Grimy Baby

My son is all of a sudden not my son. He’s TERRIFIED of the water. My one year old is afraid of the bath! It’s the saddest thing ever when it comes to bath time and it’s no doubt a two person job. He just looks at you with these terrified eyes, while standing with the stiffest legs and just screaming at the top of his lungs. He can barely breathe by the time we are done and it takes a good 10 minutes to get him to stop screaming.

I’ve tried getting in with him, introducing new toys (he got some awesome ones for his birthday), and singing his favorite songs from music class (always works to calm him down when he’s mad). There is no reasoning or calming him down about it. He seems to freak out even when we wash his hands before a meal…so I’m thinking he’s afraid of water for some reason?

What do I do? Have you run into this problem? Any advice on how to ease his fears about the bathtub?

Help!

Love,
a dolphin from birth

Breaking News

Brought to you first by Lpod news! There was a train derailment in Seattle this morning. No injuries were reported as of yet, but there’s one 30 something woman who is in distress and potentially being taken in for observation. Early investigation shows the driver may have thrown his entire breakfast on the floor and been suffering from a low blood sugar induced rage.

the driver struggles with the scene in front of him

 *image provided by lpod mobile devices

From the looks of it, there will be a great deal of cleanup planned and all regularly scheduled train routes will be diverted to bus or other means. If you have a reservation on the alphabet train this week, please contact your travel agent for alternatives.

Lpod news will remain on the scene and provide updates during scheduled, often avoided nap times.

 

Tummy Swelling Pride

When I was growing up, I often heard about how proud my parents were of me. Usually for simple things “awww, Kimberly, we’re so proud of you. You didn’t puke on Dr. James’s shoes this time!” or “You did your homework BEFORE 10pm the night before it was due, we’re SO proud!” Ok, they said they were proud of me for so much more. They were some crazy supportive parents, I just like making fun of myself.

I got to have a little moment of parental pride this week. I signed CJ up for music class at our neighborhood community center. We attended our first class on Thursday, a little hesitant of what it would mean, who would be there, and how he would take to organized singing and dancing.

Per usual (thanks for the early gene, mom), we were 10 minutes early…the first ones there. Carter had free reign of the giant rug in the middle of a 100+ year old classroom with a view of Greenlake and the Cascade mountains (mommy noticed the beautiful floors and view while C was  busy spinning in circles on the floor).

Once all of the students and their adult arrived, we sat in a circle in the big rug. Most people had been coming to music class for months or years, so they knew all the songs we were singing. I played along and faked it so C would feel comfortable. At the beginning, we slap our knees and sing a welcome song to each of the children. Most of the children sat on their mommy’s lap. Carter? Dead center of the circle dancing and laughing. The kind where his head is moving so violently, you think he might tip over at any minute. When he got tired of dancing, he’d crawl to the edges of the circle and nuzzle up to one of the other moms and kids. After he tried sticking his fingers in their mouths (sorry, other parents) he would put his back up against their leg and lean back as if relaxing on a beach after a long journey.

Some people were uncomfortable. Others found it precious. Me? I was practically in tears. I was so profoundly proud of my boy. He just got out there in a room with 20 or so people he’d never seen and rocked it. He had the time of his life (minus a couple of overwhelmed moments in the middle of class). I figure there is an extremely short time in life where you just don’t care what people think. You show them your rawest emotions when you feel them. If that’s joy from music to the point of falling over? Awesome. Fear or stress because the egg shakers are too loud? It’s okay. Comfort from a warm, soft (albeit stranger) mommy that makes you relax and rest your head? Even better.

If there’s one thing this kid has from me, it’s emotion (eh, some would call it drama). He shows it when he feels it. It makes me proud. Even when I’m frustratingly trying to contain and corral it to productive action.

CJ? Keep up your antics. Especially in music class. You rock my world, kid.

BFFs

Carter made some new best friends forever a couple of weeks ago. Casey (Rie) and Marisa (Roo) came to visit. We had so much fun. We ate more than one could imagine and checked out Seattle in it’s finest. Carter was in hog heaven – he loves getting unlimited attention from ladies. Seriously. The kid is the biggest flirt and is the biggest attention junkie I’ve ever met. He was genuinely sad they first morning he woke up and they weren’t there.

This is a very short example of his heaven with them. Sadly, he always tempers his reaction to things when my phone comes out to film/capture the moment. You can still get the gist of it. Also, sorry for the terrible quality. I need to just start super gluing the FlipHD to my hand.

Thanks Aunties Rie & Roo for coming to visit. It was so special, we hope you’ll come back again!!

Eleven Months

Well, another month has passed. Our little friend is now 11 months old. He’s full of it. He loves to talk, scream (happy and angry), crun (crawl/run) and dance. This kid LOVES to dance. A drum circle in the park (oh, how Seattle)? Grooving till he falls over. I blow my nose? He’s got moves for it. Dancing fills every day, and I love it!

mom, why do i have to sit still in this chair?

He also loves spinning things. It’s kind of hard to go to the park these days because all he wants to do is chase strollers (for their awesome wheels). He attacks them. It’s funny, but annoying to the owners of said strollers.

i prefer to be on the move

He has had his eyes on the fan for eleven months. If I accidentally have it off during a nap, he won’t sleep well. It needs to be spinning.

making sure the fan is still running properly

Throwing his head back in general is funny. Especially when he has a mouth full of food. Mommy thinks it is hilarious when he chokes on his dinner because he needs to be throwing his head back.

and throwing my head back until i fall over

He now has his word for airplane. It’s “ba.” He’ll hear an airplane, stop whatever he is doing, and point while buzzing with his mouth and saying “ba! ba!” It’s kind of amazing that he does this even when we are inside the house.

you have me for a few more seconds. i need to go move furniture in the living room

We read a book called “Little Hands Love” every night before bed. It’s one he’s always liked and is short enough to keep his attention in that rough period right before going down to bed. I’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks that he tries to position his hands like the little chubby baby hands in the book. He’ll survey their hands, touch the page and then look at his hands as he tries to put them in that position. So cool to see his little brain chugging.

and empty all of your kitchen drawers, lick everything and then move on to the office

He’s generally a really funny guy. He makes a lot of smirky-like faces at you. Usually when you’re making a total buffoon of yourself in public to make him laugh or smile. He just smirks like “ha. look at what i can make my mom do. i’m not even one yet!”

ok. one more month of this sitting still for a few seconds, ok? ok.

Eleven Months
30ish inches
24.5 pounds
8 teeth
words: mama, dada, ba (airplane), yeyow (yellow), popop, ball, haha (what’s a monkey say? ooh ooh ah ah ah = haha).
frustrated crawler wishing he was walking
pushing his cart while walking
standing on his own, but not realizing it yet
his sleep is better. but not piper-style yet (who am I kidding? he will never be a piper-style sleeper)
favorite foods: macaroni + goat cheese sauce, purple cauliflower (green and orange are tolerated), broccoli,  blueberries, plain greek yogurt with vanilla & cinnamon, strawberries, sun nut butter on toast, smoothies with yogurt+spinach+wheatgerm+blueberries+strawberries+cantaloupe.