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In defense of electronics, son #2 has gained a lot from them. In particular, we have a container of letter blocks with a lid that says the letter and the sound when you insert the block. I'm pretty sure he learned the alphabet from that more than anything else.
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Nov 21, 2013 20:10
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Unrelated to any discussion topics, but I have to say ohmygod I have a toddler now! My little baby celebrated her first birthday over the weekend and it's a little weird to think of her as a toddler already. She's awesome, though.  And just for fun, a picture of her cake smash, which turned into a family food fight. 
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Nov 21, 2013 20:34
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Ron Jeremy posted:In defense of electronics, son #2 has gained a lot from them. In particular, we have a container of letter blocks with a lid that says the letter and the sound when you insert the block. I'm pretty sure he learned the alphabet from that more than anything else. We play Endless Alphabet with our 17-month-old a decent amount, and I definitely think it's helping her start to get letters and sounds (and shape-matching). Naturally, you don't want the electronic method to be the only way of learning for the kid. But using tools, electronic or no, with your kid (and then sometimes letting them play with the tools on their own) to teach them things is totally cool.
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Nov 24, 2013 01:42
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frenchnewwave posted:Unrelated to any discussion topics, but I have to say ohmygod I have a toddler now! My little baby celebrated her first birthday over the weekend and it's a little weird to think of her as a toddler already. She's awesome, though. Very cute pictures! My daughter is 10 months and I can't even believe she'll be a year old soon. It seems like she was just barely born.
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Nov 24, 2013 04:09
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Rory is right around 8 months old now, and 9kg. I've been looking for car seats that are rear facing for his weight range, but I'm having a really hard time finding any. Everywhere I've looked, they change to forward facing at 10-13kg. I didn't want him to be forward facing so soon 
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Nov 24, 2013 12:31
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Dandy Shrew posted:Rory is right around 8 months old now, and 9kg. I've been looking for car seats that are rear facing for his weight range, but I'm having a really hard time finding any. Everywhere I've looked, they change to forward facing at 10-13kg. I didn't want him to be forward facing so soon Yeah, that's a problem with car seats in Ireland. Aaron is around the same age and I've been looking online for a while now. Only solution I can think is to get a combination seat (from birth to 4 years/18kg). There's a really limited selection at places like Mothercare and Mamas and Papas though. According to the websites, they must be rear facing until 9kg, at which point they CAN be turned to forward facing. I'm thinking the word "can" also means you can keep them rear facing longer if you want. Have you talked to any of the sales people if those seats have to be turned around to forward facing when they are 9kg or if that's optional, considering the weight limit is 18 kg? I really don't like how Ireland doesn't have the same guidelines as the U.S. when it comes to car seats to keep them rearfacing until 2 years old. I guess another option is to order something from the U.S., but I don't like making such a big purchase online without seeing it in person and if it will fit in the car.
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Nov 24, 2013 13:17
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An Cat Dubh posted:I really don't like how Ireland doesn't have the same guidelines as the U.S. when it comes to car seats to keep them rearfacing until 2 years old. I guess another option is to order something from the U.S., but I don't like making such a big purchase online without seeing it in person and if it will fit in the car. That's the most baffling thing to me. I was looking at carseats from all4baby in Galway and they say that the seats fit in the front passenger seat, but if you have a front passenger airbag, you *shouldn't* put the carseat up front. Why would that even be an option?! I wouldn't get one from the U.S. for the same reason as you.. huge purchase, and we had to really look for a carseat that would fit in our car.
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Nov 24, 2013 15:37
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Dandy Shrew posted:That's the most baffling thing to me. I was looking at carseats from all4baby in Galway and they say that the seats fit in the front passenger seat, but if you have a front passenger airbag, you *shouldn't* put the carseat up front. Why would that even be an option?! Newer cars have weight sensors on the front passenger seat, which will prevent the front airbag from deploying if the weight is between some low range. So, even if you have a front airbag, it might still be OK.
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Nov 24, 2013 16:23
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Car seats should only be put in the front seat as a last resort, like in pickup trucks without a back seat. The back seat is so much safer that I can't believe a store would advocate putting your child in the front.
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Nov 24, 2013 16:27
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Dandy Shrew posted:That's the most baffling thing to me. I was looking at carseats from all4baby in Galway and they say that the seats fit in the front passenger seat, but if you have a front passenger airbag, you *shouldn't* put the carseat up front. Why would that even be an option?! I'mm in the US and our carseats all say the same thing: they CAN be used in the front seat but shouldn't, particularly with airbags. We can disable the airbags in our cars (do NOT depend on the weight sensor to properly disable them). Really car seats are designed to work in the front seat as a very last resort, like in the case of a pickup truck, or some sort of damage to the rear seat of the car which precludes use of the carseat. My dad has a pickup truck, and in the event of emergency he would put my son in the front seat of his truck, but it would have to be a pretty huge emergency that involved both my and my mother's cars being undriveable. Our car seats are sold as "rearfacing 4lbs to 25lbs, front facing 20lbs to 45lbs", so you can see the overlap. Yes, you CAN turn it at 20lbs but you don't HAVE to turn it until 25. (Numbers pulled right out of my rear end, they don't actually correspond to any seat on the market). As to why it might be necessary, my son's in Kindergarten right now and I suddenly see why people might need to have a carseat in the front seat - I see families with 4 or more kids picking their children up from school, and in my state the law says all children under the age of 9 must be in some sort of child seat (unless they exceed 4'9" in height), so I see plenty of people with their oldest child in a booster seat in the front seat of the car, because they can only fit 3 across the back seat.
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Nov 24, 2013 21:22
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/\/\ When I babysit, this is me. I put Tim in the front in a booster, even though he's small. (I have my passenger air bag disabled.) I always feel like a shitheel, but we literally live around the corner from the school, so at least it's only a 20 second ride. In other news, yet again, we got to be "those parents" today. All the kindergarten classes put on a little musical performance today. Mother Goose rhymes and songs, with little hand motions. Cute stuff, right? Out of four classes, maybe 60 or so kids, guess who was the only kid who chose to spend the entire 20 minutes staring at the ceiling? Yeah. I even got to hear the grandparents behind me lament whoever was the parents of the little redhead who wasn't participating.  I don't even know what to do. Do I even do anything? The Mr. and I are just sad. This isn't the first time Tim's done this. In fact, he has done this every single time he's had a little show to do with school. I hate sitting there watching him fidget and do literally nothing while all the other kids are participating. It's every time. Just once, can I go and watch my kid do what he's supposed to?
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Nov 24, 2013 22:17
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Do you mean that he never participates in singing and activities in general, or just kind of freezes up on stage? If it's the latter, I wouldn't worry. Not every kid likes doing those things in front of an audience and that could just be his personality. That was pretty dickish of the grandparents behind you to talk about a kid on stage. I wouldn't chalk it up to more than that unless you think he never wants to do group activities at all.
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Nov 24, 2013 22:50
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AlistairCookie posted:/\/\ Why don't you just stroller to school?  I mean to each their own, but it would probably take me longer to get everything situated in the car than to just stroller there.
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Nov 25, 2013 00:05
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AlistairCookie posted:/\/\ I mostly just spend my time praying that they'll stick with the program, and not try to add their own 'improvements', or pick their noses when it isn't their turn. Have you talked about why? Is it stage fright? longrunning artistic disagreement with the choir director? I can respect not buying into/participating in enforced cuteness, especially since they are almost always over top of a prerecorded track, so it isn't even like I'm hearing the kids I know. Which makes it even more sad when people block the view of the people behind them to record lovely unwatched and unwatchable copies of it from the 30th row with an ipad. I wonder if a sullen disengagement with assemblies at an early age means they'll have got tired of being too cool for it by high school and will decide to really put their bones into the performances at age 15.
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Nov 25, 2013 00:49
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Papercut posted:Why don't you just stroller to school? Oh I do--I prefer to walk by far! Weather permitting, but it's been rainy, and right now it's very cold. (And on T/Th pick up I have to drive because I have to pick both kids up at different schools.) As for the performance, it was a good set up. The music teacher was doing the whole thing with the kids, while his student teacher and student teachers' dad were playing guitar and piano. The kids were grouped by class and on the risers. There were plenty of people recording the thing with their Ipads (which annoys me for some totally irrational reason), but we could see just fine. I know Tim hates "real life music", also referred to as "human music". He prefers "car music" or music in the kitchen. That's quirky, I'm sure. He holds his ears and closes his eyes when he gets sung "Happy Birthday". (Also a habit I wish he would stop. I did tell him over the summer that doing that hurts his friends feelings.) I thought this time he may actually do something (anything!) during the performance because he talked about practicing all last week and said repeatedly how excited he was. Alas, no. I think he hates doing anything like that in front of anyone. This started when he was two and refused to sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider during the little end of the year show. (Whatever, they were all two.) Then when he was three, all he had to to was hold up a sign, and he sat on it the whole time. Then he had two performances last year, and during one of them, sat wadded up underneath his chair, and during the other, sat on his teacher's lap (so he wouldn't crawl under his chair again.) Last night, I told him honestly that Daddy and I were a little sad and disappointed that he didn't want to sing any of the songs with his friends. That I had been really excited since he worked so hard practicing. He said he was looking up, waiting for it to be over, and that there were too many other parents there. Then he drew me a picture of the two of us in a big wobbly heart because I was sad.  I love him. I think it's just how he is. How much should I encourage him to try and participate? Should I just let it go? There will be one more at the end of the year. Five more long years until performances are optional extracurricular activities!
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Nov 25, 2013 15:21
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AlistairCookie posted:Oh I do--I prefer to walk by far! Weather permitting, but it's been rainy, and right now it's very cold. (And on T/Th pick up I have to drive because I have to pick both kids up at different schools.) Does he by any chance have any sensory issues? My son is incredibly musical: he's got perfect pitch, plays piano, sings ALL THE TIME, knows probably every song he's ever heard and can sing it at the drop of a hat. Regularly just starts playing songs on piano that no one has ever taught him how to play, can transpose songs from one key to another perfectly without being shown. But he's also got sensory problems and just shuts down when overwhelmed. So like, he'll be rocking out at top volume singing along and then all the sudden it's too much and he clamps his hands over his ears. At his piano recital last year, he got up on stage to play a song he can play blindfolded and just sat there, not playing anything. When his teacher gave him a little nudge by playing the first few notes, he just started humming something completely unrelated and doodling along the keyboard because he was overwhelmed and there were lights and too many people and too much distraction and he just couldn't deal with it, but when it was over he was so proud of himself for just being up there. In music class at school, he knows every song but when it's group singing time, he quietly listens to everyone else sing and when they're done, he starts singing it. Even things like the pledge of allegiance, he says it himself probably 25 times a day, but when it's actual pledge of allegiance time, he generally clamps his hands on his ears and stares at the ceiling. I think part of it for him is dealing with sensory overload and part of it is him not being able to deal with things that sound "wrong" to him, he gets really mad when the lyrics to songs get changed, hates when my husband (who has a *terrible* singing voice) sings and regularly tells him "No Daddy singing. Mommy sing, no Daddy.", and sometimes I think he's just too busy appreciating what is happening to actually take part. He still participates in those things because he enjoys them. We just have adjusted expectations for him - he went out there, he was part of the group. He *IS* enjoying himself, just not in the way I would expect him to. And that's ok with me.
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Nov 25, 2013 19:39
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AlistairCookie posted:There were plenty of people recording the thing with their Ipads (which annoys me for some totally irrational reason) This is actually a huge pet peeve of mine. It's really distracting to have this glowing screen waving around in your field of vision, even though it's the same thing happening on stage. They don't let people just bring flashlights into the place to wave around, and in my opinion it's really not that much different. Like, are you honestly really going to watch the video after? I mean, i guess there's some kids that really want to see "how they did" and so the parents record it for them, but considering the adult is usually ducking around I can't imagine it coming out as anything other than an unwatchable Blair-Witch-style shakiness mess with nightmarish audio. Especially annoying when I know that there is a nominated videographer in the building who will be putting the video either on the town TV station or, in this day and age, you'd think they could set up a private Youtube link or something. But that probably wouldn't appease the folks anyway because it would, horror of horrors, feature all of the children and not be just a glowing monument to their one specific child. This is admittedly part of my larger peeve of being disgruntled with people who feel the need to document (via photograph or video) every single thing that happens to them/their child/their friends.
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Nov 25, 2013 21:46
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AlistairCookie posted:
Might be something to bring up with the teacher at p/t conferences. Find a not-on-stage part to participate in, maybe he can paint the backgrounds, or run the lights or something. Something he can be proud of, that doesn't involve standing in front of strangers or singing. Sounds like the kid is pretty dug in on not singing, at least this year, so maybe the three of you can come up with an alternative that will let him pull his weight and not get marked out and look like a jerk in front of all the other parents. Obviously, you'll want to push him to get more comfortable with public performance at some point, at least to be able to make a powerpoint presentation, but that can wait till junior highschool, I think.
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Nov 25, 2013 22:48
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This might be a silly question but do any of you parents, that have a daughter, have issues finding underwear that is not covered in princess everything? The little one is starting to potty train and we want to get her excited by having some neat looking undies but we can only seriously find princess stuff with a random cute pair now and again, not enough to give her a wide variety to pick from.
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Nov 28, 2013 04:17
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Rythe posted:This might be a silly question but do any of you parents, that have a daughter, have issues finding underwear that is not covered in princess everything? The little one is starting to potty train and we want to get her excited by having some neat looking undies but we can only seriously find princess stuff with a random cute pair now and again, not enough to give her a wide variety to pick from. Children's Place and Carter's have some cute stuff that isn't too DISNEY PRINCESS OMG. My friend with a girl had a similar issue and her daughter was into trains, so she just ended up buying her Thomas the Tank Engine boys briefs. It's not like it matters much at that age.
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Nov 28, 2013 04:44
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Rythe posted:This might be a silly question but do any of you parents, that have a daughter, have issues finding underwear that is not covered in princess everything? The little one is starting to potty train and we want to get her excited by having some neat looking undies but we can only seriously find princess stuff with a random cute pair now and again, not enough to give her a wide variety to pick from. I like the Fruit of the Loom stuff for fit and fashion. http://www.amazon.com/Fruit-Loom-Wa...he+loom+toddler
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Nov 28, 2013 05:14
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H&M's boy cut are pretty cute, and if you go into the underwear aisle at Target or Wal-Mart or whatever, you can find Hanes and other brands with no commercial characters on them.
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Nov 28, 2013 05:25
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I'm very seriously considering telling my extended family that I'm going to try my hardest to make our daughter into a lesbian, so I want tons of "boy" toys for her. On second thought, that might backfire. I'm glad we have some relatives (my wife's parents, for instance) that totally are into giving her "boy" stuff (one of the books they gave her was "Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site"). I'm okay with some "girl" stuff, because princess-worship has its nice points, too. I just hate the relatives that blindly give her ridiculous pink stuff simply because she's a girl. A little more thought about what we want, please?
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Nov 28, 2013 06:55
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Axiem posted:I'm very seriously considering telling my extended family that I'm going to try my hardest to make our daughter into a lesbian, so I want tons of "boy" toys for her. I am getting into that issue with my family too, trying to tell them I do not want everything pink and frilly, I have got to give that girl a chance to not come out as Disney Princess minion. Thankfully they have started to listen so we have a great mix of boys/girls stuff for her to play with and tons of Duplo sets now too 
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Nov 28, 2013 15:08
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My problem isn't so much gender role stuff, the kids figure it out on their own. I could have given y oldest son barbies and he would have pretended they were guns in two minutes flat. My bigger issue is that the "normal toys" are considered for boys and then there's a pink version for girls. The previous poster made me think of that irt duplos. There's a multicolored set for boys and a set of pink hued blocks for girls.
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Nov 28, 2013 18:11
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Just send this link to all of your relatives and tell them it's your daughters motto. http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/11/19/goldieblox_commercial_rewrites_the_beastie_boys_urges_young_girls_to_pursue.html
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Nov 28, 2013 18:30
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Don't get me wrong. I'm fine if my daughter wants to go all pink and princessy. I just want it to be her choice, not the cultural default. The rise of "just for girls" toys that are the same thing as boys' toys but pink and princessy almost makes me sick. Which is why my daughter has a (green) crane and (yellow) dumptruck toys. Also, all of her toys of potentially ambiguous gender (such as her astronaut toys), I always refer to everyone as "she". Because why can't a girl be a doctor, or an astronaut, or a construction foreman...?
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Nov 28, 2013 18:37
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I have to consciously do this. I had the rule of the indefinite pronoun should be "he" drilled into me.
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Nov 28, 2013 18:48
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My daughter wears little boy underwear because she's obsessed with dinosaurs and cookie monster, and they don't make that in a panty. But she does have a 6-pack of Hanes' finest that are just purple and pink and nondescript. Truly, I think the boy briefs are better for accidents, because the weave is more dense and holds more in the fabric so while she gets wet, her socks and shoes are often saved.
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Nov 28, 2013 18:49
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It's been my experience that the boy's briefs also hold up better in the wash, and the wider band at the waist makes for a better fit. My daughter has some Sesame Street boy ones that she always wants to wear.
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Nov 29, 2013 04:21
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We're having problems with our 12-month-old's sleep habits. My wife is really pressuring to try CIO, so I'm looking for ways to avoid that. - Initial bedtime is pretty straightforward. My wife nurses and changes him, then I read him books in the crib until he shows signs of being sleepy (usually between 30 minutes and an hour), at which point I lay him down. If he cries while laying down, I'll read to him, which calms him down long enough for him to eventually decide that he wants to sleep and he'll roll over and pass out. - He wakes up 3-4 times a night. Usually he'll nurse back to sleep, sometimes we have to read to him again for 30+ minutes to get him to fall back asleep. He hates being held/rocked, he hasn't been on a pacifier in 6-7 months, we have the seahorse but it's never been a strong influence on him, he has a lovey which he's not really that into, we have a noise maker and a soft nightlight. He sleeps in a sleepsack. He will fall asleep in a stroller or car, but using either of those in the middle of the night would be really disruptive. - Lately he's been waking up at 5am (after falling asleep around 7:30pm), awake and ready to go for the day. - Naps are a problem. On the weekends at home, he'll take two 1-2 hour naps a day. But during weekdays, he only takes two 30 minute naps at daycare. Naturally we have limited influence on what happens at daycare (the caretakers aren't waking him up, I think it's just too loud and distracting there for him to sleep long). e: I should add, co-sleeping isn't an option either. He absolutely loses it when we try to bring him into our bed. And no bottles either, he never took to one so he's been on straw or sippy cups since 4 months; I've tried giving him a cup of milk at night and he isn't interested. Papercut fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Nov 29, 2013 |
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Nov 29, 2013 17:03
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Yeah our 13 month old isn't sleeping as well right now either. I read on babycenter it's around this time they start to dream. Plus he is rubbing his gums a lot so I think he's getting some more teeth in. No advice here just sympathy.
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Nov 29, 2013 18:23
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Have you tried putting him to bed an hour or two earlier?
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Nov 29, 2013 23:00
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Ben Davis posted:Have you tried putting him to bed an hour or two earlier? Actually now that you mention it, we did move his bedtime an hour or so later about a month or two ago. He was sleeping through the night no better before that, but he was at least sleeping in until 6:30-7:30. We pushed it back because our schedules make anything before a 6pm bedtime completely impossible and we thought he might be old enough for it, but it might have been a step in the wrong direction. Other ideas we've had is to start using disposable diapers overnight (just to eliminate the possibility that it's wet diapers waking him up), build positive crib associations by having evening playtime before dinner take place in the crib, feed him more during the day, and ask his daycare if they can move his nap forward (he's usually ready for his first nap by 9:00-9:30 at home, but at daycare they always have it at 10:30 or so).
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Nov 30, 2013 00:46
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Papercut posted:build positive crib associations by having evening playtime before dinner take place in the crib That's going to associate "Time to go into your crib" with "Time to play!  " which may not be the association you want when no one comes to play with him.
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Nov 30, 2013 02:11
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How much is he eating on the boob? With my kids length of sleep was a direct function of how much they ate at a sitting. While the breast is ideal, sometimes there's a blurring of food source and comfort source that can mess up learning to self soothe.
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Nov 30, 2013 02:25
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That blurring is intentional. Breast feeding is food AND comfort.
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Nov 30, 2013 02:46
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Volmarias posted:That's going to associate "Time to go into your crib" with "Time to play! That's still preferable to "time to panic and scream". Ron Jeremy posted:How much is he eating on the boob? With my kids length of sleep was a direct function of how much they ate at a sitting. While the breast is ideal, sometimes there's a blurring of food source and comfort source that can mess up learning to self soothe. He's still nursing. I think we send 5 or 6 ounces of milk to daycare along with a bunch of solids, plus he nurses first thing in morning and right before bed. My wife is working on stopping the nursing to sleep habits and trying to cut back on the night time nursing, but so far that has involved a tremendous amount of crying.
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Nov 30, 2013 02:49
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Our one year old only gets a bottle now at nap, bed, and if he wakes up in the middle of the night. He's definitely associating nice warm formula bottle = sleep time. During the day he gets a straw cup of water whenever and a sippy cup of milk at mealtimes. It might just be that your kid is old enough to start sort of separating the two. Edit: Good luck though. I would be going bananas if Jasper was still waking up 3 - 4 times a night after 12 months. Alterian fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Nov 30, 2013 |
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Nov 30, 2013 18:35
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Vivian is also waking up 3-4 times a night at 12 months old. She's also an early riser. No advice, just empathy. For what it's worth, if you do try the cry it out thing, I would recommend having you do the bulk of comforting and having your wife leave the room. We have started a gentle sleep training for naps and if Vivian can see or hear me, she'll cry until I pick her up. If my husband sings to her or rubs her belly, she'll drift off with little or no tears.
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Dec 3, 2013 03:41
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