Quick Takes – Take Three – Jacob Edition

by youngmarriedmom Posted on June 7, 2013

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Jacob Edition!

— 1 —

Last week at the playground, Jacob started playing with a sweet, adorable boy who I guessed to be about five years old. When Jacob said something about muffins, the boy misunderstood and thought he said “math.” (I’m not sure how this happened.) Jacob made no attempt to correct him, so the little boy started saying, “You know math! I don’t even know math! I know one plus one is two, but not the harder ones.” Jacob is still quoting the little boy: “You know math! I don’t know math!”

— 2 —

In the last few weeks before the exam, Jacob started to understand that Daddy had to study. One day, while John was studying at the kitchen table, Jacob set up some of his coloring next to him, so he could study too. He sat there quietly and worked for longer than I expected!

— 3 —

For whatever reason, Jacob has started to channel Brick from Anchorman (which, of course, he has not seen). “Oh, I love blueberries.” “I love chicken.” “I love Grandma Wheese’s blender.”

— 4 —

I don’t think a parent ever gets used to seeing her kid breaking out in hives. We’ve had a couple of reactions that required Benadryl (and Cortisone and a bath) this week, seemingly brought on by the water from playground sprinklers. We’re as prepared as we can be, but every time it happens, I feel helpless. I want to scoop Jacob up and run away to somewhere where this doesn’t happen.
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— 5 —

A realtor is starting to show our apartment to possible new tenants. One such couple came over Monday. Earlier in the day, Jacob and I took two attempts at making a pie crust (the final product was delicious, even without dairy, by the way). When the prospective tenant came over, Jacob was right at the door to welcome him with this report, “We messed up the pie!”

— 6 —

Speaking of pie, our voracious little eater has started to get picky. He takes the lettuce off of sandwiches, and won’t even eat it when we tell him chips will follow if he finishes the green stuff. The other night, he couldn’t manage to finish the peas in his stir-fry (he ate enough of them, though), but had no problem wolfing down a slice of strawberry rhubarb raspberry pie. This is definitely my child.

— 7 —

We’ve been traveling to and from our parents’ houses in New Jersey more frequently. The route we take brings us past Newark Airport. Every time we go by, Jacob goes a little berserk. “Airpane! It’s yandin’ down!” Translation: “Airplane! It’s landing down!” This has also led to his requesting YouTube videos of airplanes while I’m working. “Mommy, when you’re done working, can I see an airplane?” And while we’re watching that, “Can we see a red airplane? And a green one?” Then we’re watching it and we hear an airplane outside. Surround sound! Nothing gets past this guy!

 

P.S. Next week’s post will be about Henry, but here’s a teaser: Henry’s scooting backwards!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Posted in Allergies, Modern Perspectives, Motherhood, Young Married Mom | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Signs of a Good Babysitter

by youngmarriedmom Posted on June 6, 2013

For a parent, there are few things as refreshing and glorious as a good babysitter. Luckily (and sadly, because we’re moving in two months) I think we’ve found one of the best.

 

Not only was she highly recommended by a friend, has professional experience with young children (as a dance teacher!), and is so wonderful that she once stayed a full hour after we got home just chatting with us, she has the same food allergies as Jacob! Never before has someone’s life-threatening food allergies elicited an alleluia from me!

 

Allergies aside, there are a couple of things about this lovely young woman (she’s a whopping four years younger than me) that I’ve gleaned from our experience with her as criteria for good future babysitters. I’d love to hear other people’s takes on these as well! We’re always learning.

 

1. She listens to our instructions. And remembers them. Especially with Jacob’s food allergies, it is essential that a sitter pay attention and follow our directions on what Jacob can eat. We have had another sitter stray, and while Jacob was fine, it was terrifying to find out later.

 

I’m pretty strict about sleep too (or I was before Henry was born). I love that even with a month between one sitting and the next, our beloved sitter remembers what time he goes to bed and what his bedtime routine looks like. Knowing that she follows our schedule as best she can means an easier tomorrow for us.

 

Full disclosure, I don’t always remember to tell her every detail of how we do things. On one of her first stays, I forgot to tell her that Jacob was in a stage where he needed to hold his stuffed monkey and have it turn out the light in his room. She managed to decipher that, which is impressive considering how much he was talking then!

 

2. She gives a full report when we get home. When we ask, “How was he?” we get all the details—what they did, what he ate, when he went to sleep, what phrases or songs we might hear repeated the next day (all appropriate!). It takes almost no prompting and is complete.

 
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3. She genuinely has fun with Jacob. Jacob loves anyone who comes to our house and plays with him, and he expects that anyone who enters our home is, indeed, there to play with him.

 

What’s special is that it’s clear from the way she talks about him that she really enjoys the time she spends with him, too. She laughs at/with him. She thinks he’s adorable without just being interested in watching him do stuff because he’s little.

 

4. She cleans up! I don’t expect a sitter to leave our home cleaner than it was when we left, but if Jacob’s in bed, I do expect toys put away and dishes manageable in the sink.

 

5. It’s not weird if we’re home while they’re playing together. Last weekend, I had our sitter come over before John got home from his test, in part, because I wasn’t sure when that would be and I wanted to surprise him (Month of John!).

 

She played with Jacob and Henry while I made Jacob’s dinner and did some other things around the house. It was another set of arms to hold Henry and it was good to not feel like I needed to tell her everything about the evening in the two minutes before we left.

 

I was in and out of the room where she was with the boys—she watched both! the first non-family to do that!—and it wasn’t weird at all. Well, for me at least. I remember being the sitter while the parents were home once or twice, and it was awkward. This sitter? Not at all.

 

*     *     *

Though we’re moving to a house full of babysitters, I really am going to miss this one. She’s one in a million, and I am so grateful to have found her. Hopefully the good things she’s taught me will help me find another (almost) as good, when the time comes.

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The Library Book Bag

by youngmarriedmom Posted on June 5, 2013

When I was pregnant with Jacob, one of my friends asked me, jokingly, “What will you do if this kid hates to read?” My response was that he was going to learn to read, whether he liked it or not. Thank goodness that has not been an issue in these parts. We make a trip or two to the library every week, and Jacob is always happy to be there.

 

We’ve recently discovered two series that I wanted to share, especially with those who have little ones or who teach little ones. Really, these would also make great gifts for anyone who knows little ones to give, so everyone—listen up!

 

First, our new best friends, Elephant and Piggie. Mo Willems, of Pigeon fame, has written and illustrated a seemingly endless series of everyday adventures involving these two. The elephant, Gerald, is male, and the pig, Piggie, is female, and the stories are accessible to just about every kid ever. We quote these all the time. They’re funny enough that John and I don’t mind rereading them in the least. In fact, we sometimes try to convince Jacob to pick our favorites.

 
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I love that the stories are told entirely in dialogue (and the occasional sound effect). The design of the words on the page helps me to read them aloud dramatically the first time through, which gets Jacob engaged from page one. Too often, the typefaces and font color and size in children’s books are overdesigned, in my opinion, but here, I think they’re helping Jacob get a sense of how grammar and punctuation work, as well as showing him how much fun it is to read. These are simple, sweet, and pretty much perfect. Pick any of these up, and you just can’t go wrong.

 

Our other new best friends are Dodsworth and his duck, who are traveling the world together—by accident. Each adventure takes place in a different city (New York, Paris, London, Rome). Landmarks and cultural elements, like language and cuisine, are worked in fluidly. The humor is right on. These are another bunch that we can read over and over and not get bored of. In fact, I’ve read some of them three times in a row, at Jacob’s request. Oh, and I love the illustrations. Really I love these all around. They are on the longer side, though, so if Jacob chooses one of these for a bedtime book, he picks one chapter of the four in each to count for one story. If it’s not bedtime, we read these straight through.

 

There are a whole lot of children’s books out there, and some are more enjoyable than others. These are just a few that Jacob, John, and I can all agree on. They’re already classics, at least in our house!

Posted in Modern Perspectives, Motherhood, Publishing, Young Married Mom | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments