ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

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.

i barely remember last week

Yeah I have the stupidest memory.

Yesterday Sarah was telling Evie about what she remembered about when her sisters were born, all these details, and I was just like "And I have a sister too!"

i remember being in my crib and screaming for my mom, who wouldn't come, and i was crying so hard that i started hallucinating that a cross-stitch alphabet on the wall was on fire, and then that the hallway was on fire

i also remember the distinct feeling of wearing overalls with nothing on underneath, standing on a porch in warm air, and allowing a long, solid turd to work its way out

i remember the first time i had chewing gum

i also remember the distinct feeling of wearing overalls with nothing on underneath, standing on a porch in warm air, and allowing a long, solid turd to work its way out

2003 was a magical time

I don't remember much before 8.

lol xp

I have two memories that seem to go so far back that I wonder if they're authentic. They both are all about perspective.

I distinctly remember my mother holding me in our laundry room, located in the rear of our carport. I remember chewing on the puffy blue collar of her robe, looking out over her shoulder, through the doorway, through the exit of the carport, down the driveway and to the trees that were across the street.

I also remember in the same vein, looking across the dining room out the picture window in our living room. It was one of those houses where most of the living area was raised up, you had to walk up a set of stairs to a front porch that was more like a deck. And in front of the window was this huge tree, of which you could only see the middle section. My memory of that scene was of intense vertigo, not being able to judge how far anything was, and very quietly being scared out of my wits.

For years, every once in awhile, I'd be somewhere and see a utility pole outside the Denny's window or something, and I'd get that very same awful feeling of vertigo, but I haven't experience that in 10-15 years.

Anyway. We moved out of that house not long after I turned 2.

I also have a memory of my mother blowing cigarette smoke in my face in that house and she credibly claims to have never had a puff in her life, so there's also that.

I remember the feel of a pacifier in my mouth. I still get the feeling once in a while, like when I'm just waking up, maybe chewing on my tongue a little. it's a very strange feeling.

I wish that parents would remember that their kids aren't gonna remember much when they're at museums and aquariums so that they wouldn't shove their little beasts into prime viewing positions, blocking everyone else. THE KID DOES NOT GIVE A FUCK but now all I can see is little Johnny drooling and staring into space while the shark swims across the viewing area

Watching our boys stretch and move in their sleep, as well as what they do when they wake up, has made me hyper aware of my own movements when I stretch and am waking up and it's kind of scary/hilarious to realize that I basically do the exact same things (yawn, stretch out, rub my face while waking up while sometimes smacking my lips).

The answer to toddler toothbrushing is brainwashing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxMrtK-kYnE

My earliest memory is from right around the time I turned 3. My parents home from a trip to see Sesame Street Live. A package had been delivered to our door that had a Sesame Street book in it.

My son has taken to mocking me whenever I let out one of my exhausted yawns. He sounds like one of those "goats yelling like a human" videos.

Love these memories!!!!! It's so awesome because you are this new lil earthling and being able to recall those first impressions is just awesome. I could read a whole book on just memories people had of childhood.

I have a few memories of being a baby, like 18 months, then more at two and a little more at 3 and so on....

Can we talk for a second about how formula poop smells like nutty death?

― Wahaca Flocka Flame (DJP), Tuesday, April 15, 2014 9:18 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's the only kind of baby poop I've known.

Trust me, it'll get much worse when they're older and start laying down real poops!

― pplains, Tuesday, April 15, 2014 9:21 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Enjoy!

― pplains, Tuesday, April 15, 2014 9:22 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

DJP you will be amazed at the seemingly impossible dimensions of things that come out of their butts. Also not to be missed - the prepoop casual lean up against a piece of furniture followed by terrifying strain face for the next 3 or 4 minutes. i mean you almost feel like you have to act like you dont know what theyre doing.

I have two pre-age-2 memories, one good and one bad. The good one is my mom coming home with an entire bunch of balloons -- she was doing balloon selling to make extra money to support her acting at the time. The bad one is this bigger kid pushing me down for no apparent reason on the playground - remember feeling this existential confusion about the injustice of life even at that age.

More poop talk:

I've read on Baby Center and similar message boards that breast fed baby poop smells like buttered popcorn, which had not been my experience until Ivy started in with the ONE HUGE POOP pattern, and now it smells like buttered popcorn, and damn that is fucking unnerving.

I would still prefer it to nutty death, and whatever horrors await after the start of solid foods, but it's probably going to alter my movie snacking habits for the foreseeable future.