Got Me a Job

I now have two ways that I make a little extra money and have fun too. 

On Wednesday mornings I help teach our car seat class at All Children's Hospital.  The class is free and is open to anyone who wants to learn how to use their car seat or to make sure they are using their seat correctly.  It's also for inpatient families (like babies in the NICU) who will be discharged that week.  For those who are low income, they can purchase a seat from us for very inexpensive.  During the first part of the class the families watch a video and then we go outside for the installation in their cars.  I'm usually there for about two hours.  It's a perfect job for me!  I love driving to downtown St. Pete and I love being back in the hospital again.

The other fun thing I get to do is watch baby Ella every other Friday.  She is eight months old and such a delight!  It's been so much fun to have a baby in the house again.  She is so content and plays and sleeps really well.  I think it's been a good thing for Cannon too, learning about what babies are like and how we take care of them.  

You know what's creepy?

When you suddenly see a masked person out of the corner of your eye. 

Melbourne, FL

We spent the past week in Melbourne, FL.  Ryan had a work trip and Cannon and I got to tag along.  The best part was that Ryan was home (well, back to the hotel) early almost every day, sometimes by 3:00.

Cannon thrives on routines and quickly established one at the hotel.  Every morning we ate our breakfast buffet at the same table.  He ate the same breakfast every morning: bacon, scrambled eggs, french toast, apple juice, and some fruit.  Then we would go swimming in the pool and/or to the beach.  Then upstairs for quiet time and back to the beach and/or pool again.  We brought his bike along, so we threw that into the mix every now and then too. And then dinner at a restaurant.  Oh, and Cannon decided that his job was to push the buttons for the elevator.  He knew to push 1 and 7.

The Atlantic is definitely cooler than the Gulf.  Some days it felt a little too cool for me, but other days it was perfect.  Although still hot and humid, it really wasn't that bad.  There was always a cooler breeze.

Our walk on the beach turned into a swim

We had a super long hallway perfect for riding a bike!

Ryan liked to take Cannon out far

We found TONS of jelly fish one day!

We took some back to our room and put them in water

Football on the beach!

It rained every afternoon or evening

And Cannon surprised us with his swimming skills! One time he made it across the short end of the pool (15-20ft) in one breath! The more he swims, the better he becomes. I'm glad we still have a good two months of swimming here!

We all had a fun and relaxing time!  

In Play We Trust

I"m a big advocate of letting your child play the way he wants to without much formal direction from the parent.  One thing I learned when I worked at the children's hospital was that children know what they need to do to heal.  Meaning, that when kids came to play in the playroom we always let them decide what they wanted to play with and how they wanted to play it (so long as it was not hurting themselves or anyone or destroying things).  Because play is a child's work and their way to sort out the hurt and the crazy and the scary and the confusing and the fun and their ideas and so forth.

I carried this idea into my home once Cannon was born.  I leave things open-ended for him and I usually don't suggest ways for him to play, he gets to decide that.  Last year I noticed that he played with his trains the same way every day.  He would drive them around the edge of the coffee table, line them all up, and drive them off the edge.  Then he would drive them up on the TV stand (which was a little taller) and do the same thing.  This lasted for about four or five months.  I wondered why he played like that and wondered what could he possibly be "learning" from that sort of play.  I was tempted to interfere, but I never did.  I just stayed close by and watched.  At that point in his life he had pretty little impulse control, like most other two-year-olds, but his somehow seemed a little bit worse.

A few months ago I learned that when children drive their cars/trains on tracks and in lines, that helps them learn impulse control.  That was one of those "Aha" moments for me!  I am so glad that I let Cannon play the way he wanted to because he instinctively knew what he needed to work on.  And I have to say that Cannon's impulse control is so much more improved!

Last story.

Cannon has two trains named Bash and Dash (actually *had*-we left them and we've waiting for them to be sent back to us).  I guess they're like twins, but Dash is orange and Bash is grey.  When Cannon first got them he learned their names and could tell them apart.  Then a little while later he mixed up their names.  I knew he could tell them apart and it seemed like he was just doing it on purpose, but I didn't know why.  I SO wanted to correct him, but I would just tell him, "Okay."  Yesterday we were playing together and he said that he was Bash and I was Dash.  He is always Bash, because in real life he likes to bash things.  Then he said, "You are grey and I am orange."  And then I finally realized why he switched their names.  Bash is his favorite name and orange is his favorite color, so logically they must go together!  Aha! Once again, I'm glad that I let things be and it was really fulfilling to have that insight into his mind.

Cannon, Cannon, and More Cannon

We have been enjoying our summer this year and Cannon seems to be growing up right before my eyes.  When it's not a thousand degrees outside we do try and spend as much of our play time out in nature.  We have the best adventures!  Cannon's newest interest is bugs.  We checked out this cool backpack from the library that was filled with books about bugs and it also came with binoculars, a magnifying glass, a net, a bug grasper thing, and a clear box for bug storage.   I don't like catching live bugs, so we look for dead ones around our pool.  Those are the best ones because you can hold them, touch them, and see them up close.  So far we've been able to find a dragonfly, katydid, sphinx moth, a bee, and lots of little beetle type bugs.

Fun with friends

When it's just too hot to play outside, we swim!  We probably go swimming three or four times a week.  Cannon is getting much better at swimming, but I can't really say that he can swim yet.  We also look forward to the rain.  It rains almost every day in the summer which makes for great puddle jumping!  I found some rain boots on clearance and surprised Cannon with them.  He LOVES his boots and he wears them every day for every occasion.





 Last Saturday we went to a Ray's game.  That was Cannon's first major league baseball game.  He brought his little glove and was so hoping to catch a ball.  That never happened, so he was a bit disappointed.  However, he had a great time!  He quickly realized that this was a place where he could yell and heckle and be rowdy and not get in trouble.  He was cracking everyone up with his remarks and expressions!  He also had his first taste of cotton candy and did not like it! 

A long time ago I bought Cannon a Winnie the Pooh CD to listen to in the car on long drives.  He hasn't been interested in it until lately.  I think it all started when he found Ryan's beloved childhood Pooh Bear (actually there are two of them).  We borrowed the Winnie the Pooh books on CD from the library and listen to them in the car everyday, well actually just tracks one and two which is the story of the honey tree and when Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit's hole.  It's kind of a nice change from music and I like listening to their accents.

What else?  He is improving on his balance bike and can balance down a hill.  His favorite candies are M&M's (he calls them "yummy yums").  And we have to read the three same books before bed each night (and in the same order): The Little Blue Truck, The Adventures of Frog and Toad (all five stories!), and Roxaboxen.  Oh yes, and he tells me he loves me about 20 times a day!

Ryan is in North Carolina this week and Cannon had a good cry about it today, but the good news is that we will join him for his next trip to Melbourne, FL in a couple of weeks.