And the award goes to...

I love how a toddler can take the simplest of events and turn it into an Oscar winning performance.

Last night Matt got Zach into his jammies and then had to run down stairs to get something. Zach stood at the top of the stairs wailing and reaching for his father the entire time Matt was gone. As if he was never going to see his father again.

You might be saying to yourself, well he was scared, or he just needed a hug or reassurance, or he felt abandoned. Oh no. This is all while I was sitting no more than 10 feet from the child.

The other day Zach ran out of water in his cup while we were in the car. He started gasping and whispering water. As if he he had been denied a drink for days and was in the middle of desert.  For the next 5 minutes (until we got home), all I heard from the back seat was, "water, water, water, water, water, water, water." No break.

One day, our 14lb  dog accidently walked on Zach's foot as she passed by. You would have thought it was broken.

That was a particularly rough day.

Late Talker= Big Whiner

I have kind of decided that I believe that late talkers are bigger whiners. And I have one.

Now, let me clarify- Zach is doing great with his language. Really coming along well, new words all the time, slowly increasing the length of his phrases etc. But, he was a (mildly) late talker.

I think that late talkers develop their own way of communicating. It is part of why, I believe, they can be late talkers- they find other ways to communicate effectively and thus have no need to do the hard work of figuring out how to talk. Eventually, these rudimentary methods they have developed are insufficient for the things the child wants to say so they sigh and give in and start talking.

I believe that the easiest, most natural, and (in many circumstances) most effective form of communication that late talkers develop is whining. They whine, it gets attention, and then the attentive adult can figure out, on their own, what the child wants. This starts a pattern and that pattern sticks and then you have a whiner.

I have a whiner. And, whoa, does it drive me crazy.

It is really only just recently that I have noticed this behavior (my ignoring and tending to it being part of what has brought it into being in the first place) more clearly and have started trying to address it. I started my battle against the whining by just consistently asking him not to whine (when he was whining, of course). Then it dawned on me that he might not know what this “whining” I speak of is. So the dialogue I have recently picked up is… child whines, my response: “you are whining. No whining.”

I originally thought I would explain that it bothered me or made me sad (or whatever sensitive mumbo-jumbo I am supposed to feed my toddler to make him secure with himself and emotions) but decided it was too many words. I know I should use a positive rather than a negative: something like, “use your big boy voice” rather than, “no whining.” But I think, a lot of times, even that kind of thing gets to be too complicated. I personally think it’s a check in the positive column that I’m not shouting “IF YOU WHINE AGAIN, I AM GOING TO GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO WHINE ABOUT.” So let’s focus on that.

Now, is he really more of a whiner than any typical two-year-old, maybe yes or maybe no. But either way, I wanted to address it and that is how I am doing it. Yay. I wouldn't call it proactive but atleast it's active.

I thought we were generally past the drool...

Zach is going through this random two-and-a-half year old  (age not time period) phase where he is drooling like a faucet. And this is coupled with the fact that he is a bit stuffed up with allergies so his mouth is hanging open most of the time so he can, you know, breath. I also thing he might have a big molar pushing through in the back. I don’t know- SOMETHING is up.

Here’s the thing about a 2 year old going through this (rather than an infant)… (1) an increased capacity to drool, i.e. A LOT more drool and (2) an inappropriateness for him to walk around in a bib (which was cute when he was 6 months old). Now, one added benefit is that he now has the where-with-all to wipe his mouth and at least try to contain the drool but it isn’t helping too much. Not with the amount of drool we are talking about.

When I picked him up from school yesterday, his shirt was so saturated that it was slimy. They said that they had tried to have him wear a bib but he didn’t tolerate it (shocker). Needless-to-say, today I brought burp cloths to school with him so they would have something softer to use for him to wipe his mouth, which he will do on command. So in my mind, they will have the cloth somewhere accessible for him and they can remind him to go use it (I doubt very much that this is how this will work).

Research only brought up ridiculous things like the possibility of seizures and being that there is no fever to go with this situation, I am going to stick with it just being a phase for now and hope for it being a short one.

I want to emphasize, but I can’t nor do I want to, how much drool this is. It’s a lot.

For Grocery Shopping...

These are a very good idea...

But let me tell you, I wipe almost every inch of it with one of those little wipes at the front of the store before my child gets into it. I see my child sneeze and incidentally snot on it and I know he can't be the worst of them. But after its been wiped down, good idea!



Food Temperature Solution

Sometimes, in the car, when the toddler is hungry, and the fries are too hot, you have to get creative...

Working Mommy

I have a friend that recently came back to work after having her first child. So, I ran into her a couple days into being back and asked how it was going, how she was feeling, etc. Generally she said that she wakes up and gets him ready and feels good and like she can do it. Then she brings the baby to the sitter and she feels good about it- the baby is loved there, he is getting good stimulation- mom feels like she can do it. She works and feels good about her work- she can do it. Mom picks the baby up and goes home and has quality time with baby- feeding, bathing, cuddling, playing. Mom puts baby down to go to sleep and that’s it. That’s all the time she gets. And it’s not enough. And she cries.

While I didn’t have quite such a struggle when I went back to work because I was a very overwhelmed first time mom and needed the break that working provided (because for me, work is the break… note to all of you that think staying at home is so fun and easy!). I, now that I have sunk into the parenting thing a bit more, feel more like this mom. I desire more time with my son. But I also like (and more-or-less need) to work.

Here is what I said to her…

· The time away from your baby ABSOLUTELY makes your time with him that much more precious. You appreciate and live that time to the fullest when you have those breaks.

· Live through a few weekends- you will feel like you get a lot of time back on weekends. Also, remember that as teachers, we get a lot more time with our kiddos than a lot of working parents.

· I think that getting breaks from parenting through work gives you more patience in parenting. I am feeling this even more now that I have a two year old. On weekends I feel my patience with his two-year-old-ness dwindling by Sunday evening. (granted, I don’t ever build up the resistance that full-time moms seem to master)

· Think of all the wonderful skills your baby is learning by being cared for by someone other than mommy and daddy, and being around kids that aren’t family

· Yes, your day care child will get sick more initially- but not as they get older… he will be a TANK later in life

Do I struggle with being a working mom- yes. Do I see the downsides of that decision- yes. But everything has a bright side and this is not an exception to that rule. You can still be a present parent and enjoy every piece of raising your child. Your child can still get everything they need (and then some). This is just one way- not right or wrong- and my family is having a happy life living it!

Heart-Shaped Tongue

Another note on the speech eval- Zach has a heart-shaped tongue. I have worried (as usual) about this since he was a baby. What it pretty much amounts to is that, most of the time, his tongue looks rounded but sometimes it dips in the middle so that the end of his tongue looks like a heart. The concern with this is that the piece of skin that connect his tongue to the bottom of his mouth is too tight and constricts the mobility of the tongue. When extreme (called tongue-tie), this problem can cause feeding problems and later speech problems.

Generally, everything says that as long as a child can stick their tongue out of their mouth that this isn’t a problem. Zach proved at a very young age that he had this ability. Little dickens. Of course I was still concerned.

I have asked since he was a baby and the pediatrician has said that it wasn’t a problem. We then asked the dentist he saw last month- not a problem. So, the speech evaluator took a look at his tongue and says it’s not a problem.

There you go.

Not a problem.