Brusha brusha brusha

After weeks of dealing with nightly struggles over toothbrushing and feeling like even when we were able to brush Jack’s teeth, it wasn’t a thorough cleaning, I decided something had to be done.  I got the bright idea to try one of those toothbrushes with the spinning brush head, so off I went to the store where I found an orange crayon toothbrush.  (It didn’t even occur to me until last night how perfect the design is for Jack – I just chose it because it was the only one without a weird action-figure handle!)  It’s battery-operated and not rechargable, but the price was pretty good for something I wasn’t sure would do the trick.

Jack wasn’t sure about it at first.  Put this vibrating thing in my mouth?  Whaaa?  No way, mom.  I ended up brushing his teeth with the spinning turned off.  The next day, though, Joe and Jack had some sort of breakthrough and Jack was suddenly in love with the spinning toothbrush.  Now he requests to brush his teeth several times a day.  The brushing goes on for a good five minutes, too.  We have to put an end to it, otherwise he will keep going.

Last night, after a good long tooth-cleaning (during which I noticed that he lingered in the place where his molar is erupting), I suddenly heard the buzzing get louder.  Wondering what Jack was up to, I wandered into the bathroom to see that he was using his toothbrush to clean his fingernails!  Well, he’s got the right idea, I guess…

Little Helper

Jack and I have been on our own this weekend for the most part.  I am dealing with some hormone-induced depression and having a hard time coming up with things to keep us occupied.  The fourth of Jack’s 2-year molars is finally breaking through, too, so he is a bit cranky.

Thank goodness toddlers like things like checking the mail, helping to unload dishwashers, washing laundry, and baking.  There are always chores like these to be done!

Future birthdays may be a letdown

Jack’s birthday is in less than a month!  We have a costume party planned and there will even be a few kids there.    I am pretty excited, although the only things I’ve accomplished so far are to send out a save-the-date evite and buy Jack’s present:

 

Don’t blink

Jack’s obsession with monsters has grown exponentially.  A few weeks ago I began using his stuffed monsters to talk to him when he was throwing fits.  He quickly decided to keep those monsters close.  “I have three monsters!” he would proudly proclaim as he walked around the apartment with his arms wrapped around the toys.  Then he would shove one in my direction with a “pleeeeease” and we would make them growl and talk at eachother.

I recently babysat my 7 month old niece Isha.  I had my niece and Jack to myself for about two hours and was quite proud that I came out of it unscathed (with two fed kids with dry butts, no less!).  The evening started off with Jack stealing toys from Isha and making her cry (in his defense, they were his toys) so I ended up distracting him with Monsters, Inc.  Jack is IN LOVE with that movie and, well, so am I (after all, I bought it before Jack was even in the picture).  We ended up watching it twice that night after Jack called for, “More Sully!  More Monsters!”

Most of the drawings on the magnadoodle are monsters now.  Naptime and trips to daycare require accompaniment of at least two monsters.  When denied nursing one day, Jack played out the scenario with his monster: “Want milk,” he growled, and then answered, “No more milk!”

After developing this interest in his stuffed monsters, he started noticing the other stuffed animals hanging around the place.  His elephant and dog beanie babies are now acceptable substitutes for monsters when napping.  He has also taken a liking to what he calls “big mouse” – a hand-stitched stuffed mouse with wool hat, sweater, scarf, shorties, and booties that he received on his first birthday.  He loves the clothes and makes me undress and redress the mouse over and over.  Saturday he even started drawing the mouse on the magnadoodle, so I knew it was real love.

Somehow among all of this he developed an interest in dragons, as well.  When he awoke yesterday morning he requested “Watch teebee, wanna watch dragons.”  I told him I couldn’t promise there were dragons on tv but we turned it on to see what we could see.  Lo and behold, Animalia (which is certainly *my* favorite show but Jack usually shuns it) featured a dragon!  Jack was ecstatic!

Watching Jack’s interests grow and change is exciting.  The simplest of things can propel his mind forward at full speed and the next thing I know, he is in a completely different place than where he started.  Last month he could care less about stuffed animals and now he lines them all up with care, practices conversations with them, and features them in his drawings.  Jack is the most action-packed movie I’ve ever watched and if I blink I will surely miss a miraculous new development!

The Carseat Lady

I always forget that not everyone got the lecture on carseats that Joe and I did when I was pregnant.  Our experience was so…startling.  As birth was approaching and we were winding up our last childbirth preparation classes, we met The Carseat Lady.  This woman took it upon herself to provide carseat education all over Humboldt County and had a number of stories to share.  They all had a similar theme and went a little something like this:

You have to really climb into that carseat to get the belts nice and tight against the seat, otherwise when you get into an accident it will go bouncing around and your precious baby’s spine will snap when his head falls foward and he will die.

Also, make sure the line on the side of the carseat is level with the ground like the instructions say, otherwise the tilt of the seat will cause your brand new baby to slump, chin to chest, cutting off his airway and he will suffocate and die.  An accident doesn’t even need to occur for this to happen!

Don’t forget all that debris floating around on your floorboards!  In a crash that will all go flying at full speed right at your baby and kill him!  Clean your car!  Get cargo nets!

Now let me show you this old style of carseat.  It has a plastic bar that comes down over the top of the child’s head and rests at mid-torso.  I know, it SEEMS like a really good idea, but let me tell you – if you have this seat and you get into a wreck, that sweet little child’s head is going to smack against that plastic bar and his skull is going to crack wide open!

And I know you parents are all very concerned about your baby’s comfort, so you might loosen up the harness or move the clip further down than it should be.  If you do that, though, your infant is going to launch out of that harness in an accident and shoot straight through the windshield and onto the cement.  Folks, I’m imploring you, please keep that harness tight enough that your finger barely slides under it and keep the clip at armpit level!  You want that baby to live, don’t you?!

Her brutal depictions shared with a group of hormonal women (all nodding their heads because this was the stuff of their nightmares) and shocked men (who were obviously all thinking, “Yes, I think it’s a REALLY good idea to seek out help from the fire department!”), brought up the most vivid, horrible imaginings of broken babies lying in a pool of shattered glass on the cement.  You know what, though?  The lessons stuck.  They stuck so much that I cringe every time I see a harness clip hanging out at belly level.  I get the shakes if I notice that a newborn isn’t facing backward, or the carseat is obviously tilted.  THIS is why installing a carseat is so stressful!  You have this overzealous lunatic of a woman yelling at you to do it right or your bundle of joy (as yet unborn) is going to perish before you even leave the hospital parking lot!

We saw the carseat lady again just a few weeks before our move out of Humboldt.  I didn’t recognize her at first but Joe knew her right away and poked me in the ribs.  ”Hey, look at that!  That crazy carseat lady is married to Jack’s pediatrician!”

Ahhh, ya gotta love those small towns…

In lieu of content, I bring you media

The artist at work!

Budding Artist

Coloring and drawing have been favorites of Jack’s for almost a year now and he does one or the other every single day.  If I wasn’t witnessing this with my own eyes, I would not believe that a not-yet-two year old would be this focused on anything.  We’ve gone through three boxes of crayons (because they break) and have four color books and a drawing pad that are nearly filled.  Finally we bought some crayons that have a plastic barrel so that they don’t break (yay!) and got a magnedoodle so we wouldn’t use up so much paper.  This is the best toy ever, if you ask me!

Jack has taken his love of coloring to new levels with his magnedoodle.  I am amazed at the things he can draw.  I wonder if this is going to be a life-long thing or if it will pass.  In any case, I had to document it.  I’m sure I’ll be adding more at some point because he includes more details every day; he recently started adding eyebrows and teeth to faces.

“Happy” with glasses

Bowl of cheerios

Pirate (skull w/crossbones)

No idea but it looks cool

Guy

Sand Castle

We had a really great weekend!  On Saturday I took Jack to the beach.  We live across the street from the beach, but I dislike sand and being wet so I rarely go (I know I’m weird).  Our daycare provider called to let me know there was a sand castle contest going on, so off we went!

We didn’t get very far before Jack planted himself down in the sand and started digging with his shovel.  I sat down in the wet sand with him and together we built our first sand castle ever!  We never actually got to see any sand castles other than the one we built because Jack didn’t want to move from the spot he chose.  Still, it was fantastic to be out there in the sunshine with the slight breeze blowing our hair around.

Pictures can be found here.  This one is my favorite.  (Don’t you just love the old school Koolade cup?  I have a pitcher to match.)

 

A Plethora of Topics Contained Herein

I’ve been a dreadful blogger and for that, I offer sincere apology.  I will try to be better!

Here’s the lowdown on what’s been going on…

Joe started his new job but still had to finish off part of the season at his old job.  He is now on his twelfth straight day of work (with 3 more days to go).  The commute to the new job is 1.5 each way.  Luckily, he totally loves his new job!  Aside from that, our apartment is a mess and we get about 20 minutes each day to talk to one another.  I have to leave early for work in the morning, and he gets home late.  We are tired as all hell.

Jack had a pediatric check up.  He now weighs 27 lbs 6 oz and measures 33.5 in.  He’s a little on the short side but perfectly healthy.  Oh, and his head is huge just like his daddy’s.

Jack and I have had a cold.  I lost most of my voice yesterday and am still recovering.  At least I don’t have snot interwoven with my hair like my son.

I read the book Happiest Toddler on the Block.  It was fantastic and I have started using some of the “toddlerese” techniques when Jack throws a huge fit.  It helps much more than I expected (also kind of annoying: caveman speak resulted in giving Jack the keys to the kingdom.  He is now VERY fond of the phrase “I don’t like it!”  I suppose it’s better than screaming.).  One of the things Dr. Karp recommends is to gossip with your child’s toys to persuade them to do something (because everyone is more attentive when the suddenly hear whispering).  It was hilarious to see Jack’s reaction when I started talking to his previously-unnoticed Ugly Doll who we call Monster.  Now he will not let that thing out of his sight!  Jack has starting talking for the monster in a gravelly voice; he doesn’t realize the monster isn’t supposed to call Joe “Daddy.”  We are constantly saying, “Yes, I like monsters.”

I updated Jack’s shutterfly albums with our pictures from Maryland.

I saw Sex & The City and loved it!  I’ve heard others who were disappointed but I think they failed to drink a cosmo beforehand.

We received the Sumbuns pocket diapers (one velcro, one snap) that I wrote about a few weeks ago.  I love the size and fit and they are damned cute.  My only beef is that the slit for the insert is located at the front of the diaper and the fleece overlaps, which makes it a little difficult to shake the insert out when wet.  On diapers with the slit to the rear, I can usually find a dry spot at the end of the insert to manually pull it out if necessary without getting my fingers soaked with urine.  Not so when the slit is in the front.  If that doesn’t bother you, I have no other complaints and may even buy more because the fit is so good!

Also, on diapers.  Jack is outgrowing the “one-size” BumGenius and Haute Pockets diapers.  He is literally bursting out of the Haute Pockets, and the BG’s are leaving red marks on his hips.  I am thinking about replacing all of our BG’s and HP’s with Happy Heinies one-size diapers because I love them so!  I don’t mind buying one-size diapers this late in the game because we can either save them for the next kiddo or sell them to one of the many people I know who are going to have a baby in the coming year.

Oh!  Potty training.  Jack has started throwing fits when we take off or put on a diaper.  Methinks he is approaching potty-readiness.  Of course, he won’t even look at the potty but still!  I ordered potty books for him and we are going to start slowly.  If he didn’t hate being naked, I would probably try the naked time technique but alas, the boy is modest.  I don’t mind that, to be honest.

I still dislike my haircut.

See you soon!