Progress - I Think

While I was washing dishes this morning, Alex sat on his potty. It appeared to me that he had no diaper on. I asked him if he had taken his diaper off. He stood up for me to see that he had and ran into his room to show me that he had put it in the diaper pail. It was a slightly wet diaper.

I asked him if he had taken it off because he had peed in his diaper and knew he had to use the potty (after-the-fact, but, oh well). He said that it was the case.

He got THREE M&Ms for that big step.

Monday, June 7

Meet the Neighbors

There's a species of bird around here that I can't identify. It's mainly gray, black and white - with a broad white stripe on its wing. Its body and head are like those of a sparrow, but it has a long square tail. It's a surprisingly bold bird. Assertive like a bluejay, but not as cowardly. Not quite the beggar the doves can be.

In any event, one of them nested in a large bush on our neighbor's property. Every day for the past 2-3 weeks, I've seen the adult (presumably the father) sitting on the wires outside my window. He's chased squirrels off the wire and from the branches of the tree near this bush. I've seen him come back and forth to the bush with food.

Alex and I called him 'Proud Papa'. He was quite the star of our Spring. We'd see him in front of our walk, on our patio roof, on our patio rails and pretty much everywhere near our home.

Yesterday, I saw 2 smaller versions of Proud Papa flying to the wires with him. I believe they'll soon be leaving their nest. Now, I call Alex to see Proud Papa or his babies anytime I see them.

Alex shrieks with excitement if he can see them. He's anxious to see the babies. For me, it's a little bittersweet to see them. When I do, I recall that for birds, independent maturity marks the very last time that most parents see their children.

Nah, I don't care for that bit. I prefer the way the tigers do it. (Non-aggressive, adult daughters will often stay with or around a mother until she dies.)

PS. from 6/9/10 Proud Papa and his clan are Northern Mockingbirds. Thanks Karris' Mom from Music class!
Northern Mockingbird

Monday, June 7

Harbor Fest

The Village held its annual Harbor Fest on June 6, so we headed down to Mamaroneck Avenue to see the sights. They had historical displays as well as a ton of food samplings. Great music and information booths.

Alex's (and our) favorite part was a tour of a tall ship called 'The Yankee'. It's a tour boat available for rental and it allowed visitors aboard as it was docked in our harbor.

At first Alex wasn't too sure about going down below deck. The Yankee was a small ship that had close quarters. When it came time to leave, however, Alex didn't want to.

Ohhh, Alex, don't you know by now that Mommy and Daddy mostly pick FUN things for you to see and do? We can tell you that you won't want to leave it.

Alex still asks about the 'Yankee boat' often. I can't wait to get him down to the Seaport so he can see the historic tall ships!

Sunday, June 6

The Discriminating Shopper

I've noticed that Alex is showing a lack of patience with recurring events, such as his classes. (I wonder why? ). I wished to find a way to teach him that while it's best to use your free time to have as many different experiences as possible, he also had to understand that there were also routine events. Someday he would go to school every weekday and he had to get used to that. I decided to work out his calendar with stickers so he could see routine events cropping up every week. I dashed into Trotta's to buy a large book of various stickers.

Trotta's has mini-shopping carts that are child sized. I thought Alex would have fun pushing the cart around while we got the things we needed. He had other ideas. He wasn't interested in the sticker book or the beach shoes I was getting there too. He went straight for the toy aisle loaded with cars and action figures.

'We're buying these today, Mama.' he informed me as he loaded up the shopping cart with cars and power rangers.

Sorry Alex. Those are going back on the shelves.

Sunday, June 6

The Wrong Nature Center

June opened up with a hot day. We'd gotten a slow start and Alex was anxious to continue his non-stop outdoor life. I wasn't in much of a mood to travel far, so I thought it might be a good day to visit the Marshlands Conservancy. The land contains forested acres with paths that lead down to the shore which is lined with saltwater marshlands. The last time we were there, Alex was far too young to hike with me and the paths weren't stroller friendly. I wasn't too sure how far we'd get this time.

I started out with a picnic in Florence Park, telling Alex that we were going to a different nature center that day. After we got to the entrance of Marshlands, we started our long walk down their driveway. Alex informed me that this was the 'wrong' nature center. No matter how often I told him that it was just a 'different' one, he insisted that it was the 'wrong' one. Apparently only the forested, inland Rye Nature Center will do now.

It was an amazing walk along the marshlands. We got a tad muddy walking on the straw grass at the waterline. The better path led down to a sandy beach where a ton of waterfowl were nesting with their young. I was surprised to see how calm the geese were when we approached them and their goslings. Alex was more into playing in the wet, muddy sand while I gathered some more seashell treasures for our collection.

The weather turned unpredictable. Soon enough the thunder and dark clouds that came up turned to rain while we were walking back along the path. I told Alex "Oh well. I guess we're gonna get wet." Reminded of a Nick, Jr. music video, he started to sing Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds".

"Don't worry, about a thing. Every little thing is gonna be all right."

Then he hugged my leg. I suppose he was reenacting the scene that shows a mama bat shielding her baby bat from the rain with her wing.

We got muddy and sandy and totally wet before we got home, but we had a great day at the "wrong" nature center.

Sunday, June 6

The Power of the Beetle

Since Alex had such a terrific time at Playland last week, I decided that we'd be better off if we bought season tickets this year. For 65 dollars, a Westchester resident can get a card that gets them free park admission and unlimited rides for the whole summer. Since many of the rides Alex likes require that I ride with him, it made the most sense that I got one for each of us. Yeah! Now we can get our money's worth!

Once again, Alex had other ideas. Once we got into the park, I actually had to convince him into Kiddyland towards his favorite rides. He wanted to head straight for the arcade at the rear of the park so that we could win more tickets towards his goal prize: a metal toy Volkswagen Beetle that costs 350 tickets. (We had about 70 up until then.) Even winning the battle to get him onto rides did not dissuade him for long. He wanted us to play the arcade games - none of which he can play by himself - so we can win more tickets. My first 5 dollars' worth of games were not enough. With each little payout of tickets, he'd grab them and run to the counter to ask for the Beetle. When I would make the mistake of telling him things like 'No, Alex, we need about 250 more tickets for that", he'd just ask to play more games.

Uh, kid? Games aren't a part of the "unlimited" portion of these 130 dollar season tickets, OK?

I was successful in getting him towards the lake to check out the birds. That's were we witnessed a "Geese Parade" as Alex called it. I was also successful in getting him onto a few more rides. But he still insisted on going back to the arcade to try again.  I spent another 5 dollars, the change for which was given to me in a cup to hold the quarters. He begged me over to the Skee-Ball games - a low ticket payout game - and asked to play them. He can't even get the ball to the no-point gutter, so I have to do it for him. He's none too happy about that. He wants to win the Beetle himself.

So, as I was finishing up a round of balls from one game of Skee-Ball, Alex dipped his fingers into the cup of quarters and walked to another Skee-Ball alley. He successfully inserted the quarter into the game's slot himself and a whole new slew of balls came down. I would have let him just try to roll the balls by himself if he could, but all they would do is just come right back down the alley and thud on the floor. I had to do my game quickly - and get a low score - so I could move onto the next one. No sooner do I get to the new one does Alex do it again. He grabbed a quarter from the cup and started ANOTHER game.
Ohhhh, the luring power of the Beetle. It's even winning over the "'Dult Ferris Wheel" [Adult]. That's his favorit-est ride EVER!

Friday, June 4

Wiggle Dance

A few nights ago, I heard Alex giggling and squealing while he was in the bath with Daddy. 'It wiggles!', he screamed, 'Look! It wiggles!'

They finished their bath and a naked Alex came running out of the bathroom, to his room and back out yelling the same thing, 'It wiggles!'. He ran up to me, naked as the day he was born, and stomped his feet in order to move his pelvis. 'It wiggles, Mama!'

'What wiggles, Baby?'

'My penis! Look at my Wiggle Dance!'

Then he ran around wiggling for at least another five minutes.

Wednesday, June 2