Quirk?

So this was the scene the other day in Doug's room. I was putting away his laundry and he was moving around his room like a small tornado. He came upon his book shelf and systematically started ripping every book off the shelves. This 'activity' , lets call it, (I don't want to use the word 'behavior', it makes me squeamish) actually started a few months ago. He had started to become very difficult on the changing table, constantly reaching behind himself to get into the diaper organizer to grab things. I initially thought that he just wanted to play with something while he was being changed. A few weeks later I observed him with some of his toys in the basement. He has a toy pot with vegetables in it. Every time some one puts the veggies in the pot, Doug pours them out. The same with his ring stacker toy, he rips them off. He also tries to empty his toy box and the laundry baskets. I started flipping through our copy of The American Academy of Pediatrics book and only found that this emptying thing is a skill to master. I was like, um, check! I also have no idea how one year olds are supposed to 'play', other than in an investigation sort of way. He can roll a truck back and forth and turn on many of his toys. He's starting to kick a ball. I am just flummoxed. I don't know if this is atypical behavior, a phase or a personality quirk. Any ideas?

Story Time

This week I took Doug to story time for the first time. I've been attempting to do it for some time, but for one reason or another, it just hasn't worked out. One of the problems we had with getting to story time, is that it's so early. Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but a story time at 10:30 is a little bit tricky for us to get to. It takes at least an hour and a half for us to get out the door in the morning. This includes a shower for me, dressing myself and then doing something with my hair. Then I have to change (usually twice) and dress Doug. After than, I have to shovel some breakfast down his throat and get his coat on and gather all his paraphernalia. It's exhausting. However, now that Doug is one, he now can go to the toddler story time, which starts at 11:15 and is a much more manageable time for us.

The other issue was my fibromyalgia. I am usually tired and sore in the morning, so getting up and out isn't always an option. Lately Doug has been sleeping in until 11:30. I blame the time change and my need for extra sleep. Recently I've started a new drug which really seems to be helping with the pain and fatigue. So it took a while for us to get all our ducks in a row for story time. Crazy, I know.

When we got to the library, we arrived a little early for the toddler story time. I asked at the children's desk where it was, and we were ushered into a room where a story time was already taking place. At first I was confused, I thought that maybe the time had changed. It turned out that we were in the story time for infants. I mostly deduced this from the fact that Doug was the biggest child there. We stayed for the last half of that story time and stuck around for the next story time which was for toddlers.

The story time for toddlers was a different beast entirely. Doug got into a couple of scraps with a few of the other toddlers. Most of the kids were up and walking around and getting into stuff. There were a few people from the earlier story time with older children who also stayed on for the next story time. The girl and her mother that had sat next to us stayed too. The girl was a little tiny thing, yet she was walking around kissing everyone. Turns out she was only 7 months! She'd started walking when she was only 6! Anyway, at one point her mother offered her some Gerber puffs. Doug loves those things and he saw this go down. So, Doug being Doug, toddled over and looked at the mom expectantly. She asked me if it was ok, and then offered the cup to Doug, who promptly grabbed three of them. After that I grabbed him and sat him on my lap so he didn't finish off the little girl's puffs. Unfortunately, Doug didn't think he'd had enough puffs. He kept wandering over to the mom and badgering her. She hid them, but Doug is all over object permanence and tried to get to the hiding spot. As a desperate move, I grabbed him and clipped his pacifier to him, hoping that if his mouth was busy, he'd leave the puffs alone. It seemed to work for a while. At one point, Doug wandered into the middle of the small room with some of the other kids. He walked over to a little boy exactly his size. They stood very close sizing each other up. Doug didn't have his pacifier in his mouth, but he was fingering the leash it was on. The little boy noticed this. Doug noticed the little boy eying his pacifier and got antsy. Luckily, before the little boy made a grab for it, his mother grabbed him. A few minutes later, the little girl that we'd been sitting next to noticed Doug's pacifier as well. She had one clipped to her clothes, but nearly knocked Doug over trying to get to his. As they were both close to me, I popped her's in her mouth, and the crisis was resolved. The last scrap Doug got into was when an older and much bigger boy knocked him over. Doug cried, mostly because he was surprised and didn't see it coming. Over all, it was a pretty positive experience. Doug enjoyed seeing other kids and it was nice to have something to do. A reason to get out of the house. I think we'll be back next week.

One

Saturday was Doug's first birthday. We had a rather largish party for him, I think in all about 30 people came. We had a total blast! Doug really enjoyed it. He didn't take a nap all afternoon, he didn't want to miss anything!

Our gift to him was this sand and water table. We didn't fill it with water because it was only in the 60's. All the kids seemed to enjoy it. Doug had never seen sand before, so we weren't sure how he would react. He was so excited by it that he kept grabbing handfuls of it to show us. Remarkably, he never ate any of it.




Initially, Doug was eating his cake very nicely off of a fork. But then he decided to give the people what they wanted:


I actually had cake all over my shoulder from picking him up.


Doug got so many balloons I thought he'd float away!