Monday Minute: More Pinteresting

If you read my post yesterday, you know I'm having a hard time keeping Drew entertained at the end of the day. I'm wiped, but he's ready to play. So we've still been doing some Pinterest projects in the afternoons/evening so he can be stimulated and I can rest.

(I will admit some of these were still summer vacation, others have been the last week or so... I don't remember which were which).

First, I saw this idea on Pinterest and KNEW Drew would love it! The idea suggested using bent PVC pipes and proping them on one end of a couch, then placing a basket at the other end. Then give your child a basket of golf balls and let them have fun! I just happened to have a large cardboard tube on hand (it actually held the fabric used to make Drew's curtains... which now seems like ages ago). I cut it in half, and voila- balls and slides that kept him entertained for quite a while!



Of course, two slides are better than one!



And I just had to share our animals' reactions...



We had some fun painting with different textures. Drew would paint 24/7 if allowed, so this was definitely a big hit. I gave him an English muffin (the site had suggested a waffle but I didn't have a waffle... and in the future I will toast the English muffin), a branch of leaves from a bush, a sheet of foam stickers left behind from scrapbooking "pop dots", a balloon, a piece of sponge, a nail scrub brush, a pipe cleaner, and a "dingle ball" (the cats don't use them anyway).

An unexpected heart!

Finished product

Another fun activity was a "problem solving" kind of activity- I filled some balloons with water, then we went outside with a plastic knife and I let him see if he could pop the balloons. They were actually quite tricky to pop (real water balloons may have been better, but I had a bunch of regular balloons left over from Stacey's shower), and Drew gave up pretty quickly and only wanted me to do it. Still, I guided him a bit (and stepped on the balloons to make them more vulnerable), and he had a blast when they splashed (then quickly picked up all the pieces of the broken balloon, I swear I don't know where this OCD comes from!).

Last, but not least, we did some salt painting. Drew got to decorate black paper with glue, then cover it with salt, then he painted the salt with diluted food coloring- the color spreads along the lines of glue/salt. It was actually quite fascinating to me, but Drew only cared about the fact that he was painting, so I eventually just let him "water paint" on a white piece of paper.

Regression

I've read that it's fairly common for children to regress on newly learned skills when a significant disruption happens- a move, a new baby, loss of a family member...

Is starting school a significant disruption?

The last week or so Drew has been a mess. He's been super cranky and clingy (like separation anxiety kind of clingy, which was a phase we hardly went through when he was supposed to go through it). Today at church his eyes welled up with tears because he and Jason walked a few feet away from me. At the grocery store Drew started to wail because Jason went back to get something from another aisle. On top of it all he's been having a horrible time with the potty training. Every day I've picked him up from school he's been in his spare pair of shorts (meaning he had an accident). For over a month he had woken up every single morning with a dry Pull-Up, but it's been soaking wet every morning this past week. Even nap time he's been wetting himself which was the one place we had NEVER had an accident once we made the transition out of Pull-Ups. Heck, he even woke up in the middle of the night a few nights ago, something that hasn't happened in months, at least since he was in a crib. He was screaming and crying, but went back to sleep easily once I went into his room- no sign of a cold, fever, stomach ache, or anything.

At first, it didn't even occur to me that the back-to-school thing could be part of it. I kept wondering why he seemed so "off" and wondered if it was a growth spurt (even though I swear he's spurted enough already this summer- both physically and with language), or even the last 2 year molar coming in. Then I started wondering if he was getting sick. Then it finally hit me that he's been home all summer. I've been home all summer. And even though I thought he'd want to get rid of me by now (preggo Mommy isn't always nice Mommy), maybe it has affected him more than I thought (as a friend of mine put it "isn't it weird? They still love us when we're mean!"). He loved school last year, so I didn't even think twice about him going back. Especially since we know, and love, his two teachers this year.

I still am wondering if he is getting sick, or if there really is something else going on, but if it is just an adjustment phase, how long should it last? And how do we best cope with it? Jason's off work tomorrow and had planned to keep Drew home with him (he tries to take advantage of whatever time he can get with Drew), but we're debating if staying home will make it worse, or, on the other hand, if getting a little extra love and attention at home will be better. I've been trying to give him some extra love and attention myself when I get home from work, but I have to admit it's been hard- work's been crazy so I am absolutely beat when I get home. It takes everything in me not to doze on the couch while he plays.

Right now he is napping, a whole hour earlier than usual. We came home from church and he just went into complete meltdown mode. He refused ALL of his favorite things for lunch (cheese, crackers, grape tomatoes, even grapes themselves!). All we wanted was to get some food into him assuming it would help, but he screamed and screamed and Jason and I finally looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to take him upstairs for a nap. Sure enough once we got him up the stairs he screamed "I need a nap!" (one of the first times he's used "I" instead of "Drew", actually). Sigh... my poor baby. I wish I knew what to do to help...

Monday Minute: Bouncy

For his birthday Drew received a trampoline from his Nonny and Poppy (Jason's dad and step-mother). They have a very large one at their house that Drew loves so they decided he needed one of his own. This one is a perfect size for him (and our tiny backyard). I think Drew and Floodlet will enjoy many hours of fun on the trampoline (while I enjoy some time to put my feet up, read a book, and get some Vitamin D).



And just because it's funny, here's Drew with some of his OCD tendencies...



Yes, I have my own OCD quirks, but I think most anyone would agree that cleanliness is not exactly one of them (over organized order, yes, but the need to keep things spotless, no). Not exactly sure where he learned it from, but I'm okay with it! :)

P.S. Thank you Nonny and Poppy!

Monday Minute: Itsy Bitsy

This one is really just a minute in the life of Drew. He was drawing on a paper and mumbling to himself about what he was drawing (he was saying things like "monkey" "dinosaur" "A" "Mommy" but here he seems to really just be mumbling gibberish... at least as far as I can tell). I got the camera out just for fun to see what I would capture. Sure enough he started singing Itsy Bitsy Spider (and apparently Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at the end). I've wanted to catch that on video for a long time, but figured I probably wouldn't ever be able to catch it (kids and video cameras... Murphey's Law every time!). So glad I got the camera out! Enjoy!