Doin' the Dinosaur

AJ has been figuring out new gross motor skills lately, and it is fun to watch him pick up things like walking backwards. One task that he is particularly proud of accomplishing is "doin' dinosaur", meaning climbing by himself all the way up, across and down this piece of playground equipment shaped like a dinosaur at one of the parks in town. The trickiest part for him is this set of uphill bars he has to navigate over the dinosaur's tail. I tried to help him the other day but got an impatient "AJ do it!" so I let him slowly show me that he indeed could do it by himself.

AJ Do It

One of the most repeated phrases at our house lately has become "AJ do it." He is in that phase where he wants to do everything himself, from taking his shoes and coat off when he comes in the door (a good idea), to putting the soap in the washing machine (an okay idea, as long as I am not in a hurry and don't mind heaving him up to reach), to brushing mommy's teeth (a very bad idea). It takes patience to let him help and learn to do more things, and it certainly comes at the expense of maintaining any effiency whatsoever during daily chores, but overall it is neat to see him start to develop the gross and fine motor skills to be able to do more of these tasks. We are currently taking requests to apprentice him out on Saturday afternoons to assist with household chores. Just let us know if you are willing to have a little helper and we will drop him off at your door. He brings his own snacks and tools.

Art Pah-Jects

We have been getting into "art pah-jects" at our house lately. I think AJ likes them because they involve the word "pah-ject", which he associates with tools. He is willing to go along with the idea that scissors are tools, so we do a lot of cutting things out of construction paper. It also doesn't hurt that I let him go nuts with the masking tape to get his pah-jects taped up on our sliding glass door.

We make whatever pops into my head from my elementary art class days. Lately it was spring-themed with a rainbow, umbrella, and kite. This is probably the wannabe teacher in me coming out. I think I would enjoy making classroom bulletin boards. I would suggest that I start a little cottage business making pre-assembled classroom bulletin board materials that teachers could order online and just staple up, but with the invention of the Internet, I am sure that someone is already doing it well and selling kits to teachers across America. Plus it is the kind of idea that would seem like fun in theory and then quickly become drudgery when it is time to cut 1,000 umbrellas out of construction paper.

Here is our display of our art pah-jects. Send in ideas for new ones--we are always looking for something fun to do.

Grasping

I have been talking about AJ a lot lately on the blog and so wanted to post an update about David. He just started grasping toys for the first time this week, as well as batting at the parrot and the monkey on his bouncy seat. He is still a big smiler and flashes his dimples in an adorable manner upon request. His Grandma Francie thinks he looks a bit like the Gerber baby with the smiles and the dimples.

Double Trouble

We finally decided to spring for the double stroller. I consider it an investment in my sanity. We went for the jogging stroller in case I ever get inspired to jog while pushing the boys, but don't hold your breath on that one. Regardless of whether it ever gets used for jogging, this thing is already at the top of my favorites list because it helps us to get out of the house. Since the arrival of the stroller seven days ago, we have used it for 12 walks. I am trying to get my cost per use down low enough to win Joe's approval of the purchase.

Despite pronouncing "no like it" when test driving this stroller at the store, AJ has been won over and even likes to sit in it when it is parked inside the house. I think it might have something to do with the fact that we always walk by this house that is being built down the block. I park the stroller on the sidewalk in front of the construction site and just let AJ ogle the use of real live tools for 10 minutes. I feel a bit like a stalker, but I have a feeling the guys work faster when we are there checking on their progress twice a day. The builder should pay AJ a productivity bonus.

I was skeptical, but this stroller does live up to its promise to fit through "standard size doorways." We took it to our local coffee shop and just barely were able to squeeze in, although some teenage girls who were sitting inside stared at me in horror as I heaved this tank of a stroller in through the door. Apparently what is cool to a mom of two is not what is cool to two fourteen year olds.

Rules

AJ is at the age where he is learning the many rules of life. Such as "no climb table!", "no throw food floor!" and "no touch wheels! only mama touch wheels!" (meaning the knobs on stove). It makes me feel like the day is full of no-no, so I try to phrase things positively, such as "mama thinks it would be a better idea to read a book" rather than do whatever he is doing at the time. However, sometimes the rules of life have to be made clear in the form of a no statement.

AJ is also learning about consequences. Last weekend he enthusiastically tried to wash his daddy's blackberry (an e-mail and cell phone device) to clean it up. He actually managed to turn on the faucet and briefly run the device under the water before Joe caught up to him. From that he learned "No water on blackberry! Spank! Time out!" meaning that he would get both a spank and a time out if he did it again. Then on the way home from a visit to the zoo with his grandparents, AJ was pushing on the back of his Papa's chair with his feet while Papa was driving. Papa jokingly threatened to give him a knuckle sandwich if AJ didn't knock it off. AJ now randomly will say "No feet on chair! Drive! Knuckle San-which!" To make matters more amusing, AJ lowers his voice and says knuckle sandwich in a gruff tone in a pretty good imitation of his Papa. I have a hard time not laughing when I hear it.

Home Depot = Like It!

There is now a third item that has received the AJ Like It™ seal of approval...The Home Depot. Last Sunday Joe had to work yet again taking conference calls all day from our home office, so I was desperate to get the boys out of the house. As I was driving aimlessly around with them inspiration struck and we headed to our local Home Depot, or as AJ calls it, the toy store. We spent an hour and a half wandering up and down the aisles admiring the power saws, drills, ladders and various small items in the hardware aisle. We walked out with $17 worth of peg boards, plastic organizers to hang on the peg boards for AJ's tools and a kit to grow some strawberries on the ledge of our kitchen window. AJ has been assigned the task of watering the strawberry seeds every day with a spray bottle. So far, he greatly enjoys running around the house with the spray bottle and a towel as he "cleans" the walls, refrigerator door, etc. We'll keep you updated on the progress of our strawberry seedlings.

Patience

I generally consider myself to be a pretty patient person--I review 30-page contracts chock full of legal minutiae for a living, for Pete's Sake. But daily interactions with a toddler can test even my patience. For example, this morning (before I even had my coffee!), AJ decided to try to pour the dishwasher soap into the dishwasher himself and then said UH OOOHHHHHHHHHH! very loudly as he watched the entire box pour out all over my kitchen floor that had just been mopped the day before. I live in awe of daycare workers who deal with 15 toddlers all day long. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good cordless handheld vacuum? I could use one.

Brothers

The other day AJ was laying on a blanket watching his daily 30 minutes of t.v. when he came over and asked me "David--blanket?" So I put David down on the blanket with AJ and watched some of the first tentative interactions between brothers. AJ lost interest in David after about 30 seconds, but in typical little brother fashion, David was much more interested in AJ.

PS--Note how big David is for a then 10-week old baby--he is laying next to his 21 month old brother who is at the top of the growth chart for size and height, and yet David doesn't look that little. This is the start of my defensive line.

Big Boy Room

We finally succeeded in transitioning AJ from the nursery into his Big Boy Room. It took so long for two reasons: (1) it took me a while to get my act together and finish the Big Boy Room decorating; and (2) we had to wait a few weeks after David arrived so that AJ wouldn't associate his displacement from the nursery with his little brother and blame him for the rest of his life for extensive psychological harm. I love this room because it has little elements from lots of people in AJ's life, including curtains made by his Chicago Grandma, a crib blanket from his Iowa Grandma, a cross-stitched Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep sampler from Joe's godmother, and a horse carousel toy that my sister and brother-in-law sent from Chile. We went with a transportation theme--planes, trains and automobiles. In retrospect I should have gone with a tool theme, but I ordered the train bedding last summer before the tools obsession became apparent.

After much hemming and hawing on my part on how to transition AJ to his new digs, the opportunity presented itself nicely after our last trip to Iowa when AJ slept in a crib at my mom's all weekend. I figured it would be easiest if we just moved AJ into the new crib in his Big Boy Room without going back to his beloved old crib. I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the transition went. The only hitch has been that he now wakes up much earlier since there are three windows in his new room that let in much more light than the old one did. In the mornings he will start calling out "mama! dada! up! up!" If he doesn't get any assistance right away, he eventually just starts calling "heeeellllppp! heeeelllppp!" as in someone, anyone please come help and rescue me from this crib.

Bye Bye Baby

AJ had his first haircut last week. I know that I keep writing about different events that make him a big boy, but all others pale in comparison to the haircut. AJ cried a little bit at the end of the haircut when the lady was fiddling with his ears, but after we went home and I put him to bed, I went in to make sure he was asleep and cried a little bit myself at the sight of my first baby looking so grown up. The new 'do is without question the most obvious signal that he is a little boy now.

As far as the haircut itself goes, I sprang for the $25 to go to the specialty children's haircut shop with the cars for chairs and the tv screen at each station for the customer's favorite DVD. Joe and I thought it would be worth it for the added distractions/enticements because AJ had watched Joe get his hair cut and hid in the corner the entire time. As a nice bonus, we got a DVD of the haircut experience itself for AJ to watch when he is older. And the traditional lock of his hair for the baby book, of course. AJ was very watchful of his barber as the start of the cut and was completely silent, just taking the experience in. Toward the end of the cut the lady was folding his ear back so that she could get a better angle on his hair I guess, and this completely freaked AJ out. He started sobbing.

The photos are in chronological order to show the before, during and after of the cut. The little scrapes on AJ's face in the first picture are from a fall down our back steps last weekend when it was raining and the steps were slick. AJ had a toy hammer and screwdriver clutched in his hands and didn't let go of his prized possessions when he tripped on the stairs and so broke the fall with his face. It is entirely healed now, though.

No Like It

AJ has started to express his likes and dislikes. Or more accurately, he has started telling me about his likes and dislikes, as he has always made it clear what he likes and dislikes from his body language. But now we have progressed to the toddler's version of the mouth clamped shut which is "no like it." When forced to repeat himself a second time, it comes out as "no. like. it!" No like it made its appearance when I dressed AJ in a turtleneck and when we were test driving double strollers to see if they fit AJ (all three earned an emphatic "no like it!"). No like it makes a nearly daily appearance at mealtime when something new is set in front of him. He immediately eyes it with suspicion and prounounces "no like it." I just say "okay, you don't have to eat it" in a disinterested way and walk off, and he usually ends up eating it.

AJ will occasionally utter the opposite--"like it!", but this is very rare. To date I think I have only heard it twice--once when he tried on a new pair of shoes in a snazzy blue and orange color combo and once when I gave him a bite of my non-dairy ice cream sandwich, called a Tofutti Cutie. If it gets the "like it!" seal of approval, you know he must really like it.

Chocoholic

AJ has discovered the joy of chocolate. Or as he pronounces it, choc-co-lit! Every morning within about 15 minutes of getting up, he asks me for "one choc-co-lit?" meaning that he wants the one Hershey's Kiss that I let him have each day. It is a rare day when he makes it to 10:00 before remembering to ask. Within about 10 seconds of eating it, he starts to ask for "one choc-co-lit...daddy?" meaning that he would like to give his daddy one chocolate kiss to eat. The first time he asked this, I gave him one more chocolate kiss and told him he could go give it to his daddy who was working in the office. Seasoned parents will know what happens next...AJ was quiet for a minute or so and I came around the corner to find that he had peeled off the wrapper and crammed the "one choc-co-lit...daddy" into his own mouth and had a guilty look on his face. Now he still gets to give his daddy a chocolate, but I walk him over to wherever Joe is and make sure that the chocolate gets deposited in daddy's mouth rather than AJ's. To his credit, AJ still asks for a chocolate for his daddy every day even though he now knows he won't be able to turn it into a second chocolate for himself, and he does seem to take genuine pleasure in watching his dad eat the chocolate.

Here is a picture of AJ enjoying his one choc-co-lit during our recent visit to Iowa. This particular one was more messy than usual.