June 6, 2013 ~ Blanket King

He is obsessed with wearing as many blankets as he can. The latest incarnation:

Drawn In Thursdays #64

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True story from this week.

June 4, 2013 ~ Out of Control

There are days when Billy is a dream and there are days when he is not.

And when he's not, he's out of control.

Despite all of our best efforts we could not get Billy to behave at all. He refused dinner, tried to paint with his food instead of eat it, ran amok and then some. After multiple time outs he just laughed at our attempts to get him to settle down.

Daddy sent him to bed early.

But then Daddy went and mowed the grassed where he was unavailable to deal with an unruly, screaming toddler.

Billy wasn't tired and he wasn't haven't it.

I keep saying bed shouldn't be a punishment. It only makes him think sleeping is a punishment. It's not. And I don't want bedtime to be harder than it is.

I have no idea what the failure to adhere to timeouts punishment should be. I'm going to have to think up something good. Like worm soup. Just kidding. I've already tried that threat. And he challenges me right back "I want to eat it. Where's my worm soup?"

Gate Ridge Salad

It's like Watergate Salad or Ambrosia, but with a chocolate twist!

Ingredients:
1/2 container of Original Cool Whip
1 package of chocolate Jello Instant Pudding
1/2 bag of mini marshmallows
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup of diced maraschino cherries
1/2 cup of milk
splash of cherry juice

Mix together the pudding, cool whip, milk and cherry juice. If the consistency is too gloppy, add more milk until you achieve a creamy pudding.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Chill. Serve cold.

Optional: top with chopped pecans when serving. Do not mix nuts into the pudding however, as they will become soggy.

June 3, 2013 ~ First Day of Pre-School

Wait, what? He's only 2!

Yes, but he's actually 2.5 and he's in a classroom with 3.5s, so it's time for pre-school. Today was his first day.

I decided to prepare him for it by telling him he would be in a new classroom this morning before we left for school. We talked about all of the new toys and new adventures he would get to have. He seemed to like that.

I let him wear his favorite shirt to make him feel extra special. It's his favorite because it's the only one with pink on it. It's red and blue plaid, but where the red is "light" it's close to pink. Close enough, anyway.

Then we had to have the talk about toys. Every day he brings in a different toy (or five) to show his friends. Not any more. No toys. Only one stuffed animal, and it cannot rattle. Very limiting. He's not fond of the rules. But he decided on a pooh bear (one that doesn't rattle- we have those too).

And off we go!

Of course he immediately went to his old room when we got to school. I had him hand a present to each of his former teachers and they hugged him and wished him well on his first day in his new room.

Then we wandered into the new room full of bright and shiny toys to play with. Off he went to become a fireman chef and play with his friends. (He saves the world one prepared dinner at a time?) He waved goodbye and that was that.

Being the first day of pre-school Murphy's Law would dictate that I would be late picking him up. Of course. So, I didn't get to talk to his teachers about how his day went. However, he was in a completely different outfit- shoes included. His favorite pooh was missing and we had to go back to school to retrieve it. Once home I realized we were also missing all of his sippy cups and his tennis shoes.

He told me he misses his old teachers and wants to go back to his old room. I think that's to be expected. It's hard to move to a new classroom, have new teachers and new rules. But as Billy likes to tell me every day,

"Mommy, I still growing up. I not done yet."

June 2, 2013 ~ Water Fun

For the first weekend of summer Mother Nature made sure it was a hot one. What better way to break into summer than a weekend of water fun?

Saturday Billy played with his water table for the first time this year. He's been eying it all Spring just waiting for weather warm enough for bathing suits. Then Daddy got out the sprinker. He's run through it before but without much gusto. He didn't like it last year.

I think he's changed his opinion:

The Sunday we made two trips to the pool- one in the morning and one after nap. He's already asking to go off the diving board and down the big water slide. No yet, kiddo.

I post a photo but water and cameras don't get along very well...

The Sunday Post ~ Tiny Terrors on the Loose

When you first have a baby they tell you "It gets easier." Who are they anyway? Then you hear things like, "Don't you just love this stage?" and "cherish every moment."

And you're sleep deprived so you believe them. I mean, your little munchkin is the cutest thing you've ever seen. They spend most of their time in squished into a tiny ball and sleeping. You coo whenever they yawn, burp or rip a fart so loud you can't believe it came from something so tiny. It can only get better.

Then you're warned about the Terrible Twos.

But nobody warns you about the stage between Squishy Ball and Terrible Two. Yeah, there's a whole other stage in there that no one mentions, because if they did you might go running and screaming from this parenthood thing.

Welcome to the Tiny Terror Stage. Okay, okay they can be tiny terrors at just about any age, but this is the age at which they really excel. 6 months-18 months.

It's hard to believe that your Squishy Ball will one day be mobile. Really mobile. But you baby proof all the same, because some day they will, in fact, start crawling around. And then they will find new and inventive ways to attempt to kill themselves.

I don't care how well you baby proof, unless you wrap everything you own in bubble wrap, your child will find that one way to potentially kill themselves in a more creative way than you could ever imagine. In fact, right now your baby is working on a plan to attempt death with the bubble wrap. Scratch the bubble wrap.

You may think you can outsmart this tiny person. But rest assured, they are smarter than you. You can clean your floors until the cows come home, and still they will find that one clump of dog hair you missed. And shove it in their mouth. Probably in front of company- just for effect.

Your once Squishy Ball is now a fully mobile, non-speaking, non-listening, incredibly bored little one intent on finding something interesting to do. Having Mommy chase him around and avert mass crises every fifteen minutes is a particularly popular pastime. Enter Tiny Terror.

You're not smarter. You're not faster. Oh, yes. They will outsmart you at every turn. You'll blink and they'll be in the other room attempting to shove sticky, wet fingers into a light socket. I'm pretty sure they have super powers at this stage. No one tells you that. 

So when someone says "it gets easier," "don't you just love this stage?" or "cherish every moment" what they're really saying is, "you have no idea what you're in for."

May 31, 2013 ~ When Buddy's Done

"Mommy, when Buddy's done being a boy and he can growed up and be a girl people. He can have hair and this mouth."

"He can have your mouth?"

"No silly Mommy. My mouth is attached to me."

"Okay."

"And he can be a girl and have hair- after he's done being a boy. And he can paint his toes pink. And his tongue. Haha."

"He's going to paint his tongue?"

"Haha, no! His tongue is already pink!"

May 30, 2013 ~ Pre-school

Billy starts pre-school on Monday. Oh, yeah. That's right. Pre-school.

And pre-school (aka still the same daycare, but a different teacher) has a bunch of new rules. There's homework folders, take home folders, and other folders.

Wait... homework???

Yes. I now have, erm- I mean Billy- now has 1-3 homework assignments to be completed each week. We already have the first one.

I have to- I mean Billy- has to take a photo of his family, print it out, attach it to a provided quilt square and then decorate said quilt square. I'm so fortunate that my two year old can work a camera, a computer, a printer and has mad art skills and the ability to work with fabric.

I look forward to all of this homework I - I mean Billy- will be doing.

And now instead of the previously provided breakfast that has made my mornings so much easier, I will be responsible to feed him breakfast prior to school- I mean daycare- I mean school. How much am I paying them?

And new rules state there are to be no binkies and no luvies in the classroom after the first month. I guess we have to kill the binky habit pronto, huh. It's a good thing my highly advanced kid can self-soothe without a luvie or binky at the ripe old age of 2.

I'm pretty sure I slept with a luvie until at least 5 or 6. Man, was I way behind.

BUT, they also have to take turns babysitting a school-owned luvie on the weekends and writing in the journal everything that the luvie did. I'm so glad my pre-schooler is so advanced that he can "write."

This is some serious learning going on here.

Which I would be inclined to take more seriously if the welcome packet wasn't littered with spelling and grammatical errors in such high quantity that I'm pretty sure one of the advanced pre-schoolers "wrote" it.

Drawn In Thursdays #64

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A true story from this week

May 28, 2013 ~ Not Sleeping

Billy is... not sleeping. It's a game. He simply refuses to go to sleep

Here are some reasons why he can't go to bed:

1.) He needs to pee

2.) He needs to pee again

3.) He's hungry

4.) It's not bedtime

5.) It's too dark

6.) It's too light

7.) One of his seven Pooh Bears is missing

8.) He doesn't like his bed

9.) Disney movies are more interesting

10.) The evil parrots will come and peck at him in the dark

And if I can manage to get him to climb into bed with the lights out, he will refuse to actually fall asleep. He'll get up and wander around the house and continue his insistence on not sleeping.

Here are some reasons why he's up and can't go back to bed:

1.) I want to sing

2.) He wants to sleep in Mommy's bed

3.) He has to pee again

4.) He wants to watch Dr. Who (true story)

5.) The (non-existent) thunder woke him up

6.) He needs a hug

7.) He needs another hug

8.) He wants to change his pants

9.) He wants his blanket. No, the other blanket. No, not that one. The other, other blanket.

10.) Because he doesn't want to

Memorial Day Weekend 2013

For the long weekend we decided to have a visit with PeePop.

Billy is now too old for a crib and able to climb out AND back in, so he is now sleeping in a big bed. Great for him, much less sleep for me.

We went there late Friday night and he stayed awake for the whole drive asking "why?" Why what is not really important, given that there were about 60 whys per hour. I think that's about his average at the moment.

Saturday we headed down to the beach to see the ocean. It was fairly cold with 30 mph winds, so there wasn't any sunbathing or swimming for us. Some people decided to brave the weather and the water in their bathing suits. Not us.

We walked the boards and checks out some of the rides. Billy got to go on the merry-go-round. This one is historic and original. He wanted to do all of the rides, but it was already nap time. He really wanted to get on the "big" rides- the fast ones for the older kids, but he has several years before he meets the height requirement on those (and before my heart and stand it).

So, we did just the one ride. He wanted to ride the dragon. Who doesn't want to ride a dragon?

And no trip to the boards is complete without a stop in a candy store. I'm pretty sure this was his favorite part of the weekend. We went in looking for a lollipop. With the lollipops were sticks with candies on it that he decided he wanted more than a lollipop. I told him they were chewy candies. "But I like chewy candy, Mommy."

Here's Billy and PeePop having a snack together on the porch.

And standing on the porch steps together.

Okay, that last one is really just for me. Here are the oldest and youngest member's of PeePop's family. Billy makes 6 generations of one family in the same house, which was built by my great-great grandfather.

You might be wondering...what's with the stick? Look closely if you didn't notice it. It's in most of the photos in this post. That would be his new favorite toy. It's a piece of fig wood he picked up at Grandma's house last week. He insists on taking it everywhere. He also uses it as a tool, like for digging in the dirt. It's a multi-purpose toy. It doesn't matter how fancy toys get... in the end the best one is a stick!

Drawn In Thursdays #63

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Sharing

I've decided to start incorporating interesting content from other blogs and sources. I'm sharing the humor.

So, in honor of sharing, a post from The Honest Toddler about sharing.

The Honest Toddler: Sharing II

May 21, 2013 ~ Who's Afraid of the Dark?

Monday night Billy refused to go to bed. I'd put him down and 15 minutes he would be back up again, searching the house for me because he "needed to pee." Well, I knew that wasn't really the issue. He peed, he was empty, so there was no reason to get up every 15 minutes.

I thought perhaps it was a fluke. Maybe he just couldn't sleep.

He ended up in my bed with me all night, kicking me and rolling around. At least he got some sleep. More than I can say for myself.

Then last night the same routine started up.

Now, again, I knew that he didn't have to pee. So, something else had to be up (besides Billy way past his bedtime).

He whispered to me, "I'm afraid of the dark."

He's got a night light and it's never been an issue before. But I turned on the bathroom light and propped his bedroom door open so the light would spill in from the hallway. Still, that wasn't enough. He was still scared and again ended up in my bed.

This time, however, he got moved to his own room once it was my own bedtime. Sleep for me, yay!

May 20, 2013 ~ One of His Very Own

I promised Billy that if he pooped on the potty at daycare he would get an extra special gift. This is what he wanted. Not a toy guitar. Nope. A real guitar. So, as of today he has his very own guitar, just his size. Yes, it's a real guitar from a music shop and he'll have to learn to play it correctly. I don't know a thing about guitars, but Daddy can teach him.

Future Eric Clapton?

The Sunday Post ~ Learning the Hard Lessons

In an attempt to preserve my sanity, I plugged in the VCR this weekend. We've watched the AristoCats over and over, and I needed a break. Besides, it was time to expand some horizons into other cartoons and Disney films. I just happen to have the bulk of the Disney library on tape. I just needed a way to play them.

Billy had already gotten into the tape collection and picked out the Lion King as the first movie to watch. He had seen part of it at the kids' corner in the grocery store and wanted to watch it again. I readily agreed.

So, with the VCR now working and a wealth of Disney movies available to watch, I popped in the Lion King for Billy's first viewing. This is going to be great!

But time does strange things to our memory. I remember the Lion King as being a fabulous film. And truly, it is. But it came out when I was a teenager and it's been over a decade since I've seen the movie. I've never looked at it with a parent's eye. Only as the teen that babysat kids who were obsessed with the film.

And suddenly, I found myself discussing the meaning of death with my two-year-old. It wasn't like a planned to have that conversation on a rainy Sunday morning. I didn't even think about a Disney movie launching such a profound and devastating topic.

But that's the truth about Disney. They don't shy away from the life lessons. Their heroes and heroines suffer devastating loss, face villains of all kinds- even family members- and encounter countless struggles. Along the way they teach kindness, humility and love.

So, here I was discussing death with a two-year-old. Simple. Keep it simple. "He went to Heaven." But then Billy wanted to know when he would come back from Heaven. "You never come back." And at the scene where Mufasa comes down in the clouds to speak to Simba one last time, Billy broke out into tears. As the clouds rolled away and Mufasa was gone forever, he cried. He got it.

Then he looked at me, "Mommy, why am I crying?" He didn't even understand the deep sadness he was feeling. "You're sad," I told him. And then he asked me, "why did he have to die?"

And in, perhaps, the biggest parenting mistake of showing him this movie, he started crying for Daddy- who wasn't home. He became confused that Daddy had gone to Heaven and would never come back.

Daddy, having heard from me about this, placed called us using Face Time (video phone) so Billy could see that Daddy was okay. Then, in words I've never spoken to Billy before, he looked seriously at Daddy and said, "the baby lion lost his Daddy."

May 18, 2013 ~ Preakness

If you're not from town or not into horse racing, then you probably don't know much about the Preakness (or anything at all). It's the second race in the Triple Crown and takes place here in our town.

Preakness is so much more than just a race, though. It's a week long event with crab racing, frog hopping, concerts, hot air balloons, and a day long party at the race track before the big race.

I wouldn't dream of taking Billy to Pimlico on Old Hilltop for the big race. It's an adult event, let's be honest. And personally, I'm not that big into horse racing. But some of the other events are perfect for him.

I thought he'd love the hot air balloons.

So, I took him to the balloon festival (held in a different part of town from the horse track). We met up with a former coworker of mine, who brought his three-year-old son.

This was the balloon glow, where all of the balloons fire up at the same time. It's really lovely.

Did Billy care? Nope.

He and the other little boy played in the sand the whole time. What sand, you ask? Oh, well they held the event on a golf course, so the kids were building sand castles in the sand trap. I'd post a pic, but blogger is having difficulty with the photos function. My apologies.

This is a really fun event, but I have some major complaints about it.

The Balloon Glow is held at the Turf Valley Inn and Golf Course. They made us park several miles away at the county fairgrounds and bused us over to the event. The buses were loading only one at a time, making the wait to get to and from parking to the event VERY long, especially at an event overloaded with young children.

The glow ended at 8:30. I thought it would be perfect timing to get back to the car and he would sleep on the way home, meaning that Billy wasn't up too late past his bedtime. We got in line for the bus at 8:30. However, by the time we got in our car it was 10:30. That's right. Not just Billy, but the majority of the little kids-toddlers!- were stuck waiting in line for almost 2 hours well past bedtime just to get to the cars.

You have to wonder, since the event does not use any of Turf Valley's facilities other than the golf course, why it's held there. Why not hold it at the county fairgrounds where the parking was? They certainly had the space for it. I could also name at least three other better venues where parking would be on site. I would have to think this would be better, allowing visitors to spend more time spending money at the festival instead of in line for the shuttle bus.

It was fun and I'd go again, but I'd really have to plan next time for the bus debacle.

May 16, 2013 ~ Love of Gloves

You would think with the weather turning warm that Billy would want to dress for the season. But, he's two and has no concept of the seasons or how to dress for them.

Nope.

But he does have a love of gloves.

He went to bed with his gloves on and, yes, you guessed it, woke up with the gloves still on. He loves his gloves and he doesn't care if it feels like summer.

Drawn In Thursdays #62

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A true story from this week