Gavin has decided that nap time is ruckus time at day care. This is most unfortunate since all of the kids sleep in one room and with one kid (my kid!) raising hell, none of the other kids get their naps, either. Which means these kids go home crabby and as a result their parents probably end up pretty crabby, and anyone who has to deal with their parents probably end up crabby... And so on. Basically Gavin is causing a chain-crab-reaction and is destroying the very fabric of polite society. Alas.
On Jan. 25 the following was written on his report: "Very disrespectful - screaming and laughing. He woke up our friends that were sleeping. :("
We talked to him about the importance of being quiet during nap time and the rest of the week he was cool.
And then the weekend happened and I guess his brain got reprogrammed. Monday's report: "Gavin was very disrespectful when trying to put other children asleep - He chose to sit at table with book. He was hitting the book - we tried crayons - threw them on the floor - we tried markers - colored on himself. :( We had to sit in hallway because our friends were sleeping and his choice was not to be quiet for them."
Note that Gavin was given several options when it came to spending his nap time hours. He doesn't even have to sleep! But he does have to be quiet. Considering naps last for 2 hours, that's a lot to ask of a little guy. And clearly some days he just can't handle it.
Stacy was really freaked out by this report and even started talking about pulling him out of day and getting a nanny, but when I talked to Debbie, one of his teachers, she didn't seem that concerned. I mean, obviously Gavin's Quiet Riot moments weren't ideal, but she's been working with toddlers a long time. And he isn't the first and won't be the last to "fing" his blanket (that's "fling," by the way, a word he learned at day care after Shelly told him not to fling his blanket). And she said that he's great with everything else. But he's acting out in part because of his age, and in part because we've taught him to be an sociopath. I'm kidding. At his age all kids are sociopaths, though the goal is that they grow out of it. Which he will do.
My friend Claire's Facebook status from today made me laugh really hard: "I used to think the most beautiful sound was a child's laughter, but now I know it's actually the sound of a child getting out of bed, using the toilet, flushing and returning to bed all on their own." Some day I will know this joy. Right?
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012: Big Bad Wolf
At our house you're either a wolf or a pig. And Gavin gets to decide.
On Tuesday morning he woke up with a dry diaper and then peed on potty. As the Big Bad Wolf. He's pretty obsessed with the Three Little Pigs right now. We have the Disney version of the story, a Little Golden Book. And Stacy and Gavin watched the cartoon in Spanish on YouTube. Gavin cried at the part where the wolf blows down the straw house. "I don't like when the house blows down," he said. Stacy stopped the video and explained it was for pretend and Gavin said he wanted to keep watching.
Later he and Stacy staged a recreation of the scene from the story where the Big Bad Wolf shows up at the pigs' door disguised as a little lamb. Behold:
Last night Gavin peed on the potty at Grandma's house after I gave him a bath (we were using my mom's house as a warming shelter while our power was out. Thankfully it was restored before we had to spend the night there. Although that would have been fun. Still, it was a school night). He didn't even have his potty seat. I put my hand on the small of his back to steady him and he gripped the edges of the toilet seat. Had it been a public restroom I wouldn't have advised such a thing. In fact, I would have explained to him that public restrooms were why diapers for grown-ups were invented.
On Saturday we went to the July Babies Parenting Group monthly get-together. Gavin had a pretty awesome time, especially since there was a drum he could play. It was the kind that goes around your neck, which he recognized as the kind the monkeys play in Hand Hand Fingers Thumb. He got pretty wild and crazy, jamming out with his friend Colin who not only was born around the same time as Gavin, he's also in Gavin's daycare. At the party Gavin composed an original punk rock song called "Goodbye, Elmo." The crazy thing is, in the video you see the beginning of his creative process, but the song now has complete and consistent lyrics:
In the kids say the darndest things department, we had this conversation tonight before dinner:
On Tuesday morning he woke up with a dry diaper and then peed on potty. As the Big Bad Wolf. He's pretty obsessed with the Three Little Pigs right now. We have the Disney version of the story, a Little Golden Book. And Stacy and Gavin watched the cartoon in Spanish on YouTube. Gavin cried at the part where the wolf blows down the straw house. "I don't like when the house blows down," he said. Stacy stopped the video and explained it was for pretend and Gavin said he wanted to keep watching.
Later he and Stacy staged a recreation of the scene from the story where the Big Bad Wolf shows up at the pigs' door disguised as a little lamb. Behold:
Last night Gavin peed on the potty at Grandma's house after I gave him a bath (we were using my mom's house as a warming shelter while our power was out. Thankfully it was restored before we had to spend the night there. Although that would have been fun. Still, it was a school night). He didn't even have his potty seat. I put my hand on the small of his back to steady him and he gripped the edges of the toilet seat. Had it been a public restroom I wouldn't have advised such a thing. In fact, I would have explained to him that public restrooms were why diapers for grown-ups were invented.
On Saturday we went to the July Babies Parenting Group monthly get-together. Gavin had a pretty awesome time, especially since there was a drum he could play. It was the kind that goes around your neck, which he recognized as the kind the monkeys play in Hand Hand Fingers Thumb. He got pretty wild and crazy, jamming out with his friend Colin who not only was born around the same time as Gavin, he's also in Gavin's daycare. At the party Gavin composed an original punk rock song called "Goodbye, Elmo." The crazy thing is, in the video you see the beginning of his creative process, but the song now has complete and consistent lyrics:
Goodbye ElmoMind you, proper performance of the song includes lots of head shaking and jumping up and down. But Gavin basically wrote a song. Which just proves that he's the coolest kid in the world. Oh, and I asked him about the lyrics. Since he doesn't have a daddy I asked him if the daddy in the song was Elmo's daddy, like maybe the voice of the song switches from the speaker (Gavin) to Elmo and back. Gavin looked at me and after a beat said, "Yes." Though I know he has no idea what I'm talking about and it's probably pretty nuts to over analyze the lyrics of a two-and-a-half year old's song. And anyway, when he composed the song he was surrounded by daddies. In the video there are a couple dads of the other kids and Gavin is talking to another one whose voice you hear. So basically Gavin was just making poetry out of his surroundings. Here's a video of the beginning of the creative process. It's not the whole song because he wasn't done writing it yet. Though he just sang it to me this morning and then again this evening and it's still intact in his adorable brain.
My daddy's knockin at the door
Santa's coming
Yow!
In the kids say the darndest things department, we had this conversation tonight before dinner:
Me: "My eyes hurt so bad."
Gavin: "Why your eyes hurt so bad?"
Me: "Mommy was chopping onions."
Gavin, turning to Stacy: "Mommy, you hit Mama D with a sharp knife on the eye?"
Stacy: "No" (and then something to Gavin in Spanish about how I am very sensitive).
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2011: Amniotic hot tub time machine
Gavin is now starting to not only notice but also articulate the fact that most of his friends have a mommy and a daddy, not two mommies. He doesn't seem bothered by this or anything, it's just one of his many observations (and trust me, nothing gets by this kid). But I suspect it may start to bother him at some point and I'd say that we'll cross that bridge when we get there, but we're trying to help him picture the bridge in advance, so to speak. We have books, including Why Don't I Have A Daddy? which Lisa gave me for Christmas and I have not read yet. We have another little story book that I got way back when I worked at Between The Lines. We even made him a book ourselves explaining the process that even includes a photo of the donor. Still, he'll no doubt always have questions and the best we can do is answer them as best as we can. It's just that, well, I know that the best we can is sometimes not going to be very good. Granted, this is true for all parents. No matter how you were made there are some things you just don't know (a lot of it you probably don't want to, actually). The idea that you grew from the size of a poppy seed to the size of a watermelon while hanging out in an amniotic hot tub inside of some lady is hard enough to wrap your brain around.
I last recalled Gavin's experience watching Santa die before his eyes. I'd like to report that this has now become one of his favorite stories to tell. He sings all of the time now. "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Ring Around the Rosie", "Omit Donald had a farm"(because the farmer's first name is Omit, according to Gavin. If you, as Stacy once did, refer to Farmer MacDonald, Gavin will correct you. It's Farmer Omit Donald, got that?) and, lately, "Jingle Bells," which is the very song Santa was singing during his demise. Basically whenever Gavin sings that song it triggers the memory and he'll stop and tell you, "I was singing 'Jingle Bells' like Santa" and will then go on to tell you that he was riding in a golf cart with Granny and Mommy and that they saw Santa singing and that he fell down "because he wasn't being careful."
We have had several more peeing successes on the potty (I'm talking about Gavin, of course. I, myself, am pretty consistent with that, thank you), but no poo. We tried big boy underpants this weekend after a successful on the potty pee, but after awhile he peed his pants, which he, no surprise, did not like and was kind of panicked about. They were his red Thomas the Train underwear (although the train adorning them is not Thomas, it's the red train, who has a name but I don't know it. Gavin does, mind you, and he did not like that he peed on this particular train for which he has some fondness for reasons I will never understand but will support as much as I can because I love my son.
Speaking of pee, Brenden and Lisa came to visit shortly after Christmas. I say speaking of pee because Brenden is fully potty trained and when Gavin is around him he gets very inspired. Gavin peed at least once in front of Brenden, which followed immediately after Brenden had both peed and pooed in our potty. Gavin was SO determined to poop. The poor kid just couldn't do it and was seriously crestfallen. It was one of the saddest things ever. Especially since he did manage to pass some audible gas, which gave us all false hope.
That's not to say Brenden and Gavin didn't have lots of non-potty related fun together during Lisa's oh-so short visit. See for yourself: From now on this is going to be my go-to video whenever I need a pick-me-up. I never tire of watching these crazily happy boys.
It's really interesting to see Brenden and Gavin together because they're so close in age (Brenden is just six weeks older). Gavin has sprouted over and above Brenden in the short time since we saw them last. He's taller and weighs a lot more. As far as development goes, both boys are within normal ranges and everything, but it's interesting to see that Gavin's verbal skills are a little more developed while Brenden's potty skills are way more developed -- and have been for a long time (Brenden's basically a potty prodigy. I still am amazed at how early he was potty trained, especially since we're just now trying to do it ourselves). Maybe it's because we're teaching Gavin both Spanish and English he spends so much mental energy trying to understand and speak two languages that he just doesn't have the energy to not crap his pants. It's a process. Some day he'll use the toilet and he won't even need a Rayo McQueen potty seat as an incentive.
I last recalled Gavin's experience watching Santa die before his eyes. I'd like to report that this has now become one of his favorite stories to tell. He sings all of the time now. "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Ring Around the Rosie", "Omit Donald had a farm"(because the farmer's first name is Omit, according to Gavin. If you, as Stacy once did, refer to Farmer MacDonald, Gavin will correct you. It's Farmer Omit Donald, got that?) and, lately, "Jingle Bells," which is the very song Santa was singing during his demise. Basically whenever Gavin sings that song it triggers the memory and he'll stop and tell you, "I was singing 'Jingle Bells' like Santa" and will then go on to tell you that he was riding in a golf cart with Granny and Mommy and that they saw Santa singing and that he fell down "because he wasn't being careful."
We have had several more peeing successes on the potty (I'm talking about Gavin, of course. I, myself, am pretty consistent with that, thank you), but no poo. We tried big boy underpants this weekend after a successful on the potty pee, but after awhile he peed his pants, which he, no surprise, did not like and was kind of panicked about. They were his red Thomas the Train underwear (although the train adorning them is not Thomas, it's the red train, who has a name but I don't know it. Gavin does, mind you, and he did not like that he peed on this particular train for which he has some fondness for reasons I will never understand but will support as much as I can because I love my son.
Speaking of pee, Brenden and Lisa came to visit shortly after Christmas. I say speaking of pee because Brenden is fully potty trained and when Gavin is around him he gets very inspired. Gavin peed at least once in front of Brenden, which followed immediately after Brenden had both peed and pooed in our potty. Gavin was SO determined to poop. The poor kid just couldn't do it and was seriously crestfallen. It was one of the saddest things ever. Especially since he did manage to pass some audible gas, which gave us all false hope.
That's not to say Brenden and Gavin didn't have lots of non-potty related fun together during Lisa's oh-so short visit. See for yourself: From now on this is going to be my go-to video whenever I need a pick-me-up. I never tire of watching these crazily happy boys.
It's really interesting to see Brenden and Gavin together because they're so close in age (Brenden is just six weeks older). Gavin has sprouted over and above Brenden in the short time since we saw them last. He's taller and weighs a lot more. As far as development goes, both boys are within normal ranges and everything, but it's interesting to see that Gavin's verbal skills are a little more developed while Brenden's potty skills are way more developed -- and have been for a long time (Brenden's basically a potty prodigy. I still am amazed at how early he was potty trained, especially since we're just now trying to do it ourselves). Maybe it's because we're teaching Gavin both Spanish and English he spends so much mental energy trying to understand and speak two languages that he just doesn't have the energy to not crap his pants. It's a process. Some day he'll use the toilet and he won't even need a Rayo McQueen potty seat as an incentive.
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