Mr. Dependent

Oh how I miss my almost 4 year old who would sleep through the night, wake up in the morning and go downstairs and watch tv for a little while so I could get a few more minutes of sleep. He has disappeared. Not Dylan, but part of his independent self. He still picks out his clothes in the morning and gets dressed all by himself. But for the past two weeks he's woken up at least 2 times a night (usually 3 times) walked into our room and needed someone to walk him back to his room and lay with him until he falls back asleep. Then he will sleep for an hour or so and wonder back into our room, rinse and repeat. I'm not sleeping all that well anyway and to be woken up multiple times a night is seriously wearing me (and Dave) out.

How did this all start you might ask. Dylan has never liked loud noises, he doesn't like the air dryers in bathrooms, they really freak him out. But nothing bothers him as much as the alarm on our house going off. Occasionally we will turn the alarm on during the day and forget it's on, open a door and boom, you are deaf for the next 10 minutes while your ears recover. Couple that with the smoke detector going off on the same day and Dylan is now convinced that whenever we are in the house the alarm will go off. He used to stay downstairs if I had to go upstairs to put clothes away, not anymore, he's right there with me (or Dave) going upstairs. I can't even get a minute to pee by myself.

However, when we are outside it's a different story. We were at the farmers market last Saturday and I was waiting to pay for my tomatoes and zephyr zucchini (and it took forever, OMG, the lady in front of me had brought her own basket and the person ringing her up had to subtract the weight of the basket, which the lady had written on the basket and endure the ladies story of "don't take the tomatoes out, they bruise" UGH, kill me now) and Dylan just  took off. He didn't run, but he just started walking away, I figured he would start to come back, but he was almost out of my sight in the crowd and pretty far away before I caught up to him. I'm pretty liberal when it comes to keeping an eye on him. He doesn't need to be next to me every second, but him getting almost a block away at a busy farmers market did not make me happy. When we got home though, a totally different story, I walked onto the laundry room (which is off the kitchen) and he's right there wondering where I went.

This is driving me crazy! I know he is genuinely worried about the alarm going off again and the loud noise, but we have tried everything we can do to reassure him that the loud noise (hopefully) will not go off again and he will be ok. But it is taking him forever to get to bed now and all the waking up at night isn't good for anyone.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get back Mr. Independent?!

Hitting and pinching and bruises

Dylan seems to be in a hitting and pinching phase. Whether he is mad because I am changing his diaper or he is playing with friends in the sand box, hitting seems to be his method of expression right now. I am hoping it's just a phase he is going through (a very short phase) and it will let up soon. He is talking more and more everyday and I know he just doesn't have the words to express all his emotions right now, but it frustrates me to no end to see him whack a friend he is playing with for no good reason.
I tell him that we don't hit our friends or parents and that it hurts them and it's not nice and he'll look at me for a minute like he understands what I'm saying and then he'll go pinch his friend.
He has always been very sweet and gentle with other children and that has certainly changed. He'll be two in a little over a month, hopefully the so called "terrible twos" aren't really on the way.
Dylan does seem to hit and pinch more when he's tired or upset, which I understand more so than when he seems to be playing fine with other children and then out of no where he'll hit them.
I know there are other parents out there who are dealing with this, does anyone have any suggestions? We've tried time-outs, talking to him and even just ignoring the behavior (which seems to work the best, especially when he's pinching or hitting me when I'm changing his diaper, but it's much harder to do when he's hitting a friend over the head). Maybe he's just hitting and pinching for attention? Any suggestions you have are welcome, my bruised arm can't take much more of the pinching!

The best you've ever looked pooping. Really Huggies?

Maybe I'm a little behind the times, but denim diapers, really? What's next, a wife-beater with the denim diapers? Is anyone really buying these new denim diapers from Huggies? I might just boycott the brand because of the denim diapers. Huggies said the reasoning behind the diapers is as follows from the NY Times:

As for Huggies’ new diapers with a denim pattern, research conducted by the
brand found that 40 percent of mothers wear jeans most days of the week and 57
percent buy jeans for babies within their first six months.
“We know that moms live in jeans,” said Stuart Schneider, senior brand director at Huggies.
“It’s a very fashion-forward trend.”
The brand has sold jean diapers for limited periods in more than 20 countries, beginning with Israel in 2007, and stores in the United States and Canada will carry the products only in June and July, warmer months when pants might be eschewed.
“The jeans diaper could be used as a primary garment, in some cases, as a denim-shorts type of execution,” Mr. Schneider said.
Jen Drexler, co-founder of Just Ask a Woman, a marketing firm that specializes in reaching female consumers, said that jeans were a “uniform” for young mothers and that Huggies had identified a “great social currency moment” — not to mention the convenience. “It is significantly easier to have your kid run around in just a diaper, but you do feel a little bit like you’re neglecting the kid,” Ms. Drexler said. But the denim diapers, she added, could lead to “an explosion of diapers that don’t need clothing.”
The kicker, Ms. Drexler said, is that, when parents do first model the new
diaper on babies in public, it is apt to prompt not stern looks but the
opposite. “There’s always one mom in the play group who is in the know and
an early adopter of cool things,” Ms. Drexler says. “The first who has these in
the play group, wins.”

I don't even know where to begin with the logic that is in this article. Yes, Mom's wear jeans and we even like to dress our kids in jeans, but denim diapers? They are awful! I understand the convenience factor, but I don't think parents are neglecting their children when they have regular diapers on and no pants. Are the denim diapers stronger than regular diapers? Isn't it rather wasteful to throw away denim? Has anyone thought of that? I think Ms. Drexler is wrong when she says, “There’s always one mom in the play group who is in the know and an early adopter of cool things,” Ms. Drexler says. “The first who has these in the play group, wins.”
I'd make fun of the mom that put her kid in these denim diapers and I bet I'm not the only one.

What do you think? Would you put your kid in denim diapers? Am I wrong?

Let your children play

We had great weather in Knoxville this weekend, perfect for spending time outside. Saturday was a little cloudy, but luckily we didn't have any rain and Sunday was a little warm, but still great weather.

Dylan and I make our usual trip to the Market Square Farmers Market on Saturday and picked up a Tennessee strawberry roll, cinnamon swirl muffin, peanut butter cookie and chocolate chip cookie all from VG's bakery. All were excellent, the strawberry roll was chewy and sweet and perfect, the cinnamon swirl muffin was similar to monkey bread and really moist, I would certainly get both again. We haven't tried the cookies yet (I keep forgetting about them b/c they are in the pantry) so we shall try and remember to eat them tonight. I also got pesto chicken salad from Ms. Cock-A-Doodles and while it was a little pricey $6.50 for a 1/2 lb. it was excellent and I can't wait to try her other flavors.

After the farmers market Dylan and I headed over to World's Fair Park for the Knox County Library's Children's Festival of Reading. There was a kids play area with bubble machines, water activities, a bounce house and free Mayfield milk. There were also tents set up with vendors selling food and children related businesses like the Concord Sailing School, Knoxmoms.com, book sellers and much more. Dylan had a great time getting in the sailboat that Concord Sailing School brought and petting the dogs that were there from the Humane Society and rehab dogs from HABIT (especially the Great Pyrenees, he was so sweet!). And of course there were lots of storytellers and musicians for the kids to watch and listen to.

World's Fair Park has a huge fountain that all the kids loved to play in as well as a playground. And here is where I get to the part about let your kids play. While the playground was busy since there was an event it was made more busy by parents on the play equipment. Seriously people, if you child is over 2 years old and can't climb on the equipment by themselves don't let them go on it. Also, you don't have to stand directly behind your children while they are playing with cars under a tent. I'm sure they can figure out how to play with the cars on their own. You can stand back and let them play so other children can have room to play. I don't think anyone is going to snatch your child while you are five feet away. I also overheard a grandparent (I'm guessing) telling another person at the park that, "His mother just doesn't let him run, she always has him tethered," explaining why his grandson was running around having a great time. Hello, he's a kid, isn't that what they are supposed to be doing? Did I miss something here? We aren't talking about a dog here, we're talking about a child.

Saturday was actually Take your children to the park and leave them there day, a day thought up by Free-Range Kids parenting blogger Lenore Skenazy. She was made famous and labeled the "worst parent in America" by letting her then nine year old son ride the NYC subway by himself. Since that event she has taken in upon herself to encourage other parents to let their children bike to school, play at the park on their own, play outside in their neighborhood on their own and in general let them play like we did when were were growing up. I grew up in a very small town (Lowden, IA population: 700ish) and my summer days were spend at the park or at the pool. With no adult supervision. Yes, there were lifeguards at the pool. But, my friend Katy and I would ride our bikes or scooters to the pool and spend the afternoon there WITHOUT OUR PARENTS. We would also go to the park WITHOUT OUR PARENTS. I am sure we were out of our parents sight for hours at a time, we knew to come home before it got dark. And you know what? I survived!

I hope Dylan will be able to do the same, we do have a park with in biking distance of our house, there is one major road to cross, but I am sure he will be able handle it when he is old enough.

Statistically, kids are safer today than they were when I was growing up in the 80's and 90's. Crime is down, but you know what is up? Television viewing, every child that is abducted is plastered on the television for us to see, creating paranoia that is understandable, but unfounded.

So let your kids play on their own, let their imagination and independence grow. They will thank you for it. I know I do.