12 posts tagged “toddler”

I took my son to an indoor play area this weekend. They had a mini "city" set up, with stuff like a pretend grocery store and lots of Little Tykes cars--the kind that the kid powers with their feet. When we first got there, I led my son to one of the cars, and another boy ran up, and pulled the car away, getting in it himself. I told my son that it was okay, that we could get in one of the other cars, and led him to a different car. (The parent of the little boy did scold him for stealing the car from my son.)

Later on, my son was opening the door to one of the cars to get in and the same boy ran up and jumped into the car. What does my son do? He told the little car thief, "Thank you." As the little boy runs away with the car, my son bent over, pointed, and laughed, as if it were the funniest thing to see the little boy going off with the car that he was about to play with.

My son has been really good about staying in bed until my husband or I get him. But last night, he must have decided he wanted more mom & dad time. My husband and I were watching a movie when my husband paused it to go check on our son, as he thought he heard something through the monitor. He was heading upstairs and found my son halfway down the stairs. So our son slept in his crib last night. I don't think he liked waking up in the middle of the night to find himself in his crib, because he cried a lot last night.

He went almost two weeks before he pulled this, not too bad.

We got our son a big boy bed last night. He watched us assemble it and as soon as it was together, he tried to climb in--before the mattress was even in. I got the mattress in and he climbed on and laid down. It was his bedtime, so I got him into his jammies. Normally we snuggle and rock for a little bit before he goes to bed, but tonight he jumped right into his new toddler bed. I think he was thrilled to see a bed like Mom and Dad have that was just his size.

He was a good boy and stayed in his bed all night. Although he did prove himself to still be worthy of the nick name "Wiggle Worm". We were woken up several times during the night with loud thumps as he squirmed around the head of his bed, banging himself into the headboard.

I can't believe my little boy is getting so big!

Every weekday, my son gets oatmeal for breakfast. Every weekday, he sticks his hands into his oatmeal. Every weekday, he then whines that his hands are covered with oatmeal so that I'll give him a washcloth to wipe them off. How come he hasn't figured out that if you stick your hands in your oatmeal, you will get oatmeal all over your hands?

He had his 18-month-check up yesterday. He cried when the nurse called him in. He cried when we tried to have him stand on the big person scale. He cried when we put him on the baby scale. He cried when we laid him down to measure how tall he is. He cried when the doctor listened to his lungs. And again when he listened to his heart. And of course, again when he was held down to have a shot.

So when we went to the lab to get some blood work to check for lead*, I was sure he'd cry. He had to have his arm held, his finger poked, and blood squeezed out. But for some reason, he didn't even flinch. And when the nurse started squeezing his finger to get blood drops out onto the little card, he didn't cry. And we (The Husband and I) started to laugh at him because we just looking so curiously at the nurse. And when we started laughing, he turned to us and started laughing. Laughing! He had cried every step of the way of the appointment until this point.

Maybe I should have laughed at him earlier.

* He was checked for lead because our house was built before lead paint was banned. I'm kind of glad he was checked because I just found out that we're three miles from a battery recycling facility that does not meet the new EPA guidelines for lead in the air.

I joined a MOPS (Mothers of PreschoolerS) group today. A Church that is a five minute walk away had sent out flyers and it mentioned an open house for their new MOPS group. I had stopped buy to find out a little more about them and decided to talk it over with my husband.

We're a one car household, and unless I want to wake up to drive my husband to work at 6am, I won't have a car available to me when it's cold and possibly snowy. My husband didn't like the idea of me having to push a stroller through the snow, and wanted me to get someone I already know to join with me so that I could get a ride. We compromised and decided that if it's snowy, I'll put our son in a sling or a wrap and walk over that way.

When I drop my son off at nursery at our Church (which is a location he knows, kids he knows, and adults he should be familiar with by now (it changes every week, but he should have seen everybody a few times by now) he always screams for a minute or two when I leave the room. It's once a week, so even though we've putting him in nursery for a few months now, he still does protests. Well, he really screamed today when I dropped him off. He happily went into the room to explore the kids and toys that were in there. But when the door shut and I wasn't in there with him, he freaked out. I could hear him all the way down the hall in our meeting room. I felt so bad! Not only for my son, since he probably thought I was abandoning him and never coming back, but also for the workers. He eventually stopped screaming and when I picked him up, the workers said he did really well.

It was just the first meeting today, and kind of introductory style, but even if the meeting topics aren't super exciting, it'll be nice to get out of the house twice a month and be around other adults. It's been really lonely as a stay at home mom for me lately. Plus, it'll give my son an opportunity to become more comfortable with people besides mom and dad.

My son doesn't have too many words in his vocabulary (he's not behind, but he certainly isn't one of those toddlers that can say 50+ words or anything like that). Because of his lack of words, it's easy for me to forget how aware and alert he is.

Today he took me by the hand, led me to his room, opened his closet door, and pointed to his shoes. Later, he went into his room by himself and brought his shoes out to me. This is his way of letting me know that he wants to go outside. He only wears shoes when we go places, so if he wants to leave the house, he knows that's an important step.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were doing yard work. When we finished up and were putting the tools away, he followed us to the garage, pushed his stroller out, and tried to climb into it.

I was unloading the dishwasher this afternoon and he saw the cap to his milk sippy cup. He went over, took the cap out and gave it to me to indicate that he wanted some milk.

If mom or dad aren't paying enough attention to him, he'll point to us to indicate that he want us to get down on the floor with him.

He has a school bus ride on toy. It sings a song to the tune of "This Old Man" (but with different words). I was singing the actual "This Old Man" song to him the other day. He looked at me with an interested look. When I stopped singing, he leaned over and pressed the button on his school bus to make it play it's song.

Last night we did a Target run right before Wiggle Worm's bedtime. (As a side, I need a new, toddler appropriate nickname, any suggestions?) We mostly bought household cleaners that we were out of or low on. I left them on the dinning room table, because I just didn't feel like putting things away after I got my son to bed (we got home right at bedtime) and doing my own night time routine.

So this morning, they were still sitting there. I was quickly checking my email just now and my son starts pressing something into my side. Can you see where this is going? I turn around to see what in the world he's trying to share with me, and it's the container of Comet. What if he had tried to open it rather than immediately giving it to Mommy? And how did he get tall enough to reach things off of the dining room table!

He's growing too fast!

We survived four days of long car rides this last weekend. We did a similar trip last year. This time, we only had two destinations, but about the same about of driving. It went better than last time, with no crying/screaming and minimal fussing. The Little Man did not like being strapped into a car seat for so long. But he got more than the normal amount of running around outside time, so I think that helped.

He didn't really nap well in the car. But he went down for his nap today without a fuss. Hopefully he'll sleep the normal amount of time and slide right back into his normal routine.

Just in time for the trip, he showed me that he knows how to go downstairs safely. I think it was last Thursday that we were heading downstairs and a foot or two before the top step, he suddenly went down to the ground and slithered his way backwards to the stairs so that he would go down toes first on his tummy. This was great because my mom has a staircase that wouldn't be very good with a baby gate, so I knew that it would be less likely for him to hurt himself on the stairs.

He's getting to be so much fun. There are certain things he seems to like a lot. Like running around outside. He'll go to the front door and stand on his toes, trying to reach the door knob. Or pianos. When he sees one, he goes right up to it and tries to press the keys. He even did this with my mom's electric keyboard, which surprised me because he's only ever played on a real piano at my in-laws house and at Church, he's never played on a keyboard. He wound up liking the many buttons on the keyboard better than the piano keys. If we wants me to get down on the floor and play with him, he'll point to me and make a noise that is a cross between a grunt and a whine. I'll get down and he'll walk backwards up to me and sit down on my lap.

I'm really liking this age. I kind of wish I could skip the baby part next time and just do this age to start with. I could do without the colic, spitting up, and other newborn stuff.