Wednesday, June 24, 2009

All better, mommy! Boo boo gone!

Ah yes, the simplicity of a toddler's world. You sit on the potty, you get a sticker. You ask nicely for Caillou, Mommy turns it on for you. You get an boo boo, Mommy kisses it better.

In an adult's world, there is death, war, disease, happiness, joy and just plain life. There are days I wish I could turn on the news and see nothing but Double Bubble gum jokes, random acts of kindness and sappy stories.

But sadly, this is just not the case. We don't live in a world where kisses make every boo boo go away...unless you live with T.

Today, as we were negotiating nap time with T, I wanted to read just one book. Ha, ya right I should have known better. That one book turned into about five.

Alright fine, I said, I will read five books but all I ask is that I get to sit in my rocking chair as my back was a little sore. It was a little tender as I had to carry T through the various parking lots of our morning shopping trip. Apparently, the asphalt was too hot for her sandal footed feet.

No, Mommy was to sit on the floor. I tried my best whine and told T that Mommy's back hurt and she needed to sit in the chair.

Nope, floor - T pointed to the floor as if to add authority to her order.

But Mommy's back hurts!? I retorted.

T looked at me very determinedly and started to maneuver her way through the narrow passage way between her crib and the rocker. I thought for sure she was going to hide behind the chair to further draw out our pre-nap story time. But no, that wasn't what she had in mind.

About half way past the entry between the chair and crib, T paused. She reached over the rocker arm, lifted the back of my t-shirt, leaned over the arm of the chair and kissed my back. 'All better Mommy,' she said.

In T's world, a simple kiss makes everything better. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I just went and sat on the floor.

Maybe T should go give the dictators of the world a kiss and the world would be all better. Not likely but she always makes my world better. She has her moments that make my blood pressure spike but far more often her actions make me just want to smother her with kisses and hugs.

p.s. She also gave Gryffin a kiss but it really didn't make him feel better as he ran away as soon as I put him down ;) How fickle is he?!

Monday, June 15, 2009

That's mine is mine, not yours!

So I put T down for a nap today. This is a normal afternoon occurence in our home. Shortly before T went down, Gryffin came in for his requisite pre nap cuddle as T and I rocked a little as we talked about our morning.

These days, while Gryffin is welcome to visit at nap/bedtime, he is told very quickly what he is not to touch and how long he can stay. T has even closed the door right in his face...slammed the door might be more appropriate description if he tries to enter without explicit permission.

If Gryffin so much as sniffs T's crib or her books, he is informed that he has broken a very big rule, DO NOT TOUCH T's STUFF or suffer the consequences. She has developed quite an authoritarian streak of late.

I seem to remember a friend's daughter going through a similar phase when their cat would go near her things. I guess toddlers figure that if adults can tell those smaller than them (read: toddlers) what to do then the toddlers can lord over all other creatures smaller than them (read: the house felines).

Its not unheard of for Gryffin or Phenix (but mostly Gryffin) to saunter into T's room after she has gone to bed. Both cats have a tendency to do sweeps of the house to make sure all is well. I like to think they are making sure everyone is comfortable however, I think its moreso see what bed might be most to their liking to nap on.

Gryffin's unsolicited visits bother T to no end. T has even asked me to close the door after Gryffin leaves but before she gets into her crib so he can't come in and disturb her. She's very opinionated about how things should be done these days...geez, where did she ever inherit that from? Oh dear.

Back to today....after I put T down for a nap today, I went downstairs to pack away some of T's clothes that no longer fit. This is what I heard come over the monitor....

T: Gryffin, no. No, Gryffin! OUT (Grabbled T speak). Mummy? Mummy? Gryffin out. Moooommmmyyyyy?! MOMMY! OUT! MOMMY?! Door open. DOOR OPEN!!!! MOOOOOOOMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYY!!!!

Upon hearing the first little bit of the very one sided conversation, I paused what I was doing and waited a bit. I waited partly to see if I would hear any yowling coming from her room (a sign that Gryffin had not yet left) and to compose myself as I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Now, I hear you say, just shut her door. T doesn't like her door completely shut and if we do shut it, she screams bloodly murder. Plus, the door has a tendency to squeak more if its fully shut. We usually kept it just ever so slight closed but Gryffin, being a stubborn creature that he is, head butts it open. Cats don't understand the concept of a closed door, they are far too curious for that.

I snuck upstairs and quietly shut the door. After today, I am left to wonder what T will do if she ever finds Gryffin snuggled up with her in bed. I can only hope that she does what we do, when we find our loveable furballs curled up next to us - wrap her arms around them and give them a hug, as they gently purr us back to sleep.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

She would make Buzz Hargrove proud!

There are days that I think that work life was much easier than raising a toddler. I used to have negiotate with clients to schedule maintenance when I worked as a DBA. Many of my clients were engineers who had a severe lack of interpersonal communications skills and often acted like toddlers, ironically. They wanted things done on their schedules, no excuses..hmmm sounds like things around my house. So I took assertive communications skills and negoitating skills classes to make work easier. I thought I was getting pretty decent at it until I met my match.

My match isn't a big, tall person, highly educated or even someone close to my age. Her english language skills are limited but the words she does have are used very effectively. My opponent uses the broken record technique very efficiently. Although, she does lose her composure and is prone to meltdowns. This is where my in is which her and time outs are my weapon of choice in combatting her adaptness at getting what she wants.

Have you guessed yet who my foe du jour is? She's about 2.75 feet tall, weighing in at about 23lbs and have enough energy to outlast, outplay and outsmart the average adult.

She is my child.

Every morning, she wakes up with a big smile. We have a small battle over getting dressed and then she is off to the living room where she gets her morning sippy of milk while Mommy sips on her morning sippie of coffee.

Not two seconds upon arriving the living room, the opening pare of the negiotations begins:

T: Cookie? Milk?

Me: No, T, you can have cereal and milk.

T: Cookie? Milk?

Me: You can have cereal.

T: Cookie! (insert mandatory whine and optional pout)

Me: Cereal.

T: Cookie! Milk! (add a mandatory pout, whine and of course up the ante with a foot stomp)

Me: You know you have milk and cereal for breakfast.

T: Bar? (Her attempt to change her needs to see if Mom will cave...for the record, I sometimes let her have a cereal bar if we are rushed for time but this is an once in a while occurence)

Me: No T, you can have cereal with bran like Nan does. (Nan being my mom who has gotten T into eating 'Bran like Nan')

T: Bran? Hmmm...

Me: Shall we go have breakfast?

T: Bran? Ok...(she finally relents (begrudingly) but I likely also have had to sweeten the deal by letting her watch another episode of Calliou)

I think maybe my next career path might include union bargaining, its gotta be easier with adults than toddlers, right? Who said being a stay at home parent doesn't allow you to gain career skills? You learn to exploit wants and manipulate other humans as needed, it's very basic but something I think many of us forget as we age. We adults try too hard to make everyone happy and forget about getting what we want at all costs.

Forget all those costly career classes, we just have to re-learn this technique from small children via an outing to a daycare! Bean counters everywhere are rejoicing at the potential savings in employee training.

I guess our children can teach adults a thing or two.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

We're leaving in a jet car...

One of T's latest favourite sayings is, "Ready....set....go!".

Whenever we get into my car to go run errands, grocery shop etc., and before we leave the garage, she hollers from the back seat, "Mommy? Mommy!? MOMMMY!"

When I finally look back, and say "Yes, dear?" She starts grinning widely at me and says, "Ready?" I echo "Ready" (perhaps I should start adding, "Check and Double Check, Captain" to ensure she knows the car is the correct gear and the garage door has been raised).

Then its "Set?" I echo "Set" from the drivers seat (I should add "The engines are engaged, Captain").

Then the final command is radioed to the front seat (shouted is more accurate), "GO!" I echo "Go" and evacuate the garage, making sure not to knock the side mirror off in our 'takeoff'.

Then we bid a farewell to the house and we are off in our 'jet car'.

When S was away in the UK a week ago, T would add, "Bye Daddy's car...Daddy work"...not much gets past her, does it?

She now stands in the doorway to the garage and advises me which car is Mommy's and which one is Daddy's. I also get a Brooomm Brooommm, complete with a gear shifting hand gesture (although both cars are automatics).

Whenever we pass the fire station down the street, she hollers, "Ngine! Ngine, Mommy!" And of course adds the obligatory 'whoo whoo' that the fire engine makes! My little tom boy.

T is standing in the living room as I type this, wearing her 'hat'. Her hat is my Nan's retro orange and tan tea cozy while she watchs Calliou. Its going to be 90 (about 30/33 C) outside today, her head is going to get rather hot.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Bubbles in the back garden

S got back from the UK on Friday. Although suffering from jet lag, he had a great trip.

On Saturday, I left T and S at home and escaped to Botanica for some much needed Mommy time.

After dinner Saturday evening, we had a pleasant evening in our back garden. S and T practiced blowing bubbles. T 'helped' to water the plants and learned to finger paint dirt all over her nice white shirt. I can hear you asking from here - Why would I put a white shirt on my kid? Because I didn't. S did as T was playing with her watering cans earlier in the day and got soaked. Oh well, she had fun.

I got my new camera late last week. I was testing out the new feature, a pin hole camera view (see the 'portrait'-esque shots below.) T was watching the spinkler. She sat there so quietly.