Thanking

Yes, it’s a bit late.  November was a bad month for my blog.  Through a combination of being busy and being lazy, I didn’t update as much as I planned.

I had two interviews in November.  One I’m waiting to hear back on (the phone interview was the day before Thanksgiving) and the other, while I thought it went well, was a bust.  Ah well.

Dru needed another haircut and is now talking in mostly comprehensible sentences.  He’s also plowing ahead on potty training and will tell me that he needs to go about once a day.  Usually it’s AS he’s going…but hey, we’re getting there.

The weather stayed warmish, so we spent as much time outside as possible.

I discovered a series by an author that I love that somehow I’d missed in the past and began reading it – it has something like 20 or 30 books in it, so I’m plowing my way through those.

I’ve been tutoring like a crazy person (Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday) and enjoying that.

Plus, I’ve taken more responsibility on at the church – I’m about to become Secretary for the Women’s Group and have started assisting with Sunday School.

So when I’m actually in the house, the blog is near the back of my focus.

But I am thankful for being so busy – it makes time fly, and keeps my weeks from just being me sitting on the couch in my jammies watching Dru play.

And I’m thankful for our families.  They’ve been nothing but supportive of us, and understanding.  My poor Dad gets a phone call from me almost everyday because there’s only so much that I can take of toddler speak without needing to hear another adult.

 

On more specific news – Thanksgiving was a ton of fun.  We went up to the in-laws and got to see family.  And on Saturday, we drove down to Toledo and visited more family, and the Toledo Zoo for the Lights Before Christmas event.  It was pretty neat, and Dru is a big fan of the zoo in general.

And now, since I know you all really come here for the pics 😉 – here they are!

 

Pirate Dru prepares for Turkey

 

Driving Aunt Kellie

Coloring with Grandma Lin

Aunt Brenda and Uncle Steve gave us a dancing, singing Frosty. "He's CUTE!"

"Hi Saur. How You?" Though he did think it was an armadillo at first...

December is another busy month for us.  This weekend is our town’s kickoff to the holiday season with tree lightings, Dickens, etc.  Next weekend is the Advent Tea and Cookie Exchange and induction as Secretary.  The weekend after is the Christmas Cantata service.  Then it’s Christmas – we’re hosting, so that’s always busy.

And we’re having Dru’s birthday party a couple of days after Christmas, so that my family can be here for it.  What’s gonna be fun there is this year I’m doing a dino cake for Dru.  My mother-in-law used to bake cakes, and has a ton of cake pans.  So while we were there for T-day, I snagged the dino pan and she’s gonna bring all her decorating tools to get that square.  I’m excited, this’ll be the first time I make a cake that isn’t just a square or circle and standard frosting.  Thankfully, the moms will be there to make sure that I don’t mangle it too horribly.

Ah well, Happy December everyone!

 

Escaping

Dru has begun fighting naptime.

He’s discovered that if he bangs his head on the door hard enough and just below the knob, it’ll bounce it out of the latch, and he can break out.  Once I figured out what the loud thudding was, and stopped laughing, I began trying to figure out how to stop this.

Neither Kris nor I can figure out a solution.  And this only happens at naptime, and only sometimes.  Bedtime is easy, and most naps go as smoothly.  But every few days, he’s decided not to nap, and instead to endeavor to give himself a concussion…

Which also may explain his desire to act like an earthquake.  I can’t explain it any better than that – he stomp/jumps around the living room, yelling “WHOA!” and when he stops momentarily, he spreads his legs and shakes back and forth.  Now I have no idea where he would have encountered an earthquake to emulate, so I can only assume that it’s due to his head trauma.

 

On a positive note, he’s getting better at telling me when he needs to potty, so we’re getting close to the point of getting the signal in time to get him to the bathroom.  Which is going to be awesome, since he decided to break my back this week, and I can’t really lift him up easily to get him changed.

 

Ah well, the joys of motherhood.

Succeeding

So, we just tried pottying again on the big boy potty in his bathroom before I put him down for nap, and it was a success!

 

That’s two!

Pottying

So we recently decided to start introducing Dru to the potty – no pressure, just want him to get used to it.

We bought a basic potty chair for the downstairs bathroom (since we spend 90% of his awake time downstairs) and give him the option to sit on it whenever he wants.  About a week ago, he said “Mama, potty?” to me, so we went in, stripped him and floor bare, and sat him down.  He sat there singing “potty potty potty” for a couple of minutes, stood up and promptly peed on his feet.  After laughing, and cleaning the floor and Dru, I declared the experience a win – after all, he told me he needed to potty, and then he did.  Now we just need to work on location.

Well, Sunday night, we were getting ready for bed and had pulled off his diaper to change him.  So we get him stripped and he says “potty?” so Kris and I take him to his bathroom.  Now we don’t have a potty in there yet, so I just plopped him on the toilet and held him.  He danced and giggled while telling us “wait…” so we did.  Then, he actually peed!  YAY!  He always wants to flush the toilet, so as a reward for going in the potty, we let him flush.  It was a good day all around!

So, we’re not quite ready for full-on potty training, but he’s waking up dry more and more and we’ve had a couple of successes, so we’re optimistic!

Pumpkining

Yep, another non-word.  And another moment of me not caring :-p

Anyway, the in-laws came in to town this weekend, and we went to a local pumpkin patch/farm.  We went last year too, so we tried to get some similar photos.  When we got home, we were comparing them, and holy crap – the change is crazy.

Peanuts 2011

Peanuts 2010

Jail 2011

Jail 2010

Chair 2011

Chair 2010

Measure 2011

Measure 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So yeah, he’s grown a ton, but we all enjoyed ourselves, and now he’s completely tuckered out!

Entertaining

Kids watch TV, it’s a way of life.  I try to limit the amount and the content, but Dru does watch.  And he has shows he really likes.  Days when he’s not feeling well, we tend to watch more.  It happens.

But what I really want to know is what the makers of some of these programs are thinking!?  Most of what we watch is on NickJr, but even there you can find utter crap!  So I’m going to review the kid’s shows I’m familiar with.

Fresh Beat Band – Dru loves this show.  Aside from the fact that there are under 50 episodes, so we watch the same ones OVER AND OVER, I actually like this show.  It’s lots of music, and Dru actually tries to imitate the dancing.  He knows a couple of the characters’ names and the lessons are overall good.  So, while it’s rather inane from an adult’s perspective, I have no real issues with this one.

Franklin – Dru uses this one to identify animals.  But we really don’t watch it that often.  Mostly it’s fine – though a couple of the episodes I’ve seen have Franklin acting like a bit of a twat, with very little repercussion.  I know it’s based off a book series, but I frankly can’t remember if he’s like that in the books.

Little Bear – Cute.  Again Dru likes the animals, and we don’t watch it often.  But I haven’t really seen any episodes that I dislike.

Ni Hao Kai-Lan – Dru likes this one, but I limit it to only certain episodes.  Kai-Lan is okay, but her “friends” make me stabby.  They’re all very whiny and entitled.  And throw temper tantrums every time they don’t get their way.  Yet there are no consequences.  This bothers me a lot.

Jack’s Big Music Show – cute.  The characters are a bit odd, but not bad.  They don’t do bad things, so consequences are not at issue.  It has a ton of music too, so Dru loves it for that.  NickJr just moved it to way early tho, so usually he’s not up to see it.

Wonder Pets – ANNOYING.  The duck has a lisp.  And is a selfish twat.  The guinea pig is bossy, and the turtle is a wuss.  We avoid this one.

Wow Wow Wubbzy – Forbidden in our house.  The animation is like high-tech 8-bit and the values are crap.  The main character, Wubbzy, is a raging idiot, and constantly does bad things.  Then is NEVER punished for them.  NOT OKAY.

Olivia – Just NO.  She’s a twat.  In one episode, she tried to stuff her brother in a box and send him to Siberia.  Her father’s reaction – it’s not practical to do it, because shipping is expensive.  Other episodes are just as bad, and she always has to have everything be about her.

Word World – This is a PBS kids show.  I LOVE this show.  Since Dru has learned his letters, and we’re working on what sounds they make, etc, this show is great because everything in the show is made up of the word it is.  And the lessons are great too.  I just love this show.  Plus the animals enforce his animal identification (and not just by the sounds, but he just recently started saying “seep” instead of “baa” when talking about a sheep.

Dino Dan – Eh.  I have no strong feelings towards this show.  It’s really educational about dinos, but I’m not the biggest fan of how every adult and peer in the show seems to just let Dan believe that he really does see dinos everywhere, and constantly interrupts his teachers to tell them about dinos.  Only mildly annoying in the long run.  We don’t watch it much.

Dora the Explorer – NO.  There is a character that’s sole purpose is to steal things.  the opening song even has him doing it.  No.

Go Diego Go – eh.  Dru doesn’t seem to have any strong feelings.

Little Bill – again, eh.  It’s kind of Bill Cosby’s answer to Caillou, but less annoying.  Dru doesn’t seem interested here either.

Yo Gabba Gabba – I used to be scared by this show, but I’ve gotten used to it.  My father-in-law calls it the “french tickler show” because one of the characters looks like one.  But it has decent lessons, lots of music, and he dances along.

Blue’s Clues – I actually don’t mind this one.  Dru’s been interacting with it lately.  When they ask where something is, I can see him studying the TV, then he’ll scream out “TERE IT IS” when he finds it.

Toot & Puddle – Eh.  Dru likes the pigs, because he snorts at them.  I think it’s a  bit old for him in general.  I like that it focuses on different places and cultures.  He doesn’t really pay attention.

Peppa Pig – The animation in this one is very immature, but the lessons are decent.  The fact that all the characters have a British accent is interesting, and exposes Dru to words sounding different.  So that’s good.  All in all, not bad.

The Backyardigans – I really only have one complaint with this show.  One of the characters is unidentifiable as any particular creature (all the others are very obviously identifiable) and is named Uniqua.  Other than that, it’s cute, the music and imagination aspects are well done.  So yeah, this one stay on if it comes up.

Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends – I have no real problem with this show.  The characters can be selfish, but they are always called on it and made to reform their behavior.  Dru likes the books about the same character better, so we don’t really watch the show.

Caillou – This show is no longer shown.  It’s on Sprout, and Caillou’s voice makes me want to stab my eyes out with a rusty spoon.  And he’s annoying personality wise.  With all the other shows out there, why bother?

 

So, what are your kids’ show loves/hates?

Advertising

I despise commercials.  So in many ways, NickJr is perfect for me to watch with Dru, because it has no commercials.  However, other shows still do, and one that has been driving me bonkers lately is the Mott’s Medleys commercial.  It’s just the most recent in a long line of commercials that capitalize on the fact that kids don’t want to eat vegetables.

Here’s my issue with this – kids are blank slates where vegetables are concerned.  Unless you tell them that vegetables are yucky, they generally will enjoy most of them.  Dru likes vegetables, he doesn’t have a concept of food being “yucky” unless it’s gone bad.  There are foods I don’t enjoy that he loves.  I would never tell him a food is yucky because doing so passes on food issues to him without giving him the opportunity to make his own decisions.  For example, I don’t like cottage cheese.  I think it’s slimy and smells terrible.  But Dru started eating it with my mother-in-law, so I buy it for him, and fed it to him when he still needed help eating it.

Buy perpetuating this stereotype that healthy things don’t taste good, we’re breeding a culture of food issues into our kids.  By telling them – through our actions, and through commercials/media – that healthy foods are yucky, by disguising them, or implying that they need to be disguised, we’re predisposing them to not enjoying them.  Dru eats vegetables, fruits, whole grain bread, and has very few sweets.  When he requests a snack, he asks for cheese or apples.

We’re always talking about the obesity epidemic in this country – has anyone considered that this obsession with vilifying healthy foods (on top of our general laziness and complacency) is a major factor contributing to the obesity epidemic?

Why can’t advertisers just toll the benefits of healthy foods – many of which are quite yummy without having to disguise them in other foods, or smother them with ranch dressing, or lie to your kids that the Chef Boyardee food has vegetables?!

Fairing

Yes, I was being punny, and yes, I know that “fairing” is not a word :-p

 

Anyway, we headed up to Michigan and went to the Michigan Ren Faire in Holly on Saturday.  It was a bit muddier than we could have wished for, and when the wind kicked up, it was definitely a bit chilly, but overall it was a gorgeous day.

Dru’s costume came out super cute:

Mams found a cape!

And of course he was loving that Papa was around (and dressed as a pirate!)

When we got to the Ren Faire, we met up with Aunt Kellie, Uncle Andy and Andy’s parents.  The mud was everywhere (my poor dress…) but Dru did really well.  He stayed close to us, and didn’t have any really bad moments.  He got to play with different animals that were running around (mostly dogs) but I think his favorite moment was probably when he got to go on a pony ride!

Of course, up until this weekend he was calling horse “HEEEES” (his version of their noise) but on Saturday, he started calling them “HORZ!!!!”  we’re getting there.  And somehow, we managed to choose the troublemaker pony, who kept trying to eat my skirt and reach around to get petted by Dru.

But little man had fun (screamed like a banshee when I made him leave) and had an overall good day.

 

 

 

On a separate note, he seems to be getting back to sleeping more now that his ears feel better.  That and the baby doorknob thinger that means he can’t break out of his room help.

Converting

Well, Kris and I have decided it’s time – we’re converting Dru’s bed to its toddler stage tonight.

This is spurred by the fact that apparently I wasn’t fast enough getting to Dru this morning, so he jumped out of his crib.  Now, for those of you who haven’t seen his crib – it’s a good height off the ground, and we’re not really sure how he even got out.  But he didn’t seem at all phased by the escape, and was giggling and waiting for me at my bedroom door.  So yeah, it’s time for the toddler rail.  Thankfully we picked that up a few weeks ago, so we’ve got it on hand.

So Dru will be going from this crib:

to this toddler bed:

This should be an adventure.

 

 

Giggling

So we Skype with the parentals a lot.  And the other day we were FB Skype-ing with the in-laws and they found “Baby Bear Baby Bear What Do You See?” by Eric Carle.

This is important, because Dru recently mastered “Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?” as is shown in this video:

So, anyway, Mom and Dad W love to read to Dru over Skype.  He also loves it, making everyone happy.

Well, they decided to read Baby Bear to Dru, and it’s a bunch of different animals from the Brown Bear book.  When we got to the page with the skunk, he asked what it was.  I told him, and then said it says “PU!” while holding my nose.  This, apparently was the FUNNIEST THING EVER.  EVER.  ON THE PLANET.

He proceeded to crack up for the next 15 minutes or so.  He started out just giggling when we said it:

He then progressed to helping us hold our noses while giggling hysterically:

Well, now, a few days later, he is still coming up to both of us and grabbing our noses, waiting for us to say “PU!” so he can giggle like a crazy person.  But hey, if that’s not what parenting is all about, I don’t know what is.

Also, small update on my sewing projects.

Kris’ tabard and hood are sewn.  I just need to add the trim and the button on the hood and the trim to the tabard.  We figure that can wait until last minute, so I make sure my dress gets done.  My dress is mostly cut out, I just have to cut the sleeves, then (hopefully) it should go together somewhat quickly.  I’m hoping to get some work done this weekend, but we shall see.