Claire is out of school for two weeks for winter break, and Molly’s school closes early, at 4:30 instead of 6:00, around the holidays. So have been getting back home with the girls before 5:00, over an hour before a normal week day. This extra hour makes a huge difference! We cook together, play, or just hang out. The normal weekday involves nothing but rushing to get dinner on the table and then get right to bed.
Molly and Claire are really enjoying the extra time. They have so much fun just goofing off with each other. I caught a little video clip of one of their games, a kind and gentle dragging game. Originally Claire and Molly wanted to drag Molly by her neck, but they took my advice and adjusted to the torsop-based approach as shown here.
After enjoying the crazy holiday light show at Mozart’s, the girls were feeling a little frisky walking back to the car. They are not usually out walking around when it is completely dark outside. Somehow they stated doing a crazy robot dance in the light of Kit’s phone, and this is what we ended up with.
Molly woke up up vomiting the other night. She vomited all over herself, her blankets, her mom, me, and her stuffed animals. Molly had caught a stomach bug going around that would eventually get 14 of the 16 kids in her class, and 2 of the 3 teachers. Molly would spend a couple of days at home recovering, and it was her first time to use the “sick bed”, an inflatable bed that we get out when people are vomiting and cannot be trusted to keep their real beds vomit-free. Claire had used this several times before, but this was Molly’s first shot. As bad as she felt, Molly was thrilled with the sick bed and all the attention and fussing over her. Claire, too, was pretty excited to be up in the middle of the night helping out. For the next few days, Claire and Molly would tell anyone who would listen about the night of vomiting, and Molly in particular would have a big grin on her face when telling the tale. Claire would say, “Oh, Molly’s just bragging.”
We did not take any pictures of the action on the night of vomiting, but we did get this sweet moment the net day when Claire took it upon herself to entertain Molly with a book in her sick bed.
Up to this point, Molly has not cared about or even really noticed the TV, that big black rectangle on the wall that sometimes puts off random pictures and sounds. Even when the TV is showing her beloved Elmo, Molly has been fairly hostile about TV.
Now, not watching TV is a good thing. But like all good things, it should be taken in moderation. Yes, Molly needs to be more moderate about not watching TV. I mean, if she completely boycotts the TV, then we have no simple and easy way to distract her from her frequent rampages around the house, harming herself or the furniture, or just making a mess. In fact, all of this happens almost daily. Now, if Molly could just watch some TV — just a little — then we could all get a little break now and then.
Molly and Claire relax together while watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”
We finally had a break through on this front. The trick is not Elmo or Dora, but the good ol’ Peanuts. Charlie Brow and the gang finally hooked Molly. We don’t know why. But when we broke out the classic It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown for Claire for Halloween, Molly started actually watching. She actually just sits there with Claire and watches for a little while, maybe 15-20 minutes. It is a sensation. This is literally the first time Molly has really watched TV.
Now, of course one day, maybe not too far away, we may regret ever introducing Molly to the TV. But our experience with Claire in this regard has been pretty positive. She doesn’t watch very much TV, very little on weekdays, more on weekends, mostly due to time constraints. And what she does watch is generally movies provided by me and Kit, usually the same ones over and over, and not much junk TV with all those corrupting ads. In fact, I don’t think she’s really watched a TV show in a couple of years now. Let’s hope Molly follows the same pattern. Then again, for all we know, she may only like The Peanuts, which would be alright too.
I used to think Molly was somewhat slow to get around. She just tended to lag behind in whatever we were doing, whether it be walking or washing her hands. But, I thought, she is a toddler, and a small one at that. So of course she is slow. It is probably just my perception, for instance when I get impatient dropping Molly off at school, I have to get to work for our 9:00 meeting and probably prepare for a meeting before work, and probably do an errand before that. And there I am waiting for Molly to wash her hands so she can officially start school. I can feel each second ticking by.
But a few instances have come up lately which make me think I am not crazy. Maybe Molly really does take her sweet time, even for a toddler. A few examples…
One night while getting Molly ready for bed, I decide to actually time one part of the process. How long would it take Molly to get herself on the toilet and try to urinate? Sure, it is tough since she is small. She has to take off her diaper and climb up a step stool to the toilet and sit awkwardly on it. But it seemed to me to take an extraordinarily long time. So I timed it one night when I had the patience and time to just let it play out. It took 8 minutes. She was actually on the toilet seat for literally about 5 seconds of that time. If this does not sound like a long time, then set a stop watch and just sit there doing nothing else and wait for it to hit 8 minutes. You will see what I mean. And that was just the very first step of the whole bedtime routine. And this happens every night. Now, I could always strip Molly of her diaper and just plunk her on the toilet seat, and sometimes I have to do just that. But it does not really help Molly with potty training or independence. Plus it really pisses her off.
Molly lollygagging after dropping Claire off at school.
When dropping off Claire at school with me in the morning, I carry Molly into school to keep Claire on time. But I let Molly walk back. We arrive at a crowded school along with almost 900 kids and many of their parents. By the time we leave, usually we are the only ones around except for a straggler or two. Everyone else has simply walked to their cars and left, while Molly slowly climbs down each step and grabs each pole along the way. One day on the way into school, one of Claire’s friend’s little brother, Boone, who is Molly’s age, was walking into school with his dad and sister. Seeing Boone walking, Molly asked to walk too. I decided to give her a chance. Within a minute, Boone and family were way ahead of us, and soon completely out of site. Molly’s pace was just so slow, we weren’t even close to keeping up with Boone, who was walking along not quickly, but with focus and purpose, while Molly lolly gagged behind. It is not just because Molly is small. She actually moves in some sort of slow motion.
One last anecdote… At swimming class, sometimes the class has to sit and wait for Molly to finish eating her gummy bear, which she receives as a treat between her exercises while the other kids get a turn. After the other kids have had their turn, Molly is still chewing, and the teacher has to just sit and wait for Molly to finish before getting her back into the water so she does not choke on her treat.
Part of the problem here is that I am always in a hurry. Really, a toddler really should be allowed to take things slowly. Unfortunately for Molly, her dad only has some much time and patience since there is always something that needs to be done within x minutes, and x does not normally include 10 minutes to navigate a flight of stairs. Sometimes we are able take it slow on the weekends, which is nice for Molly and everyone else. Idea for next weekend: we should take Molly to Claire’s school and just let her explore the walk into school as long as she wants and get it out of her system. She would wonder with delight why I am just hanging out and not prodding her along.
McG Kids 