Two is the first of many "awkward" ages.

There's been a lot written about the "terrible" twos, and I'd admit that there's a little something to all the fuss, but it's hardly the worst period in one's life.  It's more the culmination of independent thought that's been building for 6 months or more.  There aren't even any hormones involved (as in puberty and menopause).  So, it came as no surprise to me that Astrid showed up one morning in a mood previously reflected by "I don't want to go ; I want to go back to bed!" 


I had paints ready for her that day, and there certainly wasn't any need to eat breakfast BEFORE doing the sticker exercise that I always leave on the little table in my office for her, so I suggested that dad just leave her when she chose to do the sticker exercise before breakfast.  That was about a week ago and I think she's done the sticker exercise every day since before choosing to eat. 


Painting is a great way to "expel the demons", and I suspect the famous painters of old had their share of demons to expel. 

I didn't even bother to don her paint smock -- this new paint washes out readily anyway --- and I pulled a chair over so she could sit while painting.  When she was done painting (using both brush and hands) the demons had been expelled and she was once again happy and (what most of us notice more) compliant.  We had more fun together that day than usual. 


Tomorrow is another painting day.  I try to fit one in each week even with the added time-waste of a Mickey Mouse video.    I also try and fit in a bath play period once/week because we have a huge bathroom tub in our master bathroom that we never use.

  Until now, we'd been adhering to recommendations that children under two years old watch zero TV/videos.  Somehow she learned of Mickey Mouse, though, so I started searching out free MM club videos. 


Local weather has been pretty spring-like lately, so we've been taking walks each time she's here, as well.  Last Friday we had magnets I'd ordered, so I tied two of them to pencils and we "fished" for objects on our walk.  She caught a pretty big screw.

Wordless Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday.

2012 begins.

As usual, Em and I fell asleep before the new year; we don't even TRY anymore to stay up.  I got a wall calendar sometime last month that's kindof a do-it-yourself, start whenever you want thing designed with kids in mind, so I started it and have been jotting down little references on the days.  For instance, today is not JUST New Years Day, but also Dad's Birthday (Astrid's dad).  The calendar came with lots of stickers for holidays and family/school related things, so I'll use those as well as write in "made cake-mix cookies" the recipe for which should really get some attention because I thought the cookies ruled.  Em loves cookies and I learned about using cake mixes because I had tons of coupons for cake mixes and we couldn't eat all those cakes before the cake mixes expired.  Also, we rarely have any all-purpose flour on hand as we grind our own whole wheat flour for most baking purposes.


So, I've started Astrid's introduction to the concept of time with the calendar, a short video song "Days of the Week" and the globe spinning one revolution each day, etc.  She'll take from it what she can at this age.  I'm also introducing her to the Dolch sight-reading words before we get into phonics.  Right now, we're working on the pre-primer list and will include some nouns before moving to the next list.   She won't be two years old until Feb 7, but she's a quick study and already toilet-trained.  While my three kids were reading at 3 years, they toilet-trained more in the third year than the second, so that time-consuming learning hurdle is behind her with expectations of some set-backs due to the new baby. 


Some might consider it a bad idea to have any kind of "structured" education at this age, but the human mind is never again as receptive as it is during the first 6 years, so I like to toss out as much material as possible with the thought that "what sticks sticks".   A (to me) interesting question was introduced at Amber Strocel's blog on whether boredom should be addressed in young children.  You'll definitely want to check out her site if only to listen to the beautiful music used to background the slide show of their 2011.  I pretty much dedicate myself to Astrid in the hours during the week when she's here and I introduce lots of learning activities hoping that she'll have an interest in one of them.  If she shows no interest, I move on to the next activity and/or take clues from her.  If she brings me a book, we read.  If she brings me the play-dough, we make stuff.  If she wants to go outside and the weather is decent, we go outside.  If the weather sucks, she learns about weather.  She seems content to do whatever.

Here she is starting on breakfast (the first event of our days together). 

Here she is washing the dishes we dirtied making the cake-mix cookies.  At one point I thought she might have lost interest and tried to take her down from the stool, but she said, "No!  I help wash dishes."  Probably never again in her life will she enjoy washing dishes as much as she does now.

Here she is just relaxing in her favorite dress-up hat while eating one of those cookies.

Christmas, Santa Claus and non-Christians.

I don't believe that there's a god, let alone a god who had a son born in a manger to a virgin, but I really hate to influence children (including my own) by stating that aloud.  So far, I don't think that any of my children are Christian, although that could change and I wouldn't care at all if it did.  Belief systems, in my opinion, are personal.  I don't want to sway you from yours and I sure don't want you to sway me from mine.


Christmas and the gift-giving tradition born out of it, however, presents a dilemma for non-believers who don't want to engage in the hypocrisy associated with so many Christians.   Children are too new to the world to deal with belief/non-belief systems out of the norm, and as No. 1 has reminded me too many times to count as I asked her how she always seemed to end up with Christian boyfriends, "The US is 85% Christian". 


So, when my kids were little way back in the day, I pretended that there was a Santa Claus.  BIG MISTAKE!  No. 1 would say things like, "Why would Santa think I would want something like this?"
GULP! 


As the years went by, I think the kids just enjoyed getting gifts and the fun associated with opening the gifts even if the gifts weren't what they wanted.


Somewhere along the line, I stopped pretending.  The kids were grown and aware of my non-belief, Em's a non-believer as well, and there were/are other venues for everyone.  Then came Astrid.

I fancy myself  her teacher in these early preschool years, although No. 1 and husband are doing an excellent job at ensuring appropriate development, as well.   It's my intent to teach her bible stories along with Aesop's fables and Greek/Roman mythologies.  She's a bit young for that now, IMO, but is totally smitten with Frosty the Snowman.  We watch a 3-minute Frosty video every visit THREE times.  So far, she's not asked about Santa (who appears at the end of the video with Frosty), but I suspect I'll suggest to her that Santa is "the spirit of Christmas" if (and ONLY if) it comes up. 

Cooking With Small Children.

Astrid LOVES to cook (unlike her mother).  She'll pretend to cook if I don't have a cooking exercise planned for her.  She won't be 2 years old until Feb 7, 2012, so I'm still leary of her impetuousness when it comes to the stovetop.  I read today (on the internet) that anyone with a brain would realize that small children shouldn't be allowed to use the stovetop.  I'm more of the opinion that small children should be taught how to use a stovetop safely, so (for now) she's still watching me flip the pancake while she wears the oven mitts, but I expect her to be safely flipping the pancake under my supervision within say a year if I still have the pleasure of watching her three times/week after her family moves. 


No. 1's inlaws want to buy them a house in their neighborhood before the new baby is born.  This would mean a nice house in a nice neighborhood with a good public school.  It would also mean a longer drive to bring Astrid here. 


So far, we've made cookies, pudding, and pancakes (from mixes).  We've also made play dough (from koolaid) and we'll make jello this week.  We haven't yet made anything from scratch and we haven't yet made anything that requires electricity to mix.   She came early yesterday so No. 1 could make a prenatal appointment, so I figured she wouldn't be so hungry that she couldn't help make her own pancake. 

What are your thoughts on cooking with young children?  If you have children, how old were they before you allowed them to use the stovetop?



No. 2 visits yet again and creeates a video of Astrid.

Occupy Dallas - October, 2011

Another Occupy sympathizer and I went to downtown Dallas October 5th for a march from Pike's Park to the Federal Reserve Bank building. It was a few hours of effort on our part. That last pic is the sign I made to carry.


We weren't the only old people there by any means, but the crowd was mainly young people. Unlike the last protest marches in which I engaged (probably in the early 1970s), the emphasis here was on respect. We were told by the organizers, "You WILL be nice. You WILL respect the police." Just in case, we were given the number of an attorney to get us out of jail, but the crowd was quite respectful and I don't think there were any arrests that day. Since that day, Occupy set up permanent digs, the police got tired of them and ran them off. Last I heard, folks were working in two-hour shifts to maintain a presence around the clock every day. Dallas has never been a "feel free to use our bathrooms" town, so two hours is pretty standard fare with the getting to and getting home adding to bathroom-free time.

No. 2 is coming this weekend,

so I figured it's about time I posted the pics from No. 2's October visit. Jetblue has been having some airline flight sales that were just too cheap to ignore.

I broke my camera the night I took the above pics and just this week got a replacement working. I'm thinking that before No. 2 arrives on Saturday I'll post some pics from Occupy Dallas. I support Occupy as much as I support breastfeeding in public, but I don't tend to post much on my politics (outside of the sidebar).

FINALLY blogging again ... I THINK.

Since having Astrid three times/week for several hours my time has become more limited. There's the time spent before she comes looking around to see if I've left anything dangerous,poisonous,breakable and of sentimental value, or (depending on my energy level) too much work if she got into it. Because I don't have to do the laundry, cleaning, etc. like moms do, I didn't do childproofing beyond plugging the electrical outlets. I'm always with her (except when I'm not).

She'll be 2 years old at the beginning of February and is already long past the "put everything into the mouth" stage. She also seems to understand and heed things like, "This is the only cabinet you can go into." The others are off-limits (due to aforementioned dangerous, poisonous, etc.).



There's the time spent researching and preparing materials for activities and the time spent cleaning up after activities. THIS one was particularly messy and Who Knew food coloring stained skin and nails?



There's the time spent day-dreaming about how I can help her "become all that she can be", the time spent reading reviews on books and materials important to childhood, the time spent ordering them, unpacking them, listening to Em complain, "What did you buy NOW?". Have I mentioned that No. 1 will be having her No. 2 in May of 2012?