Stride Rite - not as expensive as I thought

When I asked for advice on soft-soled shoes for J, people recommended Stride Rite and Robeez (free shipping on all orders today for delivery by 12/24 at both sites). I also got a recommendation for Shoe Train at the John Cabin Mall. Apparently, they are the BEST children's shoe store in the area with knowledgable staff and a great selection, especially for kids with specific foot-related needs.

For convenience's sake, my husband took J to Stride Rite and got a great deal! I love a deal!

I was all set to pay $30-$45 for a pair of their SRT Soft Motion shoes. But they were having a 50% off sale and my husband got 2 pairs for $33 $40 (whoops, mistake)! I'm not sure if that sale was specific to that store since it was closing, or a recent promotion. Below are the shoes we got and love. J walks so well in them, as if he weren't wearing shoes at all! I'd highly recommend them!

SRT London

SRT Alec

I remember on Black Friday buying size 5 shoes for J. It's only been a month and he's already a 5.5 (and thus wearing a 6). CRAZY how fast their little feet grow. Plus, J has little "man tao" feet, meaning they resemble little Chinese bread buns -- so cute -- just want to eat them up :).

First time with non-family babysitter

Last time my husband considered hiring a babysitter, my reaction was basically what?! you craazy. It was Valentine's Day. J was 8 months old. Luckily, my sister and BIL (brother-in-law) stepped up to the plate and stayed home with sleeping J while we went out for dinner.

Fast forward 10 months and my husband has an evening company partaaay tonight at some fancy smanshy country club that requires men wear jackets after 6pm. Not that we couldn't bring J, but he probably wouldn't have that much schmoozing with industry folk.

I wasn't looking forward to finding and interviewing lots of candidates on sites such as Care.com and SitterCity.com. Luckily for us, the PTO at J's daycare sent out a list of teachers that are available for babysitting! I guess we could have approached J's teacher ourselves, but we were afraid we'd be stepping on the school's toes or whatever.

Soooo....tonight we are leaving J with his first non-family babysitter. 

So, I hope he eats dinner, and plays nicely, and can fall asleep without either one of us being the one to get him to bed....I'm sure he'll be fine since he knows this teacher -- she's right next door and apparently he loves to play with her hair and sit in her lap when it's time to read a book. Aw!

Hope everyone -- me, my husband, and J -- will have fun tonight!

[Video] Walking + what kind of shoes should he wear?

Here is J taking some steps, though not his "first", just the "first on camera". As you can see, every time I whip the cameraphone to take a video, he comes walking, which means I can't ever get a long enough video!

My sister is always making fun of me because I kept saying that "he isn't walking yet" because he wasn't walking independently until a week ago. Well, now he's definitely walking! He also is definitely falling a lot too -- especially under Mom's watch. I may be testing/stretching his ability too much.

Speaking of walking, I'd like to know....

What kind of shoes should he be wearing as he's learning to walk? Any brand of "soft-soled" shoes you'd recommend?

Just for the record, when he's at home, he's barefoot (as demonstrated in the video). But since the kids go outside while at daycare, they have to wear shoes. Currently, he's wearing "normal" shoes, which may also be tripping him up. The soles aren't flexible and are kinda thick. Any recommendations you can give would be great!

[Video] Rocking out on the guitar

J is bouncing up a storm to the beats from the guitar. He also does this thing where he folds his hands and rotates his trunk back and forth. It's so cute and hilarious!

Tantrums

J throws some relatively minor tantrums, compared to the little girl in the video below anyways.


As I posted before, J used to throw food on the floor whenever he was bored/frustrated/done. Eventually, we worked through it, and it hasn't been a problem anymore.

These days, J's tantrums usually involve wanting to be outside playing just a bit longer than Mommy or Daddy want. It all started when J started feeling more confident on his feet. As soon as he got out of the car when we got home, he wanted to take a walk, whereas I wanted to go home. Tantrum! It usually involved J slumping down and taking a seat on the sidewalk.

Well, the tantrum started evolving, and now starts even earlier. Because of J's love for walking and being outdoors, we take the "long" way around the school to get to the car. As soon as I pick him up to put him in the car seat though, he turns into a rigid-stick-of-a-boy and won't let me put him in his car seat.

The first time it happened, I strong-armed him into it. He cried for about 2 blocks.

The next evening, I let him play around in the car for a minute. Then I strong-armed him into the car seat. He cried for about a block. This repeated itself for a few days.

Today, after listening to the Anatomy of a Tantrum on NPR, I held a stick-straight J at the car seat until he calmed down. He didn't seem to want to, so I let him stand in the car and closed the door (and watched through the window). He had some fun playing with the air vents but, not a minute later, he was trying to climb into the car seat while saying, "Up! Up!" No tears on the way home. Whew!

Of course I try to hedge the tantrum by explaining/warning him that we're headed to the car to go home and that he needs to sit in the car seat. But I don't think he's able to really understand that at 16 months. So:

• I gotta let J express his anger/frustration/sadness through these tantrums.
• After he reaches the peak, which is screaming, tears, and boogers, he calms down and is ready to climb into the car seat.
• It only takes a few minutes to run this cycle!

A point that the scientists made that really stuck was that don't try to intervene during the "anger" stage of the tantrum, such as when the little girl is rolling around on the floor in the video. Don't ask questions, don't provide suggestions, don't get angry, etc. Since that level of intense emotion can't be sustained for long, the tantrum will reach a peak, such as when the little girl in the video slams the chair, and "anger" will turn to "sadness", for which the child will seek comfort, i.e., you. Tantrums may seem like they last forever, but the little girl in the video went from screaming to wimpering in less than a minute. 

I hope tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, J's after-daycare pickup will be smoother and we can go right from the school to the car with few tears. 

What's the tantrum-trigger in your house?

Discipline

I believe at either J's 6-month or 9-month checkup, the pediatrician warned us to start thinking about disciplining J, as he would already be manipulating us...whoa!

Thinking back, his worst behavior was throwing food on the floor when he didn't want it anymore. At first, we didn't mind, allowing Coco to pick up the mess. But then we got Jasper, and the dogs got possessive around the highchair, so we tried to put an end to J throwing food on the floor.

It was really hard to stop J. The more we said "no", the harder and faster he threw food on the floor! We asked his teachers what they do at daycare when this happens so that we could be consistent at home. They said, "No, when you're done with something, you can push it to the side but not to the floor." So that's what we did at home.

You know what? Over time, it worked! J still throws things at times. He thinks it's hilarious. He usually does it when he's been sitting there well into 30 min, so who can blame a toddler? We still say "no" but are probably more likely to take everything off the table and take him out of the chair. We probably should really reinforce the "No, you can push it to the side but not to the floor" like we did before.

Well, now that J's 16 months, he needs to be disciplined a lot more. "Discipline" sounds so negative, as if we're punishing J. But discipline just means rules and order. One alternative is chaos, but I've read plenty that says kids need order/routine in their lives. Another alternative is danger. Of course certain things are off-limits. Lastly, we discipline J in order to teach him useful life-skills for success -- manners, sharing, listening, etc.

The discipline tool kit: Successful strategies for every age on BabyCenter.com breaks down age-appropriate discipline. A recurring theme is helping a child understand why he/she is being disciplined. J may be too young to really understand, but as the teachers say, he understands enough at this age.

It's also important that while disciplining, which focuses on the negative, parents should also remember to reinforce the positive. Example, "I'm so proud of the way you set that aside instead of throwing it on the floor."

The most profound thing from the article was to respective my toddler's "no". It's one of the first words toddlers will master because adults say it so often. We say it a lot to Coco and Jasper! I quote "knowing that saying no carries some weight will stop your child from saying it automatically...The more you respect their no, the less often they use it." Deep.

I won't make this post too long, so I'll save what I'm learning about tantrums for another post.

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J's first professional haircut

J's pretty hair was getting a big long everywhere. It was getting in his eyes, ears, and the back was resembling a mullet. I hacked it pretty badly right before he turned one. Sorry! We googled kid-friendly hair salons in our area and turned up some bad reviews. Finally, we just decided to bring him to the place we usually get our hair cut, Beautiful Life Salon. The name is cheesy, but they're in Taiwanesetown, so they have to be!

Faye Ji cut J's hair, and she was patient and had great skills. J had to switch between sitting down in Daddy's lap...playing with new camera toy and iPhone...


...to Mommy holding him (that's J's hair all over me in the photo below).

Surely he is much more comfortable now! Such a big boy with his new haircut!

Some of these photos were posted to Instagram (lisacng) and Followgram. So please be my friend if you use these applications!

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