Social Networking For Two Year Olds

October 5th, 2009

We do not know any other parents with kids Ace’s age. All of our friends either have 4-5 year olds or babies. No toddlers.

So, Ace has really been deprived of interacting with other children his age. Do they have a Facebook for toddlers? He is an only child (although we have been working hard to change that, just no luck yet), but does get to interact frequently with older kids…which is good…but not what he needs. We do not want him to grow up and be socially retarded. 😀

So, Momma found a “Mommy & Me” class for them to take, but there was only one other kid there besides Ace. So, she dug a little deeper and found a Gymboree class for him to attend. Tomorrow will be Ace’s third class.

It really is kinda fun…even I enjoy it! Miss Alissa, the teacher/activity leader is very good with kids. She sings and dances and is extremely animated which draws the toddlers’ attention away from their shoe-laces (or whatever may have caught their attention).

There are multiple group activities separated by “play time” where the kids can go down the slides, shoot some hoops on a two foot tall basketball rim, climb different obstacles, and interact with each other.

The first visit Ace was very shy (gets that from me) and the second visit he opened up a whole lot. He actually participated in the group activities, but not so much with the other kids.

However…so far Ace has successfully knocked down a girl, head butted the same girl, and climbed on top of a girl…the same girl (whoa whoa buddy!). Aren’t little boys mean to the girls they like? I’m going to have to watch these two… 😀

Overall it is a good time had for all, and I hope that Ace gets something valuable out of it. Momma has already made a friend with one of the other Moms there and they are planning a play date outside of Gymboree. Maybe Ace has made his first friend his own age? We’ll see… 😀

Posted in: Family, Fun Activities, Growing Up, Like Father Like Son |
Views: 3,865
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Say Uncle!

July 22nd, 2009

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Uncle. A simple word. Yet complex.

So what exactly is an uncle? Here are a few qualifying criteria of an uncle…

Your mother’s brother
Your father’s brother
Your mother’s sister’s husband
Your father’s sister’s husband
Don’t make me break out all of the step, half, in-law, common-law combinations…we’d be here all night.

The point is that while we as adults easily understand what an Uncle is, it seems that the whole Uncle concept is confusing for two year olds…or at leat my two year old.

Ace has three uncles…Uncle Brandon, Uncle Mike (or sometimes referred to as Uncle Munch), and Uncle Charlie.

We have some family friends, that while not officially an Uncle, are around enough to have earned the glorified Uncle status. These people would be…Uncle Jason, Uncle Soichi, Uncle Shawn, and Uncle Bryan (with a Y not an I, like Bee-Ryan).

With all of these Uncles, it’s hard to believe that Ace has no real aunts… (So if any of you single ladies out there are looking for a single Uncle…I got the hook up. C’mon now for Ace’s sake…the poor boy is in Aunt-icipation) 😀

So, why was I surprised…

Why was I surprised when he pointed at me said, “Uncle Daddy!”?

Tags: learning, talking, uncle
Posted in: Family, Funny Stuff, Growing Up, Learing To Talk |
Views: 5,580
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No More Being Behind Bars

July 19th, 2009

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A few weeks ago we bought Ace his very first “Big Boy Bed”.

Since then we have been trying to get used to being woken up by a two year old who has woken up, destroyed the whole entire upstairs, soiled his diaper, and then decides it’s time to tell Mom and Dad it’s time to get up.

He still doesn’t talk all that well, so he resorts to physical attempts at waking us up. Which would you prefer?

Having a toddler waller himself up into your bed and plop down on the blankets between you and your significant other successfully strangling the breath out of the both of you until you can wake up enough to figure out what the hell is going on and sit up…
Being woken up by a 30 lb toddler stepping on your nads first thing in the morning. (Now that is a wake up call.)
Being hit in the face by a toy truck as it gets thrown on your bed…because it’s play time didn’t you know? 😀
Having a 30 lb toddler sit on your face…dirty diaper and all.

There have been a few night where Ace has woken up in the middle of the night because he has fell out of bed, had a bad dream, or for whatever reason he is crying. We’ll give him a cup, put him in our bed and he’ll fall back a sleep for a few hours until the sun comes up.

Last night Ace came into our room at 3 AM wanting a drink. I got him a drink and put him in our bed. I fell back a sleep and when I woke up in the morning Ace was not in our bed.

Oh shit…I rolled Momma over to make sure she was not lying on him, then I imagined him falling down the stars last night, being abducted by aliens, packing a bag and heading to Vegas…where the hell was he?

I looked on the floor, in the hallway, in his play room, and finally found him curled up sound asleep with his blanket on his own bed.

I guess he is tool cool to sleep in Mom and Dad’s bed now since he is a “Big Boy”. What next, I gotta drop him off down the street from the park, so that the other kids do not see me?

Tags: bedtime, big boy bed, crib, sleep, waking up
Posted in: Family, Funny Stuff, Growing Up |
Views: 8,678
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On A Whim…

July 13th, 2009

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Ever just do something on a whim? Ever just get in the car and drive not knowing exactly where you will end up. Momma and I used to do that a lot. Just drive, grab a hotel for the night, maybe see some local attraction, and then drive home the next day. Kind of nice to get away from the normal grind ever now and then…

We haven’t done that since Ace was born though. It’s kinda hard to just hop in the car and go. You gotta have a diaper bag, diapers, sippy cups, car seats, teddy bears, blankets, toys, extra clothes, and I’m probably forgetting something…I usually do. 😀

So, we kinda improvised…we decided at the last minute that we were going somewhere, but we had to know where we were going. We can’t risk not being able to find a room, so we had to make a reservation. We packed all of the stuff that Ace needs…see paragraph #2 (and by the way the thing that I forgot in the list was baby wipes…luckily we did remember them in real life though 🙂 )

So we started planning about 8PM, left at 10PM, and got to the hotel at around Midnight. We got up in the morning, enjoyed the continental breakfast (Holiday Inn Express has the best breakfast…gotta get the cinnamon rolls), and then we headed to Indian Lake.

We made it to the beach, but it was a bit too cold to go swimming, so we just let Ace play in the shallow waves.

It felt good to step outside the lines of normal daily life again. It felt good to just go somewhere without thinking too much about how we were going to get there, what we were going to do, when we were going to leave, and how much it was going to cost.

No worries… Kinda like being two years old again. No wonder he is always in a good mood. 😀

Tags: beach, vacation
Posted in: Entertainment, Family, Fun Activities, Funny Stuff, Growing Up, Holidays |
Views: 5,842
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That Crazy Blue Elephant

June 13th, 2009

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Well, that crazy blue elephant has returned again this summer…reekin’ havoc upon Ace in his very own backyard.

That damned thing comes out every time it gets warm and teases him with a small shower of cool water, just big enough for a three foot tall person to run through and cool down on a hot summer day.

And then once he gets close enough to enjoy the small shower… WHASHOOSH! The elephant explodes with a massive flood of freezing cold water that pours down on him…sending him into shock and he runs for his life… 😀

He reaches safety just in time to see the monsoon turn once again into a small pleasant shower.

And then he does it again…and again…and again…

But after a while he starts to catch on…

…and he realize that there is a certain someone ( with a camera ) that is enjoying this a little too much. This certain someone turns a knob connected to the hose every time the monsoon rains down on him.

He is getting smarter…wiser…more experienced. It looks like that certain someone will have to step up their game in order to keep fooling this toddler. 😀

Tags: fun, Funny Stuff, Growing Up, sprinkler, summer
Posted in: Fun Activities, Funny Stuff, Growing Up, Pictures |
Views: 3,223
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