It Finally Happened...

So, yesterday I was at a local sprinkler park with Alex. He had been tapping his feet in a puddle left over from the sprinklers and he was joined by a girl of about 7 who could splash with a lot more force than Alex could. Alex was already changed into his beach coverall to dry off and I didn't want him to get wet again, so I asked the girl if she could splash a little lighter (she was just washing sand off her feet) because I didn't want him to get wet again. A debate over his getting wet again ensued, because, y'know, she was 7. Finally she asked me 'And who are you? Are you his grandma??!!'

Her father (huh?! - mid 30s definitely), looked horrified and yelled 'NATALIE!!'. I just laughed and shrugged at the guy saying 'I gotta get used to that.'

But hey - 17 months before anyone ever asked me that!! That's pretty good! LOL!

August 23, 2008

Signing Time

Alex's first pediatrician was against signing. He felt that the frustration would lead Alex to talk sooner. I haven't been successful in getting Alex to learn other signs since he made a break through on talking (ton of words at a time), but before he did, he learned signs very quickly.

I SO don't agree with the idea that learning signs will slow down speech in a hearing child. It's not exactly the same thing as being bi-lingual in spoken language, because the child can tell the difference between a sign and a word, but I do consider ASL just another language in which he learned some communication. I have noticed that Alex once said the words for the signs he knows, but he abandoned them in favor of signing. But it's not like I'm not worried that he's going to be 15 years old and not able to say the words 'milk', 'eat' or 'more', though. I mean, c'mon.

I'm all in favor of signing. Like other posters here, I saw Alex just light up like a Christmas tree when he realized that he'd just communicated with us when he first signed 'milk'. It seemed to me, it encouaged his speech, not delayed it.

August 20, 2008

Little Yeller

I've never seen Alex try to yank anything away from another child. But today, on the playground, I intervened twice in his verbal aggression towards other children. On two separate occasions he yelled at other children for playing with something he wanted to play with. But he hadn't been playing with it at the time they had their hands on it and he hadn't even been going for it. He almost succeeded in intimidating another little boy off a ride. I corrected him right away then because I felt the other kid gave up too easily when Alex had been in the wrong. I didn't want he and Alex to work it out that way. In the other instance, the other child was 4 and could understand me when I intervened on her behalf. I did that so that Alex could see she and I work it out when he doesn't have the verbal skills yet. (She was going to give up too and it was her ball he wanted.)

August 20, 2008

What to be for Halloween?

I need to shop for Alex's Halloween costume. I want something Halloween-ish, like a devil, witch, fairy, etc. Alex loves Elmo to pieces and he'd be awfully cute as Elmo, but there's just so many years I can have the ability to choose his Halloween costume for him. So, while I can, I'm eyeballing some classic creature stuff. When Alex has the ability to plan, make choices and verbalize them, then I'll have to deal with his preferences. After all, I know there will be a day that I'll have to deal with some Ninja Turtle nonsense or some superhero or whatever.

August 19, 2008

Pancakes Please

Alex is no fan of eggs. He just loves bacon and that wasn't really a good substitute. So, I've just been sticking to Cheerios with diced fruit (either apple or banana) and half a broken up granola bar. I asked my pediatrician about this and she said it was a fine breakfast and that, in her opinion, it wasn't necessary to get him to like eggs if he was getting protein from other sources. I have no problem getting Alex to eat meats like chicken for dinner or chopped up meatballs or even those Gerber jarred meat sticks. (He doesn't like peanut butter either).

To get some protein into this boy, I switched your pancake batter to the one that needs an egg? As soon as I went back to that one, I had no problem getting Alex to eat those too.

August 18, 2008

Time Out! Too Soon?

I gave Alex his first Time Out today. It was only about 40-60 seconds. I delivered it after warning him away from the gate around the fireplace three times. I could tell he understood that I didn't want him to go there.

I expected that he wouldn't really understand the nature of what went on. I just figured I would start these kinds of corrections now instead of waiting and possibly passing a point when he was able to get it and then just slamming it down on him suddenly.

But after it went on, Alex was looking at me and acting in such a way that indicated that he understood what just happened.  So it seems that a 16 month old can understand the negative consequence of a Time Out.

I know that many months ago, I got Alex to stop standing in the tub too, but I did it with "earning yays". I would sit him back down and say "That's a yay". It took only about 2 or 3 days before he was sitting himself back down and clapping and saying "Yay" and looking up at me. He kept remembering the sit down thing until we moved to showers. I thought maybe that the concept of positive consequence was easier to understand, since for them almost everything they decide to do at all is done out of a desire for positive consequence.

This time, I used his play yard to contain him. It has a gate that can lock closed and he knows it's been constantly open since he showed that he could walk well on his own. So, now, he knows that I only used the closed play yard if I had to because there was danger going on in the rooms he has free rein in or, in this first case, a Time Out. He cried for about 10-15 seconds into it, but then stopped. Dan thinks that he started complying with the idea when he realized that I wasn't comforting him while he was crying, but instead just talking to him from the other side of the play yard.
Who knew they could understand the concept of negative consequence at this age? Wow. Interesting.

August 15, 2008

Future PR Man

Alex should wind up in Public Relations. He totally has the hide of a rhino when it comes to dealing with unpleasant acting children. The other day, the gym babysitters' daughter (age 3) was in the playroom with him and running to every toy or attraction he approached, declaring 'NO!' and body blocking him from touching it. Alex shrieked with laughter everytime she did it, thinking it was this big ol' game she was playing. He was delighted. (I spoke to her and told her that he needs to be able to play with something.)

By the time I was leaving the gym an hour later, I packed up an excited, still happy Alex and the little girl jumped in front of the carriage declaring 'NO!' - meaning I was not to take Alex away. Her mom explained that I had to go home. She said 'I want to go home with him!'

Boy did HE turn that situation around or what?

August 14, 2008

Mama's Smiles for Today

- While playing this afternoon, Alex walked over to me and took my hand to lead me somewhere. Normally, it's toward the gate to the vestibule to tell me he wants to go outside. Today I was led to his play yard. When I said 'Oh! You want to play with me?' He nodded his head and smiled broadly.

- Earlier this afternoon, Alex walked up to the television and said, 'Gerkle' while reaching for the buttons on the TV. It's was his way of telling me that he wants us to go over his 'Discovering Shapes' Baby Einstein video. I put it on and we did our usual routine of Baby Einstein promo goofiness, which is to hum the sound signature really loud and go 'Blink! Blink' when the caterpillar blinks. We also dance around doing explosion sounds to the Disney company ID on the videos as well. Today, I went to do the explosion sounds and Alex didn't join me. He sat down on the floor and just looked up at me. I sat down next to him and he squealed in delight, jumping up and putting his arms on me. Then he nodded his head soundly and said 'GERKLE!' I suppose he was telling me 'It's lesson time, Mommy. Silliness later.'

There were other items like that all day long, like most days. He just makes me smile all the time.

August 7, 2008

Pooping on Command

It doesn't matter if I get there at 9, 9:30, 10 or 10:30 - I can count on the fact that Alex will poop about 15-20 minutes into my workout and I'll spot the babysitter coming out to get me with Alex in one arm and my changing pad set in the other. The ladies locker room has no changing table. These changes take at least 10 minutes, sometimes even more by the time I wrap it all up and wash my hands.

The babysitter has told me that she is permitted to change babies as long as the mother says OK. I've said 'OK' repeatedly. Today she told me that there was one supervisor there who does not allow it. So, I change Alex and then see her with another tot, taking her to the bathroom. Usually there are two people on hand for the playroom, so I went straight there. Nobody there. I had to wait an additional 10 minutes for the babysitter to return. They had no back up for her today. When they don't they usually ask the person at the front desk to sit in the room with any children there. Since Alex was with me, they didn't do that when she had to take the other tot to the bathroom.

So the score was today 15 minutes of babysitting, 20 minutes of me watching and caring for Alex. And they expect me to pay for this? told the babysitter that I'd had it. I wasn't paying for today. I was tired of this business of ever-changing policy on changing diapers. I was tired of spending money to change and watch my son in their building. She pleaded with me to not go to management about it and to give them another chance. This woman is only 25, just out of college and currently in grad school, working towards her full-time teaching license. I didn't want to confront her with a chewing out (Alex adores her), so I said I wanted to bitch about "the policy".

She begged me to give it one more chance on Tuesday, my next usual day in which I'd use babysitting. If it happens one more time, Dan is just gonna have to deal with getting his ass out of bed early on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Enough of this.

If I didn't have a 15 minute walk each way to the gym, I think I'd never get any exercise on my gym days. GAH!

That's all - just ventin'

August 7, 2008

Of Poop and Lunges

It doesn't matter if I get there at 9, 9:30, 10 or 10:30 - I can count on the fact that Alex will poop about 15-20 minutes into my workout and I'll spot the babysitter coming out to get me with Alex in one arm and my changing pad set in the other. The ladies locker room has no changing table. These changes take at least 10 minutes, sometimes even more by the time I wrap it all up and wash my hands.

The babysitter has told me that she is permitted to change babies as long as the mother says OK. I've said "OK" repeatedly. Today she told me that there was one supervisor there who does not allow it. So, I change Alex and then see her with another tot, taking her to the bathroom. Usually there are two people on hand for the playroom, so I went straight there. Nobody there. I had to wait an additional 10 minutes for the babysitter to return. They had no back up for her today. When they don't they usually ask the person at the front desk to sit in the room with any children there. Since Alex was with me, they didn't do that when she had to take the other tot to the bathroom.

So the score was today 15 minutes of babysitting, 20 minutes of me watching and caring for Alex. And they expect me to pay for this?

I told the babysitter that I'd had it. I wasn't paying for today. I was tired of this business of ever-changing policy on changing diapers. I was tired of spending money to change and watch my son in their building. She pleaded with me to not go to management about it and to give them another chance. This woman is only 25, just out of college and currently in grad school, working towards her full-time teaching license. I didn't want to confront her with a chewing out (Alex adores her), so I said I wanted to bitch about "the policy".


She begged me to give it one more chance on Tuesday, my next usual day in which I'd use babysitting. If it happens one more time, Dan is just gonna have to deal with getting his ass out of bed early on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Enough of this.

If I didn't have a 15 minute walk each way to the gym, I think I'd never get any exercise on my gym days. GAH!

That's all - just ventin'

Canine Ease

Other than his first experience with teething, Alex has been a great teether. When it was first happening, it was horrible. He was only 4 and a half months old and there was very little I could do to help his pain. He wasn't able to hold a teether to his own mouth and I had to play a guessing game when I held it there and then took it away if I guessed it was too cold. All I had to help him was the Orajel.

Since those teeth broke about 5 weeks later, none of his subsequent teeth cutting have been as bad. So I never knew when it was time to break out the Orajel. He's getting canines now and the first one bugged him for only a day or two. Tylenol seemed to help enough. Now, it's just drool.