Toddler Playdates

I downloaded the pics off my cell phone today, so I can finally post, yay! (Side note: as it turns out, my cell phone takes nicer pictures than my old point 'n shoot. Senpai has a DSLR, which I'm sure would take infinitely better photos than both aforementioned devices, but I always have my cell phone in my pocket, DSLR.. not so much. Sprint Galaxy S for the win!)


I finally get to touch on a topic I had wanted to mention before: friends. R has friends. It's actually stressful for little toddler friends to play together at this age; they don't know how to do it yet. One kid takes the toy the other kid was playing with, then that kid retaliates by hitting and screaming. That same scenario plays out over and over again with the roles constantly shifting and changing, so no one kid can by any means be called innocent. But these are lessons that have to be learned. One day, both kids will know how to take turns, ask if they may play with a certain toy, and cooperatively play together. That's when the Mommies will be able to sit back with our coffees, chat, and relax. For now, we wear referee hats, call time outs, and negotiate terms for peaceful play. I so look forward to the future in this department. ^_^


R has had several playdates recently. The first-- I had mentioned before-- was when R wouldn't nap one day, and my wonderful friend Natalie brought her son over to play. (Though I usually don't mention names here, I will use Natalie's because I want to direct your attention to her lovely blog, NatoBottoArt: Creations from the Heart. She does a lot of stream of consciousness writing as she works through her creative process. Definitely check it out!) She mentions her son's name on her blog (and I've mentioned R's name here, too, but I still don't think I'm entirely ready to just dish it out every post), but here, I will call him I* (The asterisk is so you know I'm not referring to myself). Now that we've gotten that straightened out, back to the playdate...


R, Natalie, and I*. R had not been interested in her Wheelie Tiger for a long time until I* came along and started to ride it. All of a sudden, she likes her Wheelie Tiger again.

I love this picture! I* is a multifaceted boy, dishing out free hugs one second, and then finding new uses for xylophone mallets the next. ^_^ Here is one such hug. R has this look like, "What is he doing?" Haha, I could get really creative with the captions for this! How about, "Not cool, man. Not cool." Anyone else have a caption for this picture they want to share?


Next, she went to a Potty Party. One lady from the Mom's Group I'm a member of posted a Potty Party on the calendar. I just had to check it out! It was a small group of three mother/daughter pairs including the hosts. I'm pulling a lot of what I said in the opening paragraph from this get together, because we three moms kept trying to share potty and parenting tips amongst ourselves, but not one of us could finish a thought without breaking up a toddler fight. Though the potty aspect of the party was downplayed, it was still a fun playdate for everyone involved.

This is the only pic I took, and it was at the end of the party. All three girls were given favor bags and tiaras for being potty princesses. R had decided she didn't want to sit with the other girls right as I was snapping the shot. Oh well. At least she wore her crown. :-)


The last playdate was with R's friend, A. I've been taking R to Barnes & Noble Storytime ever since she turned one year old. I can't remember if A had been there right from the start, but pretty early on in our Storytime career, A's mom started talking to me and the little girls hit it off. I'll go more in depth into their relationship in another post (with adorable pics of them holding hands, aww!), but for now I'll focus on the playdate. Unfortunately, I only took one pic of this event, too, and it was when both girls' faces were hidden, sigh.



A's mom and I had been planning this playdate for awhile. We finally got our acts together last week. This playdate was the most low-key of them all because R was too busy climbing on me to mind what toys A was finding to play with. Except for when we went upstairs to show R's room to A and her mom. A wanted to push the buttons on R's musical nightlight, but R would not allow it. As the nightlight is actually a base to a baby mobile, I need to somehow wean R off of it before her baby sister comes! This playdate ended with lunch at a yummy Mexican restaurant. Heehee, I could use more playdates like this one. ;-)

Don't Come Early

"Senpai?" I tentatively ask from beneath the covers.

He pauses the tv show he is watching on his cell phone, "Yeah?"

"When Rosemary was born..." I start, and Senpai braces himself for what comes next, "Why did it take three hours for me to see her? Did I ask to see her as soon as I could, or could I have asked sooner?" Imagining the future brings up scars from the past.

He collects his thoughts, remembering, "They needed to do things to her in the NICU... they needed to monitor you. Three hours flew by. What do you think?"

"I remember time passing... the nurses weren't there and you called relatives. Could I have called the nurses in to take me to her?"

"You were out of it, Sweetie," he admonishes, and then calms my fears with a sentence, "You demanded to see your daughter."



Poppy, please stay in for as long as you can. I hope to curse myself at 41 weeks for saying this. Don't come early. I want to hold you in my arms seconds after you are born, instead of days. I want to touch you immediately, instead of three hours later, and I want to gaze at you for hours, instead of twenty minute brackets. Please, oh please, don't come early.

Napless

The afternoon nap might have joined the ranks of the dinosaurs, the dodo birds, and other extinct creatures...

Ever since last Saturday when I first started "Three Day Potty Training," I have been emphasizing to R how she's a big girl now. "You're such a big girl for wearing panties!" "You use the potty like a big girl!" I guess she interpreted big girl to mean she doesn't have to take naps anymore either.

It started on Wednesday when she fell asleep on the car ride home from the Science Center. Our routine is usually wake up, eat breakfast, shower and get dressed, leave the house for errands/playtime/doctor appointment (whichever needs to be done that day), and then go back home for lunch and nap time. The Science Center day threw her off because she fell asleep before lunch. In the car. For 5 or 10 minutes. Apparently, to her developing mind, any little bit of sleep equals nap, and no further sleep is required until bedtime. So when we got home, and after I had made lunch, there was no sleep. No glorious two to three hours (yes, I know I was spoiled) of quiet. Instead there was stress and mounting frustration as I insisted she get back in bed and go to sleep, but, of course, she wouldn't.

The next day, Thursday, went the exact same way. I had a doctor appt. in St. Louis which she again fell asleep for the last 5 or 10 minutes of the drive home before lunch. Uuuuugh! I knew what to expect this time and did not get upset like I had on Wednesday, but I was still at a loss: where did my afternoon break go???

I was hoping for a positive change on Friday. We did not leave the house. There were no long car rides for her to squeeze premature sleep out of. She still didn't nap. What?! :-( A plus side to the nonexistent nap yesterday is that a dear friend brought her son over for a playdate. :-) She sent me a text asking if R was napping, and if she wasn't, how about a playdate? I said sure; all the better to make use of the unexpected awake hours added into my day.

And today? She initiated going upstairs to her room after lunch, same as she had done the past couple of days. But something is different today. As I type this, there is quiet over the baby monitor instead of incessant gibbering. Maybe, just maybe, she fell asleep... I think she did.


Hallelujah!

Tantrum

Both yesterday and today involved morning trips into the city.

As the city that has been labeled as having the highest crime rates in 2006 and 2010 (it's currently at #3. Whew, what a relief! Haha, no), St. Louis is a place I am happy to live 20 minutes away from. I get to go to the nice malls, see the concerts and theater shows, eat at the fine restaurants, and then turn around and drive back home to my safer suburb. There is a problem, however, when it comes to transporting an almost two-year-old home from STL just before nap time.

She falls asleep. Of course. Usually for the last 5 or 10 minutes of the drive. Of course. Then I have to wake her up (no, I will not drive around in circles for an hour because it's lunch time and I want to get out of the car). She gets upset. Of course.

REALLY upset.


Yesterday involved a charming half hour of screaming, body flailing, head banging, punch throwing, and senseless acts of trying to move things that are impossible for a toddler to lift (like the stone-tiled iron coffee table, really?). There was nothing I could do to calm her down, so I just gave her some pillows and let her go to town as I tried to prepare lunch for us. It wasn't until the food was on the table that the last snotty sniffles were snuffed, and the wet, red cheeks started to dry off and regain their usual color. She was gibbering away, happy as a clam, by the time she had finished eating.

Today had the same fun, but also included me setting off our home security alarm (I said our suburb was *safer*, not safe) when I walked in the door, and I had to be on the phone with a security representative all the while R is screaming bloody murder in the background. "Yes, we're all fine and good here, sir, thank you." Sigh.

I wanted today to go better than yesterday, so I tried something different. After hanging up the phone, I held on tightly to the flailing Cupcake and took her upstairs to her room. I set her inside with a pacifier and shut the door. Her screams started to take on a rhythm: loud and quiet, loud and quiet. After three minutes, during a quiet point, I opened the door to check on her. She started right back in with the frustrated cries. I closed the door again and let her be. Five minutes later, I peeked in again, and got the same unhappy reaction; she wanted nothing to do with me. I waited ten minutes before finally opening the door again, and this time was different. She was lying in bed with the covers thrown over her head. When I asked her if she was feeling better, she threw the covers off with a smile, then came over and hugged my legs. Thank you.

When You Wish Upon a Star...

A Cupcake's dream comes true.



This image taken by Disney Photographers.




We went to Disney World. It was R's second time going. You may recall how she missed meeting Pooh last trip. We more than made up for it this time around. She saw Pooh three times!! The first, captured in the photos above, was at Hollywood Studios. The second, below, was breakfast at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom.







The third was our last hoo-rah at the Magic Kingdom. We were on our way out of the park when I happened to spy this photo op right at the exit. We couldn't let R leave without saying goodbye to her dear friends.




It was a good trip.

This image taken by Disney Photographers.