We have discovered something wonderful that has made my life a LOT easier in the past week or so. Cats make great babysitters! Who would have thought that a 20+ lb cat would make such a great playmate?!
Frankie (the cat) follows Anthony from room to room and sits with him while he plays. Anthony is tickled pink that he has “someone” sitting with him and has left me to do a variety of household chores. Can’t beat that! Bless you Frankie, for letting me get things done without “help”.
I’ve recently had the delight of Anthony learning that his pee-pee is something altogether fun to play with. I understand self-exploration comes with the age but it is rather embarrassing, in a funny sort of way, to have him walking around with his hand in his pants ala Al Bundy. I’m trying to teach him if he wants to further his knowledge to do it in his room and not out where everyone else has to see. But so far that seems to not be working. Instead he gets mad at me when I tell him to “get his hand out of his pants”. LOL
It’s also led to some leaky diapers overnight since the diaper is no longer in the perfect positioning anymore to do it’s job. Which ok fine – call me anal or whatever but changing his sheets and pjs every day because they smell like pee isn’t all that fun. I’m trying a onesie on him tonight with his pj bottoms to see if that solves that particular problem.
I did a quick search on Google to see what is suggested for parents to do or not do and this article (an excerpt is below) came up. After reading it, I find it reassuring that my thoughts on Anthony’s “toddler self-exploration” are on par with at least the Drs.
I did wonder if, perhaps, he does have a yeast infection since he is not circumcised and will keep an eye on it; I’ll call the ped’s office next week just to reassure myself. In the meantime I guess I’ll do a search for that online too 
“Most children begin to explore their genitals at about the same time they begin to look more like little boys and girls than like babies. Just when we are beginning to adjust to their not being babies anymore, we are confronted with the sight of our little boy fondling his erection or our little girl moving her hips up and down on top of her pillow with a glazed look in her eyes. How jarring!
…If we take a step back, though, we can see that it makes sense that kids would want to explore their own bodies. When toilet learning becomes a focus of interest, we might anticipate that kids would also be curious about those parts of the body that have in the past been largely hidden under the diapers. Boys will play with their penises. Girls will finger their vaginas, and even insert objects. Many kids will reach down every chance they get. This exploration produces pleasurable feelings, as we are well aware.”
If you are a local or just visiting the area, a local Sarasotan just started a website dedicated to you – sarasotalocal.com. They recently launched the site so it is in the infant stages but still worth a visit. Especially if you like to hear about local goings-on.
In addition to news, restaurant reviews and local-color info they also have discussion groups. We joined a newly (so new I’m mom #6) started Sarasota Moms group and it’ll be interesting to see how that develops.
My son has a fixation with birds. We’re talking he starts panting when he sees or hears them. Why panting? No idea – you get in the head of an 18 mo old. I admit we are guilty of adding fuel to the fire by taking him to feed them but it has escalated into an obsession for him. We’re even considering buying him a cockatiel or something similar to appease his desire.
We’ve also done the usual things – I bought various bird feeders and hung them around the yard to bring more wildlife around, specifically birds, for Ant to watch. We’re finally getting some birdies to come hang out at our feeder and that is very exciting for him! Of course I love it too since it is nice to hear birds tweeting.
In a typical neighborhood there are ponds with ducks that normally WANT to be fed. But I guess our ducks are too stuck up because they won’t even come eat our food when we toss it out to them. 
It’s led to us driving far and wide to find birds for Ant to feed.
The places I’ve found so far that consistently have birds are:
I hope this list helps someone else that has a bird-obsessed toddler. So far the food that seems to be the biggest hit is bread (torn into smaller pieces), gold fish crackers and graham crackers. We’ve been saving left over pizza crust, left over bread & bagels, etc. to use since this habit of his is getting expensive.
I can’t believe I am even thinking this, let alone typing it but we are thinking of getting Anthony a bird. You see I HATE birds – they are messy, noisy creatures that you can’t even cuddle with. Plus they may poop on you. BUT Ant loves them – he thinks its great to feed them, see them and talk about them. Could it be a phase and I’m dooming myself or is it really love? Who knows with an 18-mo old. But if it makes him that happy – how can I deny that joy?!?!
What do you think? Are we nuts to even consider this? Nick assures me that Papa would love to have another bird if this doesn’t work out but I’m not too sure on that. We tried to give him a cat (which he desperately wanted) several years ago for Father’s Day and well….that is where Pancake came from and he is still part of our household. He lasted at my in-laws for 2, maybe 3 days before he was given back because he kept dirtying on the rug in the bathroom and MIL put her foot down.
A little background – we have 4 cats that are declawed and semi-inside cats. They live mostly on the back porch in a glorified world complete with pool but do come in the house for visiting and on cold nights. We also have a beta fish named Fred, thanks to Anthony’s Uncle Richie. So these pets would be a consideration if we were to get a bird.
Help me folks! Should we do it? And if we do break down, what type of bird is the best?
Anthony has had a whirlwind past several weeks with family. Uncle Richie was down from NY for about a week and a half and the two of them had a BLAST together. He even got Anthony a beta fish for Valentine’s Day. Luckily I haven’t killed the thing yet. Actually Fred (the fish) is a very nice addition to our family and makes us all happier people.
And now Aunt Dawn is down and already spoiling him. She brought him a late birthday AND Christmas present. Very cool stuff indeed. Some shirts for his birthday (all with the cutest sayings on them) and a Nemo bubble blower for Christmas.
I’ll try to post some pics later on.
I’m trying something new here (well at least for me) and trying to meet more parents and kids using parenting groups. I don’t do really well walking into established groups since they seem rather clichy to me (imagination, who knows) but I’ve found one that just started and is in my neck of the woods. I’m doing my part to promote it so if you don’t live in my area be sure to check out meetup.com to see what else is out there.
When I attended BBC it was basically a built-in mommy/baby group and I miss the companionship of going and I know Anthony misses seeing people his own age. So I’m going to do my best to find a niche for us 
Now what’s not to love here! Lots of cute photos of babies entered to win prizes. Of course, I’ll be entering Anthony. I mean if I can use his adorable face to win him something wonderful for his future, why not right?
(From their site) Submit your baby photos, tell your friends to rate your pics & win prizes from our sponsors: Babystar Blanket from Baby Star, Fashion fix kit from Babysparewear, Diaper cream from Grandma El’s, Junior Director Chair from Hoohobbers and $50 worth of products from No Slippy Hair Clippy. Winners will be announced in March, 2008!
If you don’t want to add your darling up there be sure to vote for mine! Here’s a link to Anthony’s pic ~ click away.
I just got the P&T this afternoon and put it together. They didn’t included the screws for the wheel guards (morons) so I’ve an email into customer service to see about getting those. I popped Anthony in it and zoomed around the house and he was actually mad that I took him out to put the canopy on. Guess that is a good sign! Figured Jody and I could test it out with both boys here one of these days and report back for ya’ll.
I received an email back from Jo at letsgostrolling.com already and will be receiving the missing parts in about a week. Apparently this was a small snafu that occurred with some of the promotional Phil & Ted’s. How’s that for good customer service!
So…Nick and I are having an ongoing discussion on whether or not it is tacky to do a baby registry & shower for the second baby. I’ve always heard that you should do that only if the second one is a large age gap from the first and you’ve gotten rid of all of your baby items. He thinks that is completely stupid. And, well, I can’t say I disagree with him.
Yes, I planned on having a second child and kept pretty much everything from Anthony, excluding the stuff that was out of season, didn’t fit, didn’t like, etc. but I have the MAJOR stuff already. But I feel like it 
is unfair for the second baby to not be celebrated.
I’m not expecting lavish presents or even anything at all but I would still like to have a shower to celebrate the start of his life. I figure I’ll do a registry for the stuff I don’t have and learned is pretty darn cool along the way (dirty diaper duck bags
What do you think, should the second, third, forth, etc child be celebrated with a shower and possibly a registry?
