Gametes In Love

Let me tell you a little story…

Little Stormy Foo Foo
Pouncing through the infant room.
Throwing things at the babies
And bopping them on the head

When I came to pick up my monkey today (we have swim class on Tuesdays now, so he gets picked up earlier), Ms S told me that she had to send him to the office to hang out with the director. I thought to myself ‘Uh-oh! What now?’ because the director’s office is where kids go if they’re sick and need to be isolated from the other kids. Nope, S2 apparently needed to stay out of trouble.

So where do I find him? Sitting in the director’s lap, happy as a clam, while she was working on the computer [Side question: why is he not this patient when I need to work on my computer and he’s in my lap???], munching on a cracker. And then it hit me….
I SO wouldn’t put it past him to get purposefully in trouble JUST to get sent to the office. It’s where the animal crackers are, and he bolts for the office whenever the door is open.

He’s an evil genius!!! I’m pretty certain Stewy Griffin is actually based on S2.

G and S enjoying an afternoon at the park. Swings + Slide = A fun time indeed!

My little daredevil is already determined to slide down head first AND walk up the slide.

You know the story of the kid who loves to play with the wrapping paper of their birthday gift more than the gift itself? Yeah, well, G doesn’t stray far from that tale. You see, he enjoys playing with an empty plastic bin about as much as anything else.

• He pushes it around the floor and uses it as a walking toy
• He throws his toys in it
• He then pulls them out
• He flips it sideways and then sits in it
• Sometimes he plays turtle with it (with our supervision that is)

S calls it the Swiss Army Knife of toys.

So yeah. Plastic bin (from Target)? $8. Hours of toddler fun? Priceless!

This is one of those stories that child caregivers will (sadly) relate to and make non-parents cringe. It’s a story of poop, and tossed cookies (or in our case tossed pear/pineapple pure). It ain’t for the faint of heart, but it can very well be one of those train-wrecks you just can’t look away from. On the other hand, if you want to continue reading of G’s adventures and want the good, smiley parts, skip over today, K?

G for the second night in a row delivered his load just in time for the last diaper change of the day. Personally, I prefer it when he goes during the day, while at daycare, but alas, not so lucky lately. He’s also been fighting diaper changes and squiggles, kicks and twists during them as if he’s been subjected to some torturous procedure. Between the two, we’ve been lucky that we haven’t ended up with a steamy pile of poo on our carpet… until last night.
In his bronco imitation phase, G manages to kick his soiled diaper off the changing table. Luckily S caught it (this is why poopie diapers are now a 2-man job) before it ended up on the floor. Sadly, we didn’t get as lucky on restraining the wipes. One of those wipes must have dropped a juicy little nugget, that S unknowingly stepped in. While I was proceeding with the rest of our bed-time routine, S continued walking around the room putting stuff away, gathering diapers for the next day, so on and so forth. Yeah, you see where this is going? He left a lovely little trail of where he’d been. It wasn’t until the end that he looked down, then at me, and we figured out what had happened. Off he goes to get the cleaning supplies.
G is now no longer interested in his milk, and in fact wants to get down on the floor and play – on the poopie, being cleaned up with Resolve, floor, mind you. The lights are still on, so there’s no hint for him to think that bed-time is coming up. Yet he’s tired and already cranky. This makes for one fussy baby, one irritated dad, and one helpless mom.
Result? A (literally) shitty bed-time.
S had to ultimately take over when he was done cleaning, because G was pissed off at me for not letting him go down on the floor (and we all know how the kid can hold a grudge).

At least he slept well.

Cue up this morning.
Following breakfast, as I’m putting my shoes on, already dressed and G straddled on my hip, guess what happened? That’s right – G decided he didn’t want to hold on to his breakfast. Luckily S heard him coughing up and literally stuck his hands out cupped in front of G’s mouth as it all came out. It got all over G’s shirt, and my sweater, so back upstairs we go to change. Meanwhile, S is trying not to loose his cookies while he washes up his hands. I could hear him dry-heaving in the downstairs bathroom.
Yeah, I guess we know who the lucky parent will be cleaning up after G’s first stomach flu, huh?

So welcome to parenting my friends. This is your preview. You know you’ve reached a true stage of parenting when you discuss these sorts of topics. For the record? It’s still gross!

Ok, not yesterday, but today… just like that, he walks.

He’s now standing up in the middle of the floor and taking steps in random directions. Unsupported. It’s still the zombie walk, (arms up over the head and all) and he does still fall, but he’s walking.

Man, how do 14 months pass by so fast?

11.09.2009 (14 months)

It’s still Monday in our neck of the woods, so this counts 🙂

Here’s G “walking” to his toy bin. I put walking in quotes there because he’s not consistently taking 5 steps or more in a row, and that’s when I can officially count it. He does 3 on his own before he plops over. So here without further adieu is G’s walk.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTs4oSCwZMI]

We can’t quite tell if he’s excited about the walking part or the slamming himself against the toy chest part. Well at least he’s having a good time.

I’ve been on the hunt for fall foliage. Have you any idea how hard it is to find fallen leaves around where we live? It’s obviously California Bay Area’s curse and blessing. Our moderate climate while nice (when all the East-Coasters are freezing their toes off in winter), also produces more or less the same view year round: green. I’m not complaining too loudly mind you. All I’m saying is that it would be nice to be able to get some pictures every once in awhile amongst some deep yellow and red leaves. Fall is my favorite season of the year, specifically for the colors. I keep saying that I want to rent a house for a few days in Vermont one year and just watch autumn take over. Sigh — I miss living in a 4 season part of the world.

Anyway, with some hunting I was able to find a tree (1 tree!) in a park that had some fallen, color-changed leaves. I was trying to entice G to play with the leaves, maybe throw a few overhead, but to him the idea of a good time is eating a leaf or two. Eh, you get what you can.

I’ve been pretty pleased with G’s eating lately. I know I shouldn’t say that too loud, but despite his continuous “feather-butt” syndrome, he’s eating well. It helps, of course, that I’ve figured out a trick: snacks!

That’s right, each meal-time is accompanied by an army of snacks. If you take a look at my set-up, you’d swear you were in the isle of a grocery store. But, alas, it is needed in order to keep G occupied while I shove fruit, veggie, and meats in his mouth.

G likes to feed himself, which is great. He’s just not too proficient with the spoon jarred-food eating, so while I let him occasionally wave a spoon around and dunk it in his food (he thinks this is fun), I’m the primary food-delivery device. Meanwhile, G’s job is to shove snacks in his mouth. I line up puffs, or a cheese-wheel to kick off meals. He’ll cram a bite in his mouth, and I follow it up with a spoon. Occasionally he’ll get sick of whatever he’s munching on and will start pointing and grunting to the rest of the snack line-up. This is where he gets choices. I put up two containers and offer him A or B. He’ll either gesture towards one of the packages, or keep pointing to whatever he originally wanted. Either way, we figure it out: he gets what he wants, and I get what I want: a finished meal.

One benefit to this is that we’re starting to work on choices. While, he can choose until he gets what he wants, it’s improving our communication a bit, and it’s helping him feel in control.

At daycare, they have a different strategy: bringing in Ms. F. G’s sweet on her, and all other teachers are chopped liver in comparison. She can get him to eat anything. So when he refuses his food there, she comes over to finish lunch. That’s right — my son is already showing off for the ladies. I don’t know if I should be worried about this or not.

In other “eating” news, G’s school has told us on a few occasions now that he’s far more interested in what the big kids are eating than his own mashed food. I’m cool with that. His school actually provides a Hot Meals program, so I’m thinking we’ll try that. Before signing up officially, I’m gonna see if we can test it out for a day or two. If G’s ready for the big-kid food, we’ll move him to it. Bonus side for me? One less thing I have to pack up for him each day 🙂

So that’s my strategy. It’s working for us… at least for now.

G’s daycare is instituting a new policy in regards to birthday celebrations: only healthful foods, please! This means, no more cupcakes. They’re politely asking that if parents bring in treats to the classroom for the kids and teachers, they bring in low-calorie, low-fat, healthy alternatives. They even provided a neat list of suggestions.

I dig it!

Although I am known as a connoisseur of junk food, I want better for G, and I’m happy to hear that his sugar and empty calories will be delivered by yours trully at home and not at school.

On the bonus side, this also means a lot less effort for me 🙂 I’m a good cook. I really am (and am not ashamed to toot my own horn). And I love baking… just the thought of baking and decorating cupcakes for two dozen kids each year was really unappealing. Cutting up fruit and making fruit kabobs though? Sign me up for that!

PS. If you are into cake/cupcakes though and want a great sugar-free alternative, I highly recommend the Baby’s First Birthday Cake recipe (found here: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/tipFirstBDay.htm). These are what we served at G’s birthday, and even though there was no sugar to speak of, the treats were plenty sweet (thank you raisins and apple sauce), and super moist. Man, these were good! If you decide to convert this recipe to cupcakes, bake only for 1/2 the suggested time and use an ice-cream scoop to ensure consistent amount of batter in each tin. The recipe produces 2 dozen cupcakes… although less will be delivered to the party as I’m sure you will eat a few along the way… for taste-testing of course ;p