Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010: 8:15 on a Saturday night

The problem with writing a parenting blog is that the actual parenting part makes it really hard to write. Not only finding time, but also finding enough brain functioning left over to string letters into words into sentences into semi-coherent ramblings. Take last night, for instance, when I sat staring at the computer screen after what felt like the super-longest week in which Stacy was sick, Gavin was sick, and I was sick (we are now all almost over our colds, thank you for your concern). I managed to write: "I took Gavin to daycare today." And that's about it.

And so here I am ready to take a chance again, as Barry Manilow would croon. So.

I took Gavin to daycare yesterday. Usually Stacy does this but she went to a conference in Lansing today. Shelly, his day care lady (I am not sure what to call her. Care giver? But that makes it sound like Gavin is an old man. And day care provider makes it sound like she's an HMO), was happy to see him. He didn't go to day care Monday or Wednesday since he was sick. She tried to get a hug but he sidestepped her. "Uh, you missed," she said, and crawled after him, much to his delight. It didn't take long before he was ready for me to go. I gave him a hug and went to work and when I left he was standing in the middle of the room like, "Hmm, it's been a few days and I'm way behind on my playing. What should I tackle first?" Do I need to mention how handsome he looked? I do not. But I will. He looked super handsome and very much in his element. He's the mayor of day care.

In case you were wondering how the Mama D vs. Aunt Laura Gavin Love World Championship is going, I still have to beg him for hugs. He brushes Laura's hair, even ("It's like being at a salon," Laura said the other morning. "A salon that hires babies"). I'm lucky if he even notices I have hair to yank. Laura taught him a new game while babysitting him: Loud Sound Blocks, in which you sweep your hands repeatedly through a pile of Duplo blocks while yelling, "Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrgghh!" Thanks, Aunt Laura.

We took Gavin to a mom-2-mom sale at a local high school gym. We'd never been to one before but I really dug it. Gavin absconded with a Whinnie the Pooh push/ride on toy and was tearing around the floor. The woman selling it told us it was all right, he could play with it after he'd taken it and we'd returned it several times. We should have paid her a rental fee at least. He wheeled around like he was totally the mayor of the mom-2-mom sale. After that we went to the gym and he played at Kids Klub. After Stacy and I were done I peeked in at him and saw him climb up the slide and then go down it by himself (the attendant was actually right near by, but he essentially was unaided). He looked pretty surprised and looked up at the attendant like, "Was that supposed to happen?" I don't know what she said, but it must have been encouraging because he turned right around and did it again and seemed to be having a lot of fun.

The other day I was heading out the door and Stacy was holding him as they waved at me. I blew kisses to Gavin and made kissing sounds and then he made kissing sounds right back. Instead of using both of his lips he kind of sucks his bottom lip with his top teeth so it's very much like a rabbit air kiss with those big chompers of his.

Gavin is obsessed with the phone. On the way home from Meijer this evening he was gabbing away on a toy cell phone. I'm not sure who he was talking to but he was super chatty and happy (probably his Aunt Laura). He loves all phones and doesn't have any problem differentiating between the home phone or a flip cell phone or my Blackberry or, as I've mentioned before, even a handheld calculator. If it's phone-like he's putting it up to his ear (the back of his head, really, with the mouthpiece ending up somewhat near his ear) and talking into it. So when I read this article in the New York Times warning about the dangers of toddlers and iPhones, I was a little worried that maybe we were somehow teaching Gavin to become a 13-year-old girl (get it? Because of how they are always talking on the phone?) way before his time. By far the most disturbing thing reported was the existence of the "new iGo Potty app (sponsored by Kimberly-Clark, maker of Huggies training pants), with automated phone calls reminding toddlers that it’s time to 'go.'" I thought the whole point of potty training was learning to listen to signals from your body that it's time to "go." Gives a whole new dimension to the term "butt dial." Thanks, Huggies! In any case, the article basically warns that giving your kid an iPhone to play with, even if you are using "educational" apps, is the same thing as plopping him in front of the TV. As long as you're okay with your child remaining immobile as they while away their childhood engaged in an activity that does nothing to help their brains grow, go for it. But Jesus, don't act like just because you can also call Grandma with it that your kid isn't playing video games or watching TV in the car. They're not cramming for Li'l Mensa with their Baby Einstein app.

We don't let Gavin watch TV (and saying "don't let" him sounds weird, since it's not like he asks to watch it and we say no. He doesn't really even know that TV exists in our house at all. It's never on when he's up and it's closed up in the cabinet all the time. He's seen some TV: parts of a football game on in the background at his Grandpa Gary's, some cartoon movie on in the background at a house we were visiting, and a South Park cartoon on the computer when his Aunt Amanda was babysitting (that was not cleared by us, BTW). But it's so not a part of his life. He's a very active dude who likes to move and DO. Which, you know, is good for his developing brain. So we encourage that kind of thing. The only TV he watches are occasional viewings of videos of himself on the computer while he gets his nails cut. Otherwise he won't sit still. But put on a video of him -- and it has to be him, he's not interested in videos of other people, not even other babies -- and he's mesmerized. Often smiling and laughing even. He cracks himself up.

I was alerted to the NYT iPhone piece via Wonkette, a blog I don't read nearly as often as I should. Wonkette's Sara K. Smith wrote about the iPhone controversy, "It had honestly not occurred to [me] to keep [my] kid occupied with something so expensive." Amen. I don't let Gavin play with my Blackberry for this very reason. Not because I am afraid it will rot his brain (he has yet to figure out how to thwart the keyboard lock function. In fact, he doesn't even know it exists to try to thwart), but because I sure as hell don't want to pay for another one. All good parenting decisions are usually driven by thrift in some way.