My Little Helper

Liam has always been a big fan of being My Little Helper with grown up things; feeding the cats, watering the plants, sweeping the floors, doing the laundry but not so much with picking up his own toys. Mr. Destructo has the knack of following right behind me if I make the fatal error of cleaning up while he's around and destroying, dumping & knocking over everything I have just put away.

I normally don't put his toys up while he's in the vicinity simply for that reason as it just causes a bigger mess that ends up with me doing it all over again. But lately, things have changed. Lately, after he's been playing with something independently he picks it all up & puts it away! This miracle doesn't occur 100% (or even 75%) of the time but slowly he's starting to help put his toys away. And he always gets great big "thank yous" and sometimes even a little snuggle from me depending on how large of a mess he picked up so he gets very excited about it all; although it can be to the point of undoing his cleaned up toys in order to clean them up again to get more "thank yous" and little snuggles. Cute, but definitely eye-rolling worthy after a long day.

The first time I noticed it, I could barely believe what he had just done! He was playing with his coffee set from Argentina that I keep in a basket for him and when I turned to watch him playing by himself I realized that he had put every single item back where it belonged and I waited as the clouds parted, the sun shone & angels sang. It's been a long, long Hurricane Season in this household & any help from anyone on this front is much appreciated.

He's always been a big fan of emptying baskets, bags & buckets and putting them back in as play but never when he's through with that activity so there's a lot to be picked up after, you know? And the anal retentive in me doesn't even freak out when he doesn't do it right. I have a tendency to go behind people and redo things they have done to be sure they were done right but I know by doing this with him that will most likely lead to a little self-doubting from him & I really don't want to do that! So I leave books astray & shoved in their baskets, lids on lunch boxes aren't closed all the way cause a hoof is hanging out & blocks are stacked incorrectly (geez, I even rolled my eyes at myself on that one!) because at least Liam did it & made the effort to help clean up! At the end of the day, I can even bring myself to find it endearing when I see all his toys haphazardly put up, knowing that it was a Fellow Effort that made it that way. And then after he's gone to bed, I straighten it all up, waiting for tomorrow so that we can do it all over again. Joyfully.

Playing With Himself

My Little Big Boy has really started to get the hang of this Self Play business every one talks about. He's reading out loud to himself here but that Path of Destruction that is beyond him is just the calm before the storm - this Hurricane Season is not over yet, folks.
Mr. Destructo strikes again.

admit it, Mom, you thought I was going somewhere else with that subject title.

Play Date!

Liam went to his first play date at someone else's house today! Kym, I don't count you cause we do it anyway regardless of making it all official like and everything ;)

He had a BLAST! This Mommy had so many toys! He just didn't know what to do with himself! But he gravitated towards the kitchen set up she had & we are definitely getting him that one for Christmas - I mean Santa is definitely getting him that one for Christmas. He loved the Thomas the Train pull toy & the Mega Blocks too! The two little boys that were there are both two years old BUT Liam is the same height as both of them - if not a smidgen taller.

He ran around playing & touching everything that he does in our house - from the dishwasher, to the garbage can, to the socket covers. Mr. Destructo was in full blown fashion but Heidi didn't care as much as I did so although I spent some time running after him most of the stuff he was allowed to destroy. She put out a whole bowl of snackies for them (actually like three bowls) which he only totally over-turned one of them ;) when I wasn't looking, of course!

He got along really well with Jack & Lucas - even as far as Jack & him chasing each other around and screaming! They were amazed that he is running so well already too. He loved playing with all the little cars & I think I'm going to pick up some more for him to add to his VW Bug he has gotten from Nana!

We ended up being there for 1 1/2 hours! And I had to sing & play with the sunroof the whole way home to insure he didn't fall asleep before getting home - he even "talked" to Nana! on the phone to keep himself entertained. The reason it's only his first play date is that everyone schedules them right at the start (or too close to) his nap time so we've never been able to go before but today it was at 9:30 so we were able to participate! I would love to host one at our house but I really don't think we have enough toys to keep more than 1 kiddo occupied at a time :(

It's not that I would LOVE more toys in the house but he is totally getting to the point that he needs more interaction with things. Long gone are the days of playing with his baby toys & even his house, I think, has seen its glory days. I've put a few things away that have not held his interest in a long time & now we are down to one basket of toys and even those hardly ever get dug into by him. I have a few things in mind (and on a list!) that I want to get him but if anyone has any suggestions for Must Have Toddler Toys for Boys, I would love to hear them!

Here's what is on my list at the moment:

• Kitchen - which Santa is taking care of
• Pull Toy - might get that Thomas the Train one
• Mega Blocks - he loves putting things in things

Another Milestone!

Liam made his first call to 911 today!

I grabbed the phone from him when I thought I heard a voice & yes, I thought I heard that voice say "what's your emergency" but I hung up anyway. They called back, rightly so, & I apologized and told them the toddler of the house did it.

One for the baby book!

Wiped out

We had School today & I don't think either of us were really quite in the mood for it. Liam woke up at 8:07 (to be exact!) and so we had to rush through our morning routine to be out the door at 9am. He cried through breakfast, mainly I think cause he wasn't all that ready for food yet having just finished his bottle. Then we quickly got dressed & left.

He was a handful at class (I really, really, really don't want to have one of Those Kids) & I know part of me thinking he was a handful was cause I wasn't in the best of moods either (thanks PMS!). I was running around, sweating, chasing him making sure he wasn't touching people wrongly, not going after the newborn in their carrier, or stealing toys from people. He's also discovered that he can MOVE the little basketball hoops & that's just not something I want him doing at all. He throws the blocks, which is ok, but he has no aim & just mindlessly throws them - of course always at other kids, usually smaller than he is - but let's not forgot almost everyone is smaller than he is.

He's climbing UP the slides & usually there's someone trying to come down it, the right way. There were a TON of kids there today too which didn't make moving around them any easier on me & him.

I'm sick of being covered in sweat from our excursions to the park (over 1 1/2 hours yesterday) & our fun little classes. You should have seen him at Mr. Don's last week - the man sang different lyrics into his songs just for Liam. He's all over the place, all the time. I found myself really losing patience with him today (mentally, not outwardly) & just wanted him to sit still for once, please. I know that's not going to happen & I do not usually lose my patience with him (just my breath!) when we are out because this is exactly what he needs. It's just so draining. And with the weather kicking back up towards the 90s the past few days, that hasn't made it any easier, for sure.

Any suggestions on how to tame him? Do I even try? What good "commands" do you use to help communicate how to behave in public play places like these? I do not want to just let him run wild, but he has to to some extent (and I try to participate in activities that encourage this) but since he's bigger & more active than others his age, it's hard to communicate with him what he needs to do, you know? It's not like he understands more than simple commands or even comprehends the whys behind my requests.

And the fact that there are 3 other Liams in the class doesn't make the listening to me aspect any easier - although I've resorted to calling him Fellow so that he knows he is being talked to.

I love that he is so active & exploratory but we are also in the "low comprehension" zone so there has to be a balance that I find before I curl up in the corner & let him run loose like Godzilla.

Bag of Tricks

Liam has added a few new tricks to his bag of Busy-ness recently. Most all of them do NOT involve his own toys...does this EVER end? I do not know how many times a day, I say to him "play with your toys" - Matias even says it - so you know it must be bad.

• He will open the Lazy Susan (child proofed!) and take out ONLY his cereal boxes. Hand them to me, I put them on the island, then he asks for them back & he puts them back on the Lazy Susan
• Carries pillows with him from wherever to wherever - especially the outdoor ones lately
• Drinks from the hose - even though it's not turned on - I'm sure I should be worried about him "catching something" but whatever. It's our hose, it's never left the backyard, I'm sure it's fine
• Takes things from the bathroom drawers and puts them in the showers (thankfully not the toilet) - it's real fun to find the Tylenol in there!
• Carrying around snow globes and shaking them up
• And just today he reached the recycling ON THE ISLAND and brought me my yogurt container that he LICKED CLEAN
• Opening the pantry (french lever door handles!) & throwing the huge pack of napkins & the air wick refill over the landing
• Giving Mystic a plethora of toys to choose from in her breakfast dishes since he throws/gives her a bunch daily. Once it was even a picture of herself - I'm not entirely convinced that he didn't know exactly what he was doing with that one
• Loves to go exploring in the garage (french lever door handles! door lock doesn't work on it!) when *someone* isn't paying "attention"
• Opens the dishwasher & attempts to grab at the utensils - if I lock it he can turn it on with the DIAL & the only way to turn it back off is to cycle all the way around giving him more "noise" to enjoy and thus creating an urge to do it again! If I don't lock it he can open it and play inside - there's not enough space between the cabinets to Liam Lock it. It's a Lose Lose here, folks.
• Opening & pulling out my extra razors from under the cabinet in a plastic drawer thingie.
  
• He loves shaking my left over bottle of TUMS around - never even has ever tried to get it open so I continue to let him play with it - he's the reason we have them in the first place!

Be careful, it's a big world out there!

Someone has learned how to open the front door. On his own. Reason #63596036 to attempt to get a certain Dada to keep the door locked.

Thankfully, it's on the ground floor, where most of the rest of the house is not, so he doesn't spend much time cavorting down there, unless he's playing games with Dada in his office.

It's one thing to open sliding doors, it's another to open the kind of door the front door is...the handle with the thumb-knob-push-it-down kind. He can also open the veranda door which is a french lever kind. And he gets the lazy susan open even though it's got a child lock on it.

And the dishwasher...it's better to keep it locked although that means you can turn that neat little knob to turn it on because otherwise he can open it up and climb inside and play with knifes and not-for-bebe stuff. It's the little trade offs that make it so much fun :)

I'm telling you the truth when I say he will NEVER EVER KNOW that the TV stands have drawers in/on (?) them. He will 18 going to college (UVA naturally) and be in utter shock when we open them up in front of him. Same goes for the ottomans. May he NEVER EVER KNOW that there's a neat little space in there.

Ahem.

New nicknames!

Here's a sampling of the names that float around the house on any given occasion -

• Mr. Destructo
• Stink
• Bebe

I'm drawing a stupid blank now - I planned to write about this a while ago & just got the chance to do it now & now I'm blanking!

I'm sure you can discern why we would call a budding Toddler Mr. Destructo...he is like a hurricane, this one. Part of me loves it cause he's active & exploring & having a grand ol' time but then, after hours, part of it cannot stand it cause someone has to clean up the path of this Mr. Destructo. We've become our own FEMA.

One really funny thing he does (to which I call him my Sea Otter) is he takes the remotes off the area rugs to throw them against the hardwood floors, thus making it easier to get the blasted batteries out of them! GENIUS! But, oh so annoying!

Can you say "hands full"?

Mr. Destructo would also much rather toss his Gears & Wheels toy on the ground scattering the wheels this way & that instead of sitting nicely and playing "proper".

Mr. Destructo would also much rather throw his wooden stacking 'parts' behind the laptop/stereo entertainment center than stack them on the proper poles. Although, in all fairness, he has started to actually stack them this week.

Mr. Destructo would also much rather pull his entire basket of books off the ottoman rather than take one out at a time. I've tried to put the basket on the floor but that only encourages him to make a mess on a consistent basis rather than just when the wild hair is up his butt. I'll deal with the wild hair moments, thank you.

He is now saying "bebe" so I will continue to call him that along with all the other bebes he finds and points out to me.

Stink usually is a prelude to Mr. Destructo - it's like that little devilish behavior is just building up & not quite ready to morph into full on hurricane force destruction - call it a tropical storm, if you will.

Monkey takes the brunt of Mr. Destructo (quite happily, I might add) while Mystic takes the hit from Stink (not as happily, I might add). In fact, Mystic gets hissed at by Stink, while Monkey gets laughed at (or with, I cannot decide).

When does Hurricane Season end for Toddlers? October, right??