I Played My Drum For Him

Ever try to clean anything with a 21 month old running around? It can't be done in four hours, that's for sure.

So, nothing is clean the way I wanted it. I don't have the gifts I wanted to get for Alex because I didn't have enough time. I don't have the gifts I wanted for Dan for the same reason. (They're all coming later). I spent half an afternoon in Manhattan today grabbing the gifts they 'need'.

Dinner tonight was a plain ol' dinner I make often. Alex didn't nap today, so he was in a foul mood from about 4 PM on. He had zero attention span in trying to do anything. I couldn't get many pictures or even watch our whole Christmas movie because he was so overtired that he wouldn't stay still, nor make much sense. Doesn't matter much anyway, since I still have a stack of Christmas decorations piled up on my study desk which probably aren't getting up.

Soooo, it wasn't a great idea to go away only days after Thanksgiving, only to have to study all day every alternate day ('cuz Dan did too) up to the 17th. From the 18th on, Alex has been a serious handful and I just couldn't keep up.
After dinner we sang some carols to Alex. Much to our surprise, he seemed to know "Silent Night". He sang along with it. Only once, of course, and not again to the video camera. Then we cheered him up with some cinnamon raisin toast while we told him that he did so many "yays" this year that Santa ran out of paper and two ink cartridges trying to keep track of them.

After a futile 15 minutes of trying to get photos (limited to the one corner in which I can take any decent photos), I gave up and told Dan to get him ready for bed.
When Dan brought him to me to say "Goodnight", Alex threw out his arms to try to wrap them around me, declaring:
"Mama. HUG!"

And then he squealed with laughter.

I guess the regular ol' dinner and his special new Winnie the Pooh slippers and the "Christmas toast" with carols were all he really needed. Hug, Baby. Mama hug.

Have a Merry Christmas all!

December 24, 2008

Waiting on the Special Present

I am trying to get a response from a book printer located in Murrary, Utah. According to Yahoo Maps, Murray appears to be a suburb of Salt Lake City, located to the south of it. Murray seems to be directly west of Halladay, Utah.

I've been waiting to hear from these people for two days, not having received a response to three emails nor even my book order. I'm about to cancel my subscription and email them the direction to cancel my book order - but not if someone can tell me that it's the case that this area of Utah has been hit with unusually bad snow that is stopping business.
So, I asked the Moms.  Shout out to Utah moms!

I was told that the snow was unusually heavy, even for Utah.  Book publisher has been saved.

Get here board books!!!

Noses and Other New Interests

What is it with that nose thing? Alex gets way into his nose lately.

I love it when he sings along with songs he likes. He particularly loves this song from The Great Day of the Fliers (from the Land Before Time). The song is 'Flip, Flap and Fly' and Alex calls it - and the whole movie - 'Flap, Flap'. He'll sing 'Flap, flap' to the song. He'll call any image of a pterodactyl 'Flap, Flap' and even any image of a bird in flight 'Flap, flap'. Alex has also taken to starting to call the charatcers he likes on his toy phone. Dan heard him having a conversation with 'Mouse' and 'Mice' (from the Nutcracker). Last night he called Blue from Blue's Clues saying 'Hello Blue?' and then jargoning the rest of his conversation except to say 'Bye' before he hung up.

I wish I had videos of it. Predictably, he'll stop as soon as I get the camera out.

December 22, 2008

Mouse!

This semester has been a rough one. Alex has been nap-striking and refusing nightly bedtime since early September. I used to be able to study and do homework during his naps and in the early mornings before he'd call for me. Without those times, I was constantly playing catch-up into the wee hours of the night. Tonight was no exception.

Alex wouldn't go down until shortly after 11:15 tonight. I was a bundle of misery, with a test due tonight and such.

A few days ago, I needed the Christmas Spirit to get started already. So, I ordered a DVR movie, looking for some Christmas themed movie. All I could get that looked decent was 'Barbie in the Nutcracker'. It's the Nutcracker story, but with some of the ballet and Tchiakovsky's music, but 'Barbie' is drawn like Barbie and 'cast' as Clara. Alex loves exciting music and Tchiakovsky usually doesn't disappoint in that area. I thought Alex might like some parts of the story. He did.

His favorite part so far is when the Mouse King comes into Clara's house looking for the Nutcracker. And the Nutcracker battles the Mouse King and his mice soldiers.

So, tonight, Dan put it on for Alex while he was fixing some late night snack. I was a stressball, unable to concentrate. I walked out of the den and headed for the kitchen to get some decaf. There was Alex, holding onto a book and lightly swashing it like a sword against his play yard walls. He looked up at me and said "Mouse!" as if to explain what he was doing.

He was battling the evil Mouse King.

It's hard to stay stressed out about math tests when Alex is fighting the Mouse King. So, I got a sip of decaf and walked back into the living room to plop down and watch the Nutcracker with Alex.

Life is good.

December 2, 2008

A Christmas Tree Dilemma

For those of you who usually put up large trees (6 ft and taller), what do you do to secure the tree from a curious toddler?

If you use fencing, how do you secure the fencing? Are you anchoring it to the walls?

Do you use any sort of string or some other anchor to tie the top of the tree to the walls?

I'm seriously at a loss on this. I could get fencing, but free-standing as a rectangle or octogon, it moves if he pushes it, which defeats the purpose. My parents used to secure our really tall trees (6.5 - 7 ft) with green string looped around the tree's main stalk and anchored to the wall at various points going down, but I don't know just how secure this really is for a toddler.

I'm thinking about getting some potted, short, real trees in wide pots and placing them at elevated spots instead of my regular 6.5 foot tree, but I don't really know.

Thanks for your suggestions.
Lynne       

Elmo! Elmo! Elmo! Oyyyy-neeee!

Sesame Place is a Sesame Street theme park located in Langhorne, PA. It's all things Sesame Street from the rides, to the shows, to the decorations and music, with costumed characters walking around. We were there only this weekend, so we couldn't take advantage of its water park attractions, but the rest of the park was enough for my little guy.

Alex was ALL 'Elmo! Elmo! Elmo!' whenever he saw a picture of him, but when it came to meeting a costumed character of Elmo, he froze up! That didn't stop him from chasing the Ernie character around shouting 'Oy-neeee! Oy-neee!' I told Dan that I wanted to go before it closed for the season. He was all 'ohh, he won't get it' and 'it's really a hassle' and 'where will we stay' and 'we have so much to do on weekends' and blah, blah, bl-blah.

Does this look like a guy who seems 'hassled'?

That was taken at an attraction called 'Dine With Me!', in which you get a buffet dinner along with close up entertainment from the characters after which they walk around and meet and greet all of the kids.

Alex 'got it', BTW and Dan had a great time too.

October 26, 2008

Food Strike!

Alex goes through phases of rejecting food. He comes out of them too. I brought it up at his 15 mo check up and the pediatrician told me to not worry about it if he's not losing weight or showing any signs of malnutrition - which he wasn't. She said it's a typical complaint over toddlers.

I've just rotated his meals, trying anything and everything to see if he'll take to it and I just default to baby food if it's gone on for too long during the day. I can usually make a breakthrough with fruits and Gerber meat sticks.

Apparently, it's normal for toddlers to do this and they don't starve. Now only if I could find a way to go on a food strike.

October 13, 2008