How to Argue With a Pre-School-Aged Child (And Lose) #23

P= Parent
C= Child

C: Mama, do you have a penis?
P: No.
C: Why?
P: Because I'm a girl.
C: And papa's a boy?
P: Yeah, papa's a boy.
C: No he's not.
P: He's not?
C: No. He's a Dult!
P: I guess he is adult too.

How to Argue With a Pre-School-Aged Child (And Lose) #22

P=Parent
C=Child

P: (singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in its entirty, ending with "You'll go down in his-to-ryyy!"
C: I don't want to go down in history.
P: Why not?
C: Because. The history books will eat me.
P: Why would the book eat you?
C: I don't know.
P: I don't think a book will eat you.
C: The reindeer will eat me!
P: Nooooo.... reindeers eat carrots!
C: Why?
P: I don't know, I think because they ate carrots in the cartoon?
C: Reindeers eat carrots!
P: Yeah!
C: Bunnies eat carrots too!
P: That's right!
C: Why?
P: Because, carrots are yummy. Are you cool with going down in history now?
C: No.
P: That's too bad. But it's really out of your control.
C: Why is it out of my control?
P: Because it's up to the people of the future what they write in the history books.
C: I don't like history books.

Book Review: I am Blop!

I picked up this book at the Iowa City Library, because I recognized the author as being the one who wrote Press Here, a book my infant  loved so much that we had to buy a new copy when he became a toddler!
Since we've had it on loan from the library, my son wants to read it almost every night. And some nights, he's just content looking at it all by himself.
We've also been able to get him to eat foods by calling them "blops". Like, yogurt blop with pear sauce blop on top!
And we talk with him about when blop fell, blop went plop and other silly things that 3 year-olds love to talk about.
In conclusion, If you have a toddler or pre-school-aged child, bop to the store to buy the Blop book!

The Amazing Imaginative Mind of a Creative Child #7

I bought several tins to use as gift boxes for holiday gifts.  Every one of them ended up with a car or train inside.

How to Argue With a Pre-School-Aged Child (And Lose) #21

(We transitioned from "toddler" to "pre-school-aged" at approximately 3.3 years, but kept the numbering sequence for the title)

P=Parent
C=Child

P: Hey, the humidifier is running! Wanna see?
C: Where's the fire?
P: There is no fire, it's a humidi-fier.
C: Is it hot?
P: No, it's not hot. It's just water vapor.
C: (blows the vapor) It should be hot if it's fire. So. Be careful!

The Amazing Imaginative Mind of a Creative Child #6

Hmmm.... I guess the bus was transporting the cars up to the (blanket-covered) piano, where they obediently departed in a very tight single-file line.

The Amazing Imaginative Mind of a Creative Child #5

Every couch cushion placed next to the front door to make a safe airplane landing.

The Amazing Imaginative Mind of a Creative Child #4

While unpacking groceries, my 3 year-old built a tower that he was quite proud of.

The Amazing Imaginative Mind of a Creative Child #3

2 1/2 year old "helping" load the dishwasher.

How to argue with a toddler ( and lose ) #20

P= Parent
T= Toddler

(Toddler eating a whole apple, looking at the bite marks)
T: Are these my teeth?
P: Yes, the marks in the apple came from your teeth. Those are teethmarks.
T: Like bookmarks?
P: No, not like bookmarks.
T: Ow, my apple is stuck in my brain!
P: Did you get a brain freeze from the cold apple?
T: No, it's stuck!

Learning how to teach Spanish, part 1

Prelude:
From age 4 months to 18 months my son's daycare provider was Spanish-speaking. We thought this early introduction to hearing two languages would be a huge benefit to his ability to become bilingual. In addition, it re-sparked our (his parent's) interest in enhancing our high school/college knowledge of Spanish.

My First Spanish Word Book

I originally bought this book because I wanted my son to learn Spanish along with English, at the youngest age possible. But it has turned out to also be a great book to learn English. At age 1-2, he pointed to the pictures and said what they are, or asked what they are. I tried to tell him both the English word and the Spanish word, but at the same time I didn't want to confuse him, so sometimes we'd just say the English word. If it's something he really knew well (milk, dog, cat) we'd say both.

It also helps me to learn the vocabulary. I take continuing education Spanish classes at the community college so that I can use it and teach him all the Spanish I know.

The Beginning of the Lessons
The Spanish classes, which meet once a week continuously, take the winter off each year. This year the break is from November to March, so I decided to take that night each week to work on Spanish lessons with my 3 year old. Not being a teacher, or sure what to do, I decided to mix it up each week and see what works and what doesn't.

Week 1: Videos.
We tried a CD/book combo: Speak Spanish with Dora & Diego. He listened to about half of the 1st CD before getting bored, it was a bit too slow paced. And I thought the vocabulary was a bit useless. I don't see him using the words "dairy stand", "stable", and "henhouse" very often in English, let alone Spanish. This is by Pimsleur, but maybe would work better on older kids who already know some Spanish.
Then we watched a video "Kids Love Spanish". This was super cheesy with a lot of repetition, but he was actually watching it and repeating the words! Success!

Week 2: Cooking.
It was Spanish lesson night but I had so many bananas in the freezer they were falling out every time we opened the door. So I decided we could cook banana bread (3 loaves) and learn the ingredients in Spanish while we cooked. The vocabulary included:
Platanos (bananas)
Yogur (yogurt)
Salsa de peras (pear sauce)
Huevos (eggs)
Azucar (sugar)
Harina (flour)
Sal (salt)
Mantequilla (butter)
Pan (bread)
jengibre (ginger)
chocolate (pronounced choc-oh-LAH-tay)
Manzana (because he ate an apple while making the Pan de Platanos)
I can't really say how well it worked, I just had him repeat each word as we added it, and then we went over all the ingredients in Spanish a couple of times. I realized as we were doing this that a lot of the words had more syllables in Spanish than they do in English, which can be hard for a toddler to remember. So while buttering the pans, we sang a Mantequilla song in which we just repeated "mantequilla" a bunch. He seemed to like that. Songs are great. And whether he retained any Spanish from this lesson or not, we ended up with tres panes de platanos!

Week 3: Muchas Cosas
It was such a busy night. Trip to the grocery store, visiting the neighbors (he did successfully count to 12 in Spanish for the neighbor!) Then getting dinner ready and a bath! He just wanted to play. I tried to compromise by getting in his little "tent" with him with My First Spanish Book but he wasn't into it. So while he ate dinner we worked on word repetition. Leche, queso, huevos, agua, pan, perro, cola. Which lead to an extensive conversation (with a lot of English) about how you can make the perro wag his cola just by saying his name! But the cola wags slow. But when someone comes to the door that cola wags muy rapido!

I think the lesson I've learned in this, so far, is to take it slow, one word at a time. And to try to make it fun!

How to argue with a toddler ( and lose ) #19

T: It's too spicy! I don't like spicy.
P: Someday you'll like spicy.
T: When? In ten days?
P: Sure. You'll like spicy food in ten days.
T: I don't like spicy. Has it been ten days?
P: Not yet.
T: I still don't like spicy.

How to argue with a toddler (and lose) #18

P= Parent
T= Toddler

T: It's windy!
P: It is!
T: I can drink the wind.
P: You can't drink the wind.
T: Yes, I can! Look. (slurps loudly) That's drinking the wind!
P: It is?
T: Yeah, but you have to do it slowly.
P: You need to sip it?
T: Yeah, you sip the wind. You can't gulp it. And it can't be too cold or it doesn't work.

How to argue with a toddler (and lose) #17

P= Parent
T= Toddler

T: why are you pulling my sleeves up?
P: so you don't get them sticky.
T: am i gonna get sticks all over them?
P: no... it doesn't mean...
T: I'm not gonna get sticks because my sleeves are up.

How to argue with a toddler (and lose) #16

P= Parent
T= Toddler

T: I want to make juice.
P: What kind of juice?
T: Um... strawberry juice!
P: We don't have that.
T: Peach juice?
P: We don't have that either.
T: I want lumpa juice!
P: I don't know what lumpa juice is.
T: Make lumpa juice!

How to argue with a toddler (and lose) #15

B= Babysitter
T= Toddler

T: Mama and papa let me have chocolate milk in bed.
B: After you brush your teeth?
T: Yes! I ALWAYS get chocolate milk after I brush my teeth. In bed.
B: I don't think so.
T: I do!

How to argue with a toddler (and lose) #14

P=Parent
T=Toddler

P: Don't put that in your mouth!
T: I'm not putting it in my mouth! I'm cleaning it with my tongue!

How to argue with a toddler (and lose) #13

P= Parent
T= Toddler

P: Do NOT throw that in the house!
T: I wasn't throwing it.
P: Yes you were.
T: I'm making it fly. That's not throwing it.

How To Clean With a Three Year Old

I had a breakthrough today. We were finally home for a whole Saturday and we decided to do some "fall cleaning" (since we missed spring cleaning this year). So my husband and I were frantically trying to clean everything and everywhere in the kitchen and living room while our 3 year old was obviously in need of attention. He didn't want to play games by himself. He didn't want to look at books by himself. He was getting pretty grumpy when a light bulb went off in my head: We want to clean. He just wants to do stuff with US! Why not have him help?

We looked around and found an old spray bottle that had only been used for water. I filled it up with some fresh water and told him it was his "cleaning spray". Then I got my own bottle of (real) cleaning spray. We each got a rag. And we went to work on the kitchen island. I couldn't believe how much he was into it! He sprayed the shit out of that thing with his "cleaning spray"! And he wiped everywhere. I realized there were some nooks and crannies that the rags would not get to, and I hesitated, but then decided to go for it- we pulled the CLEANING toothbrushes out from under the sink and used them to clean the nooks and crannies. We each got our own CLEANING toothbrush, and while we did this I talked to him about the important difference between the CLEANING toothbrushes and the TEETH toothbrushes.

I might not have risked this except for the fact that he had already discovered the under-the-kitchen-sink toothbrushes a few weeks ago, when my husband came out of the bathroom holding two toothbrushes and asking me why I had so many in the toothbrush holder. I had no idea what he was talking about and after a few questions to the kid, we discovered that he had opened the under-the-sink cabinet and saw two toothbrushes, so took them immediately to the bathroom sink and plopped them into the toothbrush holder! How could you possibly get mad about a thing like that?

Anyway, I'm pleased to announce that I now have a new cleaning buddy and hopefully we will be able to make family clean-up days a bit less stressful with the whole family involved. Until he's old enough to realize that Hey! Cleaning sucks.

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #12

P=Parent
T=Toddler

T: You are a gawp!
P: I'm not a gawp.
T: Yes you are!
P: If I am then you are too. You're at least half gawp.
T: We're two gawps in a car!

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #11

P=Parent
T=Toddler

P: Everybody poops.

T: No.

P: You poop, the cat poops, the dog poops, even the fish poops.

T: The fish doesn't poop.
P: He does!

T: No...

P: Even worms poop.
T: Worms poop? (thinks about it) Do balls poop?

P: No. Because they aren't living.

T: Why?
P: They're called inanimate objects.

T: Balls do poop!

P: No, they don't.

T: They do! I saw one poop on the window!

(a few moments later)

T: I poop and the dog poops and the cat poops. But the balls don't poop.

P: Right, the balls don't poop.
T: No. Because balls don't have butts.

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #10

P=Parent

T=Toddler

 

P: Are you hungry?

T: I'm a lot hungry.

P: What do you want for breakfast?

T: Um. I want cheerios and granola bar and socks.

P: You can't eat socks for breakfast!
T: Yes I can!

P: How are you gonna eat socks?

(Picks up foot, puts in mouth and says nomnomnom!)

(Doesn't like that, so takes sock off foot and sticks in mouth)

(Doesn't like that)

T: I don't like socks.

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #9

P=Parent
T=Toddler

P: You need to sit down and eat your breakfast.
T: I can't.
P: Why not?
T: Because I'm a cat.
P: Cats can sit down and eat breakfast.
T: No. They eat like this (licks bowl and then attacks my arm).

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #8

P=Parent
T=Toddler

Setting: In an airplane, toddler sitting on his car seat in the airplane.

P= You're on an airplane!
T= Yeah! (Looks around at his seat)
P= And you're sitting in your car seat!
T= No.
P= Yes you are.
T= It's my AIRPLANE seat!
P= It's your car seat.
T= It's not in a car. It's in a airplane!
P= You're right.
T= It's my AIRPLANE seat!

Book Review: It's Time to Say Good Night

I got this book at the library. It's simple but poetic, and you can read it once, and then twice, and then three times (which my son requests), each time getting faster which makes it fun.
It's great for little boys too, because the boy in the book says good morning to the farm animals and the "things that go" like planes, buses, cars, trucks. He says good morning to so many things that when he's done it's time to say good night to all those things. And then on the last page, most of those things are things inside his bedroom- hanging from the ceiling, toys, on his bedspread, and out his window.

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #7

P=Parent
T=Toddler

T= What we're having for dinner tonight?
P= Did you really ask what we're having for dinner?!
T= Yeah!
P= I don't know. What do you want for dinner?
T= Um. Cheese and Breakfast!
P= You want cheese and breakfast for dinner?
T= Yeah! I do want cheese and breakfast.
P= I don't think we can eat breakfast for dinner!
T= I can.
P= How about chicken for dinner?
T= Cheese and breakfast for dinner!
P= How about chicken and cheese and breakfast?
T= Cheese and breakfast.
P= How about cheese and breakfast and chicken?
T= In it!
P= In it?
T= Yeah, in it!
P= Cheese and breakfast in the chicken?
T= Yeah!
P= Okay. 

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #6

P=Parent
T=Toddler

T: Why is that thing [something in the front seat of the car] backawards?
P: What thing?
T: That thing (pointing)!
P: That's not backwards, it's just a little crooked.
T: It's sideways?
P: Yeah.
T: Why is it sideways?
P: I don't know how it got that way.
T: 'Cause mama drives FAST!
P: Oh yeah?
T: Yeah, it got like that 'cause mama drives FAST!

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #5

P=Parent
T=Toddler

T: This chocolate milk is STINKY!
P: Why is it stinky?
T: 'Cause it's stinky.
P: It shouldn't be. It's just chocolate milk.
T: It has chocolate pits.
P: No, it doesn't.
T: It does! It has chocolate pits. Chocolate pits are stinky! EEEEEWWWWW!

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #4

P=Parent
T=Toddler

(First thing in the morning)
T: I had bubbles in my bath last night.
P: No you didn't.
T: Yes I did have a bubble bath!
P: You didn't have a bath last night.
T: I did!
P: Was it a dream?
T: Yes it was a dream.
P: Oh, so you dreamed you had a bubble bath?
T: Yeah.

Book Review: Books by PatrickGeorge

From the library I have checked out I Hear and Opposites by PatrickGeorge (yes, one word). Both are very cool in a similar design- between each page is a transparent page with something on it that changes the picture when you flip it over the page on the left or the page on the right. It's fun to see how a flame (hot) can turn into a drop of water (cold), and my son enjoys flipping them back and forth. These books are definitely unique and worth checking out!

Book Review: Keith Baker Books

I discovered LMNO Peas on the new shelf at the library and I thought it was really cute, and my son loved it! We then checked out 123 Peas, the counting version instead of the alphabet version. Both are great, but I think LMNO Peas is the more creative of the two. The little peas take on every profession you can think of with each letter of the alphabet, and the illustrations are fun. Oh, my son loved them too. Especially the cars in LMNO Peas.
I prefer the large, hardcover book for a toddler, although I bought two of the board book versions for a couple of friends having babies this year.
At the library today we picked up the book Potato Joe, which is another cute book for counting, and learning about gardening! My son laughed at it and wanted me to read it again and again.
In conclusion, Keith Baker's books are fantastic.

The Amazing Imaginative Mind of a Creative Child #2

Through the eyes of a two year old boy, train tracks are everywhere- you just have to find them! This one is in between the glass and screen sliding doors.

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #3

P=Parent
T=Toddler

T: (sitting in a booster chair, holding the unbuckled straps) Are these car seat belts?
P: No, they're booster seat belts.
T: They're CAR seat belts.
P: No, they aren't in a car.
T: (Holds up a strap with the left hand and another strap with the right hand) Right hand's strap: Hi. I'm a car seat belt! Left hand's strap: I'm a car seat belt! Right hand's strap: I'm not in a car today. I'm in a booster seat. Left hand's strap: Me too!
P: How can I possibly argue with a toddler and inanimate objects?!?!!

The Amazing Imaginative Mind of a Creative Child #1

Violet Rio hides among a field of potatoes on an adventure.

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #2

P=Parent
T=Toddler

P: You can't go outside with socks and no coat! (30 degree weather)
T: I'm a super hero!
P: Super Heroes have to wear coats.
T: No they don't!
P: Yes, they do!
T: No! No! I'm a super hero!

How To Argue With a Toddler (And Lose) #1

P=Parent
T=Toddler

T: You see the Cally? (Not sure what he means or is saying)
P: No.
T: Yes you do see it!
P: No, I can't see it. Whatever it is.
T: Yes you can!
P: Okay.

Book Review: Pete the Cat books by James Dean

What can I say, the kids these days are obsessed with Pete the Cat. Probably because he's so cool! My toddler son got Pete the Cat's "Wheels on the Bus" book for the holidays. I had never heard of him at that time, but the two months following has completely changed that! We checked out "The Cool, Blue, Magic Sunglasses" from the library, and my son loved it too! We were at the Children's Museum and while going in between the airplane room and train room and ambulance, my little boy saw a Pete the Cat book on a book shelf and wanted to sit down and read it! It was about his white shoes turning different colors. We also got online and watched a bunch of Pete the Cat videos, which were basically like watching someone read the book, with a little bit of moving animation and zooming in. Then we went to the library and heard someone at the children's desk asking where the Pete the Cat books were. She was told they only had a Christmas one in right now, the rest were checked out. I told her I just returned one, but it's probably not on the Recently Returned shelf yet. Pete is Popular!! Also, our cat Marlo is now called "Pete the Cat" sometimes by the boy. Probably because Marlo is a pretty cool cat, too. 

Book Review: Matthew's Truck

Matthew's Truck is a book I just happened to pick up at the Iowa City Public Library. My 2 1/2 year old son liked it. A lot. We would have to read it 3 times before we could move on to another book. The good thing is, this is a short and easy book to read, so reading it 3 times in a row isn't such a bad deal. The artwork is entertaining too- he likes to watch Matthew's truck splash in the fish tank and he likes to watch the kitty "hiding" on every page. At the end, the other trucks go into the garage while Matthew's truck gets to sleep next to Matthew's pillow. The "other trucks" are just trucks on Matthew's comforter, but my son really likes the part where they all go into the garage.
I went on Amazon and bought it instantly for one cent (plus shipping).