8 posts tagged “friday forget-me-nots”

Yes, I know it's Saturday, but here's what I want to remember from yesterday:

Tonight was the first night that ReRe slept in his big boy bed. As soon as he saw it, he wanted to spend the rest of the day there, and demanded that all his downstairs toys be brought up to this new elevated, plush play area. He did wake up at 4am, and I went in and cuddled with him, but he kept demanding apple juice, so I went and got him a small cup of it, and then he went right back to sleep until 7am.

Red monkey has replaced red teddy as the companion of choice, which is fine with me since red monkey has much more personality.

ReRe has started making up songs, and they all start with "one, two, three..." anf end with "Hey!" For example, his song about red monkey goes, "One, two, three....MONKEY MONKEY MONKEY MONKEY, HEY!" And his song about his father's car goes "One, two, three....Oh G! Oh G! Oh G! Hey!"

And one family event of note: Friday night we went out for the first dinner that I can honestly say was paid for by my consulting work, since I did some volunteer work for a non-profit and they thanked me with a restaurant gift card. I had never been to Montana's before, but being able to doodle with crayons while waiting for your food was a lot of fun. And it turns out I can draw tank engines upside down.

Last night was the first night that ReRe went right into his crib after stories without needing an extra cuddle or rocking to help him fall asleep. The reason he was eager to get into bed was because Red Teddy, a little red teddy bear that was a Valentine's gift from his grandmother, was in his crib, and ReRe wanted to cuddle with him. He's shown little interest in cuddling with toys, even though I have actively encouraged it as a way for him to fall asleep without myself or his father. The reason that Red Teddy made an appearance was because yesterdat was Teddy Bear Picnic Day at preschool, and he randomly picked him as his +1. I'm glad, because I'm awaiting the delivery of the mattress for his big boy bed, and the more comforts he will have for the transition, the better. I'm just so surprised how the order of his stages of sleep are so different than any book I read, and doing what was right for us, rather than what was prescribed, has always been the best decision. Yes, it has made it difficult for anyone other than us to put him to bed, but we've worked so hard at getting a predictable (and peaceful) bedtime routine together, that I don't want it compromised.

According to ReRe, ambulances pick up people with big boo-boos and take them to work.

While falling asleep the other night, ReRe spontaneously said, "Simon Says, tickle your ears!"

While I'm very happy to hear his speech coming along, I'm also just a little sad at hearing the end of some of his own words for things. For the longest time, he called bananas daddle-la's, watermelon was watermetton, and oatmeal was o-o-oatmeal.

That's it for this week! 

I'm going to add to this during the day when I have a moment, but here is a gem from this morning, while witnessing the downpour from the kitchen window:

"Mommy, my go work, my need umbrella. Ella. Ella."

I'm taking this as a sign of ReRe's budding sense of humour, rather than him finally finding the instruction manual on how to push my buttons.

(night before)

Me: "Time for bath, honey..."

ReRe: :"Huh?"

Me: "We don't say 'huh', honey. Say pardon."

ReRe: "Pardon?"

Me: "It's time for your bath....."

ReRe: "Pardon??"

Me: "Funny. Now get upstairs."

ReRe: PARDON, Mummy????"

Me: "Get upstairs."

(next morning)

ReRe: "Mummy! Where are yooooooooo"

Me: "Right here, honey. Are you ready to get up?"

ReRe: "PARDON, MUMMY??" (I'm standing right in front of him)

ME: "I said, are you ready to get up?"

ReRe: "PARDON??"

Me: "Fine, let's go tell Daddy your new word."

(go find Daddy in the bathroom)

Me: "Now, honey, tell Daddy your new word."

ReRe: "Huh?"

Me, about to lose my mind at 6:38am: "Tell Daddy your new word. PARDON"

ReRe: "Huh?"

Me: "Oh my God."

ReRe: "Mummy?"

Me: "Yes..."

ReRe: "That's funny."

And for Junkii......got wings?

Just a couple little moments from this week that I don't want to forget:

Lil'ReRe started the week off with a fever, a hangover from the MMR shot he got on Friday, so he stayed home with me on Monday. I thought he was well enough to go to school on Tuesday, but when my husband picked him up, he said he was just sitting in one of the ride-on cars, not going anywhere, while the other kids ran around. When they came home, he looked fine to me, so they came with me to Chapters, and sat in the Starbucks while I poked around a bit. It wasn't until after ReRe was in bed (early) that Getalife told me that, while sitting at Starbucks, he asked ReRe if he had a good day at school, but ReRe just looked down and shook his head no. When my husband asked why, he said "ReRe stay home a-Mummy." I felt so bad that I had made him go to school when he could have stayed home, and probably should have, but since he spends most of the time we are together suggesting doing something other than hanging out with me, I just assume he'd rather be with his little friends. I guess when he's sick, I'm his girl.

Speaking of which, he asked yesterday if we could go to the mall. Nice. I'm so proud of me.

Oh, and a couple days ago, after dinner, we were hanging out downstairs watching TV. I had gotten up to adjust the window blinds, and ReRe decided to climb up on the arm of the couch and bite my side. I screamed and nearly jumped three feet in the air, but he was leaning against me, so I was trying to extract his teeth from me without him falling off the couch and onto his face. Seeing how mad I was, he ran around in circles laughing, saying "That was funny!" trying to deflect my anger with his Cute Shield. But it didn't work, and I sat him down and told him that we don't bite, and that he needed to say he was sorry. In the most dejected voice I've ever heard, and looking straight down again, he said "sorry a-biting, Mummy". I then told him to kiss me where he bit me, since I now had a boo-boo, and he obliged. When we took ReRe upstairs for his bath, I heard my husband talking to him about it in his room. Later on, my husband told me that when he was explaining to our son again that he can't bite people, ReRe looked at him earnestly and said "I sorry Mummy, Daddy. I kiss Mummy, Daddy". Like, I get it, man.

Have a great Mother's Day, everyone! I hope you get a REAL day off, and aren't bitten by those you love.  

ReRe finally decided this week that he had had enough of us "Going to Work", and decided he was going to find out what this Work thing was all about. Tuesday night after dinner, while his Dad was still at work and we were catching up on some Thomas, ReRe got up suddenly, and quite firmly told me "I'm going to work now, mummy." He went and got one of his ride-on toys and headed for the stairs. This is the point at which I should have told him that he couldn't go to work, but I really had nothing planned for the rest of the evening, and I was curious to see how much of a concept of 'Work' he had. So instead I just watched as he tried to get his ride-on up the stairs, and then stopped and said "Mummy, take truck upstairs please." So I did, and he pushed it to the door out to the garage, sat down, put on his boots and coat, and asked me to open the door. As I did this, he put his hand on my leg as if to stop me, and said "No mummy, you stay, I going to work now." But he soon realized that he was going to need my help getting out into the garage, and out the door. So I helped him as he carried his ride-on down into the garage, and he put it right where his Dad's car is usually parked, and pointed at the garage door, since asking me to open it would have been stating the obvious. So I opened it, and he headed down the driveway, calling over his shoulder "Mummy stay, I go work!" Now, if this were the 1950s, I may have let him go, but this the the 21st century, so I couldn't let him out of my sight, and headed down the driveway after him. He got to the street and turned left, and headed for the corner. We passed one of our neighbours, who he informed of his intentions. ReRe looked at her derisively when she laughed. But then he got to the corner, which was pretty far under his own steam, and turned to head up towards the highway, and I had to stop him. He got quite upset with me, and was crying that he wanted to go to Work, and this pretty much tapped out my mummy skills, cuz all I knew to do was pick him up and carry him home. I'm going to need to come up with something that can constitute 'Work' for a 2-year old, without violating UN Protocols. Thinking about gardening.....

Today ReRe had a doctor's appointment, so he showed up for montessori an hour or so late. When I opened the classroom door, he and his little friends looked so relieved to see each other, and they started to run towards him. ReRe ran a couple steps forward, but managed to trip and end up on his back somehow, but then got up and headed back to me at the door. So I have this image of him being pursued across the classroom by this mob of 2 year olds. I had to quickly squat down to catch them before they all made it out the door, and ReRe got a big group hug from his friends.

So those are the week's highlights, have a great weekend! 

Somewhere along the way, lil'ReRe has picked up that sometimes, people need some persuasion to do something they don't want to do. And the best way he has figured out to do this is to gently take someone by the hand and kindly say, "Come on, honey." Like the other morning, when I didn't want to get out of bed as early as he wanted to get me out of bed, he came to the side of the bed, took my hand, and said "Come on, honey, finished sleeping" and tugged on me. I'm sure this will get un-cute soon enough, but for now, he can be pretty persuasive.

That's about all the material he gave me this week. I'm so glad that the spring is finally here, but this also means that I'm already far behind on my gardening, and I'm away for a good chunk of next week (the first time ReRe and I will be apart overnight - for 3 nights) so we're looking at the beginning of May before anything gets planted. I guess it is all about managing expectations.  

Well, it's been a regular old week, but what makes this one special is I'm turning 35. Yuppers, standing at the precipice, the tipping point, that age when I'm supposed to finally get my sh*t together cuz there's no fooling around any more. I'm a real freaking adult now. I wanted to take the day off completely, no work-work, no course-work, no house-work, but that's not going to happen, so I'm going to try to get all of that done this morning and then go buy (yes, leave the house and get someone else to prepare) me some lunch and knit the afternoon away, and then tonight Getalife and I are going to a comedy club to laugh our collective butts off.

So on to this week's little moments that I don't want to forget.

- in lil'ReRe's little mind, people he doesn't know are divided into babies, Baby Mommies, Baby Daddies, Amas (grandmas) and Apas (grandpas). This meant that the gentleman sitting in front of us on the plane on the way home from Nassau was a 'Baby Daddy'. And ReRe made sure he was aware of this by pointing at him and saying "Baby Daddy! Baby Daddy!" over and over again. Nice.

- What was very cute was when we were out front playing, and our elderly neighbours, Keith and Barb, were out for a walk, and ReRe started calling them Keith and Ama. Barb was very touched by this, and gave ReRe rides on her walker.

- Being the good parents we are, we leave small metal objects lying around the kitchen. ReRe found a keyring with 3-4 keys on it, and told me he wanted to carry them in his pocket, so I obliged. The next morning, he informed me that he wanted to take the keys to school to show his little girlfriend, A. So I said fine, but that I would carry them to school, and then he'd have to give them back to me after he showed them to her. He reminded me constantly of this plan while he got dressed and ate breakfast, and we drove to the school. When we got there, we got his coat and boots off, and I handed him the keys, and he earnestly walked into his classroom to find A. I explained over his head to one of the teachers what was going on, and she said "What, he wants to show her he has his own car, his own condo, a summer place?!" I hadn't thought of it this way, and nearly died laughing watching my little guy show his little girlfriend his keys. I tried to keep it inside, because he looked so earnest, and I know as a child I HATED it when people laughed at my actions, but it was so absurdly cute, I couldn't stand it.

- on a more personal note, I had a dream that my old friends, Peter and Mary, came by to give me some biodegradable shampoo and conditioner for my birthday. There was a little missing from the bottle cuz they wanted to try it first to make sure it was good, and it turned out to be really nice, so they got me to feel both of their hair to show how soft it makes your hair. And they were right, their hair was really soft. They even got me the tinted stuff so it would maintain my colour. Thanks guys!

- GinBaby's link to a Rick Rubin-produced song reminded me of this remake of a Skids song, a collaboration between U2 and Green Day, produced by Rick Rubin, which has one of the most startling videos I've seen in years. If you haven't seen it, please take a moment: