Blog Posts - rispoklife

13/52

4/14/2013

5, enjoying the art museum.

We went to one of our local art museums today where they have free clasical music concerts on Sundays. We made it through an entire piece- nearly 15 minutes- before we had to leave as 5 was getting ready to shout "boobs!" at the top of his lungs on public radio. (The concerts are broadcast on Wisconsin Public Radio).
We had better luck enjoying the art. My favorite reaction/observation of his- there was a sculpture of two male goats on their hind legs kissing and I was sure there was going to be a lot of goat penis talk (the goats were quite excited and quite nude of course) that the other museum-goers would NOT appreciate, but instead there was a "look Mama, goats kissing!".
Love that boy.

12/52

4/14/2013

A portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2013

We had a little canoeing adventure a few weeks ago- up and down the river and then onto the lake to break up the ice! 5 was thrilled to be using his own paddle (and Mama and Daddy appreciated the upper body workout that 5's "help" gave them).

We got to see ducks, muskrats aplenty, some garbage, and duck poop! Something for everyone...

11/52

3/26/2013

5, explaining to me just how he will put his snowsuit on all by himself.

10/52

3/20/2013

A portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2013

5 showing off his ski moves, encouraging us to keep up.

During the last snow storm, we went out and bought 5 his very own cross country skis. We weren't sure how he would do, but he'd been giving us signs over the last few weeks that he was ready:
Standing on the bed holding two screwdrivers and abruptly plunging them behind him "Mama, I seeeing!" (took me quite a while to make the connection to sKiing).
Later, walking down the hallway and randomly kicking a foot out behind him "Look Daddy! I skiing!"

We figured we ought to at least give him a chance. As the ski season is always over by now, everything was way clearanced, and we didn't feel so bad about buying two hunks of plastic that he'll only be able to use for a few years.

Five is a natural born skiier. He almost never gets his tips crossed, he only falls down on purpose, he can follow in Daddy's tracks or (much slower) make his own. He is SO much better than I was when I started. The things that kids can just take to absolutely amaze me.

9/52

3/17/2013

A portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2013

5 showing off his new favorite pants.

He picked this flannel out at Joann's a few months ago- I love it when he picks out fabric. So when he and my husband went up north for the weekend (yes, it was 5's first night away from me, and yes, it was much more heartbreaking for me than him) I spent the weekend stifling my sorrows by sewing and watching comic book movies.
Among other projects, I drew up a new pants pattern for 5's crazy-long-all-of-a-sudden legs and made a test pair in the bikes fabric of course! They are his new favorites and they have to have something sticky or otherwise gross on them to count as dirty enough to take them off.

8/52

3/14/2013

a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2013

My little dapper don, showing off his Mama-made bowtie and the appropriate face to go with it.

7/52

3/9/2013

A portrait of my son, once a week, each week in 2013

5's first self portrait. I taught him how to use Photobooth on our computer. He got pretty into it. He was so fascinated by seeing his own face in real time, though, that he forgot to put any kind of expression on his face....

I now have all my pictures from each week, I'm really just behind in posting them. Hooray! Perhaps I'll catch up yet!

6/52

3/4/2013

A portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2013

5, showing me how he can count on his fingers (and jump on the bed at the same time).

This little dude has become obsessed with letters and numbers lately. He is almost always singing his ABCs under his breath, at the top of his lungs, in a bear's voice, etc. He is working so hard at counting on his fingers- the counting is there, but getting one finger at a time up is really hard!
It is sooo fun to be able to sing songs with him (as opposed to singing songs to him). 5's favorites of the moment are ABCs, the rainbow song, the songs his Daddy mak

5/52

2/25/2013

A portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2013

5 admiring his lovely smile after his very first trip to the dentist.

Yeah, so let's talk pediatric dentistry for a minute...
There are so many things here that I have mixed feelings about.

The dentists say that babies should come in as soon as they get their first tooth, our pediatrician said we could wait till he was 3 or 4- kind of crazy with the mixed messages. I decided to bring him in because I noticed plaque on his teeth and he's ground them hard enough to chip two of them- seemed like a good time to see a professional.

I was really pleased to be able to take him to the same pediatric dentist that I saw for almost all of my childhood (I have good teeth and no traumatic dentist memories).

Talking fluoride, toothpaste, and "nursing habits" left me feeling a bit unsure though. I know that fluoride is beneficial to kids under 7 or 8, but that it is also terrible if you get too much. Since 5 still swallows all his toothpaste we use fluoride-free stuff. Besides, we live in a city with fluoridated water. The dentist recommended we start using fluoride toothpaste though, even though he's going to swallow that. Just not sure how I feel about that.

We also use hippie toothpaste that doesn't have harsh abrasives in it (like the sodium laurel/laureth sulfides) because that stuff in nasty. But. I'm also noticing that it can be difficult to get all the plaque off of his teeth when we brush. Hmmm.

Lastly, the dentist said that I should wipe his teeth off after he nurses. Every time. Even when he's (and I'm) sleeping. Now, I'm not a lactation consultant, but I'm not sure how the breast milk gets on his teeth. I've seen the diagrams, that stuff barely hits his mouth at all. Just kind of confused about that whole thing.

So, all you mamas and other protectors of children's teeth- how do you navigate these waters? What worked for you? What didn't? Thanks!

4/52

2/21/2013

A portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2013

5 the happiest little snow bunny. He can't wait for our next snow storm!

Yup, it's February and I'm already behind on my single blogging goal... On the plus side, I just might have some sewing time this weekend which would equal new projects to share! Yay!