A Couch Potato, as defined by Merriam-Webster is a lazy and inactive person; especially : one who spends a great deal of time watching television. Avery has watched a few shows here and there, but not often and she has yet to sit still longer than 5 minutes to see what’s on screen, so she is far from a couch potato.
While the dictionary definition does not apply, this little girl has taken to climbing and walking/jumping all over the couch lately. I’ll be in the kitchen (like usual) with my back turned and all of the here a little voice say “Hi.” Instantly, I know what I’ll see when I turn around, and sure enough…..
How can you get on to that face? It’s hard enough to suppress a smile, but to then have a stern voice? Forget it! I try to offer other, safer alternatives, but the allure of the couch is just too strong for anything else, even her shadow.
Hopefully she won’t have to learn the dangers of jumping on the couch through experience. Then again, maybe it’s a right of passage as a toddler. After all, my mom continues to remind me how I met with the corner of a wooden speaker box at that age. We don’t have sharp cornered objects surrounding the couch, so at least that’s working in our favor.
Does your kid love jumping on the couch, bed, or something else?
Ever have an accident as a result, or can you remember when you hurt yourself as kid?
You’re probably thinking I’m scared of the Fourth of July fireworks or crazy people who had too much to drink and are high on smoke bombs driving around, but that would be wrong. Well, the latter is a little worrisome, but not an issue I’ve dealt with before.
Nope, right now, as you read this, my wife and I probably just finished our 5k at a nearby brewery as G-Ma and Avery cheered us on and are sipping on a refreshing craft beer to celebrate. The scary part is what we’re doing for the day; going to G-Ma’s to *gasp* spend the night!
As you can tell, I’m writing this in advance, so I’ll have to fill you in on the details of our race and the rest of today in a future post. For now, I’m just sharing my fear with you. Avery has outgrown her pack ‘n play portable crib which we’ve always used at G-Ma’s and we have been avoiding another visit for far too long.
This time, we are going to make a comfortable bed on the ground since she has no awareness of boundaries and hope for the best. She is never just asleep when we put her to bed in her crib at night, and she usually rolls all over the place talking for a good 20 minutes. I assume this normal for most toddlers, but geez, she’s crazy!
So now, after waking up early for the 5k and being exposed to fireworks, she’ll either be extremely tired and will go to sleep easily, or so tired she’s wired. Parents, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. We brought her to G-Ma’s last year where she first saw fireworks, but was hardly aware of what exactly was happening.
Now that she is very aware of everything around her, who knows how she’ll take the loud booms and flashy pyrotechnics. Will it be overstimulating, scary, or a joy to watch for her? Guess we’re finding out today!
So, the plan of attack is counting on the accumulation of waking up early, playing at G-Ma’s and swimming at her neighbor’s house, possibly no nap, and staying up later to see fireworks working for instead of against us to get her to sleep good at night. Wow, that was a long sentence!
My nerves are a little frantic, if you can’t tell, but luckily Going Mom is cool and calm. Hope my frantic state is all for not.
Bye for now, and Happy Fourth of July to those of you here in the U.S.! Happy weekend to the rest of you!
Have you had to deal with a tricky sleep situation for your little one?
Ever find a solution or was it just a miserable night for everyone?
We all know what happens when a groundhog sees its shadow, we get six more weeks of winter. But what about when a toddler sees their shadow? Well, I mean when they first acknowledge they are the ones making that silhouette on wall or any other light-colored surface.
Avery recently discovered her shadow and seems to get a kick out of her dark twin. I’ve been pointing it out to her when changing her diaper for a while, but just the other week she finally reacted to it and made her hand move across the wall. She’ll say something in toddler talk and smile, and I smile too because it keeps her occupied while changing her.
Now anytime we are somewhere that her shadow is visible, I can say look at your shadow and it will keep her busy at least for a minute. I love watching her learn something new and can only imagine what’s going on in her head as I explain how the light casting down on her creates that dark object called her shadow.
Just the other day, she was busy removing every item from her basket when I asked if she could find her shadow.
She seemed stumped and maybe a little hesitant at first.
But then she turned right around to come face to, ummmm, face? with her darker, less detailed self.
I asked her if she could find her shadow again and she immediately pointed to the dark figure. Still working on getting toys out of the basket, of course.
She closed in to investigate further with an almost accusatory point of her finger.
Hey, what are YOU lookin’ at?
Squatting down, she was amazed at how her shadow followed suit.
Back up and a little hand movement just to test the boundaries and she finally accepted her shadow was there to stay.
That’s when she looked away and saw there were more toys to take out of her basket and drop behind me as I cooked in the kitchen.
That’s also when I politely asked her to stop everything! To which she replied with….
Yeah, heart = melted. Oh, and look, she has a heart! Then I offered her a green smoothie which she happily accepted.
It makes me so proud when she enjoys drinking the healthy green smoothies I make. What doesn’t make me proud is when she then proceeds to climb on the couch, throw the pillows off, and eat the rim. green mouth and all.
But I digress, she’s hard to stay upset with for long. I guess those days are coming though, huh?
Can you remember when your little one first started to notice their shadow?
Do you find random teeth marks with food on furniture around your home?
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
