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My son is obsessed with his swiffer. He wants to swiffer the walls, the dogs, and the carpeting. He wants to climb up the stairs with it, taking it into his crib, and refuses to share it with anyone. I am wondering if this is an actual diagnosis: toddler object obsession. It can result in extreme tantrums or serious love fests (the former when I remove the swiffer from his kung-fo grip, the latter when I present him with it). My dad has even shortened the handle on it to make it toddler size, enhancing the delight of using it! How to handle toddlers with object obsession? A few things we’ve tried: 1) Hide it. As with all things that bring on tantrums, the less…
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AA and I had a fabulous date on Friday night to the Zuill Bailey and Navah Perlman concert sponsored by the St. Croix Concert Series. Sadly, it was a farewell concert for the series that has run successfully for 12 years. They performed Brahms, Chopin, and Schumann, and a special Tchaikovsky. It was truly spectacular!! Zuill Bailey played like the cello was an extension of his body, so gracefully and effortlessly! And Navah Perlman (yes, Itzak Perlman’s daughter) was remarkable, especially on the Chopin pieces. The Brahms was ferocious and vibrant, example here. Most notably beautiful piece of the night: Tchaikovsky’s Nocturne for Cello and Piano, example here but with an orchestra. They ended with Brahms’ lullaby, which is J’s night song (and more on…
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We ate so well this weekend! It started with inspiration from Frugal Granola‘s menu plan: Carrot Cake Waffles from Willow Bird Baking and ended with Farmgirl Fare‘s delicious pizza. I hate to say I didn’t take a single photo. Not one. And we had fresh whipping cream that my sister whipped up for the top of the waffles, and pure maple syrup, and fresh fruit! The pizza ended up being a few cheese, a few andouille sausage, and a few veggie medley (artichoke hearts, yellow bell peppers, carmelized onions). I tripled her dough recipe to feed 10 hungry adults and one starving toddler. Yes, little J loves loves loves homemade pizza. My family did most of the cooking and I got to bask in the…
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Being pregnant with baby number 2 gives cause for pause. And consideration about what steps need to be taken in a practical sense to be prepared, or at least, pre-prepared. I recently wrote about finding out the baby’s gender (just about 4 weeks away!) which will help greatly with the baby clothing situation. 1) Getting baby’s room ready. SuperBoy co-slept with us for about 3 months until he no longer wanted to nurse at night and in fact, don’t kill me with jealousy, he stopped waking up every 3 hours and slept about 8. This baby will sleep with us for a few months, so the actually sleeping arrangements aren’t as crucial to me as the baby’s nursery. Do I really need to have it all…
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I totally get why people chose to not find out the gender of their unborn child. This is by no means a critique or criticism of that choice. Not at all! I’m just one of those “can’t-wait-for-my-surprise-tell-me-now” kind of people. After a conversation with my doula this morning, I thought this would make an interesting blog post. Here are a few other reasons why I like knowing the gender of the baby. 1) Relating to the child more fully. We are a gendered species, and I believe that gender spans more than mere physical sex traits. I felt like I knew SuperBoy better in utero knowing that he was a he. We also started calling him his name as soon as we found out his gender,…
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TV rots your brains, right? That’s what our moms told us as kids. But our generation had hardly anything close to the media use and screen time that kids are exposed to today. Media for children is a multi-billion dollar industry. Every cartoon character has lunch boxes, cereal, fruit snacks, back packs, placemats, cups, and more, all designed to get to consume more! More media usage, more material stuff, and more sugary unhealthy food. Two questions: why not have your infant/toddler use multimedia devices and how do you survive as a parent without them? 1) No media exposure for infants and toddlers: why not? The American Association of Pediatrics came out with a strong stance against television and screen time for children under the age…
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