Baby slings, if used safely, are simply awesome!

To read about all the pros of using a baby sling, go here:
http://www.phdinparenting.com/2010/10/21/babywearing-gave-me-mothering-wings/

We used one with Ari. As I just posted on Facebook, my only regret is that I did not use it more.

Some of the many things I like about having a baby sling:

Bonding time

She was held, which is something babies need a lot of.

I had my hands free.

Bonding again.

When we went somewhere where there were people who were strangers to Ari, she was in the sling. There was no way anyone could just grab her from my arms. Trust me, people love doing that. And, believe you me, nothing pissed me off more than someone ignoring my child's needs and making her cry because they wanted to cuddle her. Yes, I get it. I love holding babies too. But, you have to build the sense of trust first, remember?

Have I mentioned bonding?! There is nothing like feeling your little one close to you. Ari is three and I still love snuggling with her!

Infant Massage

Here is a post talking about a DVD that teaches parents about infant massage:
http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2010/10/baby-baby-oh-baby-infant-massage-dvd.html

The post and the DVD focus on babies, but we all love a nice massage, so let's do the same for our toddlers! Even if we are not pros, it will still be relaxing and a bonding experience. I love giving Ari hugs and rubbing Ari's back!

Homemade Leg Wax

I don't see myself doing this any time soon. I don't mind shaving. It does not irritate my skin, so long as I use the right razor for me, and I can do it quickly. That being said, I came across this recipe and I am sure some 'crunchy' person out there would love to try it:
http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2010/10/homemade-leg-wax-recipe.html

If you do try it, tell us how it went!

Article: Memoirs of a Bullied Kid

Single Dad Laughing... His blog rocks!

Here is his latest kick-butt, inspiring, powerful post:
http://www.danoah.com/2010/10/memoirs-of-bullied-kid.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAdventuresOfDanAndNoah+%28Single+Dad+Laughing%29

Article: Empowering Children with Choices

Give your kids choices. Don't be a dictator! It's frustrating and draining as heck for us grownups and it's no more fun for them.

Check out these suggestions:
http://theattachedfamily.com/membersonly/?p=2600

Three-year-old Checkup and a Rant

Today Amor Chiquito had her three-year-old well checkup. It was boring. And, for that, I am very grateful.

Height: 37.25” (60th percentile)
Weight: 31lb (50th percentile)
BMI is in the 40th percentile. She did not say what it is and I forgot to ask.

Blood pressure was 94/60. Just looked at this chart:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/hypertension/child_tbl.pdf

If I am reading the chart correctly (which is a big if given the program that reads my computer screen), her blood pressure was a tiny bit high. I meant to ask the pediatrician and forgot to. I hate when I do that. I usually make a list of questions, but I did not know what to expect for today’s checkup. The pediatrician is very thorough, so my guess is that the blood pressure was fine. I think I will call the nurse, though. The doctor is human. She could have forgotten to look. Five minutes of my and a nurse’s time will ensure that Ari is fine and will give me peace of mind.

We talked about Ari’s diet. The pediatrician says she sounds like a typical three-year-old and she sounded surprised when I said Ari loves to have whole wheat pasta for dinner. As usual, she talked about limiting juice. Tell my mom, and every other grandma I know, doc, please!

The fact that Ari is still nursing came up in conversation. She politely suggested that we only nurse at home because, at this age, nursing in public tends not to be socially acceptable. She does not know that I don’t give a rat’s ass about what other people think, especially when it comes to my daughter nursing. Usually, she nurses at home, but if she really needs the comfort in public, I will not say no. If she just fell or is scared, why the hell should I say no? To make you happy? If you don’t like it, look the other way! I nurse in a way that you will never see what you don’t want to see. So, please, grow up, deal, and don’t be one of those annoying, nosy people! If you don’t nurse your child, that’s totally fine. Just don’t tell me I should stop because, frankly, it’s not your business.

Ok, rant over! My husband commended me on how politely and respectfully I listened to and ignored the pediatrician! The way he said it was pretty funny!

Ari got her finger poked to check her iron and lead levels.

She got the last HIB vaccine (prevents one of the bacterial infections that causes meningitis) and the flu vaccine. The flu vaccine was a nasal spray.

Vaccines, another hot topic, I know. We decided to do vaccines, all of them. There you have it, if you were curious. Yes, I would do some things differently next time around. I might delay getting some of them. The two, four and six month vaccines were fairly hellish for us.

On a different topic, we talked about seeing the doctor last night during dinner. Her response: “But why? I don’t have a booboo.”

I decided to talk about the shots at the doctor’s office, before the doctor showed up. I like to prepare Amor Chiquito for things as much as I can, but I did not want her to unnecessarily worry about shots for a day or so. Things went well. We got a few ows. We gave her Tylenol, in case she got achy. We dropped her off at school. The imp didn’t even look back. I didn’t get a hug today!

Article: You just broke your child. Congratulations.

Just read this article for dads by a dad. I say it is for moms too. Us moms screw up too.

http://www.danoah.com/2010/09/you-just-broke-your-child.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAdventuresOfDanAndNoah+%28Single+Dad+Laughing%29

Please take five or so minutes to read this. I promise it is more than worth it. While you are at it, hug your child, tell her/him how much you love her/him, show it with your actions, and, when you screw up, do the right thing and apologize.

Being a parent is not easy. There is so much to do. There are so many distractions. If you want to do something really big that changes lives, give being a parent your all. Your child will be a better person and will, in turn, inspire others. It is a cycle.

Thank you to Logical Mommy for posting this.

Beautiful Memories

Every few days, Amor Chiquito does or says something that really makes my day! I could go on and on forever sharing stories.

Here is the most recent story:

My mother and I walked into the playground at school. Ari was at the opposite end of the playground, on the ‘big kid’ swings. When she saw us, she started running, as fast as she could, saying “mooomy, mooomy!”

You know how sometimes you are just so happy you can’t stop smiling, your chest almost hurts? That was me yesterday! I love that kid! I can’t even describe it!

Another story:
I had my remaining three wisdom teeth extracted two weeks ago. Geeky Entrepreneur and I explained to Amor Chiquito that I had booboos in my mouth. She asked if I was hurting. I said that I was not at the moment, but that I would be later (yay for local anesthetics!).
She said: Mommy, I don’t want you hurt. I want you be happy. I want give you hugs and kisses. And she did, over and over again!

I have since mostly healed. I thought she had forgotten about it. She asked me today, out of the blue, if my mouth was hurting. I said no. She then proceeded to talk about how when I was hurting she gave me lots of hugs and kisses and how she wanted to give me hugs and kisses when daddy was done driving.

What about you? How has your little one made your day lately?!

To-Go Lunches for a Preschooler

So, as I wrote on another post, Amor Chiquito is often not drinking, eating, or both at lunch time.

I have tried the following for her school lunches:
White rice
Pasta
Waffles
Bread
Crackers
Dry cereal
Cheese

I also send fruit, usually grapes or strawberries, and a carrot, along with one of the items listed above.

I send diluted orange juice to get additional fluids into her. I was sending water the first week, but it seemed like she was not drinking much at all.

Everything I have tried are things we know she likes.

Her classroom is peanut free, so no peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

She won’t eat meat, so ham and cheese sandwiches don’t work for us.

I am looking for yummy and healthy options.

Help! What do your or your children’s to-go lunches consist of? Give me some ideas, please!

Birthday Parties

So, apparently, our family believes we ought to have a party for each year! We had three birthday cakes.

On the day of Ari’s birthday, Saturday, 9/18, my mother got her a little birthday cake. She just could not imagine not having a birthday cake on the day of Ari’s birthday. It was grandma, my sister, Ari and I. We went to the carousel, came home, and sang happy birthday. Unfortunately, Geeky Entrepreneur was unable to join us. He spent about six hours in the ER due to sludge in his gallbladder.

Sunday, 9/19, was Ari’s official birthday party. There were 20 people altogether, 10 of them under the age of 10. The birthday party went very well. Ari had a blast and so did all the other kids. We just had a fence installed about a month ago. I love it! The kids had so much fun playing outside. The grownups got to catch up. We took lots of pictures. We enjoyed an ice cream cake. No family drama, yay!

The following weekend, Nana had a birthday party at her house, two hours away. Ari got to see my sister, who lives near Nana. She got to see her grandparents. She got to “meet” relatives she does not see often. She got some toys, yet another Pillow Pet, and lots of clothes. She was a happy camper.

Oh, by the way, I swear there were more than eight food options, all cooked by my mother-in-law! Italians… I just don’t get it! It didn’t matter that there were only about 15 people there!

Oh, I almost forgot… We are having another birthday party, sort of. Next Wednesday, we are having a ‘birth celebration’ at Ari’s school. We will be bringing photos of Ari when she was a newborn, one, two, and three. She gets to walk around a globe once per year. Each time she goes around, we talk about some milestone, something special we did, etc. I am looking forward to it. Sounds very different to me. Had not heard of anything like this before. I don’t know if it is a Montessori tradition or a tradition of this specific school.

Please forgive any typos. I am so tired I don’t feel like editing! I’ll do it tomorrow.

Montessori School: Weeks One Through Three

I remember talking to the admissions officer at Ari’s school for the first time. I was sick and tired of talking to schools and feeling like they don’t give a damn about attachment, building trust, or the fact that kids are different and some need more time than others to feel comfortable in the classroom without their parents. So, when Laura, the admissions officer said that the school has a ‘phase in’ program because they feel it is very important that the child, the parents and the teachers build a sense of trust… I almost wanted to cry! This sounds dramatic, I know. You have no idea how many schools I called. The best I got was something like this “Well, if you really want to stay, you can stay for 15 minutes the first day. But, it’s usually better to leave and not look back.” Yeah, right. That’s just like the extreme cry it out method, worse, actually. My child has never been to daycare. Since the day she was born, she was either with her dad, her maternal grandmother, or myself. She happens to be a bit shy and cautious around new people. Most importantly, I am a strong believer in attachment, in doing everything in my power to have my child be in an environment where she feels safe and trusts the adults around her. So, no, there was simply no way in hell that I was going to drop her off and leave her in a room full of strangers, people neither her or I knew. See why I say Laura from Montessori admissions more than made my day?! Furthermore, at an event for new parents, the Head of School encouraged parents to feel free to call and ask how their children are doing. I did this a few times and the people in the office would either go look at Ari or put me through to one of her teachers.

So, the phase-in schedule/week one:

In May, Geeky Entrepreneur, Ari and I went to several events where Laura introduced the new kids and parents to the classroom, the playground, etc.

Monday, 9/13, Geeky Entrepreneur, Ari and I went to school for her first day. GE and I sat in the classroom for about half an hour. Amor Chiquito participated in circle time and all the other activities. She would look at us and periodically run to us, spend three seconds with us, and go back to what she was doing. Once we noticed she felt completely at ease, we let her know we were leaving and we would come back later. This was a three-hour day.

Tuesday, 9/14, was a four-hour day. We walked in the classroom with her. We said good bye. We hung around outside for five minutes to make sure she felt comfortable. We were later told that Ari was quiet for the first few hours, but that, eventually, she was constantly telling stories! That kid so takes after her dad!

Wednesday, 9/15, was Ari’s first full day. This is when things got sad. This was the first day when Ari would be ‘napping.’ I was told that “rest time was very sad for her.” One of the teachers explained the order of events to her: lunch, rest time, play time, time outside, then mommy and daddy come. This teacher held her, talked her through it, validated her feelings, reassured her that mommy was coming later, talked about fun things mommy and daddy do with her, talked about her little stuffed animal, etc. Eventually, she was content. When rest time ended, she was happy and engaged as could be.

Thursday, 9/16, Amor Chiquito was sad for only a few minutes. She rested, but did not sleep.

Friday, 9/17, Amor Chiquito lied down without any prompting. I was told the following: “I am sorry to say Arianna did not ask for you today!” This made my day!

Weeks two and three went well. Amor Chiquito comes home happy, tells us lots of stories, is learning lots using many different toys and engaging in age-appropriate educational activities, plays outside, and is not sad at rest time. She won’t sleep, no way in hell, not yet! But she lies down on her own and does not need soothing.

She loves pizza day! They have pizza on Wednesdays.

We have to work on lunch. At first, I was sending water and she was not drinking much. Now I am sending diluted orange juice. She drinks all of it but isn’t really eating much of her food. I always send things I know she likes. I am at a loss for the time being! I don’t know what to send anymore. I have tried white rice, pasta, waffles, bread, crackers, dry cereal, cheese and others. I also always send fruit, usually strawberries or grapes, and a carrot. If you have ideas for school lunches, please share!

The one annoying thing is the cooties she brings home! She got a cold last week and so did I. It was one of the mean ones, not the mild colds I tend to get. The kids wash their hands when they first go in the classroom. I guess we will be either having lots of colds or developing very strong immune systems!

Overall, the three of us are very happy about our choice. I feel very blessed and very grateful that we can afford to have Ari attend this school. I wish I could do something to make schools like this one be more accessible to families.

It's all about pretend games lately!

We are now well into the pretend phase. It is a lot of fun and very fascinating!

Here are some of the pretend games we have been playing the past month:

On the cruise, Ari and Daddy would sit on the balcony. She would pretend to put her seatbelt on and to help her Daddy put his on too.

The cereal game was created on the cruise, but we are still playing it. We get a bowl, a spoon, milk and cereal. She chooses the color of the bowl, big or little spoon, white or chocolate milk, and the type of cereal. Once she has assembled the pretend bowl of cereal, she dumps it on Daddy! First it was on his head. Lately, she dumps it on his bellybutton!

The shark game was inspired by Nana. A pretend shark shows up, out of the blue, anywhere. We could be at the dinner table, getting ready for bed, in the car, you name it… The shark attacks Daddy and Daddy has to try to get away. The game just evolved last night. Now there is a spray that makes the shark go away.

The other day we were having dinner at Bertucci’s, an Italian restaurant. Bertucci’s is very family-friendly. Kids get crayons and bread dough. Amor Chiquito made herself a bracelet and made a necklace for me. She managed to make a long enough necklace and put it around my neck. Later on, she grabbed my left hand and started wiping it with a piece of dough. Daddy noticed the dough had something red on it (a tiny piece of tomato). We were informed that I had a pretend booboo and she was helping me with it!

See what I’m saying;?!

Our Second Cruise as a Family

My blog, how I have neglected you this month… There has been a lot going on. We went on vacation for a week. One weekend we were preparing for and having a birthday party. Another weekend we went to Nana’s for another birthday party. Amor Chiquito started preschool. My wisdom teeth were extracted and so I spent a few days sleeping a lot. I have been looking for work. It feels like this month flew by.

In theory, I’ll be posting a fair bit during the next few days. Let’s see if that really happens! Intensions and actions… Two different things… You know how it is!

So, our cruise… It was our second cruise with Amor Chiquito (third if you count the time she was in my tummy!). It was a seven-night cruise. We stopped at Port Canaveral, Fl, at Nassau and Freeport, both in the Bahamas.

The highlights:

Amor Chiquito went to a beach for the first time. She loved looking at the water, going in, not so much. She thoroughly loved making sandcastles.

We did the SeaWorld Explorer shore excursion. This consisted of a 20-minute water taxi ride (my favorite part) and about 45 minutes in a submarine. Geeky Entrepreneur and Amor Chiquito enjoyed looking at the different types of fish, corals, etc. I basically just got to see water and a few sparkly things. I still had a good time. My family had fun and I so love boat rides. So it was all good!

The day we stopped at Port Canaveral we did not get off the boat. Almost everyone else did, so we had the pools, whirlpools, the toddler pool and the slide to ourselves. It was great!

My mother and her boyfriend came along this time. So Geeky Entrepreneur and I got some grownup time almost every day. Between that and Amor Chiquito’s naps, we managed to squeeze in about 14 Pandemic games! It is a fun, cooperative game. We strongly recommend it. Apparently, the idea of the game designer was to create a game both him and his non-geeky wife would enjoy. That’s us, and, yes, we both love it!

Back to the cruise… Amor Chiquito loved the towel animals every night.

She loved spending time in our little balcony and looking out the windows. She has been watching Go Diego Go, so she was often looking for whales!

She played many different pretend games. There are so many I could write a separate post just on that!

She went on walks around the ship with grandma and went to a family friendly show. Something about butterflies…

The food was delicious, as usual. We ate way too much of it! I was a bad girl; I had chocolate melting cake almost every night! And, I would do it again! Amor Chiquito and Geeky Entrepreneur were all about ice-cream cones and fruit, just like the other time.

I did a tiny bit of shopping. I always like to get something that will remind Ari of our cruise.

I took tons of pictures. We made a collage. It has five of our favorite photos and is going up in our living room.

Geeky Entrepreneur got to read lots and did not think about/try to work once! It helps that internet access is very expensive! That being said, he simply does not think about work when he is on a cruise and that is huge. That never ever happens.

Amor Chiquito loved the airplane ride. In fact, she did not want to get off.

The one annoying thing: we missed our flight on the way home. We would not have had we shown up five minutes earlier. I will admit it: I became the super stressed out monster. I just kept thinking about how, eventually, Amor Chiquito would get tired, she does not nap easily, she would get cranky, etc. My awesome husband talked me through it. Ari napped, a very long nap, on my lap, and was not ridiculously cranky once. I can’t even remember the last time she napped on my lap. It was great! I was uncomfortable for a while, but it was so worth it!

I am having fun planning our next one! My awesome crunchy friend wants to cruise sometime too. Fun possibilities! I am getting excited!

A mama's thoughts on the transition to school

In this blog entry, a mama writes about how her family is preparing for their daughter's transition to school. We are going through that ourselves, so it was a must-read for me!

If you are going through this right now or will be soon, I would recommend this blog entry:
http://attachmentparenting.org/blog/2010/09/17/taking-attachment-parenting-to-school/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+APISpeaks+%28API+Speaks%29

Article on how to help your little one when s/he says "I can't"

This was wonderful, a must-read:
http://attachmentparenting.org/blog/2010/09/20/ten-ways-to-gently-respond-when-children-say-i-cant/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+APISpeaks+%28API+Speaks%29

Happy birthday, mi Amor Chiquito!

Today my baby girl turns three! Hard to believe. In a way, it feels like she has been here forever. At this point, it is hard to remember my life before her. I have started including her in old memories. Then I realize there is simply no way she was at such and such place when X happened! Silly mommy!

Ari knows it is her birthday today. She has been waiting for a month or so, a very long time for a kid her age! For weeks, she kept asking me “my party today”?!

This morning we talked about how today is her birthday and how she is now three years old. “But I want to be four first! I want Dora cake, please”! I told her we are having a Thomas and Friends party. “I like Thomas too.”

She has been obsessed with trains for months. She does not watch the show anymore, but she always talks about trains. So I figured trains would be a good idea. Now she is all about Dora, Diego, Little Mermaid, anything but trains! Oh well! Too late now!

So, today… The three of us played hide-and-seek. Ari and Daddy would hide and I would find them. Ari and I would hide and Daddy would find us. Did that a bunch of times. Ari and I went to the carousel with my mother and sister. We then had a tiny birthday cake. Grandma just had to have a cake on the day of her birthday. Daddy could not join us because he spent half the day at the ER. Gallbladder, turns out.

Tomorrow we are having the grandparents, aunt and uncles, cousins and the neighbors over for a small birthday party. Hopefully, we will have good weather and the kids can play at the back yard. I will be cooking. Hopefully it won’t be a royal disaster, like the cookies I just baked!

Speaking of cookies, this is what happened… I figured I would do something special/different. My sister gave me a train cookie cutter. So I made train-shaped chocolate chip cookies. Well, we have very handicapped trains! I tried! It was fun!

Happy birthday, baby girl! I love the little person you are becoming! I love how sweet and empathetic you are. I love to see you exploring and trying to figure things out. I love to hear you tell us stories! I love when you come over and give us hugs just because, when you say “I yoh you.” It makes my day. You are in preschool now and you are loving it. I love seeing you so happy and so excited about playing and seeing your friends.

Your squishy mommy loves you lots!

Airport, big airplane...!

Today is the big day! We are going on a cruise! Same ship and itinerary (the Bahamas) as last time. We never got off the ship last time and we have a one hour flight, so it was a no-brainer, especially since we have a little passenger who simply loves to stay put for a prolonged period of time! Did you sense the sarcasm there?!

As I posted on Facebook this morning, if you want the most reliable alarm clock ever, have a child! I really hope that this special ability goes away later, but, thus far, at almost three, this lovely benefit of having a child is still here!

Favorite words this morning: airport, biiig airplane, and, completely unrelated, pillow pet.

Off to pack some snacks and drawing supplies for my beautiful alarm clock!

The Hug Police is on vacation!

For months, any time Geeky Entrepreneur and I were found hugging, Amor Chiquito would run in and split us up. It ended up becoming a game. Even if she was not around, we would say "no hug"!

Recently, she changed her mind and decided that hugs are cool! Absolutely awesome because I am a squeeshy mama! I love hugs! Now, she comes over, out of the blue, hugs a parent and asks the other one to join her for a family hug! I love it! The huge smile is priceless!

We have a little routine. Every morning, before we get out of bed, we do a big family hug. She then instructs her father to put a sock on his shoulder so she can grab it, run away with it, and hide it! They do that at least three times, until her father says he is done playing the game!

Oh, lately, she has been coming over to give us tiny kisses just because!

I love that kid! Hugs and kisses never get old!

A "Love and Logic" Moment

Amor Chiquito is not a fan of picking up her toys after she is done playing with them. Then again, who is?!

There have been times when I ask her to pick up her toys and she has told me it is my turn. Imp! It was funny once or twice, but not anymore! Most of the time, either the grownups pick up the toys or we have a royal mess in our living room. Who am I kidding? Most of the time we have a royal mess in our living room. I can’t keep up, it feels like!

Yesterday I got her magnetic numbers. She was ecstatic! We played with them for a while, and, then, the inevitable, cleanup time.

Ari: I no want clean up.

Me: Please clean up the numbers.

Ari: But I no want to.

Me: You have two choices. If you clean up, you can play with them later. If I clean up, they will go up high. Who is cleaning up?

Ari: You.

Me: Ok, I will clean up. They are going up high.

There was some crying.

In retrospect, I could have done a better job. I was tired, frustrated, and tired of repeating myself so many times in one day. Instead, I could have tried to be brief and to not let it get to me.

Today Amor Chiquito asked for her numbers.

Me: I will get them. They are up high because I picked them up yesterday.

We played for a while. She would grab a number. She would tell me what the number was. If she did not know, I would tell her. She would then run to the kitchen and put the number on the fridge. Repeat, repeat, and repeat some more...!

When it was time to clean up, I asked if she was cleaning up or if I was.

Ari: I clean up. No numbers up high.

No fuss! How cool is that! I got the idea from the Love and Logic book.

Later on, we played with play dough and she cleaned up too.

We are also working on having a consistent parking spot, if you will, for her bike. I have tripped on the damn bike more times than I care to admit! Basically, because my vision is so limited, I might see things that I am looking for. Otherwise, I don’t notice a lot of things, particularly smaller objects close to the ground such as her bike.

That reminds me of a sweet moment today… Amor Chiquito was riding her bike. I was walking near her. She said “waaatch out, mommy.”

I might have mentioned this before. Amor Chiquito has been aware of my visual impairment since before she was a year old. It is fascinating to see how her and I continue to adapt as time goes on, as she gets older and understands more about my eye sight.

Poem About Breastfeeding

Just came across this cute poem about breastfeeding:
http://10centandbeyond.blogspot.com/2010/08/dr-seuss-for-nursing-moms.html

From PBS.org: article on myths and facts about attachment

Secure attachment has to do with your child knowing that you are trustworthy, knowing that you are there, that you will respond to his/her needs. Secure attachment is vital. Attachment in early childhood, secure or insecure, has been found to have an impact in future relationships. In other words, if, as a young child, you were securely attached to your caregiver, later on, adult relationships will be easier for you.

Attachment is something I am very passionate about. Some day I would love to have the time to write a long post on attachment. In the meantime, here is this article:
http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/childhood-attachment

35 months today...

I can't believe our little girl will be three years old a month from today. Wow!

She is not a baby anymore. She is a little girl, full of stories, silly ideas, making up games...! I love it!

Birthdays have a whole new meaning for me now!

Out of shampoo, what could I do?!

I wrote a while ago about using a baking soda solution instead of shampoo. I had not gotten around to trying it. To be honest, I was very skeptical. My hair is very oily; I just wasn’t sure about baking soda! I love when my hair feels squeaky clean! I was assuming baking soda wouldn’t do the trick. But… What can you do when you are completely out of shampoo. Baby shampoo does not work on my hair. I tried!

So, there I was, with a cup, water and baking soda. There was my husband, making quite the funny face!

Guess what? It worked! If it worked on my super oily hair, it will probably work on anyone’s hair! And, no, my hair did not stink! To be fair, I did not try the vinegar.

Some relatives heard about my experiment. They don’t know much about my “crunchy” side. They laughed their butts off and they think I am crazy. Whatever!

Oh, the recipe:
1 cup water
2 tablespoons baking soda

Pretend Play, Creativity and Imagination

Amor Chiquito is very much into pretend play lately. The other day, one of Geeky Entrepreneur’s ties was an anaconda, a seatbelt and a rope, all within half an hour.

Some of Ari’s favorite games lately:

Run after mom or dad with the anaconda, saying sss!

Tell mommy to “be a horse,” sit on mommy’s back, and put her seatbelt on! I am so glad that seatbelts are viewed as such a positive thing in our home!

I forget what the rope was for!

Oh, about an hour ago, a plastic bag became a magic carpet and a tie became a seatbelt. She was flying while Daddy hummed the song! Eventually, both her and daddy were flying together, sharing a magic carpet!

Many more stories, but I am blanking out right now.

All about being a family...

Every time I remember these conversations I smile!

Two weeks ago Ari asked: “mommy, you my family?

Me: Yes, love.

Ari: Da-e my family too?

Me: Yes, Ari, you, daddy and I are a family.

Ari: Yay!

Later on that day…

Ari, as she is getting out of the car: My mommy is great!

She made my day! Her remark was completely unprovoked, all her.

Speaking of family, she has learned that Nana is “da-e mommy,” Mama is “mommy mommy,” Jaiden (her cousin) is “tio (uncle) baby,” etc.

The other day she surprised me. I told Geeky Entrepreneur I was going to my mom’s. She jumped in and said “hurray, Mama house! That my grandma!”

Very cute! Child development is so very fascinaEvery time I remember these conversations I smile!

Two weeks ago Ari asked: “mommy, you my family?

Me: Yes, love.

Ari: Da-e my family too?

Me: Yes, Ari, you, daddy and I are a family.

Ari: Yay!

Later on that day…

Ari, as she is getting out of the car: My mommy is great!

She made my day! Her remark was completely unprovoked, all her.

Speaking of family, she has learned that Nana is “da-e mommy,” Mama is “mommy mommy,” Jaiden (her cousin) is “tio (uncle) baby,” etc.

The other day she surprised me. I told Geeky Entrepreneur I was going to my mom’s. She jumped in and said “hurray, Mama house! That my grandma!”

Very cute! Child development is so very fascinating.

21st Century Family

Long day. Everyone had fun. Everyone was tired. But Ari was not ready to go to sleep.

Geeky Entrepreneur was taking a break and playing a video game on his computer.

I was catching up on Blogger on my laptop.

Ari was watching a kid show on Netflix Instant Watch on Geeky Entrepreneur’s netbook.

Can you spell 21st century family?!

Oh, by the way, she is threatening to be good at using the mouse any day. She knows how to pause or hit play on her show on Netflix or Youtube.

My family got our first computer when I was a freshman in high school. My 2-year-old uses one every day. I feel old!

All about the cute and fun stuff Ari has been saying and doing lately!

Many silly moments lately!

Ari told her daddy to be careful eating his pasta so he wouldn’t make a mess on the table! Very thoughtful! So much laughter in our home lately!

The other day I told her she was full of boloney. Her response: No, only Nana say that! Only Nana!

I was told that she wanted to go to the horses (the merry-go-round). I explained that it was not open at the time. She said: Ok, mommy, we have find other horses!

Ari has known about stop signs for a while. She recently learned about traffic lights. Now she tells her daddy “red, stop please,” or “green, go!” She will also say “look, Da-e, white, people walk, no drive.”

Ari walked around wearing a birthday hat all day on Sunday. She went to the park, the mall, and to a restaurant wearing it! The day before it was a helmet. The day before that it was a baseball cap. The sun hat is missing in action! I don’t know if I’ll ever see it again!

Lastly, I am walking around with an airplane sticker on my forehead! My daughter put it on there and I am not about to remove it! I am sure I look very silly, but I don’t care!

Have I mentioned lately how much I am thoroughly loving this age?!

What an imp!

The latest from our silly imp…!

Amor Chiquito: I want juice.

Me: Little girls that eat their dinner get juice.

Amor Chiquito: No no no. Little girls that eat can see Emily!

Geeky Entrepreneur and I laughed so hard! She decided that she really wanted to see our neighbor, so she tried to change the rules to rules that would suit her! Clever!

Feed me, damn it!

The title... When I was pregnant and got a crazy craving, I would joke around with Geeky Entrepreneur and would say "feed me, damn it!" Now it's "dang it," if anything!

Our little television-obsessed child is in the process of developing a habit, if we let her, that is.

Yes, she loves watching TV. But she has pains-in-the-ass parents that keep an eye on it and get her away from the TV and redirect her – drawing, painting, playing outside, going to the park, etc. This weekend she is getting to watch more TV than usual because all of us are sick. No one feels like being outside.

But that is not the habit I was writing about above. Picture this:

Little Ari sitting in front of her Daddy’s netbook, watching an episode of Cayou, Super Why, Thomas and Friends, whatever it might be…

Amor Chiquito: Da-e, I want pear, please.

Daddy: Ok, let’s go downstairs and get a pear.

Amor Chiquito: No, Da-e, you get pear. I wait here.

What an imp! How about no, me thinks!

Since way before Amor Chiquito was born I thought that we would always eat together, as a family. At lunch time, it is almost always just Amor Chiquito and I, but, still, we eat together. I remember noticing, as a teenager, that my family did not eat together. I don’t want that for my family. I strongly believe that dinner time is the perfect opportunity for a family to reconnect at the end of the day, to keep a strong and healthy relationship going, to talk about the ups and downs of the day.

Furthermore, what is this crap about go make me some food and I’ll sit here and wait for you?! I am a mom, and, as a mom, my job is not to be my daughter’s maid. My job, as I see it, is to feed her healthy, yummy food, but to also teach her that we work, as a team, to get what we need or want.

So, here is the plan. If she is healthy enough to run around the house, then she is healthy enough to go downstairs and help. She can grab the pear, rinse it, put the stem in the trash after I cut the pear. She can put her bowl in the sink. If she is sincerely feeling like crap, feverish, etc., then she can sit at the dining table and wait for mom or dad to bring her some food.

Article" Drowning looks different than you think

This article lists the signs of drowning. You won't hear a cry for help. Everyone should be aware of the signs of drowning. So I urge you to take a few minutes to read this.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/drowning-looks-different-than-you-think-2010225/

Thank you, Liz.

Clever kid!

We got into a minor car accident about ten days ago. We are currently carless. (Is that a word?!) My mother let us borrow her car a few times.

The stories:

Amor Chiquito: Da-e, I want see Mama (my mom).

Daddy: I can’t bring you to Mama’s. We don’t have a car right now.

Amor Chiquito: Mama has car. You drive Mama car.

Later on:

Amor Chiquito: Da-e, I want go big agua park, pwease!

Daddy: I am glad you liked the park. But we can’t go there right now.

Amor Chiquito: Why? Mama have car!

Clever child! I love it!

Great Blog Entry on Parenting and Happiness

Bed time, so this will be quick.

In the following blog entry, a mother of two discusses parenting and happiness. She also links to several articles with different points of view.

http://www.phdinparenting.com/2010/07/21/grin-and-bear-it-parenting-happiness-and-the-pressure-cooker/

Thoughts?!

We love water parks!

Finally get around to wrapping up this post. This is my third try! Can you spell busy mom of a toddler who also happens to have ADD?!

Last week Amor Chiquito, Geeky Entrepreneur and I spent three days at an indoor water park in Fitchburg, MA, about an hour and 20 minutes from us. My mother-in-law joined us on the second day for the day. It was a lot of fun!

Water park = fun.

Water park + grandma = even more of fun!

There was a toddler pool, a spray area, toddler slides, squirt guns, and ropes that the child could pull on so that lots of water could land on mom and dad’s heads!

There were slides for older kids, a 4 feet deep pool, several hottubs, and, best of all, three awesome slides for bigger kids and adults! Thanks to Nana, Geeky Entrepreneur and I got to go on the slides at least 15 times!

The three of us got to enjoy the pool. Ari is beginning to feel more comfortable in the water. She loves wearing her “swim coat.” That is the name she gave the life jacket. She enjoyed practicing her swimming and she learned how to float.

There was pizza and milk shakes right at the water park. Ari was in heaven!

A few things I really liked about this park:

There were huge windows, but no skylights, so no need for sunscreen or any of that. There were several hot tubs and beachchairs outdoors, so people could enjoy the sun if that is what they wanted.

Everything was on or ended on the one main level. This made learning the layout of and getting around the park much easier for me. One of the tricky things about my eye condition is that I have no depth perception. Staircases going up, no problem, but staircases going down... Let's say that there have been a number of falls in my past! Yay for the white cane and for the husband who has a cute and subtle system worked out to let me know when there is a step coming up!

Since there was only so much junk food we felt like eating, we decided to go on a drive and check out a tiny restaurant that had great reviews. Ok, so onto the real reason: they had fondue! Yumm!

I wish you could have seen Ari’s chocolate mustache! She had way too much fun! She was powering through the food on my plate like there was no tomorrow. She ignored the strawberries and the banana slices; she went straight to the cheesecake, the brownie bites, the Oreos, etc.! Daddy noticed just how much yummy stuff she had been eating, removed the yummy stuff, and left the fruit for her. She promptly decided that it would be best to go sit near Daddy, seeing as how the yummy stuff was near him now!

A classic Ari story: she told me she needed the potty and I did not get her there soon enough. So she had an accident. She promptly took off her shorts and underwear and ran across the restaurant butt-naked to inform her Daddy that she had an accident! I was glad that we were the only ones in the restaurant at that point in time!

Long story short: lots of fun was had by all! Three days at a water park is perfect, just right. We will be doing that again some time.

Love, I just don't know!

Amor Chiquito asks "why?" 100 times a day. Many times, I simply don't know. I liked this mommy's letter to her child:
http://www.phdinparenting.com/2010/07/12/i-dont-know/

I must say that my little girl has helped my creativity levels increase a great deal!

A First: Ari is having fun at play group without us!

Today we brought Amor Chiquito to an early intervention play group where the kids get dropped off. No parents. I wanted to try it because I figured it might help with the transition in the fall. Also, Amor Chiquito is becoming more and more interested in hanging out with peers.

I was uncertain as to how Amor Chiquito would feel about getting dropped off, but I was hopeful. She is cautious and a bit on the shy side but feels more at ease around strangers.

We decided that we would stick around for a while, until it seemed that Amor Chiquito felt comfortable. We stayed for half an hour. I feel very strongly about not leaving until she is ready. Anyone who insists on me doing otherwise is simply showing me that their location is not the right place for us.

After half an hour, we told Amor Chiquito that we would be going home and that we would come back later. We did hugs and kisses. She walked away. Said bye from far away. No crying. She felt fine.

My baby is growing up! This felt like a big first! I have left her for hours many times, but she has been with my mother. That does not really count!

Article on Gender Equality and Stay-at-Home Dads

Quick because a cute little person is putting very dirty hands all over my arm and screen! Yuck!

http://daddy-dialectic.blogspot.com/2010/07/who-changes-diapers-in-your-house.html

My haircut turned into a learning experience.

I got my hair cut last Saturday. Don’t like it! My hair has never been this short. Everyone likes it, but I feel very strange. Glad I did it, though. It is more than worth it to me. I will be mailing about 10 inches of hair to Whigs for Kids. I plan to continue doing this. I am lucky in that my hair grows relatively fast. I grew enough hair to donate in about 18 months.

I did not anticipate this, but getting my hair cut turned into a wonderful learning experience for Amor Chiquito.

I told her that I would be getting my hair cut later that day so she would not be surprised. I anticipated that, once she saw me, she would talk about it, but I was still surprised at all that she learned from me getting a haircut.

Amor Chiquito: Mommy, you got your hair cut.

Me: Yes, love, I got my hair cut.

Amor Chiquito: Why, mommy?

Me: Sometimes, people get sick and their hair goes away. I want to give my hair to little kids that do not have hair.

Amor Chiquito: Why, mommy?

Me: Because I think it will make them happy to have hair.

We have had this conversation at least five times since last Saturday. She is still asking why I got my hair cut! She knows why, but that does not mean that she will stop asking! If you have a two or three year old, you know that’s how it is!

I am glad that my little girl is learning, by watching my actions, that there are people out there that could use help and that little things we can do for people mean a lot to them.

I am thinking that, perhaps, we will bring her with us next time we go give blood. Don’t worry; she will be with me while Geeky Entrepreneur gives blood and vise versa. I will not leave a child unattended when there are people with needles on their arms! I love her, but, scary!

Blog Post on the Maternal Bond

I found this very interesting, for lack of a better word. She has a point!

http://midwiferyramblings.blogspot.com/2010/07/maternal-bond.html

Review: Shark Steam Mop

The latest in my transition to crunchy living…!

I will start by confessing that I like cool toys!

I will also admit to obsessing about what chemicals we use at home. This is definitely a post-baby thing. I can’t claim that I was an environmentalist or anything like that! Caring about the environment is something that has been growing on me, though.

I was very curious when my neighbor told me that her steam mop does a great job, despite the fact that there are no chemicals involved. As soon as I heard that all I need is water, I wanted to try it out!

Read more about it here:
http://www.sharkclean.com/cgi-bin/livew/site.w?location=b2c/product.w&product=S3101W&frames=no&target=main&sponsor=000001&nocache=66668

Pros:

The mop is very lite.

The mop does a great job removing stains on kitchen and dining room floors at little kids’ houses. If it can handle the home of a toddler, it can handle anything, me thinks!

All you need is a small amount of water and some microfiber pads. No going back to the store for more supplies.

You plug in the mop and it is ready in about 30 seconds.

Wash the pads and reuse them.

The floor dries up quickly.

Cons:

I can only think of one con: the price. The mop costs $100 at the Shark website. I found it at Walmart for $60, though! The pads are also pricy, $10 each. I found a five-pack on eBay for $23. I use one pad for each room, so we have plenty of them now.

A Mom's Ideas and Thoughts on Sibling Cooperation

Check out this blog entry:
http://attachmentparenting.org/blog/2010/06/30/sibling-cooperation/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+APISpeaks+%28API+Speaks%29

Great ideas, if I ever manage to make up my mind about another child!

The Adventures of Amor Chiquito returns!

I had not done this in a while. There are many little things I want to remember. So I am hoping to do this once a week, like I used to.

Last week was full of realizations, interesting remarks, and fun mischief!

We were walking down Rt. 9 in Northampton (for the locals). Ari noticed a newspaper stand. She had no idea what it was or what it was for.

“Ah, wait a minute!”

There were many little stores. She would stop at many of them and look in for a few seconds.

Daddy was noticing that she is window shopping already!

On a different day, Ari and I were spending some time with my mother. Amor Chiquito told her that she wanted to feed the fish. They fed the fish together.

Amor Chiquito: Enjoy your food, fish. Bye fish.

My mother asked Amor Chiquito to put her sandals on. She said “no.”

Me: Would you like to put your sandals on now or in two minutes?

Amor Chiquito: Two minutes. No, three minutes!

Clever kid!

For some reason (I have yet to figure out why), Amor Chiquito takes off her pants and underwear when she uses the potty, often as she is walking towards the bathroom. Once she is done, she takes off, often forgetting to put her underwear back on. We were getting ready to leave and asked her to get her underwear.

*Some day, she will kill me, but here it goes!*

Amor Chiquito: Paaantis, where aaare you?!

Geeky Entrepreneur and I simply could not stop laughing! I love my life!

Geeky Entrepreneur and Amor Chiquito have been sick for days, almost a week. Just a cold, but there have been fevers and long, sleepless nights. If you know of some way to make a little one understand that using a pillow when she is congested is a good idea, please let me know!

Onto the story… Sunday morning, Amor Chiquito woke up at 4:30 am. She could not fall back asleep. At 5:00 am, she noticed it was no longer dark outside.

Amor Chiquito: Mommy, look, sun wake up! I get up too!

What cute or interesting things have your kids been saying or doing lately?

Thoughts on Corporal Punishment

Disclosure: This note is not directly or indirectly addressed to anyone. I have not seen anyone spank his/her child recently. I decided to write this after reading a blog post on corporal punishment.

Lengthy article talking about the negative effects of spanking:
http://www.womensenews.org/story/health/010923/experts-spanking-harms-children-especially-girls

A mom's thoughts on corporal punishment:
http://mamapoekie.blogspot.com/2010/04/undermining-general-beliefs-about.html
The entry needs a bit of editing, but if you can get past that, you might find it to be thought-provoking.

I must say that if a teacher or school officer ever dares spank my child, I don’t care what state I live in, my Ari is not going to that school ever again!

Yes, I am extremely biased. I will not hide it, will not sugar-code it. I don't believe in corporal punishment, ever, no matter what my child does or says.

I believe it is my job to figure out how to communicate with and teach my child with love and respect. If I feel my child is behaving terribly and I am at a loss, then I ought to reach out and get help. There are many resources out there. Start by talking to other parents. Have a chat with Mr. Google; he will help you out! Search for message boards. Find out if there are local parenting groups. Read parenting blogs. I have learned so much from parenting blogs! Last, but certainly not least, prioritize getting some you time. Your emotional/mental health is important.

As a mother, I know there are hard days, days when you wonder “Why the hell doesn’t she listen to me? Just how many times must I call her name before she responds?”

I try to remind myself that the way I respond does not only impact our lives today, right now, right this second. The way I respond and handle everyday situations will impact my Ari in so many levels: her relationship with me, her self-esteem/self concept, the way she will interact with peers, the way she will interact with her future children, among other things.

Back to corporal punishment, I grew up hearing all about how "one must respect" her/his parents. I strongly believe that respect and trust are earned. I don't believe corporal punishment earns respect. I do believe that it induces feelings of shame, fear and the child’s desire to be dishonest to avoid awkward situations.

It seems to me that, in *many, not all* cases, parents spank because they are desperate, they don't know what else to try, what else to do, how to set boundaries and communicate effectively with their kids. They feel at a loss.

However you parent and discipline your child, I urge you to periodically stop, think and ask yourself the following questions:

Children do lots of modeling; they tend to behave the way we behave, that is. That being said, what am I teaching my child?

Am I treating my child the way I want her/him to treat others, including myself?

Are my actions telling my child that I am trust-worthy and emotionally available to her/him?

Am I treating my child with love and respect? I love her/him to pieces, but am I showing it?

How am I doing when it comes to lovingly teaching my child about boundaries?

How consistent am I?

How will I feel in the future if I see my child treating my grandchild the way I am treating her/him today? Will I feel happy, proud, that I did right by my child? Will I feel sad for my child and grandchild?

Woe, I did not mean for the list of questions to be that long! Just gave myself lots to think about! Yikes, parenting really is the most important, intense and rewarding job I will ever have!

I would love to read about your thoughts, on here or privately.

Article on inducing labor and why we should only do so when it is medically necessary...

http://talkbirth.com/?p=140&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TalkBirth+%28Talk+Birth%29

There are other birth-related interesting articles on this blog...

Two little Ari stories...

Here are some of Amor Chiquito’s latest sentences that I have found particularly cute or funny.

Amor Chiquito walked into her daddy’s office and said: "I want you dance with me, Daddy."

Geeky Entrepreneur was taking the trash out. He asked Ari if she would like to help, gave her a new trash bag, and told her he was going outside but would be right back. The kid loves to help, but there is nothing she likes more than going outside! She said: "Don’t worry, mommy; you got it."

The other day, Amor Chiquito saw kids playing at a park. She said: "I liiike boys... and girls!" We laughed pretty hard that time!

No more nap time diaper...

No more nap time diaper for my little girl. About six weeks ago or so, I began noticing that her nap diaper was always dry. When it was wet, it was because she peed soon after she woke up. In other words, she was being lazy!

Thus far, we have had two accidents, both of them this week and during particularly long naps. Not sure what I can do about these accidents. I always ask her if she needs to go before bed. Sometimes she does; others she does not. For now, I will put a thick towel on the bed until I get a mattress cover.

She continues to wear a diaper at night time. Diapers are almost always wet in the mornings, so we will be diapering at night for a while longer, which is totally fine by me.

It feels strange to wash six or seven diapers once a week! I used to wash about 20 diapers every three days!

From Bed-Sharing to Co-Sleeping

Warning: this is pretty long!

I strongly believe that different things work for different parents, for different kids, and at different stages of the child’s life. For example, in our case, when Amor Chiquito was an infant, we bed-shared and it worked very well. Sometime during the first year, she slept on her car seat or on the swing for a while. She had reflux.

Around the time Amor Chiquito turned one, bed-sharing was no longer working for us. We transitioned her to her crib. That was hard, very hard. She cried a lot. The first few days, I sincerely believe she was very stressed out about it. She would poo. You might think “so what? She pooped.” She never ever went at that time, only during those first few days. Eventually, she began taking her sleeper and diaper off and throwing them. That was both frustrating and very funny! I never heard of a child completely stripping that early!

Amor Chiquito slept in her crib until about 23 months. At that point, she jumped out! Needless to say, it was time to transition to the toddler bed. That did not go over very well! I would close her door because I was afraid she may fall down the stairs. It is impossible to have a gate at the top of our stairs; we have tried it all. Anyways, she would get upset when she could not get out of her room. After a while, I stopped closing the door. Visiting at 4am began! It was easier for me to let her climb into bed with me than to bring her back. Years of sleep deprivation and a vitamin D deficiency were really catching up with me.

Now, here we are. We have been bed-sharing since February. I feel that there are pros and cons. It is easier for me to lie down next to her, as opposed to waiting until she falls asleep. One of us has always been around until she falls asleep. That is a whole other topic. Some people say an infant can be taught to self-soothe. Others say a child is not developmentally ready to self-soothe until sometime around age 2.5 to 3.

Back to pros and cons, one of the cons is that our 37” tall and 31 lb child takes up more room on our queen size bed than either of us does! I lost my husband. He started sleeping on a twin-size mattress in Amor Chiquito’s room. He got tired of getting kicked and of sleeping on the edge of the bed. To be honest, I was not sleeping comfortably either.

I felt torn, felt that, in a way, I had to choose my child or my husband, you know, the two people that I love most. I strongly believe that it was not healthy for our marriage to have my husband sleeping elsewhere. I will be blunt. It is not about sex. You can always get creative! It is about cuddling and reconnecting as a couple at the end of a long day.

That being said, I also love having Amor Chiquito nearby! I hereby admit it; I am addicted to having that warm leg on my tummy! It is priceless, indescribable!

As far as Amor Chiquito is concerned, here is my thought: if my husband and I like physical contact as we drift off to sleep, why is it wrong for my daughter to want it as well? If we sleep so much better with it, then why is it ok for us to get it and why is it not ok for her to have it? Why do we expect something of her that we do not do ourselves?

Something else to think about… I feel it is important for Amor Chiquito to be able to fall asleep with or without me. In the fall, she will begin attending a Montessori school and I will not be there when nap time comes around. Aside from that, it is simply a skill she should have. I might get sick some day; I might get some consulting work; I might want a break, etc. Most importantly, I know she can do it because she did it in the past.

Another thought… every day is unique. I am never getting today again. I want to enjoy today, to be with my family, to feel my family near me, to get something that I will not get forever: my little girl loving snuggling with me.

Here is my most recent idea: move from bed-sharing to co-sleeping, sharing our room with our child, that is. We put the twin-size mattress in our bedroom and have Amor Chiquito sleep there. She gets to be near me. I get to snuggle with my people. My husband is back on our bed and sleeping comfortably. Amor Chiquito is, on average, only waking me up once a night. Usually, she is not loud about it, so Geeky Entrepreneur can sleep through it.

We have only done this the past three nights, but, so far, so good! I know our current setup might not work in a month, but we will figure that out when we get there.

The Broken Record Syndrome

Amor Chiquito seems to feel the need to repeat a statement a good ten times, as if doing so will make me change my mind.

Example:

Amor Chiquito: I want see Jai.

Me: We can’t see Jai right now.

Amor Chiquito: I want see Jai please.
I want see Jai.
I want see Jai now.
I want see Jai.

Me: We can’t see Jai, honey.

Amor Chiquito: But why?

Repeat, repeat, repeat, and repeat some more…

This is recent. Up until today, I kept answering, repeating a variety of statements that all meant the same thing: no, we cannot see Jai right now. Can you spell frustrating and annoying? Because I can, believe you me!

I don’t know if this is the right thing to do, but here is what I started doing today:

Amor Chiquito: I want see Jai.

Me: We cannot see Jai now.

Amor Chiquito: But why?

Me: Jai is with his Daddy. We can see him later. I am done talking about seeing Jai. We can talk about the stop sign! Do you see the stop sign?

When she keeps repeating the statement, I don’t know if I should not say anything or talk about something else. I have tried saying things like:
“I understand. I want to see him too. But we can’t see him right now.” I’d love to say that that works. But it most definitely does not, not for my daughter, anyways.

It is too soon to tell if my new technique will work or not. I really hope it does!

What do you do when your child repeats the same statement ten times, even though she/he already knows the answer? What works? What does not?

Help a mommy at a loss, please!

Homemade waffles, the crunchy way, and with help from the little cook...!

Making homemade waffles on Sunday morning has become a tradition for us. Last Sunday, Amor Chiquito was helping Daddy unload the dishwasher. It was a good reminder; I decided to get her involved too. She helped make waffles for the first time! She was very excited!

Amor Chiquito poured each ingredient into the mixing bowl. She helped beat the eggs. She delivered the first waffle to Daddy.

I don’t remember exactly what she said after we were done, but it was something like this:
I help mommy cook waffles, hurray!

As we were putting in each ingredient, I told her its name. Now, every time it is time to cook, she tells us that she wants to help cook with flour!

Crunchy me decided to try something different: replace 25% of the flour with whole wheat flour. I usually replace half of the flour with whole wheat flour, but I did not want to overdo it with waffles. I wanted my husband to eat them, after all!

I am happy to say that my trick worked! We got some whole grains into us and the waffles were still yummy. I am sure it works because my husband keeps going back for them!

About two months ago, I decided to start making a double batch. We spend a little more time cooking waffles, but it is worth it. We end up with yummy waffles in the freezer and we use them on those mornings when we just do not feel like having cereal but do not have a lot of time to prepare a hot breakfast.

Another family tradition is whole wheat French toasts with whip cream and whatever fruit we have at the time, usually berries or kiwis. A tiny bit of whip cream on Ari’s hand is part of the tradition!

How do you get your kids involved? What are some of your family traditions?

Getting more and more clever and impish every day...

A little while ago, Amor Chiquito grabbed my hand and walked me into the guest room at my mother's apartment. She said "stay here, mommy, please."

I knew what that meant! You know what that meant!

M I S C H I E F

I decided to wait it out and find out what her plan was.

She sat in the living room for a minute, covering her face. Never knew why she was covering her face. Maybe she was smiling and did not want me to notice? She then went into the kitchen and asked her grandma for an ice cream cone!

I guess I do an awesome job being the bad cop!

Another little story... Yesterday, Amor Chiquito and I were having lunch together at home. She ate all her pasta.

Ari: All done. I full.

Mommy: Can you please put your bowl in the sink? (Bad choice of words.)

Ari: No, your turn. You do. Yourself.

I wish I could say I handled it beautifully. Truth is I was shocked and did not react. Part of me wanted to laugh my butt off! Part of me was wondering "who exactly took over my child's mind?" Part of me was thinking "wow, she is learning new phrases and figuring out what they mean and how we respond to them. Fascinating."

Yet another story... About half an hour after the lunch episode, we were doing puzzles. The pieces of the puzzles are different geometric shapes. She knows some of them, but not others. I was telling her what each shape was as she put it on the puzzle.

Mommy: That is a triangle.

Ari: Triangle! I know triangle! (insert a bit of an attitude here, as if no crap, duh, it's a triangle!).

Again, I was shocked.

For the rest of the day, Amor Chiquito was her usual sweet and helpful self. She loves to help with chores. That is why I was surprised when she said it was my turn to put her bowl in the sink. Her choice of words made for a very entertaining few hours, that’s for sure!

Just when you have something figured out, there is something else to learn/figure out! How many times will we reread Love and Logic before we put it down forever? When will we put it down forever? I know, when she turns six and we buy the book for elementary school age kids!

How do you respond to such situations? What works? What does not? I am in the process of figuring this out!

What are your favorite parenting books?

Water parks are "funnn"!

Geeky Entrepreneur, Amor Chiquito and I spent two nights at the Six Flags Great Escape Lodge in Queensbury, NY, near Lake George. The hotel and the indoor water park are both in one building. Very convenient and it was a lot of fun.

There were activities for adults, for little ones, and activities that were fun for the entire family.

Here is a link that describes the water park:
http://www.sixflagsgreatescapelodge.com/WWBinformation.asp

Amor Chiquito enjoyed spending time at the toddler pool area. The pool is about a foot deep. There are three toddler slides and two swings in this area.

We spent a fair bit of time in the lazy river. Geeky Entrepreneur and I each sat on inflatable tubes and we took turns holding Ari. It was relaxing for us grownups and Amor Chiquito liked it, so a win win all around!

We also spent time in a 3.5” deep pool. Amor Chiquito saw other kids swimming, so she became interested in learning how to swim. She made some progress! Towards the end, she wanted to swim “all by my own self”!

There were two awesome water slides for grownups. Have I ever mentioned how much Geeky Entrepreneur and I love water slides?! We had a blast! We took turns, one of us with the “baby” and one of us going down the water slide.

There were several water gun type toys near the water slide area. Amor Chiquito had a great deal of fun squirting Daddy every time he walked by making his way to the slide!

The ride down was not bad. The ride back home was not great, but, overall, no big complaints. She is two, after all! She had one meltdown. She was tired, had just come down with a cold, and wanted to see her friends next door. Nothing a boob can’t fix! Yes, I said boob! They are magical; ask Amor Chiquito.

The meltdown in the car made us wonder if it is time for energy drains. Love and Logic, one of our favorite parenting books, talks about how you can tell your child that her actions are draining for you and that she will need to find a way to restore your energy. Nothing crazy or unreasonable. It is about empathy and consequences to our actions, just like the other ideas the book suggests. More on that in a separate post. We need to reread the energy drain chapter.

I think she likes ice cream!

This morning, Amor Chiquito told me that she wanted a milkshake for breakfast. I told her that we were not going out for milkshakes right then. She said we have ice cream and milk at home! I explained that we don’t have milkshakes for breakfast. Of course, she asked “why?” She is very much into asking “why?” lately. More on that on a separate post.

A little while ago, I heard Amor Chiquito talking on her toy cell phone. She was placing an order, completely with details, please, thank you…! She was ordering a strawberry milkshake, in a small cup!

What can I say? I love ice cream and so does my kid!

Oh, and, I agree with Ari: wouldn’t it be cool if you could order ice cream or milk shakes and have them delivered right to your door?! They would melt on the way, I know!

All about our trip to Boston...

Warning: this is a long post. It is more like a diary entry, my attempt to remember some of the fun and beautiful moments I have with my Ari and the wonderful people around us!

Our trip to Boston two weeks ago was eventful, in a good way. Here are a few stories.

Geeky Entrepreneur left for San Francisco before 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Amor Chiquito and I visited our neighbors in the morning. It worked; she was having fun and not thinking too much about how Daddy was in an airplane, far away. I had considered not mentioning the airplane, but I decided against it. I prefer being honest with her and giving/teaching her the tools she needs to cope/manage whatever life throws her way. I am very grateful and we are very blessed that Daddy going on a business trip is one of the most stressful things she has experienced thus far.

Back to the story, around 2:00 p.m., we headed out to Boston. It was a two-hour bus ride. It went well. Amor Chiquito was fascinated. She does not remember being in a “big bus” before. She spent some time on my lap until she felt comfortable and she eventually moved to her seat.

At one point, Ari started telling me about who has which privates and who is a boy or a girl! This was a first. Last I knew, she was confused and thought/wanted to be a boy. I was grateful for all the background noise; I don’t think the other travelers would have been interested in our conversation!

One thing that did not go over so well was using the potty. The motion scared her and she just could not relax or use the potty. I was waiting for her to have an accident any minute. She made it to Boston and she went as soon as we got to the bus station.

This reminds me… Mommy forgot the night diapers! Unbelievable! Fortunately, my friend has a little one and so they shared diapers with us. Ari was ecstatic. She thinks disposables are very cool! What is different than what you have at home is clearly in, didn’t you get the memo?!

We spend the afternoon and the evening with my friend and her little one. The kids quickly felt comfortable playing together. Before we knew it, they were plotting mischief together, chasing each other, looking at each other on the mirror, playing with trains, watering the plants, etc. It was adorable!

Crunchy moment… Yaminette got me to eat a veggie burger. That was most definitely a first! It was horrible! I am never eating one again! That is why I made sure I knew what brand it was. Darn, one point for Yaminette!

Night time went better than I had anticipated. Amor Chiquito did not nap, so she fell asleep quickly. There were a few night wakings, but she went back to sleep easily and quickly.

In the morning, we took the kids to a park. They had a lot of fun.

We then had yummy Indian food for lunch! Indian food buffet, yay Boston! That is one of the few things I like about Boston: you can find whatever food you are in the mood for!

Both kids refused to nap. What a shock! This made me a bit nervous, impending long bus ride and all…

Since they would not nap, we went out for icecream and to another park. Ari went with Yaminette to get icecream and she informed Yaminette that she wanted “pint tawberry i-team pease (pink strawberry icecream please”! She enjoyed her icecream, and so did her and my clothes!

There was tons of sand in the park. My daughter decided she must enjoy the entire sand experience. So she took her shoes and socks off. By the way, she did this everywhere: on the bus, at the bus station, she has done it at restaurants…

After the park, Ari fell asleep in the car, on the way to the bus station. Exactly what I did not want to happen. That kid does not like it one bit if you wake her up! So I carried her for a while. Eventually, she woke up, walked, and did not do what she usually does. No crying for a long time. Thank you, kiddo.

You should have seen us: each carrying one kid, Yaminette with Ari’s car seat, me with a backpack and a diaper bag. I don’t even want to think about carrying all our stuff without help through the maze that is South Station. Traveling as a mama of a little one without a companion is interesting… Quite the workout!

The ride home was not bad at all. We were stuck in traffic for an hour, so it ended up being a 2.5 hour ride. Thomas and Friends kept us company for a portion of it. That is the one reason why I brought my laptop. I am glad I did.

Oh, almost forgot… We got on the bus exactly four minutes before it left. Boston traffic… Never taking the 5:00 p.m. bus again!

One more thing: for quite a while, Amor Chiquito kept asking about “otro mommy (the other mommy)” and about Yaminette’s son. She wanted them “in big bus too.” Once I explained that that was not a choice, she decided she wanted “go back otro mommy house, baby, trains.”!

Overall, the trip was awesome! I have an awesome friend and she has a kid that is cute and funny as can be! So it was worth it, all of it! We are ready to do it again!

Once we got home that evening, Amor Chiquito went to sleep very quickly.

The next morning, things went downhill from there! Amor Chiquito was missing Daddy lots. She did not sleep well. She had circles under her eyes. She cried a fair bit. She was extremely upset any time someone left. Our last night without Geeky Entrepreneur, Amor Chiquito talked my mother into staying over. My mother even slept on our bed. Somehow, it felt strange, but nice.

Saturday morning, Daddy got home around 10:30 and Ari’s world was a much better place! She was in heaven with Daddy and her two balloons! One thing I noticed: for days, each and every time Daddy was leaving the house, she would get anxious and would ask him if he was going in an airplane again. She is fine now. Every now and then, if Geeky Entrepreneur is gone for hours, she asks if he is bringing balloons! No, no such luck!

Fulfilling a friend's request...!

You may or may not have seen a comment from my awesome friend, Yaminette, where she wrote about Sunday and how I should “post something, something, anything”! So here it goes!

Commencement! I did it. I am done. I get my diploma this Sunday! And I get to spend the day with some of my favorite people in the whole wide world: my husband, my daughter, my mother, my mother-in-law, and my amazing and inspiring crunchy friend and her little one, Mr. Free Spirit (I named him that since he was tiny!).

It has been a long road, particularly after the birth of my Amor Chiquito. So I am ecstatic. I have my degree. I am looking for work. I am hoping to find something I would love doing, something that does not require graduate school. Not interested in grad school right now! I won’t say ‘never’. I know better. But I am definitely not interested right now.

Amor Chiquito is going to preschool in the fall and I get to begin my career. Looking forward to the next chapter of my life! In a way, I am in disbelief still. The baby stage is over. She is not a baby anymore. I am in denial! But that is a whole other topic. Maybe I will get to posting about it next year!

There, Yami, are you happy?! Oh, by the way, I am feeding you burgers and hotdogs, the real stuff, on Sunday! Just kidding! Yaminette and I joke about her being vegetarian and my so-called vegetarian in denial state each and every time we get together. It just does not get old!

Self Care Day

We had a night from hell last night! Ok, I grant you, that was quite dramatic, but it was exhausting, that is for sure. Amor Chiquito did not nap yesterday. She fell asleep at 7:15 p.m. She woke up at 11:00 p.m. She woke up again at 12:00 a.m. Again at 1:00 a.m. That time, she was up for about three hours. She woke up soon after I fell asleep, of course. We were up until 4:00 a.m. She got up for the day at 7:30 a.m. Geeky Entrepreneur was gone. So no time for me to catch up on some sleep.

Then, my day got a lot better! My mother offered to take Amor Chiquito for a few hours. I packed a lunch box full of yummy, healthy snacks to try and limit the amount of junk Amor Chiquito would eat while she was with my mother. I love my mommy to pieces, but she is quite the grandma and she sees Ari lots, so I feel it is important to keep an eye on the junk food consumption. Anyways, they were gone before 10:00 a.m.

I decided to channel one of my favorite mama bloggers, Sonya, at mamatrue.com. She just wrote an awesome post the other day about what she does for self care. I decided today would be a self care day!

Today has simply been awesome! I started by taking a long shower. I blow dried my hair. No rush; no worries about how much television Ari was watching or what mischief she might be getting into.

I took my sweet time eating breakfast, with my laptop in front of me, of course!

I exercised. I have been slacking!

I napped. I desperately needed it!

I got to the dishes before they hit the ceiling!

I got some laundry done.

I am now wrapping up by having a quiet lunch and some more computer time before Amor Chiquito shows up.

This self care stuff is awesome! I get to do a little something for me every day. But doing a bunch of things just for me on one day is simply amazing! I feel energized, even though I got about four hours of sleep last night.

The only other thing I would have loved to do but did not get to would be to get together with a friend. That is always tricky because most of my close friends live far away: one in Boston, one in Puerto Rico, and my newest, local friend is about to move away.

Don’t forget to do something nice for you today! You deserve it!

Sonya, thank you for your inspiring posts!

What did she say?!

That is what I am often thinking or saying to Geeky Entrepreneur.

Each and every single day, Amor Chiquito says something that surprises me, makes me laugh very hard, or both. Here are a few of her most recent statements:

We were having dinner. She said: “All done. I go poop.”

She was in the tub. She asked for bubbles. Geeky Entrepreneur said that we don’t have any and that we need to get some at the store. Her response: “Ok, I get it.”

On Thursday, I told Amor Chiquito we would be going to her new school the next day. Her response: “Yaaay, I’m so excited!”

As we were walking out of the school on Friday, “I want go back school!”

My all-time favorite: “I’m sooo happy!” It never gets old.

Another favorite: “Hold you me.”

Yet another one: “No got you me.”

I will love having this and other similar blog entries years from now!

Mommy is re-learning some lessons today!

Amor Chiquito woke up early this morning. It was one of those mornings when you just cannot wake up. I eventually got up because I have a child and so did not have a choice in the matter! I went downstairs to adjust the thermostat. That is when our morning got interesting!

Amor Chiquito was alone for less than a minute. It does not take a long time to go down the stairs, adjust the thermostat, and go back upstairs. Once upstairs, I noticed that she was quiet and that she had closed my bedroom door. Can you spell m-i-s-c-h-i-e-f?! I opened the door. She ran into her room and closed the door. I asked her “what do you have?” No response. Nothing on her hands. I thought “strange, but I guess nothing is going on.” Then I smelled a fruity smell, one I know very well. Tums!

“Ari, are you eating Tums?”

“Yes, mommy.”

“How many did you eat, Ari?”

“Three, mommy.”

She can count and understands one through four, so I believe her. I asked her various times and the answer was always the same.

So, yes, mommy made a mistake. The Tums bottle was not in its usual spot. It was left where the three feet tall child could reach. It was late at night and I was not thinking. The tired woman with heartburn was thinking, not the cautious mother.

I figured Amor Chiquito would be fine and then I remembered my mother-in-law telling me many times that kids could get really sick from eating Tums. I figured it might very well be an old wives tale, but, I admit, I panicked a bit. My neighbor is a mother of three, so I figured she has probably been there, done that. I am glad I did!

We called the poison control line rather than calling the pediatrician. I have noticed that the nurses often think I ought to bring Ari in and, most times, the pediatrician thinks I did not need to come in.

Poison control told us that Amor Chiquito is fine, that she might get a stomach ache if she ate 10-15 Tums. But she did not. So far so good.

The lessons for today:

Keep your medications up high. Remember, they can climb. They have awesome problem solving skills at this age!

Find your local poison control agency’s phone number and add it to your list of contacts.

Preparing Amor Chiquito for Daddy's Trip

Geeky Entrepreneur is self-employed and so the majority of the time he works from home. The last few years, he has not flown anywhere. On Wednesday, he is flying to CA and will be gone for three days. This will be a first for Amor Chiquito. She is used to having Daddy home. She does not interact much with him from nine to six p.m., but she knows he is here, at home. When he is not home, she asks often when he is coming back.

How do we prepare her for this? What are good do’s and don’t’s while he is gone?

Here is what I have been thinking so far:

We will tell her the day before he leaves so that she is not anxious about it for days. Also, he is leaving at five a.m., so there will not be an opportunity for a proper goodbye the day of.

We will not make a big deal of it. For example, I am wondering if we should avoid mentioning that he will be in an airplane. She knows that people who fly in airplanes “go far away.”

I will do my best to get her to understand what a day is. If it seems like she gets that, I will explain that Daddy will be gone for three days. Each day, I will tell her what day we are on.

We are planning on video conferencing once a day. He will be on Pacific time and will have long days. Hopefully it will work.

A friend suggested that when Amor Chiquito talks about Daddy being gone I focus on when he is coming home, that he will be home soon, etc., rather than on how he is gone, she misses him, etc.

I plan on validating her feelings and keeping her occupied as much as possible.

We are going on a little trip ourselves! We are going to Boston to see my awesome friend Yaminette and her little one. I think Amor Chiquito will have fun playing with my friend’s son and his many trains! I am sure she will be fascinated by the big Peterpan bus! She has only been in one once before and she does not remember it. She was seven months.

Inserting rant here… Please do not imply that I should not go on this trip because I am visually impaired and my daughter is two and very active, seriously. I am a capable and cautious mother with a brain. I own a stroller and a backpack harness (what the heck is the correct name for those things?). I know when I need them. My daughter is just as safe as your kid is. By the way, you know what sucks the most? The fact that it is a relative, someone who has known me for 27 years, who said this to me. Rant over!

Back to traveling, I look forward to any thoughts/suggestions.

Breastfeeding and Managing Alergic Reactions

I have been lucky in that the last few years I did not have severe allergic reactions in the spring or my expected spring sinus infection. I have been breastfeeding for 31 months and I was pregnant before that, so I have been avoiding medications as much as possible. I have read that antihistamines might affect a mother’s milk supply, but the research is inconclusive. I was so grateful for not having to deal with this.

This year, I have no idea what has changed. We have been in the same neighborhood for two years, so living in a new area is not it. All I know is that my head feels like two strong hands are squeezing it. I cannot keep track of how many times I sneeze in one day! Needless to say, it is time to do something.

I started by doing some research on the La Leche League website. Unfortunately, that did not lead me to any useful information. That was unusual; the website has been very helpful in the past. For example, I found an article with suggestions for visually impaired mothers and many stories of adoptive breastfeeding moms, among many others.

Back to managing allergic reactions, good old Google is awesome! And so is this website: http://www.kellymom.com/health/meds/cold-remedy.html#decongestants.

I now know which nasal sprays and which antihistamines I can try. Even better, I have a list of crunchy things to try, as my husband puts it! If you are breastfeeding or simply want to try other options before trying medications, here are some suggestions I got from the website mentioned above:

Saline nasal spray. It worked for me when I was pregnant. Don’t put a few drops in your nose. Keep spraying until you start tasting the water.

Boil some water, cover your face with a towel, and breathe the water for five minutes a few times a day. I have not done this, but I have found hot showers to be helpful, so I will try this too.

My favorite, just because I won’t hear the end of it from my husband! Heat some apple cider vinegar in a pot until it begins to steam. Inhale the vapor.

Put a quarter tsp of cayenne pepper in a glass of water and drink it. Not looking forward to it, but one is willing to try many things when she is feeling desperate! Actually, I change my mind. I am having super spicy Indian food tonight! I will tell my husband it is part of my treatment! Should I tell him that chocolate might help make me feel better too?! Just kidding!

If you are in a similar situation, what helps you? What does not? If you tried antihistamines while breastfeeding, did they have an impact on your milk supply?

One more point for vinegar!

This is going to sound pretty crunchy, but I love vinegar! It is simply awesome! It is useful for so many tasks.

The latest in crunchy land: vinegar as a body odor remover.

When we were expecting Amor Chiquito, we began buying free and clear detergent to wash her clothes. Eventually, I started using it for all our clothes. I have never been into using fabric softeners because I am not a fan of strong smells. Most of them make me sneeze. There are enough allergens already making me sneeze, so why make it worse? The downside to using a free and clear detergent is that the detergent I have been using sometimes does not remove body odor completely. I do not recall where I got the idea, but I figured I would try adding a cup of vinegar to the large loads.

No more stinky undershirts! No strong vinegar odor afterwords either. In fact, Geeky Entrepreneur had no idea I was using it until I mentioned it. Yes, he picked on me, of course! What else is new?!

Language Update: She won't shut up!

I was looking back at old posts and I was surprised when I realized how much language development we have been witnessing the past month. A month ago, Amor Chiquito was just beginning to say short sentences. Now, she is saying sentences all the time and her sentences often consist of over five words.

A few examples:

Mommy, we are in a big house.

I want Daddy come back now. (He was at work.)

(We were driving.) Daddy, otro (Spanish for other) car stopped again?!

Amor Chiquito understands “you,” “I” and “me” now. Fortunately, she still says “hold you”! I know she will figure it out eventually. I am enjoying it while it lasts!

Amor Chiquito is beginning to learn about the difference between the present and the past tenses. For example, if we ask her to do something she has already done, she will say “I did mommy.”

She is doing better answering simple questions, such as what, who and where. She does not answer why questions yet.

Pretty cool stuff! Have I said that I am loving this stage?!

How to teach assertiveness?

Amor Chiquito has been interacting more and more with her cousin and our neighbors’ kids lately. I am noticing that she is very much a follower. This is disconcerting to me. I am not saying that I want her to be the leader. I feel that being assertive is vital, though. It is a very important skill that I want to help her develop. I want her to do the things she enjoys doing, to think about what it is that she likes or needs to do. I want her to feel comfortable speaking up when something makes her feel uncomfortable or sad.

Here is an example. Earlier today, Amor Chiquito was playing outside with the neighbors, ages five and two. Amor Chiquito does whatever the older girl does, which is pretty typical. At one point, the two-year-old began throwing sand at Amor Chiquito. There was sand on her face, near her eyes, in her hair... She did not say anything when it happened. Later on, Geeky Entrepreneur asked her if she liked that. She said “no.” He asked if it made her feel happy or sad. She said “sad.” We made a point of not showing any emotions or not asking questions in a suggestive manner. We wanted her to decide for herself how she felt about the sand situation.

Now what? We will tell her to tell us how she feels. Most importantly, we will make a point of using “I feel” statements. She will begin modeling eventually.

I feel that this is a good starting point, but that there is more to it than these ideas. If you have a little one, is s/he assertive? If not, what have you tried? How is it working out?

I look forward to your comments, thoughts and suggestions.

'Faid, mommy.

This is a phrase I have been hearing lots lately.

The past few weeks, Amor Chiquito has been learning about fear. “Afraid” is becoming one of the most popular words in her vocabulary. To make a long story short, she is afraid of essentially every animal, anything that moves. It is starting to keep her from enjoying some of her favorite activities, such as being outside in the neighbor’s playhouse. She hesitates to go in it because she remembers the time there was a bug in there.

Any thoughts or suggestions? This is a first for us and we are uncertain as to what the best way to handle it is.

Thus far, we calmly explain to her that bugs will not hurt her and that she is safe. We find ourselves repeating this many times in one day. What else can we say or do?

Is this just a phase? Will it be part of her personality? Is she going to be an anxious freak like me?! I certainly hope not!

Learning About Shapes

We have been teaching Amor Chiquito about circles, triangles, ovals, squares and rectangles.

This morning, she said to me "mommy, you teti (Spanish for breast) is round"!

I think she gets it! She really cracks me up!

Learning Names

I don’t know why I did not think of this sooner. So be it. Last weekend, I had a talk with Amor Chiquito about her name. For a long time, she responds to “Ari” and if you ask her what her name is, she would respond “Ari.”On Saturday, I told her that her name is Arianna. I then asked her her name and it was clear that she got it.

Still working on the last name. The name and last name together are too much for her right now.

I also told her about our names. My guess is that she knows them, but Geeky Entrepreneur and I call each other nicknames most of the time, so, just in case…

Here is our conversation:

Me: What is your name?
Ari: Ayianna.
Me: What is daddy’s name?
Ari: Poh.
Me: What is mommy’s name?
Ari: I don’t know! (insert silly gestures here!)
Me: My name is Johanna. What is my name?
Ari: Jajanna!

Poor kid! She has such a hard time saying my name she doesn’t even want to try! Every little kid I’ve met has a hard time saying my name. Consequently, I often become Anna for a while!

Oh, by the way, this must be a mommy thing, but I love hearing her say her name! She sounds adorable! She says it with such enthusiasm, like she loves her name!

Me boy too!

Learning about one’s gender and what that means is a tricky thing! Here are some stories for you. Some of them will probably make you laugh!

Saturday night, Amor Chiquito pointed at her girl parts and said the Spanish word my mother taught her. She then said that Jai, her cousin has girl parts too! I explained that Jai has a penis because he is a boy and that her parts are different because she is a girl. She was very upset and persistent. She said “no, Ari boy, Ari boy, Ari boy too.”

On Sunday, Amor Chiquito and Jai hung out with my mother. My mother, hoping to reproduce Saturday night’s conversation asked Ari if she is a girl or a boy. Amor Chiquito happily said “Ari is boy!”

Mom: Ari, you are a girl.
Ari: No, no, no, me boy!
Mom: No, Ari, you are a pretty girl!
Ari: No, Ari pretty boy!

We picked up Amor Chiquito and on the way home I was sharing the story with Geeky Entrepreneur. She said she is a boy for the nth time. Geeky Entrepreneur told her only girls wear dresses. He figured that way she would be ok with being a girl! But, no, it did not work. She does not give a damn about social norms! She said “boy dress too”!

Here is the funniest story of them all! My brother is teaching his son to pee standing and to use the toilet rather than the potty-chair. My mom decided that if that is the case he will pee in the tub instead! She had back surgery a few months ago, so cleaning her bathroom floor many times a day because the little one can’t point the right way is not doable for her right now.

So the story… Amor Chiquito saw Jai peeing. She got in the tub an attempted to pee the way Jai does! She even tried to grab something, except there was nothing to grab because she is a girl! Sorry, kid, you don’t have a penis! Hopefully your penis envy will go away soon!

Precious! I could not stop laughing!

Update: Amor Chiquito is going to preschool!

The long post is coming later, but, for now, here is the update!

Amor Chiquito will be attending a local Montessori school in the fall. She will be attending Monday to Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

We toured the school and sat in at a Q&A session for parents of potential students. I brought in my list on my PDA, about 15 questions! After that visit, we were sold!

Next, we filled out an application.

Once we had applied, it was time for the child visit. Amor Chiquito went in last Friday, April 8. It was simply awesome! She loved the school, she felt at ease, she fit in right away! I love when I worry for nothing!

Tuesday afternoon, we got the acceptance letter in the mail and mailed the initial payment.

My “baby” is going to school! Wow! I still can’t believe it! In no time, she will be three years old, already.

News from the Potty Department

As a parent, I am always learning something new, even when I feel like I know everything there is to know about a particular topic. For example, I thought I had potty training all figured out. Not really!

Here is what I have learned the past few months:

A little potty seat in each car is a must.
In our case, I don’t drive, so Amor Chiquito and I get rides from both my husband and my mother. Just bought a potty seat for my mother’s car and life is good! No more worrying about Amor Chiquito needing to go to the bathroom, but not going because being on the big toilet in some strange bathroom makes her nervous. No more being on the highway and the child refusing to pee in a diaper and holding it in for half an hour!

We will continue having her ware a diaper at nap time.
I had stopped having her ware a diaper at nap time because her diapers were always dry. The other day, she wet my mother’s bed. Why go through that if she can wear a diaper? I am not saying that we ought to do that for years, but we will definitely do it for a few more months. Sometime in the summer, I will stop having her ware a diaper because she will not be wearing one in preschool. Something else we will be doing is asking her to try going to the potty before her nap.

A night time diaper is a must for us, for now.
Every now and then, we have a dry diaper in the morning, but most of the time we don’t. I can get her up in the middle of the night and have her go to the bathroom. Call me lazy, but I am not doing that! Sleep is a tricky thing for my family. I am not screwing with that! We’ll use diapers and deal with sleeping diaperless later.

She wears underwear when we go out now!
I’ve graduated; no more big diaper bag! Her snacks and the travelsize wipe container fit in a small purse just fine!

Different things work for different people and for different stages. This is what feels right for us, right now. I bet that in three months I could write a post about the same issue and I will be telling you about how differently we are doing things at that point!

Speaking of going to the potty, Amor Chiquito just went so I told her we needed to wipe. She said “no tote (don’t touch), p-eww,” laughed, and ran away! Silly kid!

Turn every opportunity into a learning experience.

Or something like that...! The title is from one of the Love and Logic books.

Amor Chiquito was being impish and not in a cute way. It was lunch time. She kept getting up, grabbing toys and things that were not toys, and making messes everywhere. She intentionally dumped soapy water on the floor. She spilled sauce on the table.

Moving away from the important stuff, the lesson Ari learned today… You should have seen me… I was walking into the kitchen and stepped on the soapy water puddle. My socks were soaked. I return to the dining room. There was a royal mess on the table. Heck, there was a bit of sauce on my laptop keyboard! Cleaning the mess required many paper towels. Actually, it required a big towel!

Sometimes, I love being a stay-at-home mom. Sometimes, I love *the idea of* being a stay-at-home mom! It’s a messy, sometimes intense, job! Very long hours! But, at the end of the day, it is worth it!

Back to Ari’s lesson… I was busy cleaning up the sauce, so had not gotten to the soapy water on the floor. She slipped and fell. She did not get hurt.

Amor Chiquito was being a bit dramatic and asked for help. I said “You are ok. Come see mommy. I will give you a hug.” After the hug, I asked “Do you know why you fell?” She said “no.” I said “You spilled soapy water on the floor. We need to clean it up.” She said she was afraid of falling. I told her she would be safe, that I would stand near her, but that she needed to help clean up. She cautiously walked over and help clean up.

I love Love and Logic! Geeky Entrepreneur and I were listening to the cd’s last weekend to refresh our memories. One of the things the book emphasizes the most is to take any misbehavior and turn it into a learning experience. They suggest that you show your child empathy and that you then deliver the consequence. They say, over and over again, to “let the consequences do the teaching.” No need for screaming. No need for passive-aggressiveness. No need to bark orders 24/7. It really does make a huge difference!

Time for night night… Here is to hoping that she naps today. She did not nap yesterday. Life gets very interesting when she does not nap!