01Sep
Today Bean has his 15-month-old doctor’s appointment. When I called to schedule it, I had to think twice about if he was really that old. How could that be? Wasn’t he just a newborn, like, yesterday? And now, here he is riding around in golf carts and playing on putting greens with me and Chris. Time flies, I tell you.
Bean’s age right now is just a hoot and a half. He is so much fun. He even has a little sense of humor. He likes to hide from you and then pop out when you’re looking for him and when he pops out, he dies laughing like it’s the best joke ever. My dad taught him how to fake laugh, too, so sometimes when it’s quiet he’ll just throw his head back and start fake laughing until everyone around him is laughing along.
He is becoming even more independent, if that’s possible. He likes to feed himself now, which is really just him picking up food with his hand and putting it on the spoon and then aiming the spoon in the general direction of his mouth. So far we’ve had the best luck with yogurt because it’s thick enough to stay on the spoon. Peas are the hardest. Darn rolly things. He also likes to brush his own hair and his own teeth. And he’s not a fan of holding your hand when he’s walking anymore. He wants to do it by himself.
He is also becoming so much more physically active. He can walk really good and steady now and he’s even started running a little bit. I accidentally taught him to jump on the bed, too. I didn’t think he had the muscle strength to do it on his own, but I was very, very wrong. Now, I find him jumping on beds whenever he gets the chance. Way to go, Mom… We are noticing, too, that he seems to be left handed. I’ve read that kids use both hands until they are a little older and then stick with one, but Bean seems to use his left hand for just about everything right now. I’m interested to see if that sticks or if he’s just trying it out for a while.
What I really love about his age right now is how verbal he is becoming. There is not much that he can’t communicate to us, which has drastically reduced the number of temper tantrums he throws. Although, he can still throw a mean tantrum when he wants to. He can say these words: bear, ball, book, bath, bubble, baby (lots of B’s…), Nana, G-maw (Grandma), G-momamamama (Grandmomma), Ga-dad (Granddad), Mama, Dada, Molly, Lucy, all done, down, no (that’s a favorite), rain, water, bird, dog, cow, kitty, bye-bye, hi, night-night, go, car, truck, bed, piggies (that’s what he calls his toes), nose, eye (although he points to his ear…), mouth, head, tummmm (tummy), snack, juice, milk, all gone, and a handful more than he surprises me with everyday.
He has all but two teeth now and I think he’s about to start cutting those soon because his gums look a little raw. And last week Chris noticed that he’s getting fine little peach fuzz on his legs!! How cute!! His hair is getting thicker – and curlier! And we think it has finally decided to be blond. He was going back and forth between blond and red for a while, but I think it’s going to stay blond this time. He is getting cuter every day, too. And, thankfully, his cheeks are still as fat as ever! I don’t know what I’m going to do when that baby chub goes away.
My favorite part about this age is how flexible Bean is. He’s pretty good about napping twice a day still, usually taking an hour nap in the morning and then a two or three hour nap in the late afternoon. But if we are out and about, he can adapt pretty easily to just one nap and sometimes he’ll skip them all together and be fine. He might get a little cranky early that evening, but that’s alright. He’s also so flexible on what activities we’re doing, too. With us in the middle of moving right now, our days are a little unpredictable. Sometimes we’re home all day, but sometimes we’re running all over town getting things taken care of and Bean Man is right there with me. As long as he’s got his little snack cup, he can go and do whatever it is we are doing. Like practicing a little putting…
Yep, 15 months is one of the best so far. Although, there really hasn’t been a bad month yet. I love that now Bean seems to be growing exponentially faster. He learns faster, he thinks faster, he moves faster, and every day it seems like he has grown overnight. It makes me excited to get up every day with him and see what’s new!
Anybody there?
(tap, tap)
Hello?
Helllllloo?
HELLLOOOOO????
(tap, tap)
Bueller? Bueller?
Oh, imaginary friends, how I’ve missed you so! We have never been separated so long before and I do have to say that absence definitely does make the heart grow fonder because I just kept thinking as I sat on the phone with AT&T every day yelling at someone in India about my internet connection not working, “Gosh, I wonder what those crazy imaginary friends are up to these days?”
Though, when I tried to explain to the person in India that I needed them to get my internet working STAT because I had thousands of imaginary friends that I was about to lose if I didn’t talk to them soon, I think they purposefully took longer than necessary to get my internet working again.
DON’T JUDGE ME, AT&T! DON’T JUDGE ME AND MY IMAGINARY RELATIONSHIP WITH THESE IMAGINARY PEOPLE!
Thankfully, a nice technician came out to our house today and pushed some buttons on the little box doo-hickey thingy on the side of our house and said, “You have internet.”
Then I squealed.
Then I jumped in the pool with Bean Man.
Then he squealed.
But, lo and behold, when I sat down at my computer later today, there was still no internet. So, I took drastic measures. I got Chris involved.
Getting Chris involved in problems that require speaking to automated systems is always a last resort because he pitches fits like a little girl (no offense, my masculine hubby wubby…). But, he’s pretty good about stepping in when I’ve had enough and so today I handed the internet problem over to him.
As we sat on the couch tonight in our uber spacious, uber cozy, uber box-filled living room, Chris called AT&T while I sat next to him stuffing my face with Domino’s and watching the Auburn Mississippi State football game (P.S. It took me three tries to spell Mississippi right when I typed that…) (P.S.S. I just copied and pasted Mississippi into that last sentence so I wouldn’t have to type it again…) (P.S.S.S. DON’T JUDGE ME, AT&T!). I could tell he got the automated system because he started speaking incredibly slow, which always throws those automated things off. So, he kept having to repeat himself.
AT&T Automated System:Â Please tell me the reason for your call.
Chris:Â Technical support.
AT&T Automated System: I’m sorry, I did not understand that response. Please tell me the reason for your call.
Chris:Â Tech-ni-cal Sup-port.
AT&T Automated System: I’m sorry, I did not understand that response. Please tell me the reason for your call.
Chris:Â Problem with my internet connection.
AT&T Automated System: I’m sorry, I did not understand that response. Please tell me the reason for your call.
Chris:Â I’m having a problem with my in-ter-net con-nec-tion.
AT&T Automated System: I’m sorry, I did not understand that response. Please tell me the reason for your call.
Chris:Â MY SH*T ISN’T WORKING!!!!!
And that, dear imaginary friends, is why we don’t let Chris talk to automated systems. That is also how we got our internet restored tonight.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that we have finally moved into our new house and we finally have internet and so I am finally able to talk to you again. I would love to show you pictures of our new house, but Chris is being a fuddy duddy and won’t let me take any pictures until we get the house looking more organized. This simply means that I shall wait until he goes to work tomorrow and then I will take pictures and post them to the world wide web.
Speaking of jobs, I still haven’t started mine yet. Bummer. But I guess when you’re going to be in a classroom with young adults molding and shaping the minds of tomorrow, they want to make sure you haven’t killed anyone and that you don’t have crack in your back pocket. So, I did my background check and drug testing this week and pending any problems with those (which would be odd seeing as to how I am afraid of drugs and the only violent behavior I have been prone to is occasionally throwing a Tupperware lid at Chris…), I should start teaching on Monday. I’m super, super excited. Super. Super, super excited. I even went out today to a teacher supply store and bought decorations for my classroom. And I may or may not have also bought a black t-shirt with a little red apple on the front pocket…
I cannot confirm nor deny those allegations.
But I did.
Today I also took Bean to meet his new teachers at the daycare where he’ll be going. I love this daycare. Love it. And apparently Bean does, too, because when we got into the classroom he took off and joined the other little dudes for circle time and never even looked around for me. I just hung back like a lame, hovering parent. And then I started whispering his name and making him blow me kisses. And then they suggested that maybe I should wait out in the hallway. And then I grabbed Bean and ran out of there and hid him under my bed where he will stay until he is either ready to admit that he cannot live without me or until he turns 18 and I can’t legally keep him there any longer.
All in all, it has been a really exciting, nerve-wracking, busy, happy time for our family this past week. But we are finally getting settled into our new house and with my job starting Monday and Bean heading back to daycare, our schedule should settle down again.
What this means for YOU is that I’m back to my regularly scheduled blogging now. Every day. And you can’t make me stop.
So there.
Throughout all the transitions and changes our family has been going through these past few weeks, I have worried and worried and worried over little Bean Bean. I worried because he didn’t seem to notice anything was going on (is he mentally able to process change?!?!). I worried when he cried before I put him to bed at night (was he scared in his new bedroom?!?!). I worried when we momentarily lost Mr. Bear during the move (will he ever forgive me?!?!).
Turns out, I worried for no good reason.
Apparently, Bean got his father’s stress aversion gene and there doesn’t seem to be much that stresses this kid out.
Bean has spent his first days in our new house pretty much like he spent the two weeks at my parents house and the five months before that at our rental house.
Chillaxin’.
In fact, Bean has walked around our new house like he owns the joint.
The only difference in his personality (and I’m not even sure this is related to moving) is his reaction to understanding that some things don’t belong to him – like the medicine drawer or the closet where we keep the cleaning supplies or the grill tongs or (…sigh…) the dog bowls. When Chris or I take something away from him lately, Bean has the most shocking response I’ve ever seen.
It is so shocking, actually, that I have taken pictures to document the response in case medical science needs to look further into it.
Exhibit A:
When reprimanded and/or restrained, the subject seems to cry out in physical pain and then fling itself onto the hard floor where said subject then wallows, stopping only to look up and see if the parental figures have noticed and then continuing the wallow in spectacular fashion.
Bean is in the process of perfecting the art of temper tantrums.
Naturally, I blame his grandparents.
When we were staying at my parent’s house, it was like Christmas morning every day. Bean never had to lift a finger. Life was all Tonka trucks and golf carts. In fact, I saw Bean several times walk up to my mother, open his mouth, and wait for her to place a morsel of food in his mouth.
Bean was livin’ the life.
But then we move into our new house and my parents stayed at their house and Bean seems to have connected those two things and come to the conclusion that he must now do menial tasks such as feeding himself by himself. Like a commoner. So, to protest he gives out a war cry of fake anguish and then flings himself on the floor next to whomever is closest to him and he begins to roll around and fake cry.
I know he is fake crying because he stops occasionally to look up and see if Chris and I are looking (we never do) and then he scoots closer to us and goes back to the wailing/fake crying thing.
Drama, drama, drama.
We are responding by using a method we learned in (…wait for it…wait for it…) our dog training classes.
Awful, I know. But I actually have read the same method, though phrased differently, in parenting books, too. We are just ignoring him. We don’t make eye contact. We don’t react. We don’t interact. We just ignore him. Sometimes this is hard to do. Like when I’m cooking dinner and he has decided to throw himself down in the middle of the kitchen. But, I just step over him and continue on my way.
When the tantrum ends (and it always does) and he stops the fake crying, we go over to him and ask him what he wants. He either says the word (ball, outside, juice, etc.) or he points to what he wants and then we tell him what a good boy he is and we give him what he has calmly asked for and then we all move on with our day.
I have no idea if that’s the right way to handle the situation, but I’m guessing that if there is more than one way to perform an exorcism, then there must be more than one way to deal with a toddler meltdown because they have a lot of similarities, I would imagine.
What about YOU? How do you deal with temper tantrums?
13Sep
We spent this past weekend unpacking more boxes. And unpacking more boxes. And unpacking even more boxes.
I should mention here that we had five different friends help us move out of the old house and into the new one and every single one of those people commented at one point or another that they didn’t understand how we had so much crap. I would like to suggest that the reason for this is because I am married to the King of All Pack Rats. Chris will not let me give away anything. No matter how useless it is or how long it sits in our garage.
Case and Point #1: We have THREE dining room tables. And each of those tables has SIX matching chairs. I mean, seriously. That is eighteen dining room chairs. EIGHTEEN, CHRIS. I am pretty positive that we could get rid of at least one of those sets and we would still be okay.
Case and Point #2: We have THREE living room coffee tables. We only have one living room. And so the other two coffee tables have sat in various garages throughout our entire marriage serving no purpose whatsoever.
Case and Point #3: We have at least SIX complete sets of matching luggage. And each set has a minimum of three pieces, for a grand minimum total of 18 (that must be our magic number) pieces of luggage. Not to mention the 8 or 9 individual duffel bags and miscellaneous carry-on bags we have acquired over the years.
So you see, Chris has a problem. A serious problem. And if I had it my way, I would call Goodwill and have them bring a big ol’ truck to load up all of our useless, duplicate crap. But then Chris might divorce me. So, I choose to stay married and just complain instead. That seems to involve a lot less paperwork.
Anyway, we have finally gotten everything that we will actually be using into our house and we have piled up everything that we will not be using in our garage. So, the house actually looks pretty clean and neat. Though I would caution against opening any closet without the appropriate headgear. This means that Chris let me take pictures of our house to show you guys!
What I love the most about this house is how open it is. I know this kind of floor plan isn’t for everyone and if I didn’t have a small child I probably wouldn’t prefer it either. But with Bean toddling around now and getting into everything, the openness of this house makes my life so much easier. The kitchen, living room, and dining room are all basically one big room, which means I can just block off the one hallway leading to bedrooms and Bean is contained! I can keep an eye on him no matter where I am in the house.
This is the view from the front door. To the left that is a long hallway that has a full guest bath and three bedrooms off of it. The master bed and bath is at the end of that hall. Next to the hall is a wood-burning fireplace and then the sliding glass doors out to the back porch and pool.
I really love this fireplace except that it is natural stone and Bean Man has already tripped over the hearth twice and scraped up his little knees. But aside from that it is really pretty AND I get to keep my mantle decorations from Connecticut that I have for Christmas! So, Bean’s just going to have to keep on tripping. Take one for the team, Big Guy…
This is the view from the hallway into the living room. See how open it is? I love that! It’s so Florida! I can actually keep the TV remote in the kitchen and flip around channels while I’m doing the dishes or cooking something. It’s pretty much the greatest thing ever.
And then this is the view from the sliding glass door into the living room. See those two doorways on the right there? The bedroom on the front of the house is our office and the next bedroom there is Bean Man’s room. Those two rooms are just off of the living room and then the third bedroom (which we are using as a guest bedroom) and the master are further down that hallway I showed you before.
One thing I am having to adjust to is that we are using our formal dining room table as our family kitchen table now since we don’t have a breakfast nook for our dinette. When I see a wet ring under a glass on the table or something, I just try to remind myself that it’s just furniture. But that’s taking some adjusting. I put a tablecloth on it today and that helped a little bit with my nerves. At least now I don’t gasp whenever someone sets a plate down. The table actually sets six and then extends with a leaf out to seat ten, but we have stored the rest of our chairs and are just using four to save a little space. We’ll pull out the others when we need them.
I really love the openness of the kitchen. It has tons of counter space – more than any house I’ve ever lived in – and that has been fantastic! I have noticed though that the more space I have in the kitchen, the bigger the messes I make! This has GREATLY annoyed Chris. But I can’t help it. I just keep reminding him of what a mess Ina Garten makes in HER kitchen on Barefoot Contessa and that perhaps I am simply channeling my inner South Hampton self.
He does not agree.
So, that’s it. That’s the new digs. I’ll post pictures of each bedroom as we get to them. And I’ll show you Bean’s bathroom (it’s the guest bath) that I finished this weekend later this week. It’s pretty darn cute.
