Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Toddlers: To Tame or to Trust - The Natural Child Project
Surviving the Toddler Years - The Natural Child Project
Happy 2nd Birthday!

Saturday was DS1's 2nd birthday. We got him a wagon (to share with DS2) a 3-CD set of Toddler games (Pooh, Mickey, Roly Poly Olie), and a puzzle of his name. We had cupcakes with dinner but he didn't quite "get" blowing out the candles. On Sunday we had a family dinner at Ryan's (a restaurant). Almost everyone was there. One SIL and 2 of her kids didn't make it, but my brother who works out of town waited until after the dinner / party to return. DS1 got several nice presents from his aunts, uncles, and cousins. He got money from Papa (my dad), and got an outfit and 2 books from Grandma & Grandpa (DH's parents). He also got 2 shirts from his daycare teacher.

Speaking of daycare. He will be moving up to the 2-3 year old room soon. They normally do it within a week of the child's 2nd birthday. However, the teacher is going to be changing rooms at the end the semester (mid-May), so DS1 and a couple of other kids in the other toddler room will wait and move together after the new summer teacher is selected. I am really glad about that, because I was concerned that DS1 would get moved to the new room, just start to get used to things, then have the teacher leave.

DS1 is doing so many things now. He is talking a lot, and other people can understand him a lot, too, not just Mom and Dad. :-) He is climbing stairs holding onto the railing or our hand (if the railing is too high). Sometimes he even steps directly to the next step (L-step R-next step) instead of both feet onto the same one (L-step R-same step L-next step). He is a whiz at puzzles, easily doing those with individual spots for the pieces and able to do "toddler / 2-4 yr" puzzles with 8-12 pieces. He can do puzzles where the shapes go along with parts of the picture, and he can do simple ones where the pieces are shaped like "normal" puzzle pieces.

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Au Pair in America - My niece is considering going to college where I work. Since she lives out of the county, she must either live in the dorms or with a relative. Even though I recommend the dorms, we have offered to let her live with us. This webpage has some Au Pair tips that might be relevant to us, even though she isn't going to be doing that much child care and isn't from another country.