Block party

Melissa is on retreat this weekend so Tani and I are on our own.  Today we had a big day in Philadelphia.  We went to synagogue at Germantown Jewish Centre.  We spent about ten minutes in services, an hour on the playground, and 30 minutes at kiddush.  It was nice to see old friends in Mt. Airy.  It had rained the previous week and there was a big puddle on the playground.  Luckily, I remembered to bring Tani's boots.  Unfortunately, the puddle was so big that after Tani jumped in the puddle the water splashed up into his boots and all over his pants.  Fortunately, Melissa reminded me to bring a change of clothing.  We then headed to W. Philly to see cousin Jen, her husband Joel, and their eight week old baby Jonah.  They were staying with friends on St. Marks Square street which was having a block party.  So we arrive ~2 pm and there are tricycles, super soakers, and other fun toys scattered about the street and on people's porches (the street has row houses with front porches on both sides).  There's also a kiddie pool set up and Tani want to go get wet again.  Fortunately I have a swim suit and swim diapers - I thought we were going to go swimming yesterday and didn't take the swim bag out of the trunk.  Unfortunately I didn't think I had his water shoes, so I took off his sneakers and sent him barefoot into the street.  He happily walked up the block and played in the pool, with the super soakers and jumped around as others sprayed hoses.  He also got to ride on a peddle bulldozer and play with a garbage truck on someone else's porch.  I had also brought his tricycle which I had put on the side of the street.  Tani got very upset when he saw other kids riding it.  I explained how we were all sharing and that he was having fun playing with other kids' toys.  That explanation did not seem to help much.  I had a nice visit with Jen and Joel and got to see baby Jonah, who seems to be studying everything, taking it all in - he seems very content and happy.  At some point I needed to change Tani's diaper and after looking at the bottom of the stroller for wipes noticed that I had his water shoes after all.  So I changed his diaper, put back on his bathing suit and now water shoes, and we wandered up the block looking for water balloons.  But more festivities were about to occur.  First was a pinata breaking activity.  Kids gathered round and took turns whacking the pinata with a baseball bat until tons of candy fell out.  Fortunately, Tani was so busy playing with his water shoes he didn't pay attention.   After this was a donut eating contest.  Parents string up about 30 donuts on a line and the kids each try to eat a donut without using their hands.  Whoever finishes the donut first is the winner.  Tani has shown no interest in donuts up until now but the kids were having so much fun he went to investigate.  He touched a donut and licked his fingers and noticed they were sweet.  So he decided to enter the contest but did use his hands to devour the donut.  Joel has a picture of this.  I stayed a bit later than I should have as Tani was clearly getting tired.  I gathered things up and Joel helped me and Tani get to the car.  I was on the Schulykill expressway at the Montgomery Ave exit when I realized I had forgotten his sneakers.  Ughh.  Jen found them and I'll ask her to mail them back.  So I went to the Lehigh Valley mall once we got to Allentown and now Tani has some sandals for summer.

I love you, Momma

This is Melissa writing my first blog entry.  A few days ago, Tani started saying "I love you, Momma"--Neysa and I have been regularly telling him that we love him since he was born, and it's amazing to now receive Tani's words of love.  He often says it spontaneously.  He also started giving kisses-- a little slobbery, but wonderful.  He loves to cuddle in Mommy's bed when he wakes up in the morning.

We are beginning to talk about going to a new house-- we don't yet know exactly where we'll be moving.  We needed to reassure Tani that he'll be coming with us, and then he requested that our new house have a basement and a garage...we'll see...

We saw baby Amani (my cousin Mike and Liz's 3-month old daughter) this weekend, and Tani has been pretending to be baby Amani.  This includes pretending to nurse.  He is now fully weaned.  I am grateful for the 2+ years that Tani nursed and I am now also grateful that he is weaned.  Tani also often pretends that he is a bunny.  And sometimes, he's curly bear, a character from Elmo's potty video.

We had 2 full weekends-- from May 21-25, Grandma Diane and Grandpa Arthur came to visit.  We went to MayFair in Allentown and Tani had his first paddleboat ride.  He also picked out a pink hand-sewn snake and a small wooden tow truck with a car as a present, and before Grandma and Grandpa returned to Atlanta, they got him a little Thomas the train engine.  I showed Tani the plain version and mud-covered version.  He chose the mud-covered version, then later tried to take off the mud.  He loves Thomas, and pretty much anything with wheels.

This past weekend, we celebrated with my cousin Nicole as she graduated from college and then spent 2 days with Tani's cousin Max, Uncle Mitch and Aunt Val, as well as Grandma Susan and Grandpa Morris.  We visited Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia, which was one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been, and has wonderful fountains for children to play around.  Tani and Max had a wonderful time running around and getting wet together.  My mother organized this visit, which was a real treat for my father, who is turning 70 on June 9.  While we were sitting at lunch, Tani sang the whole alphabet song and baa baa black sheep.  He sang quietly, but also seemed to enjoy the audience.   On the car ride home, he sang along with the CD--he loves the They Might Be Giants Alphabet CD, especially, "Go, go go for G"  He was disappointed when our car ride, which was over an hour, was over-- he wanted a longer drive and asked to go to Providence to see Ezra (his 3-year-old friend who is Joanna and Rebecca's son).  

Laughing

Tani laughs a lot and is a lot of fun.  We have this book which has a page of different facial expressions children make such as "yuck!" and "huh?".  If we say one of these words and make the appropriate facial expression he'll just laugh and laugh and shout "Again!".  We can say it ten times in a row and it's still funny to him.  If you're reading this, try it out with Tani some time - guaranteed for laugh!   All three of us had a good laugh the other day over this next story.  Melissa had recounted to me in the evening that Tani ran out of the bathroom that morning waving a tampon shouting "I found a cheese stick in the bathroom!".  She told me this in front of Tani and when I heard the story I started laughing and then we all started laughing and Tani repeated "I found a cheese stick in the bathroom!" and then we all laughed some more and so on...  Today Tani picked up a pad of paper, a pencil, a pen, and a remote control.  He then wanted to open a door but his hands were full.  I always chuckle in these situations because he clearly has to go into problem solving mode.  Today he handed me first the pad of paper, then the pen and pencil which freed up a hand to open the door, but then he also handed me the remote control and then opened the door.  This has happened a number of times in the past - he's going somewhere, sees an object he wants to hold and gathers them up until he can't hold anything else and then has to figure out how to pick up the next thing. It's very cute.

It's raining

It's been raining every day for almost a week now.  Since Tani loves to jump in puddles and he only has two pairs of shoes and each pair takes a couple of days to dry out, it seemed prudent to buy Tani some rain boots.  Tani loves his rain boots, which have smiling dragon faces on them.  He really jumps in the puddles with gusto now.  He rode his tricycle in the light rain Monday evening - he likes to drive through the puddles and he likes to go fast.   I had gone inside a few minutes before Tani and Melissa and I heard them outside.  I went out to investigate and saw that Tani had picked up a worm and was carrying it around.  He was trying to open the car door to take his worm in the car.  I said "Tani, do not go in the car with that worm!" and then ran away.

It's 8 AM Wednesday morning and Tani is still sleeping - he's usually up by 7 or 7:30.  He's up now, have to go...

How to win friends and influence people

Facilitating toddler interactions can be quite challenging.  If one child has a toy and there is another child in the room, they will often want the same toy even though there are dozens of others to choose from.  The "toyless" child might then grab the toy from the first child, resulting in crying and looks to a nearby adult to correct the injustice.  When Tani was 1.5 years old, if he took a toy from a child, rationally explaining how it wasn't nice and to give it back often didn't work.  Now he understands a lot better and I think knows he shouldn't do it.  We were at a birthday party last Sunday and two girls were playing with a small toy kitchen.  Tani, who is 30% bigger than the next largest child even though they're the same age, swooped in and brushed the two girls away and started playing with the kitchen.  "Tani, that's not nice.  They were there first, let them play with it".  He reluctantly moved out of the way and a microsecond later was on to something else.

In Tani's daycare, if a child bites another child the teachers write up the incident and send home a sheet to both the vicitim and perpetrator's parents but won't identify the children involved.  That way the parents know their child bit someone or got bit but don't know who the other party was.  When Tani turned two, he bit one of his classmates.  By then he was talking so I asked him who he bit.  "Devora" he said matter-of-factly.  "She cried".  (Note names in this posting other than Tani's have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty).  Melissa asked his teacher the next day about the incident.  She smiled and wouldn't confirm who but said the girl was running around the previous afternoon proudly telling everyone "Tani bit me!".   A couple of weeks ago Tani got bit for the first time - or at least it was the first time we got a white form explaining Tani was bit.  These forms also state when it happened, what was going on at the time, and what was done about it.  For example, "at 10 AM Tani bit a child who was trying to play on the same toy.  We explained to Tani 'it's not OK to bite your friends'".  So I asked Tani who bit him.  "Orli" he said again matter-of-factly.  "I cried."  I recalled that about a month ago during bedtime Tani was telling me that Orli had been misbehaving and the teachers had to tell her not to hit her friends.  He said, "Orli hit Shoshana.  Shoshana cried."

Believe it or not after reading all of the above, the kids have great affection for each other.  When I drop Tani off at daycare, often the kids who are there will happily shout "Tani!" or "Nani!" if they can't quite pronounce his name yet.  Luckily toddlers forgive and forget quite quickly and if they remember a bite or hit it seems to be remembered either fondly or as a noteworthy event, not something to be resented.

School bus

When I put Tani to bed at night, he always requests the song "Wheels on the Bus".   A couple of months ago it morphed into "Wheels on the School Bus".  The song is a narrative (sung to the tune of "The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round") of how students wait for the bus in the morning, ride to school, the bus goes to wait and then picks the students up after school and takes them home, and then they go play, eat dinner, get ready for bed, go to sleep, wake up and repeat the process the next day.  I often sing several rounds of this until he either falls asleep or asks for a different song.  A couple of weeks ago he requested that the school bus driver wanted a snack, so I sang "The school bus driver has a snack, has a snack, has a snack, the school bus driver has a snack, of Cheerios and milk" (I think I had originally picked pretzels, cheese and crackers but Tani changed the snack).  He likes this verse and if I forget it while I'm singing he is sure to remind me.  This week he requested that I add a line that the school bus driver wears a bib when he eats his snack.  So the line goes "The school bus driver wears a bib, wears a bib, wears a bib, the school bus driver wears a bib when he eats his Cheerios and milk for snack."

Tani has been into a "Real Wheels" video that Grandma Susan bought him which is all about buses.  The video is for children 3-8 because it is mostly talking and not much music or songs.  When Tani was two (as opposed to 2 years and 2.5 months now) he had no patience for videos with a lot of talking.  Now he can follow the story and enjoys them.  So this bus video's narrator is a funny guy named "Bus driver Dave" who tells the viewer all about buses.  Dave shows up at bus driving school ready to learn to drive a bus, but he's late so he has to wash the school bus with a hose and mop.  He squirts himself "accidently" in the face with the hose and makes all kinds of faces at having to wash this big bus.  Tani thinks the whole incident is hilarious.  It's fun to watch him watching the video.

I want to bang on the drum all day

Dave Smith, president of Am Haskalah, made a little drum for Tani - he asked us it was OK to give it to him and were like sure, great!  Tani has been playing with it ever since but tonight he was really into playing.  He grabbed both drum sticks and would beat the drum for a minute and then shout yay!  He'd then ask Melissa and I if we wanted to hear more and we'd say, "yes we'd like to hear more".  So he'd play some more and this would go on and on except if he banged his finger by accident, in which case he'd make a little pout for a few moments and then continue playing.  Tani's expression when he plays is like a drummer in a rock & roll band - he looks really intense.  I needed to go to the store so I'm not sure how late into the night he played, but at 9:30 pm it is all quiet in the Nevins-Klein house.