At what point....

do you wake a sleeping kid?

Alex and I went to stroller strides today. This involves me working out like a mighty woman and him probably actually burning more calories, with all the running, playing, picnic table climbing and laughing that he does with his little buddies.

Then we stuck around for a short beach trip with another family and then came home (OK, confession time--there was a very official looking sign that said "beware of jellyfish" stuck in the sand. But there were 3 other families, all with kids, in the water. The lifeguard didn't really know why the sign was there b/c he'd just come on duty. Was it so wrong to say "We just got all dressed in our swim stuff and we are not going to waste all of our--ahem, MY-- effort???").

Alex fell asleep in the car around 12:45. It is now almost 4:30. In a few minutes this nap will turn into a bed-time killer.

But if he needs the sleep?....What if I wake him up and he's a total mess the rest of the afternoon?....I wanted to go grocery shopping and that is hard even when we are all in a good mood....

I will be waiting by the computer for all of your wise and experienced answers. Just be aware that you have about 15 minutes.

Quick post, but relevant details should say it all:

3 pees and 1 poop in the potty today!

Holy cow. This is not easy. I haven't blogged about this because I felt like a failure on the potty front. I know that potty training is about 10% the kid and 90% the parents, at least at first. And, frankly, I am a bit lazy so this was not really working for me. I didn't like to drag my toddler to the bathroom at the grocery store. I forgot to ask every 1/2 hour. I didn't want to be bothered with it all.

But finally I decided that it was time. I have time, and it is time.

So, let's just hope that it continues. I mean, that my new-found interest in the potty continues.

The G's Pest Removal Service

In the past week, we have caught and removed two mice from our house. The first one is a boring story: saw the mouse, bought some traps, mouse was caught and promptly sent away to mouse heaven. The second one is more interesting, so I'll just go ahead and tell that story.

Last night, we were all watching a movie together in the living room. I saw something out of the corner of my eye and announced that I thought we had another M-O-U-S-E. Alex knew there had been a mouse before, but he didn't catch on immediately. Dan got up, looked under the futon, then saw it scurry over the toy area. This is the one time that I am glad that we have so much STUFF. If it weren't for bins and a bookshelf and Dan's shoes and some little cube-chairs and more bins of stuff, the mouse would have been much harder to catch. Instead, he kept getting stuck behind things, Dan would move them, and he'd run a little farther, only to get stuck again.

Glad we don't buy into the whole feng shui thing. If there were clear and open paths for our chi, there would also be clear and open paths for our rodent invaders. And that, we do not need.

So, somewhere in this chaos, Alex figures out what it going on. And he says, excitedly, "Oooooo, a MOUSE? May I touch him, please?" Man, that kid can whip out the manners when he wants to, eh?

Well, we finally caught him. In a tupperware. Umm....yeah....what to do with a tupperwared mouse. Well, Dan took Alex and the mouse out to a grassy field and let them go. No, wait, he let the mouse go. He brought Alex back home. Alex apparently was delighted that the mouse was out of the container, but then asked Dan if he could touch it....please? Dan had to say that the mouse was free and happy but no, he wouldn't be able to touch it.

Let's hope that this was the last of the furry little visitors to our house for a long time.

Future Debate Team Member!

Alex has become very talkative lately. Some days I actually wonder why we are teaching him to talk.

Some examples of his favorite phrases lately:

"I did already." He usually says this when it's time to clean up. What he means is "I cleaned up last week" but he's sure that this was recently enough to get me to leave him alone.

"But I'm still playing." Self-explanatory.

"But Daddy said it's OK." He's usually right. This isn't the beginning of the deceptive playing one parent against another game...yet. Daddy does have a different...um....tolerance for certain things. Mommy is meaner. That's all there is to it.

He's also figured out how to change a sentence into the negative or turn it around completely, which I am torn about. Am I proud? Or am I just really annoyed?

Example:

Mom: "Alex, it's bed time."
Alex: "It's not bed time for Alex. It's bed time for you!"

Mom: "Alex, we have to go in a few minutes."
Alex: "We don't have to go. We have to stay here!"

This is all just part of the process. My kid isn't any more amazing linguistically than any other two year old (unless you ask his grandmas!). But, as a parent, it's just amazing to remember him jumping up and down in the kitchen, grunting and pointing, only about a year ago and having to figure out what in the world that meant.

Now, it's almost like talking to a real person. A real person who lacks logic or any real reasoning behind his little arguments, but still, a person.

My Favorite Little Boy

About 7 years ago I did a study abroad program in Puebla, Mexico. (Dang, did I just say 7 years.....am I getting OLD?????) We were accompanied by two awesome married professors that had this family ritual that they shared with us. Whenever we met together as a group, the 10 students and 2 professors would share their "highs and lows" since the last time we met. Since we were all living in separate host family homes and had different assignments (either classes or, in my case, an internship at an elementary school during the day), these sharings ran a pretty big gamut. I can remember at least a few of mine...

High: I got on the right bus today and made it back to my host family's house! (This scared the heck out of me the first day, so I was so happy I didn't end up in Guatemala or something!!)

Low: I forgot to ask for "no ice" in a drink and ended up sick for 2 days.

High: (Day 1) My host mom made quesadillas for breakfast this morning!

Low: (Day 53) My host mom made quesadillas for breakfast this morning...again.

OK, you get how the game is played.

So, the past few days, I've been asking Alex during dinner to tell me his favorite part of the day.This may eventually lead to the whole "highs and lows" ritual, but we have to keep it simple for now.

So, yesterday's was Elmo...of course.

I don't really remember the ones before that.

Today, though, I asked him, "What was your favorite part of today?" and he didn't even look up from his food. In fact, as he gave his answer, he was already sticking his next bite in his mouth. It didn't take a second of thought.

He answered, "Mommy."

OK, I'm the one in the corner, still wiping away the tears.

Here was our day...

-Got up, went to stroller strides. He played, raced cars and airplanes, rolled in the grass, played on the jungle gym and in the DIRT with 5 other little 2 year olds.

-Came home. Took Dan to work.

-Ate some lunch. Took a nap.

-Got up, went to the park. Played on the playground, swam in the pool for about an hour.

-Went to the afternoon stroller strides (I'm going to be sore tomorrow!). Played with one of his best little buddies Maia. More playground, more laughing, giggling, chasing and a lot more DIRT!

-Picked up Dan from work.

-Had acai bowls for dinner.

...and the best part of the day was MOMMY.


I anticipated the next words out of his mouth to be "And from now on, I want ice cream for dinner every day, and a pony and a new tricycle and oh, extra hot fudge on that ice cream." But it seems that it was all sincere.

I love that kid.

Father's Day....Bigger, Furrier, and Redder Than Ever!

Last week finished up great--more swim lessons, another loooong nap and more random fun like the Children's Discovery Center (like a children's museum) and the local playground.

Then, on Sunday...Father's Day. What better way to celebrate Father's Day than with ELMO?

Sesame Street Live is in town and when Grandma Bette was here last, she gifted us with some tickets. Instead of telling Alex ahead of time, we sprung it on him that morning and boy was he excited!!

There was so much singing! So much dancing! So many larger-than-life furry creatures with squeaky voices! I have never seen Alex sit still for so long, looking so happy in his short little life. He sat in Dan's lap most of the time and he did not move. At all. I was truly amazed, because Alex is pretty much a perpetual motion machine.

I have a couple of pictures to add, but I want to get this up to say THANK YOU GRANDMA BETTE. And I'll work on those pictures later.

Oh, the monkeys at the zoo!

Yesterday we met Alex's little buddy Ty and his mom at the zoo. Ty and Alex are both good boys, but together they can be a force of chaos and madness. There was so much giggling and running and hiding and jumping and more giggling. They had tons of fun, fingers pointing and yelling "Rhino! Hippo! Monkey! Tiger!" etc, etc.

Ty and his mom had recently gone to a wild animal adventure park in California, so she was full of interesting tidbits, which Alex pretty much memorized word for word and repeated to Dan later that evening. This is funny to me because he spent so much time just giggling, shrieking, and chasing Ty that I couldn't believe he had actually heard anything she said. This makes me nervous, and makes me want to watch what I say a little more.

Speaking of watching what I say, yesterday I was in the kitchen, doing whatever and I started talking to myself out loud, kind of mumbling about what do have for dinner and when to get started on that.

Alex looked at me and said, "Who are you talking to, Mommy?" Hmm....I guess he's figured out that talking to yourself is not normal (OK, for adults, he talks to himself all the time, but I didn't think that was relevant to the conversation.).

So, I said, "Oh, just myself. Talking about dinner."

He thought for a second and then he responded with , "But who's listening?"

Ummm....yeah.....I wasn't sure what to say to that, so I just said, "You were!" and laughed and tried to forget that my two year old just implied that I was crazy!

Here is Alex on top of the little elephant statue right across from the elephant exhibit. In the picture you can see that he has on his shark hat and his dog backpack. As we went through the turnstyle at the zoo entrance, one lady commented that he had "brought the zoo with him."



Here he is at the hippo statue. Shaka, everyone!

Lessons in Swimming and Being Naughty

Tuesday was even more fun that Monday. (I hope that trend continues!) We dropped Dan off at work, then went to Walmart for a quick shopping trip. I needed a rash guard (one of those shirts that you either wear because you are actually surfing and need the protection or wear b/c they are also SPF50 and will keep you from getting burned to a crisp). My needs are for neither one, rather I am covering up that extra pregnancy belly that will go away soon....it's only been 2 3/4 years...give me a break!

Anyway, we got that and then accidentally walked near the toy section, so I had to bribe Alex with a new puzzle. At least he is OK with at $4.00 puzzle, wait until he's begging for a toy and will not be satisfied with anything less than a video game. Yes, I do realize how lucky I am right now!

So, we then went to the main event for the day...swim lessons! I had to go early because I had actually signed up over the phone the day before, so I hadn't done any paperwork. Well, Alex was his usual bold self and tried to get into the pool without me a couple of times. One of the nice instructors offered to watch him while I finished the paperwork, and wouldn't you know it, Alex stood almost completely still for the next 5 minutes. It's only ME he won't listen to.

The lessons were great. Alex was not nervous....AT ALL and seemed to be having a blast. I am encouraged because this will encourage me to get him to the pool more often (there is a pool right down the street that I have not taken advantage of, although we've lived in this house for a year) and because we have the OCEAN less than a mile away, for goodness sake! We really haven't been using that resource like we should recently. I guess there is my answer to "what will we do today?" whenever I can't figure it out.

After class, it was a nice long nap and then we hit the playground for some good playing. Everything was great, everyone was under 5, running happily and playing nicely, until these three boys--about 10 or so--came through.

They did everything that you would tell your child "don't do that, you are going to get HURT!!!" but they were bigger, so they didn't get hurt and that just annoyed me, because they were setting the example of what not to do, and doing it without the threatened consequence. Things like going halfway down the curly slide and jumping off, or leaping from the platform rather than going down the ladder. All things they could do cuz they are BIG but that my toddler cannot do but now THINKS he can do! Anyway, I loudly said things like "we don't jump off the slide because we can get hurt" to Alex, hoping they would magically get the hint, but they didn't and the danger and mayhem continued. At least they were careful and didn't actually hurt any of the kids directly, but they planted seeds of death-defying behavior, and for that I am pretty ticked off.

And, because I just want to post a picture, here is one that shows that Alex is ready for the summer. It was actually taken about a month ago, but that is OK, we'll just say he was practicing. Alex, you are supposed to get the ice cream IN your belly, not ALL OVER it! Yum!

The Summer Begins...

As school ended last week, I was full of a combination of excitement and nervousness. "Yeah! The whole summer to hang out with my son" followed by "What in the world am I going to do for the next 10 weeks with a 2 year old?!?!?!"

Well, I am happy to say that 2 days into it, we are both still alive and happy!

Yesterday's fun began with the Aquarium (we bought a family pass, so we'll be there often, I suspect). As we walked through, I was cataloging its various positive/negative aspects. Not a huge place, so it doesn't take very long to walk through, but it's mostly inside, therefore quite cool (so, a place we could actually go in the afternoon), plus there is a nice grassy area for a picnic if we are so inclined to think and pack ahead. There is also the "touch" section, which is oh-so-important and fun. Next time I think we'll even try the little audio tour phone things. We have been passing on them the past few times we went, but I think it might add to the overall fun.

The negative, as with so many destination spots is the darn gift shop with the twirling, squeaking, fuzzy and otherwise overly-attractive-to-a-toddler items all shelved too close to the walkway on the way out. Ok, it's hard enough that I just told him that we are leaving, now I'm also having to wrench a little plastic seal out of his hands as he begs "mommy, I wanna take the seal hoooome" and when I say no it's followed by the most pathetic, "puuuuulllllleeeeeease!?!" How can I tell him that "please" is the magic word when it clearly doesn't work magic on his very own mean mom?

But besides that, the aquarium is great and will be visited often.

After the aquarium and a nice nap, we went to the pool. That was a blast, too. We started swim classes today, so I wanted to make sure he'd be OK in the pool, since most of his water experience has been in the ocean, and it's different--getting in and out of the ocean is easier and you can be 1 inch in the ocean, as opposed to a pool--it's either in or out.

Well, I am glad that I was concerned enough to make the journey. After nearly 30 seconds of coaxing, Alex reluctantly jumped into the water like he was actually part fish and proceeded to paddle, kick, splash and blow bubbles. This made me less nervous about the lessons and actually made me wonder if we needed lessons at all.

We swam, cleaned up and then went to stroller strides. Alex likes to play with the other kids while I work out and chat with the other moms, so this is a great time for both of us.

When we arrived home, it was bath, dinner and straight to bed. What an exhausting day!

And the summer has just begun!