10 second rule

Hello!

Happy Monday!

Picture this: Monday morning, 7:14am, I’ve already been up for over an hour. I am standing in my kitchen silently ignoring A as he has a meltdown because I put him in his highchair and took away the pot he was playing with. Yes, pots, bowls and measuring cups are his new favorite toys. But try feeding a child their breakfast with a stainless steel Paderno handle almost poking them in the eye. I took it from him, distracting him with blueberries but he wasn’t having it. He sits, clutching blueberries in his fists, making a mess all over his clean shirt, and he never once removes his eyes from the pot now sitting on my countertop. So while he’s crying and I’m pretending it isn’t happening, I walk to the fridge and reach for the full watermelon halve. As I pull it out, I drop it. Smashed watermelon everywhere, the juice is all over the floor and pieces of watermelon are stuck to my white cabinets. 7:17am. Great start to the day. I want to cry. They say ‘don’t cry over spilled milk’ but no one said anything about not crying over broken watermelon.

But I don’t cry, instead my thoughts are interrupted by an eruption of silly giggles that I know could only come from one place. A. And right then and there my day turned around.

That’s what it is like these days. In one second, A can be fighting his bum change and I am literally biting my tongue so I don’t curse at him (come on, you try wrestling with a strong 24 pound infant who refuses to lie down and not be tempted to add a few colorful words in there). Then, seconds later we are both rolling around on the floor together, him trying to bite my nose and me tickling his belly. Frustrations of seconds ago forgotten by both of us (for the moment, until he relieves himself again and needs a diaper change). Then, minutes later he is walking on his own for 10 steps and I am cheering him on and clapping so hard I develop welts on my palms.  Shortly afterwards, I am trying to get him to stop throwing his supper on the floor. Trying to teach him right from wrong. I watch him mimic me with toothbrushes, hair brushes and utensils. I hear him call anything with wheels “car car” and wonder how he figured these things out? In between all this I am saying ‘NO’ as he is opening the fridge or trying to take down the baby gate. There are tears that last seconds, because that is how long it takes to get distracted by something else that looks like a challenge.

Life these days is far from boring. A is into everything now. So much so that  I go from feeling like a mean mom for depriving him of things he can’t have for his own good, to feeling frustrated when he is throwing a tantrum over something stupid, then I feel guilty for feeling frustrated, then I am back to where I spend most of my time: happy.

At the end of the day, between the cycle of his smiles and occastional tears, A knows one thing: love. His little arms fit perfectly around my neck and whether it’s early in the morning or early evening, whether I am smiling at him, disciplining him or wiping his tears, that is where those little arms belong.

So what do you do when you break a watermelon on your kitchen floor? You pick up the pieces and carry on. After all, the 10 second rule does apply.

Hugs & Smiles

Sonya

The Big P

Hello!

Happy Thursday!

This is easy for me to say seeing as I didn’t breastfeed for longer than 9 days, but sometimes I wish babies were born with teeth. Teething sucks. For the baby for obvious reasons, but for Mom’s (and Dad’s too). It is so hard to watch your child in pain and know that there really isn’t anything you can do to help. Sure, I’ve tried every teething toy around. I’ve freezed face cloths, I’ve tried amber teething necklaces, homeopathic meds and of course, good ol’ reliable Advil & Tylenol (not at the same time). Nothing REALLY works. The drugs of course take the edge off more than anything else but I don’t want to be constantly pumping my son with drugs every 6-8 hours. BUT if it helps, is it worse NOT to give it to him? Oh the decisions we have to make as parents.

”A” started teething at 2 months, had his first 2 teeth by 4 months. The rest is a blur. He now has 12. His bottom molars didn’t really cause him much grief. They caused me grief from the puddle of drool that he created. He was like a slug I swear. You could see where he was from the drool on the floor! But this past week or so his top molars have come through and it has not been pretty. Or maybe the non-prettiness has nothing to do with molars. Who knows! I just blame his ”off” behaviour on teething. Either that or it is the dreaded P word…..PHASE!

It is so easy to blame everything on teething. When A is out of sorts, not sleeping well, eating less or pooping more, has a fever, pulling his ears, has a diaper rash….well he MUST be teething, right?!?!! You never really know because they can’t tell you. Although the knawing on his finger, bleeding from the gums (that was a scary sight) and buckets of drool coming from his little mouth do speak volumes, I do wish he could tell me!

This past couple of weeks A has been very whiney (which he is not ordinarily), clingy (to me especially) and the worst part is he is throwing these crazy crying fits. If he doesn’t get his own way, look out, he will start crying and clench his fists or start smacking his toys. I just walk away because there is no way I am reinforcing that behavior. Not only that but because I need to count to 10 myself before I start throwing the same kinda fit. It is not fun. Is it a coincidence that his molars are popping through? Is it his age? If it is not teeth related, please let this be a phase so I can keep telling myself the words that I have been reassured by other Mom’s many times….this too shall pass.

I sure hope it does pass because this behaviour is so out of character for A. He isn’t like it all day everyday but he has his moments. It doesn’t help that we are literally sweating to death in this heat, so maybe that is making things worse. It reaches close to 40 degrees with the humidex almost everyday. A spends most of his time in his diaper. I am so warm I wonder if I can get away with walking around my house in only an adult diaper? Probably not. Maybe if we had no windows. Then again, I don’t think my husband would find ‘matching diapers’ on his son and wife overly appealing 😉

Babies go through so many phases. And so far, in the past 14 months, ‘this too shall pass’ has proven accurate. I remember at 6 weeks when A had a growth spurt I was convinced he had colic. That lasted 9 days and ended as fast as it started. The full 6 weeks of night terrors (which the real doctor and Dr. Mom contribute to teething) at 7 months also ended abruptly. The not wanting to sleep in his crib (and instead move around) when he learned to crawl also passed. So I am holding my breath and waiting for this to end too.

If babies go through so many phases, can’t us Mother’s? I mean, when they are out of sorts it totally throws us off too! So when I have a bad day and am cranky, I will try to milk the phase thing. But I am pretty sure the word that will come to my husband’s mind won’t begin with a P, but instead a B 😉

For now, I will just keep waiting for this Big P to pass.

Hugs & Smiles,

Sonya

Ready or not….can I come in?

Hello!

Happy Thursday!

Long time no blog. I haven’t been overly busy, just busy living. Going through the motions of day to day life. I get up early with my babe, get him ready for daycare and me ready for work. Drop him off, work for 8 hours, pick him up, get supper. Then it’s playtime, errand time (since I can’t run them during the day anymore), bath time for A, then bedtime. Then it is quiet time for Mommy! Which includes doing dishes, writing emails, maybe reading and bedtime. EARLY bedtime. Lately I have been working out in the evenings too so honestly, why are there only 24 hours in the day? Who can I talk to about this??

While I go about rushing through the day, A is rushing through growing up! He got his first haircut last weekend. He was born with wild hair. At two days old in the hospital, the nurse was giving him a mohawk. It became his trademark. Oh I loved it! Barely any hair on the sides, yet blonde almost- curls on the top that had a mind of their own. But over the last little while he developed hockey hair. Curls on the back that stuck out under his hat. The top was so long it almost looked like a comb over. And in this heat, it was always matted to his head. But damn, was it cute. So before I lost my nerve, I brought him to the salon, gave him some snacks and fruit, and let the woman use her scissors. I didn’t cry but I swear I had the same feeling in my stomach as when he had his first vaccinations. I wanted to yell ‘STOP’, even though I knew it had to be done. The outcome? Initially I was calling him baldy. But I adjusted rather quickly. He  looks snow white, his hair is so light. But he looks even cuter! I never thought it was possible. He just looks older. It was another reminder that my baby is now a little boy. 

In addition to his new hair cut, A had his first ear infection last week. I knew there was something wrong (again, Mommy knows best ;-)). Sure, we tried to chalk his symptoms up to teething, but he was too “off” for it just to be teething. 4 hours waiting in the walk in clinic and the doctor confirmed my suspicion. I should have been a doctor! ha! 

So a hair cut, ear infection, two molars breaking through…A is on a roll! He has started to repeat everything we say. He is into everything! I feel like I am saying NO to him all the time. Stay out of the fridge, get out from underneath the table, don’t touch this, don’t touch that. Danger. Don’t touch the garbage. Don’t eat that. He certainly keeps us on our toes. Speaking of toes, I brought out his socks the other day and he took one from my hand and tried to put it on himself. Seriously! I was shocked! How does he, at 13 months, know what a sock is!  Yes, he wears them everyday, but I didn’t think he noticed stuff like that. My baby MUST be a genius!! haha. I was so proud. I swear, I felt like he won gold at the Olympics. He just surprises me everyday…..doing things that I don’t think he’s old enough to be doing. But I guess he is.

Yesterday he crawled down the hall, went into his bedroom and closed the door behind him. I laughed, tried to open the door, but he was sitting behind it, keeping me out (and laughing). Here I was, knocking on my 13 month old’s bedroom door saying ‘Can I come in?” There is something seriously wrong with that. I swear I fast forwarded years into the future. I was afraid that when I opened the door, my little guy in diapers wouldn’t be sitting behind the door laughing, but instead there’d be a long haired, droopy drawers, acne faced pre-teen there instead. But nope, there he was. His cute 13 month old self…..sucking on a clean diaper he had pulled from his change table. That moment was another reminder to me that my little boy will be a big boy before I know it. Soon 13 years will have passed and he won’t want to kiss me, cuddle me, or even hold long conversations with me. Soon enough I’ll be begging him to cut his hair and to pick his socks up off the floor and keep the door open when there’s a girl in the room. And I thought he kept me on my toes now!

As I say almost every post, time goes by way too fast. But one thing I have noticed is that as time goes by and as A grows, I swear so does my heart. Will that feeling every go away?I have my doubts, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

 

Hugs & Smiles,

 

Sonya