Goodbye January. I will not miss you.

Maybe you have noticed from a total lack of blog updates that I have the January blahs. God, I'm tired of the stupid snow, the stupid cold and the stupid driving in the stupid cold and snow.

With my return to work looming ever closer on the horizon, I am starting to integrate the Papaya slowly into daycare. Every second week instead of Kieran going on Tuesday and Friday, they both go on Tuesday. Its nice to have one full day free of children, but on the other hand I still think its a waste of money to have her in daycare when I'm at home. I don't think I can stress enough that this child, who is almost 10 months old, is NO work. I swear, I could bring her to the office and plunk her beside my desk for 8 hours and she would be no trouble at all. Toss her a few Cheerios now and again and she's happy as a clam.

Kieran, also, is making great strides. He seems to be emerging from his terrible toddlerhood to becoming quite the little boy. I don't think I have blogged about it yet, but the child changes his own diapers. (Well, he changes from diapers to pull-ups and then stays in those all day...he can't actually get a diaper back on himself.) Sometimes he asks for help, but usually not. By extension, obviously, he should be toilet trained, but he has fluctuating interest in that department. And really, if you have a boy who changes himself, its almost like he IS potty trained.

His new found independence of course has a downside. Last week, he was changing his clothes 10 times a day. Every time I turned around, he was running off to his bedroom to find a new shirt or pants, strewing clothes all over his bedroom and filling his laundry basket to overflowing. This week, he has developed an irrational attachment to a Cars shirt my mom gave him and it took me two days to get it off him - including one night sleeping in it.

The biggest jump for Kieran though is that finally, FINALLY, I can take him shopping without it being a complete nightmare. From the day he was born Kieran has been terrible in stores. As an infant he could last 10 minutes before the uncontrollable wailing would start. I recall having a brief reprieve when he was around 8 months where he was relatively happy in his stroller but it was short-lived. Up until about 1 month ago he either wanted to walk (by which I mean run off to do his own thing) or be carried. He wouldn't sit in a stroller or a shopping cart and no amount of bribing, cajoling or tough love would make him do so. Now that the Papaya is big enough to sit in a shopping cart, he is happy to sit beside her. I swear its her Zen-like presence that settles him down. I may have to start referring to her as the Dalai Lama. (The Kaya Lam-a, perhaps?)

Speaking of children and shopping, I was trapped the other day at the grocery store, following the same shopping path as a father and his daughter. The little girl was somewhere between the ages of one and two. I first saw them in the bakery section and noticed him because he was holding out two loaves of bread and asking her which one she wanted. I thought it was a bid odd for a kid to have a bread brand preference but I came across them again a few aisles later and he was asking her to pick between two other items. She pointed at one and he put it in the cart, congratulating her on her great choice. Gag. Now, I'm all for empowering our kids, but really, Guy? How much power do want to your kid to have? Do you really want her feeling like the type of mustard you buy is her decision to make? And most of all, how much time do you have, because that is a painfully slow way to shop. I left him in the dust shortly after that but I presume he was going to be letting her pick all his groceries. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they are still there, standing in front of the peanut butter while she contemplates the virtues of crunch v. smooth. Then again, who am I to talk....my kid was wearing the same shirt he slept in.