Mama Tried

Tantrums and Attention

Nathan has started pitching some serious fits. Thankfully, if I just ignore him and act busy doing something else, he quickly calms down and gets interested in whatever I am doing and as soon as he is not tantrum-ing I lavish him with attention and all is well.  He had his first grocery store meltdown the other day (because I would not let him play with my wallet- he likes to take all the cards out which is fun but not in the middle of the store).  I just kept pushing the cart and talking to him about how I knew I was so mean, and so awful to not let him play with my wallet, but would he like to hold this canister of za'atar instead?  About halfway down the aisle a man stopped and looked at him and said, "Oh, what's wrong?" Nathan immediately stopped and started mugging for attention, smiling at the man.

I suppose attention is not the worst motivator in the world, and I'm glad to have a tool that works so well. I just hope he doesn't grow up to rely solely on outside validation.  I don't need a Nathan Spears on my hands.

Fourteen Months

Nathan has figured the whole world out.  The other day while I was folding laundry he picked up a sock and tried to put it on his foot. Yesterday, I was cleaning up in the kitchen when I heard ominous silence from the playroom (silence from a playing toddler NEVER means anything good).  I went to check and saw him solemnly reading Who Said Boo?  He turned each page, lifted the flap, giggled, and turned to the next page. 

He speaks Nathan-ese- "nanana" is still his most prominent word, and he has started to use it for other things. When he signs "All Done!" he says "Na na!" with the same intonation I use to say "All done!"

He loves Buster so much, and will follow him around and imitate him and it just about kills me.  He now tries to take all of Buster's toys and curl up in Buster's bed with them- I think he thinks if he acts enough like Buster Buster will play with him?  Fortunately Buster vastly prefers the couch to his bed and thinks Nathan can have it.

I love reading things

That babies and toddlers do because I get to think, "Yes! Nathan totally does that!"  After reading "Finally, human infants, but not chimpanzees, put their heads together in pretense. This seemingly useless play activity is in fact a first baby step toward the creation of distinctively human social institutions," yesterday, I saw Nathan playing with another toddler at church.  They were standing in one of those little play houses and they both suddenly leaned forward and touched cheek to cheek.  Plotting a miniature Unitarian uprising, no doubt.

And of course this: "Human infants, in addition, gesture and talk in order to share information with others — they want to be helpful. They also share their emotions and attitudes freely — as when an infant points to a passing bird for its mother and squeals with glee."  I have been pointing out hummingbirds to Nathan since he was a tiny, unseeing infant. The other day he noticed a hummingbird and did, in fact, squeal with glee, pointing it out to me. 

There is truly nothing more thrilling than perfectly normal development; this is why parents brag. It's cool. 

In other news, Nathan is doing all the things that the toddlers I know did before they started walking. He is standing for longer and longer. He is trying to stand up without pulling up on anything. He is pushing his toy truck around the house. He will hold onto just your pinky (!) and walk.  He'll take a step, freeze, and then sit down.   Before he was crawling, he didn't do any of the pre-crawling things, which is why I worried so much. (Jeff will interject here to say HE never worried.)  But with walking he's a carbon copy of all the little walking children I know.  Normalcy is bliss.

Walking is Tricky

Not for babies, after the months of crawling anxiety I am quite sure Nathan will walk when he is good and ready and have not even googled "almost 14 months and not walking yet."  But for me, apparently.

Today I was rushing out to the car, carrying Nathan, and as I took a step down the stairs towards the garage my sandal just fell apart and my foot just kept going forward and we flew- actually got airborne- forward down four stairs. I kept us upright, somehow, and  when we landed we started to skid forward and I just gripped my front foot into the ground, stopping us seconds before I smashed Nathan's head into a corner. 

I could barely breathe from the panic. Nathan found it hilariously fun and wanted to do it again.

But I think somewhere in his mind the idea that maybe I am not the safest means of transportation took root, because later this morning he took one step towards me. And then immediately fell forward into my arms, but still.

It's Hot in the Valley

How hot is it? After supper Nathan went into the living room and took off his pants.  Then just stood there, clearly wondering why he didn't think to do that the second we got home.  He's a class act.

Back to Normal Toddler Activities Thankfully

Today has been much less dramatic, fortunately.  We went to visit the first of three toddler programs we are looking at for the fall (toddler programs are also called Mommy and Me or Twos Programs depending on which brochure you have but toddler program sounds much less cheesy).  Nathan made up his mind the second he saw their playground.  (I am pretty sure he will feel the same way about the other two.) 

When we went in, the toddlers were doing arts and crafts- finger painting, goop, and playdoh and Nathan halfheartedly pounded on some playdoh before making a beeline for the shelf of trucks and schoolbuses. (He shrieked when he saw the schoolbus. He shrieks everytime he sees a schoolbus. I am hoping he learns the word "bus" soon, my eardrums can't take much more.)  The moms started talking about how the boys always go for the toys over the crafts, and the girls love the crafts--- and Nathan dropped the bus and went over to the kitchen set. He loves kitchen sets.  I had to pry him away.

Anyway, I liked it a lot, and we are definitely still going to look at one more, because it is similar in cost and is walking distance, which is a bonus, but I think I am going to cancel the toddler program that costs twice as much.  The one we saw today is about twice as much as the toddler program at the school we currently go to, but at our current school the toddler class is 20-30 kids.  Today's class maxes out at 12.  I cannot imagine what the other school offers to make it worth twice as much as today's school, though. 

In other news, Nathan knows all the gestures to Pat-a-cake and does them each a verse early.  When he pokes himself in the stomach you want to die from the cuteness.

Beyond Bad News Bears

Nathan and I do not usually go to our Moms club park day as it falls on the same day as our Mommy and Me, and that is a lot of activity for one day.  However, today his nap schedule broke in just a way that going to both seemed to work. 

Shortly after we got to the park and met up with the moms, a group of kids came racing out to the baseball fields behind us (baseball fields you may have seen in the original Bad News Bears).  A cop on a motorcycle went racing across the fields, met up with one of them, and then raced off.  Then one of the moms looked over at the picnic benches-- two teenage girls were sprawled out, unconscious.  Prior to our arrival, some of the moms had seen those two girls and another girl making out like crazy with three guys.  Immediately prior to our arrival one guy had gone racing away, nearly knocking over a stroller.

Cops and firetrucks soon arrived and we heard a report that the third girl was in the men's bathroom, covered in blood and with her pants off.  Helicopters arrived shortly thereafter.  Several officers came by and took statements from the moms who had seen things, and Nathan and I waited since the parking lot was completely blocked by ambulances and cop cars.  From what we could gather, the girls had been drugged and one of them assaulted. The two from the picnic benches remained unconscious for almost an hour and were still unconscious when the ambulance took them away.

The whole time I kept thinking a)thank goodness Nathan is so young- he thought the whole thing, with the men in uniform and trucks and helicopters was just super cool, not scary like some of the older kids sensibly did and b)thank goodness Nathan's a boy. 

When I finally made my way to my car, though, there was a woman standing by the car next to me talking on her cell phone and to a police officer, simultaneously.  It was the mother of one of the suspects, and she had to go meet up with him to get their dog.  She kept saying her son wasn't into drugs.  It occurred to me that having a son is no guarantee of safety. 

All I know is that I have never been so grateful that my major problem is a son who desperately wants to crawl inside the dishwasher.

(Edited to add KCAL 9 was of course first on the scene. Although I could have told them the victims were not elderly. I guess it is hard to see from a news helicopter.)

What happened to my baby?

What happened to my baby?, originally uploaded by hannahcooks.

Seriously.  I am not sure I'm ready to be the mother of an actual KID.

I meant to get pictures of the actual event but forgot the camera. It didn't matter anyway since he sat on my lap for the whole haircut.  He did not, as predicted, cry.  Except when the hairdresser put a robe on me- he has a bizarre fear of things being covered and uncovered (if you really want to terrify him, make him watch you change the sheet on his crib).  But once that was done he was fine.  He'll do anything for attention, I think, including allowing a strange lady to snip off all his curls.

Miscellany

-Yesterday Nathan was standing and chugging from his sippy cup when he fell flat backwards.  He looked from side to side, grabbed his sippy cup, and continued to chug while laughing, flat on his back. If they ever make an EXTREME SPORTS DRINK for toddlers they should totally use him in a commercial.

-At the library a 6 year old girl kept picking out books she thought Nathan would like. (Dora's Christmas Adventure!)  After reading him Ten Little Ladybugs and commenting on his drool ("Oh no, he is leaking!") she asked how old he was. "One," I said. She thought very hard. "I'm a LOT older."

-Weeks ago I hid The Wheels on the Bus because Nathan kept trying to pull off the wipers on the bus.  When he was playing with a bus piece from his puzzle, I started singing the Wheels on the Bus- he immediately raced to the other room and pointed to the shelf where the book was hidden, pointing and whining for it.  It still astounds me that he remembers things that happened five minutes ago these days, much less weeks ago.

More Firsts

So yesterday I thought I was being very diligent and noticed Nathan holding something in his hand and raced over to get it out. I figured it was a rock and he was about to swallow it.

It was not a rock. It was a bee.  And when I screamed and flicked it out of Nathan's hand, of course it stung him.  And then I screamed again and got the stinger out and ran inside with Nathan to call the pediatrician in a panic.

Nathan was totally fine and unfazed but really, really, really annoyed with me that I took him inside and made him sit still. That bothered him way more than the bee sting. 

When he was teeny tiny his Aunt Sarah would hold him in front of the mirror and sing about "Bringing home a baby Nathan-bee."  Apparently he remembered and wanted to re-enact the song.  Stupid uncooperative bee did not remember that Sarah changed the "He stung me!" verse to "He smiled at me" because Nathan was just starting to smile then.  I guess bees can't smile anyway.