So That's Christmas

We weren't sure what Karston would think of Christmas this year. On Christmas Day yesterday, he enjoyed opening presents at home with his parents and his Mimi. He especially liked getting more wooden train tracks right after he asked for mo' twacks, and getting two Thomas engines and a Percy. Going to see his cousins was fun until nap time (I wanted to nap too, but I was driving so I stayed wide awake). He likes Christmas trees, especially if the lights are on, and he likes taking a tour of the ornaments. It's another opportunity to ask what's this?, although he tells everyone in sight which ornaments are trains!

However, Christmas clicked today. When Karston saw that his new toys were still here, still under the tree, that made it make sense to him. He had even more fun playing with his toys today! For his bed time story, he asked Daddy to read The Night Before Christmas, and he said ho ho ho every time he saw Santa in the book. So next year, he will definitely understand Christmas (at least the part with the presents). Too bad he has to wait 364 days after that concept to do it again!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

What's This?

We had a number of conversations that started with What's this? today. I'm sure it could get old soon, but right now I'm loving it! What's this? -It's brown rice, dear. Brown nice. Yeah, brown rice! Brown rice. Sometimes he would correct me. What's this? -It's a door, dear. No, this! (pointing more insistently) -It's our front door. No, this! (tapping door handle) -It's a door handle. Handle. Yeah, handle. It's a handle.

Lately it's been hard to say how many words he knows. He'll repeat some of what we say, but we don't know if he knows what he's saying. Then out of the blue, he'll rattle off a complete sentence that he clearly means, and we wonder where he learned all those words! Add some what's this? to the mix, and I expect his vocabulary to take off like a rocket! He knows what he's asking, he knows what he wants to learn to say, and there's no stopping his language now. So far, it's a lot of fun to teach him what he wants to learn!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Rest

We thought we might do three parks in four days at Disney, but we decided to let our feet recover, to kick back and enjoy the resort. That's a much better plan! We had a nice omelet on-site for breakfast. We took the bus to Epcot so we could ride the monorail to Magic Kingdom; Karston loves trains! We had a quick lunch at the Contemporary Resort. I was hoping to see uniquely modern decor and maybe get some ideas, but it was the cold and sterile version of contemporary. So we hopped on the monorail again, to catch a bus back to our room for Karston's nap. For dinner, we had reservations at Shutters restaurant. Good food, and everyone working there was so nice to Karston! We had a relaxing day to recuperate today, so that we can head home refreshed tomorrow before jumping back into the work week.

Technorati Tags: Toddler, Travel

It's a Small World

Today we went to The Magic Kingdom. That's the Disney experience! We got there early, just as they opened, and had no trouble getting on some of the popular rides. We had lunch at Pecos Bill, and all I'm going to say about that is Don't get the beef there! Less said, the better. We timed the afternoon just right for Karston's nap, so he was not fussy. After the nap, we came back to Magic Kingdom. We had a Pinnochio dinner (much better than Pecos Bill's beef that I still tasted all evening), and Karston enjoyed the Magic Kingdom so much, he didn't want to leave. It got dark, he loved the parade. It got darker, he cuddled with me during the fireworks. We didn't leave until after 10 PM because Karston was so involved in the experience! I think we'll sleep well too.

I'm saving today's highlights, as you might guess from that synopsis.

This morning, Karston woke up and asked for Mickey. He's never asked for Mickey before, but we quickly determined that he wanted to watch Mickey Mouse cartoons while we ate breakfast, and then go to the park to see Mickey. Wow, Disney catches 'em quickly!

Absolutely the best ride in Magic Kingdom, if you ask Karston, is It's A Small World. We rode it three times, and each time Karston had more fun than the previous time. Cinderella's Carousel was good, Dumbo's Flying Adventure was OK, and everything else whatever. He rode in my lap for the first trip through It's A Small World first thing in the morning. For the last trip at 10 PM, he announced, Karston sit in middle! and he sat between us.

However, that leads into the gotcha that got Karston. The line for the Pirates of the Caribbean had been long, so when we saw a short line late in the evening, we headed in. The boats for this ride are exactly the same as the Small World boats, so Karston announced that he was sitting in the middle between us. First you go through a misty face of Davy Jones, and Karston buried his face under my arm. Then the boat drops abruptly and passes between two ships firing cannons at each other! Karston gave up his seat to jump in my lap and hide his face in my chest for the rest of the ride. Pirates of the Caribbean is no small world!

Technorati Tags: Toddler, Travel

Mommy's Disney Birthday

Today is Mommy's birthday. Going to Disney (somewhere warm!) is a great present for me.

Several times today, one of us, usually Daddy, would ask Karston if he wanted to tell Mommy Happy Birthday. Each time he gave the same loud answer: NO!

We went to Pepper Grill for breakfast again, for the same reasons as before: more menu selections with fruits and veggies. The fancier menus just didn't tempt us. After breakfast, we went to the hotel where we'll stay the rest of this trip, the Caribbean Beach Resort. We had to check in at next resort to get our park tickets, and going to one of the parks was our plan for today. So we shuffled our bags to the transfer station and got a taxi (faster than waiting for the Magical Express transfer). When we got there, our room was already ready (surprising when the resort is full!). Caribbean Beach Resort feels exactly like the sort of place we like to vacation. Ah, how relaxing!

If you want to follow along, you can look at Google Maps for Walt Disney World to locate the various attractions.

We headed to Animal Kingdom today because it's new and we've never been there. I don't want to say anything bad about it, but it really made me appreciate the NC Zoo. We've got a really good zoo that holds its own with Animal Kingdom for animals, botany, and playgrounds. Go Zoo! Animal Kingdom does have The Tree and town replicas. The architecture was cool and different, and it was worth going once. Africa was mostly walks, although we did get on The Safari Ride before I saw the sign that said expectant mothers should not ride. I was fine, but Karston needed some snuggling. Oh, and as expected, Fast Pass is really nice! I'm not fond of lines.

We finally had lunch at Pizzafari. I had a hard time finding food that I wanted to eat; it all sounded so greasy and unhealthy, and I just didn't want an upset tummy. We notice the customers weren't as large at Pizzafari as the other restaurants we saw at Animal Kingdom, so all of us there were looking for healthier food.

In the Asia section of Animal Kingdom, we took the Maharajah walk. Karston was either a zombie in his umbrella stroller, or he crawled up on me to fall asleep. He's so often a Daddy's Boy, but when it comes to pure comfort and a missed nap, Mommy wins. That was a nice birthday present of love from my toddler! But you know ... just say NO! to saying happy birthday to Mommy (Karston said so)!


We took a break, and went back to our room for a nap. Ahh ... vacation naps are just plain delicious!

We had dinner in the food court since the restaurant wait was long and we were hungry. Then we took Karston to the playground. The playground at Coronado Springs said 2-6 years old; the playgrounds at Caribbean Beach all say 5-12 years old. So although we like the feel of Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs has some strong points on the playground, and on a slightly nicer room. Karston still went on the slide with Daddy although he was less sure of himself, and then asked to swing (most of us would call it a hammock, but it's just another kind of swing to Karston). Then Karston spotted a baby chair, a small chair his size, in the chair line-up on the sandy beach, so we watched egrets walk by lake-side from beach chairs. I thought that was a good birthday evening right there.

We were getting Karston down to bed when I started to wonder, What is that rattle? Guess what it was? Well, let's just say I have never on my birthday watched fireworks through palm fronds in a teeshirt! Or walked around outside barefoot on my birthday! The only thing I missed for this birthday was talking to my mother, breaking a long and wonderful tradition. Then we ate some chocolate cake by the pool. What a wonderful birthday!

Technorati Tags: Toddler, Travel

Going to Disney

Well, we made it Walt Disney World! We packed light (I think). OK, it's only 4 days, but our bags are only 32 pounds! I packed in less time with less stress thanks to TiddlyWiki Packing (and I use TiddlyWiki D3 for GTD).

So this morning, we all flew to Orlando. The flight attendant said to Daddy about Karston, He couldn't look any more like you! And when we got on the bus to go from the Orlando airport to Coronado Springs Resort, the bus lady said to me, Look at that belly! Guess it's obvious that I'm pregnant now.

We got to Coronado Springs about 1:30 PM. Our room wasn't ready until 4:30 PM, but the wait was not at all annoying. We started with lunch since we hadn't eaten yet. The on-site dining choices didn't offer very many veggies with the meals, and we went to the place (Pepper Grill) with the highest veggie chances. I was one of the lighter women there, especially in the over-30 set; oddly that makes me want to lose weight. After lunch, we went to the Dig Site and Explorers' Playground. Karston mostly wanted to slide again and again and again.

We're staying at Coronado Springs one night; it's pretty nice, reasonable size room (we won't be in there much, but we're not sliding around each other and there's room for two suitcases). Oh, and I saw a new (to me) hotel feature: the alarm clock radio had an MP3 line in! I can see how that's popular in the iPod era. The hotel store was actually useful because they had beer!

We had large salads for dinner, so on the way back, we walked the long way around the lake to try to walk some of it off. Karston said no playground, go to house, so we went back.

When we got back, Karston noticed where I burned my arm on the oven last week. He grabbed my arm, pointed, and said boo-boo! When Karston says boo-boo (especially when there isn't one!), he wants to kiss. I knew it would hurt to have him kiss my burn, but he's such a sweet child that I asked him if he wanted to kiss Mommy's arm to make it better. He said, No! Gross! Until that moment, I had no idea that gross was any sort of deterrent for him! If I say something is gross, he doesn't slow down at all; I just figured that's how boys are. But if he thinks something is gross, well that's another story.

Daddy got annoyed that we weren't asleep yet, but he's the one snoring loudly. Gee, I wonder why everyone else is awake? Thumper (meaning Cale) kicking Karston doesn't help him sleep either; I think the snoring only bothers me so I packed ear plugs. Since my waist has disappeared, I don't need a pillow under my waist to straighten my back, so that does make sleeping in a hotel easier since I don't have to request more pillows.

Especially with the delay getting the room and how nice the grounds were to explore, I'm really glad we didn't try to do more today! I think it would have been stressful for no reason. Oh, and I want a surry bike! You can rent surry bikes here, and they look very cool! Some of them are four-passenger in a two-by-two configuration; Mommy and Daddy could sit next to each other on a bike, and we could both be pedaling too. Interesting idea.

Technorati Tags: Toddler, Travel

They're Gone

Karston's has been kissing us a lot lately (thank goodness he's not sick!), and he really is very sweet. Take today for instance.

Daddy needed to go to work this afternoon, and luckily his parents came over for lunch so they could watch Karston; but when Karston woke up from his afternoon nap, only Daddy was home. Daddy picked him up for his post-nap hug. Karston pointed to the kitchen, then to the frig for his juice. After drinking some juice, he looked around and said in a forlorn voice, They're gone, his first words after his nap. We're guessing Karston had a wonderful time playing with his grandparents before his nap!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Under 30

Well, Karston is 29 months today ... and my, the changes are fast! He's talking and running and playing full-bore. Today he really wants to kiss and to play with his wooden trains, especially to re-design the track layout. By my measurements, he's almost 34" tall (between 5th and 10th percentiles), weighing 22.8 pounds fully dressed but with a fresh diaper (still not on the charts but following the curve), and 19" head circumference (25th percentile). He's getting taller quickly, mostly in the legs, but not gaining much weight.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Not at 5AM

On the list of things parents never want to hear their children say, this isn't too bad and I'm sure I'll hear worse. Nevertheless, this is not what I wanted to hear Karston say at 5:18 AM this morning!

I woke up when I heard him call Mama! Mama!, and I hopped out of bed. In the shadowy hall, I saw Karston reaching out for me, and then he said what I didn't want to hear ...

Mama, I'm awake!

Yep, he was wide awake, and according to Daddy he had been since 3 AM! Ugh. I feel a bit disoriented after last night. I wonder if he'll let us sleep in this weekend ... probably not. I can take a nap with him, but if he continues to wake up after only 5 to 6 hours of night-time sleep, that might signal the end of the afternoon naps.

On the other hand, Karston is getting better at communication. He said exactly what he meant, quite clearly, even if I didn't want to hear it.

Toddler

Monkey On

This morning, Karston bawled about Daddy leaving for work. (I guess he got used to having both of us around over the long weekend holiday!) That made his nose run, so we went to the closest bathroom (and laundry room) to wipe his nose. He saw his Monkey See, Monkey Do costume, what he wore for Halloween again (his choice!), on the drying rack. That made him stop crying to say Monkey On! followed by Monkey Hat On!

So Karston went to the grocery store this morning as a monkey. He smiled at everyone in the store, so it took a while when clerks and customers were drawn in by my Monkey See, Monkey Flirt child. I even ran into Val, Cheryl's sister, and her 1-year-old daughter Sydney, sending the cute factor through the roof! He's a great little monkey.

Toddler

Pronouns

Karston understands pronouns!

While I was changing his diaper, he was reaching for a teddy bear almost out of his reach. Since he wasn't going to give up on his teddy bear grab, I moved his changing table closer to it. Karston gave me a startled look! I reassured him that the world was normal and said, I moved you. He looked at me, nodded, and said, you moved me. Notice how he switched the pronouns properly? Often he'll repeat our sentences, and we weren't sure if he were just aping us, or if he understood what we were saying and agreed by repeating. Since he understands pronouns, now we think he understands even more than we thought.

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Thankful

Although he's sick right now, I am thankful for a toddler who lets me know when he wants to blow his nose. You know the kids with totally gross noses? Karston doesn't want to be one of those. When his nose starts to run, we hear him yell Nose! Nose! until we wipe it. He's pretty good about letting us wipe his nose, too. Remarkable!

Also, Karston seems to want to potty train himself. Karston asked for his potty this evening, and then did one of each in it. So he knew in advance, he asked for it, and he used it! It's slow going, but he might just train himself. That's easy on us! I'm thankful for that too.

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Hungry

Karston lost weight while he had croup, but he's back up to 22 pounds again. In fact, he's been eating well for the past several days, and might put on even more weight!

Our normal Monday morning routine is that Karston and I go to the store and buy whatever we're going to eat this week. We usually go to the Wal-Mart. I know that's awful, but it is literally five times closer to our house than any other store, and I don't want to spend all day driving around. Shopping's one of my least favorite activities. Our local Wal-Mart has a claim to fame, though: the deli makes the best fried okra. I don't like fried okra, but my husband and my grandparents do, and they all agree that the absolutely very best okra comes from that Wal-Mart.

Karston wanted okra as soon as we stepped in the store, but I did non-perishable shopping first, and then worked my way through food. He asked for juice early, and finished off his sippy early. (I don't go to the store without bringing a full sippy cup.) He still wanted okra when we got to deli and was almost done, so I got a quarter pound.

He ate it all before I checked out and wanted more!

Keep in mind, all I did after the deli was walk quickly through produce, so I got to check out shortly after he started eating fried okra.

By the time I got him more okra, he wanted juice. I took the lid off his sippy, and he downed what was in the very bottom, so I bought a can of juice too. He downed more than half of a can of juice! Didn't touch the second quarter-pound of okra though. I guess I'm not surprised.

I went through self-checkout both times because I saw one with no line. In all the noise from Karston about what he wanted right now, I forgot to scan my Pampers coupon for $1.50 off (oops). We've been having diaper leaks lately, and I know that's often an indication that it's time to move up to the next size. Since Karston's only 22 pounds and size 3 diapers say they run until 28 pounds, I didn't think it was time for size 4, but I notice that size 4 diapers start at 22 pounds. That's what Karston weighs! Sometimes we've even started on the next size a pound or two early, so all signs point to buying size 4 diapers instead of size 3 diapers.

After the food binge in the store, and the juice binge in the parking lot, we drove home (4 minutes!). By the time I unpacked the groceries, Karston had poop in his pants (he said that), so I changed him and set him on the bed to continue to fuss while I went for his toys.

He was asleep by the time I got back, and we hadn't done any of our getting-ready to nap routine!

I think this was a successful trip to the store: I wasn't hungry while I was there, so I wasn't tempted to buy any snacks; Karston was hungry, he told me what he wanted me to buy (like bananas), and he plowed down some serious calories (I'd guess 500 calories or more, all at once).

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Zoo

We went to the zoo today, Mommy, Daddy, Karston, Opa, and Grammy. Karston was tired and in his stroller for much of it, but we all enjoyed it!

Technorati Tags: Toddler, Travel

Oh yeah, playschool

Today is Daddy's day to stay home with Karston, but he needed to go to work for an hour. Karston was very good in the office, but when they parked and when they were leaving, Karston pointed toward his playschool (only one block from Daddy's office) and asked for Mo' baby? Oh yeah, he likes playschool now, no doubt about it! I'm already starting to forget the tearful mornings because of course he should want to play with other children. What a wonderful change!

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Great Playschool

Karston's playschool meets until noon every Tuesday and every other Thursday. Back when he was tearful about playschool, that seemed like a frequent schedule. However, he loved it last week and this week, so now it seems like an infrequent schedule to me!

When Daddy dropped Karston off at playschool this morning, he discovered some wonderful items in Karston's cubby! One was Karston's little red Tootsie Toy truck (Tootsie Toys are no longer made, and Karston especially loves this truck so it is beloved and irreplaceable!), and the other was two blue caps from Florida's Natural Orange Juice. I know bottle caps rank somewhere between free and disposible and garbage for most people, but Karston loves them! The size fits well in his hand, and he will often ask for Blue? in a forlorn voice until he gets a blue bottle cap. It has to be right size, and given a choice he clearly prefers the caps from Florida's Natural. I think this is a sign of a very caring playschool: the teachers know what's special to Karston, and they put his special items in his cubby. Plus we were down to just one blue, so adding two more gave us some breathing room! Hurrah! (Never knew I would care about bottle caps this much.)

When Mimi picked Karston up at playschool this afternoon, she was just in time to see one of the bigger boys give Karston a hug and say You're my best friend. Karston was very happy too. Now that he's had two weeks of loving playschool, I think Karston has settled in to playing with and enjoying other two-year-olds. Another hurrah!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Croup

Unfortunately, Karston was getting sick, and I was only hoping I could blame the new tooth for his fussiness. I took Karston to his pediatricians' sick walk-in hours yesterday morning (Daddy joined us at the end of the appointment, to Karston's pure delight!), and she agreed with my diagnosis of croup. Yesterday morning, we had had four sleepless nights, the first two with fever, the next with barking cough, and the fourth with the full stridor of croup (see this child cough reference). Croup is caused by the common cold virus, but in the under-five set, they also get that distinctive cough because their windpipes are smaller and any windpipe inflammation can lead to stridor. Karston hasn't been sleeping, eating, or drinking; that's not going to help him get well. So we (mainly Daddy actually) haven't been sleeping well either. However, this is the first morning after a bad night that Karston has felt well enough to play without being on someone's lap, so I hope he's getting better. (Doesn't help that I caught his cold. Hack, hack.)

We've had these great weekend plans for October so far (beach, aquarium, zoo, museum), and we've ended up on the taking-it-easy schedule anyway. So based on the coughing, we plan to kick back this weekend and enjoy the view (October is so pretty).

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Seventeen Shadows

This afternoon, since the weather was gorgeous, we ate lunch outside on the deck. Karston discovered he could make moving shadows on the table by moving his hand, and this fascinated him for the tail end of lunch. You could see the discovery of shadows click, and then he even experimented with different shapes.

Our original plan this morning was to go to the zoo, but Karston seemed fussier and his forehead seemed warmer than usual, so we stayed home. (Since it was hot in direct sun, and we could enjoy the lake and the breeze at home, might have been for the best.) However, I thought we should go out for some fun, so we went out to dinner. I made faces at Karston while we were waiting for our food, and he made faces right back at me. When he imitated the wide open mouth, I caught a glimpse of tooth #17, one of his two-year-old molars just peeking through! So that explains the fussiness and the low-grade fever (his temperature wasn't outside the normal range, but was half a degree high for him)! Might even explain why he's been so restless at night lately. I'm glad that he's not (getting) sick!

Oh, and this evening's small victory ... Karston ran into the bathroom, grabbed his toilet seat reducer, and nearly threw Daddy off the toilet so he could have a turn. He does ask to (try to) use the potty, but rarely with such determination. As it turns out he had a reason: it was time, he knew it, and he tinkled in the big toilet! To celebrate, he ran around the house naked and laughing while we chased him with diapers (but also let him revel in his victory)!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

I Got You, Dada!

It's really hard to say anything definite about Karston's vocabulary right now. He will often repeat words, seemingly with the knowledge of what he's saying, but I'm not sure he'll retain it. For instance, when we ate out Saturday, I asked if he wanted french fries. He said French fries! quite happily, and then ate four. (Hey, that's a meal-time success with Karston!) But does he remember today that french fries are called french fries? I don't know. (He's only eaten them four times in his life, so it hasn't been reinforced either.)

On the other hand, he is stringing together words that he knows into sentences. Some concepts don't need complete sentences. Dada! Juice! will accomplish what he wants. However, he said the same phrase yesterday and today while grabbing his father's leg after chasing him down: I got you, Dada! I'm sure he knows what he's saying when his timing is that accurate. And of course, in that sweet little voice, you know what he's saying is right on target on more than one level.

So the vocabulary may be hard to pin down, but he has advanced from words to sentences. Add a few more words, and we'll really have some communication!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Night Terrors

Last night we had our first experience with night terrors. At 1:24 AM, Karston started screaming. He was blood-curdling and crawling to the top of the bed. Not matter what we tried, he wouldn't wake up. (You're not supposed to wake up a child having night terrors.) After twenty minutes of screaming with his eyes firmly shut, he woke up. He was in my lap. In an instant, he stopped screaming and opened his eyes. When he looked at me, he smiled and said Meow. So I called him my little kitty, patted him, turned out the light (the lower lip stuck out), and settled back in bed holding him tightly. He did it again for a couple minutes around 6:30 AM, but it didn't last as long. I would definitely say that night terrors are way worse on parents than on the child, because Karston didn't seem to mind at all, and we sure did.

Whew. We were staying at my grandmother's house (we were in Mountain City for her funeral), and moving stuff kicked up 30 years of collected dust. We were sneezing and blowing noses, and Karston's sleep breathing did not sound like his normal. So we're hoping that this experience with night terrors was caused by sleeping someone else (dusty), and that we don't do this regularly.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Strongman

About a week ago (Daddy says two weeks), Karston was watching Curious George. George wanted to be big enough to ride the roller coaster, so he was asking for advice. The strongman told him to lift weights so he could grow big and strong. At this point, Karston wandered away from the TV, to his tinker toys. (We approve! Toys do beat TV.) Then we noticed that Karston had put together several constructions of two round tinker toys with a bar between them, and was lifting them. He was even grunting softly while lifting his "weights." So Karston wants to grow big and strong ... and he was paying more attention to the TV than we thought.

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Mess!

We decided to punch holes in the house (adding skylights and windows), and the carpenters started on Monday. In particular, the stairs are covered with bits of drywall and other debris. While Daddy was carrying him upstairs (who wants the toddler walking on that?), Karston kept pointing down to the steps and crying, Mess! mess! Yep, he sure knows a mess when he sees one.

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Best Playschool Day Yet!

We've been hoping for this day: Karston had a good day at playschool! Instead of crying for Dada when we left and again at pickup, Karston was playing with a little girl who copied his full body laugh, head leaned back, belly sticking out, ha ha ha. He said Bye bye to his teachers, too. And he didn't cry for Dada all afternoon either. We're thinking that this weekend of playing with other children, even 1 year older and 1 year younger, made a world of difference. Now he knows about kids playing!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Beach

The beach report ...

On Saturday, Daddy and Karston went to the beach with Jen and her two girls ages 3 and not-yet-1. Since it was drizzling when they got there, Daddy huddled under the pier with the two oldest, Karston and Nadia. Whenever it cleared for a minute, they ran out, with life preservers on, to stick toes in the water. One wave knocked Nadia over (Daddy caught her); she was a big brave girl about it and kept playing. Karston thought the water was a bit cold but he wanted to be close to the action.

The weather was nicer today, so Opa, Grammy, Daddy, and Karston got in the boat with Jen and her girls. Nadia has been talking about last summer's boat ride and playing in the tidal pool ever since. Yes, she remembered a trip when she was 2! Obviously we all wanted her to do it again since she liked it so much! The boat ride and the tidal pools were the expected hit. Karston liked the tidal pools better because the water was warmer, and of course no one got knocked over. The real excitement came when it was lunchtime, time to head back: the boat had taken on quite a bit of water because the drain plug wasn't plugging, and at the same time, the bilge pump failed. Yes, two failures you don't want to see at the same time! With much coaxing, it started and even got home, but it was the don't-slow-down-for-any-reason trip back. It wasn't uneventful, but it turned out fine.

Mommy slept well, and now I feel like I've got this cold mostly kicked. The kids had a great time playing at the beach. Successful weekend!

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Curious Karston Goes to the Beach

Karston's favorite bedtime book for the past several weeks is Curious George Goes to the Beach, so Daddy took him to the beach today. I'm just getting over a cold, so I stayed home. I'm sure we'll have a report on Karston and the beach soon! I hear that he liked the beach, but the water was too chilly for him. Life preserver or no, Karston staying out of the ocean is fine by me!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

My Chair

Some days you start off with one plan, and end up with another.

This morning, we planned to take Karston to the Museum of Life and Science to play. (This part of the plan worked out well.) I've started calling that museum the Children's Country Club because we see so many parents and toddlers playing there. I can tell we're all members so that we don't pay admission each time so that we don't mind leaving early for nap time. It's really a children's club! Oh, and some of the museum parts are nice too. Karston enjoyed the playground, the farm animals, the explore-a-caboose, and especially the train ride twice around the grounds. After our train ride, we had a nice lunch in the cafe, and Karston even ate most of a banana while we were there! He didn't have much breakfast this morning, so I'm glad he ate some lunch. We all had a pleasant time at the museum.

The second plan turned out differently. We planned to buy some shorts for Karston since he didn't have any generic shorts in his dresser. At the store, we found tons of girls' clothes and almost no boys' clothes. We found plenty of outfits with long pants, and many heavy outer layers. But shorts for this 90+ degree day? *sigh* We finally found one red knit pair that we got. While Daddy was searching for shorts and I was chasing Karston, Karston found a small chair. It's a blue elephant wearing a pink party hat, and it's a chair for very small rumps. Karston has a very small rump, and he looked so proud sitting on this chair! Once he found it, he didn't set it down. I had to lift Karston and his chair up to the counter to scan it for check out. Then he ran out of the store carrying his chair, looking for a place to set it down while I made sure he stayed out of traffic. Driving home, Karston held on to his chair; even though he fell asleep, he still wouldn't let Daddy take it away. During his nap this afternoon, he kept one hand on his chair. He's calling it Sue (maybe Zoo?). So we wanted shorts, and we came home with Sue the blue zoo elephant chair.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

What Does the Animal Say?

This weekend, we noticed that Karston has a vocabulary of animal names and sounds. We hadn't tried to teach these to him, but he has picked it up. He would say an animal, or point to one in a book, and then make a sound. So far, we have five animals in the repertoire.

• What does a cat say? Our cat Linus is loud, so Karston meows loudly. MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!


• What does a dog say? Arf! Arf!


• What does a snake say? Ssssss


• What does a cow say? Moo


• And Karston's favorite that he has known since he was very young, What does a lion say? ROAR!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Nutella

Sharif (at work) sent Daddy home with some Nutella (the chocolate-hazelnut spread) for Karston on Monday, so after Karston told me that he was done with dinner this evening, I thought I would see how he felt about Nutella.

Oh my.

Yes.

Nutella is a winner.

I decided to give Karston some Nutella spread on a vanilla wafer because it seemed like a handy Nutella delivery mechanism. His vanilla wafer needed many refills! After the mess was all spread and done, the vanilla wafer was slightly soggy but intact while most of the Nutella was inside Karston. It's a real calorie wallop too! Afterwards, Karston ran around outside like a toddler on a sugar buzz, and we were glad we weren't inside with that much energy bouncing off the walls. Hopefully his full tummy will help him sleep well tonight; if not, I did find childrens Maalox at Target this weekend. We may have found that source of pure calories we've always wanted to shovel into Karston!

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First Day of Preschool

Karston went to his first day of preschool today. This preschool has a 2:1 ratio for two-year-olds to teachers! They say it makes the outings much easier. Oh, and preschool has lots of toys! Initially, Karston put his head into my neck and moaned; he's been doing that since Wednesday when he sees other people. As other toddlers showed up, he thawed out. When he saw the Thomas the Tank train set, he was ready to play without being hugged at the same time. We stuck around for a short while, but when we tried to leave, Karston gave a loud call for Da-da while I made my escape to work. So my little boy is growing up, going to preschool, spending time without his family, playing with other toddlers.

The most remarkable part is the other end of the story, when Daddy and Mary came to pick him up. When they arrived, all of the toddlers were sitting nicely in their assigned chairs at the short tables eating Cheerios. Karston's spot had his name in a purple square. He was looking down at his Cheerios and eating them. Yes, my child who doesn't eat! After about a minute he noticed he had visitors and said Da-da but continued to sit and eat along with the other docile 2 year olds. Yes, my child who will stop eating for any reason, my child who is crazy about Daddy! After several more minutes, Karston invited Daddy to join them at the table. Then they went to play with toys, but no big Daddy hug. The teachers said that there were many meltdowns this morning, and that they expect many more next week, but obviously the kids get over it. Karston seemed quite comfortable in what must be a well-disciplined setting. All of the kids looked happy and well-behaved. Those teachers definitely know some secrets to success! It'll be interesting to see how he changes.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Dod

Over the past week, Karston has switched from calling Daddy Da-Da (with a smile) to just plain Dad (with an imperative). It's often followed by a call for his juice sippy. He pronounces it "daahhh-D" so it sounds a lot like Ajax calling Duckman "Dod."

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Okra Boy

All of the fried okra eaters I know (myself, I don't like it one bit) say that the best fried okra in town comes from the Wal-Mart deli, so we go there for Karston. This afternoon when I was checking out, the clerk Bessie said, Oh, he's the okra boy! Whenever we're near the deli counter, Karston says Okra okra okra, sometimes quite loudly, until he gets some. Since the okra is already weighed and priced, I let him eat it right away, and I pack juice so that he can wash it down. Today, Karston even told me that his okra would be hot-hot, so he would blow on it (puff, puff). Sure enough, that's what he did, even in the checkout lane when Bessie spotted him as a regular, the okra boy. Okra boy is a dubious honor, but at least Karston asks for and eats a vegetable.

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Pediatrician: Two Years

Karston went to the pediatrician this morning, and the visit was very quick (out in 40 minutes!) and easy.

Vitals are 21 pounds 4.4 ounces (still not on the CDC chart, but on a similar trajectory so the doctor says he's fine), 31.25 inches tall (also not on the chart, but much closer to the 5th percentile), and 19" head circumference (around the 25th percentile). His weight-to-length ratio is in the 10th percentile, so he is tall for his weight even though he's light. His body mass index (which applies starting at age 2) is just over the 10th percentile mark too.

One of the child development questions the doctor asked was "does he line up blocks?" and the answer was "oh my, yes!"

In other words, it was pretty boring, but for a routine checkup, that's good.

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Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins

Getting Karston to eat can be challenging, but really fresh food is a good start. He ate fresh-from-the-deli fried okra this morning, after refusing day-old then several-days-old fried okra this past week. When we got back from the store, Karston ate 2/3 of an unpeeled banana after turning his nose up at the 2/3 of a banana he started eating a few days ago.

So here I was this afternoon, with most of a banana that the kid wouldn't eat, and that I didn't want to throw it out. (A lot of my cooking starts this way: better make something before it goes bad.) I found this recipe for Peanut Butter and Banana Cookies that I decided to try. However, what I had only looked like 1/2 cup of banana, so I had to modify the recipe to cut it in half. (I can't follow a recipe anyway.)

2 Tbs margarine, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter, warmed
1/2 cup bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup unbleached enriched flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup Splenda
1/2 tsp baking soda

I preheated the toaster oven to 375°F, and covered the tray with tin foil. I melted the margarine (I used Blue Bonnet Light with half the fat because that's what I have) and mashed in the banana pieces. Then I stirred in the vanilla, and I couldn't resist a shake of cinnamon too (I love cinnamon). I added a scoop of peanut butter (I just guessed at a quarter cup of Smuckers Reduced Fat Natural Style). Then I sifted into the bowl the flour, sugar, splenda, and baking soda (I actually measured these ingredients). I mixed it with my immersion blender because the peanut butter was still cold and unworkable. Next time, I would warm the peanut butter with the margarine and just mix it with a fork so there are a few banana bites and a few peanut butter bites. I don't know if that will taste better, but I'd like to try it. I'll probably also try adding 1 Tbs molasses too.

I made one batch as cookies on the toaster over tray. Since that's my only toaster oven tray, I put the remaining batter in my silicone mini muffin pan (after spraying it). I baked them for 15 minutes in the toaster oven, but 12 minutes in a regular oven is probably right. I got 11 cookies from the first round and 12 mini muffins from the second round. After his nap, Karston put down one cookie and two-and-a-half mini muffins very quickly. When it's very fresh, Karston likes this recipe! Since it's a small recipe now that I could probably cut in half again, it's just right to dole out small fresh batches as long as we have a little bit of banana in the house. Which we don't, right now.

Cooking, Recipe, Toddler

Two Chocolate Doughnuts!

Most of Karston's words are much more distinct now. He used to say Ah-sha but now he says Outside. Okra (ahk-rah) and ice cream (ice cweem), two favorite foods, are more distinct now. A couple of words are still baby talk, though. He still says Ah-dah for again, and I heard Hah-dah for play recently. He still says shah-shah for chocolate.

This morning, Karston ate chocolate-covered doughnuts. The chocolate coat keeps them fresher longer, too. When he went back for seconds, the tastiest doughnuts were on the bottom, of course. Karston dug out two doughnuts, one for each hand, and looked at us with pure delight! Holding both arms out, one chocolate-covered doughnut in each hand, with a huge smile, Karston clearly said, "Two Shah-shah" before plowing food in his face.

We caught him counting to three a couple months ago. He walked up to the dishwasher, and tapped one - two - three doors past the dishwasher before opening the cabinet door to the trash can. If you're taller than the kitchen counter, the trash is in the first cabinet to the right of the sink; but if you're Karston's height, you need to count to the third cabinet door past the dishwasher. Karston really did seem to be paying attention to Sesame Street when the number of the day was two, and it seemed to soak in. He's had the concept of counting to two and three for a while, but now he knows the word for two is two! We were impressed!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

TWO

Today is Karston's second birthday!

A normal day at my mother's house already includes a lot of playing, so to make his birthday special, my mother took him to the Museum of Life and Science to play with other children. He followed a little girl, and was perfectly happy when she took away his sandbox toy. (He's very mild-mannered.)

When we got home from work, I hit the kitchen to get food ready for the horde while Karston played with his guests. We had dinner (weiners, corn-on-the-cob, and salad), and cinnamon flop as birthday cake (it's quick and tasty, so I can make it after work and eat it right away). I think we all had seconds of birthday cake, even Karston who is a picky eater! Karston was more interested in presents this year, so although he was still overwhelmed, he made it through many more presents this time.

When it got close to his bedtime, Karston walked over to everyone and said "Bye-bye" which was a real ice-breaker and party-ender. Karston had a ton of fun today, but I think he will enjoy a normal day tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Blocks

I know the pediatrician will ask about Karston's stacking skills at his next appointment, so I've been taking mental notes. Three months ago, he stacked our groceries four high in the cart before the non-uniform shapes made the stack fall over. On Friday, Karston stacked his wooden blocks up to eight high before he couldn't resist knocking over the stack. He is a boy, so we need some destruction too! His Daddy and his grandparents were building block towers for him to knock over Friday, and he was getting creative, as well as wound up laughing his head off. He knocked some stacks over with his hands, some with his feet, and even some by sticking his belly out.

We played with blocks this morning too. Karston made stacks up to six high, and he knocked over stacks we built. Then I walked away so he could wind himself down for his nap. He told me MORE, and made me walk him downstairs so he could bring up two more small toy cars to add to the three he has upstairs. Then he fell asleep holding his cars. Then I noticed his blocks. When I left the sunroom, his blocks were knocked over and scattered everywhere. When I next looked, his blocks were very carefully arranged in a very precise ell shape with well over 90% of the blocks with the brightly painted face up. My jaw dropped. I left this pattern intact so I could show Daddy who had the same reaction. Karston's not yet two, and he can be very precise. I know both of his parents are engineers, but this is remarkable. Blocks just came on his radar!

He also wants to make the world safe from stickers. He peeled stickers from our produce that we bought at the store this evening, asked for more to peel, and then collected all of the stickers to put in the trash. That's what I mean by precise ... things are just so ... careful patterns, and then he cleans up after himself. I never expected this from my toddler! But hey, I'm not complaining!

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Durham Bulls

Karston went to his first Durham Bulls baseball game this evening. (It was also the first time for his grandparents.) When everyone else clapped and cheered, Karston joined in. When he saw Patrick Star from SpongeBob Squarepants, a visiting mascot, he got very excited and pointed to Patwick. However, when he got close to Patrick, he curled back into my arms because Patrick, like other mascots, really is quite large when you get up close. We walked over to the next section to talk to our neighbors (and deliver baby food for Dinah, since we didn't have to rush to the airport before the game). The evening was gorgeous, the Durham Bulls won, and we just couldn't ask for a nicer, reasonably-priced, child-friendly outing!

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Class Clown

Today for lunch (and last week, too!) we went to Bandido's, a favorite Mexican restaurant, with Jen and her two daughters.

Last Monday, Karston spent the entire car trip to Bandido's talking about Da-da. Once he was in a high chair next to Nadia and across from Daddy, he only had eyes for Nadia. Pretty red-heads can do that. At this lunch, Karston showed his true colors as a class clown. He turned to Nadia, leaned in, and laughed his head off until she started laughing too. He's a real nut.

Today the kids played together before lunch. I learned that Karston doesn't get jealous when someone else gets to nurse. I really hope that preschool --it starts in mid-August!-- trains Karston to share his toys because he wasn't sure how to play with Nadia. The other mom-embarrassing incident was when Karston was teaching body parts to Tasha. He said feet while tapping his foot, and again while tapping her foot. He said hand while tapping his hand, and again while tapping her hand. On to nose. Not bad so far, and I had stopped worrying, but then he said eye and his unerring finger headed right for Tasha's eye and she doesn't know to blink or turn away like adults and pets. Luckily her mother was quick enough to prevent that disaster, but Karston needs to learn that babies, as much as he wants to hug Chris and Tasha, need extra care, like no fingers poking eyes. He didn't want to be far from Tasha, and he kept saying Baby! Hug! over and over.

This time for lunch, we had extra adults so Karston was more cuddly I'm not sure if he were shy because of more grown-up conversation or because of the larger audience, but he was a ham now and then.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Whee?

Ever since Karston got to ride in the Corvette, front-facing in the front seat, when we walk past it in the garage, Karston pats the door, looks at us, and asks Whee? I knew he would love the Corvette at some point in his life, but I didn't know he would start this young.

Technorati Tags: Car, Toddler

Daddy's Boy

Ever since Will told Karston that the burgundy phone was for play (because it is at Will's house), Karston has used the burgundy phone in our bedroom as his phone. We had to unplug it, and leave it unplugged. This morning when Daddy had been at work about half an hour, Karston picked up that phone and had a one-sided conversation in English, not in Toddler's Tibetan! He picked up the phone and said, Hello? Hello? Da-da? Yeah, Da-da. Da-da come home!

He really loves his Daddy.

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Little Red Corvette

Old cars need to be driven regularly (or else). For short trips on pretty days, Daddy drives his 1969 Corvette convertible. (Of course it's red.) Today he took Karston along. It's Karston's first trip in the Corvette since he outgrew the infant car seat around 9 months old. And it turns out that only the infant car seat fits rear-facing in the Corvette, so Karston was facing forward for the very first time. In the front passenger's seat because there is no rear seat.

Karston spent the whole (short, two mile) trip excited, saying Whee whee whee whee whee whee! We'd say he liked the experience.

Technorati Tags: Car, Toddler

New Skills This Month

Words:
outside (ah-shah is very popular), apple (refined, ah-pull), noooooo, ice cream sandwich (ah-sha cweee sah-wih; now you know how he's staying over 20 pounds), Meeree (Mary, my mother who takes care of him Tuesday through Thursday, sometimes mee-mee, which is fine, or mee-nee, that makes us laugh)

Karston also started combining words. For instance, after he announced he wanted to go outside this weekend, he moved on to "Dada, shoes" because he knows Daddy puts on shoes before taking him outside.

He still says Emma (our dog), kitty, chocolate (sha-sha), okra, juice (shooos), water (wa-wa), cheese (cheees), shoes, nose, eyes, ears, belly and belly button (bewee bee), mama (and ta-ta when he wants to nurse), and of course dada.

Tricks:
throwing a ball (pretty well), carrying two large balls for throwing, digging in the sand (and pouring it in Emma's food or on Emma), drawing, stacking everything in sight (groceries stacked 4 high before sliding over), kissing us when he's happy, and telling us to kiss each other

When one of us is carrying Karston, and we're close, he'll get a sly grin, put his hands to the back of our necks, push our faces together, and wait for us to kiss. When we kiss, he gets a huge delighted grin of yeah, I did that and it's great, and he giggles happily when we kiss him too. Like we keep saying, Karston is all love, all the time.

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First Shower

Karston took his first shower yesterday. When he and Daddy went to play with Emma, Karston patted the hot tub lid and said Wa wa very insistently! So we hopped in the hot tub, and he had a great time playing with water toys. Karston particularly likes the toy sailboat that Daddy got when he was very young. After the hot tub, we decided to see if he would take a shower with us. (Karston dropped some leaves in the hot tub, so we needed to rinse off leaf bits.) I held him tightly, and we all hopped in the shower. We tried a shower about a year ago, and it was a total crying failure that didn't even last a minute. This time we were very casual, stepped in the shower, and it worked! I gradually eased him into the water, with spray going farther up his back gradually and never on his face. He looked concerned for a minute, but then relaxed. We'll stick with the bath in general (he really loves playing with water toys), but it's nice to know we can all hop in the shower now.

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kunder

Karston's new concept this week is under. Monday while I was eating my lunch, Karston crawled under the wicker couch in the sunroom and fell asleep. I moved the couch so I could pick him up for the poopy diaper change he needed. Tuesday and Wednesday he played under my mother's bed. My mother replaced her tablecloth with a large bedsheet, so today Karston played under her dining room table. They played many rousing games of Where's Karston?, but every time she stuck her head under the sheet, Karston pushed her out of his fort.

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#1!

Daddy gave Karston a bath this evening while I did a fast cleanup around the house. I joined the after-bath fun of chasing a naked toddler on the bed with a towel. (Karston loves that game!) He was really fighting the diaper, so we decided to put him on the potty. We have a toiler seat reducer so that he can sit on a regular toilet without falling in. He was perfectly happy with that idea! When we first introduced sitting on the toilet a few months ago, he would sit, kick his legs, look down, poke himself, but that was it. Tonight, he looked down and ... yes! he used the toilet! He got praise and kisses from both of us! He loved that, and after his big smile, he got this look of fierce concentration, and he did it again! More kisses and praise!

So he knows how and where. I guess he just has to work on knowing in advance of the need, and telling us that. We'll see how it goes, but he's pretty good at communication. It's a small victory, but we're off to a good start! We've had the first #1 in the toilet now ... now to make it a habit!

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Jealous

This evening, our neighbor came over with her two daughters Dale and Dinah. Dale is almost three years old while Dinah is eight-and-a-half months old, so Karston is sandwiched between them in age. Since Karston loves to play with Dale and he had napped long enough, I woke him up gently while Daddy started some shrimp for dinner. Karston still wasn't happy about being up, and he asked for ta-ta (neighborly laughter), so I sat down on the kitchen floor and let him nurse. Dinah made eye contact with me, and made a loud noise! Her mom said she had made a happy sound, and I asked if she were interested in what we were doing. -Oh no, she ate before we left the house. Daddy refilled my water, and then offered Karston a peeled shrimp. (Karston likes shrimp. And crab, and tropical fruit. Good Carribean taste!). Next thing I know, Dinah crawled all the way over to her mother and asked for ... well, she did get some ideas from Karston, even if she had just eaten. Daddy knows nursing mothers get thirsty, so he brought her some water as well. For a little while, it was a three-ring circus, between thirsty women wanting water and Karston wanting more shrimp! Two of us were on the floor with our respective children, and Daddy was running to keep the circus afloat!

I really think Karston's nursing made the visiting baby jealous. Hey, if he gets some, I want some too!

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Best! Playdate! Ever!!!

I think Karston just had the most fun he's ever had in one day! His friend Will who's only seven weeks older came over for a playdate. (Yes, that really means my friend's son Will came to play over with my son. Now isn't it simpler just to say Karston's friend Will?) Will's toys have been packed for a while, so his family can move to Italy. Will and Karston played together pretty well, which is impressive for not-quite-two! I think Will really enjoyed playing with toys in a child-proofed house without adults chasing him due to the lack of child-proofing. Karston, on the other hand, was absolutely on fire! He ran. He ran in place, in circles around the couch, around the kitchen island. He laughed, he smiled, he babbled. He showed off his toys to Will. Will went over to the train and played with Legos sitting inside the tracks, sometimes putting Legos inside the caboose. Karston came over, and said Look at this! in baby, and turned the train on so it went around the tracks. Will stumbled to stand up in surprise, and wouldn't take his eyes off the train for four revolutions! Of course the adults fell around laughing at Will's surprise! Then Will's itty bitty baby brother Chris woke up while their mommy was in the bathroom (of course), so I picked him up for cuddling. Karston was very serious that he wanted to carry Chris; I wasn't going for it since (just over two months old) Chris needs to have his neck supported and Karston's a bit young for that concept. So then Karston said he wanted to hold and hug Chris, so I let him do that in my lap. Even after Karston went back to playing, he still came over to rub Chris on the back gently when he fussed. I know Karston's very loving to us, but he's our child; this is the first time I've seen him being so loving to a smaller child. Absolutely adorable. At lunch, Karston and Will discovered the fort under the table and tablecloth. More having a blast. They babbled at each other, and seemed to understand the language, what my mom called fluent Tibetan, just like twins. Then moms and two-year-old boys went in the hot tub, and that was another delight! Splash! Ball! Swim/jump between moms!

So that was five to six hours of non-stop delight today. It's really hard to describe in retrospect, but I don't think Karston's been that excitedly happy for that long before. He's a happy child except when he's not, of course, but that much high-energy happiness for that long ... well, that's something special. He's played before with others, but usually with the three-year-old girls whose moms I know. He enjoys playing with the girls, but Will ... that Will is something else! Just ask Karston!

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Word of the Day: Noodle

Karston's new word today is noo-noo. I boiled ziti for dinner (yummy! but this asiago-spinach chicken sausage has made everything yummy, and I used half the meat and pasta of the recipe), and Karston liked it. We told him those ziti were noodles, and he said noo-noo back.

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Sad Face

The Sad Face: or, Why Karston Hasn't Had a Nap Yet Today

Today Karston perfected his sad face. I asked him if he were tired after my mother came over for lunch (50 mph wind gusts, she has no power), and he said Nigh-nigh, so I set him down in bed. His lower lip went in, and the corners of his mouth went down. I reminded him of night-night, but he just reached for me with that sad face. No, I couldn't refuse, so I picked him up. A short while later, my mother went to show me how putting the kid down for a nap was done. As soon as she set him on his bed, he made his sad face again, and this time his lower lip trembled. Yeah, she picked him up again.

I'm sure he's tired, but if he's going to look that unhappy about it, it's going to be tough to put him to bed. I thought I had an easy shot when he was stretched out on the floor, not playing, just lying on his back. But once I picked him up, he came back to life. It's hard to put a lively toddler to bed; much easier with the sleepy kid.

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Kicked Out of Bed

We've been working on Karston's sleeping habits lately. When Karston was fussy one afternoon last week, Daddy set him down for a nap and walked away quickly (my naptime technique). And it worked, he stopped fussing in a short time, and fell asleep! We've also been putting him to sleep in his own bed. Karston's been a little fussier today, so I think tooth #17 is coming in but it's very dangerous to check (my finger gets chomped). He's also woken up very sad the past couple nights perhaps from the teething, so we've brought him into our bed for cuddling.

For the first two weeks of putting Karston to sleep in his own bed by himself (without one of us sleeping there with him for most or all of the night), Daddy cuddled him to sleep before sneaking away. Well, for the past three nights in a row, Karston has kicked Daddy repeatedly when they lie down in bed together, and he says the same babble syllables each time. The first night we were baffled. Last night we were pretty sure that Karston was kicking Daddy out of bed. And tonight, Karston did it again. This time, he even punched Daddy too. He still wants to delay bedtime as long as he can, but now (in less than a month!) he wants to go to bed by himself. Karston kicked Daddy out of bed! Our toddler is growing up!

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Misbehaving and Tired

Karston played quietly with his TinkerToys this morning for about two hours. Then he wanted to sit in my lap, and continue to play with TinkerToys for another hour. (We all love TinkerToys.) A little before 11:30 AM, I caught an evil whiff, and changed a poopy diaper. In the hall, he started talking about do-do, so I let him feed himself several doughnut holes. (He's learning the advantages of speaking our language, and we like to reward using the correct word instead of his usual fluent baby tibetan.) Then he chugged the water in his sippy without a valve (faster chugging), and asked for mo'. So I gave him more water in that bottle (he was ignoring the blue sippy with valve and water, and his juice sippy), but not much, just in case. Then I heard an odd sound, and just in case was happening. He was holding his water upside down, dribbling it on the chair. I told him NO very firmly and rushed over. He gave me the "what?" look but kept pouring, so as soon as I got over there, I took the water away. That made him cry. I set him on the floor so I could clean up, but he was hopping back into trouble as fast and loud as he could, so I picked him up, and almost took him to his room. But we're doing so well on him sleeping by himself in his room that I didn't want him to have any bad associations with that room. Instead, I flipped him on his back on our bed and told him to think about what he did. I heard some crying (for less than a minute) because he hates to be left alone on his back. I went back to the kitchen, sponged up the water, ran the wet-dry vac, and generally cleaned up that mess. After I was done, guess what? Karston was sound asleep! So somewhere between 11:40 AM (setting him down) and 11:50 AM (checking on him again), he fell asleep. I just wanted him in a time-out while I cleaned up, but naptime is fine too. He woke up about 2:00 PM, glad to see me, and generally happy; a complete change from when I set him down! I know I've said it before, but his bad behavior and tired go together.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

That Odd Warm Feeling

Karston got his fingers pinched in the CD tray this afternoon (it doesn't pinch hard, but it scared him), so I sat on the couch to let him nurse as the fastest way to cheer him up. Suddenly I had this uncomfortable warm feeling seeping on my legs. It turns out that we were on the third diaper leak of the day (so four new outfits for him today, and two for me), but there's that uncomfortable moment when you try to figure out what happened to explain the warmth. Luckily I was off the hook on this one! (My water broke early, and I just made it to the bathroom in time. So at least once, the warm leak was me, and apparently my subconscious still remembers because "Karston did it" was my second thought.)

Hopefully no one else knows this feeling! *grin*

Happy Easter, y'all!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Naptime

I think I just won the "putting the toddler down" contest we didn't know we were having. I was cleaning up the kitchen after lunch, and Daddy was playing with Karston ... who turned fussy. Much resistance to the nigh-nigh suggestion. I called out my suggestion to set him down on his bed, but got some questions about those simple directions. So I walked out of the kitchen (Karston was headed my way), scooped up my toddler, and headed to his room. He stopped crying while I was walking there patting his back. I set him on his back on his bed, said Nigh-nigh, and walked out. He stopped crying about 20 seconds after I left his room. Daddy waited two minutes, said he was surprised, and headed in for a peek when I called him back. The way this routine works is that you must wait at least ten minutes before checking on the child! How do I know it's ten minutes? (Actually, nine works too.) When Karston was very small, I learned that after 8 to 10 minutes of nursing while asleep, I could set Karston down and he wouldn't wake up. Daddy thought he saw toddler eyes before he made the U-turn, so I'm glad he didn't peek any more. What makes it works is the non-negotiable aspect. I set Karston down, I tell him to go to sleep, and I leave. There's no coddling, no cuddling, and no mercy (within the first ten minutes). And he falls asleep quickly! I think Daddy was being too nice; but he is a really nice guy and a great daddy, so that's no surprise.

We're finishing the second week of putting Karston to sleep at night in his own bedroom. Initially, Daddy wasn't sleeping well because he was so used to cuddling Karston to sleep! And I admit, it felt weird to be able to pull covers up over myself. Daddy has to have covers, and Karston freaks out under covers. Even on a king-sized bed, the covers aren't wide enough to cover one person, drop down to leave someone in the middle uncovered, and then come up to cover me. So I wear more clothes to bed.

But this setting him down when it's clearly naptime, and he only makes noise for twenty seconds ... I could get used to this! It's worked for the past month, so I think we're really making progress on sleeping (for all of us). But you know, it might be my naptime too ... *yawn*

Technorati Tags: Toddler

20 - 20

Karston looks so skinny, and his head looks so large for his body (his head size, unlike his weight and height, is thoroughly above the 5th percentile line on the CDC charts). I'd love to feed him french fries right now just to fatten him up, but I only have yucca fries in the house; yucca is like sweet potato but less sweet. I mean, he's over 20 months old, and he's still under 20 pounds!

I think my > 20 - < 20 frustration is because I think twenty pounds is a milestone for sleeping in many toddlers. Karston naps fine! In fact, I just woke him up from his nap so that he would sleep decently well tonight (I hope). I just wish he would sleep as well at night (with fewer books, less cuddling, putting himself to sleep, sleeping well by himself). So I've been rooting for him to cross twenty pounds for a long while, for his parents' sake as well as for his own.

Plus you're usually older than Karston when your age in months is greater than your weight in pounds, you know?

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Karston didn't eat well today, and we're still hoping he weighs more than 20 pounds when he goes to college, so I looked at various recipes through Google Cookin'. I had a lot of ground flax seed in the frig, and I found this Fabulous Fiber Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe on Recipezaar. I used 50% less fat margarine, and I'd use only 75% of what the recipe calls for next time since the batter seemed more moist than necessary (which makes them dry out and get very crunchy when they cool, so don't over-cook them). I also like more oats than that in my chocolate chip cookies, so I would at least double the oats, maybe quadruple. And then I would need to reduce the dry ingredients, so I'd probably subtract half the volume of the additional oats from the volume amount of the flax seed meal. And now you're starting to understand just how hopeless I am about recipes. Just can't follow one! I doubled the chocolate chips just in this test batch when I was trying to follow the recipe! Karston ate maybe 1/3 of one cookie, and seemed to like it. Unfortunately, the cookies tasted pretty good (a bit grainy from the coarsely ground flax seed, but what do you expect?), so his parents each had two. Oh well. I find super calorie cookies (161 calories per large cookie) that aren't too unhealthy, and we're eating them instead of Karston. Oh well, here's to a kid who some day will weigh more than twenty pounds! At least he really likes chocolate chip cookies.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Mo' Grapefruit!

I'm so proud of Karston's grapefruit eating! He eats straight grapefruit, with no sugar added, like I've seen some kids do. It's not really eating grapefruit when you add a cup of sugar to a grapefruit; particularly the routine I saw that left a lot of grapefruit but no sugar in the bowl. So I am opposed to sugar on grapefruit for my kid. Karston has been demanding to join us when we split a Florida grapefruit for breakfast. When we started, Daddy and Mommy each got to eat half of a grapefruit because Karston only ate a few sections. Then more. And more. He worked up to eating a quarter of a grapefruit by himself, and he really enjoys squeezing out the juice and drinking from the peel just like his Daddy.

Well, this morning Karston out-did himself on grapefruit! He ate half a grapefruit by himself! We thought he was done, but then he said Mo'!, and started in on Daddy's half! Daddy had plenty left, but Karston was on a grapefruit-eating roll! He really does like fruit, particularly tropical fruit. His very first non-standard-baby-food was freshly squeezed orange juice, and he loved it. He also loves dairy products (cheese, yogurt, and cottage cheese), and saltine crackers. Some days that's all he eats, but when he's eating fruit with us, it doesn't seem like he had bad eating habits.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Emma

When we took our dog for a run around the yard and lake this evening, Karston pointed at her several different times and said EMMA. That's her name! So Linus the cat is kitty (actually, Karston's stop sounds aren't as crisp as they used to be, so Linus is diddy now), but Emma the dog is now Emma.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

The Knack

If you search for "knack dilbert" at YouTube, you can watch the Dilbert video clip that explains The Knack. My favorite version of the clip is/was this one, but Sony pulled it (no big surprise, as they still don't get it about Blu-Ray that also doesn't have the picture quality, and they don't get it about DRM or rootkits either). The jist is that Dilbert has The Knack as a child, so he is fated to become an engineer.

Well, looks like Karston has The Knack. This morning, he had to show us that he has mastered his hop frog (a toy that jumps if you press the lever on its back). He made sure we were watching, set down the hop frog, and made it jump. Our house came with two units for an FM intercom system. He can turn the intercom on, and put the two speakers together for feedback. In fact, all this week we kept finding the intercoms on when we knew we'd turned them off recently. Last night, Karston followed Daddy into the bathroom, then went back to the living room for his step stool. He put his step stool next to the vanity, climbed on, and started re-arranging everything next to the sink. This morning, he pulled my hand mixer out of the kitchen cabinet (very common so far), but then he dragged it into the living room to plug the mixer into an outlet he could reach (child-proofed of course, but he tries to get around that too). He knows the mixer is more fun when it's plugged in ... argh! The Knack means we have to watch him very closely.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Chocly

Karston's new word this evening is chocly. In my mother's kitchen, he reached as far as he could for the out-of-reach jar of chocolate chips, and said Chocly! with that intense you-know-what-I-mean stare. He didn't get this from either of his parents, but Karston sure does love chocolate! (He's not allowed to have any chocolate after dinner / before bed.)

Last week, Karston helped my mother make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. By helping, I mean that he gobbled chocolate chips while she mixed cookie batter. He gave her a terrible look when she dumped all of his chocolate chips into the cookie dough, and then refused to eat any of the polluted chocolate chips that she pulled out of the dough for him. Of course, this week he's happily eating those same cookies, so I guess he got over it.

Technorati Tags: Toddler

You Need New Shock Absorbers When ...

You know you need new rear shock absorbers when ... after a short trip on a country road, your toddler is gripping the sides of his car seat with that crazy grin he gets on wild rides.

This just goes to prove that Karston makes life funnier. I went to let him out of his car seat when I got to my mother's house, and there he was, grabbing the sides of the car seat, leaning forward, and grinning like mad; he was ready to do it again. I already knew I needed the shock absorbers, but Karston really clinched it there. And he made me laugh, too.

Toddler, Funny

What a Week

Wow, what a great week it's been! And it's not quite Friday yet.

Monday, Karston and I played outside because it was a gorgeous 75 degrees. (Yeah, in January!) We looked at the silly daffodils growing. Mostly Karston played with his sidewalk chalk. He now knows that he can use chalk to leave marks on the cement driveway; last month, he didn't know what we were doing.

Tuesday morning, you guessed it, a few daffodils in bloom! I have never seen my daffodils bloom in January before! Not only that, I've never seen my daffodils bloom before my crocuses and my forsythia.

Wednesday I teach an evening class, so I didn't get enough time with Karston. I didn't eat dinner either; Wednesdays are just that kind of day between working and teaching. Daddy reported that Karston taught himself tinker toys Wednesday evening, and that he spent 45 minutes quietly figuring them out. Karston was fascinated that the middle hole on the rounds is big enough for the spokes to pass easily, but that the spokes seat well in the other holes. Given that the tinker toys say For Ages 3 and Above, I thought those tinker toys were yet another item (sigh) to try to cram in our minuscule attic to get out of the way until he's 3. (For a large house, there's remarkably little storage space, especially of the out-of-the-way variety.) However, he learned about precise alignment with Legos, so I guess tinker toys aren't that far beyond Legos for assembly.

This morning, I looked out the window, we had an inch of snow on the ground, and it was really coming down! This is the first snow that stuck to the ground in Karston's life! (He wasn't impressed.) The traffic cameras convinced me, and many of my co-workers, to stay home in the morning. (I spent the afternoon on an easy car repair. Cold weather doesn't bring out the best in cars, especially diesels that haven't had any maintenance in a while.) So of course that means I had the classic scene of daffodils in snow in my front yard! Pretty, but between the snow/sleet/rain and the wind, I came back inside. The thermometer kissed 32 degrees around lunchtime, and dropped again. However, the ground was still warm from Monday and the warm days leading up to it, so most of the snow melted before dark. The other item of note this afternoon was that tooth #15, the upper left canine, peeked out. This tooth doesn't seem to bother Karston. I'm not even sure that the drool output is higher.

So we've had warmth and flowers this week, but also cold and snow. Karston developed some skills with chalk and tinker toys that we enjoyed watching, and he popped a new tooth so uneventfully that it didn't bother his playing and learning.

I wonder what new fun we'll see tomorrow?

Toddler

See My Legos?

This evening, Karston went into the sunroom to bring some of his Legos into the living room so he could show us that he knows how to put them together now. He had trouble with the exact rectilinear alignment before, but he wanted to show us that he's so much more co-ordinated than that now. You know, less than a month later. I'm really starting to understand why so many labels say "for people age 2 and older" because Karston is rapidly leaving behind the baby stage where he needed our help with everything to the person stage where he learns for himself. He feeds himself (not well, and it's quite messy), he runs everywhere, and he learns toys like Legos. He's growing up!

Toddler

Pediatrician: Eighteen Months

We went to the pediatrician this morning, and Karston is 30" tall, 18.25" head circumference, and 18 pounds 11.8 ounces. (He didn't eat much this weekend! He's usually in the 19 pound range. We're embarrassed. But I'm sure he'll crack 20 pounds before he goes to college.) His height is hovering around 5th percentile, head just above 10th percentile, and his weight just isn't anywhere close to the lines. Or, to put it another way, his weight is average for an 8-month-old, his head is average for a 12-month-old, and his height is average for a 13-month-old. He's not tall, but he's still slender for his height.

My friend Jeni told us to prepare for the question, How many words does he say, so we were ready with a whole list. The doctor was impressed with All Done!, which is pretty useful. After the physical exam, the doctor told Karston that he was all done, and Karston gleefully shouted it back at him a couple times, showing off his best two-word phrase just after we were quizzed on it. The next question was, Does he understand more words than he says? That's for sure, but we had to give examples, so we explained that he runs to the bathroom when he hears "Oh, towel boy" from Daddy. I thought the pediatrician might hurt himself laughing, saying "I've got to write that one down." I think that was a story that he believed only because you can't make up stories that kind of strange.

Daddy asked what we could do to help Karston gain weight, but the answer was, "Honestly, he'd need different parents for that; all I care is that he's healthy at this weight, and his weight curve follows the chart." So his weight's not on the chart, but has a passing resemblance, so that's fine. But hey, he's only had two fevers so he's very healthy, and he has a megawatt smile!

Toddler