Posts Tagged ‘parenting a toddler’

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Snapshots: emerging empathy

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

I came across the amazing blog of Nici Holt Cline probably over a year ago. I’ve come back to her words and photos time and again and find myself nodding my head in agreement and wanting to giver her a virtual high five.

She inspires me, and probably thousands of others.

One of my favorite things she does is the “hump day nuggets” series, which in her words is “nuggets: little bit of the season in photos and words”. Being kind and supportive she encouraged her readers to give this kind of post a try, so I did.

As I recently confessed I am not great at follow through so I was fairly inconsistent about getting these together.  However looking back over my blog these are the kinds of posts that make me so happy that I do this blogging thing.

This time with my little one is fleeting and my memory is so spotty that without a record of what we done did, I got nothing. (In related news, I think Aliza’s placenta ate my brain and I fear it will never regenerate)

My bloggy resolution is to just suck it up and do this thing, but I’m renaming it “snapshots” because that’s what they will be: a photograph (or several) and an isolated observation (or several)

So here’s what’s up in these last few weeks.

Aliza is beginning to show the first signs of empathy. She frets over us and asks about our state of being constantly.

Whatever she does, she asks if we would like to do it too.

If she’s eating she wants us to eat the same thing. If she’s “reading” a book she wants us to read it too. If she’s on the potty…well, you get the idea.

I love this. It’s the sort of thing that makes this whole parenting journey worth while. When she asks if I’m hungry or if the dog is thirsty I think I actually feel my heart melting.

Snapshots…

:we are finally able to go on walks as a family, not that we do this mind you, but we can…

:I am equally thrilled to report that when we’re not all together she is (finally!) content to play on her own for a little while…

: of course playing on your own is not nearly as much fun as reading Goodnight Moon 3,459 times in a row, baby girl knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to ask, read it again!…

:she is incredibly independent and opinionated. I know kids whose moms dress them well into their teens, heck my mom STILL dresses me, but Aliza? Just try and put something on her that she thinks doesn’t match.

Rock on with your pink, punk self sister, rock on!

See you next week with a fresh batch of snapshots.

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Posted in Snapshots | 3 Comments »

the Parenting Project

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

My enthusiasm for projects cannot be emphasized enough.

I love to plan a good project. I’m full of ideas and excitement and I even dig project planning software.

However I have this tendency to get over it as soon as I’ve gotten past the idea generating and creating the work breakdown structure phase (Gantt charts are sexy y’all)

I am not what you would call ‘excellent at follow through’.

I am the out of the box idea man, not the worker bee.

This is why android husband was mildly concerned when I first suggested we give this whole parenting thing a go by gleefully announcing “PROJECT” and throwing up jazz hands (west side jazz hands)

Is this going to be like the time you decided to start scrapbooking?

Or said you’d spray paint all of the door knobs?

Or take up piano lessons?

Or guitar lessons for that matter?

Man I have got to find a way to tamper with his memory chip.

No, ye of little faith, this will be nothing like that.

At least I hoped it wouldn’t be.

And I am here twenty two months after the initial project launch to report that while I am still oddly enthusiastic, we are experiencing major scope creep.

Which I have to say is my biggest gripe about the parenting project.

The minute, no the very second you have a handle on satisfying those pesky user requirements, the user (and I mean this quite literally as the one who uses you) throws a whole new set of requirements at you.

Or spaghetti, whichever is handy.

The latest curveball (Uh oh was that an analogy switch mid post? Yes, yes it was and now I fear I’ve lost my dedicated project management reader base) is the unfortunate phasing out of the daytime nap. Which is happening just as I have figured out the exact time, temperature and white noise machine setting to accomplish this all important feature.

Dratz.

The way I see it we have two solutions to this problem. Keep throwing money, time and personnel at this runaway project or start a brand new project! *Jazz hands*

(Note: I am NOT pregnant, but gosh this would have been a fun way to announce it if I had been.)

(No seriously, not even a little pregnant)

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Posted in Sass | 21 Comments »

five inventions that would make living with a toddler easier

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

I’m back!

One of the reasons I so desperately needed a break from blogging was that my daughter reached a developmental milestone that has made parenting exceedingly difficult.

She became increasingly verbal and shall we say opinionated? A bit stubborn? A tad obstinate? A pain in the tuchus?

(photo provided by the lovely and talented Kate of Replikatelife.com)

I just can’t understand why no one warned me that as she approached two this would happen.

What’s that you say?

Everyone tried to warn me?

There’s even a name for this? The terrible twos?

Oh.

Well, hell.

I don’t know why it is that we have Siri and the Ipod Touch* but we have not yet invented anything that will make MY life easier as the mother of an almost two year old.

I propose NASA or Bill Gates or someone get on these ideas STAT:

  1. Robotic claw that senses the exact moment your toddler has reached REM sleep and covers them with a blanket, ditto for socks.
  2. A fuel gauge that can accurately tell me if she is low on food or sleep or full of ummm… yeah you know.
  3. A spell that would temporarily turn either my husband or me into the preferred parent of choice, that way when she screams “I want DADDY” all I would have to do is leave the room and come back as “daddy” until four and a half seconds later she demanded MOMMY back.
  4. A constant nose wiper/over wiped nose soother.
  5. A magic box that shows pretty moving pictures and pleasant sounds which would entertain the toddler long enough for me to shower.

What’s that you say?

There IS a magic box that shows pretty moving pictures and pleasant sounds which might entertain the toddler long enough for me to shower?

Is it called a television by any chance? Because android husband has expressly forbidden television viewing until toddler turns two.

It’s called a MELEVISION?

SA-WEET! Sign me up!

*yes I realize the IpodTouch has maximum toddler distraction potential but we do not speak of such things on the blog in case the Waldorf school we have our heart set on reads this

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Posted in Sass | 15 Comments »

Goodnight

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere.

I put on her pajamas, adding an extra sweater for warmth, and pick her up.

She wraps her arms around my neck and places her head in the nook between my neck and collarbone.

Hi Mama.

Hi Baby.

I rock back and forth and hum the melody of our special song.

Before I open my mouth to release the words she begins to sing to me,

fragments of the song are at once familiar and foreign in her tiny toddler voice,

the verse and chorus colliding into one another,

nothing has ever sounded sweeter.

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Posted in Snapshots | 12 Comments »

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