Anthony on , , , 12 Aug 2008 09:21 pm

Tonight Aidan was pretty tired after a hard day being a toddler.  Aside: today was also a pretty successful day on the toilet training front.  Fingers crossed.

Anyway, back to tonight.  Going to bed, he wanted a book to be read to him.  However, we’d already been through the pre-bedtime negotiations and we’d settled on watching a Peep.  After Peep, it was off to bed and he managed to grab a book and tried to keep it with him in the bed.  Retrieving the book sent the toddler into hysterics.

After a little bit of intervention, the boy asked for a Kleenex.  But he didn’t want a Kleenex from the box in his bedroom, oh no.  He wanted one from upstairs.  In the face of this clear delaying tactic, the request was denied.  Hysterics continued.  And continued.

Off and on for another 15 minutes.

So, I paused the news (oh how I love our PVR) and went downstairs, Kleenex in hand.  I went in, handed it to him, and he said “That was very nice, thank-you.”  He then put his head on the pillow and said “Good night!”  And I went back upstairs and an hour later … I haven’t heard a word.  He has clearly gone to sleep.

And equally clear is the fact that he was so very upset about having to use a downstairs Kleenex instead of an upstairs Kleenex.

Toddler logic.  Go figure.

Anthony on , , 03 Mar 2008 08:22 am

OK, so it’s Monday 7am. Aidan’s had 3 nights in the toddler bed. Putting him to bed hasn’t been the easiest thing in the world, but for the past two nights, it hasn’t taken any more than 10 minutes for him to calm down. It could certainly be much harder. In fact, we were expecting it to be much more difficult.

He hasn’t fallen out over night. He hasn’t gotten up over night. In the mornings he does his (now) typical morning routine … he sings and talks to himself until one of us comes down and ‘gets him up’. It’s funny: I’ve heard about the phenomenon of toddlers staying in the bed because they don’t think they can get up until someone comes in and ‘gets them up’ even if there’s nothing physically preventing them from getting up … but I didn’t think it would happen in our case. And I don’t know how long it will last. Yesterday, I merely poked my head in Aidan’s room (around 7:30-ish after letting him sing and talk for an hour or more — he’d been making noises on and off from about 5:30 am) and then he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and got up and started playing.

We spent a little bit of time yesterday letting Aidan ride his bike. It’s obviously going to take a little bit of time for him to get used to it. He liked walking it (pulling it by the handle bars) almost as much as being pushed on it. There was a little bit of peddling, but not a lot. We need to go down to Charleson Park to let him free-wheel for a bit.

On the geocaching side, Aidan and I headed off to pick up a cache that we didn’t attempt last weekend. California Roll and Blue Chevy Mad Science is by Acadia Beach on the north side of the Point Grey pennisula.  I thought it’d be a quick find, but I didn’t read the logs too quickly.  Turns out it’s about 30 m off the trail on a small hill and it required a fair bit of bushwacking.  It was just Aidan and I, and typically when we’ve gone after caches that have been off-trail, it takes one of us to wrangle the boy, and the other to search for the cache.  I weighed the options, and given the enthusiasm of the boy I decided to take the plunge.  I was a bit worried that a muggle was going to wander by and ask what I was doing leading a 3 yr old boy into the woods, but … oh well.  Anyway, we made our way to ground zero and proceeded to spend … I don’t know 20, maybe 30 minutes looking for the cache.  Aidan kept himself quite occupied by poking at trees and leaves, and playing with the hiking pole I had given him, but it was still distracting having to keep one eye on him and one eye on the ground looking for the cache.  Plus, I couldn’t very well range too far away from him.  But his humour kept up, and my humour kept up and eventually I stumbled across the cache.  I called Aidan over (erm, and helped him climb/scramble over the brush and fallen trees) and he happily checked through all the damp geoswag while I signed the log and deposited one of our pins.  After that it was a quick trip out, and as far as I know no one called the RCMP to report me. :)

Postscript: It’s 7:20 am now and Aidan’s been awake for the past 10 minutes or so.  Happily singing and talking in bed.  I guess I’ll have to go down and get him up!

Anthony on , , , 29 Feb 2008 09:48 pm

tigger_bike.jpgIt’s funny, they creep up on you.

Today we bought Aidan his first bike. Well, technically we were proxies for Grandma and Grandpa who wanted to buy Aidan a tricycle for his birthday. Unfortunately, our living arrangements don’t really allow us to have a trike — no where to store it, and really no where to ride it except on the side walk. But we live on a hill — 22% grade according to the signs — and trikes don’t have brakes. And frankly, Aidan’s a bit of a small guy and last year he wasn’t really big enough for a trike. This year, though, he seems to fit the 12″ bikes quite well. And, we found a bike with a parental handle on the back — which seems to be ideal! The one shown to the right is the bike, but the one that we bought doesn’t have the Tigger head on it, or the tassles. Instead it has a black handlebar bag with a Tigger on it. And instead of spokes, it has solid discs in the rims. We must have the ’08 model.

We also bought him a helmet (skateboard style) that came with elbow and knee pads. The kicker is — they’re sized for ages 5+ and Aidan’s head size is at the top end of the head sizes that the helmet will fit (21″ vs 21 1/4″ max size). 5+ years old? Do these kids have freakishly small heads? After I got the proper size pads in the helmet, he stopped complaining that it hurt when it was on. :) He seemed to like the elbow and knee pads, and wore them over his pyjamas for a good portion of the night. Actually, he seemed to like the idea that they were to keep him safe if he fell (or in toddler terms, ‘crashed’). I know this because he proceeded to throw himself at the floor, repeatedly. At least his elbows and knees were safe. I did worry a bit about his wrists, though.

At any rate, we’ll get some pictures once we have a sunny day.

Of course, it’s supposed to be a birthday present so unless he specifically asks for it we might keep it from him for the next few weeks.

The other milestone that we’re dealing with today is moving Aidan from the crib to a toddler bed. Well, that’s not strictly true — his crib converted into a toddler bed. And, he’s been down since 7:30ish. There were tears, with him saying that he wasn’t ready for his crib … and I’m not sure if he meant that he wasn’t ready for the toddler bed, or if was just generally not ready to go to bed. Gwen stayed down and calmed him down. I’ve been down twice in the half hour that followed to calm down more tears. But in the past half hour (it’s 8:45 now) I haven’t heard anything from him. And, not once did he get up out of the toddler bed. Let’s see if that holds all night long.

And we’ll deal with tomorrow night tomorrow.

Anthony on , , 25 Feb 2008 09:02 am

Aidan’s crib broke the other day.

Wednesday last in fact. Gwen leaned into it to push the rail edge beyond the catches, and “Snap!” the top rail of the drop side broke. It hasn’t completely broken, but it has cracked through. The teething rail is helping keep it together.

Our temporary solution has been to put that side of the crib against the wall and deal with retrieving him without lowering the rail. Not a big deal given his size and mobility.

But what to do with the crib? It’s not exactly dangerous as is, but not 100% safe either. Gwen called Storkcraft (a local company would you believe) and, surprise, surprise, our crib model (“Ashley”) is discontinued and they don’t have any replacement bits. $280 dollar crib, 3 years old, and broken. It’s not like we abuse the crib, and I’ve never seen him stand up and rattle the rail either, so it’s particularly disappointing.

So, do we do a home-fix, convert it into a toddler bed, or get a new one? Well, I think getting a new one is out of the question right now — seems pointless. Fixing it is do-able: I think that effectively putting a splint on the rail will keep it together pretty well. Metal straps will work, but I think I could patch it up pretty well with fibreglass; unfortunately Gwen’s put the kibosh on that.

And then there’s the option of transforming the crib into a toddler bed. I’m leaning towards this, but the fact is that I don’t think Aidan’s ready for it. He likes his crib. He doesn’t try to get out of it. He happily plays in it for hours. We’ve asked him if he wants to sleep in a big boy bed, and Gwen’s gone to Ikea to get him to test drive some of the beds there, and the reaction ranges from tepid to outright rejection.

So, what to do?

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