and then it was…summer?

Hi there. I’ve been pretty quiet online most of this week. Between clinic days and having the first weekend home in months where both Doug and I were actually at home together (and not working or travelling), I couldn’t find a good reason to stay in front of the computer. Then when I did have the time, I felt like I had so many pictures and thoughts and ‘catching up’ to do that it seemed a bit overwhelming. But anyway, here I am – how’ve ya been???

******

 

The joys of warm weather: just moments ago while sitting outside on the back deck starting to write this post in 80 degree weather (spring? summer?? who knows), I felt something scurry along my neck. I swatted at it and thought I had dealt with whatever little fly tried to land on me and went back to typing. Next thing I know my boob is hanging out as I try to get a damn PINCHY BUG out of my BRA. It was in my BRA, people. And yes, I apparently need to attend my own version of tot school to know what the real name of a pinchy bug is. Thank goodness it didn’t truly attack the…area. I’m not sure there’s worse pain out there than when a nursing baby bites and then turns his head away to look at something across a room (ah, the memories)…but I have a feeling this could have been close.

Also, to my neighbors: Sorry for the unintentional flashing.

F**)#%& nature.

So. I was about to write a post about the joyously balmy weather we are experiencing today, but excuse my while I continue to jump and itch at every little sensation right now. From a distance I might look slightly crazy. But it was in my damn bra.

OK, the weather.

 

We decided to make it the First Day Out for the water table. I have a feeling it is going to see a lot of action this summer, my friends.

 

 

Before kids I thought water tables were weird. Buy a kiddie pool and let your kid swim, I thought. But now I LOVE them. A quick way to cool down while mama puts her feet up, plays a little Bob Marley, and enjoys an iced tea. No shrieking or swim diapers or needing to put on a bathing suit myself. And Henry digs it, so it means I do too. Now we have nothing against kiddie pools…we’ve got one ready and waiting in the basement. I just didn’t want to go overboard on our first warm day. I also didn’t want to kill the grass this early in the season.

 

Henry was very excited to see his bellybutton. He spooned a lot of water on it.

 

Now my kid loves a good hose. After filling up the water table for the second time, he insisted on a drink from the old spout. Which turned into a full body soaking in which he yelled, “AGAIN!! AGAIN!! A LOT!” I took a video that was absolutely hilarious and if I can manage to get it off my phone and on to my computer I will post it. And before you rag on my for letting my kid drink from the hose, read this (and also don’t tell me you never did it as a kid). He was SO happy, and I had to tear him away for naptime (“MORE MORE WATER AGAIN!!!!!”).

 

Spring, or summer – whatever is here, I am glad. It was a long winter.

tot school: bugs, bugs, BUGS!!

Yes, we did bugs for tot school this past week and it was a big hit! For reference, Henry is almost 29 months. I decided to put together a bugs theme after I saw how excited he was whenever we found any ants on our recent walks (“TWO ANTS!!!”). It was a good thing I did, because this kid can’t get enough of the creepy crawly things now. He will also accurately tell you, “Mommy don’t like slugs.” Preach on, son.

Resources this week came from:

• 1+1+1=1 Letter N for Net tot school pack – used this for the very life-like bug pictures
• 1+1+1=1 Montessori match-up bug cards
• 1+1+1=1 Very Hungry Caterpillar pack
• I bought some bug erasers from here and got a nice little assortment of realistic looking bugs from here

Now get ready for some pictures, because I took a bunch since Henry was so into everything! Not pictured is the bug exploring we did outside. Let’s just say I now know the best rocks in our yard to turn over so we can find ants/slugs/other things that make my skin crawl. Yum.

Here’s our tot school shelf all set up:

 

Instead of having our book basket next to our shelf this week, I instead put our pocket chart there which I just bought and am so glad I did! I had noticed that Henry was having a hard time spreading out, for example, all the cards from a tray for a matching work on his table. I bought this chart with the hopes that he’d be able to use the cards more easily as they’d be laid out a little better. It definitely worked, and Henry loved matching up the pictures of the bugs that were in a bowl to the ones in the pocket chart. He would also match them to the bug sign I made and hung up at the end of his shelf (you can see part of it below).

 

This bug matching work was the biggest hit by far this week. I had printed out this sheet of bugs from 1+1+1=1 and placed it in a tray with a bowl of matching bugs. Henry loved matching them up and in the process learned a few new names, such as the praying mantis you see below. He got so excited that after matching it to the picture on the tray, he would run over to the pocket chart and do the same.

 

These little plastic bugs became his new friends for the week, and he insisted on carrying the ladybug and one of the beetles around everywhere he went. He even read a book to his ladybug (I think she liked it).

Below is a quick picture of a sorting work. I put a few ladybug erasers in a bowl and Henry sorted them into the tray below (meant for paint, from a craft store). I had put out small tongs for him to use to work on his fine motor skills, but after trying a couple of times he decided his fingers were what worked best. I’ll keep putting them out and I’m sure at some point they’ll get some use!

 

This sorting work below didn’t really see any action. Henry just kept wanting to “clean up” the bugs that I had put out to guide his sorting. Next time maybe…

 

Henry took these butterflies (and another tray with caterpillar pictures) and had them sorted by size in no time flat. He did it once and then moved right on to other things. Maybe I will try and change up the size sorting in the future to make it a little different. Magnet board?

 

Here you can see that I took a mason jar and a dish filled with bugs and presented it to Henry as a work where you put the bugs in the ‘bug jar’ using the tongs. Henry just kept insisting that we use the tongs to “eat pasta!!” and wasn’t too concerned about what my plans were for the activity. I am somewhat confused as to his pasta reference though, as nothing in my kitchen looks like that. Hmm…

 

In our craft area I had some print-outs for Henry to color as well as cutting strips to practice his cutting. He had zero interest in the coloring, but loved using his scissors (with mommy’s help, of course – and sorry for the fuzzy picture). We then glued the cut out bug pictures onto some construction paper, which he proudly hung up.

The evolving tot school wall of fame. Henry calls his latest work “One bug and one piece of tape.”

 

Overall this week was a lot of fun. Henry was very interested and it held his focus for quite a while, despite being under the weather for the week. Our library books were a hit too, but I have to admit I am done looking at really close-up pictures of ants and beetles and other things that make my skin crawl. On the other hand, I can’t wait to do this again next spring when he is a bit older because I know with a few tweaks he can get even more out of these works.

Next up: flowers!

 

mother’s day 2013

Mother’s Day this year was spent working at night, sleeping during the day, and being congested/full of snot/out of it, for all of it.

But it was a lovely day, nonetheless.

Henry’s gift for Mother’s Day was passing on his viral upper respiratory infection to me. What knocked him on his toddler arse for all of last week is now currently working its way through me. And you know why? Because I told Doug, as I was letting Henry eat off my spoon a few days ago (working really hard to get the kid to eat anything!), “Oh please, I’m immune.” Yep. Thanks, universe.

Anyway. After working a not-too-busy-but-steady Saturday night on L&D where I snuck in one hour of sleep, I came home to my smiling boy opening the door. “Happy birthday mommy!!” was his greeting and his version of “happy mother’s day.” So sweet.

I got tucked in for the day and slept, hoping that I’d wake up feeling a little better. I didn’t, but I did get a homemade brunch-for-dinner and a clean kitchen, so it wasn’t all that bad.

Then it was present time! Henry was happy to help me read my cards…

 

…and open my gifts. My sweetie of a husband helped Henry make this beautiful picture. It is a Mother’s Day poem with Henry’s handprints, all framed and ready for the wall. Seriously, these are the presents I die for.

Henry showing me his hands and how he made his work of art.

 

 

This isn’t the best picture below, but Doug also framed the first drawing Henry brought home from school, back in his “minimalist” period. I can’t wait to hang it up.

Those clay pieces you see are the subject of another post coming soon!

 

As you can probably tell from not only the name of my blog but what I write about, I love being this guy’s mother. Nothing makes me happier than having “mama” as one of my titles and getting to watch Henry grow and change. The days aren’t always easy and some are longer than others…but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Viruses and all.

Happy Mother’s Day, all.

Pictures these days can only include a smile or a be squirm-free. Never both!

 

I want to know why you are an awesome mom

Mother’s Day is nearly upon us, and I must say I love this little day of recognition because it is a formalized way that our society says, “Stop and thank your mother, will ya??” If you want to go on about how this is a commercialized holiday that is made up to bring profits to the card companies and post office, then you can complain elsewhere because you aren’t raining on my parade. If you want to say that we should do this everyday and not need a holiday to treat our mothers nicely, than I want to ask: do you bring your mom breakfast in bed everyday? Do you stop and write sweet nothings everyday thanking yours for having kept you alive every day of the year? If you do you are awesome (and maybe a little strange) and a gold star to you, but I doubt most of us shower our mamas with constant affection such as that – so I’ll gladly take advantage of the dedicated one day every year to take a step back and thank my mother for all she has done for me (and the rest of the year I try to be pretty decent too. Try).

Part of motherhood always seems to focus on what we aren’t doing, what we feel guilty about, how we are screwing up our kids and all that stuff. This is unfortunate, but it seems mean people/society/your neighbor/your own self-doubt have made this seem the norm rather than the exception.

So with that in mind, I want to know why are you an awesome mom? Why is your kid lucky to have you?

Leave some nice pat-yourself-on-the-back comments and take a moment to see what others have written there. Then make yourself an iced tea and relax because mama, you deserve it.

The day I joined the club.

D.C. recap

I wrote a couple of short posts here and here while we were away for our long weekend in D.C. We had a great time spending a few days with our friends and showing Henry some parts of the city while Doug did his conference thang. Unfortunately some of the planned sight-seeing was cut short by a little fever that snuck up on Henry and some rainy weather, but it was still a nice trip!

Like I had written about earlier, before making plans I consulted Preparing for Peanut’s blog – her section on things to do in D.C. with a toddler were super helpful! With her suggestions in mind, we made it to the Air and Space Museum twice (amazingness of that previously documented), the National Museum of American History, and the National Museum of Natural History. I had also planned on the Botanical Gardens, but the weather had other plans.

Henry got a big kick out of the “America on the Move” exhibit in the National Museum of American History. It was all about cars and trains and their history, and of course there were a ton of them to look at and touch. But what did he love most? You guessed it: the stairs and handicap ramps! As always.

 

Check out the indoor subway below. You could go inside and sit on the seats and it actually felt like the train was moving with the noise and shaking. I thought Henry would love this and want to stay here and never leave. Instead he briefly sat on the seat (the quick shot I could grab below is evidence) and then wanted to run and find more stairs. I get it – after being on the real thing just a few hours before, maybe this couldn’t compare?!

 

 

Ah, finally a ramp!!

 

We then checked out the bug and butterfly exhibit at the Smithsonian. I was a bit grossed out, but Henry was into it. Our upcoming tot school theme is going to be bugs, so it was a perfect little intro…

Henry was very concerned about the butterfly on this volunteer’s back.

 

 

I always love a visit to a good city – growing up very close to one, I am a huge fan of walking everywhere and taking public transportation as opposed to driving. I also love the access to culture and education, and what’s great about D.C. is that the majority of the museums are free. You’d have a hard time keeping me out of them if I lived there!

A boy and his pretzel.

 

Playtime at home.

 

Daddy and Henry feet. Reading before bedtime.

 

Sorry for the photo-dump post, but such is evidence of a nice visit, right?

Oh, almost forgot to mention! If you find yourself in D.C., treat yourself and eat at Graffiato. AMAZING FOOD! I think the guy who owns it won Top Chef or something like that. We went there for a girls’ dinner one night and I was in heaven. I’m salivating as I type this.

And now to the laundry and unpacking.

a quick travel post to say…

…I just completed my 90 hour online course to be able to sit for my IBCLC boards this summer. ::jumps for joy at one thing being checked off her To Do list:: Now I just need to take and pass the course’s online final exam and then pass my boards in July and I can call myself an IBCLC. WOOHOO!!

Of note I finished up a bunch of these video lectures while staying with my friend in D.C. as I mentioned in my last post. Needless to say she was wondering why my computer screen constantly had pictures of breasts on it but was too polite (confused?) to ask. Good thing I eventually explained what I was doing.

Also, my little guy has caught a fever just to add to the fun that is travelling with a toddler. I thought he was just REALLY tired from the two museums we went to yesterday, but turns out a fever was brewing. There is nothing like being out to dinner with a bunch of pediatrician friends when you realize your kid is febrile – between the general pediatrician, the hospitalist, the neonatologists, the pediatric cardiologist, and the pediatric endocrinologist I knew my bases were covered when it came to ibuprofen dosing. And Mai Tai dosing for mommy before an early exit to go home and put a little boy to bed.

Henry’s been catching up on some sleep today (napping as I type this, and since I just wrote that I am sure it will end soon…) – somewhat hard to come by when he pops awake at 5:30am and sees mommy and daddy in the same room as him. He pokes his head up and immediately asks to go on the “train in the tunnel!!” i.e. the Metro. This kid LIVES for public transportation. Like mother, like son. Except for the waking-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn-filled-with-exuberance-and-joy-part.

Back home tomorrow…

fun in D.C.!

We are spending these next few days in Washington, D.C. while Doug attends a pediatric conference. We’re staying with one of my closest friends from college and so while Doug gets his conference learning on, Henry and I are being led around the city checking out all the toddler-friendly things we can fit in. I’ve been to D.C. many times before but never with a kid in tow. Thankfully, I had the wonderful recommendations from Becky at Preparing for Peanut to help in my planning – definitely check her blog out if you haven’t before! She has some great ideas and a very adorable little boy.

Today we spent the (beautiful) morning at the Air and Space Museum. Henry was not quite sure what to do with all the planes in this place! We got to the museum by taking the Metro - I think we could have stayed on the Metro all.day.long and Henry would have been just as happy. He couldn’t get over the fact that not only were we “in a tunnel!!” but also that the train was going “so fast!” He even had locals laughing and smiling at his antics.

The awesome thing about D.C. museums is that the majority of them are free. FREE! It was as easy as walking up to the museum, saying hello to the bomb-sniffing dog that was checking out the building perimeter (interesting), and just walking through the door when the museum opened. Quite the difference from our recent Disney experience. No lines for tickets or trams or anything like that – we were free to roam around and explore as soon as we got there. Awesome!

“Look planes EVERYWHERE!!!”

 

Up close and personal in the cockpit.

 

 

The only downside to this museum was that Henry could not comprehend why he could not touch every single airplane, most notably the ones suspended a hundred feet or so above us from the ceiling. Difficult concepts for a two year old, and my logical explanations did not seem to compute (as to be expect, right??). So there were some tears shed during our visit, but overall he loved checking out all the big planes and rockets and other kids. There’s lots of big open space and that was really nice to let him run around and get some energy out. I would definitely recommend this museum if you come to the city for a visit and have a plane-obsessed kid like I do!

One last picture to sum up what most of our pictures look like these days. AKA “PUT ME DOWN!!!!!”

 

Happy Saturday!