink and we just alternate between the four. When she is having a hard time or is sad, she asks for her "bay bay" (translation: blankie)
So, last night I put her down to bed and no sooner had I walked out when D started bawling at the top of her lungs and she was fine when I put her down. I went in to ask her what was wrong and she cried, "bay bay!!!" I gave her the one and she said, "other bay bay!!" And so I handed her the other one (both of which were already in her crib, that's usually where they stay). She promptly rolled over and went to bed.
Then around 1am she woke up crying her eyes out. I went in to see what was wrong and she was crying for her "little baby giraffe!!" So, I went outside to try and find her stuffed toy, found it and brought it in to her. Again, she grabbed it and promptly rolled over and went to sleep! Huh.
Annnd, I was so surprised today when she and I were sitting and chatting and she was holding little baby giraffe and looked at me and said, "Did Bao Bae cry when she was sleeping?"
And I responded, "Yes! Last night. You remember?" She nodded. :o)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Wow, it worked

A few weeks ago I was talking to some moms about naps. I was so surprised when a couple of the moms mentioned how their kids would tell them when they needed naps. One, maybe A, would just grab a blanket and lay down to sleep. Whaat?! I was incredulous. Another mom said yes, she would put her toddler to bed and just tell him to take a nap.
Really? You mean just put your toddler into the crib? And he's still standing...hmm..
I've never done that before. I've always sung D a lullabye before putting her in her crib whether for naps or for nighttime sleep and I guess I would never think to divert from that.
But, armed with this knowledge I think I might have tried putting D in her crib once or twice for a nap without singing a lullabye and she was fine. Took a nap. Huh.
But what's really a "wow" is what happened yesterday. I put D down for a nap. She rolled around, sang, talked to herself and then maybe 40 minutes later started calling out for me. Usually, we would ignore and then if she started to cry, we would pick up up and just say "Oh well, I guess she didn't need a nap."
Yesterday, however, we knew she needed a nap. She had gone to bed late and woken up early. So, when she started screaming for mama. I said to G, "I'm just going to go peek in and say, 'D, take a nap!'...that way she knows we're not ignoring her but she needs to take a nap."
Eeks. I was really afraid that it wouldn't work and she would go bananas...
But it WORKED! Hallelujah! After I went in and made my statement, there was not another peep from her and she took a nap! Whaat??! Craziness.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Loves

One of the things I love about D...well, there are quite a few things that I love about D, though to meet me you could probably not tell since all I do is complain about her. :o) At least I don't do it to her face.
One of the things that I love about D is that even though she might not like to eat something, she will do it if I ask her to. Case in point, she is not loving the texture of the millet I made. (Sure, I may have overcooked it and it may be a bit mushy) But, whenever she eats it and tries to spit it out, I beg, "Please eat it. It's so good for you." And she will stop from spitting it out and just suck it up and eat it.
Thank you, D, for being so accommodating.

"Yao bu yao chu kan mama..."

I am sitting upstairs working while our Chinese nanny is playing with D in the backyard. D looves to play in the backyard in her sandbox so it's a good way to get her to spend some time with the nanny so I can get some work done.
Meanwhile, I can hear her repeating herself to the nanny, "Yao bu yao chu kan mama?" (translation: Shall we go see mama?) And the nanny is diverting her attention and trying to get her to stay outside and play...
It's pretty ridiculous.

Friday, March 18, 2011

2 things

1. Spring has sprung. The past two days' weather has indicated this. For D's nap this afternoon, I realized what this means. This means that she will be wearing more short sleeves, which means nothing for the tape to hang onto when she goes down for her naps and has to wear gloves...yeah, D still picks at her face (no mosquito bite necessary) so we put gloves over her hands during naps and for nighttime sleep. I wanted to cry today when I realized this is what Spring and Summer means. We just don't know how to convey to her how serious we are about her not scratching her face. Why can't she look in the mirror and see those numerous scars on her face?? I just don't get it. It makes both G and me very sad.

2. Lately, I am getting indications of what type of personality D has...she is a little daredevil and loooves speed. When I take her out in the stroller, she often asks me to run. She loves when we drive down hills at a faster pace (must be that roller coaster tickle she gets in her tummy) and now she also often asks if we can go "bike riding" - meaning us riding our bikes and her being towed in the trailer. Do you know what this tells me? This tells me that when it comes time to buy her her first car, we will be finding something that does not go past 45 miles per hour. Otherwise, our little speed demon could possibly get in a lot of trouble. :o)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Addendum

Reference the previous post and spanking...I mentioned to G last night that I spanked D. I could hear the cringe in his voice when he responded, "Why? I thought we agreed not to ever spank her." Umm, easier for him to say b/c he is so mild mannered. The thought of ever lifting his hand to even throw something across the room would never occur to him.
I responded with, "It was just a tap and sometimes I think it's necessary to force a point." and then proceeded to tell him how and why.
G: "Couldn't there been a different way to express yourself?"
And after much thought, I agreed and replied with the following - "I guess I could've said, 'D, we only use markers on paper.'" Then got a wet towel and asked her nicely to help mama wipe the marker off the floor.

Yes, that would've been a MUCH better and MUCH more effective form of communication. Sigh...I am still learning. Every day...

Monday, March 7, 2011

Spanking...

When is it appropriate to start spanking your child? I think 2 years old. :o)
We are not talking a hard spanking. I mean, I find it appropriate to have spanked D very quickly on her bottom to make a point - DO NOT use markers on the floor.
I feel like she is old enough to understand what is right and what is wrong. She certainly does know when she's done something wrong. Like when she plays with water from her sippy cup, pouring it out of the top into other containers and onto the floor. When we reprimand her and say, "D, don't do that. Mommy has told you before not to play with your water." D responds, very matter of factly with her pointer finger up, "Only outside."
So she knows exactly what she is doing when she is doing something wrong.
Today, I just felt it necessary to tap her bottom sternly to force home the point of not marking up the floor. By the look of her face, she got it.
She didn't cry. She just kind of looked like she was startled but also realized that I was serious. She didn't respond with a cutesy reply.
Eh, I don't know if it worked. We shall see...

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Waldorf philosophy

Today, we opened one of D's bday presents (that I had squirreled away since we don't need her opening ALL her gifts in one fell swoop). The present was a bead lacing kit - large wooden blocks with holes and two shoe laces to lace the beads.
Since we've been attending Linden Waldorf's Buttercup program I've been learning a lot about the art of creativity and fostering it in your child. One thing the teacher was telling me was always try to surround your child with "open-ended" toys. I was puzzled (no pun intended) as to what these could be and when she gave an example she said, "For instance, I gave my grandkids a set of wooden sticks and blocks and because they are not familiar with open ended toys they wanted to know where the directions were. I just kept telling them there are no directions. The toys are whatever they make of them." (And I am not quoting this verbatim b/c I obviously cannot remember what toy/game she gave them.)
Ahhh...I get it. I think.
But tonight I got it. When we opened the packaging, D took the string and was about to string a bead. G said, "How do you play this?" And proceeded to look on the back for directions. Because of my waldorf inspiration, I thought in my head, "It's whatever she makes of it." So I kind of just wanted her to go with it. Do whatever.
Buuut, G read the back and it said something to the effect of "use these blocks to teach your child counting and colors..." So that's what G strove to do but I really just wanted D to play and grasp the idea of just stringing the bead onto the string. The rest, the colors, the number counting would happen organically. :o)

Hi, meet my dog, D

Yes, this potty training thing is going...I'm not sure why I decided to cause myself such angst today. Dressed D in her underwear (no diaper) and took her out on a walk to give G some quiet time to sleep in. So, I'm calculating in my head, "Okay, just gave D some snacks and some milk. In about 20 minutes she will probably be ready to go potty so I'll stroll around over to Bongo Java." Did so, got an orange juice for D, a bagel and a coffee for me. We sat and ate and enjoyed ourselves. Just some Mommy and D time (not that we are ever short of that, ahem please refer to previous complainy posts).
She drank a LOT of oj so I am pretty anxious that she goes to the bathroom before we head on home or to a playground. Was thinking about taking her to a neighborhood playground but was really unsure of how I would react (most likely poorly) if she had an accident and peed in her stroller...so, I take her to the bathroom before we pack up to leave. Her mind is clearly all over the place, what with a little friend outside by the tables, and running around the coffee house that she's definitely not thinking about taking a bathroom break so I don't think she peed. Uh-oh..now I'm a bit panicked. What to do...what to do?
Oh well, I pack us up and head home. Still wanted to give G some more time to sleep so I take kind of a roundabout way home. As we are getting close to home D announces, "I have to pee! I have to pee!" So I do what any self respecting mother would do. I pull down her pants and have her pee right on the grass on the sidewalk. :oD D's happy and Mama's happy b/c she didn't soil her pants. The grass is brown anyway since it's winter. No harm done at all.
AND...we all know she's gonna have plenty o'times when she's older when she's just going to have to drip dry and not get to wipe her bottom so might as well learn now!

Friday, March 4, 2011

What are we, super humans?

This potty training thing is really ridiculous. Whilst in the midst of potty training, a mother pretty much has to drop everything and run her kid to the bathroom which undoubtedly is on the clear OTHER end of the store! We are talking Costco here...Target... WTF??
And imagine my disappointment (maybe a little irritation) when she just sits on the pot and then announces "All done" without having dropped ANY kids off at the pool, let alone a drip of water.
WHHHAAT?!! Did you just make me haul your 26 lb arse (as well as my 12 lb diaper bag full of snacks and water bottle) clear across the store so you can pretend you are going to the bathroom?!! Where are those diapers?! You are going to wear them until you are 15 and dying from embarrassment that you never learned how to use the toilet properly. That's what I have to say about that!

I must be PMSing...

I usually know when I am PMSing because my tolerance for D's antics run REALLY low. I have ZERO tolerance for her and wish I could just put her in a box and run away.
Was solo this morning and had to get some work done before we started the day. In the back of my mind while I was working I thought, "It sure is quiet over there where D is..she must be getting into trouble." But, I pushed it out of my mind because I had to work.
When I was done, sure enough the girl had gotten into a bit of mischief. She found her dad's permanent black marker and marked all over our leather sofa...and her hands and her face and mostly, actually on her piece of paper.
But really what made me see red was not the markings on the sofa but the fact that she could not find the cap to the marker. I was irritated that we would have to throw this marker away. What a waste! Really mad that this girl, who usually remembers everything, could not tell me where she squirreled away the pen cap.
I have thoughts of getting rid of this little creature. Anyone want a 2-year old toddler that is sharp as a tack, cute as a button and a 6am alarm clock???

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Mama this...and Mama that...

Seriously...D is just too attached to her mother. Last night during dinner she asked to be picked up by me but I declined because we were eating dinner. But, she made it clear that she was done and since Daddy was done too, he asked if he could pick her up and play with her while Mommy finished dinner. D agreed.
Once she was up, she's playing with Daddy and runs over and says, "Mommy, can you stand up? Mommy can you come over here?"
Uggh. Fine. (cue eyes rolling) So I go to watch them play.
Then I decide to do the dishes. D is playing with Daddy and I hear, "Okay, I'm going to go over there. I'll be right back."
She runs over to me, "Mom! Mom! Can you come over here? Can you draw with me?"
(Again, rolling of the eyes by me). Okaaaay. I'll go play with you.
Can Mommy EVER get a break??
Well, I'm kind of getting one now while Weilun, our Chinese nanny is here. I'm paying this woman. I'll be doggoned if I have to play with D AND the nanny. :o)