Guide to Understanding My Toddler - Part II

I find it hilarious that my son appends an "ah-" before almost every word. Dada becomes ah-dada, and I'm ah-mom.

Oh, and although we've moved on from ah-cock to ah-cwock (for clock), we now have learned ah-fuck (for fork).

Easy Meals: Breakfast Casserole

Eggs, cheese, and bacon! The original recipe is here; I didn't have any croutons on hand, so I just cubed some whole wheat sandwich bread. I also used some pre-cooked Applewood Smoked Bacon from Trader Joe's to save time (and mess).

Punishment

As I was getting my son dressed after his bath tonight, he kept kicking wildly, as he often does during clothes and diaper changes. I gave him a stern warning stop. KICK KICK KICK. I warned him that if he continues to kick, he will go to straight to bed without storytime. KICK KICK KICK.

I finished getting him dressed, then took him to the bathroom to brush his teeth, all the while reminding him that he is going to bed without storytime.

I placed him in his crib without all our usual bedtime routines. No books. No saying goodnight to Mr. Penguin (nightlight) and Dolly (stuffed sheep). No checking the body parts to make sure they're there before bed, no last guffaw, no "night-night".

As I closed the door behind me and headed downstairs, I expected to hear him scream and kick his crib. I expected at least a half hour of pained crying. But did any of that happen? No. So as "punishment" my son just went straight to sleep.

This kid will never understand consequences.

Speech Therapy - Day One

Today was my son's first day in speech therapy. He did "well," I suppose, though I guess I didn't really have any idea of what to expect. I knew that the sessions would revolve around play, and I'm just glad we avoided any major tantrums.

Observations

• Repetitiveness: he definitely has a thing for doing things over and over again, especially opening and closing things. This was already very clear to us while traveling recently, and he must have opened and closed the window shutters on the airplane hundreds of times.
• Determination/stubbornness: similar to his penchant for opening and closing things, he tends to work on things over and over again until he gets it right, or what happens more often, until he gets frustrated.
• One-track mind: along with his stubbornness, once he sets his sight on a particular toy that he's interested in, it can be pretty difficult to pull him away to do something else. Thankfully, we were able to move him to different activities without too much drama.
  
• Pretend play: I was surprised at how well he did at pretend play. He knew how to give a baby doll a bottle, how to feed her with a spoon, and he understood when she was going to sleep. It was funny to watch him lay on the floor beside the doll and go "night-night" with her.

Mean

How many parents can and do admit that they've thought to themselves, "My kid just isn't very nice."