 | Diary Navigation:
|
June 22, 2005
Miss Meghan is back from France and from the sounds of it had a grand time. Her taste of independence and travel has made her a little bit (ahem) difficult to live with since her return. She has decided that as a nearly 18-year-old recent high school graduate perhaps the summer should be one long gift and vacation to celebrate her. Saturday she announced with a great deal of authority her vacation plans for the rest of the summer. Amongst her plans was a two-week road trip to the state of Nevada with her friend, in her friends 1985 Sunfire and no adult supervision. Um, no. We live in Iowa. She is not driving halfway across the country on a road trip in a 20-year-old car with no adults. Also included in these plans was renting a camper and following along on RAGBRAI (The Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) for a week - again with no adult supervision. I’m not quite certain how she thinks she’s going to pay for these things. We practically had to peel her off the ceiling when we vetoed those two plans, even though we gave the green light to two adult supervised long weekends in the state. She moves into her college dorm August 17th and frankly at this rate its not a moment too soon. And yes, I am sure we will miss her the moment she’s gone.
Our weekend shaped up quite nicely. Friday night John took Lane to see the new ‘Batman’ movie, which we refer to in our house as ‘atman-bay’ in deference to Ava’s lingering fear… Ava and I puttered around outside with one of her neighborhood friends for most of the evening. For the first time I saw Ava run, balls out run, for quite a distance. She has been running for quite awhile, probably six months or so, but her running could be kind of ‘hitchy’ starting and stopping, pulling up etc… Friday night she took of up the sidewalk chasing her friend Brenna and she was moving at warp speed, hair flying, arms pumping, barefoot and laughing. It was a great sight. Brenna is over a year older than Ava and Ava just adores her. Brenna indulges Ava and appears to take a great deal of pleasure from being the older, wiser, more experienced of the two. Brenna has a brother Ashton who is a couple of months younger than Ava. Their parents graciously share their nice swing set, we try to equally graciously share the molded plastic festival in our backyard. The kids end up playing together outside quite a bit. It is nice to see.
Saturday morning my girl actually slept until 7:30am – aaaahh, the bliss. It felt like noon. John headed out early for a long run, so I was laying in bed at 7:15am in a quiet house and I could hardly believe my good fortune. After Ava woke up and John got back we headed up to the farmer’s market. Taking a lesson from last week’s stroller debacle (where Ava wanted to push her stroller BY HERSELF through the busy market) we left the stroller in the car and let Ava wander through the market on foot. She stayed pretty close and her temperament was great. We still had to cut our ‘usual’ route short, but it was a vast improvement over the previous week. Ava has introduced a new wrinkle of a slight aversion to clothing into our lives. During our stroll around the market she got some watermelon on her shirt and decided that topless might be an improvement over a wet shirt. Hard to explain to a very stubborn two-year-old why it is important to keep a dirty shirt on… These ‘clothing optional’ moments are pretty frequent (apparently at daycare too) and is a phase I hope she outgrows by the time the snow flies or it could be a very long winter.
Saturday night John and I went out on a date to celebrate Father’s Day. We went to a wine/tapas bar that just opened on the ‘gentrifying’ party of town. The food was pretty good, but a tad over priced. I think it would be a very enjoyable place to get a glass of wine and a snack, but I probably wouldn’t go there for dinner again. We are serious hypocrites, because we congratulated ourselves thoroughly on supporting a unique local business instead of dining at some big, anonymous chain restaurant. We’re so hip, we’re so great… But when they wheeled the dessert tray out we took one look at it and drove our hip, hypocritical selves out to the Cheesecake Factory for some cheesecake to go. White chocolate raspberry for me and I enjoyed every bite!
We celebrated Father’s Day in a pretty low-key fashion. I went for an early bike ride with my dad (PaPa Ray, as Ava calls him) Sunday morning, and then we went to church. That afternoon John took Meghan and Lane sailing on a little lake near our house. Ava and I drove down to the lake to watch them for a little while, then we went over to my parents house to take advantage of their swimming pool. I was oddly panicked at the lake with Ava. It was a gorgeous, if not a little warm, day so there were lots of people there. Lots of fisherman (DANGEROUS SHARP HOOKS!), lots of dogs (WHO POOP AND WHO’S OWNERS DON’T CLEAN UP AFTER THEM – Ava is curious), lot of smokers (WHO’S USERS DON’T MIND FLICKING STILL SMOLDERING BUTTS ON THE GROUND – Ava is curious) and a big lot of water. We take Ava to this lake very frequently, but it is always the two of us. There is a nice trail and we walk as far as she’ll got or we can carry her. As if I needed any reminding that parenting is a two person job I felt much safer in the face of all these perceived hazards when John and I both had our eyes on Ava. I don’t want to hover too much or worry too much, but hey, that’s the ABC’s of me. Ava seemed to grasp that it was her dad, her brother and her sister on the boat in the lake, which was fun to watch.
While John, Meghan and Lane finished their sail, Ava and I set off for my parents house for some pool time. Our busy girl wore herself right out playing in the pool. Her favorite thing was to walk up the little steps, run to the edge of the pool to wait for me to catch her when she jumped in. She’s start by saying ‘Ready, Set, Go’ and launch herself into my arms. Then she’d laugh and cheer ‘I did it!’ and repeat the whole process over again. This went on for nearly an hour – little wonder that she fell promptly asleep Sunday night and we actually had to wake her up Monday morning. Something about the combination of kids and water just poops them right out – I love it.
But this raises an interesting new development at our house. Ava has pushed her bedtime back. She used to go down very regularly between 8 and 8:30pm, really closer to 8pm. For nearly two weeks we’d put her down at that time and she’d lay in her crib, talking, reading her books, but wide awake. We’re not slow to catch on, but we thought it was a phase. We’re big believers in consistency, a routine etc… but this went on for 7 or 8 nights in a row. So we started adjusting her bedtime back and have pretty well landed on 9:00pm or even 9:15pm, which is working much better. She still takes a great nap – everyday for 2-2 ½ hours, but I suspect she’s entering that phase where maybe her great nap isn’t quite as necessary as it used to be. Either that or the longer days/extended daylight are adjusting her body clock. Her wake up time hasn’t completely adjusted to the later bedtime – she is sometimes sleeping longer, sometimes not. Oh what will I do when naptime goes away???
Ava has become extremely particular about things, odd things. An example, you ask…. We were at my parent’s house and my father was drinking a diet Snapple iced tea. Ava wanted some. I said no – one, it was in a glass bottle and two, she’s never had caffeine (except whatever’s in the occasional chocolate she might eat) and I am certainly not interested in introducing a stimulant to our busy girl. She begins to throw a fit. My dad brings out a Snapple Apple Juice and starts to pour it in a plastic cup for Ava. The fit intensifies. She wants that juice in that glass bottle. I say no. She quite literally threw herself on the ground and cried for 15 minutes. I’m stumped. Ditto for a similar fit thrown when John opened the wrapper on the granola bar she wanted the wrong way. That particular heartbreak lasted for a very long time, “’nola broken. Daddy sorry. Aaaa-buh sad.” She is becoming very choosy about her clothing and pajamas, with the added plus of wanting to dress herself and getting very frustrated when she can’t figure out exactly how to get her shorts on by herself. I really, really dislike the times where I simply have to over power her or flat out say no when what she’s doing is expressing her preferences, her independence. I try to balance that against the need to set limits on her behavior and probably fail at finding that balance more often than I succeed. She is becoming proficient at using please, thank you, and you’re welcome – with prompting – mostly because I think she’s figured out that she usually gets what she’s asking for if she says please!
But Ava’s language development continues to delight and astonish me. Last night I followed her to the top of the stairs and eavesdropped on her conversation with her brother. She goes into his room and says ‘Lane, help me peeese. Blue Baby seeping (sleeping) Aaa-buh bed. Aaa-buh Blue Baby.’ I look in as Lane follows Ava to her room. Blue Baby is fairly impaled in the rungs of her crib where Ava had tried to tug her out through the slats. I was amazed and proud of her ability to put a couple of ideas together, ask for help (in a polite way!) and communicate with her brother. She’s clearly a genius.
John and I have decided to move Ava from her daycare – it is a matter of timing now, but probably in the next year. There is a program here in town that focuses their pre-school and elementary school on the Reggio Emila approach to education, which I think is fantastic. This program feeds into an ‘alternative’ elementary school that is doing some really phenomenal things with children – their approach to education is very child centered and exciting to me. We’ve weighed it out a number of ways – always with positives and negatives. It will mean Ava will go to a downtown school instead of school in her neighborhood. The outdoor play area isn’t just fantastic. I know I risk sounding like the very cliché of a mother, but I think Ava is very bright and very clever. I hope her early educational opportunities will channel that intelligence and curiosity she embodies. I was very pleased with the quality of care Ava got at her current childcare center when she was an infant, but as she’s gotten older I am not as pleased. I know for certain I don’t want her to go to pre-school there. All the teachers at the downtown pre-school have degrees in child development. Public school teachers run their before and after school programs. I also really appreciate the art and music approach that is central to Reggio Emila. I love music, I appreciate art, but I am not a terribly creative person. I feel good about the possibilities of Ava receiving that type of education because she is unlikely to get it in any meaningful way from John and I. There won’t be space available for Ava at the downtown school for several more months, maybe even as long as a year. At a minimum she will begin attending pre-school there around the time she turns three. All in I feel very good about it.
This morning we had a momentous event at our house. Patito used the potty for real for the first time. It’s a forum for moms so I can discuss these things in more detail than the average person would find comfortable. We’ve been putting Ava on the potty and talking about the potty for a while. She’s done a tiny little bit of tinkle, tinkle and once I was even able to catch her pooping and get her to the potty. But this morning John put her in her little seat, turned on the faucet for a little encouragement and she went to the bathroom right there, full force. We tried not to make a huge deal out of it, just saying ‘good job Ava.’ I think it is time to get a little more serious and consistent about potty training – I’ve read that it is a good idea, at first, to put them on the potty every hour or so; when the wake up in the morning and from naps. I am also going to talk to Ava’s primary caregiver at daycare to see if they can start doing the same there. I won’t be sorry to see the diapers go, when we finally get there, but I can’t believe our girl is so big. This has been the fastest two years of my life.
This weekend I have a bridal shower and bachlorette party in South Dakota for a friend who’s getting married in July. It feels a little bit odd to be a bridesmaid at 33 for some reason. I am looking forward to seeing my friend and celebrating her impending nuptials, but am not really looking forward to the trip. This weekend is our town’s Arts Festival, which I always really enjoy and, not to sound too much like a housewife in the 50’s, but I really miss my family when I’m away from them. I know the breaks are good. But a long drive and a weekend away are not leaving me feeling particularly energized right now. I am going to swing by the library and get some books on CD for the trip. Right now it looks like I am going to leave early Saturday morning and come back Sunday. It’s a lot of driving in a 36 hour period, but it sounds better to me to at least have Friday evening home with John and Ava.
On that note I’ll close by sharing a recipe for a tasty pasta salad I got from my friend Jennifer. What I like about this is it keeps well, it isn’t ‘mayonnaise-y’ so it will travel well to picnics and other outdoor eating situations. Plus, you can throw in whatever veggies you like or happen to have in the ‘fridge. Enjoy!
Thanks for reading—
Kate
Pasta Salad
Cook 16oz of pasta rinse with cold water and set aside (I like bowties – your preference)
Mix
6 Tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 Cup Vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper (I actually used a little more – I like it spicy, but 2 t is a lot)
cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes
add 3-4 Tablespoons of honey
4 teaspoons of soysauce (again I used a touch more)
to the mixture and cook until combined – just a minute or so
toss with pasta and:
1/4 C cilantro
1/2 C chopped peanuts
1/2 C minced green onions
Toss with veggies if you want, red or green peppers, tomatoes, snow peas, shredded carrots, radishes and broccoli all taste good but it is quite good with about anything or nothing.
 | |
|
want to keep a diary on iParenting?
Authoring a diary on the iParenting network allows you to chronicle your family's story, preserving it for years to come. It's also a great way to get the most out of the iParenting community. Click here to start...
|
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families. 
