Last Day in Infant Room

During the past couple of weeks, my little guy has been transitioning from his infant classroom to the toddler room. Tomorrow he will officially spend the entire day with the toddlers.

Transitioning isn't just for the tots--I have some transitioning to do as well. Because the routine is set, I will need to drop him off by 9 so he can participate in the snack time. In the infant room, we showed up any time between 9 and 9:30, but I always played a bit and then left at around 9:30. I don't think I will be hanging out in the toddler classroom as much. I am a little sad about that since I really enjoyed getting to know all of the little characters in the infant room. Will I even get to know the toddlers in this room?

There are also different expectations about the food. Before, I packed a mix of finger foods and foods to be spoonfed. Now, finger foods are preferred. Before, he had a little spot in the class refrigerator for his food. Now, I will need to provide a lunch box. Before, all his milk was in two bottles. Now, he will come to school with only one bottle, and the rest will be poured from his thermos.

So far the transition for our son has been going great! He's been sleeping and eating more, and the stories that he "tells" during dinner seem pretty entertaining. Now let's see how I will do with the transition.

Articles about Play

Play is so important for children--it helps them discover the world around them, figure out how physics works, and think logically. It also is good for their creativity, social emotional development, and physical development. That's why I wanted our son to go to a school with play-based emergent curriculum rather than one that focused only on ABCs and 123s.

There have been two interesting articles lately about play. One is about a teacher who replaced all of the toys in his classroom with boxes. And the kids loved it. This is especially good to keep in mind with the holiday season coming up. Children really do not need a lot of toys, especially battery-operated ones.  Open-ended toys such as balls, blocks, dolls, and containers can be used imaginatively.

Another article talked about how very young children are capable of learning and being logical, if allowed to play and figure things out themselves rather than being directly taught. Recent studies indicate what those of us who work and live with children have already suspected--even before they turn one, young children are capable of understanding jokes, figuring out sequences, and knowing when someone needs a hug.

Favorite Toys at One Year

Lately we've been going a park that has a sandbox. I always pack a plastic ice cream pint container filled with an empty chevre cheese tub and a few metal lids, and my little guy has a blast digging and scratching the surface with those. Until another kids comes along with a dump truck. Luckily Christmas is coming up!

We have DIY'd toys with success--tissue wrapping paper, plastic food containers, mini pumpkins, an empty tissue box with a toy hidden inside. We get most of our manufactured toys secondhand. Here are some that he likes at one year:

• Stacking boxes
• Farm animal puzzles--particularly one that makes sounds
• Wooden blocks--my mom found over a hundred of them used
• A little yellow Hot Wheel
• Wooden truck (anything with wheels, really)
• A sit and ride toy 
• Anything that can be a drum, including a drum
• Tambourine
• Balls

Diapers

On Wednesday morning I realized that our son needed diaper wipes at school, so I brought our only pack, leaving us none at home. Everything was closed on Thanksgiving, and I certainly wasn't going anywhere near Target on Black Friday. Luckily, we have cloth wipes and diapers that we use in combination with disposables, so we are never really "out" of diapers or wipes.

In general, we use cloth diapers during the day and paper ones at night, during vacations, and in our to-go diaper bag. At school, he uses cloth diapers but disposable wipes. As with everything parenting related, it is good to start out idealistic but be flexible for those times when you need to go down the easiest path.

We use Bum Genius diapers and like those. They have a snap system, so it is one size fits all. They are a pricey investment, though. For wipes, we use Baby Kicks organic cotton-hemp blend and a little squirt bottle. Those are amazing and never stain! They are also soft for wiping noses. It is good to start out with between 20-25 of each. Some people install an attachment to their toilet to rinse out the diapers, but we didn't do that, and nothing bad has happened to us or the diapers or our machine. We simply shake out anything solid into the toilet and then wash all of the diapers and wipes in one load every two or three days. It's really not as gross as I expected it would be.

Disposable diapers are expensive and so wasteful. Cloth diapers are expensive initially and take more time to deal with. Neither is perfect. I took a post-natal yoga class where one mom was already potty-training her 3 month old. Who knows how that worked for her; for most of us, we have to figure out how to deal with diapering for about two years.

Highchairs

During the festive season, it is common for us to eat meals out of the home. Our son would love to always dine while sitting on my lap, but I would not love the mess. When we went to my mom's house for Thanksgiving, we brought our highchair with us. When we ate dinner at our friends' house this evening, we used their highchair, which happens to be the same as ours--the $25 Ikea Antilop chair. I have seen highchairs as expensive as $650, but this Ikea one does the job beautifully.

First we had a Chicco chair that my mom found at the Goodwill. It was huge, and the seat was padded. Our little guy was tiny and frightened to sit in it, and it was a cleaning nightmare. The Ikea chair that we use now has a super simple design with a small footprint, it is easy to move around, and--most importantly--is a breeze to wipe clean.

Here are some things to consider when shopping for a highchair:

• It must be easy to clean--padding is not easy to clean, and it can get disgusting. Babies do not need padding on their bums to eat. They are already wearing diapers. They do not need padding on their backs because they should be sitting up anyway, not leaning back.
• It should be easy to disassemble so you can take it with you, if so desired.
• It should fit your child. Most babies are ready to sit up and eat when they are about 6 months. If they can't sit up without support, they aren't ready to eat solids or go in a highchair. Wait until the baby needs the chair; it is easy to overestimate how big a 6 month old is.
• It should be light enough to move around or have wheels. The highchair we have is so easy to move that it also serves as a push toy that our son enjoys moving from the kitchen to the dining room.
• It should fit the space where it will live for about 2 years. 

We are happy with our highchair and the money we saved could be spent on bibs, spoons, and sippy cups.

Hiking, or More Accurately, Ambling

Today we went on a hike with friends and their dog. Since my son has been walking, he prefers to hold my finger and walk rather than being held. With his little legs toddling along, it was more of an amble than a hike.

We are only a half hour drive from a redwood forest that is full of sights, sounds, smells, and things for a toddler to touch. For much of the hike, he waved around a huge, perfectly shaped yellow leaf, fanning his face with it. He woofed and pointed at every dog that passed by. He stuck his finger in mud. Then he stuck both hands in mud. He dabbled in a little puddle that had formed in the hollow of a fallen tree. The smell of moss and redwood and moist earth were a change from our regular environment, as was the lack of train and car sounds.

The hike with the little guy was free and required no extra "things," which for me is a better way to spend the afternoon on the Friday after Thanksgiving than shopping with throngs of deal-seekers. Let's leave Christmas shopping to another day and enjoy our dwindling days of sunshine.

I am Thankful for My Little Family

Life is certainly not easier with a child. Or cleaner. Or cheaper. Or quieter. But it is great.

I am thankful for these moments of happiness: Hearing my son talking to himself in the morning when he wakes up; seeing his little head bob from side to side to music; listening in on the laughter that he and my husband share during bath time; watching him walking around while waving toys in his hand, jabbering dadada. I love it when he puts his arms up for me to hold him, then he puts his head on my shoulder and says "aw." I love it when he tries to feed me Cheerios and then cracks up when I actually eat one. I love it when he toddles with his push toy, delivering the newspaper from the front of the house to the kitchen in his little pajamas.

When my husband comes home from work, he rings his bike bell, and my son gets so excited that he kicks his little feet and looks toward the back door, whispering "papa, papa, papa." I know how he feels, because nothing is better than the three of us together. I feel lucky to have gotten the son that I have and to have discovered the dad that my husband is, and I'm so thankful for the little family we have created.