Greetings From The Island

Ahh vacation!

Coming from the island of Oahu, the family has successfully traversed the great Pacific but not without a host of challenges. The little one came down with a nasty cold. Snot nose, coughing, fever and general misery in a presurrized cabin at 30K feet calls for two things: bottomless bloody mary's and Benadryl. I honestly felt like I was torturing the poor child, but what do you do when the vacation is already bought and payed for?

I think she has recovered from the experience as she is enjoying being with her cousin. They are 3 1/2 months apart and at a fun age where they are able to communicate in their own toddler way. It's funny how they seem to understand what the other is saying quite well but sometimes they just look at eachother in a half blank stare, half head-cocked curiosity.

There was quite a bit of action yesterday, marathon day. Although I wasn't running, I experienced a marathon of my own managing the two munchkins. It wouldn't have been so bad if we hadn't pulled them out of bed at 3am. They were troopers and thank goodness for LazyBoy style car seats and dvd players.
If only I had a second stroller the day would have been a breeze. I traded the typical post-marathon leg pain for bicep soreness from carrying a 30 pound two year old while napping through the mud and crowds during a downpour while pushing the other in the stroller. Oh, I was also carrying everyones gear in my pack on my back. (Excuse the Seussism, just read One Fish, Two Fish....)

So now it's time to relax. The kids have returned to their normal selves, mostly. The runny nose will not let up and the irritability is getting the best of my little one but we press on. I have high hopes that the salt water and humid air will provide the cure to all of our woes if only the rain will stop. If we don't make it to the beach there are hours of entertainment to be had for us proud parents as we watch the munchkins dance, play, interact and be silly. Afterall, we are in paradise.

Is anybody reading this? I think I have sufficiently diminished my audience to the always supportive girlfriend and obligatory read from the husband. You know who you are. So the pressures off and I will post when I darn well please. Actually that's not true at all. My desire is greater than one would think if only I could get the toddler to go play for a good half hour while I struggle to put a few cohesive, semi-interesting notes about her on the screen.

The little one is displaying more independence of late and it's bittersweet for Mom. The thought of my helpless little baby who depends on me for all life substance morphing into the head-strong, do-it myself little person breaks my heart a bit. Then I get over it, especially when the reality sets in that I just had my morning cup of coffee uninterrupted and washed all the dishes without a little person attached to my legs. And just when I think she can't get any cuter...sorry, I'll stop right there.

A favorite in the house right now is the Hulabaloo band. It's actual parent tolerable kid music. Although, with repetition all things become tired and so this CD is no longer met with the parent enthusiasm as it once was. Time to buy their other CD. It's funny that kids are the opposite. The more familiar and repetitive, the more attached they become.

The little one has mastered operating the play button on her CD player and thus has discovered new freedoms. We will be contently playing downstairs when out of the blue she says, "music (pause) on" and marches upstairs to her bedroom. When I don't hear from her for 10 minutes or so my curiosity brings me upstairs to find her laying on her floor or reading a book while swaying to the sounds of She'll be Coming Around the Mountain. Then she'll look up at me and say "whoa back" and "hi babe" and I just wish someone else was with me to share the moment.

And I Give You...The Ah Puh Tuss!

Yep, she picked it. If you haven't heard already at The Most Significant Thing, the little one picked her costume and it garnered her winner of the costume contest! Here is our little "ah-puh-tuss" receiving her award certificate from the nice girls at WeeStart

I'm still whirling from the fantastic Halloween festivities. It was a good one to be sure: the pumpkins were carved with skill, cute kids running around in equally cute costumes, fun friends, lots of sweets, and more rings on the doorbell than you get all year. I consider yesterday the primer for the "biggy" holidays that will soon be upon us and judging by the enthusiasm of the munchkin, it's going to be an exhausting, but beautiful Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I struggle to express how enjoyable it was to watch her figure out the whole trick or treat thing. I can imagine what she was thinking. I'm dressed in this funny costume, it's dark outside and we are going to knock on the neighbor's doors? From the moment the first familiar face opened the door and handed her a piece of candy, which she promptly placed in her bucket, she was hooked. It didn't take much coaxing to get her to the next house and although she had never had candy before, she knew it was something special. As her bucket got heavy, I thought I would help her carry it, no way. I was met with resistance as she tightened her death grip on the handle opting for me to carry her, bucket firmly held.

In an effort to be festive, the family dressed in theme, for the second year in a row. Bouncing of the marine motif from the octopus, we appropriately dressed as pirates. It seemed fitting since the pirate ship is already docked in the driveway of the house.

The little one seem thoroughly unimpressed by our pirate costumes. You win one contest and you become a costume snob.

So we cruise into November with only pictures to remind us of the good time and a little voice who from time to time exclaims, "Ah puh tuss" and "bucket" as she ingrains the memory a little bit deeper in her active little brain.

A Normal Day

Oh what a crazy week it's been! I've been hearing much of that as life returns to it's routine and the daily faces reappear. The funny thing is over the past five years I felt that we Americans are becoming too holed up in our own bubble and not interfacing with strangers enough, with our Internet shopping, cell phones in the car and on demand TV. This week I've realized how much I depend on the daily interaction with unfamiliar faces in the grocery store and the friendly conversation with the lady friends at Jazzercise. I've concluded that most of us our not the hermits I suspected us to be. We are social beings and will continue being such no matter how convenient modern inventions may become.


As for the little social being in my life, she is done with the sequestering. Poor thing just wants to go "owtsite". She wants to play, run around in the grass, climb in her swing, go to the park, and play with friends. Let life be normal, let the routine return. It's unfortunate when you spend a concentrated amount of effort in limiting TV time and encouraging the outside play and a week like this happens and you can't think of one good reason to not allow another viewing of Little Einsteins.


On a side note, Little Einsteins is good toddler TV! We've been pretty choosy when it comes to the shows we let the little tike watch. We have yet to expose her to Barney, Dora, Wiggles, or Teletubbies perhaps for the sole reason that we just can't stomach them ourselves but it's unanimous in our house, Little Einsteins is a hit. It's cute when the little one mimics the show at random moments while playing, she says, "pat, pat, pat" as she pats her legs and puts her hands in the air and yells, "blast off". "Mission", she says with a big smile. For those unfamiliar, each episode takes four characters on a mission with the aid of their pal Rocket. There is a piece of art and musical score of the day that appears throughout the show as they travel to historic landmarks and faraway lands composed in a combination of live stills, traditional and computer animation. No doubt one day she'll come home from a friends house and beg for the big purple dinosaur but until then, I win.


We are back to life as usual today. The office phone is ringing again and the Mom's group calendar no longer has red even cancelled lines through it. It's been an unforgettable week for our family and historic in it's own right. History is likely to repeat itself but we will all pray that it's less devastating the next time around.

It's the Yay Mommy Moments That Count

What a lousy, unreliable blogger I am. If you are reading this, I thank you for your tolerance and ask that you chalk it up to another person trying your patience. I only hope the content will be interesting enough to make it excusable. Now on to today's happenings.

It seems the little one fancies herself a comedian, thus more proof she is her Father's daughter. The latest phrase, "I'm fuh-nee," has brought even more smiles to the house. But like her Dad, what is "fuh-nee" to her, may not be so funny to Mommy. For example, during meals (which are a battle in themselves) the munchkin will put food item such as a grape tomato in her mouth, swish it around, and spit it out. After which, she says, "I'm fuh-nee" with a big giggle. However cute it is when she says it, I respond with the poker face and pretend like it never happened. Funny.

But it's not all bad. She's taken to celebrating her bowel movements by exclaiming, "Yay, poo poo", which I'm pretty sure she learned from Daddy. The other day while in the midst of the thankless chore of changing a stinky diaper, the little one says, "Yay, poo poo" followed by, "Yay, Mommy." Now that is appreciation! All the angst of a mundane chore was melted away and replaced with warm fuzzies. This is what being a Mommy is all about.

Hay!

Something about the holidays brings out the kid in me and never more now that the little tot is around. After attempting to explain Halloween for a couple weeks, I decided to have her pick out a costume online and boy was she excited when it arrived in the mail. Ask her what she is going to be for Halloween and she responds without hesitation (at least with Mommy and Daddy). I shall hold back revealing the actual costume for a future post, say Nov. 1st.

We figured no October is complete without a visit to the pumpkin patch and I've been hearing about Bates Nut Farms in Valley Center for quite some time. I dragged the family out there last Saturday and wow, what a place. If there ever is a definition of what a pumpkin patch should be, this is it! Pumpkins galore of every size, shape, variety and color. Somehow we went home with a 100 pound pumpkin, proudly displayed at The Most Significant Thing.

The little one had fun too. In her words, it was "aysiem". For the first time in her short life she was game for everything, which made the whole day entirely more enjoyable for all of us. She had a visit to the petting zoo which upon exiting she repeated, "Good bye goats, good bye pigs, etc. etc." I was not so sure about the pony rides since our first experience back in June was more of a torture session than fun, not even making it one time around the mini corral. In an effort to try and try again, I waited out the 1 hour pony ride line and placed the munchkin on a pretty white pony. She lit up! After a suspenseful wait while they loaded up, fed, and watered the animals, we were off and it sent her into giggles. As hoped, it was a perfect photo op as she smiled and waved to Daddy the camera man.

We couldn't keep her still through lunch with the super inflatable slide and jumper in sight. At first inspection, Daddy said he didn't think she was quite ready for it but her obvious enthusiasm won out. Father and daughter climbed the ladder and down they came, all smiles. By the second time she was going down by herself.

It was a memorable day.

We may have simply caught her on a "good" day but, if this is any indication of what is to be in the coming months, sign me up for every hay ride, tree lot, costume contest, and Santa visit. It's a joy to experience all of these things for the first time, again.

Of Concern

An interesting article sites that children no longer fear the parental role, or authority figures as a whole. Let me clarify by qualifying fear as equating to respect. This has troubled me for quite some time, ever since I experienced it first hand working at a middle school a few years back. The chaos that occurred in many of the classrooms was shocking. The students did not respect, nor fear, their teachers and punishment was regarded with a so-what attitude. I dismissed it with the understanding that this was an under performing school with low socio-economics and I didn't presume it to be a part of a larger trend. My fear is that this unruly attitude displayed by students is happening in vast numbers around the country.

Yesterday radio talk show host Dennis Prager referred back to the above mentioned article in an interview with David Klinghoffer, author of Shattered Tablets: Why We Ignore the Ten Commandments at Our Peril, as they attributed this phenomenon to that of a secular society. It was a terrific interview which I hate to butcher by attempting to paraphrase so if you have some time its well worth listening to or getting it on podcast or something. I was certainly compelled to pick up the book.

I mention this as I struggle with learning how to be a parent/disciplinarian of a toddler trying to establish her place in this family by testing her boundaries....constantly. Everyone has different ideas about parenting and I will not claim to know who is right and wrong. I attempt to do what is consistent with my value system, based on my Christian faith.

With that said, our intention (I will go out on a limb and speak for the Mr. as I believe us to be on the same page here) is to have a loving home, with clear boundaries and consequences where Mom and Dad do know best, and they don't let the kids win at games either. This is not to say I think we will always be right, but as long as we remain fairly reasonable people, respect is due on the shear notion that we are the adults. I hope to be as clear headed about it in the thick of the moment when the little one is trying and testing me beyond my patience. We shall see but I will keep the article by Patricia Dalton close by and hang the Ten Commandments in her room with "Honor thy Mother & Father" highlighted, underlined, and circled. I don't make the rules, God does.