The first couple of years of having children can be challenging, to put it lightly. There’s not a lot of sleep, and it seems like the bulk of your job, as a parent, is simply to keep them from killing themselves. You can try to take them places that are interesting, but early on they aren’t quite able to absorb much. When my first son turned a year old, my husband and I took him to the zoo. We quickly realized that the trip was more for us than for him. He didn’t really understand what we were looking at. Meanwhile, his dad and I ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the monkeys, seals, and red pandas. It occurred to us that we hadn’t gotten out much since he was born and that we had been craving the opportunity to do something engaging with him. Turns out, a year might have been a bit young for that.
Now that Jake is almost two and a half, I had high hopes for this holiday season. Since he was born, I’ve wanted nothing more than to share various traditions with him. Now he understands everything, is talking up a storm, and loves all sorts of activities. So I figured that he would be ready to help me with all the fun things that need to be done for the Christmas season. I was excited about playing Christmas music and teaching him a few of the songs. I was looking forward to creating memories with him and starting traditions of our own. It so happens that while two-year-olds are relatively capable human beings, they aren’t exactly helpful when it comes to certain things. Allow me to elaborate…
Baking Cookies
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What could be more fun than baking and decorating holidays cookies with my little guy?! We like to eat cookies, so why not open his eyes to the wonders of making his favorite treat? I envisioned him pouring all the ingredients into a big bowl and helping me mix them together. Then he would use our brand new cookie cutters to make fun shapes, and after they were baked we would decorate them to our hearts’ content.
In reality, he kept wiping his runny nose with his freshly washed hands. He then tried to stick his fingers in the batter as I quickly and clumsily measured out cups of flour and sugar. He poured as many ingredients on the table, chairs, and floor as he did in the bowl, and then tried to eat the raw egg batter every time I turned my back. (I know that we ate batter when we were young, but now that we have more information to work with, I can’t in good conscience let him risk salmonella. The last thing we all need is my little guy puking for a week…) He hated the electric mixer and kept trying to take the bowl out from under it while it spun away. I ended up taking over the process altogether and just giving him a cookie to eat when it was all said and done.
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Decorating the Tree
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Although we’ve had a tree every year, this would be the first year that Jake would be able to appreciate it. He came with us to buy it and was so excited when we put it up. Then he tried with all of his might to pull it down at every turn. He enjoyed picking the pine needles off, and crawling under it to check the water level. My husband and I quickly decided that letting him help string the lights would be a bad idea, so we ended up doing it while he napped.
We also had to only hang the ornaments on the top half of the tree. Because little balls and dogs and snowmen look like nothing more than little toys to a toddler. And since I hope to have these ornaments around next year, it behooved us to keep them out of his reach. But his reaction upon seeing the completed tree? “WOW!” That was worth every second of stress.
via gifsoup.com
Helping to Wrap Gifts
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Jake adores his cousins, so I thought it would be fun for him to help wrap the gifts that we got for them. But it turns out that little kids only understand unwrapping gifts, not wrapping them. Every gift was one that he wanted to keep for himself, and let’s just say that he wasn’t exactly gentle with any of them.
Oh well. Maybe next year when he’s three?
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