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Weekend & Family Friday: The Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels
Cb says
Any reading recs for a 10 year old girl? She devoured the Harry Potter books and stayed up late reading Number the Stars in preparation for her trip to the Jewish Museum. I’d like to gather a stack of books for her Christmas present.
Lily says
Anne of Green Gables box set; Narnia box set; Ann Rinaldi historical fiction novels – those were my faves before Harry Potter came onto the scene.
Anonymous says
+to Ann Rinaldi. Those, along with my American Girl and little house on the prairie books were the ones my mom and I decided to save. I also liked the “Dear America” series of books, but not sure where those fall in terms of reading level. I was a huge historical fiction reader in elementary and middle school. Could not get enough.
CPA Lady says
The Redwall books
chitownlatatty says
The War That Saved My Life and its sequel The War I Finally Won. My 10 year old loved them both. (And she read the entire Babysitters Club graphic novel series and loved those too!)
ElisaR says
I loved “A Wrinkle in Time” around that age.
Anonymous says
I preferred “Many Waters,” but same characters.
Anon says
Yes, the whole series!
Spirograph says
Oh man, children’s lit and YA are my favorites
More Lois Lowry! The Giver, Anastasia Krupnik series.
Adventure:
Gary Paulsen (Hatchet, Woodsong, etc)
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Julie of the Wolves
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Nothing But the Truth is my other favorite by Avi)
Fantasy:
+1 for Redwall.
His Dark Materials trilogy (but note this has some anti-religious themes underneath the adventure story)
all Madeline L’Engle’s books
Historical Fiction:
Snow Treasure (also about WWII)
A Night Divided (Berlin wall) has a girl protagonist
Refugee (first-hand fictionalized stories of refugees. Cuba circa 1990s, Nazi Germany, and present day Syria)
Fun:
I Want to Go Home and other Gordon Korman
Marshmallow says
You are giving me such great flashbacks to the stuff I liked at that age! +1 to Island of the Blue Dolphins and His Dark Materials. A Wizard of Earthsea series by Ursula K. LeGuin is also great if she likes adventure.
Ducky says
+1 for Julie of the Wolves!
Buddy Holly says
I’ve been consciously trying to select books from authors of color and marginalized communities for my child, who is a lot younger than yours. But looking at some of the same resources that I look at to find books for my child, if you are also interested in adding diverse authors to her reading list, maybe consider:
Serafina’s Promise
Esperanza Rising
Inside Out and Back Again
Brown Girl Dreaming
A Long Walk To Water
One Crazy Summer
Piecing Me Together
El Deafo
Enchanted Air
lsw says
El Deafo is SO. GOOD. My SIL got it for my SD a few years ago for Christmas and my husband and I read it too. It’s so, so great.
Buddy Holly says
I haven’t actually read it, but I heard an interview with the author and she is just so, so amazing. I imagine her book would be quite good.
Spirograph says
Can you share the resources you use to find books by diverse authors?
Buddy Holly says
Not sure if you will see this, but I go at it a couple of ways. Often, I already know one book that I thought was great written by a diverse author. So I Google that book and “list” to see what lists it appears on. Then check out other books if I find lists that look good. I also do the good old “other customers that liked this book were interested in . . .” on Amazon and other sites. Sometimes I get lucky and find a good list just by googling “books for 10 year old by authors of color” or something like that. I look at all these things and usually a few titles jump out because they are appearing multiple times under different searches, have great reviews, etc. Anyway, it seems to work best when I have one good book as a seed to start my searching. Hope this helps. It is not too scientific.
shortperson says
my kids are too young for her chapter books, but we love the picture books by grace lin. and i hear that her chapter books are very good. boxers and saints and american born chinese are also good graphic novels for tweens.
i’m sure there are better options now and parts of it are probably no longer PC, but i found “iggies house” to be eye opening for me about the existence of entrenched racism when i read it as a kid. and i will share the march graphic novel series with my kids.
i also read the maus series when i was probably 8 or 9, which i think was probably too young. “lyddie” is about a child laborer. she’s white, but i think it’s worth exposing kids to.
Anon says
+1 to Iggies House
Anonymous says
Sally Lockhart
lsw says
My SD loved Rick Riordan (I do too, honestly!). The Percy Jackson series is a great place to start.
I have no idea how they hold up, but I loved the Vesper Holly series at that age. Also by Lloyd Alexander, the Chronicles of Prydain were a huge favorite (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron).
DLC says
The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz is the best book I’ve come across recently. It came out last year and is about three kids on a quest in Medieval France to save the burning of the Talmud.
TK says
How mature? I read The Hate u Give last year and it was phenomenal, but dealt with pretty heavy subject matter. Best YA book I’ve read in a long time.
AnonLaywer says
Tamora Pierce!
Io says
Fantasy genre: Tamora Pierce, Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede, Tuesdays at the Castle series, Keeper of the Lost Cities series,
All’s Faire in Middle School (graphic novel)
Books for 12 year olds: The Hero and the Crown, (not fantasy) True Grit
AIMS says
I was Dawn. That is all.
Boston Legal Eagle says
I was Mary-Ann, minus the long-term boyfriend in high school. I never actually babysit as a teen but I loved this series!
Anon says
Same.
Anon says
I wanted to be a Claudia, but I was totally a Kristy.
Pogo says
hard same.
Legally Brunette says
I wanted to be Claudia, but I was definitely Maryanne. But I think I may have grown up into Claudia (at least when it came to fashion sense), so it’s all good. :)
AwayEmily says
There’s a podcast called “The Baby-Sitters Club Club” where two guys in their thirties recap all the BSC books. They are super weird and super funny — I would often listen to them on the way to work to put myself in a good mood for the day. Recommended!
Spirograph says
Yes! I was going to mention this. It’s one of my favorite brain candy podcasts.
AIMS says
I am definitely going to look into this, thanks!
anon says
I wanted to be Stacey. In reality, I was Kristy or Mary Anne.
anon says
I mean, minus that whole diabetes thing and her parents’ divorce. Mostly I wanted to be city-girl sophisticated and have cool clothes. And tell off Laine, because she was such a B, and go off and be BFFs with Claudia.
avocado says
I wanted to live in the fantasy world where these kids were allowed to babysit at age 12, had their own money, went to school with kids who lived in their own neighborhood, and could walk or bike anywhere they wanted to go on their own.
avocado says
Actually, now that I think of it, I have basically been trying to create a BSC childhood for my own 12-year-old. And she pretty much has it.
AnonLaywer says
I feel like that was basically my life at that age . . . except for the money part, since the people I babysat for paid $1.50 an hour (back in the mid-90s). I’m a little sad my kids won’t have that.
That said, unlike in the BSC books, absolutely nobody acted like we were super mature!
anon says
yea i was a mix between Kristy and Mary Anne, but also wanted to be Stacey. i was beyond obsessed with the series. had the videos, the dolls, etc. and in fact when we had to read a bibliography for a book report i read Ann M. Martin. apparently, BSC is now on Audible with Elle Fanning narrating!
ElisaR says
The descriptions of Dawn as a California girl are embedded in me. I am from the NorthEast….I would meet people from California in college and at work later in life and just assume they must be effortlessly cool like Dawn.
shortperson says
i think she made me want to move to california, and i’ve been here almost 20 years. but i am still more of a mallory.
CPA Lady says
Was Stacey the one who lived in a hotel? Do people still do that? It seemed impossibly glamorous to my small-town rural southern self.
Pogo says
Her dad lived in NY, I think, and she lived in an apartment building. But maybe it was a hotel?
Anonymous says
I really wanted to be chill enough to be Dawn. Or sporty enough to be Kristy. But really, I had the leadership skills of Kristy, combined with with the nerdiness of Mary Anne, minus being nice or having a hot boyfriend.
Clementine says
Oh my word, you just described me 100%.
Also, my print handwriting is modeled after Dawn’s. Yes, as an adult I do still write like that when I print. (Fun fact though, I write in cursive 95% of the time…)
anon says
Oh my gosh, are we the same person?
Spirograph says
Are all of us the same person? Maybe this is the type of kid that grows up to be an “overachieving chick.”
Sasha says
I was Mallory. Tons of little siblings, loved to read/write, nerd with glasses…
shortperson says
yes i was mallory, without the siblings.
AnonLaywer says
I was Mallory too, minus the siblings.
Anonymous says
BSC forever!!!
I would re-read these books as an adult in a heartbeat. I can’t wait for my daughter to get old enough for them (currently 3.5), so that I can steal them ;)
Clementine says
Hey! Thanks for reading the post I wrote yesterday. I’m really glad to be able to share this quirky part of my life with you all.
lsw says
I was so grateful you did! I have several foster parents in my life right now (friends and colleagues) and I’m learning more about it through their stories. I really appreciate you sharing your perspective! Thank you!
avocado says
Hear, hear! Clementine, your post and all of your responses to the comments were lovely and thoughtful.
Callie says
I loved your post yesterday–didn’t comment but it sparked conversations at our house last night for sure. (Now is not the time for us as I am 8 months pregnant and we’re about to have 3 under 4. But I’d like to think that we could also do this in a few years. I’ve often thought how could we foster–we both work fulltime and are we really “good enough”–your commentary about how you make it work was really helpful. Also your commentary about just showing up meant a lot too. I told my husband last night, we’re figuring it out as we go along of course and we don’t always have the right answers in how to deal with the temper tantrums and the knocks along the way and I sometimes feel so guilty when I get home from work and turn on a sesame street almost every single day, but you know, we try really hard and we love really hard and I am encouraged to “know” (aka read here on corporette) about someone else who took that leap to make a difference in a child(ren)’s life.
Callie says
Also, I’m going back to your post now to ask some specific other questions I was wondering about–if you’ve still got the energy to field them.
Clementine says
I tried to respond! (On my phone so forgive me.)
octagon says
Clementine, your post really resonated with me and it took a day to figure out why. It’s because you placed such emphasis on being a temporary but stable and loving home, with the goal of getting the kids back to the parents (if the parents are able). Family reunification is not often represented as a goal in media — I’m thinking of the storyline in This Is Us where it was almost predetermined that the foster daughter would be adopted.
Clementine says
Yeah… that hasn’t been my reality at all. I briefly mentioned this in another response, but the child who currently lives with me has been there for 3/4 of their life. Up until a few months ago, things were looking drastically different than they do today.
When I think about kiddo going home, I remind myself that it is meeting the goal of foster care. Whatever happens, I know that when this kid is 13 or 21 or when when kiddo becomes a parent- I want to know that if they come to me I can tell them that we did everything we possibly could to support their parent.
I read a lot written by adult adoptees. Many struggle with feelings of being unwanted or rejected by their birth families. I make sure that I can tell this kid just how loved and wanted they were by so many people.
(Even though it TOTALLY sucks because I am selfish and love this kid and want to protect them forever.)
ElisaR says
AIMS i love that you spawned a conversation on BSC on the main page!
LittleBigLaw says
I’m looking for an alternative to Evernote to keep us organized this school year. I love a lot about Evernote, but I’m looking for something that is better for collaboration. My biggest pet peeve is that Evernote doesn’t seem to have the option for notifications whenever someone edits a shared notebook. Anyone have something they like better? I really want to keep the ability to scan photos and documents directly into shared notebooks and/or lists. Bonus if it’s free but willing to pay for something great.
Marshmallow says
I have started slowly switching over to Google Keep from Evernote for similar reasons and I like it so far.
Anon says
Has anyone done orthotics for flat feet/pronation in toddlers? My 15 (almost 16) month old is still not walking independently and her daycare teacher told me today she feels like her ankle is rolling inward when she walks with assistance and she needs an orthotic shoe. When I got to the office, I started looking it up and it seems like a lot of people advise against doing orthotics to correct flat feet before preschool age because it tends to self-correct when they learn how to walk. On the other hand, she is SUPER frustrated that she can’t walk and it’s wrecking havoc on her behavior and sleep so I’m eager for a solution and this doesn’t seem like a super drastic thing to try.
Anonymous says
What about old-fashioned high-top shoes? I had to put my daughter in lace-up high-tops from Stride Rite when she was around that age because they were the only shoes she couldn’t pull off and stick in her mouth. (She could still put them in her mouth while they were on her feet, but at least she did that less often.) High-top shoes would provide a lot more support than the usual soft baby shoes for kids learning to walk.
I wouldn’t do anything so drastic as orthotics until you talk to the pediatrician.
anon says
As an adult I “accidentally” fixed my own easily turned in ankles, by running backwards on the elliptical. Once your kid walks, make sure to help them practice walking backward/sideways/grapevine to strengthen all the parts of the ankle.
Anonymous says
This seems really normal for a toddler learning to walk and is why they recommend they are barefoot to strengthen those muscles. I definitely would not get an orthodic shoe as it will stop her from developing those muscles. Talk to the pediatrician.
Anon says
Please share your morning routines with me. What’s happening now is not working for me and I feel very stabby. My husband has a 45 min commute, I work from home. We wake up together, he showers and takes out the dog, I make his breakfast smoothie, pack his lunch and shower. He leaves and I have – or used to have – a precious 30 min before our 4 yo wakes to check into work email (I work with early AM team) and have a cup of coffee. Now, the kid is waking before husband leaves and immediately starts making demands. She doesn’t get dressed any faster for daycare, so she ends up eating my morning time with nothing to show for it. Two hours each morning are spent on the above routine. I’m exhausted and frazzled and my work is suffering. Because I’m doing dropoff / pickup / any other weekday chores and I’m also trying desperately to keep working out, I already barely have enough time to get my work done. I’m really not proud of the way I’m handling this so far. I yelled at my kid and told my husband I feel like a slave every morning. Please help with your wise ideas!
Anonymous says
I would check e-mail and have coffee first thing. Husband makes his own lunch and smoothie (and yours too). Work until kiddo wakes up. Give her breakfast and get her dressed quickly, then park her in front of a show while you shower.
Anonymous says
May not work for your situation, but can your husband drop your child off at daycare some days? I work from home, but my husband has daycare responsibilities.
Anon says
This is a good idea actually. The daycare is kind of on the way. Previously it wouldn’t be possible because she was asleep but maybe if I catch her sleepy I could get her out the door pronto.
anon says
this is exactly what i was going to suggest. or i hate suggesting this bc im not a morning person, but maybe get up 10 min earlier? what exactly are the 4 year old’s morning demands? breakfast? play with me?
Anon says
She follows me around and asks about everything I am doing and asks to do it too. It’s very sweet and completely infuriating. I keep telling her to go brush teeth etc but she basically won’t get anything done in any reasonable amount of time without supervision.
Anon says
I think part of it is that OUR morning routine is new to her (since she used to sleep through it) so she’s fascinated by it and wants to see everything. Does the new-ness wear off, maybe she’ll get bored with us and go back to her own routine?
Pogo says
Solidarity. My 2yo has to be involved in my hair and makeup every single day. I don’t have a good solution either… we’re at about 1.5 hours from wakeup to leaving the house.
Anonymous says
I would stop doing so much for your husband in the morning! That’s awesome that you don’t have a commute, but that’s unfair to you, especially given the kid factor, that you have to get him ready too.
TBH, my morning routine (with a 3 and 6 year old) generally involves some TV watching for them. It’s the only way I can get everyone out the door.
Another option for you, can you drop off at daycare earlier? I am not opposed to dropping off at daycare unshowered in sweats and then going home to get ready by myself.
Anon says
I know, I am not fond of this concept but we’re right in that stage (+HCOL ) where we make enough money to live comfortably but not enough to buy breakfast and lunch every day without feeling the pinch. If I don’t pack something, he’ll be spending $25 / day on food. He doesn’t have enough time to pack in the morning or evening. He works paid overtime and is gone 12 hours a day. He (mostly) does the kid bedtime routine.
AwayEmily says
OK to Wake clock to keep her in her room for a bit longer?
octagon says
Yep. OK to Wake was clutch for us when wakeups were unpredictable but, like you, I really needed kiddo to be asleep (or at least quiet and in bed) until a certain time. Now at the very moment it turns green I hear “Mommy! My clock is green!” so I know he’s been awake, but it works.
Also, you may have to get up a little earlier to preserve that alone quiet time.
Wow says
I work from home and my husband always drops off the kids in the morning and he has a commute too. I pick up every day. Why are you doing both ends?
Anon says
+1 my husband works (mostly) from home. I work in an office most days. I do the majority of the drop-offs and pick-ups because daycare is roughly on the way to my office. He definitely pulls his weight with other chores (he usually has dinner made when I get home) but it doesn’t make sense to me that the work at home parent is doing all the drop offs and pick ups, since that’s not a chore that’s done in the home. If your daycare is not on his commute, could you switch to one that is?
Anonymous says
Is there any way your husband can take your daughter to daycare? I work from home occasionally and my commute is typically shorter than my husband’s (which is also 30-45 min) but we split drop off and pick-up. If your daughter is waking up before he leaves, it doesn’t seem very fair to have you doing drop-off, pick-up, and chores.
Our morning routine:
All of us wake up more or less the same time. We pack backpacks and kid’s lunch the night before, and DH and I both usually shower at night, so there’s nothing to do in the morning but eat breakfast, get dressed and leave. Sometimes I’ll get up 45 min earlier to go for a run and shower before the kids wake up. If the kids wake up early, they will play quietly-ish in their room until we come tell them it’s time to get ready. One parent (usually me) gets breakfast for the kids while the other gets dressed. Kids usually eat while I make my breakfast and lunch to take to work.
Dressed parent starts trying to herd/help kids to get dressed and brush teeth once they finish eating, other parent gets dressed and joins in until everyone is ready. We all leave more or less at the same time. During the school year we have drop-offs in 2 places, so usually we divide and conquer. Right now, we have one drop off, so one of us heads out with the kids and the other does a quick run through the house to make sure things are passably tidy (I do this if we’re both chauffeuring, I hate coming home to a to-do list). We usually decide the night before/morning of who is taking which kids, based on which office we’re going to – both DH and I have a few work locations with different commute times – and whether we have early meetings.
Anon says
Thank you! I am really impressed with your level of communication. We are barely managing to decide if we will go to a birthday party or to dinner out on the weekend because neither of us feels like thinking through the logistics. Managing day-to-day schedule changes sounds very challenging and I’m encouraged that you’re clearly making this work. We could do with more advance planning of things in general.
Anonymous says
45 mins is a long commute but not THAT long (I’m in DC area FWIW). Does he also work long hours? If not, there’s no reason you should be working FT plus taking care of everything at home. So I think this is a larger discussion about splitting household duties….which can only be sorted out between you two. DH should be taking care of his own breakfast and pack his lunch the night before. Concrete suggestions: you shower first while he takes the dog out and then you can eat breakfast, have his smoothie made the night before (by him). Have your daughter sleep in her clothes if possible. Ask if he can possibly arrange his schedule so he can do a daycare drop off or pickup 2 nights a week so you can work longer or go to the gym. Workout during your lunch hour. Run laundry or put in a quick crockpot meal while you’re WFH but there’s no reason you have to do every weekday chore.
Anon says
Thank you, I like all of your suggestions. Sleeping in clothes seems like a slam dunk – we will have to try this tonight.
Anon says
No super wise ideas, but you should stop making his smoothie and lunch pronto. Describe to him exactly what you wrote here to explain why. I am speculating that before maybe it was viewed as the offset for him walking the dog & commuting, but things have changed & you dealing with the earlier wake up for longer are more than the offset.
Anon says
You are correct. Point taken. Thank you.
Boston Legal Eagle says
This is my concern with working from home (which I currently do just 1x a week). I don’t want to become the default childcare person/home upkeep person, just because I’m home. You still have a job and your husband still needs to share in the work with you. Agree that he should do drop-off – he’s leaving anyway, right? He can also make his own breakfast and lunch.
As for our morning routine, it’s about to change a little as I’m going to double my commute by moving to the suburbs, but will essentially be the following (just leaving a little earlier): All of us usually wake up at around 5:30. I feed the baby, husband is in the living room with our older son, watching TV. I then shower and breakfast for all of us happens sometime between 6-6:30. Husband then showers and gets ready. Other morning events are packing son’s lunch (which will be cut with the new daycare!) and getting both kids ready. I do drop off usually. We aim to leave by 7:30, so it’s also about 2 hours between wake-up and leaving. It sounds long but the mornings feel pretty rushed.
Anon says
Yeah, I know. I’ve actually asked my company to look for office space for me. I’m sure people can make it work, but it requires WORK and it’s often easier to eat into work time than have a discussion about division of labor and we’re back at square one with the woman’s career on the back burner and exhausting unpaid work.
Anonymous says
I asked for office space. I am working from home today, and enjoy the flexibility to do it occasionally, but I HATED (caps necessary) doing it more than once a week. I regret nothing. I vastly prefer to be in an office building with other adults when I’m doing work.
Anon says
Maybe not applicable, but we’re the reverse (I’m the working parent, DH is SAHD, so at least he’s not leaving the house). Basically my point is that I as the working outside the home parent handle a lot more for myself, so I think having your DH handle his own breakfast and lunch is reasonable (and if it’s a smoothie, can he preportion out containers on the weekend so all he has to do is dump and blend out of the freezer)? As for lunches, when we have dinner leftovers, I portion out leftovers into single serving containers so it’s grab and go (and other days my lunches are scavenged from the dregs of the fridge and look like an on its last legs plum, leftover popeyes biscuits and onion rings, and leftover grilled corn, so he may have higher standards).
For us: DD (2) usually spends the second half of the night in our bed. After hitting a 15 minute snooze, I get in shower (15-20 minutes, inferno temperature). Kiddo typically wakes up and pokes her head in the shower, much shouting at her from the shower to stay out of the handful of bathroom drawers that are unlocked. DH continues sleeping (how I don’t know). I get out of shower and get dressed and do my skin routine and smidge of makeup with DD “helping” (maybe 15 minutes, 20 if she’s decided that today is a day for climbing the ladder in the closet). Quick 5 minutes to change diaper and put clothes on DD. Poke DH and tell him I have to go in 15 minutes. DD and I go downstairs. I toast an english muffin for me, put a movie on for DD and hand her an untoasted english muffin (sometimes she demands toast and PB like her mama). While it’s toasting, I grab leftovers for lunch if I don’t have a lunch meeting and fill a thermos with milk (my morning beverage of choice). If my morning looks light, I take an extra 10 minutes to load and unload the dishwasher. By this time, sleepyhead DH wanders downstairs. I wrap up breakfast and take it to eat at my desk, say my goodbyes and head out for my 20-30 minute commute.
Anon says
Thank you, this is very helpful perspective!
Emily S. says
Infuriatingly, my husband can make it from awake to out the door with 2 kids under an hour, and it takes me 1 hour & 15 minutes. I think it is because I am constantly dropping what I am doing to attend to their needs, so it takes me twice as long to say, brush my teeth. No ideas yet on how to solve that, but identifying it is a first step. Could that be going on for you as well?
Otherwise, 3 days a week I do drop-off with 2 kids at daycare and 2 days a week (including WFH day) I do drop off with 1 kid (DH does drop off with little sister at his parents house.) My WFH days always *feel* more relaxed but also like I should be able to start work early bc I don’t have to get dressed, commute, etc. I’m constantly frustrated at why I start at the same time on WFH days. Also true for you?
The only thing that has worked for us is getting up before the kids. My 4 year old used to reliably sleep until 7, but now she’s popping out of bed at 6:45, plays by herself for 10 minutes, and then comes and gets us. So I’ve had to shift my wake time from 7 to 6:30 to get showered and dressed before she gets up. Only then can we get out the door in an hour. Setting out clothes, putting backpacks in the car, etc., the night before, shaves a few minutes off, but not much.
Anonymous says
Our 4 year old always woke at 7 and around 3.5 suddenly started waking earlier, wreaking similar havoc. We enforce a rule that other than bathroom use he must stay in his room until 7, which gives me the ability to eat my own breakfast and feed the baby. We started with OK to wake clock and around 4 moved to a regular digital clock. It took a few mornings of walking him back to his room a million times, and every now and then we have to do that again, but it works really well!
Anon. says
I work from home, my husband has a roughly 20 minute commute.
Morning schedule:
5:30 – Husband gets up and works / takes calls with Europe. Presumably he eats breakfast during this time.
6:45ish – kiddo wakes up
7:00 – My alarm goes off, ok to wake clock turns green. Husband gets kiddo out of bed and feeds kiddo breakfast. Usually 20 minutes of TV involved. I take 30 minutes to get myself ready. I usually shower in the evening and have a very athleisure / ponytail work style.
7:30 – Husband and I switch off. He gets dressed (usually he showers in the evening) and packs his lunch and gym bag. I get kiddo dressed for school.
8:00 – Husband & kiddo leave house together for daycare drop off. Daycare is roughly 5 minutes away and not far out of husband’s way to work.
I do daycare pick-up while husband goes to the gym after work. Flexible as necessary as we both travel for work, me more than husband. Usually one morning per week husband will go into the office early if he needs to crank out some work or has an early meeting. Then I’m on my own for the morning routine. Fair given that I get to sleep in the rest of the week until 7. Husband requires less sleep than me but kiddo also prefers mornings with him for whatever reason.
Anon says
Can you flip order around so kiddo is incorporated into some of the tasks with husband? For example, husband takes kiddo with him to deal with dog or kiddo and husband make lunch together? Might save time and give you a little space to do your thing
Anon says
My 17 mo is not yet combining words in sentences (which I know is fine) but she uses portmanteau words – like she knows how to say mom and hug and if she wants to say she’s giving mom a hug, she will sometimes say “Mug!” It’s cute but also seems kind of weird and I was g00gling and couldn’t find anything about it online. Did anyone have kids that did this?
Anonymous says
That’s really cute haha!!! But no advice. You’ll have an 18m checkup though right? So that’s soon enough to ask the ped. My DD couldn’t combine 2 words until after 2, and 4 months later will not stop talking/telling stories.
Pogo says
Does she hear you guys do this for other things? We realized our son was mimicking us when he created new fake words, because we did it as a form of babytalk. For example we might say “blankie” for his blanket, and he invented “uppy” and “huggy” (even though we would always say up and hug).
He also has a bunch of words that make absolutely NO sense to us, and we cannot tell where he got them. But he clearly means a certain thing – like he says “mommy blue car” or “my blue bike” even though the color is not blue. He applies this “blue” word to lots of things like water bottles as well – essentially any inanimate object. I thought maybe he was trying to say “new” because we did get a new car and talked about that. He also has a ridiculous word for fire engine that sounds NOTHING like fire engine. It legit sounds like “alfalfa”. But he very much knows what a fire truck is and this is what he means when he says this word.
I mentioned it to a friend and she said her daughter did the same thing at this age, and eventually the fake words petered out.
AnotherAnon says
OMG, MY son did the “blue” thing too (for things that were not blue)! We thought it was super weird, but it only lasted a few weeks. It was also before he recognized any other colors. I’m going to google whether that’s a thing.
Pogo says
Ha, that’s great. He does know the color yellow, too, and will accurately determine if something is either blue or yellow about 50% of the time. But he never says “my yellow (anything)” – only blue. Really, really weird, but I’m sure just part of their language development process!
AnotherAnon says
I am totally not a speech therapist, but to me this would seem to require more cognitive skills than just saying the two words, so maybe she’s actually advanced? At any rate, it’s cute. Take heart! My son went from “will he ever talk” at 18 months to “will he ever shut up” at 2.5 y/o, haha.
Anon says
Just coming here to say this week has been hard, with nanny on vacation and patchwork care from the grandparents on both sides and back-up daycare. LO has been an absolute champ, but yesterday and today he is fully melting down and giving the grandparents a really hard time. I’m surprised how stressed it has made me – especially since he’s older now and I know intellectually he’s totally fine. Reminds me of the early days of leaving him with nanny when he was a little baby and I spent all day worrying if he was napping or eating or crying. Very glad it’s Friday!
PSA: JCrew Going Out Blazer says
This might have already been covered somewhere, but as an FYI, the J Crew Going Out Blazer is 50% off for the afternoon. I just ordered the colors I don’t have. Yay!