My Heart

Valentine's Breakfast

We made chocolate chip pancakes for Valentine breakfast. When we were growing up my mom would always make us this treat on Valentine's Day. She usually made them in the shape of hearts and I offered that option to Sayan but he said "no, just circles mom".

So circles they were:

Sadly, at the advanced age of 35, I opted for a slightly less dense breakfast:

Sayan though ate every last bite. With maple syrup and butter of course.

Green Pastures

On Sunday we went to Green Pastures for my birthday brunch. I probably haven't been in twenty-five years (oh wait that's how old I am, right?), but what I remember most from our numerous trips there in my childhood was chasing the peacocks under the magnificent live oak trees. So when my mom suggested we go for my birthday I was most excited about Sayan getting to run and play on the beautiful lawns with the peacocks.

As it turned out the peacocks were not the highlight of the lunch -- though this beautiful albino one below greeted us and we discovered a flock hiding from the snow (yes it snowed on Sunday, fifteen flakes that thrilled me and insulted my husband) amidst the machinery "back of house".

What was the highlight of our day was this boy:

I have to admit I was a little nervous going to a "fancy restaurant" with our three year old, whose attention span has been shortened considerably since his recent illness. So I packed my purse full of drawing equipment, letters flashcards, even the DVD player, Just In Case. My purse sat unopened the entire meal.

Sayan was such a ball of light. He was so excited to choose his foods and quietly sat eating or talking with us for almost two hours. AMAZING. Only toward the end did we pull him onto our laps, not so much for him as for us!!

Love you my little man!!

(When next we go back I will teach you how to terrorize the peacocks properly.)

nite nite

though mostly recovered (10 days later!) sayan still needs more sleep than he thinks he does. his little body will fight the concept and then collapse in a heap when i least expect it. pretty cute actually.

a valentine: composed and typed entirely by Sayan

happy whole family and the whole world

The Cough Drop

Yesterday Sayan went into my office and shut the door. I didn't think much of it and a few minutes later went to open the door to get something and he shot up and pushed the door shut: don't come in mommy, don't come in!

Such a response on the heels of 5 minutes alone in my office naturally set off alarm bells. The last time he spent quiet self-directed time in there he snipped into a thousand pieces two bills that were out. Sadly I had already paid them and his destruction did not cancel the debt.

So when I entered yesterday I was immediately wary, scanning for piles of debris. Efficient as any basketball player, he kept boxing me out from this one corner. Confused, I asked what he had done for I didn't see evidence of any disturbance. His response: It was a cough drop. I unwrapped it. I did, I unwrapped it and I don't want you to get angry.

He must have noticed a shift in my demeanor for, half-defiant, half-apologetic, he immediately blurted the rest of his confession: and and and I put the WHOLE thing in my mouth.

Aahhh.

The back story on the cough drop: we've been horribly sick the last week and Jai and I have taken to consuming cough drops as if they were candy (which given the sugar content as compared with our regular diet, they are). Anyway Sayan's sugar radar went off early in the game and he would unearth the cough drops from beneath pillows and drawers. At first the most exciting part for him was unwrapping them, untwisting the brightly colored paper like a magpie. So I would walk around the house and there would be half a dozen unwrapped cough drops lying around. I was able to salvage a few but it was a hassle and I soon found they could not be salvaged as there were little bits of hair and debris stuck to them. That was when I realized he must have been licking or sucking on them. This completely freaked me out. Not so much him ingesting the cough drop content (these are organic brown rice syrup citrus drops) but rather him having the whole drop in his mouth as it is perfect choking size.

So the law was quickly established 1. No unwrapping cough drops unless mommy or daddy needs one and sanction the action or they will be wasted (a concept he understands) and 2. Absolutely NEVER EVER put the whole cough drop in his mouth-- we have taken to mincing them and letting him get his fix that way. We explained very clearly that this rule (#2) was for his safety. He understands safety rules (such as walking with scissors properly, not reaching for knives, no playing with blind cords etc) are heavily enforced when not respected (long timeouts with the door shut).

And now here I was confronted with a situation where he had clearly broken a safety rule. But even though he had verbalized his fear I would get angry, he had still semi-voluntarily confessed and I didn't want to punish him and then have him feel he couldn't come to us and share when he does break the rules, even safety rules.

So at the same time I wanted him to understand how important safety rules are I didn't want to give an immediate time out as a response that might build in a pattern of fear that we would just punish and not understand if he shares with us when he breaks the rules.

And the way in which he had gone about this... Secretly sneaking as an experiment (rather than a deliberate flaunting of rule breaking which we get our fair share of) and then ultimately wanting to confide in me that he had broken the rules, I wanted him to feel I understood and could be a confidant. What I don't want is for him to go hide in the closet and suck on a cough drop and have a coughing fit and start choking somewhere where I have no idea what's going on and where he is!!

So I decided to forego the time out and instead we had a long talk again about safety rules and their value. I let him know that anytime he wanted to try to suck on "the whole thing" he should come to me and we can talk about it or I could at least break him a piece. I told him he wouldn't have a time out this time since he had told me what he had done and explained again that we give time outs for rule breaking as a way for him to have some space to think about the choice he made and how he might choose differently in the future.

He was so sweet and attentive and understood what I was saying. I know he will keep experimenting with things, including breaking the rules, but safety rules are such a tricky balance to uphold as I want him to really understand the importance of respecting safety rules while not fearing sharing with us when he does break those rules. Eek, parenting.

I know it will just get stickier as he gets older and safety rules get even more delicate to enforce. I guess simply locking away all cough drops won't solve this dilemma. I just hope he doesn't feel he has to sneak "the whole thing" in the future.

Sicky Family

We have all been sick for almost a week -- poor moo got it the worst, 2+ days of 102 fever, coughing, sore throat, congestion, tummy bug. He is such a trooper though. Such a sweet patient. His fever broke yesterday and I was so happy to have a cranky ornery child as it meant he was on the mend. Still under the weather but stronger and more energy all the time.

'down in the dumps'

Finally he is awake. We are hanging out and he says:

I want to rest a little more so I don't go down in the dumps. What does 'down in the dumps' mean mommy?

I explain.

Yeah I feel like that. Today I feel down in the dumps. My whole body is down in the dumps. I think down in the dumps means when you go down underground and you are in such a mess, that means down in the dumps.

(aaah, he just clarified where he heard this phrase, as I was stumped: Toad (from Frog & Toad) was down in the dumps)

nap amendment

I am wondering if he has been stockpiling all the hours he has not slept (every day) during rest time this week and is using them ALL today. He has been asleep 3.5 hours and shows no signs of waking. Hmmm.

puddle/small lake

We've been enjoying a lot of rain recently. Here is a little scene from last week when it was not 81 degrees :)

Water Baby

Sayan spent time between the big (COLD) pool and the hot tub where I was camped. I don't know what I would have done without his floatie cause I was going nowhere near the big pool. When we first arrived I stepped in, then quickly out and that was it for me thank you very much.

Sayan on the other hand was delighted by the contrast between the warm pool and the snow melt experience. I can only assume he was using it as a plunge pool. He would dash over, submerge himself then hop out and run back to soak/swim with me.

It's interesting comparing the difference in his energy between the pictures in this post from the hot tub and from the previous post in the big pool. He was so jazzed in the big pool, fairly hyper energy then would immediately enter this meditative state when he stepped into the hot tub. A fun dynamic to watch.

Feb 1

Yesterday, Feb 1, it was 81 degrees. I almost feel I should end the post there.

I mean really, what more needs be said? Here is 81 degrees on Feb 1:

We like Austin.