Goodbye Pacifier!

You know how most babies sleep the first day or so?  Not Buddy.  He wanted to nurse every 45 minutes.  And, by nurse, I mean use-me-as-a-human-pacifier-because-there-wasn't-any-milk-yet.  After 12 hours of this, a nurse heard me casually mention to my husband that we should get him a pacifier. "No," she yelled.  "Babies shouldn't have pacifiers--it will ruin him for nursing."  Luckily, my pediatrician had more sense.  One look at my 10lb baby chomping down on my nipple and she said, "give that kid a damn pacifier".  Bless her.   Of course, thanks to that first nurse (aka mommy paranoia) I resisted until my milk came in but I swear angels started singing hallelujah when I gave him his first pacifier.  Buddy's whole body relaxed in an exclamation of contentment.

Flash forward 2 1/2 years and he is a pacifier junkie.  Technically the rule is he can't take his pacifier out of his room but he is no dummy.  Every time I'm on the phone, he tries to sneak the paci by me.  If I call him on it, he says sweetly, "go away, please Mama.  I want to be alone."  He also has taken to dragging toys into his room so that he can play and suck his paci at the same time.   And heaven knows how many he has stashed around the house.

My husband and I keep telling each other we need to be more strict but the lack of whining and crying is just so dang pleasant when his mouth is otherwise occupied that we never stick to our guns.

Then one day, I've had it.  I had planned to wean him slowly.  To slowly deny access until he was only using it at night and naps but that plan just wasn't working.  I always give in because I am always tired, or he is sick, or hurt, or sad, or I am sick or hurt or sad.  There is always an excuse.  So I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

To prepare him, I wrote a quick story and we read it several times.




Then it was off to build-a-bear.  He picked out a hideous blue bear, vest, hockey stick and cowboy boots (don't ask, I don't get it either).  And we put his pacifier inside and they sewed up the bear.  Goodbye Pacifier, Hello Paci-Bear.

The crazy thing is he loves this bear and understands that his pacifier is inside where he can't use it but that he can still use "Paci-Bear" to comfort himself.  He gets hurt and instead of asking for a pacifier, he buries his face in Paci-bear.  I am in awe. and Buddy? He is proud.  "I a big kid, Mama!"

It has now been 3 days and he has asked for his pacifier once.  There have been no tears.   I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop but so far so good.

How the movie the Road missed the point.

This post has spoilers.  Mostly my reviews aren't really reviews; they're rants.  

The movie version of The Road nearly got it right.  The casting was pretty much spot on (Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce aside).  The sets captured the feel and bleakness of the book.  It even had the correct meandering, yet tense pace.  It was hard to tear my eyes away from the screen.  And yet, the movie makers, with one bad choice, destroyed the entire point of the novel.  And the frustrating thing is ALL THEY  HAD TO DO WAS STICK TO THE ALREADY WRITTEN ENDING.  I forgave them for adding the back story with the wife.  Whatever.  It was unnecessary but it did flesh things out.  But the fact that they deviated when it mattered most makes me think that the people involved in the movie had no idea what McCarthy was trying to say.  

The point (and here comes the spoiler) is that trust is necessary.  That it is okay to reach out to others.  The entire narrative sets the boy and the man against each other, with the man going to extremes to protect the boy by not trusting or helping anyone and the boy continuing to try and convince the man to reach out to others.  At the end of the book, after the man dies, the boy makes the active choice to stop hiding and stand on the road.  It is only because he chose to be found that help was able to find him..  He actively decided to turn his back on the teachings of his father and open himself up to others.  That moment is the only moment of hope and faith in the entire story.  And the movie missed it.

In the movie, the boy is on the beach when he sees the other people.  He has no place to hide.  By the time he notices the stranger, he is spotted.  Thus, his rescue is an accident.  There is no lesson learned and no action by the boy.  In the movie, the boy did not learn or grow, he just was lucky.  There was no redemption.  What a waste.  

Monkey School: Valentines Day

I haven't been posting Monkey School lately.  So I will try and do better.  Today's lesson was all about valentine's day.

We started by reading Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli.  It is a wonderful book about the power of feeling loved by those around you.  I then had the kids find hearts (I had taped them around the room) to give to a group of sad stuffed animals.

Next, we played in our valentine's day themed sensory bin.  Thanks to the dollar spot at Target, we had heart shaped measuring cups.  The kids loved them and my homemade funnels (if I do say so myself).

Lastly, we did two art projects.  First we made those hearts where you put drops of paint on one side and then fold it over and "massage the paper" (that's how Miss M describes it) until a beautiful, symmetrical design is formed.  I used finger paints for this because I thought they would spread more easily than poster paint.  I think they turned out beautiful.

Then we used homemade stamps to decorate our Valentine's treat bags.  We will use the bags at our party next week.  and yes, the hearts are made out of toilet paper rolls.

Monkey School: Snowman

Monkey School was all about Snowmen today.  I started out by talking about shapes and I had the kids find different objects of each shape by digging through the sensory bin.  Then I put the shapes together to make a snowman.  We also read Snowman at Night.  

Next we played with "snow" (shaving cream).  They loved this. 

For snack we frosted rice cakes and made snowman faces.

 And for art, we made paper plate Snowmen.

Dinosaurs: The Paleontologist Edition.

I know most 2 year olds don't know what a Paleontologist is, heck, most can't even say Paleontologist but I am determined to raise kids who are interested in science and that requires early exposure.  So today in Monkey School we pretended to be Paleontologists.

First we went on a skeleton hunt around the room and ended up putting together a stegosaurus skeleton.

Then we carefully uncovered dinosaur bones hidden in the beans.

 Next we dug through mud (pudding) to find the dinosaurs (dino shaped fruit snacks).

And finally, we created volcanoes (baking soda and vinegar).  The kids had a great time and so did I.

In which my head explodes . . .

I know Halloween was a month ago but I've got to get this off my chest.  Why, oh why are Halloween Costumes so sexist?  I was so angry as walked up and down the clearance costume aisles of Target that I was literally sick to my stomach and shaking.  What sort of message is Target trying to send to little girls?  Now I am not so extreme that I won't admit that some costumes are (for the most part) gender specific.  I get that little girls want to be Princesses and that little boys probably don't.  I don't fault costume companies for that.  What I do take issue with is the designs of costumes that should be much more gender neutral.

Take "Cowboy" for example.  The boy costume is cute and functional, but what in the heck is up with the fringed mini-skirt?  I'm sure that'll be great for riding horses.  And it is not just the costumes.  The boy costume is called, "Boy Cowboy Costume"  but the girl gets to be a "Cowgirl Diva".  Just what I want for my 4 year old.  

And then there were the pirate costumes.  Both my daughter and son love pirates.  Once again, the boy costume was very cute.  Lil' Buddy could be a "Pirate King" but Miss M . . . she could be a "Pirate Cutie" at best and a Pirate . . . Hooker(?) at worst.  

These costumes make my head explode.  And the examples were endless.  Little girls should not be sexy.   Please don't force my little girl to pick between a Cutie and a Diva.  She is so much more than that.  And my son needs to know that girls are more than that.  Granted, it is my job to teach them but Target (and every other retailer of Halloween costumes) is making my job that much harder.

Of course, the only reason they carry costumes like that is because people buy them.  So fellow citizens of the world: Do Not Support This.  Girls are so much more than Divas, Cuties and Princesses.   

Emotive.

Okay, I know I titled this feature Random Music that Makes Me Happy but the truth is not all music that I like makes me happy.  So I've changed it to RMIL (Random Music I like).  Today's RMIL is really more of an album.  now, I know that I am pretty much the only person in the world who loved this album and I get why people didn't like it (it's all remakes and not typical of the band) but I think Emotive by A Perfect Circle is brilliant.  It's one of those albums where the songs sound better if you listen to the entire album rather than the individual songs.  For some reason, this impresses me.    Just as a heads up, the album is mostly remakes of old peace songs.



And here is the video of one of the few original songs on the album.  This song was so perfect for the movie Constantine.  Plus, he co-wrote it with Trent Reznor.  Need I say more?  Speaking of things that most people hate, and I love--Constantine is actually a really good movie.  Seriously.  It is my favorite Keanu Reeves roll (even better than Matrix) and I love the religious themes.  I will be the first to admit that Keanu Reeves just plays different iterations of Ted but I'm telling you, Demon Hunting Ted is the best Ted.  Way better than surfer Ted or Shakespeare Ted or (Groan) RomCom Ted.