henri's first "truck" coaster
carrrrrrrrrrrrrrs
he's a natural
karma 2009/08/27
so…a couple of weeks ago, henri poured a gigantic pitcher of water on my laptop, and i admit: i got pretty angry with him. in my defense, 1) it wasn’t an accident and 2) it wasn’t an accident.
but today, i spilled a (mostly-empty) glass of water on (only a small portion) of my computer, and–of course–he was right there watching. “uh-oh!” he says. but i know what he’s thinking. cool! mommy pours water on her computer, too! so, she must not have cared that i poured water on it!! that means i can do it again!!! wheeeeeeeeeee…
stupid karma. what was i supposed to do? *not* get mad when he doused my computer deliberately just because i wasn’t focusing my every moment/braincell on his little world!!! boy, did i learn my lesson.
we’ve reached a new low 2009/08/24
houston: we have a problem. henri is watching sesame street.
uh-oh.
i’m officially the worst parent in the world. i mean, i’m not even watching it *with* him. well, i’m in the same room. but {obviously} not interacting with him…since i’m blogging…about him.
there are several reasons why i’ve allowed this to happen:
- For some reason, PBS doesn’t play Curious George 24 hours a day. I still can’t figure out why not. And they haven’t returned my emails or phone calls.
- There is a DVD stuck in our player and–as {bum} luck would have it–it’s not Curious George. Damn Technology!
- You can actually learn things on this show. For instance, I just learned how to say white in Spanish. Also, there are a lot of words having to do with laundry that begin with the letter L (lessons: irony, linguistics, metatexts).
- Sesame Street is so gay-friendly.
- I get a perverse pleasure out of turning Sesame Street on, because I once had a “teacher” tell us that Sesame Street encourages ADHD in kids, because of its short segments. Since this is also the same woman who told us that you could get germs (e.g. AIDS) from sitting on public potties, I never really bought into her whole Sesame Street philosophy.
ah, childhood! the time of innocence!
oops, it’s over. gotta go rescue my son from tv-land. coming soon: a blog about how we’re encouraging henri to read in bed under dim wattage so that he will need glasses like us. READING IS COOL.
budding backseat driver 2009/08/10
driving-wise, today was not a good day. the first USELESS “field trip” h-man and i went on was to the rmv in brockton, an hour away, only to get there and find out that 15,000 other losers had already signed up to be “heard” and there were no more slots left. poop soup.
so, i decided not to waste the momentum of having henri in the car and in a pretty good mood and drove halfway across town, in traffic, to the library, searched for parking, found parking, etc. etc., only to get there and find out that the Library Does Not Open Until Noon on Mondays. summer hours! who needs ‘em!! now, i’m never paying my $9.25 fine.
let me remind you that today was not a nice, cooler-than-usual, summer day. it was 115 degrees if i’m white. i assume that most 20-month-olds would not stand for such a waste of a morning (i, myself, wanted to shoot someone in the knee), but henri–darling, sweet, mellow, better-than-good henri–just sat in his seat and hummed, talked to himself, read books, notified me of trucks, and–every now and then–repeated the GPS, just to make sure mom-mom was listening:
GPS: Turn right on Hilltop Street.
Mom-mom: (Goes straight) (Swears)
Henri: HILLTOP STREET!!!
new york turned my son into a future-drinker 2009/08/03
you should click here to see the entire album of henri’s recent trip to saratoga springs.
common sense parenting = henri using words 2009/08/02
Last Friday, henri got his first library card, and I got my, well, I got one too. I had to pay 75cents, because you can’t be over $10 in fines to check out books. I guess I returned something late…doesn’t sound like me…but if that’s what they say…
Anyway, Henri got some awesome books with his favorite characters–Maisy, the Sheep, Pat the Bunny, and Curious George–along with some new books focused on opposites, colors & counting, as those are the things he’s cognitively processing these days.
Mom-mom got two books, one of which is Common Sense Parenting of Toddlers and Preschoolers. Though most of the tips are either Really Commonsensical or geared towards parents whose children are WAY out of control already, I did find the book somewhat useful regarding some savvy parenting techniques, such as “Effective Praise” and “Redo, Undo, Redirect.” I may not like the terminology, but I like the ideas. I’ve already tried it a little on henri and it definitely works.
For example, on weekends when we’re being lazy, we will put him in bed with us with a bunch of books. Usually, when he gets bored or wants us to read to him, he’ll throw the book at us, instead of using words. Well, yesterday morning, I gave him the book back and said, “Henri, whenever you want us to read to you, you just hand us the book and say, ‘Mom-mom Read’ or ‘Da-da Read.’” Then, I followed the suggested “Show-And-Tell” procedure and did it myself (handed Da-da the book and said “Da-da Read”). Then, we had Henri practice it to be sure he understood, which he did.
Guess what? It totally worked! Even though he did throw a much larger book right at Mark’s head (and really hurt him that time) so that we could practice the technique once again… this morning, he handed Mark a book and said “Da-da Book” just like we’d practiced, with no prompting and no throwing of books first!
I think that’s the most helpful thing I’ve learned from the book…not learned, but been reminded of. When henri does something we don’t want him to do–whether it’s throw food off his tray or throw an entire pail of water on my computer–it’s not because he’s intentionally being bad or even, necessarily, because he’s doing something to earn “negative attention,” it’s because he doesn’t have the “tools,” or cognitive ability, to ask us/tell us what he wants. So, the more tools we give him, the easier it will be for him to get what he wants, and everyone to be happy. 
Though, it is kind of a daunting task–we don’t just have to teach him words, but words and how to use them (!)–the book reminds us that it’s also an opportunity to have an even better life, full of obeyed parents and independent, but well-behaved children. Now, if that isn’t narcisstic parenting, I don’t know what is!
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