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Photo Day

Posted in Milestones, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

To say that the Boo has grown tremendously throughout his first school year is like saying chocolate is good. Massive understatement. 

In the beginning, he would not only cry when I left but wander around like a lost, weepy lamb. This, despite a goodbye ritual that included a reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a series of kisses and hugs and a lovey to comfort him in my absence. At one point, there was discussion of whether we should pull him out of school for a while. Instead, we decided to try adding a few more tricks to the bag — a photo of me to look at, a favorite CD. It was early November. 

Shortly after we expanded the comfort program, right after Thanksgiving, something clicked for the kiddo. He didn’t cry as I left. He started blowing me kisses goodbye. He began to find his place among his friends. We kept up with reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, though, partly because I enjoyed it so much — his classmates would cluster around us, chiming in on their favorite parts and beaming like only little kids can beam. 

A few weeks ago we dropped the book reading from the routine. Then we started doing our kisses and hugs in the hallway so the Boo can walk into his classroom like the big boy he’s become. Every time, we stop a bit further away, backing slowly toward more independence. 

One day about a month ago, the Boo came home with a bright orange flyer pinned to his backpack. Photo Day was coming, it said. Here are the 88 choices of print packages. Once I settled on a reasonable option and wrote a check, my thoughts turned to The Outfit. Surely something with a collar for Baby’s First School Photo. Shirt and tie? Polo shirt? 

I decided to involve the Boo by presenting a few possibilities the morning of Photo Day. I explained what a big deal the photo was, that both grandmas would have a copy, that it would be a good idea to wear something fancy. He considered the choices I held up and rejected them all, insisting instead that he wanted to wear the pajama shirt he had on:

 

I didn’t fight him. Why bother, when he picked the perfect reminder of how far he’s come since September?

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Still Here

Posted in Daily Life, tagged , , , on March 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Time has been slipping by with occasional thoughts of posting something and now here we are, over three weeks with no post. It’s some kind of record. So here’s what’s been going on:

Ear infection. We’re 3/4 of the way through the second round of antibiotics and have our fingers crossed because that little orifice is hugely disruptive when it’s out of order. Crappy sleep, crabby kid, and let’s not forget all those lovely trips to the doctor. I mean, I love our pediatrician and all, but there are limits. 

Colds. All three of us, in rotation, throughout the entire month of February. Whee!

Allergies. Our winter was so warm there was a mold count almost the entire time. 

February. That month can suck it. Even with V-day and the Boo’s birthday in there, it always kicks my behind until I turn around and say, “Go ahead, keep kicking, only two more weeks, right? I can take it.”

Baby Root Canal. Yep, that’s right, it’s a thing. And it’s the alternative to pulling a tooth when the nerve is dead and causing pain and threatening to blossom into an abscess. The Boo drank his sleepy juice like a champ and came through it just fine. And yes, dopey kids are hilarious. Haven’t laughed that hard in months. 

Time change. No need to say much about this since everyone is already complaining about it. 

Deathaversary. My dad died almost exactly nine years ago. Every year I think it won’t affect me. Every year I am wrongitty-wrong-wrong. Wrong. 

Singing. The Boo has suddenly, like seriously overnight, started singing entire songs. His rhythm is still better than his melody, but they are recognizable songs, yay! He is currently obsessed with London Bridge but also has deep affection Rom Stomp Stomp or whatever you call the kid’s song with “Oh Raffi” in the middle of it. What, is that like an ad for Raffi? That’s just wrong. 

Swimming. We started classes at a new place, and so far it’s an awesome way to chew up a Saturday morning. But I am looking forward to the first time he gets to go to a swimming class without me in the water. Mostly because I don’t enjoy the process of bathing both of us in a tiny shower with a sticky curtain and then dressing in front of strangers. I’d much rather get soaked showering my kid.

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State of the Boo: Three-Year-Old Edition

Posted in Milestones, tagged , , , , on February 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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You are three years old.

You chose standard birthday candles over a giant number three. You requested chocolate cake with yellow frosting (at first you wanted blue, and we were glad you changed your mind). You held the frosting tube as Mama wrote “Happy Birthday” (you didn’t want your name on it), put gummy bears on it, and stuck the candles deep into it in a nice little cluster.

You wave goodbye to Mama and blow her kisses when she leaves you at school.

You sometimes push your classmates and then grin at the teacher.

You recently declined an offer of honey to soothe your cough, saying, “No, I’d like a chocolate biscuit for my cough.”

You have lost the baby fat from your feet.

You had your first hearing and vision tests at your three-year checkup — the nurse was amazed at how well you followed directions.

You told the doctor (when he asked) that Mama was a boy. This was also part of your checkup. Other than that, you passed with flying colors. And to be fair, you could have been confused — Mama always calls herself a lady or a woman, not a girl.

You got a basketball hoop, a science book, and a marble track for your birthday. You love all three.

You sometimes declare “I don’t like you Mama, I want Daddy to put me to bed” when Mama is putting you to bed.

You sometimes declare “I don’t like you Daddy, I want Mama to put me to bed” when Daddy is putting you to bed.

You were reluctant to come downstairs to join the crowd (of five people) at your birthday party. Half an hour later, you were chatting happily with everyone.

You count to three like so: “One, two, tree!” This leaves no doubt of your Polish heritage.

You get royally pissed off when Mama says she can’t understand you when you whine.

You were able to sing snippets of “All the Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)” after hearing Mama sing it twice. This leaves no doubt that you are Mama’s offspring.

You recently learned how to propel yourself around the pool on a water noodle. You were concerned when Mama showed you she wasn’t holding the noodle anymore, but then your face lit up when you realized you had independence in the water.

You are flirting with the idea of potty training but have thus far only condescended to practice sitting on the toilet.

You continue to be a picky eater — so much so that you refused to eat the pancakes at your school’s Pajama Day and only ate a few bites of frosting from your birthday cake. Well, that and all the gummy bears on your piece. And the gummy bears from Mama’s piece.

You are three years old, and your new favorite phrase is, “I can do it myself!”

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Science Bus

Posted in Daily Life, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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Last week, we paid a visit to the MySci bus, a roving interactive science experience housed in a tractor-trailer. We were in there for approximately 90 seconds, because small spaces filled with loud people are not the Boo’s thing. At all. So we missed out on that particular enrichment opportunity.

But I’m not worried about what we missed because in the past week, the Boo has been bursting with questions about science. Herewith, a list of our topics and my explanations:

– Why a spoon gets hot when you put it next to the dishwasher vent (the heat likes to jump to the spoon because it’s made of metal).

– Why and how eyes move (thank you, Internet, for excellent anatomical diagrams) and how the brain makes that happen (it sends messages that are so fast you don’t even know they’re being sent).

– Why plumbers cost a lot of money
Me: They know a lot of special things about pipes and faucets, so we have to pay them a lot.
Boo: If they don’t know so many stuff… do we pay less?

– Why light helps us see (it bounces off everything).

– Where wind comes from (the sky, storms, fans, hands that are waving really fast).

– How the heart works (I used my fist as a model and said “lub-dub, lub-dub.”)

Maybe next time we’ll enjoy the MySci bus a bit more, but for now I think I’m doing pretty well explaining physics and biology at a preschool level.

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Blast From the Past

Posted in Daily Life, tagged , , , on February 6, 2015| 2 Comments »

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Did you know that “February” can be translated as “couch, cookies and cocoa”? Or so I’ve been told.

Here, then, is a post from a year ago, about something I’m still doing: Using a timer to trick the Boo into doing what I want him to do. Although now he asks for additional timers to be set…

There are so many long stretches of parenting a small child that are absolutely mind-numbing in their repetitiveness that when you occasionally come up with a genius childrearing idea on the fly, it’s both a shock and cause for celebration.

I had one of those moments a few months ago when I asked the Boo to take me upstairs instead of telling him we had to go up. I have no idea why I did it, but the appeal to his budding independence was instant and dramatic — he seized my finger and practically dragged me up behind him. A couple of weeks ago, though, I came up with an even better trick, though once again I couldn’t tell you where the idea came from.

The Boo was being particularly disinclined to be happy about delaying his desires, which is to say, it was close to nap time on yet another butt-cold day in February and I needed to do a few more things before I could grant his wish to help him play at the sink. I pulled out my phone and opened the clock app.

“I tell you what. I’ll set the timer. When you hear the bells, it’s time for water play.”

He looked a little unsure about this timer thing, but he was pleased that I let him push the start button. Then I made a huge deal about the bells ringing and let him push the cancel button. Then I set it again to signal the end of water play, because he will seriously spend as much time as we let him “washing” dishes.

So now, instead of whining at me (my least favorite thing about my kid) when he needs to wait or stop doing something he likes, he submits to the will of the phone. Because, see, the command is coming from the phone — the provider of videos and games and general fun — not from me. And he doesn’t have it in him to whine at the phone.

Yet.

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From Song to Game

Posted in Daily Life, Uncategorized, tagged , , on January 24, 2015| 3 Comments »

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One day, about six months ago I think, I was singing to the Boo. I don’t know the real title of the song, and I changed the words to half the verse because I couldn’t remember them. But one part was true to the original:

When you’re not near me, I’m blue

I had sung this to my kid many times before, but on this occasion, he stopped me and asked why I was blue, not yellow or green. After I stopped laughing, I said, “It means when my little boy is far away, I get sad.”

“Do you cry, Mama?”

“Sure, I guess so, yes.”

He sprang up from my lap, giggling, and put himself in the farthest corner of the room.

“Are you blue, Mama?”

I said yes, I was indeed blue.

“Are you going to cry, Mama?”

“Yes, yes I am.”

I did my best fake cry. And he laughed.

“Cry some more, Mama.”

He waited until I had gotten myself thoroughly worked up. I had taken a couple of breaks to peek at him, and each time he commanded me to cry some more. Finally, he decided he should put me out of my misery and ran to me, hurling himself into my arms.

Since that day, he has periodically asked me to play “the blue game” with him. He requires me to cry ever more theatrically, for longer periods, before he will launch himself from across the room.

It is my favorite game, ever.

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The Boo Speaks

Posted in Daily Life, Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

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My kid talks pretty much all the time. If he’s not talking, I assume he’s sleeping, concentrating on taking something apart, or sick. Here are some of his recent bon mots:

Boo: Can I watch cartoons?
Me: Um, later perhaps.
Boo: Is it later now?

Me: Tomorrow is a school day, and it’s a music day! I’m so excited for you!
Boo: I’m going to cry at school.
Me: Why are you going to cry?
Boo: Because I miss Mama.

Boo: That lightbulb is burnded out. We need to change it.
Me: Oh yeah? How do we do that?
Boo: First you get the ladder from the basement, then you bring it all the way upstairs, and put it carefully over there, and climb way up high, then you take the old lightbulb out, then you put the new lightbulb in, then you put the ladder away!
Me: Yep, that’s how you do it.

Boo, contemplating a container of ice on the deck: What’s under the ice?
Me: More ice. It’s all ice. Ice is very very cold water.
Boo: What will happen if we put more water on it?
Me: The water will turn into ice.
Boo: I want to put more water on it now!

First thing in the morning, clutching his tiger nightlight:
“See, Tigey needs new batteries, so I bringded him out into the hall, and we need to get the screwdriver, and open the battery compartment, and put in new batteries! That’s how we do it!”

At the end of our bedtime ritual, which concludes with him blowing me kisses — something he added this week:
“It’s good to give Mama kisses.”

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Water Babies

Posted in Daily Life, Happiness, tagged , , , on November 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

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The first time I took the Boo into a swimming pool, he got so happy so fast that rainbows shot out his behind. Then the swimming instructor came over and got in his face and he started crying. But the water made him so happy that he soon forgot the scary lady.

Soon, I resolved to sign up for a Y membership so he could get more water time. I figured I could take a stab at swimming laps too, since I hate gyms and I haven’t worked out regularly in at least 5 years. (Probably more like 7 to 10.)

The first time I pushed off from the wall, I got so happy so fast that rainbows shot out my behind. It had been 25 years, but my body remembered how to do what I wanted it to do. I paused in the middle of a lap to laugh. I swam until I was exhausted and hauled myself out, panting my way to the showers, indescribably pleased.

Since then, I swim any time I can. If I am tired when I start, I forget about it in the water. If my back hurts, I can’t feel it when I’m swimming. If I am in a crappy mood when I start, I am pooping rainbows when I finish. The water holds me as I move forward, giving me peace and joy and happiness as I move through it.

I don’t want to call it a benediction, even though it does border on the mystical. But my body loves the water so much it feels like a gift every time I’m in it — even when I’m sharing the lane with a tank of a triathlete and a dogpaddler who belongs in the “old people walking” section.

The other night at the Boo’s first parent-teacher conference, I uttered the words, “Water is his jam.” Turns out it’s my jam too.

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State of the Boo: Halloween Edition

Posted in Happiness, tagged , , , , on November 1, 2014| 1 Comment »

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You consistently said you wanted to be a bee for weeks before Halloween. So two days before the big night, Mama got to work with a black sweatshirt, yellow duct tape, coat hangers, pipe cleaners, and pom-poms. Because there might be bee costumes for little boys online, but in the Halloween stores they only have ones for little girls, babies and full-grown women.

You said you didn’t want to go trick-or-treating when you woke up on Halloween.

You changed your tune after your nap, when Mama reminded you about the whole candy thing.

You were a trooper about struggling into your costume – even with the sides snipped, the duct tape turned your sweatshirt-costume into a straitjacket. (Note to self: If the boy is a bee next year, apply the tape after you put the sweatshirt on.)

You looked so great in your costume that somebody thought it was store-bought. (At this point, Mama actually huffed on her nails and buffed them on her shoulder.)

You vibrated with joy every time Mama said you could eat your candy on the spot. A nearby dad thought you were shivering.

You had a death grip on a lollipop in your hand for most of the time we were going from house to house.

You loved hunting for houses with porch lights on. You also enjoyed ringing doorbells.

You asked for chocolate first thing in the morning on November 1, and said you wanted to go to Halloween later that day.

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The Four Faces of the Boo

Posted in Daily Life, tagged , , , on October 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

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The Boo is so my child:
“Mama, I want the beginning of Purple Rain again.”

The Boo is so his daddy’s child:
“I don’t like the squares on my sheet.”

The Boo is so his own person:
“Where’s the accelerator light, Mama?”

The Boo also recently protested a request to not pick his nose, arguing strenuously that he wanted the boogers in his mouth. (“It’s not gross!”)

But perhaps that just makes him a child of the universe.

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