life with a new baby
Posts tagged annoyances
Indoor play spaces? I’ll pass.
Aug 3rd
A couple days ago, Nathan and I hung out with my friend (who we’ll call T). We went out to lunch together, and while we were eating, we reminisced about another time we ate lunch together, after which we went on a quest to find a playground for Nathan.
I can’t believe I never blogged about this.
So anyway, we found one of those indoor playgrounds in a fast food restaurant. From the outside, the play space looked massive. It beckoned to us, looming over us at about two stories tall. So we hauled Nathan out of his carseat and into the restaurant.
As soon as I opened the door to the play space and looked around, my heart sank. Yeah, the play space was two stories tall, but it was NARROW. The room it was in was maybe 12 ft x 12 ft, with the play space taking up a good portion of it… leaving an available space of about 12 ft x 4 ft. And the play space was completely vertical. There were a number of ledges arranged in step-formation for kids to shimmy up, but there is no way an adult could because there was only about a foot of space available to squeeze through in order to climb to the next ledge. Someone like me would get stuck. It was a safety hazard if you ask me.
Of course, the kids all had to take their shoes off to play, so the smell of dirty feet permeated the tiny enclosure. There was no air conditioning or any air flow whatsoever, so it was stuffy and stale, which only exacerbated the dirty feet smell.
I sat on one of the benches and tried not to touch anything. My friend T appeared to be just as uncomfortable as me, but we couldn’t just leave. No, once you take a two-year-old into a play area, you cannot just turn around and leave unless you’re wanting to experience the apocalypse.
I couldn’t let Nathan climb the contraption because he’s so little, if he got hurt, I would have not be able to squeeze my way through the ledges to help him. Nathan, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to the stale air and dirty feet smell. And even though I wouldn’t let him climb the play thingy, he just ran around that tiny little enclosure, clapped his hands, and had a ball.
In fact, he was running so hard and enjoying himself so much that he quit paying attention and ran right smack-dab INTO A WINDOW. Just like how you see in the cartoons, with his little arms and legs splayed out. He kinda bounced off it, rubbed his head, but shook it off like it was nothing.
Another gross thing about the play space is there were a number of kids in there, and at least two of them were sick. One had a nasty, hacking cough and the other had a disgusting, snotty nose. You know, complete with those gross snot bubbles. And she was constantly wiping her mucus faucet with her hand and then she would TOUCH everything.
What made it even worse was her mother came in there once and was all like, Oh look at your poor little nose, my sweet sick little baby, blah blah blah. And I’m thinking to myself, CAN YOU NOT SEE YOUR KID IS SPREADING THE MUCUS PLAGUE ALL OVER THE PLACE??
My left eye actually twitched a little over the mom’s obtuse complacency. I mean, who can be so oblivious to others that they let their snot-bubble spewing kid sow their noxious germs into the porous plastics where said germs will fester and possibly mutate into an ULTRA MUCUS PLAGUE and other kids will then pick them up and spread the love? Who does that? SATAN??
Can you imagine the self control it took for me to not yank my child out of there?
I just didn’t have the heart to. Nathan loves being around other kids and was having a blast just running around. We stayed for about an hour, and let me tell you, when we finally left, FRESH AIR NEVER FELT SO GOOD.
No, not a good place for a mom like me who is trying really hard to control her OCD tendencies. Needless to say, I sanitized the shit out of Nathan’s hands once we left and fortunately, he didn’t get sick from the episode. Lesson learned. It will probably be a long, long, LONG time before I take my child back to one of those indoor play spaces. My friend and I were so dismayed… it felt like we were tricked. I mean, from the outside, it was so big and inviting… It was like a bait-and-switch, and we were very disappointed.
The Sound of Mischief
Aug 1st
Yesterday evening, Nathan was being super sweet. My mom had gotten him a 10-pack of his favorite cars, Hot Wheels, and he had been playing with them all day. Paul and Nathan were watching Blue’s Clues together as Nathan played with his new cars. When Paul looked up, he noticed the show was about to end.
“Nathan, Blue’s Clues is almost over… will you hand me the remote?” he said.
“Ooh! Ooh ooh ooh!” said Nathan as he jumped up, tightly clasping some of his cars in his hands. Nathan toddled over to the remote and managed to pick it up with both hands already full of Hot Wheels, without dropping it or any of his cars. Holding his cars along with the remote control was an adorable balancing act, and Nathan happily brought the remote back to Paul and dropped it in his lap, all without spilling any of the Hot Wheels out of his tightly clenched fists.
Paul was completely enamored with Nathan’s cuteness. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by an Uh-Oh Sound. If you’ve ever been around kids, you know what I’m talking about. The sound of MISCHIEF.
Plink!
Nathan purposefully dropped one of his shiny little Hot Wheels directly into Paul’s cold glass of Sprite.
And then Nathan stood there and laughed. Impishly.
In need of a pause button
Jul 28th
Hmmmmm. So it’s been a while since I’ve updated the look of my blog. You see, I have this sweet little elf chasing me around all day long… he’s rather charming and quite endearing, and I’m totally addicted to him, so he gets all of my time and attention. I don’t mind it at all, but it means that I am forever behind on the housework and other things I need to get done!
Well, I actually MADE time and am now working on an upgrade for my blog. New look and stuff. I think y’all will like it.
Not sure when I’ll actually get around to FINISHING it and getting it all up and running. A pause button would be nice. You know, that way I can just pause life… not miss a moment of my son’s time but still be able to get everything done that needs to be done. (I’m not the only parent with this having-very-little-if-any-free-time dilemma, am I?) Plus, a pause button would be nice during Nathan’s super cute days. The days when he’s all “I love you, Mommy!” and cuddly and stuff. Except for his impish days… I’m not particularly fond of them!
Speaking of impish, my poor child is mildly sick today. Thankfully, it’s mild though. It seems like every time I get him around other kids, HE GETS SICK. Church, playgrounds, play dates… it’s enough to drive a parent insane. You know, when we went up to Michigan a couple weeks ago, I was very careful to clean the tables, booster seats, etc with my handy Lysol wipes. I kept his hands sanitized and was ever vigilant about those pesky germs. And even with all that travelling, he did not get sick.
EVEN AFTER LICKING THE BOTTOM OF HIS SHOE.
That’s right. On the way home to Tennessee, I turned around and my child had his tongue firmly planted on the bottom of his shoe. The very same shoes he wore into BATHROOMS and walked on HOTEL FLOORS with. When I saw he was licking the bottom of his shoe, I shooed him away from it and said shoes were yucky and not meant to be licked.
He left a tongue-print on the bottom of his shoe that took forever to dry. Not that I care about saliva drying time, but the point is that he was totally NOM NOMing all over his shoe, to the point that I am convinced he salivated more than normal. Hence, the long-lasting tongue print.
So anyway, even after all that, my child did not get sick.
HE DIDN’T GET SICK FROM FLOOR GERMS. Nasty, yucky, bottom-of-shoe germs.
But I take him to church on Sunday, and he’s around other kids and WHAM. Kids are so gross sometimes and I truly wish their parents would keep an actively sick child away from other children. (I totally get that sometimes one can be contagious before showing any symptoms of being sick. That can’t be helped. But what CAN be helped is KEEPING your OBVIOUSLY sick child HOME!)
I volunteered to work in the church nursery occasionally. I haven’t started yet… and I’m worried how I will react when parents drop of a child who is hacking all over the place, spreading their sick sneezing mucus throughout the room. I guess I will just have to cross that bridge when I get there… and pray God gives me the grace to handle the situation proactively yet with discretion!
Stubborn is as stubborn does
Jul 11th
My kid is so stubborn.
I mean, really, really stubborn. And strong-willed. Determined. Steadfast.
Just a few days ago, I heard one of my cats meow in exasperation. I slinked through the kitchen and caught Nathan in the living room, throwing tufts of cat fur into the air and DANCING IN IT while clapping his hands. I saw my cat Andrew hunkered wide-eyed in the corner. He looked as if he thought he was naked.
I bet he felt naked with all the fur Nathan had pulled out and was DANCING in.
“NO! Nathan, that’s not nice! You don’t hurt the cats… Time Out!” I said as I grabbed his cat-fur covered hands. I steered him into his Time Out Corner and set the timer for three minutes (the amount of time Nathan gets in time out depends on his infraction. Milder infractions get him two minutes). When three minutes was up, I returned to Nathan and squatted down on his level.
“Do you understand why Mommy put you in time out?” I asked.
He looked at his hands.
“You pulled out the cat’s fur. You hurt the cat. No touching the cats, Nathan.”
“I’m sorry,” he replied as he did the sign for sorry across his chest.
“Nathan, I need you to say ‘No cat,’” I said.
Nathan mumbled something unintelligible.
“If you want out of time out, you need to say ‘No cat,’” I prodded. Nathan crossed his arms over his chest.
“NO!” he yelled.
“Okay then, you made the choice to have more time out,” I replied. I set the timer for another minute. When the timer went off, I repeated the process.
Again.
And again.
And again.
And again…
In fact, I repeated the process a grand total of THIRTY SEVEN times. That means that THIRTY SEVEN times in a row, I asked Nathan if he was ready to say “No cat.” And THIRTY SEVEN times in a row, Nathan obstinately refused. Until finally, a grand total of FORTY minutes later (including the three minutes for his first time out) and with tears streaming down his cheeks and snot dripping out his nose, he begrudgingly gave me what I asked for.
“No cat,” he whispered. That’s right. He wouldn’t even speak it. HE WHISPERED IT.
With his arms crossed over his chest and his chin up in the air.
But at least he said it, right? My kid may be stubborn, but his mama is even MORE stubborn. Getting tired of the discipline and giving in is not an option for me… giving in means that Nathan would know that all he needs to do to get his way is put up a fight and eventually I’ll cave. And then? Then I’m left dealing with an A-1 Brat. Not gonna happen in this house. It is my responsibility to prepare this child for life, and letting him have his way teaches him nothing.
Even if it takes THIRTY SEVEN repetitions.
Hey, no one ever said parenthood was easy.
Recent Comments
Aww thanks, Tina, it was good to see you too! I wish I could have talked to you more... I ...
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Awww... what really nice photos! You two look so alike, especially with the way you smile.