First of all: Look how little (and tired)!
But, what I really want to talk about:
I never “can’t wait” to do something. Even, usually, go to Disneyland. I don’t usually look forward to trips with very much enthusiasm. I mean, I love to travel, but I don’t furiously anticipate like I have been doing now for (I hope) our trip next month.
I think this mostly has to do with being excited to share things with Adam this time. Last time (pictured above) he was too little to appreciate anything. But this time, he knows who a lot of characters are, and he can have fun going on the rides and seeing the sights. I have surely muttered “I can’t wait to go to Disneyland” in some form or another every day for the last, at least, 10 days.
gaahhhrlkwjgk I can’t wait!
Haircut boy.
If you grow up in a household where there are books, where you are read to, where parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and read for their own pleasure, naturally you learn to read. If no one close to you takes joy in reading, where is the evidence that it’s worth the effort? If the quality of education available to you is inadequate, if you’re taught rote memorization rather than how to think, if the content of what you’re fist given to read comes from a nearly alien culture, literacy can be a rocky road.
Here’s another one about how movies teach manhood.
Good for girls and boys.
Am on the lookout for movies with good female leads, like The Wizard of Oz apparently (I need to watch that again - haven’t seen it since I was really small).
Alice Roberts ends up being really good for Science programming, with so many men being science presenters.
Neighbors
So, we’ve been living in duplex for two years now with no complaints.
Adam has been running around the house for 6 months with no complaints.
Two months ago we get new neighbors (who live upstairs, above the kitchen) who stop on our ceiling when Adam runs through. I don’t know what to do about the situation because I honestly don’t want to be a bother, but on the other hand, what can be done?
I went on the message boards and saw no similar situations other than apartment living on the above floor. We live below, but everyone was siding with the other tenants, saying the people with toddlers should get carpet.
That’s an idea, but there’s just too much floor to cover, and will be too expensive. Basically, I can’t think of a solution. I’m not bothered by the noise of their stomping, but rather the stupidity/futility of it. We’ve explained that we have a toddler in the house. I think they assume we can somehow train him to not run around… It’s like: we’d love for him to to throw hard toys at us, make messes, eat stuff off the floor, and run away from us at the store. It’s just not going to happen using reason or discipline. I’m one more knock away from going over there with some charts and data about what a one year old is and does. I mean, we deal with their noise all the time - we hear them up & down the stairs, showering at all hours, laughing late at night. None of our noise is before 7am or after 9pm.
Any suggestions?
Some highlights from my phone in February.
I’m starting to put together parenting advice from youtube that I find interesting and helpful. It’s going to be in a playlist on my channel, along with videos for Adam.
This video is basically about how you answer questions from curious youngsters. This is very much applicable to how I want to raise Adam.
Help
Aubrey has been hitting me in the face a lot as of late. After she hits, I put a sad face on and tell her that it hurts mommy when she hits and to please not do that. WHACK. Followed by 2 minutes in ‘time-out’, i walk over to her and explain that hitting is not very nice, and it’s not something we do. I take her out of time-out only to have her hit me or pinch me a few moments later. What’s sad is she really only does this with me. How do you or how did you discipline your 1-2 year old?
Adam hits too. He finds it fun(ny). I thought I redirected that through high-fives, but now he hits when he’s mad, too. I think they might still be too young to get time-outs. I have never had good results, but don’t know about you or Bonnie. I think the best we do is give him consistent NOs, making sure he’s paying attention, making eye-contact and knowing we mean business. It apparently takes a lot of time sometimes for the message to get through. Then moving to another room and doing something else like reading, so it’s not necessarily rewarding, I guess…
Sitting on statues…
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