Since I got all of my complaining out of my system yesterday, I guess I can try to focus on some other things today. And before I go any further, I apologize if I sounded like a cruel, harsh parent in yesterday's post. Sunday's events seriously made me crazy, and I literally couldn't spend any more time with Jacob...for the good of both of us. I was so fed up with his behavior and couldn't even look at things objectively anymore, so every little thing he did just made things exponentially worse. But I did say, too, obviously you don't stop loving your child even at moments like that. And probably admitting you need a break is better than what some parents do, which is explode and take it out on their kids. If I would have been alone in that scenario, I probably would have left Jacob in his crib for the rest of the day, or at least until I chilled out. I actually did do that for about 15 minutes during one freak-out when it was obvious that he needed to calm down and I was tired of yelling and dealing with a kicking, screaming child. But fortunately, that evening I did have Craig, and even more fortunately, Jacob fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep, which meant we didn't have to do our bedtime routine. It was a relief, to say the least. I know that he's two (or almost, anyway) and he's going to have those moments. Sunday was an extreme example, for sure. I can't expect perfection. But I can still hope for some logic to creep in at some point.
So...that said....in other news...
Yesterday's post was #450 in the life of this blog. That's pretty crazy. I've been at it for almost 2-1/2 years now. Some people ask me if I'm ever going to do anything with the blog to keep it for posterity. I'm honestly not sure how I would go about that, particularly now that it's so big. I'd love to go to Kinko's and say, "Can you open up this webpage, click on every month, and print each one in color?" I doubt that would go over well, and it could end up pretty darn expensive. Hopefully it will be here forever, but it would be nice to have a printed copy somewhere, just in case the internet blows up or Blogspot goes away. It happened to my beloved webpage, so if Geocities can go away, I suppose this can too someday. Or maybe someday I'll have a decent printer and just commit one toner cartridge to doing it myself. Or maybe I can pay off my office and do it here based on our cost per page. Hmmm. In any event, it's an interesting version of a baby book, and over the long term, a form of a family history.
Jacob is getting his two-year molars. Thus far there have been no major side effects beyond a lot of hand chewing. Jacob either seems to have a lot of buildup to the teething process, or he's a compulsive hand chewer. I think he started drooling and knawing on his fingers (not sucking, mind you, just chewing) very early on, but didn't get teeth until about he was eight months old. His last batch of teeth came in quite a while ago, but he's been chewing on his hands a lot for the last few months even though there was no sign of the two-year molars. Since he's been doing it so much for so long, it hardly occurred to me (despite his rapidly approaching birthday) that they could be coming in since we've been sleeping blissfully. Usually teething has been accompanied by a few horrific weeks of sleeping (or lack thereof), so I fully expected to be back in sleep deprivation mode the second those teeth started breaking through. Jacob almost never lets me look in his mouth anyway, even when I'm brushing his teeth (I must say, "Open your mouth" about 20 times in less than two minutes), so I'd hardly ever get a good chance to see anyway. But the other night I happened to get a brief view, and caught a glimpse of something. Jacob was (finally) accomodating enough to let me stick my fingers in his mouth (ahhh, motherhood), and sure enough, one bottom molar had definitely poked through and the other was right there. I'm pretty sure that one's in now too. I still don't see anything up top. At the risk of jinxing myself, I must say that I am utterly relieved that we've made it this far without nighttime misery. It's like a miracle, particularly since I've heard these are often nightmarish teeth to come in. I'd imagine terrible twos and teething combine into a pretty nasty monster. Maybe general discomfort has been part of Jacob's tantrums...who knows? He has been having some cold sensitivity issues with some foods, but I can't tell if it's just a mental thing for him or if the cold causes him physical discomfort. Normally teething rings are cold and feel good during teething, but maybe there's something else at work here.
Jacob is really becoming an old pro at this talking thing. We still have our share of hard-to-decipher words, but he's definitely getting better at stringing words together. We've started getting into the "I do it"/"I get it"/"I hold it" statements, which are usually pretty cute. He can definitely put together a lot of subject/verb phases like, "Mommy bat" or "Daddy pitch" when we're playing baseball with him, or encouraging us to eat or drink or play. He's probably a little borderline bossy right now, but at the moment I have a hard time seeing him as being bossy with his friends. He's always been the center of our universe, so I suppose he'd think we'd be up for whatever he is.
That's all for today, I guess... :)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Fed Up
I had a bad weekend. That almost never happens. I spend all week waiting for the weekend (yeah, way to wish away my summer), and then weekends usually go all too quick. I look forward to time with Jacob and Craig, and hope to do some fun stuff like hang out with family or go to the zoo or shopping for stuff we need or on some other adventure. For example, this coming weekend is Father's Day and we'll be heading to Buffalo for at least some time with family. We also want to try, if possible, to hit up the drive-in to see Toy Story 3. So just the mere prospect of those adventures is enough to keep me going all week. But this past weekend...ugh. It just stunk. And perhaps it's my own fault. But not entirely.
The biggest problem was that I just didn't do anything. I didn't even leave our property until Sunday morning for church. And beyond that we did go out to dinner. But that ended up just being a painful capper to the rest of the weekend, so I'm not sure it counts. Like I said, it may have been at least partially my fault. I should have just invented something to do instead of sitting around the house all weekend, but that's easier said than done. Friday night I had hoped to go out for ice cream or something, but that just didn't happen. Craig was mowing the lawn when Jacob and I got home, and all of a sudden he just stopped. It took a while to figure out, but a belt came off of our NEW lawn mower. Seriously? Figuring that out took a while, and by the time that was done (it's covered under warranty but they're not picking it up until tomorrow--our lawn is going to look awesome), we had a late dinner and it was really too late to do much else. Saturday Craig was playing in a golf tournament with a couple of the Knighthawks. Originally I was fine with that (although I don't think he told me until like, mid-week last week), but as the day wore on, it got to be frustrating. The weather was annoying...hot and humid early on, then cold and miserable after that. The weirdest thing about Saturday was that it actually wasn't a bad day. Jacob slept in late, was actually fun in the morning, had a slightly frustrating beginning to lunch, but ended up eating pretty well (albeit on my lap), then took a good two hour nap. I got some cleaning and yardwork done during that time, and then after some so-so playtime, we had a nice visit from Lori that lasted until Craig got home. Dinner actually went well, but then we stayed home that night again and I guess I was just sort of bored. Like, I waited all day for the evening so I/we could do something interesting (even if it was just going to the mall for a few minutes alone) but much like Friday, for various reasons it just didn't happen. And it was just disappointing.
So along came Sunday. I knew from the moment Jacob woke up that he was a little extra hyper, which didn't bode well for church. But breakfast was fine and church actually wasn't terrible. Near the end Jacob started getting loud and darting back and forth around the room, but fortunately there was a little boy there about the same age that was worse, so in comparison he didn't look too bad. More "high energy" than a "pain in the butt". Once we got home, the "fun" started. Jacob fell asleep on the way back from church, so we immediately put him in bed when we got home. Before we could even eat lunch, a guy came over to help Craig open our pool. He was there for five hours. Which meant that it was just Jacob and me for all five hours. His nap wasn't nearly long enough (maybe a little over an hour), and once he was up, he didn't sleep a wink for the rest of the day. He actually ate his lunch very well, but beyond that, he was hyper and fought me on everything--diaper changes, clothing changes, going outside and coming back in, what we did outside, you name it. By late afternoon, I was ready for the pool thing to be done so we could just go out to dinner. Oh, and did I mention that I was exhausted? I'm trying a new allergy medicine that can cause drowsiness, and while it doesn't seem to do it to me all the time, I have been having short spans where I am absolutely beat. One of those spans coming at the end of a very long afternoon (not helped by pool issues, either) just about did me in. And dinner? Ugh, it was a disaster. I don't think Jacob ate a bite of his food. He had a couple things off of our plates, but nothing from his. And I refused to let him eat the large helping of mandarin oranges he got with his meal until he ate some of his real food...but since that never happened, no oranges either (because I can't give in later, right?). And then he just got annoying. He starting throwing his placemat, screaming, hitting me (not hard, but repetitive), throwing food, squirming out of the booster seat (it got us a table immediately...they didn't seem jazzed about finding us a highchair-compatible table, and he HAS done a booster before so we figured we'd give it a shot--bad idea, though I'm not sure a high chair would have been any better), and just generally being a nasty little boy. Craig and I ended up switching spots, but eventually it got bad enough that even Craig was fed up and took him out for a spanking. And believe me, it usually takes a lot for that to happen. It was awful. Craig ended up taking him out for good when his behavior didn't improve, leaving me to wrap up the food and pay the bill. Jacob was falling asleep by the time I got into the car, so I know he was overtired. It was still frustrating, though, because he actually had earlier bedtimes all weekend than he usually does, and it was still an issue. Nothing felt better than plopping him into bed the moment we got home. I literally could not spend another moment with him.
I think what bothers us the most is that Jacob doesn't respond to any sort of discipline right now. Sure, if he gets a little handslap or spanking he might whine for a few seconds, but that's it. Raising voices does nothing. He will literally continue the bad behavior and smile at you. No matter how angry or direct you are to try to stop the behavior, he laughs through it. It's like he's missing the gene that tells you that an angry voice or actual physical restraint (i.e., covering his mouth when he's screaming in an inappropriate setting or holding his arm when he's trying to hit) is a bad thing. We haven't really gone the timeout route yet, but short of strapping him down, I don't know how we'd ever get him to sit down for one...because obviously yelling or constantly moving him back to the timeout area would not be effective. And how effective can it be if we're physically holding him there? We've tried taking things away. He'll lose his privileges to play with his baseball bat or hockey stick if he doesn't at least give dinner a good effort, or if he hits one of us with one of them. Usually it's just for the evening, because I'm not sure he'd remember the next day why he can't play with it, nor am I sure he's actually capable of controlling himself enough to make a continued punishment necessary. I think we need to start teaching him to be responsible with those things and to eat his dinner, but I'm just not sure there's enough malice behind it to prolong things. When we take things away, he usually spends the entire evening whining for that thing. We don't give in, of course, but I'm just not sure he's learning anything from it either because things never seem to get better.
It all seems like a big game to him, perhaps an attention grabber. He likes being cute and funny. And while I sometimes wonder if he doesn't respect me, I truly think that for some reason he just doesn't get it. And I just don't know why. Mommy and Daddy are mad. It's not funny. We're loud and we spank sometimes, yet he doesn't make the connection. There a few things more infuriating as a parent than being so angry you could spit, and yet having your child giggling through any sort of reprimand. I suppose on one hand it might be good that he doesn't fear us. I mean, I've read repeatedly that your kid shouldn't fear you, just respect you. Kids often misbehave more around their parents because they trust them and feel safe testing boundaries (yeah, lucky us). You know, there were times as a kid that I feared my parents and their punishments. And no, it wasn't fun. But if that's the only way to get Jacob to know we mean business when we scream at him not to run in the road or put something dangerous in his mouth, I'm willing to try it. But it's not my preferred method. Nor do I think it's working with him right now. Perhaps he knows we love him so much that he shouldn't possibly need to fear us. Or maybe he's just oblivious to needing to fear anything. There isn't much that phases him, actually. It's not too often he's glued to our laps in fear these days. But maybe he's just not cognitively at a point where he CAN respect us, or understand what that means. But to be unphased when we're angry...so frustrating.
I've tried positive reinforcement so he's not seeking out negative attention, but it only goes so far. I've tried talking to him calmly. But nothing seems to resonate with him. He just doesn't listen, no matter our tone or mood or method. This morning I asked at daycare if they could make a concerted effort to make sure that when they're reprimanding him, they're not injecting one ounce of humor into it. You know, like when your kid is sneaking somewhere he shouldn't, and you give them the, "What do you think you're doing?" line with a smile on your face. I don't want him thinking it's any sort of game or a situation where he can test us. And I suppose that's part of the problem--him being at daycare and us not having a lot of control over the discipline. While I don't doubt their methods, it's hard to make things 100% consistent, you know? But of course, as this weekend reminded me, I don't think I could do the stay-at-home mom thing either. All I do know is that by the time we left the restaurant, I couldn't even look at him. I had had it.
Of course, our kids can drive us nuts and we will still love them. It doesn't mean it's easy sometimes, but we do. And in the short term it can make it hard to even be a functional parent around them. It's easy to fall into a slippery slope where one little misbehavior on Jacob's part causes an overreaction on my part because I'm so sick of what we've already dealt with and freak out at the thought of going through it again. I need to try to put yesterday behind me and just deal with each day and each incident with a fresh outlook. I know that like all things, this phase will pass. He'll get into trouble of other sorts in future phases, but I just keep hoping that one day it will click in his head that he actually has to listen to us and obey us, and it will keep him (reasonably) out of trouble. And right now that's just not happening so we have to deal with it. We're not sure what the next step is right now, but we're just going to have to meander through it a bit.
Days like this bring up a lot of stuff in your mind, particularly when they coincide with a generally crappy period apart from child issues. As I mentioned, my allergy meds may have added to my misery (giving them a shot for a while to see if I adjust), and the weather going from hot and humid to cold and rainy and back didn't help. Having Craig out of commission for a couple days added to things, and so did stress relating to getting the pool open. The methods they used were desperation methods to get it all done in one day (next year we'll know how to start early) and it left us with a wet backyard. We actually had to call the former owners to figure out a couple things, and in general I'm hoping that I suddenly become a pool devotee so keeping it around is worth it. It's just one more thing to think about. So when you add in the Jacob stuff and think about where you went wrong, how you can fix it, what you'd ever do if you had to deal with another child at the same time, particularly one as difficult as Jacob can be...it's all pretty overwhelming. It makes you question a lot of things. Maybe I'll get into those in another post, but for now I'll say that I still had to remind myself this morning how ridiculously blessed we are to have a little boy who does bring us joy when he's not making us crazy, to have a lovely house (with a pool!), and all of these other "problems" in our lives. While it's frustrating to deal with it all sometimes, they're good problems to have compared to so many others. And in just a few more days, we will celebrate the two year anniversary of the day our lives changed forever. Wow.
The biggest problem was that I just didn't do anything. I didn't even leave our property until Sunday morning for church. And beyond that we did go out to dinner. But that ended up just being a painful capper to the rest of the weekend, so I'm not sure it counts. Like I said, it may have been at least partially my fault. I should have just invented something to do instead of sitting around the house all weekend, but that's easier said than done. Friday night I had hoped to go out for ice cream or something, but that just didn't happen. Craig was mowing the lawn when Jacob and I got home, and all of a sudden he just stopped. It took a while to figure out, but a belt came off of our NEW lawn mower. Seriously? Figuring that out took a while, and by the time that was done (it's covered under warranty but they're not picking it up until tomorrow--our lawn is going to look awesome), we had a late dinner and it was really too late to do much else. Saturday Craig was playing in a golf tournament with a couple of the Knighthawks. Originally I was fine with that (although I don't think he told me until like, mid-week last week), but as the day wore on, it got to be frustrating. The weather was annoying...hot and humid early on, then cold and miserable after that. The weirdest thing about Saturday was that it actually wasn't a bad day. Jacob slept in late, was actually fun in the morning, had a slightly frustrating beginning to lunch, but ended up eating pretty well (albeit on my lap), then took a good two hour nap. I got some cleaning and yardwork done during that time, and then after some so-so playtime, we had a nice visit from Lori that lasted until Craig got home. Dinner actually went well, but then we stayed home that night again and I guess I was just sort of bored. Like, I waited all day for the evening so I/we could do something interesting (even if it was just going to the mall for a few minutes alone) but much like Friday, for various reasons it just didn't happen. And it was just disappointing.
So along came Sunday. I knew from the moment Jacob woke up that he was a little extra hyper, which didn't bode well for church. But breakfast was fine and church actually wasn't terrible. Near the end Jacob started getting loud and darting back and forth around the room, but fortunately there was a little boy there about the same age that was worse, so in comparison he didn't look too bad. More "high energy" than a "pain in the butt". Once we got home, the "fun" started. Jacob fell asleep on the way back from church, so we immediately put him in bed when we got home. Before we could even eat lunch, a guy came over to help Craig open our pool. He was there for five hours. Which meant that it was just Jacob and me for all five hours. His nap wasn't nearly long enough (maybe a little over an hour), and once he was up, he didn't sleep a wink for the rest of the day. He actually ate his lunch very well, but beyond that, he was hyper and fought me on everything--diaper changes, clothing changes, going outside and coming back in, what we did outside, you name it. By late afternoon, I was ready for the pool thing to be done so we could just go out to dinner. Oh, and did I mention that I was exhausted? I'm trying a new allergy medicine that can cause drowsiness, and while it doesn't seem to do it to me all the time, I have been having short spans where I am absolutely beat. One of those spans coming at the end of a very long afternoon (not helped by pool issues, either) just about did me in. And dinner? Ugh, it was a disaster. I don't think Jacob ate a bite of his food. He had a couple things off of our plates, but nothing from his. And I refused to let him eat the large helping of mandarin oranges he got with his meal until he ate some of his real food...but since that never happened, no oranges either (because I can't give in later, right?). And then he just got annoying. He starting throwing his placemat, screaming, hitting me (not hard, but repetitive), throwing food, squirming out of the booster seat (it got us a table immediately...they didn't seem jazzed about finding us a highchair-compatible table, and he HAS done a booster before so we figured we'd give it a shot--bad idea, though I'm not sure a high chair would have been any better), and just generally being a nasty little boy. Craig and I ended up switching spots, but eventually it got bad enough that even Craig was fed up and took him out for a spanking. And believe me, it usually takes a lot for that to happen. It was awful. Craig ended up taking him out for good when his behavior didn't improve, leaving me to wrap up the food and pay the bill. Jacob was falling asleep by the time I got into the car, so I know he was overtired. It was still frustrating, though, because he actually had earlier bedtimes all weekend than he usually does, and it was still an issue. Nothing felt better than plopping him into bed the moment we got home. I literally could not spend another moment with him.
I think what bothers us the most is that Jacob doesn't respond to any sort of discipline right now. Sure, if he gets a little handslap or spanking he might whine for a few seconds, but that's it. Raising voices does nothing. He will literally continue the bad behavior and smile at you. No matter how angry or direct you are to try to stop the behavior, he laughs through it. It's like he's missing the gene that tells you that an angry voice or actual physical restraint (i.e., covering his mouth when he's screaming in an inappropriate setting or holding his arm when he's trying to hit) is a bad thing. We haven't really gone the timeout route yet, but short of strapping him down, I don't know how we'd ever get him to sit down for one...because obviously yelling or constantly moving him back to the timeout area would not be effective. And how effective can it be if we're physically holding him there? We've tried taking things away. He'll lose his privileges to play with his baseball bat or hockey stick if he doesn't at least give dinner a good effort, or if he hits one of us with one of them. Usually it's just for the evening, because I'm not sure he'd remember the next day why he can't play with it, nor am I sure he's actually capable of controlling himself enough to make a continued punishment necessary. I think we need to start teaching him to be responsible with those things and to eat his dinner, but I'm just not sure there's enough malice behind it to prolong things. When we take things away, he usually spends the entire evening whining for that thing. We don't give in, of course, but I'm just not sure he's learning anything from it either because things never seem to get better.
It all seems like a big game to him, perhaps an attention grabber. He likes being cute and funny. And while I sometimes wonder if he doesn't respect me, I truly think that for some reason he just doesn't get it. And I just don't know why. Mommy and Daddy are mad. It's not funny. We're loud and we spank sometimes, yet he doesn't make the connection. There a few things more infuriating as a parent than being so angry you could spit, and yet having your child giggling through any sort of reprimand. I suppose on one hand it might be good that he doesn't fear us. I mean, I've read repeatedly that your kid shouldn't fear you, just respect you. Kids often misbehave more around their parents because they trust them and feel safe testing boundaries (yeah, lucky us). You know, there were times as a kid that I feared my parents and their punishments. And no, it wasn't fun. But if that's the only way to get Jacob to know we mean business when we scream at him not to run in the road or put something dangerous in his mouth, I'm willing to try it. But it's not my preferred method. Nor do I think it's working with him right now. Perhaps he knows we love him so much that he shouldn't possibly need to fear us. Or maybe he's just oblivious to needing to fear anything. There isn't much that phases him, actually. It's not too often he's glued to our laps in fear these days. But maybe he's just not cognitively at a point where he CAN respect us, or understand what that means. But to be unphased when we're angry...so frustrating.
I've tried positive reinforcement so he's not seeking out negative attention, but it only goes so far. I've tried talking to him calmly. But nothing seems to resonate with him. He just doesn't listen, no matter our tone or mood or method. This morning I asked at daycare if they could make a concerted effort to make sure that when they're reprimanding him, they're not injecting one ounce of humor into it. You know, like when your kid is sneaking somewhere he shouldn't, and you give them the, "What do you think you're doing?" line with a smile on your face. I don't want him thinking it's any sort of game or a situation where he can test us. And I suppose that's part of the problem--him being at daycare and us not having a lot of control over the discipline. While I don't doubt their methods, it's hard to make things 100% consistent, you know? But of course, as this weekend reminded me, I don't think I could do the stay-at-home mom thing either. All I do know is that by the time we left the restaurant, I couldn't even look at him. I had had it.
Of course, our kids can drive us nuts and we will still love them. It doesn't mean it's easy sometimes, but we do. And in the short term it can make it hard to even be a functional parent around them. It's easy to fall into a slippery slope where one little misbehavior on Jacob's part causes an overreaction on my part because I'm so sick of what we've already dealt with and freak out at the thought of going through it again. I need to try to put yesterday behind me and just deal with each day and each incident with a fresh outlook. I know that like all things, this phase will pass. He'll get into trouble of other sorts in future phases, but I just keep hoping that one day it will click in his head that he actually has to listen to us and obey us, and it will keep him (reasonably) out of trouble. And right now that's just not happening so we have to deal with it. We're not sure what the next step is right now, but we're just going to have to meander through it a bit.
Days like this bring up a lot of stuff in your mind, particularly when they coincide with a generally crappy period apart from child issues. As I mentioned, my allergy meds may have added to my misery (giving them a shot for a while to see if I adjust), and the weather going from hot and humid to cold and rainy and back didn't help. Having Craig out of commission for a couple days added to things, and so did stress relating to getting the pool open. The methods they used were desperation methods to get it all done in one day (next year we'll know how to start early) and it left us with a wet backyard. We actually had to call the former owners to figure out a couple things, and in general I'm hoping that I suddenly become a pool devotee so keeping it around is worth it. It's just one more thing to think about. So when you add in the Jacob stuff and think about where you went wrong, how you can fix it, what you'd ever do if you had to deal with another child at the same time, particularly one as difficult as Jacob can be...it's all pretty overwhelming. It makes you question a lot of things. Maybe I'll get into those in another post, but for now I'll say that I still had to remind myself this morning how ridiculously blessed we are to have a little boy who does bring us joy when he's not making us crazy, to have a lovely house (with a pool!), and all of these other "problems" in our lives. While it's frustrating to deal with it all sometimes, they're good problems to have compared to so many others. And in just a few more days, we will celebrate the two year anniversary of the day our lives changed forever. Wow.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Obsessions
Why do kids become fixated on certain things? I see it all the time with Jacob, and sure enough, thinking back on my own childhood, I did it too. I'm pretty sure we've all done it, actually, though I'd have to think that some kids (studiers, sensory kids, those who notice every little detail) probably do it more. There are just certain things kids gravitate to for no apparent reason, and it's so odd to watch from an adult's perspective. But as a kid, I know it seemed completely normal. I'm sure a shrink would have volumes to say on a lot of these fixations, but I'd have to think that a lot of it comes back to imagination and how a child-like brain sees a particular object. Or maybe something's happened that makes an object resonate like never before.
From my own experience I can think back to certain types of toys I gravitated to, or certain storylines my Barbies lived out repeatedly, or certain toys that I probably never used for their official purpose because my imagination thought they should be used in another way. I could probably dig in my memory bank and come up with tons of stories, but I'll give you two...at the risk of embarrassing myself. Example 1: We had this set of colorful clear plastic octagons that were slotted so you could interlock them and build things. But I don't think I ever built much. More often I used them in some sort of imaginary storyline where they were some sort of colorful food item or something. I would just distribute them into piles, stack them in the six sections of their box, and presumably just enjoy the colors. No clue what the draw was there, though to this day I still love brightly colored things like that. They'd make a lovely mobile or something now if I strung them up. Example 2: My dentist used to give out cheap rings after each appointment. Between those and ones that I found in the "junk boxes" at my grandma's house (from years of her four children living next door to a little grocery store with those alluring kiddie vending machines that every store has), I had quite an assortment. But the odd thing? I pried the stones out of all of them, so I just had a collection of the stones themselves. And at the time I became obsessed with the Home Shopping Network, and would often use the stones and a set of plastic chopsticks I had (from God knows where) to display and poke at the stones like they did on HSN when showing off jewelry. Again, no idea why that was something fun for me, but I turned into a relatively functional adult so I guess it didn't scar me in any way. I also had a thing for those colorful little rocks you find at science/educational stores....still do, actually ;-)
So, that said, I guess there's no telling what a child is going to be interested in or intrigued by. I can list off a whole slew of things that Jacob is bizarrely attached to. Let's see...
Anything sports - He pretty much has a hockey stick, lacrosse stick, or baseball bat in his hand at any given moment. However, there are times when he needs to have a certain one or the world will end. This morning he was determined to find a certain ball. He's also been obsessed with Craig's batting helmet that I posted a picture of the other day. I think the thing that's funniest though, is what he will turn into a hockey stick, lacrosse stick, or baseball bat. Yesterday at daycare he apparently pointed to his celery and said "baseball bat" and then pointed to a plum and decided it was a ball.
Stuffed animals - He definitely gets on stuffed animal kicks. Sometimes he nees to have a certain one in hand to get him to do anything. His crib is practically a zoo, not to mention a potential suffocation hazard, I suppose. But he just doesn't want to send any of his animals to the basket next to the crib at bedtime. He's also wanted to stockpile blankets in his crib, but I draw the line at two--one folded up like a pillow, and one blanket to cover him. One of the stuffed animal oddities lately is that he's been keeping this bear in his crib. It's a little knit/crocheted blue bear that my mom got him at the church bazaar back when he wasn't even six months old. He's checked it out a bit every now and then since then, but lately he's had that bear in his crib all the time. One night I tried putting some animals back in the basket, and he specifically asked for that one. Not that it isn't super cute, but it's just odd that all of a sudden he's totally into that one after months of indifference.
Sunglasses - After fighting us over wearing sunglasses last summer and part of this spring, Jacob now does not want to take his off. Ever. He wears them in the house and cries when we take them off, even before meals or bedtime. They do look pretty cool, but considering his track record of clumsiness, obstructed or darkened vision is probably not the best thing for him.
Elmocize - I already covered this one previously, but why is this video so darn addictive compared to regular Sesame Street or any other show on TV? Sure, the music's catchy, but so is the Elmo's World song and the little song Elmo sings at the end of Elmo's World to the tune of Jingle Bells, at the end of each Sesame Street episode. Part of me wants to let him explore the world of kids' TV a bit, but I'm afraid of a new, more annoying obsession. Craig talked about getting him some kids movies as well, but I'm just not sure I want to go there, both because he doesn't need to sit and watch TV, and because I don't need to memorize any kids movies from being on repeat play.
Turtle - Yesterday morning Jacob wandered into our room and noticed this clear plastic (lucite?) turtle that was on one of the shelves of my nightstand. It was a dollar store purchase years ago, basically a gag gift for Craig as I recall, because it's a back massager. Rub the feet up your back and it will give you chills. I actually have a non-dollar store version that's a dolphin, which lives on a shelf in the bathroom. So the turtle has sat near the bed for years, in one spot or another, just in case either of us ever feels generous and wants to give the other a backrub. Yeah, right. But Jacob found it interesting and he's been toting it around ever since. He even took it to bed with him last night. I took it back out after he fell asleep (that would be a rude awakening), but he asked for it first thing this morning. So odd.
Food - Jacob isn't much of a foodie. It's hard to get him to sit and eat a meal unless he's the right mood (which I have yet to figure out) or the food is what he wants right then and there. However, there are certain things that he constantly asks for or gets seriously excited about when he gets one. He loves pretzels. He's eaten them a lot at my parents, where there's a good, readily accessible supply. And now he knows where we keep them in one of our lower kitchen cabinets, so he's constantly digging in there to find them. Same with the Goldfish we keep there too. But he asks for pretzels by name quite often. He also asks for "beans" a lot. "Beans" are actually M&Ms or any other candy coated chocolate. He's also a big fan of Lucky Charms. Craig gave him a few of the oat pieces in the mornings when he poured his own cereal, and now Jacob loves them. And yes, he does get a few marshmallows but I try to weed them out when I can. Believe me, it was not my plan to get him into sugar cereals this early. He also loves smoothies that I make with strawberries, bananas, yougurt, milk and ice...though he usually sees me with the banana and says, "No 'nana." But he loves them anyway. He's also still a big fan of ice cream cones, with or without the ice cream. So weird.
Wearing Shoes - For some reason, just like he wants to wear his sunglasses inside, he always wants to wear shoes. He cries when we take them off, and points to them when he sees them. Not sure what the draw is, but he totally loves to wear shoes.
So, he's a bit of an oddball, but I guess if he didn't have weird obsessions, he'd be an even odder oddball! Gotta love the quirks, though :) And I'm sure there will be many, many more to come!
From my own experience I can think back to certain types of toys I gravitated to, or certain storylines my Barbies lived out repeatedly, or certain toys that I probably never used for their official purpose because my imagination thought they should be used in another way. I could probably dig in my memory bank and come up with tons of stories, but I'll give you two...at the risk of embarrassing myself. Example 1: We had this set of colorful clear plastic octagons that were slotted so you could interlock them and build things. But I don't think I ever built much. More often I used them in some sort of imaginary storyline where they were some sort of colorful food item or something. I would just distribute them into piles, stack them in the six sections of their box, and presumably just enjoy the colors. No clue what the draw was there, though to this day I still love brightly colored things like that. They'd make a lovely mobile or something now if I strung them up. Example 2: My dentist used to give out cheap rings after each appointment. Between those and ones that I found in the "junk boxes" at my grandma's house (from years of her four children living next door to a little grocery store with those alluring kiddie vending machines that every store has), I had quite an assortment. But the odd thing? I pried the stones out of all of them, so I just had a collection of the stones themselves. And at the time I became obsessed with the Home Shopping Network, and would often use the stones and a set of plastic chopsticks I had (from God knows where) to display and poke at the stones like they did on HSN when showing off jewelry. Again, no idea why that was something fun for me, but I turned into a relatively functional adult so I guess it didn't scar me in any way. I also had a thing for those colorful little rocks you find at science/educational stores....still do, actually ;-)
So, that said, I guess there's no telling what a child is going to be interested in or intrigued by. I can list off a whole slew of things that Jacob is bizarrely attached to. Let's see...
Anything sports - He pretty much has a hockey stick, lacrosse stick, or baseball bat in his hand at any given moment. However, there are times when he needs to have a certain one or the world will end. This morning he was determined to find a certain ball. He's also been obsessed with Craig's batting helmet that I posted a picture of the other day. I think the thing that's funniest though, is what he will turn into a hockey stick, lacrosse stick, or baseball bat. Yesterday at daycare he apparently pointed to his celery and said "baseball bat" and then pointed to a plum and decided it was a ball.
Stuffed animals - He definitely gets on stuffed animal kicks. Sometimes he nees to have a certain one in hand to get him to do anything. His crib is practically a zoo, not to mention a potential suffocation hazard, I suppose. But he just doesn't want to send any of his animals to the basket next to the crib at bedtime. He's also wanted to stockpile blankets in his crib, but I draw the line at two--one folded up like a pillow, and one blanket to cover him. One of the stuffed animal oddities lately is that he's been keeping this bear in his crib. It's a little knit/crocheted blue bear that my mom got him at the church bazaar back when he wasn't even six months old. He's checked it out a bit every now and then since then, but lately he's had that bear in his crib all the time. One night I tried putting some animals back in the basket, and he specifically asked for that one. Not that it isn't super cute, but it's just odd that all of a sudden he's totally into that one after months of indifference.
Sunglasses - After fighting us over wearing sunglasses last summer and part of this spring, Jacob now does not want to take his off. Ever. He wears them in the house and cries when we take them off, even before meals or bedtime. They do look pretty cool, but considering his track record of clumsiness, obstructed or darkened vision is probably not the best thing for him.
Elmocize - I already covered this one previously, but why is this video so darn addictive compared to regular Sesame Street or any other show on TV? Sure, the music's catchy, but so is the Elmo's World song and the little song Elmo sings at the end of Elmo's World to the tune of Jingle Bells, at the end of each Sesame Street episode. Part of me wants to let him explore the world of kids' TV a bit, but I'm afraid of a new, more annoying obsession. Craig talked about getting him some kids movies as well, but I'm just not sure I want to go there, both because he doesn't need to sit and watch TV, and because I don't need to memorize any kids movies from being on repeat play.
Turtle - Yesterday morning Jacob wandered into our room and noticed this clear plastic (lucite?) turtle that was on one of the shelves of my nightstand. It was a dollar store purchase years ago, basically a gag gift for Craig as I recall, because it's a back massager. Rub the feet up your back and it will give you chills. I actually have a non-dollar store version that's a dolphin, which lives on a shelf in the bathroom. So the turtle has sat near the bed for years, in one spot or another, just in case either of us ever feels generous and wants to give the other a backrub. Yeah, right. But Jacob found it interesting and he's been toting it around ever since. He even took it to bed with him last night. I took it back out after he fell asleep (that would be a rude awakening), but he asked for it first thing this morning. So odd.
Food - Jacob isn't much of a foodie. It's hard to get him to sit and eat a meal unless he's the right mood (which I have yet to figure out) or the food is what he wants right then and there. However, there are certain things that he constantly asks for or gets seriously excited about when he gets one. He loves pretzels. He's eaten them a lot at my parents, where there's a good, readily accessible supply. And now he knows where we keep them in one of our lower kitchen cabinets, so he's constantly digging in there to find them. Same with the Goldfish we keep there too. But he asks for pretzels by name quite often. He also asks for "beans" a lot. "Beans" are actually M&Ms or any other candy coated chocolate. He's also a big fan of Lucky Charms. Craig gave him a few of the oat pieces in the mornings when he poured his own cereal, and now Jacob loves them. And yes, he does get a few marshmallows but I try to weed them out when I can. Believe me, it was not my plan to get him into sugar cereals this early. He also loves smoothies that I make with strawberries, bananas, yougurt, milk and ice...though he usually sees me with the banana and says, "No 'nana." But he loves them anyway. He's also still a big fan of ice cream cones, with or without the ice cream. So weird.
Wearing Shoes - For some reason, just like he wants to wear his sunglasses inside, he always wants to wear shoes. He cries when we take them off, and points to them when he sees them. Not sure what the draw is, but he totally loves to wear shoes.
So, he's a bit of an oddball, but I guess if he didn't have weird obsessions, he'd be an even odder oddball! Gotta love the quirks, though :) And I'm sure there will be many, many more to come!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Baseball!
We had a tough decision to make leading up to this past weekend...do we go to Toronto for a couple days, or stay home and relax? The Toronto trip idea was spawned by a lacrosse game (one featuring the Toronto Nationals, who used to be the Rochester Rattlers, as well as the Chicago Machine, which is actually a nomadic franchise this season, one that people are hoping lands permanently in Rochester next year) and some potentially useful trips to the Hockey Hall of Fame and IKEA. Craig wants to buy a bunch of those little hockey player keychains that Jacob plays with to use as future potty training bribes, and the HHOF has a ton of them. I want to go to IKEA to look at a few pieces of furniture for our house--namely a kitchen dinette and a bookshelf/cabinet. I'd even found (but not booked) a reasonably priced room at a Holiday Inn Express with free parking and breakfast. However, at the 11th hour on Friday we decided not to do it. Between my nasty cold, the thought of packing and driving to Buffalo after work, and just a long weekend in general, we decided to stay home. We figured we could to go a baseball game, maybe hit up a drive-in, and just enjoy the time at home. In the end, we only did the baseball game and tacked on a trip to Fairport Canal Days (a quaint festival across town), but it was a pleasant weekend, I guess.
We started out at the baseball game. We hadn't been to a Rochester Red Wings game since last summer, when we went to a couple, and since we can generally go for free one way or another, it's an easy night out. It was a pleasant but cool evening and we had great seats. One of the big motivators to go was that it was glove night, where the first 1,500 kids got a baseball glove. Yeah, it was just a vinyl one with sponsor logos all over it, but it's good enough for Jacob and potentially saves us a birthday present to buy ;-) He's obsessed with Craig's gloves and while this one is a little smaller, at least it's closer to fitting! Despite having gotten a glove, though, Jacob was distracted by the little girl with a pink one sitting behind us, which is what he's pointing to in the picture below. Hmmm. Don't think that will fly out on the field...
Jacob wasn't quite as entranced by baseball as he is with hockey and lacrosse, so after a few innings and some dinner (Jacob ate a hot dog, minus the bun, and lots of pretzels) we did some walking around. Here are the boys with the Red Wings-sponsored bird from an Animals on Parade thing they did here a few years back.
And here they are with a horse from the Rochester "Horses on Parade" from even longer ago. This one's made from old baseball mitts.
Eventually we headed down to the ice cream stand for dessert. Craig and Jacob shared a vanilla cone with chocolate sprinkles. Jacob is now obsessed with sprinkles after the cone he shared with me last weekend. It was getting late and Jacob was already a little past-bedtime punchy. The ice cream put Jacob into a bit of a sugar high, as well, so he was running around like a maniac in the middle of his ice cream licks. You can't see it here, but he's got ice cream all over his mouth. But the pose--mid-swing and running--sums up what he was doing for a good 15 minutes solid.
Here he is being lured by the remaining cone...
He fell asleep on the way home and didn't even wake up once we got there and changed him into his PJs. A good night as a whole.
Sunday was a pretty low key day. We went to church, came home, Jacob napped for over two hours, had a late lunch, did a little running around (during which the weather finally turned from 60, rainy & windy to 70 and pleasant), and came home for a dinner of homemade chicken pot pie...which Jacob didn't each much of but which tasted pretty good! Other than that we had a little outside time--Jacob and Craig played with his basketball hoop and I gave 1/3 of our evergreens a haircut--and a couple tantrum battles in between.
It wasn't some amazingly fantastic exciting weekend, but it was a good quality weekend at home. We have a busy month ahead of us so I guess we figured we'd enjoy it while we could. We're still trying to figure out Jacob's birthday party, by the way. Our first two choices of dates were scooped up by other family events, and we're just not sure what to do now. Do a 4th of July weekend party for both families at our house? Do separate parties in Buffalo for each side of the family whenever we can schedule them? Go up against one of the other parties and just deal? No idea. I guess it was bad planning, procrastination, and bad assumptions on our part, coupled with some bad luck and busy schedules that were out of our control. I will never again assume that the weekend of Jacob's birthday will be avoided by all others for their own parties. Lesson learned. We'll definitely have cake and gifts on his actual birthday, so I know he won't miss out on the birthday experience, but we probably should have a real party just because it seems wrong not to. We want to see family, show off the house, and give Jacob the celebration he deserves. It just may not be in close proximity to his real birthday. Oh, to live close to family and be able to pick a random evening, even on a weekday...arg. And yes, we do still have to work around our nephew's allergies in planning for the party, so I really must get on the ball and start planning menus and a cake theme now. Way too much to think about!
And on that note, I'm off to go stress...
We started out at the baseball game. We hadn't been to a Rochester Red Wings game since last summer, when we went to a couple, and since we can generally go for free one way or another, it's an easy night out. It was a pleasant but cool evening and we had great seats. One of the big motivators to go was that it was glove night, where the first 1,500 kids got a baseball glove. Yeah, it was just a vinyl one with sponsor logos all over it, but it's good enough for Jacob and potentially saves us a birthday present to buy ;-) He's obsessed with Craig's gloves and while this one is a little smaller, at least it's closer to fitting! Despite having gotten a glove, though, Jacob was distracted by the little girl with a pink one sitting behind us, which is what he's pointing to in the picture below. Hmmm. Don't think that will fly out on the field...
Jacob wasn't quite as entranced by baseball as he is with hockey and lacrosse, so after a few innings and some dinner (Jacob ate a hot dog, minus the bun, and lots of pretzels) we did some walking around. Here are the boys with the Red Wings-sponsored bird from an Animals on Parade thing they did here a few years back.
And here they are with a horse from the Rochester "Horses on Parade" from even longer ago. This one's made from old baseball mitts.
Eventually we headed down to the ice cream stand for dessert. Craig and Jacob shared a vanilla cone with chocolate sprinkles. Jacob is now obsessed with sprinkles after the cone he shared with me last weekend. It was getting late and Jacob was already a little past-bedtime punchy. The ice cream put Jacob into a bit of a sugar high, as well, so he was running around like a maniac in the middle of his ice cream licks. You can't see it here, but he's got ice cream all over his mouth. But the pose--mid-swing and running--sums up what he was doing for a good 15 minutes solid.
Here he is being lured by the remaining cone...
He fell asleep on the way home and didn't even wake up once we got there and changed him into his PJs. A good night as a whole.
On Saturday afternoon after Jacob's first nap (yeah, on weekends he usually takes two...no idea why. Must be the way our schedule goes. He poops out around 11am no matter when he wakes up, sleeps for an hour to an hour and a half, and then goes like crazy again until about 4 or so, when he takes another medium length nap. It's odd.), we decided to head out. First we stopped at Friendly's for free ice cream. Once in a while they have a day where everyone can get a free one-scoop cone. My favorite one was when I was pregnant and I treated myself to a full-fat Vienna Mocha Chunk cone without guilt. Fantastic. After that we headed out to Fairport Canal Days. It's a weekend fesitval in one of the more quaint towns outside Rochester. The fesitval goes up and down their Main St., across the Erie Canal, and spills over into a couple large parking lots. There's lots of food, a bunch of crafters, and some local vendors, as well. It's a pleasant walk, if nothing else. The weather was nice and we had a good time, but by the end Jacob was beat and ended up on Daddy's shoulders again (recurring theme of the weekend, if you hadn't noticed). This was the sight on the way back to the car...and as you can imagine, it was followed by a nap.
Sunday was a pretty low key day. We went to church, came home, Jacob napped for over two hours, had a late lunch, did a little running around (during which the weather finally turned from 60, rainy & windy to 70 and pleasant), and came home for a dinner of homemade chicken pot pie...which Jacob didn't each much of but which tasted pretty good! Other than that we had a little outside time--Jacob and Craig played with his basketball hoop and I gave 1/3 of our evergreens a haircut--and a couple tantrum battles in between.
It wasn't some amazingly fantastic exciting weekend, but it was a good quality weekend at home. We have a busy month ahead of us so I guess we figured we'd enjoy it while we could. We're still trying to figure out Jacob's birthday party, by the way. Our first two choices of dates were scooped up by other family events, and we're just not sure what to do now. Do a 4th of July weekend party for both families at our house? Do separate parties in Buffalo for each side of the family whenever we can schedule them? Go up against one of the other parties and just deal? No idea. I guess it was bad planning, procrastination, and bad assumptions on our part, coupled with some bad luck and busy schedules that were out of our control. I will never again assume that the weekend of Jacob's birthday will be avoided by all others for their own parties. Lesson learned. We'll definitely have cake and gifts on his actual birthday, so I know he won't miss out on the birthday experience, but we probably should have a real party just because it seems wrong not to. We want to see family, show off the house, and give Jacob the celebration he deserves. It just may not be in close proximity to his real birthday. Oh, to live close to family and be able to pick a random evening, even on a weekday...arg. And yes, we do still have to work around our nephew's allergies in planning for the party, so I really must get on the ball and start planning menus and a cake theme now. Way too much to think about!
And on that note, I'm off to go stress...
Friday, June 4, 2010
Working Out
As I mentioned recently, I've been diagnosed with elevated cholesterol. I actually still don't know how elevated it is since I found out via a message from my doctor's office and I never took the time to call back. I wasn't particularly shocked by this revelation, considering a long family history of heart attacks and two parents on cholesterol meds, but I suppose I was hoping to avoid this diagnosis this early. I'll admit that my eating habits aren't stellar, but compared to the average person, I think they're actually pretty good. A quick scan of my kitchen produced very few products with more than a few milligrams of cholesterol, and I rarely see anything with more than 1.5 grams of saturated fat. Now, we do eat out from time to time, maybe 3-4 times per week depending on the week. And I know I could make healthier choices when we do, but really, if I'm going to go out to eat and pay that much, I'd prefer to eat what I want, within reason. And it's not like I have dinner out every night, so a couple not-so-healthy meals per week really doesn't scare me. But if push came to shove, yes, I could get steamed broccoli and grilled chicken instead of the burger and fries. My issue at this point is that I don't think that cutting that stuff out is going to make that big of a difference since in general my diet isn't that horrible. There just isn't that much there to overhaul. I could be wrong, but I just feel like I'm destined to end up on Lipitor at some point anyway, because, let's face it, a life without french fries just doesn't sound that appealing.
One of the other things I can do to lower it is work out more. I currently work out once per week on Thursday evenings. I go to an Instructor's Challenge class that is taught by a rotating set of instructors. No two classes are ever the same, and I like that. They usually follow a similar form, but not always. It's generally a few sets of strength training exercises interspersed with cardio. Sometimes the weight training is a series of different moves, and sometimes we have a circuit that we rotate all the way through. Cardio might be running the endless stairs in the building, grabbing a cardio machine, or running outside. I like the variety and it's definitely enhanced my fitness a bit. Unfortunately, unlike my old class I don't think this one will be as flexible when pregnancy #2 comes along. But for now it's been really helpful. It's even gotten me on a bit of a running kick, which I have never done. I still don't particularly like running, but I do get a better sense of the power and potential within my body when I run. Last year at this time I completed the Chase Corporate Challenge, a 3.5 mile race. I'd never run that long before, and it was pretty impressive considering the whole race was in a torrential downpour and I was probably carrying around about 10 pounds of water in my clothes. This year's race was last night, but my company didn't participate. I decided to run the 3.5 miles anyway, just to make sure I could still do it, and so last night I hopped on the treadmill and did it. It was hard, but it felt great to finish.
Even before the cholesterol diagnosis, my doctor had suggested I work out more. Before Jacob I tried to work out 2-3 times per week. The summer before I got pregnant, I also bought a bike, so even if I didn't hit the gym, I could always take a nice bike ride. But I haven't ridden my bike at all since that summer, because the next year I was pregnant and since Jacob was born I just haven't felt like I've had the time to do it. I'm sure I'm wrong and I'm just not utilizing my time well. I often think about how easy it should be to take a run or a ride, but it's just not. Time on the bike is time away from Jacob. Our weekend afternoons are usually busy anyway, even with naps (which I often like to participate in myself), and evenings are tough because we're usually rushing from dinner to the little bit of playtime I have with Jacob each day to bedtime...and by then it's dark out and less safe for riding. Perhaps I should be more selfish and take the time, but my time with him is so limited as it is. Oh, and in case you're thinking I should just take a walk with Jacob, that's generally a tough prospect in the evenings because he inevitably falls asleep and it makes for a much more complicated bedtime if he falls asleep too early. But it's not impossible, just awkward.
One thought I had was to get a baby seat for my bike. I rode around in one on my mom's bike when I was little and I remember enjoying it. The back-mounted ones like that make me nervous, though, for many reasons. I can see it seriously throwing my balance off, and I don't like that I can't see behind me. Trailers make me nervous for that reason as well, and probably even more because Jacob would be that much farther away from me in general. If I got one, it would probably be a front-mounted one. I think I'm short enough that it wouldn't bother my legs, but I think I'd still be able to see over it ok. I'd also feel like I might have the ability to shield Jacob somehow in the event of a crash. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but it would still be easier than it he was behind me. I'd need to get a helmet for Jacob (and yeah, probably me too one of these days), but baby helmets are tough to find. Standard ones in stores are for 3+, so it would most likely be a slightly pricey online purchase. But the whole thing just scares me. Granted, in all the years that I've ridden a bike, I've never had a major accident. A couple minor falls, perhaps, but nothing that gave me anything more than a few scrapes....and not in a very long time. So why would accidents start now? But still, if anything ever happened to Jacob while he was on my bike, I'd never forgive myself. There are a lot of sobering statistics about injuries to kids on bike seats, but I'd have to think that most of those are helmetless and in the typical back-mounted version that throws off your balance more than the front-mounted ones. But still, it's scary. But I do think it would get me out and about more, and I think Jacob would like it too. But is it worth the risk? Or should I just forego time with him and force myself to get on my bike solo or head off to the gym an additional day? On the bright side, Craig's schedule eases up considerably during the summer, so if there's any time it's possible, it's now.
I'd like to get in better shape. Running is empowering, and there's always a nice rush from a good workout, regardless of the type. I'd like to think that taking care of an active toddler and keeping a household up and running is enough activity, but based on what I see in the mirror, it's not. But there's always the lure of that adorable little boy...and when he's not around, dozens of things on a mental to-do list readily take his place. The never-ending battle of motherhood--arranging priorities so nothing suffers...
One of the other things I can do to lower it is work out more. I currently work out once per week on Thursday evenings. I go to an Instructor's Challenge class that is taught by a rotating set of instructors. No two classes are ever the same, and I like that. They usually follow a similar form, but not always. It's generally a few sets of strength training exercises interspersed with cardio. Sometimes the weight training is a series of different moves, and sometimes we have a circuit that we rotate all the way through. Cardio might be running the endless stairs in the building, grabbing a cardio machine, or running outside. I like the variety and it's definitely enhanced my fitness a bit. Unfortunately, unlike my old class I don't think this one will be as flexible when pregnancy #2 comes along. But for now it's been really helpful. It's even gotten me on a bit of a running kick, which I have never done. I still don't particularly like running, but I do get a better sense of the power and potential within my body when I run. Last year at this time I completed the Chase Corporate Challenge, a 3.5 mile race. I'd never run that long before, and it was pretty impressive considering the whole race was in a torrential downpour and I was probably carrying around about 10 pounds of water in my clothes. This year's race was last night, but my company didn't participate. I decided to run the 3.5 miles anyway, just to make sure I could still do it, and so last night I hopped on the treadmill and did it. It was hard, but it felt great to finish.
Even before the cholesterol diagnosis, my doctor had suggested I work out more. Before Jacob I tried to work out 2-3 times per week. The summer before I got pregnant, I also bought a bike, so even if I didn't hit the gym, I could always take a nice bike ride. But I haven't ridden my bike at all since that summer, because the next year I was pregnant and since Jacob was born I just haven't felt like I've had the time to do it. I'm sure I'm wrong and I'm just not utilizing my time well. I often think about how easy it should be to take a run or a ride, but it's just not. Time on the bike is time away from Jacob. Our weekend afternoons are usually busy anyway, even with naps (which I often like to participate in myself), and evenings are tough because we're usually rushing from dinner to the little bit of playtime I have with Jacob each day to bedtime...and by then it's dark out and less safe for riding. Perhaps I should be more selfish and take the time, but my time with him is so limited as it is. Oh, and in case you're thinking I should just take a walk with Jacob, that's generally a tough prospect in the evenings because he inevitably falls asleep and it makes for a much more complicated bedtime if he falls asleep too early. But it's not impossible, just awkward.
One thought I had was to get a baby seat for my bike. I rode around in one on my mom's bike when I was little and I remember enjoying it. The back-mounted ones like that make me nervous, though, for many reasons. I can see it seriously throwing my balance off, and I don't like that I can't see behind me. Trailers make me nervous for that reason as well, and probably even more because Jacob would be that much farther away from me in general. If I got one, it would probably be a front-mounted one. I think I'm short enough that it wouldn't bother my legs, but I think I'd still be able to see over it ok. I'd also feel like I might have the ability to shield Jacob somehow in the event of a crash. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but it would still be easier than it he was behind me. I'd need to get a helmet for Jacob (and yeah, probably me too one of these days), but baby helmets are tough to find. Standard ones in stores are for 3+, so it would most likely be a slightly pricey online purchase. But the whole thing just scares me. Granted, in all the years that I've ridden a bike, I've never had a major accident. A couple minor falls, perhaps, but nothing that gave me anything more than a few scrapes....and not in a very long time. So why would accidents start now? But still, if anything ever happened to Jacob while he was on my bike, I'd never forgive myself. There are a lot of sobering statistics about injuries to kids on bike seats, but I'd have to think that most of those are helmetless and in the typical back-mounted version that throws off your balance more than the front-mounted ones. But still, it's scary. But I do think it would get me out and about more, and I think Jacob would like it too. But is it worth the risk? Or should I just forego time with him and force myself to get on my bike solo or head off to the gym an additional day? On the bright side, Craig's schedule eases up considerably during the summer, so if there's any time it's possible, it's now.
I'd like to get in better shape. Running is empowering, and there's always a nice rush from a good workout, regardless of the type. I'd like to think that taking care of an active toddler and keeping a household up and running is enough activity, but based on what I see in the mirror, it's not. But there's always the lure of that adorable little boy...and when he's not around, dozens of things on a mental to-do list readily take his place. The never-ending battle of motherhood--arranging priorities so nothing suffers...
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
News and Notes
Just wanted to do a quick overview of some of the stuff we've been dealing with lately...
- Jacob is officially obsessed with his first annoying kid-targeted video. We got a hand-me-down video from Jacob's cousins, this "Elmocize" video featuring Elmo as an exercise camp leader. There's basically a TV reporter that's reporting on the camp (he's a Muppet too, along the lines of Guy Smiley) and gets sucked into the world of exercise. There's a handful of Elmo segments with a few Sesame Street-ish animated segments in between. There are also a handful of catchy and overly perky songs that have serious superpowers for getting in your head and staying there. And Jacob LOVES it. He asks for it all the time. And much to my dismay, DVR'ed episodes of Sesame Street are not a worthy replacement. So instead we usually have to put the tape in for a least a few minutes most days upon request. I'll admit it's cute watching Jacob dance along to some parts, like tonight when he followed along with almost an entire segment, touching his toes and doing what the animation on the screen was. We were pretty impressed. It makes me crazy that the songs are so stuck in my head. Ugh. And honestly, every time I see the parts with the real-life kids, who are all now at least college age, all I can think is, "How embarrassing would this footage be for them to see now?"
- Jacob is really starting to spew words. Whether he's putting words together into phrases or is repeating things that we say, he's really getting good. It's still hard to tell how much he's understanding, because on one hand he seems to understand a lot, but on another hand he's like talking to a brick wall. You can practically have a full conversation with him, but then five minutes later you're repeating the same thing to him 20 times because he just doesn't seem to be absorbing whatever it is that you're saying, whether it's yet another reminder not to throw balls in the house or telling Jacob for the thousandth time that we can't go to a hockey game because the Amerks season is over. But I find it astonishing (and really cute) how much he can repeat back after hearing it one time. All of the baby books and emails I get talk about the language explosion between 18 and 24 months, and boy were they right. Last night it sounded like Jacob was practicing talking in bed. It's still not all clear, but he's really got a lot to say about a lot of things. We still have trouble getting him to use words when he's upset, which still makes it hard to fully communicate with him. And like I mentioned earlier, he doesn't always seem to listen to what we're telling him, which makes things even more difficult. But it's nice to know we're on our way to having meaningful conversations with him at some point down the road. It's a far cry from always wondering what the heck is going through your little baby's head when they're not communicating at all!
- Jacob likes to snack. He's not a big fan of meals, but the second he gets a chance, he's running to the snack cabinet in the kitchen to pull out a bag of pretzels or the giant carton of goldfish. Or worse, he goes into another cabinet looking for "beans", his term for M&Ms or any other candy coated chocolate. He somehow learned that a stash of Sixlets (like spherical M&Ms--one of my old Halloween favorites) from a post-Easter clearance sale lived in one cabinet, and he's been trying to get to them ever since. They have now moved. It's pretty annoying at dinner time, especially because he gets an afternoon snack at daycare every day so I know he can't be that hungry...and even if we manage to get him through without snacking, the chances of him eating his dinner are sketchy. He also keeps asking for juice these days, which he gets usually once a day at daycare, but I'm trying to steer him away from that. Not that he's a fat kid, by any means, but water is preferred in between meals.
- Jacob LOVES fruit. He did last summer too, but he's really enjoying it a lot this year as well. Berries of all kinds, in particular. He also loves smoothies. Last year for my birthday, Craig bought me one of those Magic Bullet blender sets because I had mentioned that they were tempting. However, at at least $50, I didn't feel that my use of it would be worth the price tag, so I returned it promising that if I ever saw a good sale I would go buy one to replace it. Well, a couple months ago I saw a great sale for the JCPenney version of it. Really cheap, assuming I ever get my rebate back. Even still, it was cheaper than the real one. And I love that thing. It's just so much quicker and easier than the big blender. Saturday morning Jacob was saying no to every breakfast option I presented him...until I mentioned a smoothie! Then he readily said yes! I just put a few strawberries, some frozen banana (great way to use ripe bananas that won't get eaten), a little low fat vanilla yogurt, some milk, and some ice into the cup, blend it up, and we can split it. It's really good and Jacob drinks it right up. It's a lifesaver. And when he doesn't eat his dinner very well I try to supplement with fruit whenever possible. At least I know he's getting something.
- He still talks about sports non-stop. Hockey, lacrosse (usually in the form of the Knighthawks), baseball, basketball, soccer, football...you name it. And I finally have started to put my foot down about him playing them in the house. His throws are getting harder and he's now got some bigger equipment (kid-size lacrosse sticks, for example) that could do some damage with the right ball and some good (bad) aim. I just don't want to risk broken lamps or knicknacks or any of that, so I'm trying to relegate that to an outdoor activity...and this is a good time of year to do it. Of course, Craig wants to encourage the sports thing, and it IS all Jacob wants to do most of the time, so I'm sort of fighting a losing battle at times.
- Not much to report on the potty front. Still no real successes. He wants to sit on it once in a while, but no luck. However, at the risk of brutally embarrassing him 15 years from now, here's a really cute picture of him giving it a shot. At least no important body parts are showing :)
- Jacob is officially obsessed with his first annoying kid-targeted video. We got a hand-me-down video from Jacob's cousins, this "Elmocize" video featuring Elmo as an exercise camp leader. There's basically a TV reporter that's reporting on the camp (he's a Muppet too, along the lines of Guy Smiley) and gets sucked into the world of exercise. There's a handful of Elmo segments with a few Sesame Street-ish animated segments in between. There are also a handful of catchy and overly perky songs that have serious superpowers for getting in your head and staying there. And Jacob LOVES it. He asks for it all the time. And much to my dismay, DVR'ed episodes of Sesame Street are not a worthy replacement. So instead we usually have to put the tape in for a least a few minutes most days upon request. I'll admit it's cute watching Jacob dance along to some parts, like tonight when he followed along with almost an entire segment, touching his toes and doing what the animation on the screen was. We were pretty impressed. It makes me crazy that the songs are so stuck in my head. Ugh. And honestly, every time I see the parts with the real-life kids, who are all now at least college age, all I can think is, "How embarrassing would this footage be for them to see now?"
- Jacob is really starting to spew words. Whether he's putting words together into phrases or is repeating things that we say, he's really getting good. It's still hard to tell how much he's understanding, because on one hand he seems to understand a lot, but on another hand he's like talking to a brick wall. You can practically have a full conversation with him, but then five minutes later you're repeating the same thing to him 20 times because he just doesn't seem to be absorbing whatever it is that you're saying, whether it's yet another reminder not to throw balls in the house or telling Jacob for the thousandth time that we can't go to a hockey game because the Amerks season is over. But I find it astonishing (and really cute) how much he can repeat back after hearing it one time. All of the baby books and emails I get talk about the language explosion between 18 and 24 months, and boy were they right. Last night it sounded like Jacob was practicing talking in bed. It's still not all clear, but he's really got a lot to say about a lot of things. We still have trouble getting him to use words when he's upset, which still makes it hard to fully communicate with him. And like I mentioned earlier, he doesn't always seem to listen to what we're telling him, which makes things even more difficult. But it's nice to know we're on our way to having meaningful conversations with him at some point down the road. It's a far cry from always wondering what the heck is going through your little baby's head when they're not communicating at all!
- Jacob likes to snack. He's not a big fan of meals, but the second he gets a chance, he's running to the snack cabinet in the kitchen to pull out a bag of pretzels or the giant carton of goldfish. Or worse, he goes into another cabinet looking for "beans", his term for M&Ms or any other candy coated chocolate. He somehow learned that a stash of Sixlets (like spherical M&Ms--one of my old Halloween favorites) from a post-Easter clearance sale lived in one cabinet, and he's been trying to get to them ever since. They have now moved. It's pretty annoying at dinner time, especially because he gets an afternoon snack at daycare every day so I know he can't be that hungry...and even if we manage to get him through without snacking, the chances of him eating his dinner are sketchy. He also keeps asking for juice these days, which he gets usually once a day at daycare, but I'm trying to steer him away from that. Not that he's a fat kid, by any means, but water is preferred in between meals.
- Jacob LOVES fruit. He did last summer too, but he's really enjoying it a lot this year as well. Berries of all kinds, in particular. He also loves smoothies. Last year for my birthday, Craig bought me one of those Magic Bullet blender sets because I had mentioned that they were tempting. However, at at least $50, I didn't feel that my use of it would be worth the price tag, so I returned it promising that if I ever saw a good sale I would go buy one to replace it. Well, a couple months ago I saw a great sale for the JCPenney version of it. Really cheap, assuming I ever get my rebate back. Even still, it was cheaper than the real one. And I love that thing. It's just so much quicker and easier than the big blender. Saturday morning Jacob was saying no to every breakfast option I presented him...until I mentioned a smoothie! Then he readily said yes! I just put a few strawberries, some frozen banana (great way to use ripe bananas that won't get eaten), a little low fat vanilla yogurt, some milk, and some ice into the cup, blend it up, and we can split it. It's really good and Jacob drinks it right up. It's a lifesaver. And when he doesn't eat his dinner very well I try to supplement with fruit whenever possible. At least I know he's getting something.
- He still talks about sports non-stop. Hockey, lacrosse (usually in the form of the Knighthawks), baseball, basketball, soccer, football...you name it. And I finally have started to put my foot down about him playing them in the house. His throws are getting harder and he's now got some bigger equipment (kid-size lacrosse sticks, for example) that could do some damage with the right ball and some good (bad) aim. I just don't want to risk broken lamps or knicknacks or any of that, so I'm trying to relegate that to an outdoor activity...and this is a good time of year to do it. Of course, Craig wants to encourage the sports thing, and it IS all Jacob wants to do most of the time, so I'm sort of fighting a losing battle at times.
- Not much to report on the potty front. Still no real successes. He wants to sit on it once in a while, but no luck. However, at the risk of brutally embarrassing him 15 years from now, here's a really cute picture of him giving it a shot. At least no important body parts are showing :)
I know there was something else I wanted to mention, but I guess it will have to wait for now since I can't remember it. Hope you're enjoying your short work week!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Another weekend, another boo-boo...
I'm thinking that boo-boos are going to be an ever-increasing occurrence in our lives for a while, now that summer is here and Jacob is as active as ever. Unfortunately, increased activity has not been accompanied by increase gracefulness, so Jacob's clumsiness is becoming more of a factor than it was before. I'll get to the full story in a bit, but here's the rundown of our Memorial Day weekend.
On Friday afternoon I discovered that the carousel down by the lake was giving out free rides. We always enjoy our visits to Charlotte (pronounced Shar-lot, with emphasis on the "-lot"), which is the northernmost area of Greece, right up on the lake. It's the same place we went to when we did our big beach day last summer. We figured we'd get our free carousel ride, then get some ice cream to enjoy on a lovely evening. Well...when we got up there, there were emergency vehicles everywhere. There's usually a decent police presence around there, but nothing like this. There had to be 20-30 vehicles with flashers everywhere you looked. As we headed to the carousel, which is in the park adjacent to the beach and the Charlotte pier, we could see people crowded around the railings near the area where the Genesee River empties into Lake Ontario. Since we only had a half hour to get our ride in and we weren't sure what kind of line might await us, we headed to the carousel and figured we'd find out the big story later.
I figured Jacob might like the carousel a lot since he has no problem spinning himself until he's dizzy or playing Superman while perched on my feet when I lay on the ground. He never really seemed to shy away from speed or bumps or any of that stuff, so I was hoping that we had bred a new little roller coaster freak for me to ride crazy rides with, since Craig definitely does NOT fill that role. So, we got to the carousel building, a classic, wooden, open-air pavilion with a cool pipe organ providing the riding music. The carousel has a variety of animals to choose from. The top two rows of animals move up and down, and the outside of the ring has a variety of options including traditional animals on poles and benches. Jacob seemed intrigued from the moment we got there. We waited through two rides for our turn (not bad considering it was a nice night and it was free), and selected a couple rabbits to ride on (since Jacob likes bunnies). Here he is scoping things out once we were on...
And yes, here he is once the ride started...
And yes, here he is once the ride started...
Ok, so we don't have a rider on our hands...yet. As soon as the ride started moving, Jacob got this scared look on his face. You know the one...where he starts figuring out that it's more than he bargained for, the one that quickly transitions into the trembling lower lip and sudden sobs of fear. We did our best to calm him and distract him until the ride was over, and other than a few bursts of tears, he did ok. He did bring up the "horsies" again on Saturday in a more positive light, so I think he'll grow into it. It might have just been a little too much to process the first time around. Anyway...once we got off the carousel we took a casual walk to where all of the activity was. The crowds were starting to thin by that point, but we got an idea of what had happened from the remaining on-lookers...and the full story on the news that night. A group of friends were jumping off the pier and one, a 20-year-old guy, never resurfaced. He was underwater for 45 minutes and was apparently pulled out alive, but by the next morning the paper reported he had died. So very sad and such a needless tragedy. It brought up the thought yet again--how do you teach your child to have fun but think intelligently and make good friends that won't get them into situations like that? Ugh. After that we headed to get some ice cream. Craig and I were both going to share ours with Jacob, but he took a liking to my fat-free chocolate with sprinkles and could only be enticed away by Craig's cone near the end. Still, it was a nice night out. Saturday Craig had an event to go to for most of the afternoon and all evening, so for most of the day it was just me and Jacob. Still, before Craig left he got to take an unexpected nap with Jacob when Jacob fell asleep out of the blue on the way home from a trip to Wegmans with me. He slept for a good hour and a half, if not two hours, and I got to be nice and productive. I put assembled the pictures on the flash drive, as I mentioned in my last post, and I filled in some of the blanks in Jacob's baby book, with the aid of this very blog. Once Craig took off, I did a little work outside, including inflating and filling Jacob's little pool, the one he slept in one night last summer when we found ourselves without a pack and play for him on a trip to Buffalo. Despite the crazy hot weather all weekend, our schedules never worked out for Jacob to play in it. Between our many activities and his crazy nap schedule, it just didn't happen. Ugh. But still, it was quite an undertaking and it was nice to get it done. One of these days we'll get OUR pool open. Anyway...after a productive shopping trip in which I got Jacob a new baseball cap (less than $4!), new swim trunks (less than $5!), and the last package of medium swim diapers that still had the travel sunscreen sample attached (score!), among other things, we headed out to Craig's event. It was at a bar downtown, where some of the big lacrosse fans and one of the Knighthawks were watching the NCAA lacrosse semifinals out on their patio. It was a gorgeous night and Jacob had a blast. There was a mini-net and lacrosse sticks galore...and not just the ones he brought from home. Here he is showing his form in his new hat...
Many of the people there took turns playing lacrosse with him. I think they just liked the idea of such a little boy being so obsessed with the sport, and they wanted to encourage it! Jacob wasn't shy, either, so he had a busy night in front of the net. And yes, people are convinced he's going to be a goalie. He does have a great stance already, but I'm not sure mommy can take the stress if he ends up being a hockey or lacrosse goalie, or even a baseball pitcher or a quarterback, considering his love of throwing. Yikes! Later in the evening he got his hands on a real lacrosse goalie stick, courtesy of the Knighthawk in attendance, goalie Aaron Bold. It was HUGE, and Jacob loved it!
After two late-ish nights, we knew Sunday was going to be a challenge. And it was. Church was tough. But before that, I did catch a smile on Jacob's face as he was running around the house in an old batting helmet of Craig's. He wanted this helmet (an old Baltimore Orioles one) as his constant companion.
Sunday was shaping up to be another wacky nap day, but we managed to have a nice lunch out (at Olive Garden, with a coupon...I can't remember the last time I was there, seriously.) and then lulled Jacob to sleep with driving our leftovers home and then heading to the zoo. It was the first time we went this year as a family. Unfortunately, it was probably too hot to really see the animals doing much, but it was still a nice day for it on our end, and once Jacob woke up upon arrival, he actually got into the animals quite a bit...he loves the monkeys and thinks the rhinos are cool. He also really liked the otter, who was swimming around quite a bit that day. I tried again to get a good picture of him with the big stuffed polar bears, but this was as close as I got this time around...
Craig got in on the action and added his own fun to the photo...not sure how well you'll be able to see it, but notice the props he added to the bears...in the left bear's paws, and the right bear's mouth...yep, Jacob's constant companions have been taken over by the bears... ;-)
Jacob took a good nap after that escapade, and Sunday night would have ended up pretty low key if not for Jacob's new boo-boo. We had just finished dinner and I got Jacob down from his high chair. Craig was upstairs in the bathroom, and I was finishing up the kitchen cleanup. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Jacob started screaming. Craig saw him first, and he was on the floor next to the foot of our chaise armchair. It became apparent that he had bumped his head. Originally we thought it was on the chair, but then he pointed to the coffee table. All we can figure is that he fell into the coffee table (like I said, he's clumsy) and he hit his right ear on the corner of the coffee table. His ear was tough to figure out, though. There was a small cut on the backside of the ear that bled a little bit. The front looked like it had a little slit as well, but that wasn't bleeding. He wouldn't let us get close enough to figure out if it cut all the way through, though. Still not sure, actually. But the thing that freaked us out was that the top inside of his ear turned purple. Really purple. We called the doctor and the afterhours person that called us back wasn't very reassuring. He said that we had to make sure it didn't get worse and swell up, because that could mean that the blood supply was getting cut off and it could do damage. He said that if it got worse we should go to the ER. Now...I know this going to sound bad, but our copay for the emergency room is $150. That is a lot of money. Back when we had our first two ER visits, it was only $50. It stunk to pay that then, mostly because in both cases they couldn't really do anything for us except give us peace of mind. Obviously if Jacob had a visible, serious injury like a broken bone or a gaping cut we would just bite the bullet and do it. You do what you need to do. But when it's a borderline thing, like a cut that stops bleedin or possible (but admittedly not probable) dehydration, it's a tough call. We erred on the side of caution both of those times, but this one was a tough call. On any other body part, you'd say, ok, it's purple...it's a bruise and it will go away. But it wasn't swelling up. But the fact that the afterhours guy was a little less comforting made me want to go on the internet and see what the risks were. Basically, there's a condition called cauliflower ear where a hematoma (bruise) blocks the blood supply to the cartilage (because the skin around the cartilage is its only blood supply) and the tissue becomes deformed. When I was looking at Jacob in the bathroom before we put him to bed, I noticed that the good ear was transparent in the light, while the other ear was not, thanks to pooled blood. So, armed with that knowledge and what I'd seen on the internet, I called back to ask more questions, like how quickly damage might be done, or how we'd know the difference between a bruise and something that could do serious damage. This time the woman that called back told us not to worry about it. If it got noticeably worse, then we could start to get concerned. But it was just a bruise and we were ok to relax. And sure enough, so far so good. His ear is still really purple, though. And for the record, it wasn't just a money thing either. I have a nasty cold myself and the thought of dragging Jacob to the ER at his bedtime and screwing up his sleep even more than it already was was just painful to think about. S0, $150 saved, plus our sanity. But it made for an anxious night.
Monday was a busy day, with a visit from my parents in the morning. They brought Jacob's basketball hoop that he tested out last weekend. He played a lot outside that morning, and the heat was already pretty unbearable. Around noon we headed out to my Aunt Lynne & Uncle Cliff's for a Memorial Day party with a good chunk of my dad's family. We had a good time, but the heat was pretty awful. Jacob played through it all, reveling in the opportunity to play hockey and lacrosse with his big second cousin Jaxon, who's probably as sports-crazed as him! Jax probably prefers golf above all, but he's definitely all-around talented. They had a lot of fun, and Jax actually saved Craig, me, and my parents from a full-on bout of heat exhaustion, I think! After that, we headed home and a friend of ours came over to watch the NCAA lacrosse final with Craig. Jacob fell asleep on the way home and ended up sleeping for over three hours (!) before I finally went in and woke him up after a two hour nap of my own. Needless to say his sleep schedule has been off for a few days. He's napped here and there and stayed awake in bed for an hour after we put him there...and you can definitely tell in his behavior. He was actually a bit of a mess even today after daycare, but he went down on time and relatively easy tonight, which I credit to a nice, quiet bedtime routine.
It was quite the weekend and it's nice to have a four day week this week. More weekend fun is just days away :)
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