17 posts tagged “25 months”
T's friends twins "Samual" and "Susie" had their 2nd birthday party at a local park on Saturday. T had a great time! One of his friends from school was also invited. Although the little boy left T's school about a month ago, the two of them remembered each other and were almost inseparable for two hours (well, T didn't want to leave "Easton".) Unfortunately, my camera seems to have bit the dust at least temprarily. I had to use the old camera and I forgot how to turn on the flash. It was a very overcast and fall like day, so most of the photos are fuzzy.
T has a bad cough again. He sounded horse at the beginning of the week, and started coughing yesterday (day before?.) He isn’t coughing much, only two or three times between getting up at 6:30 and I when I left him at school shortly after 8AM, but it sounds yucky.
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I took T to the library yesterday. We dropped off a huge stack of books (one day late, $2.85 in fees) and left with a huge stack that included two CDs. Although he hadn’t really wanted to do to the library, preferring instead to stay at school to play on the playground and then go to another playground, he was excited by the books. He barely ate dinner and wanted to get reading right away. We read one book on the coach, another while T sat in the bath, then four more before he went to bed. If T had had his way we would have read the rest before bed. First thing when he got up this morning, he wanted to read books. So far Trucks Roll! and Night Rabbits are the favorites.
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B has mentioned that getting T to leave school is hard. I experienced that yesterday. He has always been slow to warm back up to me when I pick him up. He is not one of those kids that when I arrive he sees me and runs right over calling, “Mommy! Mommy!” He might be happy to see me, but he rarely runs over like I am the best thing since sliced toast. I’ve read this is fairly typical, and can only hope it is and not a reflection on my parenting.
At any rate, yesterday I was on the school playground for a half hour as T rolled around and around on a tricycle (not peddling yet, but pushing with his feet), ran after and ahead of friends, and finally came over to claim me when I was talking tea parties with a few of the girls in his class. In the end, I had to take him ‘by force’ while he complained that he wanted to stay and play.
When I arrived I didn’t see T, but did see his little friend Howie. Howie saw me, said, “T’s mommy,” and some other gibberish, then hopped off his tricycle and ran around looking for T saying, “T, mommy here!” The playground was full of kids. All three of the younger classes were out, with T’s class being the oldest. It was a mass of giggling, screaming, happy, and sad. At one point a little baby/early toddler whaled and I asked T if he could give her a hug and make her feel better. He looked at her, squatted down a little so his face was level with hers, then grinned at her. She turned away a bit, so he toddled sideways so he was at her front, then took her in his arms and held on. It was quite sweet. She kept crying, but he had tried.
We haven’t been members of the let your baby cry themselves to sleep camp, and we’ve done a ton of rocking because of it. Lately we’re trying to do a tad less, and had a minor break through last night. Lets see if it can be repeated…[EDIT - repeated last night too] T was in his crib, I rubbed his back, and then I started to leave. “Rub my back mommy!” He said from the crib. “I did T. I’m going in the other room and I’ll be back to check on you in just a little bit.” I left; he slept. Woo hoo!
Course this did come after a long build up and way past his bedtime, but I’ll take the ‘break through.’ At one point, when I was just starting to rub T’s back he told me to sit. “Sit, sit, sit,” he said. I think he figured if I was sitting I was more likely to stick around for longer, and he would better hear me when I left. He forgets our floors have gotten VERY creaky and that no matter how I close the door, it seems to ‘thunk’ in the catch when I am two steps away from it.
Last week when we were going through a similar routine. I had just gotten T calmed down from being put in his crib (he popped up in horror of not still being in my arms) when our freight train went by. T has become incredibly afraid of the trains and anything super load. If you haven’t been at our house recently, let me assure you that although we are what amounts to three houses away from the tracks, the trains can be very load. Very when they blow their horns, which they always do, and sometimes for far more than is needed (I can say this cause they don’t all blow them the same.) The poor little one went back into a full scared scream, “I’m scared of that train mommy!!!”
Last night five (six?) trains went by during the getting ready for sleep routine and the drawn out sleeping in the crib procedure. “I’m scared of that train,” T said. “That train is just a big ol’ freight train going to the freight yard. It stays on the train tracks and can’t come up here,” I told him. “It goes on the car road,” he told me. “No sweetie, it stays on the train tracks. It’s going on by.” “It goes on the car road.” “It can’t go on the car road T, it’s wheels would tare up the black top and it would get stuck before it got here.” “Stuck.” “Yes, stuck. It would get stuck; it can’t go on the road and stays on the tracks.” {Visions of train wrecks going through my head and T whailing, “but you said it stays on the tracks mommy!”}
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“I wan go rocking chair,” T will say if he cries out in the night and we go to him. If we say no, then he will end up saying, “go mommy and daddy bed. I wan go mommy and daddy bed.” When trying to get him to sleep last night when it was still early, I rubbed his back then told him I was going in the other room. “I wan go mommy and daddy bed,” he said. “Mommy is making dinner for mommy and daddy T. We’re not going to bed yet.” “See dinner? I wan see dinner,” he replied. A desperate move to not go to bed? An admission that his ½ a banana, one bite of egg soufflé, mango juice, and milk was not enough, or a true interest in cooking?
“See dark,” is another phrase T uses (which might now actually be, “I want to see the dark.” I forget as his language develops.) “It’s late, people sweeping.” “It’s daark out, people sweeping.” T doesn’t have a good sense of what dark and late really mean, and we have him tricked into thinking that everyone, animals included (like zoo animals or the dinosaurs at the museum), go to sleep when he does. No matter that he has some experience to the contrary. The dark and late thing is funny in that it can be cloudy or overcast and he will say it is late or dark and time for people or animals to sleep.
Just not himself, especially if he is not being rocked, held, or having his back rubbed with the blue blanket on.
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I can’t remember if I have mentioned this before, but T has one of the best rides to school a child his age possibly could. We see so much – golf carts, Flying Biscuit cars and trucks, bucket trucks and other utility vehicles, buses – both school and city, city commuter trains, we pass a fire station and often see the ladder truck, semi’s, and we pass several construction sites so diggers, bulldozers, and cranes are always visible. It’s quite exciting sometimes. We also pass the tunnel we take to the zoo, so that can be fun or a source of crying.
T’s lessons plans this week and last were all about transportation. They have a new poster on the wall with all kind of things that go. They also got a refurbished child fridge turned into gas pump to play with in the imaginative play area.
Excerpted from this post on Café Mom:
Toddlers want to do everything for themselves. They experiment with their newly-learned skills and ideas by rebelling against caregiver's wishes and by saying "no" so many times a day that they begin to sound like broken records!
T doesn’t say no all that much, or not to the extent that he sounds like a broken record. He has started saying, “I do myself!” however. Yesterday I went to help him out of the Jeep. It is a big step down, far too big for him. T compained, “I do myself!” so I put him back in the Jeep, and he reached out for me and came down in almost exactly the same manner he had when I ‘had done it.’
Socially, toddlers enjoy family members and other children, but may be afraid of strangers like new caregivers. Two- and 3-year-olds often develop fears of unfamiliar sights (men with beards, people who wear glasses) and sounds (the vacuum cleaner, thunderstorms). They may need lots of reassurance to calm down after they have been frightened.
This is very much the case for T these days. As mentioned previously, he has now become afraid of the train because it is so load. Ambulances and fire trucks are also starting to scare him, as they too are loud when the sirens “are blaring.”
T has always been social, and this has not changed. His new favorite at school is a little guy named Jes. They like to play chase. Mostly it is Jes chasing T and they giggle hilariously.
Temper tantrums are normal for toddlers because they have not learned how to share. They often become upset when they cannot have things their own way. Their attention spans are short and they quickly lose interest in what they are doing.
I don’t know about at school, where sharing has been a bit of an issue (biting), but at home T’s tantrums come when he is tired and does not want to do something – usually brush his teeth, wash his hands, or get a diaper change. Leaving the playground when he wants to stay, not being able to play in the car and ‘be the driver’, having to wait for something he thinks he needs NOW, are also cause for tears and cries.
Sometimes people refer to the first part of toddlerhood as the "terrible twos." This is misleading. Two-year-olds do not mean to be difficult! It is just that the world is full of alternatives for them (yes/no, come/go, up/down, run/stop, give/take). They like to experiment with all of these choices. When they choose to do the opposite of what you have asked of them, they are learning to be independent.
No “terribles” yet, but I have read this type of thing a bunch so have adjusted my attitude. The other night we did have an issue with T not being able to curb his impulse. He broke one of my favorite clay pots. I had a little pot of lavendar by the walk to the back steps. He decided he needed to know what would happen if he hit it. It broke. I put the plant back (twice) he hit it again (twice). T went into time out and was not happy.
You might wonder about the second picture at left... well it's parsley caterpillar poop, and poop is a topic of conversation in our house, so...
Here is what I found so far about the guys:
From What's that Bug.com: Black Swallowtail Caterpillars, often called Parsley Worms or Carrot Worms.
(referring to a similar caterpillar) Your caterpillar will eventually metamorphose into a large beautiful black and yellow striped butterfly. The Tiger Swallowtail is the official state insect of Virginia and Georgia. The official butterfly of South Carolina and the state mascot and official butterfly of Alabama..
[edit - I lost this link in a spell check and can't find the source anymore. Will look more later as the photos were grand.] This post has some wonderful photos of parsley worms, but no clues on how to keep them... should I get a jar and poke holes in it?
Another useful post, this one from the The Brooklyn Botanic Garden which quoted Claire Hagen Dole and her book The Butterfly Gardener's Guide:
"... And what about the so-called pests? The green-, yellow-, and black-striped larvae of the Black Swallowtail that you may see in your vegetable garden feeding on parsley (Petroselinum crispum), dill (Anethum graveolens), and carrot tops (Daucus carota) are often considered a nuisance. These caterpillars originally fed only on native plants such as angelica (Angelica), but they have also adapted to eat nonnative herbs in the parsley family, Apiaceae. So all a gardener needs to do is scatter a few extra patches of parsley and dill throughout the garden to disperse the caterpillars and allow for their huge appetites."
Also from the Butterfly Gardeners Guide: Rearing Butterfly Caterpillars
Sooner or later, you may want to try rearing caterpillars in a screened container, such as an inexpensive terrarium. This is a great project for kids, who will enjoy searching for larvae in the garden or along the roadside. Collect a half dozen or so caterpillars on a branch of their host plant. Keep the plant fresh in a container of water, with paper towels around the opening to keep caterpillars from falling in and drowning. If the host plant is not close at hand, pick enough to keep in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Put in new foliage every couple of days, carefully transferring the caterpillars. Or leave for a few hours to allow the caterpillars to crawl onto new foliage. Keep paper towels on the floor of the container to catch frass (excrement), and change daily to keep the area clean and disease-free. Situate the container away from direct sunlight.
A caterpillar goes through four instars, or developmental stages, before molting its skin one final time and becoming a chrysalis. Provide a stout branch on which the larva can attach itself when ready to pupate. In order to emerge properly, the adult butterfly needs to push against something. Some caterpillars pupate against the screen on top, hanging like ornaments until ready to emerge. Fall-pupating butterflies, such as Tiger Swallowtails, will spend the winter as chrysalides. Make sure they are kept in a cool place, such as an unheated garage, so they don't miscalculate and emerge during the winter months. Mist periodically to prevent desiccation.
[Edit: Last night when I got home there was only one caterpillar. This morning there were none. Eaten or on to more plentiful food sources?]
got to sit in yet another fire truck! This one from our small city and part of a fun time at the local Chick Fil-A. Chick Fil-A had an extravaganza that included rides on a mini fire truck, sitting in the one pictured above, two bouncy houses, two-for-one kids meals, a clown, and of course the Chick Fil-A cow.
Tommy was quite enamored by the Chick Fil-A cow. First, it was a big cow, second it didn’t make any load and scary bellowing, and third he got to give it a high-five and a hug. “Where’s the ChickfiA cow?” he repeated a thousand times after we left the fast food location. “I give it a high-five!”
We passed the bouncy houses on our way to a local boutique, and came back to them after we easily spent an hour looking at toys, clothes, and shoes for T. T as very excited to get in the houses. He wanted to go on the big one which had a slide that several bigger boys were having a blast sliding down, but I steered him over to the smaller, more age appropriate one. He was in not quite a minute when he wanted to come out. I couldn’t tell what was up, but got the impression the two girls in there with him were too rough for him. They were bouncing, but not inordinately, and one was T’s size so while it should have been fine, I think he got a little scared. He fell over a couple times while the girls bounced.
T ran over to the big air filled bouncy slide. He tried to climb up the steep, ladder type stairs, but was having trouble. The boys rushed past him, though a grandmother and mother were admonishing them to be careful of the little boy. T watched, then after they scrambled by him he tried again. I reached in and gave him a boost and off he went. Right up to the top. He waited and looked, watched the other kids fly down, then sat down, and with a big grin that flickered with fear quickly at one point, he slide down flopping over on his tummy to end the slide. He popped up with his signature giggle-squeal and grin, arching back a tad as he let out another laugh.
One of the other boys nearly bowled T over, and as he got out of the way, the others came down again and scrambled by. T followed. He got up to the top quickly and stood next to the oldest boy and his youngest brother, making a boy stair-step in heights. They watched as the two most rambunctious flew down the slide, then back up. The oldest boy (10 maybe) helped his youngest brother (3 ½ maybe) go down. T watched. I tried to coax T down, but he had that, ‘it’s too high’ look on his face. All the boys went down another time while T stood there and I tried to reassure him from the bottom.
The grandmother and I suggested T come down with the oldest boy, who graciously and sweetly, tried to ask if T wanted to ride with him. No avail, T was scared and not sure what to do. He tried coming down the steps, but that looked like an uncomfortable maneuver. I tossed off my flip-flops and ran up. We waited as the others, now including the older girl from the smaller bouncy house, slid down. T and I sat and side-by-side we slid, landing at the bottom with a bit of a thump against the inflated end guard. T smiled at me almost with a lets-do-it-again look. The grandmother told T how brave he was. He smiled and buried his head in my shoulder.
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Sunday I took T to church. It was Rally Day and the official start of the church’s new Sunday school year where the kids all move up a class, four-year olds are welcomed into the sanctuary for service, and first graders are presented with bibles. T was now old enough to go to the two-year-old room and not stay in the nursery. We walked in to his class and who should we see first? The grandmother from the bouncy houses! Miss Catherine is her name and she is very sweet.
We got to the church late so I stayed with T during his Sunday school time playing with he and several of the children. Originally I planned on going to an ‘event’ in the sanctuary where I would have heard about all the adult Sunday school classes. I decide to skip it to spend time with T, especially since he had been a bit clingy that morning. To be fully truthful however, adult Sunday school scares me a bit, so skipping it, especially when walking in late, was not so hard a decision.
T fit right in with the class and was more confident than several of the children. He did me quite proud by picking up his napkin and cup after snack and walking them to the trash. That ‘skill’ is school taught, but it made me happy. When it came time for the 10:15 service I left T happily playing play-dough. When I returned an hour later, he was sitting quietly listening to the story of Little Toot the Tugboat ( “What happened to Little Toot?” he has asked several times this week. “He scared of tunder.”) “T did quite well.” was the report from Miss Catherine and the parents who had volunteered for Extended Care this week.
Picking up our Bible Story ‘comic book’ for the week, T and I left to join others on the lawn for punch and cookies. A gorgeous day, it was fun to stand on the lawn, cool, sweet tart punch in hand, wiping cookie crumbs from T’s chin.
Yesterday at breakfast, B was sitting with T at T’s table. Cloud was sitting in a chair next to T. B started talking for Cloud, “I really like sleeping with you T!” “I really like sweeping with you Cloud,” T replied with a smile and giggle.
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Last evening T, B, Aunt N, and I were in the kitchen while N and I prepared dinner. I asked T to show Aunt N his Fridge Farm toy. The toy has ten puzzle pieces that can be fit together to make five animals (pig, duck, horse, cow, sheep) or some combination of the fronts and backs. It makes the noise of the animal and plays a little music. “T, why don’t you show Aunt N what happens when you make something funny like a duck pig?”
I wasn’t sure if T would (be able to) follow this request, would understand the abstract of picking some combination, or not be able to do any of it. Well, wouldn’t you know that in practically a blink of an eye he picked out the duck front and put in the barn, then picked the pig back and put it in! B and I were quite impressed that not only had T made the exact combo I mentioned, but he did it easily and with out needing help! He’s had this puzzle game for a year and has almost never been able to put the pieces in without a little help. He seemed unfazed.
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Yummy dinner: garlic rosemary pork loin with roasted Idaho and sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus, and mixed green salad with goat cheese, and grape tomatoes (and leftover blueberries from T's dinner.) I sliced holes in the pork loin and inserted slivers of garlic and rosemary leaves. The potatoes were cubed, drizzled with olive oil, cracked black pepper, rosemary, and a very small pinch of salt (I forgot about the N's salt issue until I was starting to sprinkle - I don't use much normally, but shouldn't have used any at all with her.) We placed the potatos in a roasting dish and placed the pork loin on top. Both were roasted at 400 for 45 minutes.
T got his cast of this morning. "I..I..I got my cast off mommy! I, I, I had a boo boo, an I got my cast off," T said into the phone around 10 am this morning. B had taken him to the Orthopedist for the x-ray and removal, and both sounded excited when they called me. B said that although it is almost impossible for the untrained eye to see, the bone buckle is 95% healed or something like that [edit, B says 100% healed]. T did quite well during the x-ray and removal, the latter of which took about three minutes. We forgot to have T take Cloud (his cat stuffie) with him, so he held onto his blue airplane during the procedure. B said he was back running with his friends as soon as he was at school.
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"I'm an engin, you be the cuboose," said T. "Chugga, chugga, chugga .... shpshtt! I letting off steam!" He said as he raised his right arm into the air.
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"I pway with feadher toy," said T and he walked over to the armoire where the cat feather toys are kept. "I pway with feather toy?" he said turning to me to have me open the door. "I go fishing with feadther ... here, here, Or-eo, you pway with fedher," he said as he climbed onto the futon and pushed the feather down between the wall and the futon. "Pway Oreo .."
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We were reading books, T in B's lap, me on the little step stool next to the rocking chair. Bis was on the floor nearby. T looked over at her, "I wan walk on Scottie cat." "T that isn't nice, we don't step on our kitty cat." T looked back at Bis, "You walk on me Scottie?"
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Last Wednesday we lost another calico goldfish. This one was named Flip, cause when we got it it flipped and flitted around very quickly. B got it right after Moo passed. I think he thought T might not notice that the fish was different, but Flip wasn't nearly as pretty or big as Moo. I quietly talked to Flip on a couple of occasions when T was in the room.
Wednesday, B was at a dinner meeting and when I came home Flip was in a bowl beside the fishtank, not moving. When I was getting T ready for bed I mentioned that Flip was not feeling well. "Where's the udder fish?" T asked me. I hadn't been sure if he knew the difference between Moo and Flip, so this was interesting to me. "He went away," I said. "Where's the udder fish?" T asked again. "He went away." I replied again. "Where's the udder fish?" "He got sick and went away." "Where's the udder fish?" "He went to heaven." "Where's the udder fish?" "He got sick and went to heaven." "Where's the udder fish?" "I'm not sure," I said as I thought, 'in the pipes under the house? In the ocean?'. "He went to find with his mommy and daddy," T told me.
Flip went to find his mommy and daddy by the end of the night 'cause his tank and the bowl were empty the next morning. The tank remains empty.
For the second year we rented a cabin in North Georgia to celebrate our anniversary. This time we were at "Raven Cliffs on Paris Mountain." A very nice cabin, it was not however as secluded as we could have hoped (mountain view picture - three houses are just off to the side of the view - no trees or anything separating.) We also didn't go as prepared and filled with well thought out plans as we might have to make the most of our time. We spent too long trying to decide what to do and where to go and not enough actually doing anything. None the less, we had a nice time.
We arrived Friday afternoon and relaxed around the cabin, poking in cabinets, and getting a lay of the land while we settled in with our stuff. After T was asleep, B and I had a nice meal of salmon and roasted grape tomatos with a good wine we purchased forever ago in Oregon: a chardonnay from Eola Hills.
Saturday we eventually made it into downtown Blue Ridge where T got to see some bears ("I wan go mounains an see bears, an racoons, an animals!" he repeated often. "But we are in the mountains T,"we told him.) We also looked at the train that we will someday take an excurison ride on. While interested in the train, T got very nervous about it and how load it was, and made B and I both put our hands over his ears while he buried his head in B's shoulder when it left. A visit to Mercier Orchards to pick up some lunch, fried fruit hand pies, blueberry syrup, blackberry syrup, apple butter, peach butter, and fresh corn rounded out our morning.
In the afternoon we hiked off Aska Road in the Chattahoochee National Forest. We did a very short hike B and I had done on our honeymoon (we rented nearby on the Tocca River that time; a place we hope to go to again.) While T enjoyed this activity too, he wasn't as enamoured of the great backpack carrier we borrowed, and was just a bit of a wussy city boy about some of it. He seems to have gotten a fear of spiders despite singing the itsy bitsy spider song with glee.
Saturday night T did not sleep well at all, and thus B and I did not either. At what turned out to be about 1:15 AM I noticed that T was in bed with us and he was flopping and rolling around knocking into me. Neither B or I have any recolection of bringing the boy into bed with us, but there he was between us. He popped his head up, "I done sweeping mommy. I pull my new fire engine?" Thus started a very long time of us trying to get the little guy to lay still, close his eyes, and go to sleep.
So, Sunday we did not get up early, and when T and I did get up ("Mommy will get up with you T," said B. "Why me?" I asked very sleepily. "Cause you were sleeping while I rocked him for two hours," said B. Uhg!) we did not move quickly. We started to leave the cabin around 10:30 to drive to hike along the Taccoa, but realized we were pushing it for T's nap and decided we should pack up. When we got to the turn off for the hike 45 minutes later, T was sound asleep in his carseat - a 1/2 hour plus early on his nap.
We drove on. Our route, as I realized a while later, was taking us on some roads that were very twisty turny and never failed to make me neasueous. Sure enough I had to have B pull over while I jumped out before the car was even fully stopped. We stayed on the side of the road at least 20 minutes while I waited for my head to clear a bit and my stomach to settle. Luckily T slept through that part of the ride and only woke when we stopped. He would have surely been sick which would have made me really lose it I'm sure.
When we got back in the car we soon found ourselves at a crossing of the Appalachian Trail, and we stopped to take in the view back towards Springer Mountain. We survayed both sides and maps, and settled on doing a short hike back towards Gooch Gap (Springer) - The other side being one I have hiked at least five times that heads to Blood Mountain and Neels Gap - it is a really great strenuous12 mile day hike.
We didn't go far, but T got to eat some wild blackberry ("More berries!!"), pick up, explore, and throw acorns, walk on rocks, survey moutian side, discuss trees, and be carried alternatly by mommy and daddy since we didn't pull put the backpack carrier. The weather was gorgeous and it was nice to be in the woods.
We arrived home around 4:30 and a very cranky T was consolde by a walk with me to the "toddler park." B and I celebrated the last of our honeymoon with an improvised shrimp meal with another yummy Oregon white, this time a Gewertstraminer from Airly ("3/8 Sunday Drive, $8, drink with spicey Asian" I'd written on a tag. I think it was 3/8/05.)
