Winter... brrr...

Wow, so winter is here. Its going to be a long haul! Sam and I have been flying solo a lot this week because Daddy has been tied up three evenings in a row. Wednesday evening was our ultimate mom and baby adventure. After nap we bundled up and trekked up to the Burlington Mall to meet Sam's friend Gavin and his mom. We hit up the new play area which was quite fun. Everything is padded, squishy and new. Its right in the food court so its out in the open. Sam loved it. Then he got Chick Fil A for his dinner. He thought that was equally exciting. After that we hit up all the toy-ish stores the mall has to offer. Wow. What a stimulating evening! But hey, I was out of the house. We have got to find more interesting things to do or I will need to go back to work full time!

Last winter I have fond memories of hanging out with our baby friends and being a mall rat or cozied up in someone's house. Sam is a lot more fun, a lot more predictable and a lot more animated than last winter. However, he is a lot more high maintenance, too. This means the hours of meandering through the mall, pausing to nurse in the cushy bathrooms, are over. Maybe he'll sit in the stroller for a bit, but certainly not for hours and there are no more stroller naps, either. If we get together with friends at a play space or someone's house, new challenges also arise. The kids all go in their own direction. I can't remember the last time I finished a conversation with another mom! Moming a toddler is a lot more challenging in the winter.

So, as this week offers us our first taste of winter, I have to get creative. We will definitely be seeing more insides of malls. This time for the playspace and not the shopping and gelato... Perhaps story time at the library? Museusm? Any other wild suggestions are always welcom.

We're travelling for Thanksgiving this week. We will have Daddy around all week and a whole slew of family. Maybe I can sneak out for a few minutes!? Me time? Nah!

A breakthrough?

No splashing in the water bowl.  Not a one single time.  Is it too soon to say, this might just work?  Here's to hoping.

The new thing is clamoring up onto the ottoman, standing, then jumping.  A bit more risky than the dog bowl.

I have a true, 100%, bonafide, boy.

Discipline Part II

I'm sure Sam will appreciate this as a teenager, but yesterday he had his first time out.  I'm growing increasingly frustrated with his lack of regard for the word "no".  I KNOW he understands me.  Its the water dish.  How can you blame him?  That water dish is COOL.  Its wet, its just the right size.   However, its cold.  If he plays in the water dish, my floor gets wet, he gets wet and the dogs have no water.  It is just plain annoying.  

More annoying still is the fact that he knows he is not supposed to do it.  He does it anyway.  He walks up to that water dish, says something in gibberish and waits until he has mine or Dave's attention.  We say no... gently first then more harshly as he continues to babble over the water dish.  Then he strikes (splashes...).  Then he laughs with glee.  ARGH.

So yesterday, I realize removing the bowl every single time he is in the kitchen and/or awake is not realistic.  He's not going to learn anything and I'm going to forget to put it back and the dogs will be thirsty.  In comes time out.  Now when he walks over to the bowl and deliberately splashes after multiple "no's"  I swiftly pluck him off the floor and into my arms and hold him for the requisite "one minute".  I'd like to say this was a breakthrough and we now have no issues with water.  Not quite yet.  However, my hope is that he will associate this repeated action with a negative consequence.  What one year old wants to do something that gets him restrained on mom's lap?  

That my friends, was our first (and second and third) time out.  We survived.  I felt silly "explaining in a calm voice" why Sam was swiftly whisked away from something "so fun" and plopped into my lap.  You've got to learn the meaning of "no" somewhere, somehow, right?  I figure we should start here rather than wait until he is stealing cars and rummaging through our wallets...