Summer is bad for blogging.

So my son is a toddler. I don't mean this in the sense that he is a walker, well now he's a jumper and furniture-flier-offer. I mean it in the sense that we have EPISODES. Lots of them. A recent day:

Graham finds a red permanent marker while Dad is in the bathroom and manages to hit 5 doors, the hallway, the floor, two couches (cushions and arms mind you), the wood coffee table and his entire face. Mom yells. A lot. The rest of the day Graham says, "Only paper, momma. Only paper." Three hours later he would appear to be asleep in his room. All is quiet. Then there is a loud shriek. We rush in to find Graham standing in the crib, palms outspread and terrified. "Momma I peed!" But what it is is poop. G likes to keep his hands in his diaper, but didn't anticipate that if he pooped he'd have *that* to contend with. I imagine in his anxiety about what to do he frantically wiped his hands on everything. It appeared that way.

Since then, two more instances of pee or poop in the bed, the produt of having totally removed his diaper in the night. It's such fun.

I routinely am told, "Be quiet Momma! Too LOUD!!!" but also occasionally get to hear the heart-melting, "So proud of you momma." He wakes in the middle of the night to belt out, "Bob the Builder! Can we fix it? Bob the Buillder! Yes we can!" and a very breakneck version of "Rock-A-Bye Baby."

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK

In celebration of World Breastfeeding Week, Graham and I joined friends Melissa and Twila, along with about 30 other moms in our community to participate in a global display of breastfeeding normalcy spanning 25 countries over a 24 hour period.

You can read more about the event HERE.

The goals of the event were:

To gather the most number of mothers in Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide, that is, participants will breastfeed at exactly the same LOCAL TIME in their Time Zone. Like the celebration of New Year, with every hour in succession for a 24-hour period, countries in one time zone will be breastfeeding simultaneously. See enclosed list of countries in each Time Zone.

To make a permanent and on-going roster of the national records of each nation on simultaneous breastfeeding in a single site and in multiple sites, urging each nation to surpass its own record every succeeding year.

To establish cooperation between nations, each nation competing with its own record. The Organizers will keep a roster of achievements of every nation,

(a) its record for single site.
(b) its record for multiple sites,
(c) the national record for breastfeeding mothers per million population as the true measure of their effort and achievement,
(d) the overall record for each Time Zone, and
(e) above all, overall worldwide record for each year. Each nation will follow a standard set of Event Guidelines.

To nurture a fellowship among breastfeeding mothers in their locality and country that may facilitate the formation of mother support groups.

To establish simultaneous breastfeeding as a form of universal prayer for peace and thanksgiving for the gift of motherhood and breastfeeding.

Tomorrow G is 22 months and he said:

"Mommy's noodles are all gone."
and
"Mommy rock-a-bye up in hammock too!"

This is too much to take! So *that's* what all the spazziness was about. Now that he's broken the Talking Barrier he's back to a much more pleasant version of himself. I always forget about the nastiness that precedes a developmental leap, but there it was and there it went.

*Sigh* I love this.


ETA: In the interest of not throwing up a new post everytime G says something amazing, I'll just add it here:

"Daddy took a sticker off my sticker chart and said sorry." !!!!!!!!!
"Anneva loves doughnuts."

Today's thought:

"That tree has a big top."
- Graham

My BABY said that!!!!

Ewwww, toddlers.

So Graham has gotten to be quite a challenge. Lots of very exciting things have developed, and lots of difficulties have ensued. A particular un-favorite is the wonderful game of "I want that, no I want the other thing, no I want the thing that I wanted before." This game never ends well. He also is still in the Hitting Phase. It seems to have gotten worse. We are not spanking, but man do I want to sometimes. This is, I think, probably the reason I don't spank: I don't want to spank out of anger, and once I'm not angry anymore I don't think spanking is the solution it seemed to be when I was pissed. Plus, do I hit him for hitting? That makes no sense whatsoever! But, ugh. He is trying my patience and on my last nerve a LOT.

Ok, fun things. He's got the 3-word sentence down pat, and some 4's: "Pablo eat bugs, gross!" and "Rainboots go outside now." Puddles are "cuddles." He can pretty much do all his ABCs and count to 12 (sometimes) although he always skips 4. He is beginning to be able to recognize some letters, we've had good luck with B's and O's. He calls the alphabet letters "C Ds." He has finally started calling Anneva "Nina" instead of "Nonny," my dad "Grandpa" instead of "Baba," and I am no longer Mama. I'm Mommy. I feel a little sad about that, until I hear him yell "Nick! Nick!"

In other news, we took a trip to the Emergency Room this week. Monday night he fell, a short fall, but one that left him a little rattled and without apetite. Then overnight he got really really sick. Like puke all over everything 6 times sick, like so sick and tired he was vomiting without really waking up to do it. Tuesday morning I put it together that he may have a concussion and we had to go get a CAT scan. Well, as it turns out it was strep throat. So here is where you learn what I learned: strep can make kids throw up. Who knew. It was a pretty terrible lesson, and an expensive one.

I want to post some about the Bradley childbirth educator workshop I attended last weekend, but that will have to wait. It was so amazing, I just can't do it justice right now. I am really excited to start teaching though.

Nunu's Drum Party - Fun!

Monday night Graham and I stopped by our friend Carol's grand opening of her new performance space, the Lowry Lab Theater. There was this great performance by a Japanese drum troupe, and Graham was very impressed, especially because they let him bang on the big drums before their performance. Melissa (who G calls Nunu) and Amy had a hand in the event as well, which led to Graham's excited reminder this morning:

"Nunu's drum party - Fuuunnnnnn!"

Graham has been pure delight lately. I am perpetually dumbfounded by his near-constant happiness. His most-used word is "happy" by a long lead. He is so affectionate and sweet, and a little sensitive. I don't know how we got so lucky. I want to gush about him constantly.