Baby #2 is on the way!

Hot and Cold with Daycare

We started our son in a home daycare about 3 weeks ago.  The first few times he was a little fussy when we dropped him off but would be playing and fine when I picked him up.  The first few times I picked him up he was very occupied with the toys and didn't even seem interested in leaving.  We started him part time, only 3 days a week and the transition seemed to be going well.  Last week I dropped him off in the morning, which is usually my husband's job because of our shifts and he was very very upset.  He didn't want to walk in the door and kept holding onto me when I tried to put him down or give him to the daycare provider.  I was really upset by this, since I thought he was transitioning well.  I had to leave him crying, but I listened outside the door and he stopped crying right after I left.  When I called an hour later the daycare provider said he was fine after I left and was playing with the toys.  But, then when I went to pick him up he seemed upset again and ran up to me and started clinging to my legs.  If he had always acted like this I would think there was something wrong, but to start acting like this after 3 weeks seems very strange.  He was the same way when my husband dropped him off this morning.  I wonder if he is now realizing we are dropping him here every day or if it could be something else.  He's also teething again, since his fingers are always in his mouth and drool is everywhere.  Could he have more anxiety now because of the teething?  We've decided to give it another week or 2 and see if he adjusts.  It's hard because we both hate to see him this upset, although my husband says he was the same way no matter how good the place was.  He said he was just shy around strangers and would miss his parents and cry when they left him and cry when they picked him up, so I'm hoping it's just an attachment thing which and he'll just need some time to feel comfortable.

My one year old dislikes Sand and Grass?

Granted we are raising this kid in a concrete jungle, but I figured once we exposed him to the beach and grassy parks this summer he would dive right in.  Don't all kids like to build sandcastles and put their hands and feet in wet sand?  I guess not.  At the beach our son sticks right to the sheet we put down and doesn't attempt to play with his cousin with her pail and shovel.  He also had some fear of the ocean this time and when we would stand him in the wet sand he would cry or try to keep his feet up as we hold him, anything he could do to avoid contact. 
At a grassy park with some other kids his age or younger all the other kids are off and running around barefoot exploring the grass and everything in it, while our son prefers to sit on the blanket and play with some cups and a fake picnic basket.  When I try to put him on the grass he doesn't seem comfortable and just stands there for a moment and then quickly makes his way back to the blanket area.  He is fine walking on hardwood floors, linoleum, carpet, on concrete or rubber in the playgrounds, but apparently not sand or grass.  I'm guessing he wouldn't like dirt or mud either.  In some ways I don't try to force this because it will keep him clean but in other ways I wonder if this is normal or if he will have some weird OCD against the playing like other kids do in the natural outdoors.

Mamas please try to control your daughters!

Recently my son and I are walking back from his daycare and this little girl about his age on a leash (see previous post on leashes and how they should be used) walks right up to him and grabs his toy.  The mother is walking on the other side of her daughter but not close enough (it's a long leash) and does nothing to try to get her to give the toy back.  Instead she smiles and says "Besito, Besito," which with even my very poor Spanish I believe means "Kiss Kiss."  So this little girl (who we have never seen or met before) tries to grab my son and give him a big wet smooch.

Now I am not as much of a worrier about germs as I used to be when he was first born, but this was a bit ridiculous.  Not to seem extreme but the mother obviously is not only not reprimanding her daughter for grabbing other kids toys but is actually encouraging her to molest them.  I am not her parent and should not need to be taking his toys back from her or remove her from my son and his things. 

I then say something like "Ok now that was very nice but we need to go" and take the toy from her and try to have my son walk on the other side of me to avoid this little grabby kisser.
Then to my shock the mother is letting her daughter grab onto the stroller which I am trying to push while my son walks next to me and again says to her "Besito Sonya, Besito!"  So the little girl again tries to get to my son to kiss him.  Honestly this was really too much.  Any normal person would see that my little boy is not at all interested in being kissed, nor am I as his mother, and this girl should not be encouraged to walk up to strange boys and kiss them on the street.  I can only imagine what life that will lead her into in the future.  My son is not at all comfortable around strangers and I think this to be a good thing.  I would never encourage him to walk up to strangers (children or adults) and grab them or their things. 

I then had to say "Ok now that's enough  We have to go"  I unlatch the girl from my stroller and pick my son up (who is not at all happy with any of this) and put him in the stroller and make as fast an exit as we can.  As his mother I agree my little boy is very cute and hard to resist, but please try to control your daughters around him!

More Words for our Tri Lingual Toddler!

**A few phrases I forgot to add to this list as of 7/18:

"Oh No!"  He says it soo perfectly with just the right concern in his voice and usually when something is dropped.  I love it!

"Uh oh"  This is a fairly new phrase which he has started to say more consistently.***


Our adorable now 15 month old is growing up rapidly.

Here are some more words he's added to his vocabulary:

"Aapple" - he definitely knows apple first and foremost stands for the green (granny smith) or red delicious apples you find in the store or in his big picture books.  He does think this word may also work for oranges, tomatoes or any other type of bright colored round fruit.  I've been trying to correct this but so far the words orange and tomato have not left his lips.  Yesterday I picked him up from his first day at daycare and he was sitting with 2 3 year old girls having a tea party with them, holding a fake orange, exclaiming "apple!"  The three year old immediately showed me she knew the difference between these confusing fruit.

             "Apple" Versus Apple 


"No, no, no, no"  -- loves to say this when he means no or when he means yes and wants something or everything he can't have.  When he wants something he holds his hand out at the object and frantically turns his wrist in a sort of grab/wave indicating he wants something over there, and probably something I will not give him.   I think we have been saying No a lot more in the last few months, since he's started doing all the things he shouldn't be doing: walking/running on the couch, climbing over the couch barriers we have in place to get to things like outlets, cables, TV, remotes and cell phones.  Now every time he says "No" and shakes his head, I say "Yes" and nod.


"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy"  -- the kid will walk around the apartment saying this to me to daddy, to the babysitter to his toys, to basically anyone or anything.  I try to respond so he will understand this is actually my name, but then after the 15th or 20th "mommy" in a row I usually give up.

"Dada" or "Baba" -- we think Baba might be Papa because he tends to say it to his father.  He certainly knows who Mama and Papa are because when we ask him he points to the correct person.


"Guitar" -- he doesn't actually say this correctly yet but he will say something close enough that I can understand

"Water" or "wagwa"  -- I think he's a little confused with saying this word correctly because his sitters are all spanish and they say Agua.  He understands both "agua" and "water" as well as "hoches peet" (which is do you want to drink" in Russian.

These are the words he speaks on a regular basis that actually make sense to us.  He will speak fluent conversations to us in his own language.  He will talk to himself and his toys as well.  We will ask him a question and he will respond and maybe point to something, but I or my husband will have no idea what he's saying.

He seems to understand a lot, definitely most of the basic stuff we say to him, in mostly English, some Russian, and probably a good amount of Spanish.  I don't actually know how much spanish he understands since I don't speak it.  I'm guessing it's probably more than I think, since he's around Spanish speaking all day when I'm at work.  If he can understand and speak English and 2 other languages pretty well by the time he hits pre-K, I think that will help my son a lot in the long run.  And since I only speak and understand English well, maybe soon I'll be learning from him!

"We have a runner!"

In a recent episode of Modern Family Cam and Mitch attach a baby leash to their 3 year old daughter, Lily so she won't run away on a trip to Disneyland.  Since I've been a mom I've noticed more babies in general and on the streets in NYC I've seen plenty of babies on leashes.  In the show Cam and Mitch feel very self conscious about having Lily on a leash, but I think its a very practical idea.  My one year old is definitely a runner.  We open the door to the hallway and he bolts to the elevator and bangs on the door to go down.  There are also stairs, behind a door adjacent to the elevator, and this kid has no sense of any fear.  He loves stairs and will beeline toward them so if you're not quick enough that's where he's headed next.  He doesn't take after me at all. I was always very careful and scared of dangerous thing, loud things and heights taller than me (still am).  On the street he's very fond of cars and will pull you toward the street to get a closer look.  He loves loud noises and gets very excited when we turn the vacuum cleaner on.  He tries to out-scream it (and we have a very loud vacuum).  Like I said no sense of danger or fear.  Climbing onto high surfaces like a 3.5 ft couch table and then trying to walk off is his idea of a great time (luckily so far we've always caught him!)  For a kid like this strapping him in a stroller or on a leash in non baby proof or public places is a very safe and necessary idea if we want him to survive to age 2.

Lily on a Leash

I guess if you put an animal on their back it looks cuter than the dog leashes? 

I was looking for a funny picture of a person walking their dog and baby on leashes together, but couldn't find one.   

Please submit if you do!

(or a baby on a leash and a dog in a stroller, that would be just as good! ;)

Favorite Word

Our baby is now officially a Toddler at 13+ months he is walk/running everywhere.  And his vocabulary is growing quite a bit.  Unfortunately one of his favorite phrases to say recently sounds like "oh shit."  He walks around the apartment now saying "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit" and everyone asks if that's really what he's saying.  I may have said "shit" once or twice but usually its just once, probably because I'm a klutz and can't walk without hurting or burning myself.  I don't walk around all day cursing like my potty mouth kid.  It's actually really funny and its hard not to laugh or egg him on.  We are such terrible parents encouraging language like this in a kid who doesn't even say Mama or Dada to us yet. 

Aside from the cursing I wonder if we are confusing him on what things are.  When I say, "Where's Mama?"  Instead of pointing to me he will point to a picture of us on the wall.  Great, now not only does he not know I'm Mama, he thinks the picture of me is Mama.  I feel like an absentee mother. 


He points to everything and we will name things as best we can, but some things we've taught him the English word and other things we've taught him the Russian word and his babysitters all speak Spanish, or English with a Spanish accent.  I've heard kids in bilingual household take longer to speak so I guess for now we'll be using the universal language of cursing.  Oh *&$%!