ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

though I'm guessing not so much of a babby now

Negativity where? Maybe I don't want to see it.

I just experienced my first "baby spews formula all over you" moment. It's not fun.

why are you so negative dan

Am I supposed to be psyched when one of my kids vomits all over me?

yep you're supposed smile wistfully and shake your head as vomit drips off your neck and onto the floor

dammit

I need a pamphlet

You're supposed to call it "spit up" to further distance you from the reality of what's running down your shirt front (or pooling in your bra).

BARF

"Spit up" seems worse, like he intentionally saved up a bunch of formula to yak at me in retaliation for feeding him.

Do Americans call the little spit-ups possets like we do here? Kind of Shakespearean, makes me feel learned when I say it.

what wd possets u to call baby barf possets

sorry there was some opinions abt kids on a couple other threads that were bummers to me. my kid is great, VG! he's "a big boy now" as he says. Especially now that he uses the potty for most #1s. (#2s are still training pants-centric.)

This morning I learned how many times in a row an angry three-year-old can shriek "I WANT YOGURT RAISINS" in a 15-minute period. Answer: about 800 billion.

Like if you don't say anything other than I WANT YOGURT RAISINS for 15 minutes and you just say it over and over again, you end up saying I WANT YOGURT RAISINS a lot.

Not a challenge but a sincere request for advice: how do you not just give her the damn yogurt raisins because if you have to hear I WANT YOGURT RAISINS one more time your head is literally LITERALLY I MEAN LITERALLY going to melt off your neck? Because that has to be the hardest thing and I don't know if I'll be up for it.

Once again, I would die of happiness if my little girl wanted to eat yogurt raisins. : )

I'd eat them all right in front of her, then the request can no longer be fulfilled.

This morning I learned how many times in a row an angry three-year-old can shriek "I WANT YOGURT RAISINS" in a 15-minute period. Answer: about 800 billion.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Thursday, April 17, 2014 11:40 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

looool

one time we counted how many times J pleaded "mama mama mama, mama, mama, mama, mama...mama...mama..mama mama mama" in a particular 5 minute period, it was 120 times i think

Not a challenge but a sincere request for advice: how do you not just give her the damn yogurt raisins because if you have to hear I WANT YOGURT RAISINS one more time your head is literally LITERALLY I MEAN LITERALLY going to melt off your neck? Because that has to be the hardest thing and I don't know if I'll be up for it.

― carl agatha, Thursday, April 17, 2014 10:43 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Like with basically every other aspect of parenting, the annoyance is balanced out by guilt and fear (in this case, of being a terrible parent who doesn't enforce any rules or encourage a healthy diet).

I constantly worry about being too lenient and giving in too easily. Yesterday we gave her three VERY easy chores to do before dinner and she did half of one of them and then sat on the floor and cried because no one was helping her.

These stories are hilarious! Is it, like, the flip side of discovering that learning & using language gets results? Is it like when a kid learns that flipping a lightswitch has an effect and they want to do it 100x in a row?

think most of that stuff is not worth worrying about. it's annoying but I don't think it augurs any long term problems. also chores suck

xp

Yeah, ounce of prevention, etc. A bit of not giving in when they're wee usually (not always, of course) leads to less of that nonsense when they are a bit older. At this point as soon as I hear any digging in, I'm like "oh, so you want to PLAY?!"

Didn't know until just now that yogurt raisins were unhealthy! Palm oil? I've been fooled.

No, they're fine. There was other stuff going on too (she had already picked out another snack, we were on our way out of the house, she only wants to eat sweet things so I'm hesitant to give her more sweet stuff, etc.).

I'm reading a really good book about parenting called The Good Mother Myth - http://goodmothermyth.com/. It's very comforting.

Oh, awesome! I've always liked its predecessor, The Myth of Motherhood.

Blossom is a neuroscientist

Ugh, Mayim Bialik is one to talk about "debunking".

Yeah I know. She didn't contribute essays. Just a blurb.

dear god I am so fucking tired

singing ought to be an adventure this morning

haha dude

My takeaway from this morning was "thank god I sing bass"

Also I totally fell asleep during Easter dinner, oops

Haha awww Dan.

#dadlyfe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGUP8oc9Bgs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGUP8oc9Bgs

Need to get serious about tooth brushing. I was hoping I could get August to do it herself but she just chews the brush. Actual brushing causes tears, shrieking, high pitched screams. Discovered a slightly furry tongue...so uh...watched several videos today with her about tooth brushing and found two for parents basically saying you have to strap them down to do it right. It's more important that teeth get brushed than they like it right now. Going to get tough, real tooth brushing will be happening.

Try an electric toothbrush. We got one for Evie and she's pretty into it.

That's a good idea!

oh man, yeah. tooth brushing can be a struggle. our dentist recommended a spinning brush and to use paste toothpaste (as opposed to gel toothpaste).

my struggle right now is potty training. I can get my 3.5 year old to sit on her potty chair sometimes. Sometimes she actually does her business and sometimes she demures. By far though, she prefers to pee and poop in her diaper. We're at the point where we probably need to read a book about potty training or something. She's on the last size of pampers they got.

Definitely going to get a new tooth brush.

August seemed at first very interested in potty training but it's not happening anymore. Had a move so that might be it.

She will be two on Friday and I have noticed that she wants to be "a baby" again. I remember feeling that way and acting like a baby when I was her age. I remember it so well because I'd get in trouble for regressing.

So I play along with her in the game where she pretends to cry like a baby so I pick her up and talk to her, rock her and burp her like a baby then put her to sleep. She then gets up by herself and we do another round and then she's her independent self again. I think it's a very interesting time in her brain and I wish I could get in there and look around. I wonder how many, if any, memories of being an infant she has,what are they. I'd like to know what baby really means to her. She points out babies a lot now and often the kids aren't really babies just two year olds in strollers. When a real baby-baby approached her she got weird and shy and seemed bothered. Giving her a lot of affection and attention because I remember wanting that when I was two. I was clingy. I thought it had to do with having a new baby brother but maybe it's just a two thing?

You remember being two?

My earliest memory is from when I was two; we were looking at the house I grew up in and I pinched my finger in the closet door in my parents' bedroom. (I still have a faint mark on that finger to this day.)

I have really clear and distinct memories from when I was 2-4. Climbing out of my crib, being afraid of my closet, my dad letting me pick pieces of scrap wood from the debris pile at a construction site, sitting in the bath tub with my parents while a tornado passed behind our apartment building, playing with neighbor kids, running away from home bc I was bored and not bc I was upset, trying to mail my grandmother a letter by drawing a stamp on an envelope, eating cat food (seriously).

We moved a lot when I was little so I have strong associations w/ different places & times so I think that helped me remember a lot of stuff.

I have vivid memories from around 4 years old when we were staying at a beach house. my mum was giving my baby sister a bath in the plastic baby bath on the kitchen table, while Dad was making porridge on the stove and Rocky Burnett's 'Tired of Toein' the Line' was playing on the radio.

I dunno if have anything earlier than that though.