Category: Kids

  • Mr. Independent

    Well here we are, December already. That was quick.

    We’ve been riding a pretty solid stretch of decent weather here lately. It’s been on the damp side, but it was in the 50s again over the weekend, and even sunny for a little while. So I was able to put some trim around the window on the shed, move more logs, and put some lights up on the house, while maintaining feeling in my fingers the entire time. I have a tendency to delay the lights, which usually comes back to bite me as I run out of nice days. I thought not doing it over Thanksgiving weekend would haunt me, but it worked out okay. Little rainy, but at least it was mild.

    We got our Christmas tree too, which is an improvement over most years. It was fairly sunny on Saturday, so we had a nice day for it. C enjoyed being out in the fresh air, and liked when I walked him through the big pines. I started out carrying him, which he had no problems with for the first fifteen minutes, but once he saw how much more fun it was on the ground, he’d had enough of that. After all, he can run now! Forget the fact that he’s only been walking for four months, he had to be down and running loose through acres of twelve-foot, tightly packed trees (where we’d lose him in about three seconds), and a minefield of stumps and holes. Heck, mommy’s been walking for 28 years, and she was tripping over stumps. I tried putting him on my shoulders, swinging him around, hanging him upside down…

    But a one-year old will not be denied. He expressed his displeasure… loudly and repeatedly. Good thing we were on acres of land instead of in close quarters – people could hear the screaming, but most couldn’t see us, which saved him (us) some embarrassment. I’ve never been “that parent” with the screaming kid, so it was a new experience. And also eye-opening. I would always look at “that parent” and think to myself “Why can’t you control him?” but I realize now, there is no controlling them. You just deal with it. Very therapeutic, actually, to understand. This was probably the first real, public tantrum he’s thrown, so we’ll just look at it as a day of milestones. One more new phase of his development. Makes it sound so much better, doesn’t it?

    Semi-related question of the day: real or fake trees?

  • Winterfest 2011

    Winterfest is the lighting ceremony they do each year on Public Square in Cleveland. We’ve never been before, but we have a little kid that likes bright lights, and the weather was nice, so we headed on down Saturday afternoon. They had carriage rides (that were supposed to go until 5, but stopped at 4:30, so we didn’t get to go), a couple large screens showing Christmas-themed entertainment (Rudolph was on when we walked by), and Santa, who was bunkered down inside the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. There were also a bunch of food trucks lined up, so we were able to grab a couple bites to eat.

    C cooperated fairly well, at least while we were pushing him around in the stroller. When they got closer to the actual lighting event, I took him out so we could see better, at which point he got pretty squirmy and wanted to be put down, which was obviously not going to happen in a crowd of several thousand people, which obviously made him even more squirmy. I think he had a good time though – he liked the lights (for a little while at least), and the fireworks engrossed him, but unfortunately, didn’t last long enough to keep him very still. I don’t like crowds much, but he had fun, so I suppose it was worth the trip 🙂

    Wouldn't smile until they gave him a candy cane.

    Stinker already won't smile without being funny.

  • Crazy nuts

    We received a package yesterday that was filled with those Styrofoam packing peanuts. C found the opened box. You know the result.

    I don’t need to tell anyone who either is raising or has raised a toddler what a destructive force they can be. S remarked how he’s like a tornado, which is totally true. While we were working on dinner last night, we just stopped to watch him for a minute. He literally just goes from one thing to the next, stumbling, bouncing off of furniture, and tripping over his toys, stopping only to destroy something else, and leaving debris in his wake. Total whirlwind.

    It’s exhausting, and trying to keep things in any semblance of cleanliness is a huge challenge, but it’s also fun to watch him. Although he does seem to be singularly intent on making as large a mess as possible, I know that a lot of what he does is just part of his development, which, when put into that perspective, is a joy to watch. Seeing him learn new things, and imitate us, and say new words is just plain fun, and worth the mess that comes with it.

    (And that mess is fully intentional at times. While feeding him dinner the other night, he started throwing food onto the floor, so I told him no. His response was to look me straight in the eyes, grab a handful of his dinner, slowly move his hand over the side of his chair, and drop everything, never once breaking eye contact, and with a look that was a mix of feigned innocence and glare of contempt. I couldn’t help but laugh, which only encouraged him. That’s where they get you – you need to maintain some level of discipline, but they do something so rotten and so funny at the same time… and the stern facade goes right out the window. In any case, dinner was over at that point.)

    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

  • A trip to the zoo

    If the title didn’t give it away, we went to the zoo last weekend for S’s company picnic. We’re fortunate to live so close to one of the finest zoos in the country, and I’m glad we were able to take advantage of it. I hadn’t been there for years, and I’d forgotten how much fun it could be. C also enjoyed it, though he still seems to think that most animals should bark. He was pretty impressed by the size of the elephants (as was I – I haven’t seen one up close for a long time), and enjoyed the condor that kept coming at us with wings spread wide.

    There were a couple new exhibits, including the recently opened Elephant Crossing. As is usually the case, a lot of the animals were just lounging around in the sun, so there wasn’t a whole lot of action. But, you can count on the monkeys to have some entertaining displays. One group included a juvenile monkey that kept bugging the older ones (funny how life imitates nature…), and C really got a kick out of watching them chase each other around. The weather was a pleasant surprise – they were calling for clouds and rain all week, and when we got there, and not a cloud in the sky. Those forecasters never know what they’re talking about…

    Oblivious to the four-ton monsters behind him, he's more interested in the sparrow.

  • Haircut!

    The little man got his first haircut this weekend. Kind of bittersweet; he’s growing up so fast. And I loved his curls. But it was getting a little sloppy, and I think it was starting to bug him too, getting in his eyes and ears. I wish S would let me grow my hair out like that; maybe I have suppressed curls too.

    Starting to have second thoughts, but he's already strapped in.
    And he does a nice profile without even needing to be told.
    Still handsome.