This evening I had one of those moments that you treasure as a parent.
On Sunday nights we like to watch Seinfeld. We've seen every episode about four or five times but short of some kind of natural disaster nothing could keep us from tuning in. Kind of pathetic, but hey we know what we like. So it was evening and I was really tired of waiting on Little Lord Fauntleroy. Seemed he needed one thing after another. Needed to go potty. Needed some milk. Needed me to name every cooking utensil in the kitchen drawer. Needed me to accompany him to his bedroom. Sometimes, but not always, he's afraid to go in his bedroom by himself. Every five minutes I had to hoist myself off my comfy spot on the couch for something he absolutely had to have right at that moment.
Finally I decided to just sit on the ottoman because it was pretty clear I wasn't going to have any peace until bedtime rolled around. My little boy sat next to me and held my hand. This is notable because he's a boy who isn't much of a hand holder.
Julian held my hand and sat with me for a long time while I watched the boob tube. Then he looked at me and said, "I luh you." "What? You like me?" I asked. He repeated himself and I reflected for a moment then said, "You love me?" and he nodded his head yes. I wrapped my arms around him and told him I loved him too. Oh my, it was a precious moment. I forgot all about how irritated I was about getting up to do something for him every two and a half minutes. He started talking three months ago and this was the first time he ever said I love you.
The very next thing he said was "I cloh mow whe bur." This translates to "I close my mouth when I burp." That's a very good thing I told him as I was getting all choked up. He got up, and as the tears were still forming in my eyes and I was trying not to boo hoo all over the place, he brought me his little Thomas The Tank Engine and informed me that Thomas The Tank Engine closes his mouth when he burps too. Sigh. These moments go by so fast, don't they? He has no idea how he fills my heart to overflowing. Or maybe he does and that's why he so quickly changed the subject. Hehe! If he were older he'd probably say, "Oh Mom. Now don't do that!"
March 21, 2000
I got Julian a chalkboard. He likes it and it was a good buy. It's 24"x36" and my husband hung it on the wall in the living room. I got the idea from a book I checked out from our local library called Growing Up Writing, by Linda Leonard Lamme. Unfortunately it's now out of print. The beginning of the book is full of interesting information. For example, the writer recommends that little ones should have standing up and sitting down places to write. She suggests placing the chalkboard in a central location where it will get lots of use and to get thick, soft chalk because regular sized chalk breaks easily. It's a good tip. I had bought some regular thin chalk and a 9"x12" chalkboard but Julian wasn't interested in playing with it at all. I noticed that the chalk wrote really lightly. Too lightly for little hands. She recommends setting aside time for writing each day, just like you do for reading. Chapter three, my favorite chapter, is eighteen pages all about "Scribblers." The author says it's important not to underestimate the value of scribbling as a foundation for writing. Did you know there are different levels of scribbling? Yep. You've got your Early Scribbling, Controlled Scribbling, and Naming Scribbling. It's all in chapter three. Riveting reading for parents of little ones.
Since he's getting close to turning three (May 17, 2000) I thought it was time to join up some little kid activities. We quit Kindermusik and I wanted to replace it with some other activity anyway. Kindermusik was good. We participated in Kindermusik for one year but my child is not so compliant as most of the other kids in the class and it was stressing me out a bit. Our teacher was exceptional and never made me feel bad when my kid wandered off which he did a lot. I noted that if they were dancing or jumping he always participated in that so I came to the conclusion that he might like something more physical. We joined Rompergym through the city and he loves it. It was a good pick. We're also doing Circle Time at a local museum, but I'm not going to sign up for it again because it turns out traffic is horrendous. You'd think by 9:15 am most folks would already be at work but it looks to me like everyone's on the freeway going the same direction I want to go. So our semi-schedule is Rompergym on Mondays, Circle Time on Tuesdays, the Homeschool Center on Wednesdays, the park on Fridays. The schedule is good for both of us. I'd be perfectly content if someone would deliver our food and I could stay home all the time, but I can hardly do that with a little boy who eagerly anticipates going places and doing things. This week he even asked to go to the bookstore. Boy was I pleased. We dropped everything and got in the truck and went straight to the bookstore. I am biased though. It's one of my favorite places to go.
I started recording his favorite cartoons. He likes Maisy, Kipper, Roly Polie Olie, Winnie the Pooh, and Thomas the Tank Engine. We hate the commercials so this way we avoid them altogether plus the cartoons are actually only about 17 minutes long, not 30 minutes. In particular, I have a problem with the music videos geared to toddlers and preschoolers with cute lyrics and Disney characters that are obvious remakes of videos for the MTV crowd. This concerns me. We don't want it in our house.
Julian's bed was delivered today. It's a regular twin bed. We still have his crib in his room, but he's set on sleeping in his new bed. He likes it a lot. I suggested to my husband that we put out an ad to sell the crib but he said no. He wants to save it for Julian to use for his baby when he grows up. I don't think my husband can bear to part with it. And Julian is wearing his unders at night instead of a diaper! He stayed dry every night so far. (That's three nights.) We'll see how it goes. It's remarkable for a boy who's not yet three. (Update-We've postponed the night time potty learning. He wet the bed three nights and stayed dry four. However he was terribly cranky during the week which I attribute to me waking him to go potty at midnight each night. It's a funny thing. I think his bladder is capable of going all night but his mind is not ready. I don't want him to get accustomed to wetting the bed though so we'll just try again at a later date. It took a lot of convincing to get him to wear a diaper again. Little tike. He was set on wearing unders in his new bed.)
Last thing of note. It seems Julian is developing by leaps and bounds and I can see the difference from week to week. He now uses people's names when we see them and he responds to strangers when they speak to him (for example, the box girl at the market, or a salesperson). Used to be that he didn't give other people, people outside our home, the time of day. He'd just ignore them completely. I thought it was a little unusual but I didn't make an issue of it. I didn't make him respond although sometimes I wanted to. Now I'm glad I didn't force it. He's friendly as can be. The first time it happened was at the Homeschool Center. He and a little girl were running around and he came to tell me he was playing with Esa. I wrote it in my journal.
Which reminds me of one more last thing. I highly recommend keeping a journal about your baby. Even if your entries are irregular, in twenty years you'll be so glad you wrote whatever you wrote. You'll forget so much unless you write it down. You'll forget the most basic stuff - major milestones, precious moments, funny things. Things that loom so large right now that you think you'll never forget them. With time they fade from your memory and the details are gone forever. It's never too late to start a journal. Only be sure to do it all in one place. I tell you, I've got notes on my computer in (some in WordPerfect and some in Microsoft Word), notes in a spiral notebook, notes on Post-It notes. They're spread out like a dog's breakfast. I've really got to do something about that.
Back