A Morning in the Life

Every night before bed I think, "Tomorrow I will get up early. It'll be great! I won't have to rush to get ready, and I'll get to work early." The reality is that I'm just not a morning person. I love my sleep. Alarm clocks are not my friend. So, I wake up late, realizing that I forgot to turn on the evil alarm clock. I set Little Bit up in front of tv watching his favorite cartoons. I hurry through a shower, then find some khakis and one of my go-to tops to throw on. On the days when DH can take Little Bit to daycare, I don't end up quite so late to work, but I'm still late. The flextime excuse can only take you so far. When I have drop off Little Bit, there's an extra 30-45 minutes tacked onto my morning routine. First, I have to bargain with Little Bit to change his diaper. "If you want to keep watching cartoons, then we need to change your diaper." Next, I suggest a shirt for the day. If he insists on wearing his pajama shirt to daycare, oh, well. He's only two and a half. Try to find some clean pants for him. Are they in the dryer? Darn, forgot to run that load last night. OK, yesterday's jeans aren't too bad. Dust them off and wrestle them onto the boy. If Little Bit protests turning off the tv in order to leave, I offer him a job to do. He's still in that 'wants to help' stage, so I milk it for all it's worth encourage him. Would you like to feed the kitty cats? Or, would you like to carry my coffee cup? (Don't worry...it's empty. I tank up with coffee at the bagel shop on my way to work.) I drop Little Bit off at daycare. All the little girls (and the few boys) in his class crowd around him when we come into the room. He's already very popular (lord, help me when he's a teenager). They want to see what he's brought with him (sometimes he insists on bringing a stuffed animal). The classroom teacher asks if he's had any breakfast yet. The answer is usually no. I can feel the stink-eye she is giving me, while she's thinking, "You're bringing that boy in here this late and he *still* hasn't had breakfast?" Mommy FAIL. They now know to either save back a breakfast for him or plan to get him some cereal when he arrives. Oh, yeah, sometimes his hair doesn't even get combed before he gets dropped off. He *hates* to have his hair combed; it's not always a battle I want to fight. So, the cowlick sticking up in the back just adds to the overall pajama top, slightly dirty jeans look. He's going for a grunge vibe. Yeah, that's it. After a stop for bagel and coffee to go, I slink into work, hoping that it hasn't been noticed that I'm late. It is noticed on the mornings I slink into our weekly staff meeting after it's started. The topic -- how it's now expected for us to be in at 8am. No more lenient flextime. Awesome.

Hello, 2009 - If I can't have a personal jetpack, can I join the financial bailout train?

Happy New Year y'all!

It's still hard to believe that it's 2009. I certainly don't feel *mumble*mumble* years old. The last three years have been so busy and hectic with pregnancy, then newborn, and now a toddler. I have to always stop and do the math to figure out my age. I want to automatically say that I'm the age I was just before getting pregnant.

We don't yet have personal jetpacks for everyone or some of the other Jetson-like futuristic gadgets, but soon, we could have personal nuclear power plants. They are the size of a garden shed and would be able to power 20,000 homes. The design is based on a 50-year old design, like that used for nuclear subs. The reactor would be completely encased in concrete, with no moving parts, buried underground, and would not use weapon-grade uranium. That is just amazing to me. The article points out that at a cost of $25m each, a community of 10,000 households would only need to pay $2500 per home to have their own personal nuclear reactor.

Little Bit is certainly going to be growing up in a different time and context than I did or his dad did. Micro-laptops and text messaging and cell phones. When I was growing up, I remember that my dad used punch cards to program the mainframe computers at his work! Now we've got video watches and micro-computers that can fit in your pocket

One of the greatest inventions might be the DVR. Little Bit just assumes that he can watch any show that he requests, at any time. If you don't have any recordings of that show, you better get ready for the tantrum. (BTW, the Viacom and Time Warner dispute news scared the crap out of me -- No Noggin? No Nickelodeon? No CSI on Spike? Yesterday morning, Noggin was still on our cable. Thank god - Little Bit can still watch "Max and Ruby" and "Dora" and etc, etc. The online news says that Time Warner and Viacom reached a deal to avoid the blackout. However, I'm still nervous, because for some reason, Noggin was a black, dead channel this morning. That's so not good, people. We have about two episodes each of Little Bit's favorite shows on DVR. We've already watched each about 5+ times because our DVR refuses to record anything new. We haven't gotten around to taking it in to exchange it for a new one. We need new shows. I can only watch Steve figure out the mouse ran up the clock 10 times before I may have to gouge out my eyes.)

In other news, Little Bit is very aware now and talking about happy and sad emotions. He stubbed his toe recently and told us that the foot was "not happy", but the other foot was happy. While it's very cool that Little Bit can now tell us he is happy, he can also break my heart when he says that he is not happy.

Recently, we were on our way to dinner in the car. Little Bit was being his usual talkative self and kept asking the same question over and over, even when we had already answered. My blood sugar was crashing (head opens and out comes snarling, raging dragon). I told him sharply that we had heard him and to please be quiet.

A few minutes later, his small voice piped up from the back seat. "I not happy."

I said, "Oh, honey...why aren't you happy?" He didn't answer, but DH pointed out that his feelings had probably been hurt by my sharp tone. Cue shattering heart. I apologized to Little Bit for my sharp tone and made sure to hug him when we got to the restaurant.

Last week, I was sleeping in with a headache. DH later told me of a conversation he had with Little Bit.

Little Bit said, "I happy...Daddy happy...Mommy no happy."

DH said, "No, Mommy sick."

Little Bit repeated, "Mommy no happy."

I had been feeling a little blue for several days, and he had picked up on it.

What's a Nice Date Without Barf on Your Clothes?

On Saturday night, DH and I were going out for a real, grown-up, dress-up, cocktail attire, date. We got to my friend's house to drop off Little Bit. He had fallen asleep in the car and was draped over my shoulder, as I rang the doorbell. My mommy senses were tingling though, when I heard his breathing sound a little funny. Just as my friend opened the door, Little Bit barfed. I was quick to turn him around, but he still nailed the shoulder of my velvet outfit...and my friend's patio.

*grin* Hi, here's a barfy toddler for you, bye! No, actually, Little Bit was fine after that; he had just gotten carsick. So, we changed his shirt, wiped my shirt off, and left for our date. And a fun time was had by all.

Last night, DH and I finally got the answer to the burning question that has been haunting us for months....how did Joe take over from Steve on Blue's Clues? Yes, sad isn't it? There is a whole Blue's Clues Debate about Steve vs. Joe, but Little Bit doesn't seem to have a preference. He just says, "I li'ke Blue's Clues!!" When the special hour and a half Blue's Clues started yesterday, I called DH to tell him it was the Steve to Joe transition episode, the one we'd been waiting for! Yeah, I told you it was sad.

Steve shaved his head and has a rock band and a myspace page. Who knew Steve was kinda cool? I always thought early Joe was cuter than Steve, but Steve is kinda cute with a shaved head.

With all the kid's tv that we watch, there are many burning questions that keep us up at night. Do you ever wonder where Max and Ruby's parents are? Where were Steve and Joe's parents? Why was Steve living alone? Why was Joe living somewhere else? Is Little Bear the same bear that is on Franklin? What is up with that wacky family on Miss Spider? DH keeps commenting on the fact that Miss Spider should be eating most of her adopted kids. And seriously, earwigs?!? *shudder*

It's good to be the Mom

What have I been up to in the last week? Being the best parent ev-ah! For one thing, we let Little Bit eat dinner on the couch while watching Dorya. And it was pizza, ya'll! We also had hot dogs for lunch one day, too. I must confess that Little Bit has been getting to watch some tv just about every morning and evening. If we tell him it's time to turn off the tv, his little face gets red, tears spring to his eyes, and he puts his little hand out in a stop motion, like warding off Swiper*, and cries, "No!! More tye-vee!"

Being awesome, we give in and say, "One more story. One more."

The theme songs of all these toddler shows are stuck in my head. I've suggested a drinking game to DH where you have to drink everytime one of the characters on these shows break the fourth wall. You'd be very drunk watching Dora, what with all the "Say map! Say map!" and "Say backpack!" It's one way to get through the horror.

At one point this weekend, Little Bit was doing something that we'd told him not to do (banging a toy on the table, I think). I got *that* tone and said, warningly, "Sonnnn..." Then, being self-aware, I said, "If you don't stop that, I'm going to say, 'Sonnnn...' again."

DH laughed. Sometimes it's just too much trouble to follow-through, ya know? Then, we somehow got Little Bit distracted.

However, my favorite parenting moment this last week was when we were driving home. Little Bit started asking to sit in my lap. I said that he couldn't right now; he had to stay in his seat while we're in the car.

DH then said to Little Bit, "OK, as soon as we get home, one of us will hold you." Then he said to me, "It helps if you can say yes to him in some way."

I said, "Yeah, I know. But I'm a mean mom and sometimes I just like saying 'no'."

* As an aside, check out that link above for Swiper. I googled "Dora Swiper" and came across an interesting post by a history/religion professor about Swiper as an archetypal "diabolical fox-spirit" found in many religions. DH and I were just recently talking about how it was interesting that you have to say "Swiper, no swiping!" the ritually important three times in order to keep him from swiping.

That darn mouse

We may have really created a monster. Little Bit has not been himself the last few weeks. Even daycare has commented on it; any change can throw him for a loop and into a crying tantrum. The only big change we can think of has been letting him watch more tv lately. Now he wakes early, saying, "Mickey!! TV!" He cries when I tell him it's too early (hello, 5 am), but will go back to sleep for awhile. Later we let him watch cartoons while we get ready for the day. Some evenings, not every one, we let him watch a recorded episode of Mickey Mouse. But, oh, boy, the tantrums, when it's time to turn off the tv to put on shoes and go to daycare or to brush teeth and go to bed. I've not seen him have such tantrums as these so regularly. I want my sweet baby boy back who gleefully runs into the bathroom when I say, "It's time to brush your teeth! Lets go get your step-stool!"

He cries in despair when we want to take off his Thomas the Train nightshirt to put on a t-shirt for the day. He kicks and cries when we try to put on his shoes. He refuses to choose a bedtime story. He screams in anger. We warn him a few minutes before it's time to turn off the tv. We even try to give him choices (which of these shirts or which shoes do you want), but it doesn't help.

So, internets, any wisdom about two year olds (he'll be 26 months old soon) and tv? DH suggested that we go cold turkey on letting him watch any tv for awhile to get it out of his system. Is the tv the problem or is it just his age?

Conversations

Little Bit can amaze me daily with his insight and his sense of humor. He likes to 'hide' things behind his back, then ask, "Where crayon?" So I say, "Where is the crayon?" He grins and says, "Hiding!"

Last week, he was playing in the tub for his bath. DH opened the drain. As he watched the water disappear down the drain, Little Bit asked, "Where wa-der?" so I answered, "Where is the water?" He answered, "Hiding!"

Little Bit loves, loves, loves to play outside. This is a little boy who has been known to get out of bed, still in pajamas, and run to the backdoor immediately, saying, "Outside! Outside!" This past weekend we had a heat index of 105+. He wanted to go out, but then refused to go into the sun, staying in the shade where it was slightly cooler than Africa-hot. After coming inside for a bit, DH asked if he wanted to go outside again. Little Bit answered, "No outside." DH asked, "Who are you?! What did you do with my son?" Little Bit put a hand on his chest and answered DH's first question, who are you, "ME!!"

I think part of his reluctance to go outside was his hope that we would turn the TV back on. I love watching TV. It's my de-stressor. I watch everything from National Geographic and Discovery Channel documentaries to HGTV makeovers and dumb reality tv shows (Hell's Kitchen). One of the doctors at our son's pediatrician office is a big proponent of no TV until age two, then no more than two hours a day. We stuck by that -- no tv really until he was about a month before his second birthday. I'd sometimes watch tv while he was playing on the floor, but he never seem interested in it. He preferred building with his blocks or examining his books.

That's changed now. Oh, how that's changed. My parents gave him a Mickey Mouse doll last Christmas. He had never seen a Mickey Mouse cartoon, but he seemed to like the doll ok. Then, one day a few months ago, we turned on the tv to "The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse". I'm sure it was magical to see his doll alive and speaking on the tv. A few weeks ago when I was sick and DH wasn't feeling well either, we let him watch several episodes of Mickey off the DVR. I've created a monster. Now, daily, we are greeted with cries of "Mickey!! TV on!!" If we say that it's time to say goodbye to Mickey and turn off the TV, he throws himself on the couch in despair.

We've also added "Little Einsteins" and sometimes "Handy Manny" to the mix. "Tigger and Pooh" fills in once in awhile on the weekend. On the positive side, the Disney Channel has few commercials during these shows; just at the half hour, there will be a message that So-and-So is proud to sponsor Playhouse Disney. I must admit too that it is unbearably cute to hear Little Bit answering the questions posed by the characters on the tv. "Do you want to help us find Donald?" "Yes!" He'll pat his legs along with the kids on "Little Einsteins" to help Rocket go faster. The shows are just his speed. Just don't tell the doctor.