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JDaniel4s Mom

growing & learning with him

Bringing Leaves to Bushes or “Oh! No! Not My Leaves!”

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JDaniel is so into raking leaves. Last year he just wanted to rake the leaves into piles and then carry them to the curb by the handful. This year the leaves are gathered into piles to jump in and be thrown in the air. He spends time every afternoon working on the leaves. We have only a few trees that are dropping their leaves so far this year so the leaf piles have been small. A few days ago JDaniel noticed that his leaf pile had disappeared. “Oh! No! Not My Leaves!” he said. “Where are they?” I told him they might have been blown away by the wind. I really didn’t know. Finally, I asked my husband about it. “Oh! They were ground into small pieces by the lawn mower,” he said.

My husband believes that leaves need to be mowed into mulch size pieces with his lawn mower. That is the way he handled them for the eleven years before JDaniel and I entered the picture. Raking the leaves isn’t necessary. They can just lie on the ground until he gets a chance to mow the lawn.

I have had to explain to my husband the benefit of JDaniel’s raking the leaves. JDaniel gets great exercise raking the leaves with his little blue plastic rake. He “helps” with yard chores by raking the leaves. We will want him to help with yard work when he gets older. He finds great joy in the activity. There is also are certain pride he has once the pile has gotten big.

Is raking necessary? No. Is it something we want to continue to do? Yes. Will we push the leaves under the bushes next time my husband mows the lawn to protect them and then rake them back into the yard? Yes.

 

 

Bushes got a haircut! Now there is so much work!

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One of JDaniel’s friends walked over from next door to play. JDaniel said he had too much work and couldn’t play today. I hope he always loves to do yard work.JDaniel Doing Yardwork

He raked branches and leaves into piles.

 

He carried them to a wheelbarrow.

 

He tried to push them into a bucket.

This posted is linked up to We Play at Childhood 101.

 

Being Two at the Beach is Wonderful!

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Two at the Beach The beach in September is a wonderful place to be. We headed to Myrtle Beach last Sunday for five days. JDaniel had never been to the beach before. I had read him books about the beach and he had been given a set of sand toys by my mom to enjoy at the beach but wasn’t until last week that he actually gained firsthand knowledge of the beach.

We decided to take him to the beach in his street clothes Monday morning after breakfast in the hotel restaurant just so he could see it and maybe walk on the sand. That was a mistake. At first, he just sat at the bottom of the steps leading to the beach and pushed the sand around like he was a bulldozer. Then he ran straight for the water with my husband trailing behind and got drenched sneakers and all. After that, we started wearing our bathing suits for breakfast.

We quickly headed back to our room to change and layer on the sunblock. The sun was still really strong and would have left us beet red. Once we were properly prepared for the water, we headed back for hours of fun on the beach.

The second trip to the beach that the first morning leads to JDaniel’s discovery of shells. He found he loved them all. JDaniel would just start picking up shells whole or in pieces and place them in his bucket as he slowly followed the trail of shells left by the sea. He only made it about 12 feet along the beach before his bucket was full. There were too many shells to pick up and none could be left behind.

He also discovered a joy of sitting on the shore just where three or four inches of water would lap on him, his plastic dump truck or bucket, and his parents. His truck must have been filled with sand hundreds of times that first day. It didn’t seem to bother him that the sand was carried away by the ocean over and over again.

We usually headed in for lunch and then naptime at about twelve. I say headed because we usually ended up having to use the sand rinsing stations outdoor showers several times. JDaniel has found he loves showers now. Following the sand removal sessions, he loved to run around in the baby pool located right by our section of the hotel. We always stopped because it was on the way to the elevator. You just can’t walk by it.

Afternoons were filled with more time in the baby pool or an indoor pool. The hotel had inner tubes that JDaniel loved to play within both pools. I loved the times at the pool. After pool time I didn’t have to scour my son’s body looking for sand deposits. He seemed to get sand everywhere.

The days flew by. It seemed like we would get up in the morning to turn around only a few hours later and go to bed at night. To say JDaniel loved the beach and his time there would be an understatement. We can’t wait to see what he thinks of it next year.

Floating in an Inner tube

 

Angel Hair Attracts Ageless Ladies

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Two weeks ago we went to spend the weekend with my mother-in-law in her new apartment. JDaniel was thrilled. He fell in love with the idea of apartment living when we first toured her apartment before she moved in.
Now that she is living in the “Big House” (The apartments in her senior living community are in a place they call the “Big House”.) she eats one meal a day in the community’s dining room. It is a great place for her to meet friends and spend time around other people for a wonderful meal. She knows almost everyone there. We went with her to dinner during our visit. There were people stopping by to chat with her every few minutes.
Were they stopping to ask how she was doing? No, they were stopping to check out her youngest grandson JDaniel. They admired his hearty appetite. They commented on how well he was behaving. They wanted to clutch his angel-like curls. Lady after lady stroked his curls or squished a handful of them in their palms. “What amazing curls!” they each would say. Did JDaniel notice all this attention to his hair? No way! He was more interested in whether his Nana had more fried okra on her plate and whether mom had any salmon croquettes left on hers. He didn’t even seem to notice he was being fawned over.
Some day he will love the attention of the right lady. She may even be a little older than he is.

 

Cleaning Up Grocery Store Parking Lots or Laboring in Lots

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Rubber Gloves

JDaniel hates to see trash in store parking lots. He points to it and declares, “A mess.” I started to pick up the less messy pieces of trash and put it in the trash to show JDaniel that it is important to take care of the environment. If there is a trashcan nearby it hasn’t a problem to pick up the corner of a bag or smashed can and carry it to the trash.

It can be a problem when there is trash all around where I park and/ or it looks really gross. To JDaniel the trash on the ground is the trash that needs to be taken care of. To me, it looks like a nest of germs waiting to spread to the two of us. I don’t want either of us to get sick because we cleaned up other people’s clutter.

There seems to be three solutions to this growing problem. We can avoid the parts of parking lots with trash. We can start to carry a broom and dustpan to clean up the debris. I can carry rubber gloves in the trunk so I don’t have to touch it.



My Words are Stuck Mom

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Just last week my little clear speaker started getting his words stuck. He starts to say something like “What are you doing?” What comes out of his mouth is “What, What, What.” He gets so frustrated with himself and his words. This isn’t all the time. Sometimes it’s when he is tired. Sometimes it is when he has just gotten up. Sometimes it just happens.
I got worried and talked to my mom and my husband’s mom about it. My mom said that it was just a stage that he was going through and it would pass. My mother in-law remembered that both my husband’s sister Angela and her great granddaughter MK have trouble with this too. “Their brains were processing things too fast for them to speak their thoughts,” she said.
It is so hard to hear him struggle to get words out. I try to stop him and have him count 1, 2, 3. Then I have him try to start the sentence again sometimes that works. If it doesn’t I try to get him to slow down and focus on something else. That seems to work sometimes too.
We were at my mother in-laws over the weekend and she go to hear the what whats and the I I Is firsthand. When got ready to leave, she mentioned we might want to talk to a speech pathologist that we know. It is easy to say that it will pass. It is hard to hear him struggle. This is probably just a stage. We hope it is.

JDaniel Moved to the Blue Room

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JDaniel moved from the nursery for walkers to the two-year-old Sunday school room on Sunday. His new room is called the Blue Room. I think it is because the carpet is blue. This is a big change for us. His old room had chairs built into the table and a large play area. He mostly played, read books and snacked in the nursery room. The Blue Room has tables with chairs, a play area, and a circle time area. In the Blue, Room JDaniel gets to hear a Sunday school lesson and sing songs while sitting in a chair just like a big boy. He also gets to do a craft at the tables. He still gets a snack and playtime too. It was the sitting in chairs and focusing on the teacher that was really new to him.

I tried to prepare him for the change. We stopped by the room early in the week when I had to stop to pick up the two-year-old curriculum. I get to be his teacher every other week. We looked at the tables and the toys. He was really excited about getting to be a big boy now at church. My sister Michelle had sent a big box of hand me downs in the box we found a toddler-sized Spider-Man backpack we decided would be better to use for Sunday school than a diaper bag.

 


When Sunday came, we had a rough start. He didn’t understand that mommy would be going to church and returning to teach his class during the Sunday school hour. He didn’t know that lady who greeted him at the door. The children he knows from the nursery weren’t there yet. I left hearing him cry and watching him reach out for me while someone else held and rocked him.

By the time I got back to teach his class he was playing with cars, had located a Bob the Builder book, and now had smattering of graham cracker crumbs around his smiling face. I think he is going to like the Blue Room.

A Stepstool Can Lead a Toddler to Trouble

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A stepstool looks a harmless kitchen tool until you see what a toddler can use it to help him do. I have had the same white plastic step stool for years. This step stool is light and easy to move from one location to another. It is a great thing for me to have in the kitchen. At 5 feet 3 inches tall I have needed one to reach high shelves and clean the top of the refrigerator.

It is unfortunately a tool JDaniel loves to use to help both him and me. He uses it to help get himself into his booster seat. Next he may use it to help him climb into our bed. He may than pick it up and use it to help him get into the sink to “help” clean the dishes. It can be moved to the counter to “help” me make dinner. The stool may then be taken to the living room and be used to reach our books that interest him. If I haven’t remembered to close the bathroom door, it could be used to explore the bathroom counter.

If he needs it and it is somewhere else on the first floor stand clear, JDaniel will rush off to get it and bring it back. I could be working on dinner and get nudged by the step stool to make room for JDaniel to stand on it. He just wants to see what is going on and “help”.

The step stool has gone into timeout from time to time. If it is used in a way that leads to trouble, it sits on our bed for a time. Without it JDaniel can’t climb into our bed to retrieve it. It has to sit there and wait to be retrieved by an adult.

My husband has suggested that maybe the step stool could go away permanently. I hate to take it away forever. Without it I can’t reach the top shelf and JDaniel can’t get into his booster seat.

 

Yield! Family in Boot Camp

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This yellow shirt tells you where my family is right now. We are in Toddler Boot Camp. Notice I didn’t say JDaniel was in Toddler Boot Camp. My husband and I are going through Boot Camp too. When you think about boot camp or at least when I do I think of the drill sergeant in an Officer and a Gentleman yelling at the new recruits. At my house, there isn’t a person in authority yelling at a toddler. We do at times have a toddler yelling, stamping his feet, and waving his arms at us. This doesn’t occur all the time. It does seem to happen when we are leaving someplace fun to return home, he is denied two snacks, and at random times as if for no reason like daddy walks in the door and he believes he has gotten mom where he wants her.

I start each day by putting on my drill instructor uniform of shorts, a t-shirt, and sneakers aka as running shoes. I have to be able to run to keep up with the young one. JDaniel wears a similar uniform in a smaller size. He has to change his several times a day. Most of the time due to a spill or stain gained in the mess hall.

As in any boot camp exercises and lessons have to be taught over and over again with consistency. We need to work on praising his achievements and relearning skills not yet mastered. It is hard to watch him crawl through the mud and try to scale walls over and over again. (Figuratively. He would love to do it literally.) It is hard not to laugh at some of the antics that are funny but will cause him trouble. Like many boot camp instructors, my husband and I have to laugh at the events of the day after taps.
We truly love him and are trying to guide him through love. Lately, there are days that it feels like Boot Camp at our house.

Are you doing through Boot Camp too?

 

 

Morning Words Out of My Toddlers Mouth

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The first words JDaniel says each morning when I go to get him out of his crib tell me a lot about what he was thinking about right before he went to sleep or when he first woke up. They are usually very interesting.
Here are some examples:
I went to volunteer at a consignment sale last week and my husband put JDaniel to bed.
JDaniel: “Daddy put on jamas. You went in car.”
We got home after 15 hours on the road to get home from Virginia. (See Adventure to Driving to NY and Back for the details.) I put JDaniel to bed in his clothes rather than trying to change him since he had fallen asleep in the car and it was 11:30 p.m.
JDaniel: “I in clothes. This is silly.”
JDaniel had cried a little the previous morning and laid down to start to go back to sleep. When I walked in his room, he jumped up. Before I put him to bed I said, “It is okay to go to back to sleep. You don’t have to cry for Mom when you first wake up.”
JDaniel: “I wait for you mom. I not cry.” (He said from where he was laying down.)
One morning he must have been hungry when he woke up. He wanted me to rush through morning prayers and head downstairs.
JDaniel: “Hurry,pray! It breakfast time.”

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