One Thousand Words

When I say “how do you teach animal safety,” I’m looking for specific stuff YOU PERSONALLY have done to teach children how to be safe around animals. I have some basic ideas, but I also want to teach my kid to be WARY of strange animals and CAUTIOUS around strange animals, without being terrified of them.

Here’s the sitch. We don’t have any pets. None.  My in-laws, who live five minutes away from us, have no pets. We don’t really visit people who have pets. So Niko doesn’t really see animals except at the zoo or on t.v. or when he’s walking with us and the animals are on a leash and the situation’s pretty controlled.

When he encounters animals THAT way, we (the adults with him) touch base with the people with the animals, say hello, admire the animal (ok, the dog. It’s always dogs.), and then ask if Niko can say hello and pet them. People either say yes, or they say no. If they say yes, we encourage Niko to come closer to the animal. He hesitantly touches them, adorableness happens, the end.

So far so good, right?

We were visiting some friends of ours, and they have cats. Some of the cats are totally cool with ANYBODY touching them, petting them, hauling them around, etc. They’ll rub up on you for hours. Others are… not so much. One of them bit Niko. Not a bad bite, not at all, didn’t even break the skin, but it alarmed him at the time and he’s been talking about it nonstop ever since. (he’s also claiming a kitty kissed him, and that he played megablocks with a kitty. So, you know.)

On the ride home, Nesko and I talked with Niko about how sometimes animals are scared so they bite or scratch. So when he meets an animal he needs to be careful and not touch the animal unless he asks first. We want him to be careful, but we don’t want him to be AFRAID. Does that make sense?

How do you handle this? What do you recommend?

Technorati Tags: parenting, pets, toddler

Mirrored from Now Showing!.

We had a routine checkup at the pediatrician’s yesterday. In the past six months, Niko has grown 1 inch and gained 2 1/2 pounds. His asthma is doing better, his possible-allergies are doing worse. We came away with refills for his albuterol (and instructions to use it only when he’s coughing), and a prescription for singulair. We also arranged for a blood draw to do an allergy panel. Let me tell you, it’s just not a good doctor’s visit unless I’ve found a way to stick needles into my kid.

After the checkup, our pediatrician offered Niko a sticker and a sucker (after first checking with us that he could have them, something I appreciated). Niko had never had a sucker before, or any kind of hard candy. I held onto it until he was in the lab for his blood draw. In the lab, Nesko sat down with Niko on his lap, and Niko started eating the sucker. It blew his tiny mind. It was such an experience that he hardly noticed the needle slipping into his tiny vein. He said something like “Oh! That is a little pinch!” when it went in (we told him he might feel a little pinch) and then happily chatted about the cars on his shirt (“that one red one! That one is…. BLACK!”) and ate his sucker (“Oh! It’s a nice tandy! It tastes like RED tandy!”) and 3 vials of blood later we were done and he had a bandaid on his arm and we went to the library.

When he talks about his day yesterday he mentions the doctor and he mentions the library, but the blood draw doesn’t seem to have made any kind of impression at all. He has asked for more candy, though. Frequently. Enthusiastically.

Once home and fed he took a nice long nap and then went to his grandparents’ house… where he asked to pee in his potty, something he successfully did.

This  is the first time he has peed in the potty. I was stunned when I heard.

So I’ve been chasing him around all day. Do you have to pee? How about now? Want to pee in the potty? How about now? Now? Look, here’s your potty! Want to put some pee in there? I’ve gotten a big fat no overall, although at one point he gamely sat down on his potty… and made pee noises with his mouth. Pssh, pssh, pssh.

In an ideal world I’d corral him on the tile floor of the kitchen and let him run around pantsless, rushing him to the potty at the fist sign of urine. But it’s really cold today and will be so for… uh.  The next 8 months or so. I’m not entirely certain how we’re going to handle this, but candy and stickers will probably be employed.

Not crying at a blood draw! Being excited to go to the library! Peeing in the potty!

The next thing you know he’ll be sleeping in his own bed. Which, I’m pleased to say, he’s been doing a bang up job of getting to sleep by himself after I’ve put him down for naps and bedtimes lately, albeit in our bed. He’s only dragged every single thing out of the closet ONCE. I’m pleased! If this keeps up, we’re going to try and settle him down in his own bed starting on Monday.

Wish us luck.

Technorati Tags: parenting, pediatrician, toddler

Mirrored from Now Showing!.

So, a friend of ours has invited us to the Sandwich Fair (which is located in Sandwich, Illinois as opposed to being a fair about sandwiches, which also sounds tempting I must say) and I’m debating going or not.

Help me internets, you are my only hope! I’m going to list the pros and cons.

PROS:

• It’s a fucking fair! Oh my GOD! Do I really need to list pros here?
• 1/4 scale model steam engine Niko can ride on
• Good times with friends
• FAIR FOOD
• Tilt-A-Whirl
• pony rides
• little petting zoo

CONS:

• It’s really far away. Like, an hour-90 minutes away
• Niko was pretty knackered after 3 hours of the Thomas event, and that was something GEARED to him. Will this stress him out further?
• It’s $8 per adult entrance, so we’d be out $16 just to get in
• FAIR FOOD
• It’s allergy season
• We have a lot to do around the house
• People want to meet up at 10:30, which means we’d have to leave the house around 9:00, which means we’d have to get up even earlier to shower, eat, etc and I’m lazy
• Am I just coming up with cons because I’m Anxious about leaving the house?
• Seriously, it’s like forever away
• There’s a REASON I live in the city and not a rural area

So, totally, I don’t know. Should we go? No? Stay home? Find a county fair or something closer to us? Put if off till next year when Niko is older? Suck it up and have a good time? Hire a babysitter for Niko and go on a date to a movie theater? I DO NOT KNOW.

Mirrored from Now Showing!.

Some of you might remember a few months ago when I agonized over whether or not Niko had asthma and whether or not I should mention it to his pediatrician and then over whether or not I was a shitty parent for not addressing the situation, and his asthma, earlier.

We started treating him with children’s claritin and albuterol and after a few months we eased up on the albuterol because he was doing a lot better. Well, it’s allergy season once again, and we need to start dosing him again.

If you’ve ever wondered what an asthmatic kid sounds like when he’s having a little trouble breathing, I’m embedding a video of Niko singing and playing with his trains. The little breathy grunt gaspy thing he does? That’s a sign of asthma. If you hear your child (or an adult in your life) making that noise? Time for a doctor’s visit.

As you can see, he’s not in DISTRESS. He’s playing and singing and happy. You might not even be able to hear the grunt he’s making. But it’s there, and it’s unhealthy, and it can be treated.

If left untreated, asthma can severely affect a person’s quality of life, leaving them more open to illness and respiratory infections. The pathways of the lungs can literally reroute themselves, reducing the body’s ability to intake oxygen. When properly treated, people with asthma can lead totally normal, healthy, productive, active lives.

Technorati Tags: asthma, parenting, toddler

Mirrored from Now Showing!.