Prolific Toddler Artist

 Leo is at this wonderful age where making art will keep him still, quiet and happy for an hour or more a day.  During the first trimester coloring was a life-saver - and now that I'm feeling much better we've branched out to more types of arts and crafts (painting, playdough, washable markers, even glitter glue!).

Right now he is LOVING the painting.  I got the watercolors in little squirt bottles from Ikea along with some brushes and a smock and the kid has been painting on any piece of paper or cardboard he can get his hands on for two weeks.  Best $10 I've ever spent.

He is so proud of his work, loves when I put it on the fridge door, and often tells me that he's making a particular picture for a family member or friend.

The thing is, he is also very prolific.  He will pump out pages and pages on any given day.  I don't want to be heartless and throw out his brilliant creative pieces - but man - that's a lot of art.  Right now we are rotating the most recent ones in and weeding out some of the older ones.  I think we will scan or photograph some of the most remarkable ones and keep a select few originals in a memory box.

More, More, More

Wanna read more from West Philly Mama?  I've got some guest post action happening around the web:

1.  I'm doing another 8-week series over at Cafe Mom: These are so much fun to write!  I'm writing about life balance - which I don't always feel totally qualified to do.  New posts go live on Mondays - I hope you will check them out.

2.  I wrote a piece on Marriage Equality on Baby Center: So awesome to have the opportunity to talk LGBT issues on a mainstream parenting site - still, the wide range of opinion in the comments reminded me how lucky I am to live in a progressive and urban area.

And of course, I will still be posting here, so stay tuned.

Big Boy Bed

We've got several circumstances in our home that have nudged us to shift our usual sleeping situation.  Usually, jb, Leo and I all sleep together in our king-size bed.  For both naps and bedtime I would lay with him and nurse him to sleep, then either I would sneak away until I was ready for bed - or these days, more often I would sleep with him.

This was working out great for us for the last 22 months - but a few factors had us reassessing this system lately.

1.  There is a baby coming in June.  This is inevitably going to change everything up - and since this new addition will most likely affect my availability for bedtime AND the dynamic of our family bed, we don't want Leo to associate any jarring changes with the arrival of bug.

When He Grows Up...

At our most recent visit to the Please Touch Museum, Leo spent nearly an hour giving this baby doll a very thorough check-up.

I was grateful for the break and sat down on the exam table beside him (I'm getting pretty darn pregnant these days).  I asked him about what he was doing; "Checking baby's ears," he explained.


"Oh, are you the doctor?" I asked him.

"No, Midwife!" he answered without skipping a beat.

I Don't Know

I've often been warned of the "why? why? why?" phase of childhood - but we are currently going through something similar in our house and it's starting to drive me a little nuts.  Leo recently learned the phrase "I don't know" - which is great.  When we ask him a question that he doesn't know the answer to he doesn't just freeze like a deer in headlights - so it's certainly a handy tool.  I do feel like he's starting to overuse it (in a lazy, doesn't want to think about the answer sort of way), but if I prod him to guess he will - so that's not the problem.

The problem is that it's also his new way of saying "What is this?" - so anytime he doesn't know what something is (which is often when you are fairly new to the planet) he points to it and says "I don't know" - and will repeat it again and again until someone tells him what the mystery object is.  Today he completely emptied our spice cabinet, bringing each bottle to me as I was washing dishes.  We have A LOT of spices.

Leo running up to me holding up a bottle: "I don't know"
Me: "Paprika"
He runs back to the cabinet and back to me with a new bottle: "I don't know"
Me: "Ginger"
Again: "I don't know"
Me: "Cumin"
(insert about 600 more rounds)
Again: "I don't know"
I try to ignore him.
Leo more and more insistently trying to get it closer to my face: "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know"
Me: "Coriander"
Again: "I don't know"
Me: "I don't know either, kid"
Leo thinks this over for a moment.  Then points to the label: "Read it."
Me, defeated: "Tarragon"

Tiny Diapers

Two of Leo's current diapers and two of the diapers we have ready for bug. That is all.

Politics at the Dinner Table

Family Hug

For the last couple weeks we've been hosting jb's brothers (the ones that live here in Philly) for Sunday night dinner.  We all cook, eat, and talk together and Leo is happy, happy, happy having so much family in our home.  It's been especially nice, because even though Leo and I see the boys fairly regularly, jb is usually at work, and rarely are we all in the same place at the same time.

As we cook we talk about our week, Leo - and inevitably, politics.  It's nice because we are all generally in the same camp - but with enough different viewpoints to keep the conversation interesting.  It can get pretty lively, but never disrespectful.  I really like that Leo is listening in on conversations like this - because they are hard to find.  Most of my friends have similar politics as me - and we talk politics, but we rarely disagree, so our discussions don't usually have a devil's advocate perspective.

On the other hand I have some friends and family with drastically different political views (and some that aren't very engaged/knowledgeable when it comes to politics).  In those cases I tend to avoid political talk because, well, it just isn't enjoyable.  It can be downright hurtful.  Politics is very personal to me (I imagine it is for most people, and particularly those that are facing votes/referendums/legislation on their families) - and I find it hard to hear people I otherwise care for espouse viewpoints that I find hateful and that directly attack my family.  And I'm not only talking about LGBT issues.  Still, I do think that there are certain relationships that are worth preserving despite what might otherwise be insurmountable distances.  These relationships are important to me for a variety of reasons, and I am able to love these people - although it feels like love at arm's length.  Does that make sense?

I was talking about this with jb and I was proclaiming with confidence that while I don't think politics should be a deal breaker for having someone in your life in any capacity, I could *NEVER* be married/partnered with someone that held mostly right wing views.  jb quietly listened as I (perhaps somewhat self-righteously) went on and on about how it was so far beyond my comprehension how some people were profoundly intimate with people that they disagreed with on such important moral issues.  Until finally, I prompted jb with, "Right? Can you imagine?"

"That's what I used to think about religion," jb answered.  (jb was raised devoutly Ukrainian Orthodox.)  Well, that certainly stopped me in my tracks and made me think again.  Of course we have been able to find mutual ethical values and life philosophies even if we don't share a major and important framework for those values.

I guess you should never say never.  Which is one more reason I think it's important for Leo to grow up around open and respectful discussions with differing viewpoints.  So I'm hoping these Sunday night dinners become a standing tradition - where we push each other to see an alternate side of the issue, eat delicious food, and end with an awesome family hug.

Adventure House

"We'll get there fast and then we'll take it slooooow, that's where we wanna gooooo, up to the Poconos..."

Adventure House

Last week we got a call from our cousin saying that her family couldn't use their timeshare in the Poconos and offering it to us for the week.  So nice!  Unfortunately, we couldn't swing the entire week because of other commitments - but we could free up a few days, so we packed up and headed to the mountains for three days.  We didn't know anything about the place and what we would do while there - AND jb still had to work, so we weren't sure how exactly this little vacation would go.  We didn't want to oversell it to Leo, so we just told him that we were going on an adventure.  

After saying things like, "We need to pack for our adventure" and "We are making these muffins to take on our adventure" - eventually everything took on the adventure moniker.  He called the condo our "adventure house", the muffins were "adventure muffins" and even the naps were "adventure naps".

Bug 21 Wks: Anatomy Scan

We had Bug's big ultrasound this week.  Everything is looking good - healthy as far as the ultrasound can tell. We are very happy and Leo loved getting a peek inside my belly.  (Side Note: We first made our appointment at another hospital but ended up cancelling it because they didn't allow children under seven to attend.  Beyond the fact that Leo was really looking forward to seeing the baby, we would have had to find childcare - so we found another place to go.)

Here are some snapshots of the visit:

Bug's good side

Wide Angle

Waving hello to us

Leo was fairly well behaved - but did get impatient as the appointment passed the 30 minute mark (after a long waiting room wait).  The long appointment resulted in his first "No more baby!" - and was our first opportunity to try to explain that we all have to be patient and do things we don't want to sometimes in order to work together as a family.  I'm not sure he really got the message - but I'm sure we will be repeating it plenty of times over the next few (dozen) years.  

Cravable

Lately I've had two major cravings.

1.  Salad with blue cheese dressing and bacon.
2.  Frozen strawberry margarita (which has been modified to a strawberry-lime smoothie)

These cravings are pretty intense and I've been having them about once a day.  I have gone through costco-sized bags of frozen strawberries, limes, and various veggies.  I suppose there are worse things to crave (like during my last pregnancy when I was all brownie-fudge sundaes all the time), but these cravings haven't edged out my natural drive for sweets and carbs - so it's not like I'm living on lettuce.  My usual hankering for chocolate milk and other such delicious things is still going strong; Pregnancy cannot change your basic chemical make-up, after all.

It's nice to crave fresh ingredients - even if it does require a lot of squeezing, blending and chopping. It is kind of strange to crave cold foods in February - but luckily the weather has been so mild that it doesn't feel too weird.  Also, bug goes NUTS for the strawberry-lime smoothie.  Just a couple sips and s/he is doing backflips in there.

*Disclaimer about the blue cheese - it is pasteurized, so no worries on that front.  Besides, the risks associated with eating soft cheese is significantly lower than getting into a car accident, and I haven't given up riding in a car, either.  I've even been known to eat sushi on occasion while pregnant - dun, Dun, DUN!