Mama Tried

In Which Nathan's Mama is Wrong

At Vons they have all those mylar balloons near the checkout and usually Nathan spends a good amount of his time in line pointing and saying, "bwoon! bwoon!"  Today, though, he kept pointing and saying, "Ball! Ball!"

And I would say, "No, Nathan, those are balloons. BALLOONS." And he would say, "BALL! BALLLLLL!" 

"Baaaaaallooooooons." 

"BALL! BALL BALL BALL BALL!"

Finally I looked and noticed that he was, in fact, pointing to a balloon- that was shaped like a football. He  doesn't know how to say "I told you so," yet, thankfully.

Holidays

I have spent several weeks gearing Nathan up for Thanksgiving. He knows all about turkeys and calls them "Gobble Gobble"s (inexplicably every time he sees a pumpkin he says, "Boo!" Same with turkey/gobble gobble).  We sang the turkey dinner song several times a day (Turkey Dinner, Turkey Dinner, Pumpkin Pie! Three miles high! We were all much thinner, before we came to dinner, me oh my. Me oh my. -to the tune of Where is Thumbkin?).  (His mind was totally blown when his Aunt Elisabeth sang it on Skype to him- you could tell he was thinking, "How does SHE know this song?" Aunt Elisabeth originally learned it in preschool and taught the rest of us, that's how.)

Anyway, after all the buildup, the actual holiday mystified him a bit. He liked the novelty of having the dining room table in his playroom, and he loved the rolls, but the huge plateful of food mystified him. He did figure out what the cake and pie were all about, though.  Today he ate plenty of leftover stuffing and even leftover spinach- not having everything on the plate at once was the key. We tried to talk about what he is grateful for and it is probably a good thing he doesn't talk much because I think these days he is most grateful for cats that poop in the potty and then fall in.

So I was pretty excited to roll out CHRISTMAS today. We got the tree out, and unlike last year he did not find the disassembled tree parts terrifying. He did not find them very interesting, though, either.  We put on some holiday music (A Very Metal Christmas) and I put the tree together while Jeff and Nathan bounced a ball and Nathan perused a catalog pointing out everything in it that resembled a ball.

Once the tree was up and lit, though, Nathan's mind was blown. He laughed at it, and said "twee," and mainly just stood and pointed and told the tree hi and bye. I am hoping he doesn't figure out that he can get close to it, because it is a short tree and he is a short toddler, and if I move all the ornaments up out of his reach the tree will keel over.

Part of me is thinking we should just not get him any gifts and enjoy the fact that he finds the tree so thrilling.  The other part of me thinks how thrilling he will find a new ball and a bus to be and has decided he'll get presents, too.

This Post is For His Aunt Elisabeth

Nathan has long ago appropriated my PT-109 JFK doll and my Jackie Kennedy paper dolls as his own (he didn't cut the paper dolls out of the book or anything, but he LOVES looking at them).  For my birthday last year my sister Rebekah sent me a talking Nixon doll (so awesome, and feel free to send me any other talking President dolls anytime) but Nathan hadn't noticed it since I kept it in our room instead of in the Room of Presidential Memorabilia. 

Today, though, Nathan saw it, and apparently All Presidents Look Alike to him. He pointed and said, "Obama?"  

Then I thought he would like to hear it talk. As soon as Nixon started talking (and he doesn't say any of his good catchphrases, but instead really long random quotes from speeches), though, Nathan turned away and buried his head in a blanket in fear.  I had to put it away to get Nathan to stop crying.

Today's Top Moment

When I put Nathan down from his nap he was doing a suspicious amount of babbling, which led me to suspect his diaper needed changing before he could sleep. 

So I went into his room and he was sitting up playing with his stuffed animals. He looked at me and said, "Hi, Mama!" I asked him, "Are you stinky?" 

And he looked around, then lifted one finger to his mouth and said "Sshhhh!"

Tantrums and Trash and More

I was apparently so excited about President Obama that I forgot to update. Sorry about that.  So, what has happened in the past few weeks? I left Jeff and Nathan home alone for two and a half days and nothing burned down. Nathan's love affair with all things trash related continues.  Nathan got a stomach bug but apparently got the mildest case of any of his friends.  Oh, and Nathan has discovered tantrums. And is pitching them. CONSTANTLY.

I am very much of the "ignore" school of thought when it comes to tantrums. Both because philosophically, I don't think it's right to reward and encourage tantrums, and because whenever I do cave in it only seems to make the tantrum worse. (I would totally throw my philosophy under the bus if there was another method that worked better.)  But it is wearing on me.  Usually if I ignore, Nathan figures it out and moves on (yesterday I had to actually stick my head in the fridge to keep Nathan from seeing me laugh at his tantrum-- he was upset because I would not get the trash he had just thrown away out of the trash can so he could throw it away again, and he was lying on his back kicking his legs-- as soon as he saw I wasn't looking at him he got up and started playing).  

But today? Ignoring doesn't do much. The only thing that kind of seems to help is picking him up and taking him to an entirely different area (or outside, or wherever) and I had to do that when he threw his first public tantrum at a meeting today.  Which I was fine with, but OH, did people have opinions. And feel the need to try to distract him. (It did not work- when Nathan wants cake, he wants cake.)  Eventually I took him home and the second we got in the car he was fine (and he has now been two hours tantrum free, thank god) but so many women felt very strongly I should have just given him some cake.  Which I would have done, if I thought for a second the result would be anything more than him demanding a second, and third, and fourth piece of cake.   Eventually even they would have felt I should cut him off, or he would have eaten the whole cake, and the tantrum would occur anyway.  

Are there any other tantrum-diffusing tricks y'all know? Because otherwise I am liable to spend the next year with my head in the refrigerator. 

Democracy!!!

Nathan loves going to vote as it combines three of his favorite things: stickers, flags, and lines of captive strangers to flirt with.  I love voting, period, and have dragged him to every election since his birth in hopes of indoctrinating him with the importance of voting, even if the only thing on the ballot is an uncontested school board candidate (that was his first election).

Today at the polls they jokingly asked if he was Warren (his uncle who is still inexplicably on the rolls at our address) and I mostly jokingly said he was if they would give him a ballot. (They did not, obviously, but they did give him a sticker.)

I don't think parents necessarily take their obligations to vote more seriously, but for me there is definitely a new level of urgency when "the next generation" is not some abstract mass of youth but rather the child you love more than anything.  I voted for Barack Obama and no on Prop. 8, and I would have done the same if I did not have kids, but it matters immensely to me that I will be able to say I did so when Nathan is older.  No matter how things turn out, I spent time and money fighting for his future and for equal rights for all, and then voted accordingly.  I did all I could, and I hope Nathan grows up to do the same.