Unprofessional Parenting

I’ve been wondering lately why my son seems to be a “half-eater.” I’m not sure what the approach to this is but as an example this morning I cut up some apple slices for him and lined them up on his plate. His approach is to eat half of each slice and leave the rest.

He does the same thing with crackers. Half the cracker gets eaten and the other half is politely returned to his plate. I can’t quite figure out the logic to this. Maybe he is trying to avoid biting his hands when the items he is eating gets too small? Maybe he is suffering from a low self-image and is trying some new diet I’ve never heard of? Perhaps it is all just an elaborate plot to make me lose my mind by doing nonsensical things in a really obsessive-compulsive way?

Yeah - that last one is the most likely scenario given how well I know my son. It might be time for me to do some psychological experimentation. I wonder if he can eat half a Cheerio - or even half a Rice Krispy?

I am a huge fan of information so I find myself daily scanning all the big pregnancy websites for new ideas and articles. I get all the newsletters for pregnant women and parents of toddlers and I also have subscriptions to at least three parenting magazines (and I seem to get many more for free from various purchases I’ve made).

There is a new pregnancy site up that I think has some great potential. It’s Barefootandpregnant.com and although the site only recently launched it seems to be building very quickly.

So far it is informative and first person articles about various aspects of pregnancy. They are quickly adding videos that are really interesting and they have a number of discussion groups and forums that are coming together. It’s set up so that site members can contribute their own articles and we can all learn from each other (although there are editors that will proof the articles prior to publication so you won’t get those crazy, tough to read items that come from immediate comment-type postings).

This seems like a great idea and I think it’s going to catch on quickly. I have added the site to my blogroll as well as included the link above. Enjoy!

Since my son is only 2 and our next baby has been definitely determined to be a boy (we have a very clear ultra sound and there is no mistaking this) my husband and I both decided immediately to not have another baby shower. We already have so much stuff that we are constantly trying to minimize anyway that the thought of another giant load is really frightening.

Here’s the rub - my mother-in-law really wants to throw me a baby shower this time. For son #1 my mom did it and since my MIL doesn’t have any girls of her own she wants to host a baby shower at least once. She’s asked several times and I keep saying “no thanks” (as does my husband) but it keeps coming up.

I appreciate that everyone wants to celebrate but seriously my house can’t handle that much stuff again.  I also don’t like the thought of people spending a bunch of money (especially right now given the tough times that everyone is having) on stuff I don’t really need and probably won’t use.

Do most people have another whole baby shower for #2 (especially if #2 is the same sex as #1)?Since I’m pregnant it’s tough to tell - am I being rude and/or inflexible here?

My son recently turned two and for about the last two weeks he seems to have nightmares at least three times a week. I’ve consulted the all knowing Internet a bit and found that it’s pretty common - especially if he’s getting ready to make a big developmental leap forward of some kind but it’s driving me crazy.

Since I’m pregnant I have to get up at least once or twice a night to go to the bathroom anyway (which is downstairs from our bedroom - a long story that centers on our house being a fixer-upper) and the extra trip to my son’s room is killing me.

I’ve also consulted my baby/toddler sleep manual that warns about him getting into the habit of me coming in once a night (which he has - even if he doesn’t have a nightmare at this point he seems to wake up at least once a night and yell for someone). I’m at the point where I don’t even really need to touch him and it only takes a couple minutes to wait for him to calm down and go back to sleep but he does still need to hear my voice to stop screaming. It may also be some separation anxiety thing but I’m hoping it’s a phase.

If anyone has been through this any advice would be appreciated . . .

So here’s an odd addition to pregnancy symptoms. The other day I thought I was getting a cold. I woke up with a stuffy nose and congested head and I was thoroughly annoyed that I seemed to be getting sick again (I had a cold about 5 weeks ago). I had to do my glucose screening which involved sitting in a lab for an hour so I figured I picked it up there.

For the last four days however I have not gotten better or worse. It’s not enough to stop me from doing anything but it does make mornings kind of gross until I get going and things clear up a little. I’d read a little about “pregnancy stuffy nose” but never having had it during my first pregnancy it never occurred to me that it would develop now. Unfortunately, that appears to be exactly what I have.

Rhinitis of Pregnancy is what “they” call it. Apparently it is due to increased estrogen, increased blood flow, and the swelling of membranes that often leads to congestion. How weird this is! Suggestions for relief are to run a humidifier, sleep with my head elevated, sit in the shower and steam for a few minutes, and all the general cold stuff that your mom always told you to do that doesn’t seem to help much.

I can’t really complain too much - everything else with the pregnancy is going well - but there is a chance it might not clear up until after the baby is born! In the mean time I’m a big huge version of a whiny kid with a runny nose.

I’m a little particular about coaster use in my house. All our tables are wood and all easily show those famous “drink circles” from unsupervised cold beverages.  As a result I have every coffee table, end table, and our dining room table continuously stocked with a stack of coasters.

At our dinner table we eat with place-mats so it’s usually not an issue but I do have a pile of coasters in the middle, just in case. Yesterday my son, at the tender age of two, reached frantically for the coasters as we were eating lunch. I almost told him no (assuming he just wanted something to play with) but I decided to let it go and see what happened.

Much to my surprise he grabbed a coaster, set it next to his place-mat, and plopped his cup of milk down on top of it. I thought it was pretty funny (deciding to ignore the implication that I might have a coaster neurosis that I have genetically passed on to my son) so I told him “thank you for using a coaster” and he smiled happily. He did it again at dinner so I think we might be on a roll.

If I can get him to keep this up through his teen years my work as a parent will be nearly complete!

I was surprised to see this recall and I think it is an important one so I thought I would post it here. On Tuesday (11/11/08) Johnson & Johnson issued a recall for specific bottles of Mylicon Infant Gas Drops. The bottles are all of the dye-free, non-staining variety of the product that were sold after October 5th, 2008 (Lot #s SMF007 or SMF008).

The bottles are thought to possibly have metal fragments in them, which sounds pretty scary but the press release says there is no need to panic. No injuries have been reported and any side effects would be minor and easily fixed without the need to see a doctor (no further description of this is available so I’m not exactly sure what the impact would be).

I used a lot of these drops when my son was a baby although I don’t recall if I ever used the dye-free variety.  Since these are widely used (the drug store by my house used to run out once a month) this is worthwhile to pass along to those who have babies.

A link to more information can be found here.

It’s been a rough few days. Over the weekend we had a charity dinner for our local high school that went into the early hours of the morning (my son spent the night at Grandma’s). It was way past my bedtime and I had that weird tired headache the whole next day because I can’t seem to sleep in past 7AM anymore.

The rest of the weekend was full of adventure as my husband is getting ready to go out of town for a week. Yesterday was spent running around trying to find some last minute things for him to take and today I’ve spent all day working through piles of laundry and trying to get the house cleaned (I’ve found that if I clean it right before or after my husband leaves for a while it stays clean a lot longer than usual . . . weird, huh?).

This afternoon I sat down with my son on the couch for some reading and much needed down time. As I was reading to him he looked up and said “Mommy’s ouchies”. I said “Mommy doesn’t have ouchies. What do you mean?”

Standing up on the couch he looked closely at my face at pointed to the black circles under my eyes, “Mommy’s eyes have ouchies.”

Oh yeah. Thanks for pointing that out kid.

Once or twice a week my son and I make mini pizzas out of English muffins for lunch. Today I split the muffins, sliced the tomatoes, and handed him the bag of cheese and a small can of sliced olives to finish them off.  The olives are his favorite part but it’s rare that more than a couple end up on each pizza - it’s a hazard I’ve come to expect.

Today he made a similar move with the shredded cheese. He put a tiny sprinkle on the pizzas and then proceeded to pull out a big handful and shove it in his mouth. I laughed and said “No, silly! You’re supposed to put it on the pizza not in your mouth!” Those of you who are more seasoned parents than I am would probably know not to make such a pronouncement and probably also know what came next.

After looking at me for a second my son reached into his mouth, pulled out the half-chewed hunk of shredded cheese and proceeded to place it on top of one of the pizzas. He was terribly confused when I told him “no, no, no!” and it was too late for me to do anything about it at that point anyway.

I tried to pull most of it off but it was shredded after all so I wasn’t very successful. Plan B was simply to make sure that he ate that pizza himself. Gross.  I should have seen it coming.

With his two year birthday just passed I started noticing that my son has a habit of keeping very close tabs on who gives him what. If he doesn’t know who gave him a particular present he will ask me - and he remembers (like the Godfather).

At first I thought it was kind of cute. He spends a lot of time playing with something and then shows it to me and says “Mommy give this book” (translation = Mommy gave me this book). He never seems to forget - he still knows who gave him toys that have been around since his first birthday.

I started to wonder what his motivation is in all this keeping track. Is he logging this important information so that when he’s older he knows exactly who spends the most time and effort buying him books, toys, and clothes? I also began to worry. Has he noticed that technically my husband picked out all his big b-day gifts this year? Is he keeping track so he can tell his therapist when he’s older that mommy didn’t really get him anything besides books and clothes (I’m certainly not the cool parent in this gift buying game)?

For now I’ll just have to wonder and watch. And of course remind him of all the things I buy when it’s not even his birthday . . .