Pants on Fire & Picky Eating

Our little boy is becoming a big fat liar. I mean you can ask him any question and he'll say yes. He's said "yes" when Tom's asked him such questions as, "Did you see aliens at Paula's house today?" "Did you fight the aliens off with a ray gun?" that sort of thing. So we have fun with that and make him agree to funny things because we're messed up parents. That kind of thing is cute.

But he's actually taken to creating his own stories now. Many know that if you ask Tommy how his day was and what he did at Paula's the conversation goes like this... EVERYDAY!

Us: Tommy what did you do today at Paula's?
Tommy: Played Legos!
Us: Who did you play legos with? (he doesn't respond when I say "With whom did you play legos?")
Tommy: Ella!
Us: What did you build with the legos?
Tommy: I build big house!

So that's cute, but I doubt he does that every single day, you know?

Well his latest charade is the most egregious. For the last 2 weeks he's told us that he's had "Chicken Soup" for lunch at Paula's. Now, Paula does in fact make homemade chicken soup for the kids but to my knowledge Tommy had never eaten it. After a few days of his Chicken Soup for Lunch bit, I asked Paula if he'd finally tried her soup. You should have seen the look on her face as she said "NO!" Hilarious. Poor thing, she tries so hard to get him to eat and then still makes him something special for lunch. I don't think I could convince the woman to let him go hungry as they suggest for combating picky eaters. She'd never do it! So he lies to us everyday about what he has for lunch. Paula says he's still eating the same things as he was in September when we had to make a list for her of what he'd eat:
Peanut Butter Sandwich
Cheese Sandwich
Hot Dog
Chicken Nuggets (hey, they're breaded in whole grain! - thank you Costco)
Mac n Cheese

Those are, of course, the same things we feed him for dinner with the addition of pasta. Tommy's salvation seems to be that he loves fruit (though perhaps not as much as Clara). His diet seems to be working for the time being. We do grind up food still sometimes and hide it in grilled cheese. I feel like such a hypocrite!

Now we just have to get the fibbing under control. Note to babysitters, don't believe a word the kid says! He's crafty.

Some pics

Here are some pics from yesterday. First I met Sara & Shawna and kids at the Toddler Gym for a nice midday playdate. Then last night we babysat for Joey & Clara and G-ma came over to help.

As you can see, Tommy and Bridget are well-matched. Perhaps too well-matched for see-saw fun. They just sort of sat there perfectly balanced until I gave them a starting wobble.




As you can see, the shark ate my hand. An unfortunate end to a fun day.

"I pooped a lion!"

OK, you've been warned. This is about poop.

So we are not actively potty training at all! Excuse me, I believe the term is supposed to be Potty LEARNING now. Anyway... we're not doing it. We have a small "potty" that sits in the bathroom and Tommy likes sitting on it clothed while we're in the bathroom. Well, lately he's started asking for a clean diaper very quickly after pooping... he clearly doesn't enjoy being dirty. So yesterday he does this and I go to change him and see that he hasn't even actually pooped yet. I'll leave the details there.

I asked him if he wanted to go sit on the potty or poop in his diaper and he said potty so away we went. This transition distracted him from the task at hand so we spent several minutes in the bathroom singing the ABC song. Finally when he was ready to roll, I gently sat him down and... ta da! Pooped in the potty.

When he stood up and looked in he looked a little freaked out (understandably so). I cheered (but tried not to startle him!) He looked at it and immediately said:

"I pooped a lion!"

" A lion?" I asked.

"I pooped a lion!" he repeats.

I decided to roll with it... whatever works! Now we are still not actively potty training but he's currently obsessed with sitting on it. So I'm not going to argue. It was a big day and he left us with another great Tommy catch phrase for the ages.

(the above photo is a dramatic recreation... I did NOT photograph the poop)

Next thing you know, he'll be wanting one of these!

3 little wildcats

Last night we had a lovely Valentine's evening at the last SI home basketball game. All 3 Cecchin grandsons were there and photo attempts followed. I think G-ma may have some more... or perhaps Tom? These are the attempts I got early in the evening - the CATS lost, but we didn't get to actually watch much of the game anyway!

Hey Marco, thanks for slouching so Tommy looks bigger than you in this pic... he's going to need you to do that for the next 20 years or so. You're a good cousin. Note: it looks like they're wearing the same sweatshirt, huh? Tommy's is a size 2 - Marco's is a size 4.

This weekend in history: 2008

Moving to Nana's:

I've Been to the Zoo

We got a last minute invite from Tim to join him and some of his clients for a behind the scenes tour of the Oakland Zoo with Amy & some of her colleagues. We jumped at the chance to see the giraffes, Amy, Joey and Timmy. (Hope you're feeling better Sara!)

Here are some of the pictures. The boys had a great time!

Joey does his bat impression

Tommy pets a real tortoise that's 120 years old.

Tommy pets a fake tortoise - doesn't know the difference!

We "zooed" right through naptime!

Stow Lake with Tommy, Nana and Aunt Jen

On Saturday, Mom and I took Tommy to Stow Lake to see the ducks.



I'm not sure what he's watching here - but he had to see over the stroller edge and I was just happy he'd forgotten about the buckle. While walking we could hear him say - Tommy push the button.








Helping Nana push. We tried to find a way to hold on to Tommy and not take up the whole sidewalk. He was not really into holding hands for any period of time. This worked for a while.




It was rare to see just ducks. Usually they were mobbed by seagulls. Whenever anyone fed the ducks, seagulls descended. I was surprised that the assault didn't freak Tommy out. I was a little freaked by it.



A duck.



And a squirrel.





At the end of the walk.



At the pizza place. We opted for a buckle-less booster chair instead of a high chair. Tommy did really well with the booster chair.

A good day all around.