Trials of Tristan

Tristan has been going part-time to a local daycare facility since June.  On his first day we received a call from the Director stating that he was acclimating very nicely...except for when he tried to run away THREE times!  Perhaps that is a bit dramatic.  He merely walked out of the front door, that leads directly to the parking lot...three different times.  Each time he managed to overcome various barricades staff put in his path in the hopes of deterring his escape.  This problem has since been fixed with special child-proof handles on the doors and it has been smooth sailing until yesterday.

I should preface with the fact that we spent the weekend working really hard with Tristan's potty training (another blog worthy post I am sure).  He has become QUITE intimate with all things toilet.  :-)  When we arrived to pick Tristan up from daycare I was met by a staff member leading him by his hand toward me.  Considering the last several times I have arrived to pick him up became a chasing game around, over, and under the jungle gym, I thought that they were helping me out by corralling him.  HA!  It turns out that this is how they greet a parent that needs to be informed of "an episode". 

Tristan's new found introduction to all things toilet decided to make an appearance when nap time ended.  While the staff was busy changing diapers, waking children, and putting bedding away, Tristan decided to sneak off to the bathroom.  Before you freak out and think that this is a horrible daycare you must know that Tristan has ninja stealth-like abilities - true story.  Once inside of the bathroom he saw the toilet training seat being used for all of the toddlers and had an 'ah ha!' moment.  I know he had this moment because he decided to place said training seat over his head and wear it like a necklace.  You see, these little seats go on very easily but removal is a tad tricky.  Tristan discovered that he was unable to remove his new toy leaving him no option but to go for help.  The staff member telling me what happened was blessed with finding Tristan tugging on her shirt saying "uh oh".  :-)  I smiled, because when I showed up he obviously had been relieved of his newly acquired bling.  You can imagine with me how funny it would look to see this on your child can't you?

It turns out smiling was not occurring in the onset.  The training seat became stuck on Tristan's head, trapping the tops of his ears (the tops look pretty red even today) and wouldn't move up OR down.  There was a moment that the staff thought they might have to call to have it CUT from his head!  Oh my goodness, imagine my intake of breath when I heard THAT; all smiles were removed from my face.  Long story somewhat shortened - the wonderful ladies were able to finally remove the training seat from Tristan's somewhat reddish head.  I was assured that he was cleaned and sanitized all over, it was a training toilet seat around his head after all, no matter how much it is cleaned it still has a gross factor!  Happy ending for all.  Of course, they are now implementing precautions to ensure this doesn't happen again.  OH the Trials of Tristan!

Traveling Tristan strikes AGAIN!

Our 2+ year old boy is quite a handful!  Today he has decided that he should 'wash' the dishes.  :-)  Oh joys!  ONE of my kids really WANTS to do housework...it just happens to be the one that is tinier than most of my cleaning tools.  *sigh* 

What to do?!?  I did what any sanity-preserving Mama would do: I let him 'wash' dishes!  If you decide to follow in my footsteps PLEASE learn a few lessons from my adventure.  First I should tell you what I did correctly:

• I removed all breakable and/or dangerous items from the sink area.
• I cleaned the sinks thoroughly.
• I used one side for the 'washing' by putting warm water and some dishwashing liquid.
• I provided him with plenty of dishes such as: plastic cups of various sizes, plastic straw, and large serving spoon.
• I gave him a perch that was high enough to put him within reach of the sink without being too high.
• I was never more than 3 steps away at any time during his adventure.

What will I do differently next time?  The lessons I pass on for you to learn:

• Place a water-proof mat or plastic under the perch to capture the inevitable water spillage.
• Ensure that your child is in clothing you don't mind changing immediately afterward.
• Make sure all sponges, washcloths, towels, etc are out of your child's reach (YOWZER the mess they can make with H2O!).
• Ensure that all dishwashing liquid is out of child's reach (this made for quite a fight when the bubbles went away and he decided he needed more "soap"...avoid this at all costs lest this sanity-preserving exercise was for naught).
• Remain within arms length at all times!  3 steps away turned out to be too far; my little guy decided that he had to rinse the dishes too, the perch was a tad further from the faucet requiring him to reach and scoot the chair out from under him.  Visualize with me:  nose diving toward soapy water, feet dangling in mid-air, shriek of anxiety (not sure if it was Tristan's or my shriek).  This MUST be avoided at all costs! {NOTE:  I have super-hero, cat-like reflexes;  I was able to avoid catastrophe by catching him in mid-dive :-)}

Tristan reaching to rinse the dishes...right before nose diving experience. 

Despite the mishap and mess, my sanity was most definitely preserved (for the time being), the kitchen counters/cabinets/floor are super duper clean, and my little guy was extremely happy!  Of course, now he thinks that he should do the dishes all of the time and no object is safe from being used as a 'perch' but that is life with Traveling Tristan!