I've been told that my mom wouldn't let me get dirty when I was a kid. Like most generalizations about childhood, I'm sure there's more to it than that. My Aunt has the reputation of being the one who would let me make mud pies, much to my mom's chagrin. Maybe that was because my Aunt had all boys and my mom just had me (at the time). As an adult, I am hard-pressed to recognize any scars resulting from the cleanliness of my early years. Somewhere along the way I learned how to get dirty and, fortunately, when and how to be clean. No harm, no foul as far as I'm concerned.
I was talking to a group of moms after I learned that LO was a boy when one of them went off about how I should be sure to "let him be a boy! Let him be rough, get dirty, and be loud" or something like that. In my head I thought, "Nope, nope, and nope. Not good at any of those." I'd like to say now that I'm trying. LO is definitely into "boy" things. He makes "boy" noises, smiles when he burps, is proud to make his toys pop open by banging them, likes to squish his food between his fingers, and more. I don't need anyone to give me a gold star, but I have quietly patted myself on the back several times in the last week as LO has gotten dirty in a number of new ways. There are certainly a lot more important lessons for us to teach LO, but as toddler seeds take years to bear fruit, I think it's helpful to note any progress on my part regardless of how trivial.
Last Tuesday was our first afternoon in the dirt. Literally. LO and I met our friends at the park. LO's friend is walking now, and was toddling about in the mulch and pine straw. While the boys barely acknowledge each other for most of their playtime. They do notice what the other is doing. One wants the other's toy or wants to do what the other is doing. So LO set to moving about in the mulch. He was crawling, of course, which meant the knees of his jeans were getting drug through the dirt. That would not have been a big deal except I had already washed the jeans once that day because we had planned to wear them in pictures the day after. (What was I thinking taking him to the park in those?) For a kid who doesn't like the grass, he was quite enamored with the pine straw, rocks, sticks and dirt. We had had other trips to the park, but LO had always stayed on a blanket or been content to be carried from swing to slide to push toy. It was a new experience for both of us to let him motor around on his own.
The next day was picture day. It was cold, grey, and had been raining. We were to meet our photographer at another park (one sans mulch and swings...more green space). Well, I was so careful to get extra stuff together to entertain LO, a blanket for him to sit on (thereby avoiding the dreaded grass), pumpkin and books for props, etc that I ran right off to our meeting spot without my cell phone. This became an issue about 30 minutes later when the photographer was nowhere to be found. All is well that ends well, though. During our time of waiting, I set LO out on the blanket and tried to keep him from the toys meant to be entertainment during the shoot. The one toy I did give him was thrown immediately off the blanket. He has played that game before and intended for me to get it. When I did not, he cautiously checked out the grass one hand at a time. I did the same to show him it was ok. Within a minute or so, he had crawled to his toy. From that point on, there was no turning back. He was all over the grass. I'm fairly certain there will be no more peaceful family park trips where we all hangout on the blanket. The good news was that by the time we finally caught up with the photographer (she had left a message on my cell that she'd be back in 30 minutes), LO was so comfortable with the grass that she was able to have a lot more options for pictures. The bad news is that the grass was wet and LO's jeans (which I washed again after the park the previous day) had mud and grass stains in the knees. By the end of the shoot, LO had even crawled through a boggy section of grass to get a fistful of mud! That night was my first time rubbing grass stains out of LO's clothes. I'm sure it won't be the last.
So a little dirt here, a few grass stains and some mud there. Small potatoes for most moms, I know. We switched gears a little for our next mess. I have been looking forward to doing projects and crafts with LO. I can't wait for him to be old enough to learn form such things. I also want him to start learning to work on one thing at a time, even if he can only do it for very brief periods of time. With that in mind, I broke out the paint pens this week for our first picture. I thought I had it well thought out. I taped down the paper, rolled up his sleeves, and had him in his high chair. What I didn't consider was how the paint pens would work since I'd never used them before. LO of course had his own idea how they should be used. If you look closely at his picture (see previous post) all of those tiny flecks of paint were made by LO's little finger flicking the tip of the paint pen and basically painting everything but the paper. I realized then why kids start out with crayons! Aunt Cat gave us bathtub paint pens and THAT is where they belong!
We saved the biggest messes for yesterday. LO has been practicing using his spoon. For several months he has done well with eating from the spoon as long was I loaded for him. IN the last few weeks we've allowed him to feed himself for part of the meal if he showed interest. He has become more interested in our plates and bowls though, so it seemed time to let him try. Of course I knew that would be messy, but how else will he learn? LO's breakfast and lunch meals seem to be pretty sticky consistencies. So yesterday I let him have a go at it both meals. For breakfast he took over near the end of the meal. I thought he was finished eating, but he ate even more when he was in charge. I think he had such fun at breakfast that he wanted to lunch all on his own. Here was the result. ( I promise he was not as miserable as he looks.) It was straight to bath after that lunch mess!
Breakfast
**** Four Gold Stars for DW! Great Job! :)
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