Parenting Toddlers

This week’s Sunday Sixteen:

1) This weeks big news, Alex is allergic to Amoxicillin. We know this because he broke out in horrendous hives all over his body and required a visit to the pediatrician AND the allergist, all in one day.

2) I desperately need to buy more Aquaphor. Preferably in a dog proof tube.

3) Alex started waving “hi” this week. He also usually says something sounding like “hey” or “hi”. It’s so cute!

4) I won a Guest Blogger contest over at Pinks & Blues Blog AND I won a gift certificate. Pinks and Blues are looking for other guest bloggers, so visit their site and give them some literary love.

5) Alex’s favorite foods this week: strawberries, sliced american cheese, yogurt, and feta chicken.

6) Mommy and Daddy have been much better about establishing a “read to Alex before bedtime” routine. Great for Alex’s vocabulary, and it’s a nice chance for some quiet family time too.

7) At his doctor’s appointment for the hives, Alex weighed 21.3 pounds. He is bound and determined to eat like a pig and not gain an ounce. I don’t think, though, that’s he’s losing weight, so I’ll take what I can get.

Alex has TWO new cousins in Michigan!!! Cousin Aiden Werner was born on March 11, and cousin Rowan Elise was born on March 28th. Congrats to both sets of parents! We can’t wait to meet the new additions!

9) We learned this week that to treat an allergic reaction, we can give Alex Zyrtec AND Benadryl at the same time. We just have to call to get dosage based on his weight.

10) We have new neighbors! Someone finally bought the house next door, and though they won’t be moving in for two months or so, Nick had a chance to meet them yesterday and said they are very nice. They are also from Charlottesville, where I used to live years ago. Small world!

11) We’re going back through another hitting phase. Alex has suddenly started hitting whenever he’s frustrated, ie, whenever he gets told no.

12) The house is a wreck again. Which means another week of me cleaning up and picking up, only to have it totally messed up again by the time I’m done. I hate cleaning.

13) Jason Ray, who was the UNC mascot for the basketball team died this past week after being hit from behind by a car as he walked back to his hotel in New Jersey just before UNC’s game against Southern California. My prayers go out to his family.

14) I desperately need to get off my lazy rear and start walking again. Didn’t get much exercise this past week between the weather and the allergic reaction.

15) I’m thinking about starting a new habit of deciding what I’ll be making for dinners during the week the weekend before. That way everyone knows what we’re going to have, and I have less “hmm, what do I have in the frig?” time. Anyone already do this?

16) Alex is the photo of the month over at My Mommy’s Place! The picture is from his birthday, as he was riding in his new wagon for the first time. One of my articles was also selected to head up this month’s offerings, so head on over to My Mommy’s Place and check it all out!

Jason Ray, UNC mascot, My Mommy’s Place, Amoxicillin

I promised myself I would never watch American Idol. I swore that I would not become part of the addicted masses that forego necesseties like going to the bathroom for the entire hour this show is on. And I did really well for a couple of years before I made my first big mistake. I stopped switching channels for a couple seconds too long. A couple seconds turned into minutes, which turned into hours, and occasionally even two or three hours as American Idol is apparently the prime time TV dictator, and can play as many times a week as it wants, for as long as it wants. It’s worse than a presidental address for clogging up tv time.

In any case, I’ve been watching for basically the last two seasons religiously. Last season I watched because Chris Daughtry could straight belt it, and he was simply awesome to watch. I now have his CD, and I STILL think he should have won last year. I think the fact that he has the number one album in America right now only serves to drive my opinion firmly into the “Yes Jennifer, you are right” category. (I love that category. I want to LIVE there I love it so much.) I watched last year because I enjoyed the talent. This year I swear I’m watching just to see how far NO talent can take you. You all know who I’m talking about. Sanjaya Malakar, while probably a very nice and very sweet kid in real life, can still not sing a note. He is proof that Americans love to buck the system, love to root for the underdog, and no matter what, love to screw with corporate bigwigs’ ideas of what should be. And while I have to respect Sanjaya for his blatant defiance of everything sane in the universe with his random scary hairstyles, I don’t have to enjoy listening to him.

I’d much rather listen to Alex bang on the pots and pans and screech in random tones. Even if it’s not being televised by the American Idol TV monopoly, it’s still so much easier on my ears. He howls right along with Diesel. He makes thousands of musical sounding noises that I think are quite possibly full sentences on some alien planet yet to be discovered. He bangs on pots and pans with a wooden spoon, knocks tupperware together, even bangs the coffee table with his hands to get the rhythm going. I’m thinking he’d probably even help Sanjaya with his timing if he asked nice.

American Idol, Sanjaya Malakar, Chris Daughtry

Not to gloat but ….

I WON, I WON, I WON, I WON, I WON!! *Doing the happy dance around the living room*. I am so excited because I actually won a Guest Blogger Contest over at Pinks & Blues Blog. The topic for this contest was What Makes You Lucky, and since you come here because you obviously LOOOVE my ever sarcastic wit, hop on over to Pinks & Blues Blog and check it out!! Plus you can find out more about their ongoing Guest Blogger contests and maybe win one yourself!! Did I mention that I get a Gap gift certificate in addition to the added “net exposure” for winning? The certificate will come in very handy, as Alex’s skinny little butt is in desperate need of some of the Gap’s neat adjustable pants for little ones (they button inside the waistband to fit skinnier guys and gals like Alex), and I just HAPPEN to have a Gap in my local mall, how convenient is that?

Also wanted to share this adorable picture with you of Alex’s friend Eli enjoying the beach a few weekends ago. Man how I wish I was there this week!!

Pinks & Blues Blog, guest blogging, The Gap

First and foremost, we need to send a GREAT BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY out to Alex’s Grams!! Happy Birthday Grams!

NIGHT WAKING

Last night, we were awake multiple times. Alex is still taking antibiotics, so I’m concerned that he’s got some residual ear pain from his ear infection that might be disrupting his sleep. He’s no longer running a fever, thank goodness, but the night waking continues. The strange thing is, most of the time I actually wonder if he’s awake or not! His eyes are still closed, but he cries incessantly until Nick or I pick him up and rock him. The rocking only takes five minutes or so, and he’s calmed back down and then can be laid back down in his crib. The frustrating part in all this is making sure that we’re not starting and/or reinforcing a bad habit. So you know me. I went looking for answers. When it comes to Alex’s welfare, I’m like badger in rooting out what information I need.

What I found suprised me. Toddlers, up until the age of 2, still need about 14 hours of sleep A DAY!! That means about 11 hours of sleep a night, and one or two naps that total about three hours. Toddlers over two still need at least 12 hours of sleep a day. You can read the rest of this really interesting info at Babycenter’s Toddler Sleep Center. I highly suggest checking out, if even just for informative purposes.

I also found out that if your toddler wakes up recurrently at night, it MAY be because they aren’t getting enough sleep during the day. Being overtired, or, over time, sleep deprivation, can actually make it harder for toddlers to sleep soundly through the night. This fact blew my mind. I always thought, if we’ve had a busy day, played hard, then Alex will sleep like a rock, but not so. I also discovered this VERY interesting tidbit over on Dr. Greene’s site: “ADD is an important problem in its own right, but research in sleep laboratories has shown that some (and perhaps a great many) kids are mislabeled with ADD when the real problem is chronic, partial sleep deprivation.” You can find out even more about the correlation between sleep deprivation and ADD at www.drgreene.com

In all these travels throughout the information superhighway, I have discovered something very important. Alex, though asserting his independence right now and occasionally fighting his naptimes, needs consistency. He needs his Mom to be reliable in putting him down for his naps every day. He needs Mom to be strong enough to let him fuss for a bit if that’s what it takes before he learns that naptime is not something to fear or to fight. He also needs his Mom and Dad to be very, VERY predictable when it comes to bedtime. We always counted ourselves lucky because Alex has always been one to simply lay down when it was time to go to bed. We established his routine early, and it has worked wonders. Until now. Until he discovered that he is his own person, and that he wants to push the limits on certain things and learn where his boundaries are. It’s up to Mommy and Daddy to help him learn that naptimes and bedtimes are unbendable rules.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s only 10 am, but Alex is already sound asleep for his first nap of the day, and I think I’ll follow his example.

toddler sleep habits, night waking, Dr. Greene, toddler illness

So Alicia over at Parenting Sites 411 tagged me for this nifty blogroll idea, and after I woke up from my medically enduced haze (that’s cold medicine induced, nothing else), which is currently made necessary by the fact that I cannot, FOR THE LIFE OF ME, fall asleep without coughing and hacking for at least two hours every night. Anyway, after staring mutely at the screen for about an hour, I think I finally figured out how to keep this going! And don’t worry, it shouldn’t be hard at all for anyone who’s had a solid night’s sleep in the past week or so! So check out the great sites below, and tell them Parenting Toddlers sent ya!

Alex and I just love these sites!

Here are the rules:

1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content string. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra linkback.
2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your post and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword.
3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals� list.
4. Add up to 5 new parenting or (Mommy/Daddy) blogs to the list in the “My Adds� section.

My add ons:
A Work of Art: Raising Our Exceptional Son
Ever After … My Way
Adventures In The 100 Acre Wood
An Island Life
Adoption and Fire

The originals:

Lala Girl
The Bookworm Broadcast
Parenting Sites 411

Cass Knits
Geni Desu Yo

No Average Mom
Notes From The Trenches
Busy Mom.net

Groovy Mom
Coffee Time
My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings
Toil

My Single Mom Life
Tips From The Money Goddess
Army Mom: New Jersey

Melissa’s Place

Three Sons and a Princess
Moot Thoughts and Musings
A family runs through it
Uglyhead
Parenting Toddlers

I hereby banish ye, Sir Cold and Flu Season, from these parts for all eternity. Or at least until next year.

There is nothing I love more than warm weather (with the possible exception of my husband and my son, but you already knew that). On that same path, there is nothing I HATE more (and by hate I mean despise with every ounce of my mind and soul, hate with the fire of a thousand hells, aka, I really, REALLY don’t like) than a flash of warm weather followed by cold weather again, followed by warm weather, and so on. Now I’m not sure if Mother Nature is suffering from PMS during all this, (or possibly menopause, thus the hot flashes) but if so I’m all for buying her some of that new PMDD medicine that has every husband out there convinced that their wife will suddenly turn into a perfect little angel at least once a month. All these changes in weather tend to make me sick. And I mean that literally. Right now everything hurts. It even hurts to type, but luckily, I am dedicated to all you wonderful people who stop by and read my blog, so I’m fighting valiantly through the pain (And Sir Tylenol of Ye Olde Medicine Cabinet is helping).

This past weekend was a blast, we went to Myrtle Beach and spent time with Grams and Poppy, and some other family friends that we hadn’t seen in quite a while. We went to the St. Patrick’s Day festival on Main Street, and laughed ourselves silly talking about old times. Alex got tons of attention, which of course, he completely expected, and he even had his very first shag lesson with his Grams (Which basically consisted of him stomping his feet gleefully while every woman in the entire place applauded raucously). We did not have nearly so much fun on the way back, when Alex decided halfway through the trip that he was sick and tired of being in the car seat, and it was time that we heard about it. In helping us to understand, he was also kind enough to offer this opinion at the top of his lungs.

It is these little episodes that convince me how much of a toddler my son really is. He is becoming such a little individual, it’s absolutely amazing. Luckily, every so often he still just wants to be a little cuddle monster and comes to me for assistance.

I’m sure most of you have heard by now that there is a massive recall of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter going on. In case for some reason you haven’t heard about this, if you buy Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter, check the lids. If the product code stamped on the lid begins with “2111″ THROW IT OUT. This batch, manufactured by ConAgra Foods in a single factory in Georgia, has been shown to contain salmonella bacteria and IT WILL MAKE YOU SICK. If you want to find out more about this, check it out straight from the FDA at this site.

This is of special concern to those of us with toddlers, since peanut butter ranks right up there with hot dogs in the toddler “I want” diet. Suddenly as parents we find ourselves wary of everything our kids put in their mouths (other than random toys, dirt and whatever might be found on our kitchen floor). I know I for one am thinking … if this can get through to the stores, indeed to our very kitchens, and no one catches it until AFTER it’s made hundreds of people sick, what ELSE could be contaminating our foods that we don’t know about?

Of other special concern is a recall of Earth’s Best Organic Baby Food. Most toddlers are completely off baby food by this point, but in case you have younger kids or still give this as a treat every so often, here’s more information.

The FDA is also currently working on some issues with a new asthma medicine, Xolair. They want an insert put in the package to mention that some people may have an allergic reaction to the medicine causing anaphylaxis. ANAPHYLAXIS?? Are you kidding me? My kid has asthma. He’s never been on Xolair, thank goodness, and I understand that only “some” people “may” have such a reaction, but to me that’s just too much of a chance to take!!

Unfortunately, until we are all self-sufficient organic farmers, and can magically destroy any and all bacteria and unwanted organisms along the way, we’re stuck with the way things are. So appaerently we simply have to wait for people to get sick, or have massive reactions to medication.

In the meantime, keep your eye on the FDA recalls page for breaking news on the food and medicine front.

peanut butter recall, FDA, toddler foods, Earth’s Best Organic Baby Food, Xolair

Have you seen this??
This absolutely blows my mind! What exactly goes through a person’s mind when they do something this ignorant? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to sit here on my high horse (which is actually not that high because I’m pretty short in the first place) and say I’ve never left my child sleeping in the car while I run in for something before. But I am going to point out that I never leave my child UNLESS he’s sleeping, I ALWAYS leave the heater or air conditioner on, I NEVER leave him if I’m going to be out of the car for more than 5 minutes or if the car will be out of my sight, and I ALWAYS lock the car from the outside so that no one can steal my child or my car.

In this particular case, the woman apparently left her children in the car while she went into a tanning salon to tan. The kids were left in the car for about 20 minutes, in freezing temperatures, and the car was locked but not left running = no heat. You will not convince me that this woman didn’t have a relative, friend or even a neighbor who would have watched her kids for half an hour so she could get her tan on. The article mentions a husband showed up in the midst of all this … why exactly did she not leave the kids with him? If he was working, why did she not set up a time for him to watch them later on in the evening or over the weekend?

In this case, the woman got lucky. The kids were okay (even though one was only 23 months old), cold, but okay. I guess some people just don’t learn until they get arrested for homicide.

toddlers, child endangerment

A few days from now the ultimate test of the Gladiator will take place. Players will bash, beat, smear, pound, and race until only a select few, battered and bruised, will remain standing. Fans will jump, shout, swear, dance, clap, and thoroughly absorb every sweat-spattered moment. Yet there, standing off to the side, a little excited and a little scared, watching their parents and relatives avidly but with slight concern as well, is Every Toddler In America.

The Superbowl is a concept that frequently isn’t shared with little ones. They get an early dinner and an early bedtime, and are then expected to sleep peacefully through three hours of Mommy and Daddy’s shouting, laughing and screaming.

Let’s get real people.

Who says your toddler can’t get in the spirit of things too? Who says your two foot tall Peyton Manning wannabe, (who doesn’t understand football because, well frankly, Barney the big purple dinosaur hasn’t bothered to explain it just yet), can’t have Superbowl fun along with everyone else?

Here are some great tips for getting your little one involved!

1) Give up on bedtime. If you have guests over, or even if you’re just watching with your Bears obsessed husband (and yes, having “DA BEARS” tattooed on any body part classifies you as obsessed), there will be noise. And worse yet it will be noise that sounds suspiciously to your toddler like fun noise. Plan on letting your little cheerleader take an extra nap the next day and just give in. Late bedtime is super exciting to a toddler in itself, so you’re already established as “Awesome Mom” from the get go.

2) As soon as the game starts, let your child pick a team they want to root for. Really important factors come into this decision. Things like … “I like the horsies”, “I want red”, or “Not that team, he’s uggy”. Picking opposite Dad’s choice can actually be fun too, since, as every self-respecting toddler knows, antagonizing Dad is ALWAYS fun (plus it usually leads to being tickled and that’s fun for everyone). Whichever team your child picks, identify the colors the team wears, then take your little linebacker into his room and let him pick out clothes that match those colors. (See how we snuck in a learning experience right under their nose? Go us!!)

3) If you don’t have a violent opposition to wagering, “bet” your little one various things to keep them interested in the game. “Daddy will bet you a horsey ride around the living room that the blue guy throws the ball.” The idea here is not to show your child how to get a bookie on speed dial, but to let them feel as if they are a part of the game too. Make sure to make a few bets that they win, and a few they lose, just to keep things interesting. Winning bets could get things like piggy back rides, a cookie at half-time, or getting to trade seats with someone for a while (keep in mind this means whoever gets picked usually ends up on the floor or in the the Tickle Me Elmo chair - you have been warned). Losing bets should have very little consequences. Giving hugs or kisses is a great one, since most toddlers secretly love kissing and hugging Mom or Dad, but making a big deal out of it is sure to elicit tons of giggles.

4) Count, count, count!! Get out blocks, balls, toys, etc. Each time a team scores, count out how many points they made. “One (red block), two (green block), three (blue block)!! Three points!!” If you’ve got guests over, have them join in the counting. Your little one will be thrilled to feel like the leader of the pack, and they’ll be learning their numbers in the process. (See how we slipped YET ANOTHER learning lesson in there?? Damn, we’re good!)

5) Let them SCREAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMM!! Okay think back really hard. When was the last time you DIDN’T yell at your toddler when they screeched or screamed? What better time to reinforce the fact that there are sometimes when it IS OKAY to scream for fun, but that doesn’t mean all the time? Go ahead, let Mini Madden do his worst. After all, everyone’s awake so it’s not going to hurt anything right? You’ll also have this to refer back to later on. A week later when your toddler is screeching in the grocery store line you can always mention “Remember when we screamed at the football game? That was okay screaming. This is not.”

Obviously every toddler is different. Your toddler in particular might prefer to go to bed and completely ignore you crazy adults for as long as it takes. If on the other hand, your little one prefers being a “big kid” for a night, you can’t go wrong in sharing the Superbowl addiction. Just think, twenty years from now your precious child might be the one shown on national tv painted blue and wearing deer antlers on their head.

Ahhhh. It’s enough to make any mother proud.

Superbowl, toddler, kids, activities for kids