My Spoon is too Big!

Going out to restaurants with the boys takes a certain state of mind. You have to want to go out to eat (fun!) while wrangling the boys in an unfamiliar environment (maybe!). We're gradually finding places in Santa Cruz that are kid-friendly. That can range from the restaurant being loud (a plus), to having books for kids to look at (new books!), to giving each child their own ball of pizza dough (a huge winner).

A couple weeks back Jessica and Daren, and their kids Caitlin (age 4) and Liam (age 2) came over the hill from Sunnyvale to spend the afternoon with us. We went to the Surfrider Cafe in downtown. We'd been there once before (they have books) but managed to keep it quiet that the kids meals came with ice cream. But not this time! Both boys really loved their vanilla ice cream, with Graham really taking to his "I'm a big boy now" status. There isn't much that is cuter than little boys with big spoons.




We've been making it down to the park 2-3 times a week, depending on the weather. Ducks are there in tremendous numbers. And coots. "What is a coot?" you might ask? (I sure did.) It is like a duck, but smaller. Instead of webbed feet they have what looks somewhat like green leaves that extend from either side of their three toes, to help them swim. Both boys like to chase the ducks and coots, which usually happens in slow motion. It's rare for the ducks to have to ever actually take flight to get away.

Here is Graham coot herding. The coot whisperer?

Duck walking from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

And speaking of bribery...

A while back Finn somewhat suddenly stopped being a kid who always sleeps through the night. It generally wasn't anything he really needed us for - fixing his blankets, getting him a drink of water (there's a water bottle by his bed), or just saying hi. We were not pleased, as you can imagine. So when we were in Pismo Beach recently, we got ourselves a small and affordable seashell collection. Now, when the boys (i.e., Finn) make it through the whole night without waking up Mommy and Daddy, they get "seashell time" in the morning. Making it through the night is defined as from when we close the door at bedtime until the light-on-a-timer turns on at 6:10 am. Here are the boys during a recent seashell time.


Yes, that's a shell on Finn's head. It's not junk food like the cookies, extra trash like stickers, or expensive like the bike, but it works. This was the carrot; there was also a stick, which I could explain to interested parents, but it wasn't nearly as effective.
For those of you looking for a status update on the poop bribes, the bike chart is nearly full, and the bike is ready for weekend pickup. When we ran out of girl scout cookies we somehow got conned into single bites of ice cream. Sigh.

Chicken, it's the new gum

Tonight when I gave Graham his toothbrush he stuck it in his mouth, then took it back out and spit out a wad of chewed up chicken. From dinner. Which had ended over half an hour earlier. Apparently when you don't have all your molars, you can just work on a few bites of chicken all through tummies time, bath time, pajamafication and the like, without ever swallowing or giving up. He's a persistent kid.

Graham's a big chicken fan now, as Jonathan discovered while I was gone. I think the boys had a pretty good time without me, although I was told (and could tell) that I had been missed. Finn says I was gone for "soooo many days, Mama" but politely asked me "how was your day in Philadelphia, Mama?" He's so polite sometimes, I hardly recognize him.

Less than 3 days after I got back, Jonathan left again. The boys seem to be taking it all in stride, although Graham did look around for Jonathan to get his good night kiss after bedtime stories tonight. Here's a picture we took on one of the days we were actually all here, and a couple I took before my trip in case I got homesick.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the potty training bribes have gotten a bit out of hand. The peeing has long been easy, but like many kids, Finn's had intermittent struggles with #2. We started out with 1 M&M rewards, which quickly increased to 2 M&Ms, swappable for 2 chocolate chips, which were somehow more exciting. Somewhere in there things got crazy, and now he's getting daily girl scout cookies and has a chart that, when filled (4 weeks total, 12 days to go), is redeemable for a bike. I mean, we were going to get him a new bike this summer anyway, and the cookies will stop when the boxes are empty, but... geez. The way Finn usually works is that he responds really well to incentives (okay, bribes), and then once he does something long enough, he eventually forgets to ask for his reward. Toothbrushing, peeing on the potty, and I forget what else have all gone that route. I just hope we make as graceful an escape from this one, because it is a *big* one. Wish us luck.