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Wee distractions

It can be hard to drag yourself away from a good book, a fascinating documentary or an awesome Lego-building session, can't it?

I would've thought, however, that if the inkling for urination had been and gone, the jiggling and dancing around had begun and the bladder was at bursting point, one could cease to be distracted by other things and just go to the loo. Simple really. You need to go, you go! But apparently that ain't so for my little man. 

Granted, he has recently started at a new day care centre at which he is expected to independently toilet himself in the absence of prompts or hand-holding from staff. And there's lots of new stuff to play with and explore... And so, at almost all pick-ups in the last two weeks he has come home in his 'spares' and on one occasion, shoeless (urine-filled sneakers are apparently uncomfortable and a little embarrassing). We have spoken about recognising the signs of imminent wee and doing something about it (not in 5 or 10 minutes, but NOW!), but it seems, even at home, that going to the toilet is at the bottom of his priorities list. Just yesterday he was jiggling and running in circles, looking uncomfortable, but denied three times that he needed to go to the loo. Thankfully, sense sunk in before he was drenched and a few minutes later he skidded down the corridor, used his little Sesame Street step to open the toilet door and relieved himself with an audible sigh. Stubborn? Lazy? Male? I just don't get it.

Posted by Penni on 22 October 2009 | 11 Comments

Tags: parenting, toddler, toilet, distraction, play

Car, trucks and trains

The truth be told, I'm just not that into them.

My son can sit for hours in his room surrounded by vehicles beep-beeping, chug-chugging and of course crashing. Some of these land-based forms of transport take flight too. There's a story to be told as the cars of many makes and colours line up against the skirting and the fire engine comes sirening passed at terrifying speed. Trains become de-railed and then they all get scattered across the room as a dinosaur swoops low with a 'rahhhhhh!!!!'.
He sees a magic in it that I just don't.

I try, at times, to become actively engaged (this is opposed to my 'oh, I see' and 'golly gosh, are they okay?' non-committal responses from the couch as I attempt to wade through an article). I will get down on the rug and weave a truck through a mass of cars, saying such things as 'watch out' and 'oh no, there's going to be a crash' with as much enthusiasm as I can muster (which is, admittedly, very little). But I can't even seem to do that right. My three year old will take the truck from me with a look of disappointment and surrender, advising me that, 'No Mummy, that's not how you do it. Here, give it to me.' I'm not the most gracious recipient of criticism at the best of times, so this is a little hard to take. It does, however, serve a purpose – to reinforce that I am simply no good at playing with cars, trucks and trains. Best not to persist then.

Posted by Penni on 4 October 2009 | 9 Comments

Tags: parenting, toddler, play,