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Thursday, October 20, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
11 Months
And I thought last month flew by. I had to look at the calendar 3 times to make sure I wasn't crazy. You are 11 months old today. That's nuts. That means the in one month it will be your 1st BIRTHDAY. I'm in complete denial.
Last month you had discovered taking a handful of steps. Today you are literally running around the house. You chase your brother and you squeal as you run down the hall. It's hysterical to watch.
Your favorite things to do right now are pull all the books off your brother's bookshelf, grab dishes out of the dishwasher, flush the toilet repeatedly..while we're on it, play with Batman, drive your brother's remote control cars, dance, pull all the clothes out of a clothes basket and then THROW them back in (at least you pick them up!), and most importantly EAT. You are a pretty fussy eater, but what you do like you eat a lot of! It seemed to me that you had quite an appetite going, but then Sunday the girls at church said you ate your bottle, all the puffs, your apples and um..someone else's puffs too, lol. I know it's because you are using up so much energy playing. You never stop moving. Ever.
I also think that your new found love of cruising the house has you even less interested in sleeping than ever before, which wasn't good to begin with. The minute we mention nap, hold you close or walk towards your room and the lights are off...you start to scream. You kick and squirm trying to get down. I'd say you weren't tired, but you were just laying your head down before I went in there, rubbing your eyes and oh yeah, you didn't sleep hardly a wink the night before. So I KNOW you're tired, but you still refuse. You still wake up almost every hour every night. Occasionally, you'll sleep through the night but for no apparent rhyme or reason. I know one day we will look back at this time and laugh about this, but right now...not so much. I'm ready for this phase to be done. Even as I type madly trying to finish this post you are waking from a 40 minute nap which will serve as the only one you take today - sigh.
You have quite the personality. You are almost always smiling with that big, toothy grin you have. But Lord help those that cross you - you are not afraid to stand up for yourself and you will fight back. I suppose in some ways that's a good trait to have, but we will definitely have to work on taming that temper of yours. You already fight back if Ethan takes your toy! If you think a toy should fit into something and it doesn't you scream at the toys. If there's something you don't like eating, you grab the spoon and throw it. If you don't like something you hit your legs and scream. It's sort of cute, in that I-can't-believe-you're-already-throwing-tantrums kind of way. I think we'll have our work cut out for us this next year for sure.
Your hair is growing like crazy and you've got some adorable blond curls coming in. I need to cut the hairs around your ears because they drive you crazy and you'll swat and scream at them...but I have yet to figure out how to get scissors anywhere near you since you are impossible to hold still. The haircut might have to wait.
You are waving at anything that walks by now. You love to play pass the toy back and forth and you are rolling balls back and forth now too. You love to put objects into holes. Shapes into shape sorters. Puzzle pieces. Toys into buckets. Cows into piano trays. It doesn't matter. You want nothing to do with toys for your age, including the ones we got you for Christmas. You'd rather play with brothers' Hot Wheels or Batman any day. You love anything that plays music. Your mind is going a 1,000 miles a minute, I'm certain of it, and I love watching it at work.
Just today your brother said "Mom, I just can't stop looking at him. I just love him so much." It's true, even after 11 whole months, he's still obsessed with you and can't wait to play with you this summer and take you for rides on his four-wheeler. He's an awesome big brother to you and I'm sure that's why you learned his name before mine :)
And while you have your moments and you have been anything but an "easy" baby, I have to agree with your brother. I can't stop looking at you either. I can't believe we are about to leave the baby stage behind us for good. I'm grateful everyday for you. Your smile melts my heart and your laugh warms my soul. I can't imagine a single day without you in our family and we are all so happy you are here. We love you Lucas.
Last month you had discovered taking a handful of steps. Today you are literally running around the house. You chase your brother and you squeal as you run down the hall. It's hysterical to watch.
Your favorite things to do right now are pull all the books off your brother's bookshelf, grab dishes out of the dishwasher, flush the toilet repeatedly..while we're on it, play with Batman, drive your brother's remote control cars, dance, pull all the clothes out of a clothes basket and then THROW them back in (at least you pick them up!), and most importantly EAT. You are a pretty fussy eater, but what you do like you eat a lot of! It seemed to me that you had quite an appetite going, but then Sunday the girls at church said you ate your bottle, all the puffs, your apples and um..someone else's puffs too, lol. I know it's because you are using up so much energy playing. You never stop moving. Ever.
I also think that your new found love of cruising the house has you even less interested in sleeping than ever before, which wasn't good to begin with. The minute we mention nap, hold you close or walk towards your room and the lights are off...you start to scream. You kick and squirm trying to get down. I'd say you weren't tired, but you were just laying your head down before I went in there, rubbing your eyes and oh yeah, you didn't sleep hardly a wink the night before. So I KNOW you're tired, but you still refuse. You still wake up almost every hour every night. Occasionally, you'll sleep through the night but for no apparent rhyme or reason. I know one day we will look back at this time and laugh about this, but right now...not so much. I'm ready for this phase to be done. Even as I type madly trying to finish this post you are waking from a 40 minute nap which will serve as the only one you take today - sigh.
You have quite the personality. You are almost always smiling with that big, toothy grin you have. But Lord help those that cross you - you are not afraid to stand up for yourself and you will fight back. I suppose in some ways that's a good trait to have, but we will definitely have to work on taming that temper of yours. You already fight back if Ethan takes your toy! If you think a toy should fit into something and it doesn't you scream at the toys. If there's something you don't like eating, you grab the spoon and throw it. If you don't like something you hit your legs and scream. It's sort of cute, in that I-can't-believe-you're-already-throwing-tantrums kind of way. I think we'll have our work cut out for us this next year for sure.
Your hair is growing like crazy and you've got some adorable blond curls coming in. I need to cut the hairs around your ears because they drive you crazy and you'll swat and scream at them...but I have yet to figure out how to get scissors anywhere near you since you are impossible to hold still. The haircut might have to wait.
You are waving at anything that walks by now. You love to play pass the toy back and forth and you are rolling balls back and forth now too. You love to put objects into holes. Shapes into shape sorters. Puzzle pieces. Toys into buckets. Cows into piano trays. It doesn't matter. You want nothing to do with toys for your age, including the ones we got you for Christmas. You'd rather play with brothers' Hot Wheels or Batman any day. You love anything that plays music. Your mind is going a 1,000 miles a minute, I'm certain of it, and I love watching it at work.
Just today your brother said "Mom, I just can't stop looking at him. I just love him so much." It's true, even after 11 whole months, he's still obsessed with you and can't wait to play with you this summer and take you for rides on his four-wheeler. He's an awesome big brother to you and I'm sure that's why you learned his name before mine :)
And while you have your moments and you have been anything but an "easy" baby, I have to agree with your brother. I can't stop looking at you either. I can't believe we are about to leave the baby stage behind us for good. I'm grateful everyday for you. Your smile melts my heart and your laugh warms my soul. I can't imagine a single day without you in our family and we are all so happy you are here. We love you Lucas.
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| I was soooooo bummed this pic didn't turn out. I'm keeping it until I get another one with the same face! |
You Have to Pay Attention to What Your Kids Read, Watch and Listen To.
Kids books. Seems like a simple concept. Short story that teaches a small lesson using family-friendly words and in most cases, universal morals and a probably a few cute pictures. Right? That's what I thought too.
Ever since Ethan first starting getting books from family or garage sales or from the store, I've always made a point to preview them before he read/heard them to make sure I agreed with the content. I never really came across anything too concerning other than a few "magic" ones I knew I would have to explain as he got older. So I relaxed.
Ethan loves Curious George and I've always let him watch the cartoon. I've always agreed with the lessons taught and it wasn't nearly as annoying as some other cartoons we've come across. He's even got a Curious George stuffed animal he sleeps with. We're fans of the monkey, what can I say. So when he got a few Curious George books I didn't think twice about reviewing them.
You can imagine my surprise when my mother called me over while reading a new one to Ethan saying "I can't read this.." Huh? Now my mother and I usually don't see eye to eye on anything so I immediately jumped to the conclusion it was something stupid that she was blowing out of proportion. So I read the sentence she was pointing to - "He (referring to Curious George) was so ashamed he wished he were dead.."...yeah, you read that right.
Now, maybe you don't think that's a big deal. And perhaps it isn't for a book a teenager might read. But CURIOUS GEORGE?? These are geared for preschoolers. How do I explain to a preschooler about being so embarrassed he might want to die when they barely understand the concept of death?!? I couldn't believe it and I was furious. The fact that the author was so ignorant to think that was a ordinary statement to make in a kids book blew me away. We came up with an alternative sentence and after she finished reading it, I got rid of it. Want to make sure you don't buy it? It's called Curious George gets a medal. Back to previewing all the books, I thought.
It didn't take long before I came across quite possibly the dumbest book I've ever seen in print. The book is called, "It's not Fair" by some company called Rigby Tadpoles. The book is geared towards beginner readers and is only 8 pages long.
My initial thought was that of course, this was going to have a brief lesson about why some things aren't fair in life or perhaps how to compromise if a kid doesn't get their way. NOT EVEN CLOSE. Because of it's short nature and the fact each page only consists of two sentences, I'm going to quote the book to you. I want to know what you think. This is directly from the book:
Mandy's calling me names. It's not fair! (picture is shown of Mandy yelling "fatso", "shorty", "big nose", etc..)
Tony's spoiling my games. It's not fair! (picture of a boy kicking the girl's train across the room)
Karen's eating my chips. It's not fair! (picture of girl stealing boys potato chip bag)
Peter's sinking my ships. It's not fair! (picture of boy pushing boat under water with evil grin)
Mandy's pinching my arm. It's not fair! (picture of girl pinching the boy who's crying hysterically as she grins)
Tony's wrecking my farm. It's not fair! (picture of boy dumping farm on the ground)
And the last page? You ready for this?!?
You kids are driving me mad. It's not fair!
Um..not exactly the ending I was thinking. Absolutely no value in this story whatsoever. I was flabbergasted. What publisher agreed to put this in print? Who in their right mind would give this to a child? Do you agree this was a total waste of someone's money?
And then last week Walmart announced they were removing a CD from their shelves that was made for children, pictured children and balloons on the front and yet the lyrics contained profanity. How many parents do you think never even listened to those cd's and let their children hear that crap for hours..perhaps they are still listening to it?
Folks, if I have any advice for you today, make sure you know what your kids are looking at, what they're watching, what they're hearing and ultimately what they're learning. You can't rely on anyone else for this important responsibility.
Ever since Ethan first starting getting books from family or garage sales or from the store, I've always made a point to preview them before he read/heard them to make sure I agreed with the content. I never really came across anything too concerning other than a few "magic" ones I knew I would have to explain as he got older. So I relaxed.
Ethan loves Curious George and I've always let him watch the cartoon. I've always agreed with the lessons taught and it wasn't nearly as annoying as some other cartoons we've come across. He's even got a Curious George stuffed animal he sleeps with. We're fans of the monkey, what can I say. So when he got a few Curious George books I didn't think twice about reviewing them.
You can imagine my surprise when my mother called me over while reading a new one to Ethan saying "I can't read this.." Huh? Now my mother and I usually don't see eye to eye on anything so I immediately jumped to the conclusion it was something stupid that she was blowing out of proportion. So I read the sentence she was pointing to - "He (referring to Curious George) was so ashamed he wished he were dead.."...yeah, you read that right.
Now, maybe you don't think that's a big deal. And perhaps it isn't for a book a teenager might read. But CURIOUS GEORGE?? These are geared for preschoolers. How do I explain to a preschooler about being so embarrassed he might want to die when they barely understand the concept of death?!? I couldn't believe it and I was furious. The fact that the author was so ignorant to think that was a ordinary statement to make in a kids book blew me away. We came up with an alternative sentence and after she finished reading it, I got rid of it. Want to make sure you don't buy it? It's called Curious George gets a medal. Back to previewing all the books, I thought.
It didn't take long before I came across quite possibly the dumbest book I've ever seen in print. The book is called, "It's not Fair" by some company called Rigby Tadpoles. The book is geared towards beginner readers and is only 8 pages long.
My initial thought was that of course, this was going to have a brief lesson about why some things aren't fair in life or perhaps how to compromise if a kid doesn't get their way. NOT EVEN CLOSE. Because of it's short nature and the fact each page only consists of two sentences, I'm going to quote the book to you. I want to know what you think. This is directly from the book:
Mandy's calling me names. It's not fair! (picture is shown of Mandy yelling "fatso", "shorty", "big nose", etc..)
Tony's spoiling my games. It's not fair! (picture of a boy kicking the girl's train across the room)
Karen's eating my chips. It's not fair! (picture of girl stealing boys potato chip bag)
Peter's sinking my ships. It's not fair! (picture of boy pushing boat under water with evil grin)
Mandy's pinching my arm. It's not fair! (picture of girl pinching the boy who's crying hysterically as she grins)
Tony's wrecking my farm. It's not fair! (picture of boy dumping farm on the ground)
And the last page? You ready for this?!?
You kids are driving me mad. It's not fair!
Um..not exactly the ending I was thinking. Absolutely no value in this story whatsoever. I was flabbergasted. What publisher agreed to put this in print? Who in their right mind would give this to a child? Do you agree this was a total waste of someone's money?
And then last week Walmart announced they were removing a CD from their shelves that was made for children, pictured children and balloons on the front and yet the lyrics contained profanity. How many parents do you think never even listened to those cd's and let their children hear that crap for hours..perhaps they are still listening to it?
Folks, if I have any advice for you today, make sure you know what your kids are looking at, what they're watching, what they're hearing and ultimately what they're learning. You can't rely on anyone else for this important responsibility.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Name That Blog!
Ok, so if you visit my blog even somewhat frequently, you know that I like to change things around. No matter how much or what I change/tweak, I'm still not quite satisfied with my blog look or feel. Maybe it's because I'm not overly zealous about the name of the blog (it was the first thing I could find that had an open matching email too), or maybe because I visit so many super-cool, totally awesome blogs that I feel mine pales in comparison. Whatever the reason, I'm not happy with it-yet.
So, I'm looking for some help. I need a tagline. Something that fits the 'ItRocks' portion of my blog name. I love music, but it doesn't have to be rock. In fact, I actually prefer country with a rock beat. Anything I come up with regarding rocks themselves just sounds stupid. I recently added the "Life's a Dance..How You Dance To It Is Up To You" tagline, but that's not really doing it for me.
For me, it always seems easier to come up with catchy slogans or design ideas for someone else. I get to my own stuff and...I got nothing. So, I'm putting it out there if anyone has any ideas. Not really a contest, but if you come up with something I like, I'll write a post telling everyone it was your idea linking back to your blog. I'm hoping that if nothing else, the brainstorming will at least give me a few new ideas.
If you got anything, leave a comment! Thanks!!
So, I'm looking for some help. I need a tagline. Something that fits the 'ItRocks' portion of my blog name. I love music, but it doesn't have to be rock. In fact, I actually prefer country with a rock beat. Anything I come up with regarding rocks themselves just sounds stupid. I recently added the "Life's a Dance..How You Dance To It Is Up To You" tagline, but that's not really doing it for me.
For me, it always seems easier to come up with catchy slogans or design ideas for someone else. I get to my own stuff and...I got nothing. So, I'm putting it out there if anyone has any ideas. Not really a contest, but if you come up with something I like, I'll write a post telling everyone it was your idea linking back to your blog. I'm hoping that if nothing else, the brainstorming will at least give me a few new ideas.
If you got anything, leave a comment! Thanks!!
Man, That Hurt.
I first noticed it a few months ago when he started "big boy" school and he asked me not to hold his hand in the parking lot. I told myself I was overthinking it and tried to look past it.
A few weeks later we started running into issues getting dressed for school. If it was a 3T he would freak out saying he only wore 4T's. Didn't matter if the shirt still fit..he was 4, so it had to be a 4T. I tried explaining to him that sizes don't necessarily coordinate with your age. He didn't believe me. If it was a 3T it was for BABIES.
Then one day we forgot his change of shoes in the van. He begged me to go get them so he didn't have to wear his boots in class. He got all teary-eyed and said "please, mom.. please?!?" It was like he learned the please-don't-embarrass-me-mom look overnight. I bundled up Lucas, and ran back to the van. I couldn't bear the thought of him feeling ashamed or embarrassed over something so easy for me to correct.
And then it happened. Monday night, Ethan and I were talking and then he got quiet. Ethan only gets quiet when he's thinking about something very intently. So I asked him. "What's wrong, Ethan?" I wasn't prepared for what came next.
Ethan: "Mom, why didn't I get to stay up way past my bedtime like everyone else?"
Me: "What do you mean?" (I knew where this was going..)
Ethan: "All the other kids got to stay up way past their bedtime for New Year's and I didn't. I was the only one who didn't. Why didn't you let me?"
It felt like I got sucker-punched. Hard. Gulp. Tears...mine. Guilt. Horror. Shock. Nausea. I felt it all. I was DEVASTATED.
All I could think was that I tried for over 4 years to keep him from this day, this feeling, THAT moment. All the times he puked in class. All the times he missed out on snack because some selfish, ignorant parent brought in peanuts when the sign clearly read "PEANUT-FREE zone". All the times he got a look because he was sucking his thumb in public. All the times he wouldn't sing in front of a crowd. All the times he got in trouble at the store. All the times he fell on his skateboard. All those times I desperately tried to keep him from feeling embarrassed...and here he was mortified because I didn't let him stay up to watch the ball drop.
I started off slow.."Ethan, I'm soooo sorry. I had no idea you had any interest in watching the ball drop." His reply? "What ball?" Exactly.my.point. He had no idea what new year's eve was about other than it was the night before 2011. He's 4. He wouldn't know who any of the performers were. He wouldn't understand what the announcers were talking about or why Jenny McCarthy was pretending to kiss stupid guys in the crowd. And I knew he would never make it until midnight because my boy loves to sleep. It never entered my mind that he would care. And it certainly never crossed my mind that he would be embarrassed in class because he didn't get to. It had nothing to do with not letting him, until class, he had no idea there was anything even going on.
I explained to him that he did get to stay up later than normal because I knew he could sleep in the next day (which WAS true to some extent). I told him that he probably just didn't realize it... and he went with it. Or at least he seemed to.
Man, I knew this day was coming, but I had no idea it would happen this early. My first born is growing up. The emotions are in full swing and the days I can keep him protected in a bubble are numbered. And I'm sooo not ready for that.
A few weeks later we started running into issues getting dressed for school. If it was a 3T he would freak out saying he only wore 4T's. Didn't matter if the shirt still fit..he was 4, so it had to be a 4T. I tried explaining to him that sizes don't necessarily coordinate with your age. He didn't believe me. If it was a 3T it was for BABIES.
Then one day we forgot his change of shoes in the van. He begged me to go get them so he didn't have to wear his boots in class. He got all teary-eyed and said "please, mom.. please?!?" It was like he learned the please-don't-embarrass-me-mom look overnight. I bundled up Lucas, and ran back to the van. I couldn't bear the thought of him feeling ashamed or embarrassed over something so easy for me to correct.
And then it happened. Monday night, Ethan and I were talking and then he got quiet. Ethan only gets quiet when he's thinking about something very intently. So I asked him. "What's wrong, Ethan?" I wasn't prepared for what came next.
Ethan: "Mom, why didn't I get to stay up way past my bedtime like everyone else?"
Me: "What do you mean?" (I knew where this was going..)
Ethan: "All the other kids got to stay up way past their bedtime for New Year's and I didn't. I was the only one who didn't. Why didn't you let me?"
It felt like I got sucker-punched. Hard. Gulp. Tears...mine. Guilt. Horror. Shock. Nausea. I felt it all. I was DEVASTATED.
All I could think was that I tried for over 4 years to keep him from this day, this feeling, THAT moment. All the times he puked in class. All the times he missed out on snack because some selfish, ignorant parent brought in peanuts when the sign clearly read "PEANUT-FREE zone". All the times he got a look because he was sucking his thumb in public. All the times he wouldn't sing in front of a crowd. All the times he got in trouble at the store. All the times he fell on his skateboard. All those times I desperately tried to keep him from feeling embarrassed...and here he was mortified because I didn't let him stay up to watch the ball drop.
I started off slow.."Ethan, I'm soooo sorry. I had no idea you had any interest in watching the ball drop." His reply? "What ball?" Exactly.my.point. He had no idea what new year's eve was about other than it was the night before 2011. He's 4. He wouldn't know who any of the performers were. He wouldn't understand what the announcers were talking about or why Jenny McCarthy was pretending to kiss stupid guys in the crowd. And I knew he would never make it until midnight because my boy loves to sleep. It never entered my mind that he would care. And it certainly never crossed my mind that he would be embarrassed in class because he didn't get to. It had nothing to do with not letting him, until class, he had no idea there was anything even going on.
I explained to him that he did get to stay up later than normal because I knew he could sleep in the next day (which WAS true to some extent). I told him that he probably just didn't realize it... and he went with it. Or at least he seemed to.
Man, I knew this day was coming, but I had no idea it would happen this early. My first born is growing up. The emotions are in full swing and the days I can keep him protected in a bubble are numbered. And I'm sooo not ready for that.
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