Yuckies
Buba is still sick. He has thrown up every day since Sunday*, and it’s just so heartbreaking to see how miserable he feels. I’m not quite sure how it came about, but our kids refer to vomit as yuckies. Tiny has been telling everyone that her brother is sick because yuckies keep coming up, and we have yucky bins (shallow plastic containers) that we use to attempt to catch the yuckies and save our rugs and furniture; although, unfortunately, our success rate isn’t all that great. As sick as he’s been, Buba really has been a trooper. He HATES when the yuckies come up (who doesn’t?), but he’s always calm and patient in the clean up process that follows (which usually requires a pajama change).
Last night was the first night that Buba had yuckies in the middle of the night. It was about 12:40 am when I heard him whimper. I jumped out of bed and went right in. Tiny, who was also awake and sitting up in her bed, immediately informed me that “Buba has yuckies coming up again.” Of course, that much was clear as soon as I peeked into his crib (yes, still in the crib, but that’s for another post). Buba looked up at me and very sweetly said, “Can you get a paper towel, please?” Bless his heart.
I lifted him out of his crib and quickly inspected him. Fortunately, he didn’t have any yuckies on himself, but his bedding was full of it. He stood quietly while I stripped the sheets and did my best to quickly remake the bed. As I struggled to secure the fitted sheet in only the dim glow of the nightlight, we had this quiet conversation:
Buba: You forgot to bring the yucky bucket.
Me: Do you need it right now?
Buba: No, you forgot to bring the yucky bucket when my yuckies was coming out.
Me: I’m sorry, Bub. But I didn’t know that your yuckies were coming out. I was asleep in my bed.
Buba: Go and get it.
Me: Do you need it?
Buba: No, but keep it up there (pointing to the play kitchen. we had placed the bin on top of it earlier in the day.) so it will be there if I need it.
I finished making the bed and put the yucky bin where Buba had instructed. Fortunately, we didn’t need it again last night. (Unfortunately, it was used several times first thing this morning.) I offered to sit with Buba on the couch for a bit, but he was ready to go back to his bed. So, I tucked him back in, gave kisses and I love yous to both kids, and then starting the clean up process with the bedding.
T slept through all of this. How is that possible?! I came back to bed and he was still sound asleep and snoring. Normally, I would just put in my earplugs, but not this time with Buba being sick and all. I didn’t fall back to sleep until after 2 am and ended up getting only about 5 hours of sleep, because I had an early tutee this morning. I was pretty tired all morning but managed to sneak in a 45 minute nap while the kids napped this afternoon. We’re all hoping for a better night tonight.
*********************************************
*T took Buba to the pediatrician’s office Wednesday morning, where he was seen by a nurse practitioner. She did a pretty thorough exam and found nothing out of the ordinary. In previous situations, the kids have only had vomiting for a day or two, but she said it could last up to seven days depending on how log it takes the virus to run it’s course. And so we wait. Buba was completely exhausted today and slept quite a bit. We’re hoping we might finally be at the tail end of this thing. Fingers crossed…
Twin Fin-Fin Fish
A conversation before bedtime tonight:
Buba: (reading from Hooray for Fish!) Hello fat and thin fish (sorry, MandyE). Hello twin fin-fin fish. Buba and Tiny (he shouts pointing to the two twin fish)!
Me: Why did you say “Buba and Tiny” like that? (T always does that when he reads that page, but I wanted to see how much Buba understood.)
Buba: Because Daddy do’s that.
Me: Why does Daddy say that?
Buba: no response, just looks at the page
Me: Are you and Tiny twins?
Buba: no response, but looks up at me
Tiny: (jumping in from the sidelines) Yes, we are twins!
Me: How do you know? What makes you twins?
Tiny: Because you always say it. If da people ask “Are dey twins?” then you always say “yes”.
Me: You’re right! But do you know what it means to be a twin?
Tiny: Yes.
Me: Tell me.
Tiny: No, you tell me.
I’m All Out of Pesto
Tiny stands before her play kitchen…
Tiny: Mama, would you like some pasta?
Me: Sure! I love pasta. Can I have it with pesto please?
Tiny: I’m all out of pesto (she says as she scoops imaginary pasta into a bowl).
Me: Hmmm… Could you pretend that you have some pesto?
Tiny: No, I mean it, I’m all out of pesto. Here. Eat it.
Me: (pretending to eat) It’s pretty good. Thank you.
Buba decides to get in on the action…
Buba: Mommy?
Me: Yes, Buba?
Buba: And do you want some more pasta?
Me: Sure! I love pasta.
Buba: OK. (He’s very serious as he prepares my plate.)
Me: Could I have it with some pesto, please?
Buba: No. I already ate it all.
Me: You did? And did you know that I wanted pesto on my pasta?
Buba: Yes, I did!
Me: Oh. That makes me very sad.
Buba: (scoops his fork into thin air) Here you go! Here’s some pesto for you! Eat it! (big smile)
Off Duty
I spent this past weekend in the Berkshires catching up with friends from college (details saved for Friday’s post). It was the first time I’d ever spent a few days away from Tiny and Buba, but they seemed to have no issues staying home with T. I arrived home late yesterday afternoon, in time to join them all for dinner. Then I gave Buba and Tiny a bath and continued right on with my usual roles in the nighttime routine. But this morning, Buba was quite disappointed that it was I, not T, who was getting him up and ready for the day. And there were really no signs that I’d been missed at all until this brief conversation…
Tiny: Mommy, are you have fun with your friends?
Me: Yes, I did. Thank you for asking. It was very nice of you to ask that.
Tiny: Why you did not come home?
Me: I did come home. When my visit was all done, I came home.
Tiny: Why you did not come home when you with your friends?
Me: Well, we were on a trip together. And when our trip was over, then I came home.
Tiny: And you were missing them?
Me: Am I missing my friends?
Tiny: No. You were missing your babies?
Me: (my heart all warm and melted) Yes, I was missing them very much.
And then Buba chimed in with: And I did go for a walk with my daddy!
Hope for Spring
Today was Buba and Tiny’s last day of their drop-off playgroup. It’s a group for 2 year olds, and now that they’re 3, it’s time for us to move on and make space for some newcomers. We have just two more music classes left before the session ends, and we won’t be signing up for the next session (not because we didn’t love it, though). Last week, the music teacher mentioned that there were only two more classes left, and Tiny picked up on that. Tonight, at bedtime, we had the following converstaion…
Tiny: What we gonna have after night night?
Me: You mean tomorrow?
Tiny: Yep.
Me: We have music class tomorrow.
Tiny: Oh! And there just two more left?
Me: That’s right.
Tiny: What we gonna do after that?
Me: Well, we’ll hope for spring, I guess- warm weather and sunshine so we can play outside.
Tiny: I’m so esited (excited)! I can’t wait to see grass and sticks and I want to push my stroller in a walk. Can I put my baby in a stroller and walk?
Me: Yes, when the snow is all gone and we have some warm weather, you can do that.
Tiny: Oh! I’m so exited!
I’m definitely with her. I’m so excited for spring to come. We’ve had a few sneak peeks here and there, and our 7+ feet of snow has melted considerably. We still can’t see the front yard, but I’m hoping a few more days above 40 degrees will do the trick.
Who’s In Charge?
Tiny (to Buba): I’m in charge!
Buba (whining to me): Tiny says she’s in charge! Tiny says she’s in charge!
me: Buba, you know that that’s not true. Who’s in charge?
Buba (with a straight face): Buba.
Conversations Tiny & Buba: 1-2-3 Magic discipline misbehaving time out
by reanbean
1 comment
Say Sorry to Me
We’ve been using parts of 1-2-3 Magic for three to four months now. I can’t say that we follow this disciplinary approach exactly as it’s stated, but I do my best to follow the plan for “stop behaviors”. Two of the things that T and I were initially not fully committed to were the “don’t talk about the behavior” aspect and the “don’t force an apology” aspect. Prior to reading 1-2-3 Magic, we would always end time outs by having Tiny or Buba verbalize what they did wrong and then have them apologize for their misbehavior. However the book says, if you’ve already told the child “we don’t hit” once, there is no need to say it again and again after every time out for hitting. Unless the child doesn’t seem to understand why he/she was sent to time out, the time out is just over, without discussion, when the time is up. The book also says not to tell the child to apologize, and that this can lead to insincere apologies over time. Like I said, we were not initially on board with these two components, but within a week or so, we’d decided to give it a try. And I actually discovered that I liked these two aspects after all. Because it is easier and more fun to just move on without having to rehash the incident and then wait, wait, wait for the child to apologize in a tone of voice that sounds sincere enough to accept it.
But Tiny and Buba have not forgotten the old ways. Tonight, after Buba was put in timeout for hitting Tiny on the head (Automatic 3, take 5.), the following conversation took place between just the two of them…
Tiny: Say sorry to me.
Buba (in very sincere manner): Sorry.
Tiny: Sorry for what?
Buba: Sorry for pushing. (He had tried to push Tiny off my lap before he hit her on the head.)
Tiny: And what else?
Buba: And for like this (showing a push in the air while saying “like this”).
Tiny: And for hitting me too.
Buba: Sorry for hitting too.
Tiny: Okay. Remember, you need to make good choices and not make naughty ones.
Buba: Okay.
Perhaps this was just another situation in which Tiny was trying to be in charge like a grown up (one of her new favorite roles to play), but I was impressed by how calm they both remained and with how sincere Buba seemed to be in his apology to her.
celebrations Conversations Tiny & Buba: baking with toddlers Christmas cookies
by reanbean
2 comments
Christmas Cookies
Earlier this month, I mentioned that I wanted to try having Buba and Tiny help me with some holiday baking. We made our first attempt about a week ago, but I never mentioned it here, because, well, it didn’t very well at all. While they were good at dumping the pre-measured ingredients into the big mixing bowl and assisting me with the electric mixer, my visions of having them help any further were just disastrous.
But, on Thursday, I decided that we would try again with this very simple butter cookie recipe. Tiny and Buba helped a bit in preparing the dough, but the part they enjoyed the most was when the time came to smush the balls of dough with the bottom of a glass (we did not have a cookie stamp). Oh, and tasting time too. They probably enjoyed that part even more.
We decided to add a little Christmas touch to ours and made some with red and green sugar crystals mixed in with the plain white sugar.
While I planned to have some for us to enjoy as well, the bulk of these cookies were to go to our neighbors. This was not easy for Tiny to understand:
Tiny: Can I have sprinkle cookies?
Me: You can have one.
Tiny: I want to eat them all up.
Me: Well, they’re supposed to be for our friends.
Tiny (with a cheeky little grin): No, they’re supposed to be for me.
Still, both Buba and Tiny were extremely excited to each choose one cookie to leave by our tree for Santa. And I had no trouble making those cookies disappear before morning. Those things are tasty!
The Chicken Did Bite Me
If you ask Buba about his recent trip to a local farm in our town he will tell you this…
Buba: The chicken did bite me. But he did not mean to. I was feedin’ the lettuce. And the chicken did bit me. But he did not mean to.
It surprises me that this is the story he likes to tell most. I was particularly freaked out when one of the larger goats mistook his tasseled hat for some sort of goat food and I had to wrestle it out of his mouth. Fortunately, the hat was not ruined. It was, however covered in goat slobber.
We love to visit this farm and have had many, many positive experiences there. But next time, I suppose we’ll be a bit more careful when approaching the animals.
Tonight’s Pillow Talk
Buba and Tiny usually chat for a bit each night after T and I put them to bed. For the last few nights, they’ve gone right out, their bodies so run down by the virus they’ve been fighting. So it was such a treat tonight to get another sign that they’re finally feeling better…
Tiny: How’s your belly feelin’?
Buba: Good.
Tiny: Why were you crynin? (He had whined for a bit when our cat Pokey went in to check out their new cool mister.)
Buba: Cause Pokey was in there.
Tiny: Pokey or yucky? (Yucky is their word for vomit.)
Buba: Pokey.
Tiny: How’s your belly feelin’?
Buba: Good.
Tiny: You know who else is good? My friend kitty. Her name Pokey.
(No response from Buba.)
Tiny: Where’s your friend Daddy?
Buba: My Daddy’s in the kitchen. (And he was. T was doing the dishes.)
Tiny: Where’s your friend Mommy?
Buba: My Mommy’s upstairs. (Interesting, since we do not have an upstairs.)
Tiny: Where’s your friend tree frog? (They both have a tree frog in their rain forest crib soothers.)
Buba: I’m not talkin’ to you.
Tiny: Where’s your friend tree frog?
Buba: No. I’m not talkin’ anymore.
Tiny continued to talk and talk and sing to herself for another 10 minutes or so before drifting off to sleep. My fingers are crossed that it’s going to be a good night for sleeping.