ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

Keren learned to say "guitar" when I take out the guitar case <3. "GUI-tah! GUI-tah!"

Tomorrow we do the last ultrasound, which is scary wrt abnormalities but also when we find out what sex the kid is. O_O

Also for people that don't do wdyll, this is what I look like totally geeked hanging out with my 5 day old nephew and niece, who I just met for the first time today

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/8804_10151520284264609_397314500_n.jpg

oh man, cousins nearly the same age, that's the best. congrats.

As an added bonus, they live 8 blocks from us

They'll be 20 weeks apart if everything goes according to schedule

jealous. had no cousins growing up, k has none yet.

Thx to my ancestral Irish catholicness, I had 40+ cousins on just my moms side.

:o

If it helps you feel less jealous, most of them are completely awful

It is a boy. K is going through a bit of disappointment, but better now than later obv.

Healthy w/ just one (as stressed by the doctor over and over again) abnormality, which is the terrifyingly named but apparently not worrisome unless accompanied by other markers "choroid plexus cyst" or CPC. Anyone here ever have that show up?

we had one "soft marker" for Down's Syndrome but everything turned out fine. I sort of resented how the Kaiser docs handled it to be honest.

JJ, I suspect K is going to get over the disappointment pretty quick. Boys and their moms are mad tight.

yeah shes pretty much over it already - and to be fair, theres sort of a weird "what if" malaise that settles in either way i think. i was leaning towards hoping for a boy, and i went through various thoughts abt how it could have been with a girl after finding out the details.

we did our first trial run for ben in day care this morning since my wife has to go back to work on monday. he did okay! he slept a lot and only cried once and peed on a lady changing his diaper.

i am just counting down the weeks left in the school year so i can stay home with him, though.

<3

I just discovered my (third grade) sons instagram account. His username

... Incorporates the word "swag". The whole enterprise is obviously the work of a sixth grade friend of his who wears tight jeans and has like a dozen pairs of shoes. Please help me think of some good daddish ways to drop "swag" into conversation with him.

"hi son. seen any good swag lately?"

K and I have a game now, which I call syllable-pong. Basically it goes like this:

K: "Ma!"
H: "Ha!"
K: "Za!"
H: "Fa!"
K: "Dee!"
H: "Coo!"
K: "La!"
H: "Zu!"
K: "Na!"

This can go on for many volleys, but usually she wins, either by "technical" (playing the dreaded "DEEDAH-DEEDAHDEE!") or by "check-mate" (grabbing my nose).

Love it!

In other news, K has discovered getting really freaking mad out of nowhere. Usually because we dare refuse her request for yet another cracker or piece of cheese.

ugh we let Evie eat part of the ears on her Easter bunny this morning and she was entirely unmanageable the whole day. Crazy and tantrumy and never took a nap. Also would ask every 30 minuted if she could have more chocolate bunny (we didnt let her). I get irritable when I eat more than a few bites of chocolate so maybe she inherited that trait. Exhausting, frustrating day.

Henry would take a few bites of chocolate and immediately hunch his shoulders and start walking in this fast circle, like he was on Nixon on PCP.

A little bit goes a long ways inside those tiny little veins.

"In other news, K has discovered getting really freaking mad out of nowhere. Usually because we dare refuse her request for yet another cracker or piece of cheese.

― i've a cozy little flat in what is known as old man hat (Hurting 2), Sunday, March 31, 2013 8:36 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink"

Beeps was doing this a little while ago. It was to the point where she would demand something, knowing full well we didn't have it, and then freak out like a crazy woman. "I WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sobsobsobsobs" If we said, "Well we can go out and get it" again the replay was "I WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sobsobsobsobs"

This is classic attention seeking behavior. Not in a bad way. Just in a kid way. Demanding instant gratification = pay attention to me. To be fair to Beeps she had just lost her 6 month old kitten to a congenital heart defect, we probably weren't hanging out with her as much as we could have and she was visibly depressed. PP took her to the park to fly her new kite but even that didn't pull her out of her funk.
Figuring it was more about reassurance that she is indeed loved, we managed rectify the situation by spending all the next day with her just roughhousing, watching tv, drawing, etc. That night, while pp and I were in the kitchen, she suddenly announced from the living room 'I'm happy!!!!!'. She's been pretty great ever since too.

I think Henry and Beeps scared their Grandfather for the first time yesterday. After getting way high on sugar they screeched, squealed and ran like maniacs around the house. Then they started using him as a crash mat, jumping from the coffee table and landing on him all knees and elbows. He didn't start making his getaway speech though until beeps started repeatedly announcing from atop the coffee table 'I'M GOING TO POOP AND THEN I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU EAT MY POOP, POPPI!! AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA'

Sugar. Its a hell of a drug.

does swag really stand for 'stuff we all get' ???

Sunny, that makes sense and feels like good parenting/figuring stuff out from the point of view of your kid. I like that story.

i fed my nephew yesterday (from a bottle you dicks) and it was a super emotional awesome experience. im going to go nuts when i have this kid.

yeah I wouldn't be surprised if something has been bothering K, it's just hard to figure it out when they're 13 months and only speaking single words. She's also just doing that testing vocal cords thing though, like today her grandma paid a surprise visit in the morning and she SCREECHED, but out of delight.

evie was grouchy and difficult for a couple more days after the chocolate bunny incident so i think it was mostly due to a growth spurt - she was tired and eating a lot but didn't seem sick. this morning she seemed back to normal.

Stupid-assed neighborhood kids are laughing at my kid because we make him wear his bike and skateboard helmets. I know it blows to wear a helmet. I sure didn't. But I've known people who suffered bicycle head injuries, including a guy who was so miserable through his rehabilitation struggles that he killed himself. There's supposed to be a law in my state, but it never gets enforced. Fuck these kids trying to peer pressure my kid into putting himself in danger.

My mom used to make me wear a helmet when I'd go four-wheeling. Pissed me the fuck off, but now, seeing some kid on the news who snapped his neck every week during deer season, I'm glad she did.

Who's the coolest dude in this picture? Not Dennis Hopper....

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JnuWSL0fSMk/UIqD0944r1I/AAAAAAAAASI/0s9KQueR6Ao/s640/a1969-easy-rider.jpg

I was really looking forward to taking August to a Sears, JC Penney...some sort of portrait studio once a year around her birthday to get the same sort of photos done that I had to do as a kid (and loved), but found out all that went out of business. So I thought well boo but yay because all those photographers out there must have something awesome going on. But so far I am not finding what I want-indoor studio.

I wanted a photo of August in the same dress I wore when I turned a year old, the only "heirloom" anything I have. Just wanted her against a traditional backdrop, some color that complimented the dress, the lighting and that's it, maybe some in black and white. But now everything is outside or at some location about town. Just not feeling it. I'd do it myself but my good camera died and all I have is a tiny Canon. People in these out of studio photos look really over processed. What I find odd is how studio posed they are and it just doesn't match the location. Some make no sense like a child in a crate in front of an old building. Just think it would have looked more "organic" to have the kid sitting in front of a neutral backdrop with an obvious key light...

this is otm http://reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com

yeah i was laughing at that this morning

yeah that is great

One thing that is amazing about very small kids is the eye contact you can have with them. I feel like I so rarely have simple, unself-conscious eye contact with ANYONE. Yet you can look right into your 14-month-old's eyes, and she'll just look right back and smile and not feel awkward or uncomfortable or anything, and maybe she'll reach out and grab your nose or something, but it's such a nice pure feeling.

Today I also taught K what a "hug" was. I don't think she exactly gets it, but she kept saying "hug" and every time I hugged her she would say "od" (hebrew for "again") -- probably more for the novelty of this is a new thing than actually enjoying a hug, but still.

awww

One thing that is amazing about very small kids is the eye contact you can have with them. I feel like I so rarely have simple, unself-conscious eye contact with ANYONE. Yet you can look right into your 14-month-old's eyes, and she'll just look right back and smile and not feel awkward or uncomfortable or anything, and maybe she'll reach out and grab your nose or something, but it's such a nice pure feeling.

Today I also taught K what a "hug" was. I don't think she exactly gets it, but she kept saying "hug" and every time I hugged her she would say "od" (hebrew for "again") -- probably more for the novelty of this is a new thing than actually enjoying a hug, but still.

That was a pocket repost! Well it is right and awesome

lol whoa

i love this thread, you all have got darling children and you all are very great parents.

H also taught her this thing that they call "metzach metzach dutz" (something like "forehead forehead touch") as pictured here (some random dude with his son, not anyone i know):

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/CT06Wfd0GJHGXLQ78md1ONMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0

She is now known to yell out "dutz!" and bump foreheads with elmo, people in books, etc.

on the flipside of all the cute stuff, K (again, now 14 months) has also gotten very demanding and sometimes even seems downright angry if we don't immediately give her what she wants. Do other folks find this to be a typical experience? I try to set limits without being overly domineering about it (not letting her have one more cracker ad infinitum, etc.). I find it hard to deal with though, because one part of your brain is like "this is a baby," while another part is like "this person is being a real jerk!"

"seems downright angry if we don't immediately give her what she wants"

this is what we call "normal" around here

yeah, I figure it's toddlerhood, but still, it's hard to deal with the way she'll just fucking instantly scream in your face because you didn't give her her breakfast two seconds ago

this is why we call petulant people "babies" isn't it?

i'm not sure why i popped in here -- sorry for the intrusion! not a parent, don't even have any siblings, know nothing about parenting. i just made that comment because i thought it was funny that you were noticing that your baby was acting...babyish.

yeah, I guess I am just taken aback by the particular abrasiveness of k's demands