Tales from the Crib

Ready for the bus

My life flashed before my eyes as we were getting ready to go to daycare recently. For the past six months, I’ve taken Nolan to a wonderful woman who does lots of crafts and fun stuff with her charges.

But every once in awhile, Nolan gets a bit stir crazy inside the house in the morning before we leave, so we head outside to play for 15 minutes or so.

Just a few houses up the road is a school bus stop, and Nolan likes the bus’s flashing lights and watching the kids get on board.

Now that there’s snow on the ground, a good distraction is pushing the snow shovel around.

Well, this one morning he’d had enough of shoveling and watched as a kid walked past us to get to the bus stop.

As I put the shovel back into the garage, Nolan started following the kid.

He looked back to look at me as if to say “mommy, I’m going with him, OK?”

“OK, bye-bye – you’re going on the bus,” I said with a wave.

To my surprise, Nolan turned back and continued to follow the kid.

Wow. Guess he’s all grown up. It made me think about what it’ll be like the first time he steps onto the bus.

When I realized he wasn’t straying from his goal, I caught up with him – just as the bus pulled up.

We waved goodbye to the bus as we normally do. I think we’ll save the real bus ride for later.

 

 

Don’t take me literally

Once again, my son has outsmarted me. Funny how such a little person can teach me a thing or two about the English language.

I was getting Nolan’s breakfast ready the other morning. “Do you want some food?” I asked. “Go get in your chair and you can have some food.”

Normally, Nolan will head towards our kitchen table and try to pull himself up onto one of the chairs. From there, I lift him into his high chair and slide on his plastic tray.

As I sliced the English muffin and popped it into the toaster, Nolan headed in another direction.

“Get in your chair if you want some food,” said I.

Nolan walked into our family room, and started lugging out this little foam chair we have for him to watch television.

Dumfounded, I watch as he plopped it down in the middle of the kitchen floor and then sat in it.

Oh boy, I thought.

He was right.

That is his chair and he’s sitting in it.

I praised him for his effort, then lifted him into my arms and carried him over to his high chair for his breakfast.

Silly mommy, I’m going to have to be careful about what I say to the little man.

 

And the answer is…

Yep, Nolan cried when he saw Santa. My prediction was right.

Unfortunately, I didn’t capture that expression on film, because Santa didn’t want to hold a screaming toddler.

I thought Nolan might be OK, because when we first walked up to Santa and the Mrs., Nolan gave him a high five.

It wasn’t until I put him down on Santa’s lap that Nolan started to cry.

It took me awhile to calm him down, and then Santa had an idea.

The Mrs. and he both got off the ‘sleigh’ and let Nolan and me sit down. 

Mrs. Claus and the photographer distracted Nolan and just before the picture, Santa slid in beside me. Guess mommy’s going to be in the picture this year.

Nolan was playing with his hands nervously, but aside from that, it’s not really a bad picture.

Apparently I was having fun, because everyone has commented on my smile.

Dog mauling

A recent visit with my in-laws has produced a new habit for Nolan. This time, it’s not so bad.

My father-in-law has a big, black lab, and my year-and-a-half old son is at the perfect height for her to grab a few snacks.

Not only does Abby get any crumbs that happen to fall when he’s actually seated at the table but when Nolan’s running around with something in his hand, it’s quickly sniffed or scarfed up by the dog.

With all of these extra snacks, Abby feels particularly fond of Nolan. And so she’s been quite generous with her doggy kisses, licking Nolan’s hands and face.

After a weekend of these doggy kisses, Nolan decided it was time for him to return the favour.

Pulling his soother out of his mouth, Nolan gave Abby a big, open-mouthed kiss back. On her nose.

Then on her foot, her back and her ear.

Keep in mind Nolan’s still young so there’s no pucker, it’s just an open mouth up against dog hair. There might be a bit of tongue in there, too.

So with that under his belt, we then encouraged Nolan to give other people kisses too. My step-mom-in-law started making the ‘mmmm’ noise before the kiss, so my son gave that a try.

Now it’s a new hobby.

My day-care lady also happens to have a dog and, as soon as I dropped Nolan off on Monday, he began kissing him. On his head, and his body. Now this dog isn’t a touchy-feely kind of dog, so Nolan had to back off.

But it was funny all the same that he now associates dogs with giving kisses.

At least it’s better than biting.