Mother Goose reading time

I waited 9 months to take Slane to the library for Mother Goose story time. What a let-down. I mean, I see where they are going with it, and why they did the things they did, but I was disappointed.

Now, I also realize that reading or doing anything with 15 toddlers and their mothers can be difficult, but don't try to do something you shouldn't be doing. So, we went into the room. The library is only a few months old, so it is a pretty sweet space, really. There is this paper snowflake type thing on the ceiling, and these great climbable steps in one corner. In fact, that is what Slane spent most of the time exploring. We sat on a colored square (well, I did, Slane was already climbing, then eventually she stole another kids colored square).

Story time started with introductions. I knew a couple of the other moms and their kids, which was nice. They we sang a couple of songs, and then the lady read a story. Then we did a rhyme, sang another song, and heard another story. Then we got to play with instruments while singing another song. Story time was then over, and we got some graham bunnies and little cups of water. The theme was oceans, so everything was about water. Nice, but here is the part where the music teacher in me almost went ballistic...how could they ever expect little ones to sing in keys so low even the alto in me had to stretch and it hurt?

I realize the lady was not a music teacher, but a librarian who is attempting to expose little ones to books and literacy and what-not, but if they were going to do that type of thing, wouldn't they consult a music teacher who is trained to teach and sing those songs?

I, of course, tried to give them the benefit. Maybe the regular person who is better at this is gone, or maybe I'm just too new to the whole taking my child to story time thing that I don't know how it works. Or maybe my training in literacy and music was bogus. Don't know.

I do know that we will probably go to story time again, and I will set low expectations. Slane just went for the climbing anyway. :)

Mealtime is funtime

Just read a nice article from The New York Times about eating out with children. Writer Susan Dominus talks with New York restaurateur Nicola Marzovilla who has this to say about children and dining:

Children’s menus aim too low, he argues — they’re a parenting crutch.

“The table is very important,” Mr. Marzovilla explained as we sat around one at his restaurant early Sunday evening with our five collective children. “It’s about nutrition, it’s about family; you go right down the line. And the children’s menu is about the opposite — it’s about making it quick, making it easy, and moving on.”

We've tried to expose Slane to a variety of foods, especially fruits and vegetables. She's liking big people food and now ignores food that's been cut up. It's as if she is saying, "I'm a big girl now. I don't need your gastronomical patronizing. Cut up your own food, daddy." She is a slow warmer to new foods, but like Sam-I-Am, she tries it and likes it.

Fellow parents, how do you manage to introduce new foods to your kids?

Image from Suessville

clean and climbing

I think Slane is slowly getting over her fear of the bath. For quite some time bathtime has been something we all dread. Slane would cry as soon as we took her into the bathroom, and then scream and try to climb out of the tub. Toys didn't help, me attemting to take a bath with her didn't help. Then we tried a shower. We took a shower, sang a silly song about the shower, danced, and played with foam letters that stuck to the side of the shower. Twice now, that has worked. So, we can now have a clean baby without the tears. I hope that trips to the pool and possibly a sprinkler this summer will help even more.

Slane is a climber. Last week she pushed her stroller over to the piano, climbed up on it, climbed up on the piano bench, climbed up on the piano itself, and got a crayon from the top. Then I helped her climb down again. She is good as pushing that stroller over to things so she can climb. I've even heard that she did it in the church nursery a couple of weeks ago...

Slane also likes to go out our front door, down the steps (she is stepping down the steps now, not climbing down), and take the sidewalk to our nearest neighbor (which happens to be a big party house). We do this almost nightly, so I wasn't totally surprised when she insisted on doing it during block party. I didn't necessarily appreciate drunk students proclaiming over a baby at block party, or accusing me of bringing my baby back for block party, but Slane loved watching all of the kids and gave out a lot of high fives.

How do you do it?

I have been struggling lately. I want to know how some moms work full time, have clean houses, make dinners, do laundry, eat well, exercise, and still have time to play with the kids and have some personal time. I feel like I have to do it all, and most of the time I am too exhausted to do that. I know Dan helps, probably more than most dads, but it still seems like I have to do it, and if I don't then I have let the team down. And somewhere in there I would really like the baby belly to go away and my clothes to fit better. I keep thinking if I can just hang on until summer then I will be at parks all day and playing and biking around town...but how do I get that exercise in the winter? When? And still keep up on laundry without forgetting I washed a load two days ago and never got it into the dryer, or have dinner prepared in a timely manner for those of us who need to eat, eat, eat right now.

I want to spend more time with Slane but when I am spending time with her I feel like I should be doing dishes or unloading the dishwasher or cleaning out the fridge or something more useful, when I know the best thing I could be doing is chasing a toddler down the sidewalk or playing ball with her.

I never had intentions of working full time when I had a baby, but it seems like I didn't have a choice, and I couldn't pass up a full time job, even if it is not necessarily the grade level I would rather be teaching.

I feel guilty if I have to stay at work late, and even more guilty if I have a meeting and leave Slane with Q (though I don't think he feels the same guilt). Taking time for myself doesn't seem like an option, and Q often tells me my Sunday nap (which never really catches me up) is my time to myself.

It just seems like by the time I get home, pick up Slane, attempt to start dinner, wait until Q gets home so I can really start dinner, feed everyone, do the dishes, pick up a bit, and maybe, just maybe get a walk in, I'm done. Nothing left. Even if Q helps with some of that (which he often does), there is nothing left.

So, I was just wondering, how do you do it?

bubbles

The last few weeks a lot of opportunities have come our way. We have learned the hard way to take a good look at what we want for now, what we want for later, and what our goals are. But so many of these opportunities seem like bubbles. They are floating, they are pretty, but who knows where they will land and if they will pop in the process. Some of them are very big bubbles, and those are the most exciting, and some are small, and don't last very long. Some might break deals we had made with each other, some may become new deals. And the hardest part, most are not developed enough to even share with others who could offer discernment and advice. They are just bubbles that we get to watch...We are in a good place either way with most of them, but some could offer some significant changes for us. The timing is incredible, it seems that every bubble has started floating in the last couple of weeks, and it is fun too, to see where they all might land if they do land. And if they don't, we are mostly good with that too.

One of those bubbles that has developed and should not pop is the new car we are going to pick up tomorrow. We have known for some time that a tiny 3-door Saturn Coupe and a small not-so-great-in-Winter Toyota Tacoma would not fit us as a family. The fact is, when we bought those cars, 10 and 8 years ago respectively, they served just the purpose we needed then. Who thinks about buying a family car right out of college? Now that our family has grown (and hopefully will continue to grow), we need something that we fit in, and maybe a fourth person as well. So, we gave in, found an interest rate that is great, got a loan, set up a trade-in of the Toyota, and will drive home our Subaru Forester tomorrow. It is blue!

In other news, we are struggling with the sippy cup situation. We know we need to transition Slane to a sippy cup. We already have her on milk, and completely off of formula, but we need to get her off of the bottle. She is strange. She will drink water out of her Avent sippy, but not milk. Some people suggested different kinds of cups. I tried Nuk the other day. It worked great, I bought a second one (those are pricey). Then Slane started throwing things when she is done with them. When a Nuk sippy hits the floor with force, the nipple pops out and milk goes everywhere. We can deal with that at home on a linoleum floor, but when we are out to eat, it is kind of a problem. I bought a Playtex yesterday, and she would't drink out of it. I don't want to buy many different kinds that won't work. What do we do? It is harder because she still does the bottle at daycare. I guess we will have to wait until summer to fight that battle, and then I can be home all day and deal with that.

In other other news, Slane is walking everywhere now, and it is kind of nice to walk in the door at daycare and she walks up and says hello. Speaking of daycare, I love the boys there. They love Slane and Monday actually opened the window of the room they were in and yelled their goodbye's to her out of the window. When she goes in the morning, she gets a big hug from one of the boys who says he loves her. When I pick her up, one boy always says, "Baby mom here, baby mom here!"

Stay tuned, and when the next bubble lands, we'll let you know.

Slane Walk

Slane...she's a-walkin' now.

More pictures:

Slane eating hailstones and black beans for dinner the night of the big storm.

Slane's Easter dress.

Slane and mommy.

Double babies. Slane on the right, Einar on the left.

Slane turns 1!!!