What I MEANT to say was...

BuS

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Ben was sitting on the potty this morning and I was reading a book to him. We took a break from the reading and he was picking out letters that he recognized, mainly W's. However, w isn't exactly the most common letter to find on a page, especially when you're talking about a children's book with two or three sentences per page. At this point we happened to be looking at a picture of a bus. So I pointed to the bus and said, "Bus" and then pointed to word and said, "Bus." Ben pointed to the b and said, "B", whether he actually knew or just got lucky I'm not sure because I didn't think he knew lowercase b, but anyway. I said, "Yes, that's right," and pointed out each letter to him, "B-U-S." Then we looked at some other pictures and found a couple more s's, which I thought would be a good one to teach him because it's fairly distinctive looking. After a minute or two we went back to the word bus and I said, "Ben, can you find the b?" And he did. Then I said, "Ben, can you find the s?" And he did. And then I said, "that's right BS..."

Emily Post I am NOT

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:00:00 GMT

This event is probably about a month or so old by now, but I'm just getting around to blogging it. Starting around 18 months Benjamin began to disdain using a spoon. He had the physical ability (for the most part) to scoop his food, but he just didn't want to anymore, or he would eat nicely for a few minutes and then get a little more creative... I'd also like to say here that I'm not a stickler for neatness, I understand that toddlers are messy, are still developing their coordination, and that sometimes making a mess is both fun and developmentally appropriate. There were/are plenty of times that he would/still will get frustrated when trying to "fork" something and switch to his fingers. I don't mind that. But spoon-food is different.

So, here Ben and I are at post-nap snack time. He's eating yogurt. All is well. I'm doing stuff in the kitchen and was apparently too involved in whatever it was. I look over to his highchair and see Ben with a fistful of yogurt plus yogurt from ear to ear and running down his elbows. No good.

I go through our little routine. "Benjamin. Food is to eat. Now we have to wipe your hands and face." I take his yogurt off his tray. (He hates being wiped, but I figure this is a natural consequence of smearing yourself with food, intentionally or not.) I wipe his face and hand while he howls pathetically. I smile at him and say "All done". He snuffles a few times and repeats "all-done" which probably means to him at this moment "get away from me crazy lady". I say, "Okay, food is to----" and he cheerfully fills in "EAT!" I give him back his bowl of yogurt and go back to my tasks with a little less concentration this time.

Ben goes back to eating nicely for a few bites and apparently my brain goes on hiatus...

I look over again and see him right as he puts a testing finger into the yogurt.

My brain says, "Yogurt is not for fingers. It is for spoons." My mouth says very sternly, "Yogurt is NOT for spoons." My brain informs me I got that wrong. Ben is just staring at me. I try again. "We do not eat with spoons." Seriously. This is what I'm saying to him. He's probably staring at me going, I know. I've been trying to tell you that for months. I try again. We do not eat with our fingers. This is better, even though it's completely untrue when talking to a toddler who eats half his food with his fingers. Still, I should have just shut up at this point, but no. I was determined to be correct. Well, sometimes we eat with our fingers, but only sometimes. Yogurt is not spoonfood. WRONG AGAIN! I backtrack and try again. We eat yogurt with our fingers. I'm not even exaggerating my stupidity here. By this point I was totally frustrated even though Ben was being a good sport. He was just sitting there looking at me and patiently waiting for his mother to make some sense...which was apparently futile. Okay. You're all done. And I wiped him off again and put him down on the floor, which I probably should have done the first time and just saved myself two minutes of foolishness.

Problem-solving Baby?!

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT

This was a moment more of frustration than the first entry in this blog. Not that I'm under the delusion that anyone who knows me is under the delusion that I am a perfect parent, but just so we're all clear about that I'm posting this story.

I've been sick for about five days so that knocks about 50 percent of parenting energy out right off the bat every time that I open my eyes. This morning Ben was really fussy and clingy. He wanted down, no up, no down, no up...and on and on this went. It didn't help that I was sitting at the computer and so I was really trying to do my own thing and wishing that he would do his own thing as well. As it turns out 15 month old babies aren't really into "their own thing".

So I'm sitting at the computer and Ben wants up and so I pick him up and he's fussy and wants down so I put him down and he's fussy and wants held again and so on and so forth. After about five minutes of this I've had enough on a normal basis and today I've had a whole morning of this.

More than a little irritate I put him back down onto the floor at one point and he starts to cry as soon as his feet hit the ground. He reached up for me and I turned him around and steered him off toward his toys with this wise bit of mother-speak:

"I don't know what your problem is and you're going to have to figure it out on your own."

He continued crying and took about three steps before melting into a crying-baby-puddle on the carpet. I'm pretty sure this would have been his response no matter what I had said at this age, but I still felt bad.

I mean, DUH! I'm talking to a 15 MONTH old child, not a 15 YEAR old teenager when the response to figure out their own problem might be slightly more appropriate. Just to put this in context these are a few of the things that Ben still needs help with...

Eating wtih a fork and spoon, Walking on uneven terrain, Speaking, Holding onto things while moving, walking up the steps, personal hygiene, dressing, getting toys off his shelf, etc. and yet somehow I thought that he might be able to independently identify whatever was triggering his crying and then take the necessary steps to make himself feel better.... Kind of ironic, since most adults who are capable of identifying their feelings and rectifying the situation still don't most of the time and would rather have someone that they love baby them until they feel a little bit better!

WHAT I MEANT TO SAY WAS... "Honey, I'm sorry you're having a bad day, let's go snuggle and read a book!"

Bibles & Babies

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:00:00 GMT

I find myself in this position a lot so I might turn this into it's own mini-blog. I say something to Ben and then wince and have to backtrack..."what I meant to say was...." Luckily, he doesn't pick up on these things yet so maybe I can get myself under control.

Today I had left my Bible on the couch and Ben had found it and was flipping through the pages. Then he started flipping...with great enthusiasm. The binding on my Bible is not great (unfortunately, since it was a gift from Mom and Dad and has my name on it) and so I didn't want to lose any more pages. So far I've got all the books I'm just missing some maps and reference material. :) Anyway. I didn't want Ben to break my Bible. So I said, "Ben, Bibles are not for babies."

OPPS!!!! What I MEANT to say was, "Ben, let's trade. Here's a book for you and please give me my Bible."