long, pretty boring recap. sorry.

[flea]

Before we recap, a less thinky parenting question: can anything be done about bird's nest bed-head? Casper awakens with a teased cloud of hair at the back of her head. Other people's kids seem not to have this by her age, but she's still kind of got baby hair despite her age. Water and a comb is no help. Ideas? (Besides putting her down for naps in a snood.)

Weekend:
Successfully acquired 2 furry footie sleepers at the Carter's outlet, both cute neutral stripes from the boy's section, plus a pair of navy cord cargo pants. All size 3T though the pants are a little big. As mr flea noted last night, "There's nothing better than a little kid in footie pajamas."

Attended a diverse array of social events:
1. house blessing a mix of upper middle class black Americans and international grad school people, with highlights a group sing-along to Memory from Cats (I kid you not!) and a Turkish woman belting out old standards. Several very cute little girls, including a stunner with the same name as Casper.
2. Birthday party a lesson in the social dynamics of 3 year old girls, mostly families from the birthday girl's Jewish day school. Casper just played with the new toys and ignored the social maneuvers that included things like, "I like you, but only a little bit." One woman there with her 3 year old had an 18 and a 20 year old at home - so cool and laid back, and a beautiful little girl.
3. Park potluck baby shower for our neighbor, who is 42 and expecting her third, with older kids 11 and 8. Of course, they'd given away all their baby stuff. Excellent marinated chicken (must ask for recipe) and neighborhood people, most of whom I don't know too well as they are parents of school-age kids. Casper LOVES Gabriel.

Halloween:
Park story time and parade is so much fun for the parents! And the cutie kids! Best costumes: 6 month old Shannon who was baby Elvis, with pencilled-in sideburns to go with her natural pompadour (the kid was born with a 2 inch mohawk), and the family where the 7 year old was Bullwinkle, the 4 year old Rocky, and the 9 month old a grinning Boris Badenov with black-pencilled eyebrows. Casper loved the glow stick she got. Then home to put some actual dinner in the child, then maybe half an hour of trick-or-treating with me, basically just up and down our block. Casper was more interested in the dogs at most of the houses than the actual treats, but about halfway through she figured out that it was candy in the bowls, and started diving right for them. We practiced saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" as we walked between the houses, but she wouldn't perform when it came time. Home, built a fire and ate popcorn. Casper tried various of her treats but mostly didn't like them, so I gave her some m&ms. Pictures are at www.flickr.com/photos/casperflea.

Yesterday:
I had to take the day off and watch my own kid, plus Ellen for 4 hours. Mr. flea is usually the backup nanny for the mornings, but he had jury duty, and the nanny had to take her mother for a 4-hour GI procedure in Chapel Hill. I had thought until the day before we were all set, but basically Rich Family put it on me on Monday. Adding to my miffed-ness is that the "meeting" Rich Family Dad had that kept him from doing the morning turned out to be a haircut appointment. So I called in absent at the last minute and of course the person I had hoped would cover the desk for me was working from home. General grr.

It was interesting to spend a long block of time with Ellen. I see her all the time, but only for 10 minute stretches with at least 3 other humans rushing around trying to get stuff accomplished. I had tended to think of her and Casper as the same - they are the same size, but Ellen is 5 months older. And it's really obvious they're not when you spend time with her - she's more sophisticated at talking, playing, communicating what she wants. Casper magically turned back from my big girl to my baby! Of course, part of the transformation was that she did act like a baby, clinging to me, wanting to nurse. She and Ellen fought a lot, too - lots of squabbles over toys. Fun part: playing play-doh and making worms and bracelets and balls and then gleefully squishing them. Lesson learned: I cannot carry two 30-pound children at the same time.

Comments

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

A bunch of months ago I carried Squeaky and our friend's daughter -- who is two weeks younger, but three weeks preemie, so about a month developmentally -- up and down the block because they were both so fussy and I would rather have the challenge of holding two squirmy whiney babies outside than listen to the stereo bawling effect in the house with the echo chamber. They were both around 20 lbs, both under 1.

But that's when I knew I could handle twins.

We didn't take squeaky out to trick or treat, just had people come to our porch and then we took a very brief break because DH refused to cover for five minutes, and we ran down the street to see the only neighbors who hadn't come over yet -- the twin 10 month old boys. They were behind the screen door with Mom and Grandma while Dad handed out candies, and the boys loved seeing all the kids coming up the stairs to their porch. Squeaky was a bee and she ran to the boys -- "BABY! BABY!" and pointed out their caretakers "MAMMA! MAMMA!"

Squeaky is about six months younger than Casper, apparently, so you might be able to extrapolate backwards from Ellen :^) And since she's about 36 inches/29 lbs, she's bigger than most kids her age, so she could probably keep up with the big girls!

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

I checked out the photos and she's ADORABLE. I'm going to try not giving squeaky chocolate for a bit longer -- she reacted to it when I had some pretty strongly early on -- but yeah, next year she'll get some of her own treats.

As for hte hair question, I think part of it is that Squeaky no longer sleeps on her back all the time. She'll frequently roll over with her butt in the air, or she'll turn her head sideways. A few years ago I went for haircuts with a friend, and her hairdresser was like, "You sleep on your back, don't you?" So apparently the sleep=on=the-back thing doesn't always go away even for grown-ups.

[cindywrites.livejournal.com]

Other people's kids seem not to have this by her age, but she's still kind of got baby hair despite her age. Water and a comb is no help. Ideas? (Besides putting her down for naps in a snood.)

Two things helped with Julia (who, at almost 7 years, is still both tender-scalped and prone to snarls)--a professional haircut, and Johnson&Johnson's No More Tangles. You have to have a light hand with the No More Tangles, or her hair will look greasy, but it did make morning comb-outs or brush-outs slightly easier.

[cindywrites.livejournal.com]

Oh, another suggestion if her hair is long enough and if she'll tolerate it, it might help to put her hair in a loose pony tail for bedtime, provided you can position it in a place that won't annoy her. Also, brushing her hair before bedtime will help a little bit, too.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

You know, one reason that Casper is reasonably well-advanced for her age may be that she's trying to 'catch up' with Ellen. Plus Ellen gets reinforcement for the stuff she's learned by passing it along. They're getting some 'sibling' benefits out of this co-nanny arrangement, which is a bonus I hadn't thought of.

Unfortunately, all that I have to suggest for bedhead is a snood. Failing that, if her hair gets much longer, you could braid it or pony/pigtail it. It's one of the traditional old-timey methods.

Or -- you could give her a buzzcut! O.o

[minim_calibre]

If you can find some satin pillowcases at a thrift store, I seem to recall those helped my tangle-prone mess.

Cindy's suggestion of No More Tangles (or another lightweight spray conditioner) is a good one.

tangles

[mightyurchin.livejournal.com]

I second the satin pillowcase suggestion - as a child, my hair got horribly tangled during the night, and I seem to recall the satin pillowcase helped.

[zonewombat.livejournal.com]

Thirding the rec for No More Tangles. To this day I have to use a spray conditioner, and when I was Casper's age it was worse. Water won't do it; light product might.

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

I think my mom bought the first bottle of No More Tangles in the late '60s. I had hair to my waist by 1969, so that stuff was a godsend. Here's another vote.