I Don't Have Much To Say, But I Have Pictures*!

Well, I wrote a post a few days ago and then lost it because my IP was acting up (or acting down as the case may be) and I lost most of it. Then I sat down the other day to write a post and my IP was down again. So, lets see how far I get tonight. Now I don't even remember what I was going to write about before anyway.

I've been in the market for children's shoes but I've been stalling. I've been waiting for Aaron to learn to walk because I want him in the soft soled pre-walkers to walk in first. And because shoes are expensive so I wanted them to completely grow out of their shoes. Well, this week, one of Aaron's shoes got a hole in it. At first it was a small hole and I duct taped it! But that only lasted a day or so, and the hole got bigger and I started worrying about what the Joneses (whoever they are) would think of my kid running around in half duct taped holes in his shoes, so I had to break down and just get something. I found some shoes on sale at Famous Footwear but they only had one pair in itty bitty sizes. So, I decided to give Naim's soft soled shoes to Aaron and buy Naim new 'real' shoes. He is ready for them. Aaron has bigger feet than Naim, so this solution will only probably last a month or two before Aaron will either grow out of these or wear another hole in them. But maybe (maybe?) he'll be walking by then. He is actually starting to walk very short distances occasionally on his own. (I'm talking between 2 and 4 feet.) And he wants to grab my hand and have me walk with him a lot more than he used to, which was never. So I'm hopeful.

Naim was very happy with his new shoes ("SOOOS!" while banging his fists together repeatedly ASL style.) But he decided that he could only walk with them if I held his hand. Then he picked up his feet really high and stomped with them back and forth in the living room. After about a half hour of this, he decided that he could possibly handle walking on his own with them. Little kid shoes are so cute. They are one of the things I remember passing by when I was pre-children and wondering if I'd ever buy them. (The other thing was going into model homes and apartments and the smallest room was always set up as a beautiful nursery. Walking into those rooms before I had children was actually becoming physically painful.)

Oh, but as usual, I digress.

Aaron also got his "little mommy" shopping cart. It came with a lot of little jars and boxes and pretend food that occupied them both the first few days. I can't tell you how many times I have mimed eating a vinyl banana shoved in my face in the last few days. Inserting and yanking that poor baby doll in and out of the cart was another activity that occupied an immense amount of time. Finally, just today, they started showing interest in the cart itself. I'm going to have to send a picture of this to my father. It will make him cringe and that will make me laugh.

Speaking of hetero-normative behavior, I got a few emails both for and adamantly against dressing boys in girls clothing. I can see both ways of looking at it, but here was the point I was trying to make: Doncha think it wouldn't be that bad to make some boys clothing with something else on them besides vehicles and sports? I don't think I really want to dress my boys in pepto bismal pink with ruffles. But, I think it would be nice to have say, a nice boys shirt...maybe in earth tones...no ruffles...but with some bugs, butterflies or wildflowers on them, nature stuff. Maybe these do exist, but not in the discount stores I shop in. It seems like boys get baby blue with teddy bears until nine months, and then it is all red or blue with vehicles and sports. A little variety is all I ask. I'm bored, and the kids like nature stuff. Why should they have basketballs and baseball bats on their shirts when they can't even play at this age and don't even get what a baseball bat is? Okay?

I did also go buy them some swim trunks. Heh. Because they are taking "swimming lessons" at my gym this summer. (It's free). I bought them a size T2 because I'm hoping they will last for two summers, but they are HUGE on them. The gym requires baby swim diapers and swimsuits, so I kind of did it begrudgingly. This class is for 18 months to 3 years and requires a parent. I asked if I could alternate kids (and thus only buy one swimsuit), but they said they'd rather have them both come each time and they would help me with the extra one. Really, at this age, is attendance so important that they need to come every time? I told them I can't wear my hearing aids in the pool and I'll be totally deaf so I hope I don't have to actually listen or anything, and they seemed cool with that. They said its mostly playing around and singing songs and stuff. Mostly it is a time allotment where they are allowing the diaper-wearing set to use the pool. I'm a little worried about having two of them in the pool at once, even when the instructor says she'll take one of them. But my dad should be coming sometime in July so maybe I can get him to come and he can take one of them. We went swimming last Thanksgiving in the hotel pool when we went to visit D's sister. She took one and I took the other and they had fun. So, you know, its just something to do with them to wile away the time in lieu of their bored whining. D didn't learn to swim until he was much older so he thinks its a little ridiculous. But I want them to learn to swim the earlier the better. Then you can worry just a little less when they are in the pool. This class is "Waterbabies" then 3-5 year-olds are "Waterbunnies" and then at 5 I think they really start teaching them stuff. So, D, yes. We have aways to go.

Tonight I gave them some macaroni in tomato sauce, carrots, and blueberries to eat and a plastic fork to eat it with. They usually eat their cereal in the morning with a spoon (they eat the first half of the bowl and then I usually have to help them finish), but tonight was the first time I gave them a fork. I just put the food right on their highchair tray. My gosh, the room was totally silent with the intensity of their concentration. They really worked hard on trying to use the fork. Aaron gets the whole stabbing the food thing, but Naim tries to scoop it spoon style or tries, with some success, to smash the fork down onto the food and then pick it up. They are really picking up the whole utensil thing, which is good because they are starting to really not tolerate being fed by me. I'm thinking a few more months and I'll be off the hook.

*I'm using the camera that takes more skill than I have. Consequently, I can't really tell how good these pictures are. Oh, and before you email me about blood or something-- I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if there is spagetti sauce on the kids' heads. I spent several minutes wiping it out of their hair before I decided the hell with it.

Comments

[rossecorp]

What beautiful happy children!

[Penny]

Think Dinosaurs. My son's been out of 18m-24m clothes for a while, but I remember finding a lot of dinosaur/archaeology-themed clothes in those sizes. I also made a point of buying t-shirts for him in museum gift-shops--a little pricier than the discount stores, but I figured it went to the museum, and it meant a much wider range of images. Fish, sharks, otters from the aquariums, birds from Audubon sanctuaries, monkeys and giraffes from zoos, that kind of thing. Or beach/surf themes are pretty easy to find this time of year. Just some ideas. The pictures are great, btw.

[That Girl]

Ignore other people. I honestly never thought about it, despite having raised a boy already but youre absolutly right - i wish there WERE other things on boys clothes.
We are not "sports" people and 1 is a little young for dinasaur interests, but fruit? plants?

God forbid. Maybe we could have Brad Pitt or Stallone dress their sons in nature, then it would be "cool" enough.

[Emmie]

That last picture is just adorable. He's looking so indignant! What a cutie. We're working on the utensil thing too- glad to hear there's hope!