Gametes In Love

Tylenol and Motrin sure are getting a run for their money around these here parts. You see, G is getting a visit by the tooth-gifting faerie and she has not been kind. His nose has been draining like a faucet, his diaper rash is never-ending, and his personality? Well, let’s just say it leaves a lot to be desired. To top it off he’s trying to gnaw on just about everything in sight… like my chair arm-rest for example… or my fingers. He’s never been much of a teether-kind of kid, and now that he’s got his incisors and first molars in, it’s hard to get into the nooks & crannies he really wants to scratch.

His incoming teeth are his canines. That will pretty much wrap up teething for us for awhile and G will be sporting a mouth-full of chompers. I can’t wait!

I’m only sorta kidding. I think our child likes his infant Tylenol a bit too much. The moment he sees it he stretched out his arms and grunts/whines after it. I gave him some this evening on account of the evil teething spell he’s been doing through (more on this soon), and he took the dropper out of my hands. Then he proceeded to lick and suck the meds out of it. I mean, LIKED.THE.DROPPER.CLEARN!!! Normally there’s a bunch of pink still left when I squirt in there — he cleaned right off.

Is there a toddler NA program I need to be looking into?

G now plays a good game of “Come and get me”. It goes something like this: find an activity you know you are NOT supposed to do (in this case make dents in the coffee table with a wooden toy peg), make sure mom & dad see it, devilishly laugh, and then run away giggling.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7VBZHzFYo8]

And this, my friends, is why you can’t get much done with a toddler around.

S and I aren’t fortunate to live close to either of our families. The closest, distance wise, is 370 miles away. Although we all make an effort to visit as often as we can, this means that G doesn’t get to get spoiled by his Grammies, often, or ride horsie ontop of the Grandpas.

This is where Skype comes in.

We now Skype with our families about once a week. We reserve this activity for week-ends (or the occasional evening) when we can battle time-zones, and daily schedules. All grandparents & aunties are setup with their own Skype accounts, so G now gets to show off his belly-button…

… and his nose

… or his latest toy

… LIVE to them all.

Personally, I love this! I love seeing him excited about the person on the other side of the screen. The best is when he reaches out to touch them. Yeah, it’s not the same as having the physical person near, but I’m thrilled that we live in a time when this is possible, common… and frankly free.

Thank you Skype!

PS. Occasionally we cover-up the keyboard since G is just as excited to type up his comments as verbalize them.

01.22.2010

01.21.2010

01.21.2010

01.13.2010

12.08.2009

11.25.2009

Note to self: pureed carrots are not the best breakfast food for toddlers. This is because:

1. Toddler will insist on a spoon of their own that they can “help” feed themselves with
2. Toddler will dip said spoon in said carrot puree and then fling it in your general direction
3. Toddler will realize that puree floor drizzle art is a lot of fun
4. While orange (color of carrots) and blue (color of shirt) are contrasting colors, they do not look good together in the above stated texture/format

… at least it’s Hump Day of a short week.

We’ve taught G to show us his belly button.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRH_x72Aado]

It’s super cute when he shows you his belly!

Yesterday he also pointed to his nose… only to immediately afterward stick his finger in there and dig around. Yeah, we won’t be showing you video of that one.

We got G a harness buddy. This is where all of you go “YOU ARE PUTTING YOUR CHILD ON A LEASH?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” Yeah, yeah, blah, blah… whatever. Here’s the deal: G has but one speed when we’re out and about: and that’s full run. Although his legs are about a foot long, they manage to take him places pretty quickly… sometimes quicker than I would like or can catch up with. Also, because he’s shorter than I, he can sneak in between objects that I wouldn’t even dream of. It made keeping up with him at the Academy of Sciences… how should I put it… interesting. So… I would much rather take dirty stares from parents (and non-parents alike) than to loose my kid, or have him get injured.

Through the help of my kick-ass mom community I was able to find what I was looking for. Interestingly enough the terms “Monkey backpack” or “Baby leash” weren’t quite getting me what I was searching for on Amazon, although I am certain that there’s a red flag on my Amazon profile now, logged w/ Child Protective Services, after that last query. Not only did Amazon have the harness buddies (Amazon carries everything, why am I even surprised?), they had all different kinds. So S and I opted for a lion because 1) Hey, it’s 1/2 of a griffin; 2) looks super cute; 3) not as popular as the monkey.

Well it arrived yesterday. Excited about it, S and I got it out of the box and onto the kid. And guess what? G HATED it! He whined until we took it off (but a minute later).

Not wanting to give up on this thing, I tried again today. I figured — getting him used to it at home sounds like a good idea, vs. having him throw a fit when we’re out and about and need it. Still no love for the Lion. So I wore it. Yeah you heard me right. It was ridiculously tight and I felt like I was being strangled by an elf, but I wore the thing for a good 30 minutes. The whole time I was bouncing around pretending I was having a great time, smiling and showing it off to G.  Seeing me wear it made him come around to it. When I took it off I gave the backpack a hug and handed it to G. Then we put it on him. This time, NO WHINING! Score!!! We didn’t do both buckles, just the top one, but hey it’s a huge move forward.

We’ll try again tomorrow, but I like that he’s getting acclimated to it.

I also liked that my “model behavior” technique worked. Obviously it won’t for everything and I have no intent to try sitting on the baby potty some day when we’re ready to start training (unless I want a Bjorn potty permanently adhered to my rear end), but I’m glad it worked for this situation.

12.29.2009: It’s a penguin. Just trust me.

12.22.2009: Christmas Tree

12.9.2009: Footprint holiday wreath

12.8.2009: I call this “The Menorah incident”… on account of all the flames engulfing the Menorah