How could I have forgotten? On Saturday night Noah had two death defying stunts that nearly killed me. First he stood on our rocking chair, facing backwards to yell “Hi Mama!” to me across the room. The chair then took a dive backwards and scared the bejezus out of us all. Noah had his hand stuck under it after the fall but luckily after a little red and puffiness in his fingers they got back to normal and the heart-skipping incident was merely a passing moment without repercussions. Except for the crying. He cried and clinged for awhile afterwards and as a result didn’t want to be put in his booster seat for dinner. I sat him in my lap and instead of eating from his own plate of toddler bite-sized food, he took a whole Brussels sprout off my plate and shoved it in his mouth. And then he choked on it. It took a lot of upside down back thumping to dislodge it and I was a second away from doing the finger sweep before he spit it on the floor. I love back to back drama.
Tuesday at Dad’s was a little trying. Noah was overtired and overambitious. He wanted to do everything “self.” When we were leaving to drive to Qtown Noah asked me for help getting into his car seat though he typically demands to climb into it himself. I gave him a boost up before buckling him in and he lost his mind. For fifteen minutes of the ride he complained about wanting to do it himself. I tried to explain to him that I only helped because he asked me to do so, but that was apparently no damn excuse. The drama continued when we had to walk alongside the highway to go from Dad’s to Applebees for dinner (I had a Tyler Florence burger) and then across 309 to go to Kohls. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t walk by himself along a major highway. I was obviously torturing him by taking away his independence for no foreseeable reason. Evil woman. But despite the off and on squawking of “Self!” we had a nice dinner and a nice visit. Afterwards my Oma told me that I had a beautiful boy and that with as smart and sweet as he is that you can tell I'm doing a good job. It made me tear up.
Yesterday we went to the choo choo park in the morning and the tree park in the afternoon. The weather was amazingly perfect and I wanted to spend all day outside. There were a bunch of vibrant, overdramatic older girls playing in the park and the typically shy Noah just wanted to follow them around pretending to be driving a helicopter to the zoo to swim with the hippos and flying in a plane with a swimming pool. He looked at me really seriously at one point and said “It super fun.” Mark met us at the tree park (Liberty Lands) after work and we made stops at the Farmers Market, the local carpeting place (still no decision there) and the liquor store on the walk home. I have abandoned my carb free diet for a more sane wine saturated one.
Today Noah and I walked to Franklin Square with Holly, Tripp and Finn. I got some exercise with the 45 minute walk there and then 45 minutes back but laid it all to waste when I ate a soft pretzel. This evening I’m finally to be shorn. I haven’t had my hair cut since February and it’s looking like a lank style-less mess. I think I’ll keep it on the longer side for awhile. That is until I tire of it and demand to have it all cut off. I think Mark will be meeting Noah and I at the park near my stylists so they can play while I get glamorized. And then we shall celebrate all my glamour with the eating of burritos. Ole!
Oh and I’ve been waiting a week and a half on Moxie. I sent her an email requesting the perfect solution to our nursing/sleeping issue but I guess my answer is backlogged in her queue. Ho hum. Still waiting for brilliance to shine down and bestow us with a child who peacefully soothes himself to sleep without any major trauma getting there. Guess I can wait a bit longer.
5 comments:
It sounds like we are living parallel lives in some respects. At our house it's "my turn" instead of self. And we also sometimes have to undo an action so that Dermot can then redo the action. Annoying, but understandable from a developmental point of view.
I would also be interested in an answer for your nursing question. I still nurse Dermot to sleep, and I hate having to be the one to get him to bed. That would be a nice activity to share with Daddy.
I would have been out of my mind if those two scary things happened back to back. I'm glad that everyone is okay.
Well one thing is for sure - being a MOM is not for the weak! There is always some kissing it better, comfort, discipline, and reminding oneself that they are little people with minds of their own going on!
"Do myself!" was probably the hardest thing to handle for me from my first child - was usually followed with a heavy sigh and an eye roll followed with "Help Me!". Then when I did it was the whole "I do myself - no mommy!" Luckily for me and her it only lasted a couple of months (starting like at 22 months and ending around her 2nd birthday). Finally, I started asking her to help me with things and thank her for helping me. Then when she asked me to help her I reminded her to "Thank Mommy for helping" and if she fused I said you can't "Thank me and be mad" and it seemed to sink in. Weird I know but.....it worked.
bella's been doing the "I do it" too, but lately she's been better. it's the asking for help and simultaneously not wanting help that is frustrating for me. and the choosing battles. this morning, I tried to tell bella that we had to take off her dirty shirt and put on a clean one, and she refused. she told me she was clean, and "PO is dirty. beyah is cleeeeeeean." finally I had to just sit there and tell her how pretty this other shirt was, and finally, she let me put it on her.
toddlers. frustrating.
my advice is the same as it always has been. he can't nurse forever. he won't want to. he won't be 6 years old and nursing to sleep. doesn't help you today, but hopefully it helps with seeing into the future.
The biggest thing that I had to adjust when my little ones were going through the "I do it!" stage was to make sure we had plenty of extra time to accomplish the tricky tasks that they tended to want to do themselves. Particularly getting in and out of the car. I found that if I wasn't in a hurry, I had more patience with letting them figure it out themselves. It's still frustrating as hell, but that helped me be more calm about it.
Oooh, when you find that no major trauma sleep solution pass it along my way!
I think I would have just fallen dead on the floor if I looked over and saw Ellis standing in the rocking chair. God they can move fast can't they?
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