Bethany's 1st Week

Where does the time go?

4/17/10 - Sugar, Spice, and Vinegar

Whenever my brother and I would be especially ornery as kids, my mom would joke that we were “full of vinegar”.   Now, as a parent myself, I find that there are times when kids go through whole phases of orneriness.   It’s not that they’re being deliberately obnoxious or misbehaved – it’s just that they’re bound and determined to explore their world and test the limits, and Mommy is just running to catch up. 

 

This week was a perfect example.  On Monday morning, I was on doctor’s orders to rest while fighting a bad case of Mastitis.  I had also sprained my toe trying to get to the phone in a hurry and was hobbling around.  Amanda picked that day to dump an entire box of baking soda all over the carpet, climb onto the table to eat butter from the butter dish and gluten-laden bread, and pulled all of Eva’s shirts and pants out of the closet and drawers to try them all on.  (And I’m supposed to rest?)

 

A couple of days later, I gave Bethany her first bath in the big tub.  I rolled up a towel to put under her head, stripped her down and started to put her in the water when I realized Amanda had just thrown an entire bath towel into the tub.  “No, Amanda, you don’t throw things in the tub!”  After Bethany’s bath I took her into the other room to get her dressed.  When I came back to drain the tub, I found it full of soggy toilet paper, with Amanda nowhere to be seen. 

 

But the crowning achievement came the next day, when I officially joined the ranks of “mommies whose children embarrass them in the grocery store.”   Amanda pulled her pants down in the check-out line and I was too busy paying the bill to notice until a lady came running up to tell me, “Uh, excuse me ma’am, but your little girl has pulled down her pants.”   I could see her head on the other side of the cart and figured everything was fine since she wasn’t wandering off.   But there she was, with her pants around her ankles, casually scratching her tush and looking at me like, “What’s the big deal?”  I just about died.  The checker and other ladies were laughing and saying, “Don’t worry, we’re all mommies here.”   Nice of them to say, but I don’t want to end up as the next winning photo on “PeopleOfWalMart.com”. 

Letters to Grandma

Eva loves drawing pictures, writing “letters”, and sending mail.  Every time she draws something she asks for an envelope and wants a sticker to use as a stamp.  Sometimes she’ll even ask Daddy or Mommy to walk her out to the mailbox so she can mail it.  We have a Richard Scarry book about “Busy People”, which has a section that talks about the post office.  Eva is fascinated by the process.  She doesn’t just ask if she can mail a letter.  She’ll say, “Can I put a stamp on my letter, and then you can put it in the mail box, and then they can take it to the post office, and put it in the airplane, and then take it to the other post office, and then they can bring it to Grandma?” 

 

Eva is so observant, sometimes it’s scary, the things she notices.   We recently had to cut dairy products out of her diet because the naturopath said it was contributing to her frequent constipation.   I’ve been trying to get added fiber into her diet, like mixing prune and apple juice.  The other day I told her, “Drink your juice, Eva.  It will help your bottom to stop hurting.”   She looked at me skeptically.  “Is that what doctor Jill told you, Momma?”   Have we already arrived at the “I want a second opinion” stage?

Sister Love

Whenever I put Bethany on her play mat so she can roll freely and have some tummy time, Amanda is inevitably drawn like a moth to a flame.  She loves to lay down as close to the baby as she can, kiss her, “hug” her (grabbing her head or laying on her), or otherwise try to kill her with toddler affection.   I find myself repeating commands like “don’t touch her head” or “get your fingers out of her face”, or the ever frequent “get OFF the baby!”  

 

A playpen could solve all this pretty quickly, but that would be such a confined area for a baby who likes to roll all around the living room.   Bethany takes it all in stride and even seems to enjoy the attention, rewarding Amanda with smiles (which doesn’t help drive home Mom’s point, LOL).   At least I know when she’s not crying, she’s not being hurt – yet.   Teaching Amanda the boundaries will help to make sure it stays that way. 

 

Learning Styles

Amanda has developed a strange habit of wanting to explore everything with her feet.  It started with lying on Bethany’s play mat and kicking the toys dangling above her.  Soon she was trying to play with ALL her toys that way – grabbing them with her toes or pushing them around with her feet.  She’ll even do it with books, pointing to her favorite characters with her big toe, and trying to turn the page with her foot.  Unfortunately, it’s one more thing I’ve had to watch out for when it comes to Bethany, since Amanda’s already tried to occasionally “play” with the baby by poking, pushing, or patting sister’s head with her feet (notice the foot in the picture).

 

I mentioned it to Grandma Glynna, and she said that Amanda is exhibiting signs of a kinesthetic learning style. That is, she probably learns best by interaction and touch.  Granted, most toddlers are pretty tactile at this age, but Amanda is taking it to a whole different level.  She continues to put things in her mouth long beyond the point when Eva stopped.  She doesn’t like to wear socks, preferring to feel things with her feet.  And it would explain why she didn’t want me to put her down for the first half of her life, and continues to be very physically affectionate (especially in constantly trying to “man-handle” the baby).

   

This could get interesting when it comes time for school.  I’m not a very artsy/crafty person, but Amanda is likely to prefer a lot of hands-on interactive activities as opposed to mostly reading (my preferred learning method).   Eva, on the other hand, shows all the signs of being a visual learner, like me.

 

Easter Bunny

We took the girls to the local outlet mall and ran into the Easter Bunny, who was passing out candy. They were thrilled.  I expected Amanda to be afraid of him, but she actually posed for a picture without a fuss. 

 

For some reason it was different when we took the girls to the Easter egg hunt at Daddy’s building.  They had a blast hunting down eggs (Amanda got a jump start and started filling her basket before it had even begun), but when the Easter Bunny showed up, Amanda wouldn’t go anywhere near him.  Bethany seemed to take it all in stride, even letting the fuzzy stranger hold her for a photo.  Later we had a little Easter Egg hunt of our own at home (indoors, thanks to the rain).