The holidays

Grandma Mimi is on the plane and making her way here. It's a miracle she got out considering the blizzard that is hitting a huge swath of the Midwest and East Coast. Normally she changes planes in either JFK or Atlanta (which would have really been an issue with today's bad weather) but this time she's changing in Paris - and Paris was a mess through Friday with over 50 percent of flights canceled. In any case, her flight out of Cincinnati took off on time and she is scheduled to make her connection in Paris in the morning. I just checked and she's flying over Maine as I type. Fingers crossed that her travels continue to go smoothly!

Below is a slideshow with some pictures of our holidays. It was a tiring holiday weekend with three long days dedicated to eating and long tables full of extended family. I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I like Italian food 362 days of the year, but I'm not a huge fan of Italian Christmas food. There are not many "Michelle-friendly" dishes, and even the desserts are kind of boring. Somehow I still end up eating too much (potato chips, olives, sundried tomatoes, pandoro and other snack crap), and go heavier on the vino since the food portion of the meal is not particularly to my liking. At least I have a slice of America headed my way just when I'm falling into my usual far-from-home, post-holiday funk (not to be confused with my far-from-home, pre-holiday funk). I'm excited for my mom to get here, relax, watch movies and play with Dylan. Then after New Year's we will go away for a few days but we have yet to decide where we are going. It will be an adventure!

Happy Holidays!

This was done at school and given to the moms as a Christmas gift. It's a really cute picture, and he is actually smiling. They can't be torturing him too much if he smiles at school when I'm not looking. With me, he puts on an Oscar-worthy performance before school each morning and in the coatroom, screaming and carrying on about how he doesn't want to go and how school is "terrible." The other kids say "Why is Dylan crying?" and "Why is Dylan speaking another language?" One day one of the 5-year-olds said "He's speaking English, you dummies. I know because I had to get my tonsils out one time on vacation, and they spoke English to me in the hospital." Starting today, he's off until January 10, so that should make him happy. Happy holidays, everybody!

Out to play in the snow

Dylan was off six days over the Sant'Ambrogio/Immaculate Conception holiday, and is gearing up to be off three weeks over Christmas. At least Grandma Mimi will be here after Christmas to keep us company. The weather has been extra wintry. My least favorite season of the year. Bring on spring!

Fun times in Florence

This past weekend we took Dylan and Luana to Florence for the weekend on the new fast train, which now gets us there in only 1 hour and 45 minutes (as opposed to 2.5-3 hours). We had a great time! Below is a video of Dylan and Luana out to dinner one night. He's "shooting" her with a piece of bread. He keeps asking for a toy pistol, but I haven't given in. Yet. We'll see!

Dylan and Luana in Florence from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

It's the eczema, dammit

These (almost) three years of not sleeping can all be chalked up to the eczema. I've had my suspicions for a while, but now I really believe it. Our kid is not sleeping not because we are terrible parents (maybe sometimes), because we don't have a good bedtime routine or because he merely wants to torture us. He is being tortured by this horrible condition. The reason I know it's the eczema is because he has had two short periods of "remission" from the eczema in the last six months and both times he slept much, much better - like almost through the night. He's also had several very severe flare-ups and during those times we have been back to newborn land with him waking up and keeping us up ALL NIGHT LONG. With this see-sawing of his eczema (really bad or almost gone), I've really been able to make a correlation with his sleep patterns. I really hope the eczema goes away - and not just for the sleep issues. It's terrible to see your child uncomfortable all the time and not be able to do much about it - except apply lotion all the time, give daily tepid baths with special oil and watch that he doesn't eat too many histamine-rich foods. I know that being itchy is pretty much the norm for him as it is all he has ever known, but as I've had two eczema flare-ups myself in the last year (I never had it before - could it be sympathy eczema?), I now realize how much it sucks.

Home sick/new stats

Eating popsicles for our throat while wearing our chef hat
(for no good reason)

Dylan has been home from school since Friday though technically he wasn't off "sick" on Friday. He has not liked going to school lately - he seemed to be due for a "mental health day" and it was snowing, so I decided to keep him home. But then Saturday we realized part of the reason he'd been so crabby was that he actually was sick. He's now on antibiotics and will go back to school tomorrow. We've had lots of bonding time, but it's time for mommy to get some work done.

I took him to the pediatrician yesterday for his high fever, vomiting and sore throat and she said that while we were there, she may as well do a wellness check-up since the last time he'd actually had one, he was small enough to fit on the infant scale and to be measured with a tape measure. My pediatrician is one who likes to "call in" her performance by offering the minimum in health assistance (she's just as parsimonious with smiles and good humor - things you'd think a pediatrician would be equipped with) but I think she's obligated by the state to justify her existence, so she insisted we do the wellness appointment as well. I had to sign two forms saying she'd actually done it. She almost had me sit Dylan down on the table that had the dirty paper and urine from a previous patient. When I pointed that out, she motioned for ME to clean it up, which I did since I wasn't going to put my kid on there. Oh how I loathe my pediatrician. Though we have some new official stats for Dylan.

He's 1 meter tall (39 inches), which blows my mind since I'm 1.65 meters and it seems like he's catching up to me too fast! He is still the same weight as he has been for a very long time - around 13.5 kilos (29.7 pounds). That makes him tall for his age, but very skinny, which is not surprising since he eats NOTHING. We are still having the constipation issues (I know - TMI, but what can you do?), and I have to perform an enema about every five days because he refuses to go on his own. Eek. He pees on the toilet just fine though and really doesn't have accidents. Since July, he has only worn a diaper at night, and usually wakes up dry in the morning. In other medical news, I've set up the appointment to get his heart checked out after age three because of the "issue" they detected when he was born.

Thanksgiving 2010

I had a crazy busy week so didn't have time to post any of our pics from last weekend's fantastic Thanksgiving celebration in Tuscany with friends. Here are a few photos!

Chef Dylan

He made no-bake Nutella cookies (not pictured as he ate them all right away as his afterschool snack) at school today. And a chef's hat.

Nato Milanista!

Dylan was "nato Milanista" (a born fan of the Milan soccer team) by way of his papà and nonno. Tonight was the big derby game against Inter, which is the other hometown team and Milan's archrival. Dylan was rooting on "black and red" with his papi by saying "Forza Milan!" (Let's go Milan!). You can also see that he's scratching himself, which is what he does pretty much 24/7 as the eczema is just not improving. Sigh. On a positive note, we beat Inter 1-0. Woot woot!

Forza Milan! from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Dylan's "track"

I bought a long roll of paper at IKEA imagining rainy winter afternoons spent in the house finger painting. I have found that while the finger paint is somewhat washable, it's just so incredibly messy, and I don't have an "activity room" where I can let Dylan splash about. I've decided that finger painting is not an activity to be done on the kitchen table in dangerous proximity of my white curtains, cream carpet and beige living room set (yes, I'm one of "those" moms - I know, I suck in that regard). I have concluded that it's more a spring/summer activity to be done on the balcony when we aren't wearing six layers of clothing (trying to take off your clothes with painted hands and arms is tricky) and can just jump right into the bathtub at the end. So then we began using the roll of long IKEA paper to design "tracks" for Dylan's cars to run on. The tracks have evolved into entire towns complete with houses, trees, sidewalks and traffic lights. I call this place "Dylandia" and we spend hours creating new features for "citizens" (ie, his Little People) of this world. I am terrible at drawing, but Dylan doesn't seem to notice. Here's a video of Dylan last night with one tiny track I created to fit into a corner of our living room. The one that went the entire length of the hallway was getting difficult to navigate, and every time someone would open the front door, Dylan would happen to be behind it running his car on the "track" and get pegged.

Pista from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Dylan playing with his "pista," which means track in Italian

Dry

Another rainy weekend, but no worries here. I did not have to check the time of sunrise and set my alarm accordingly to be able to try to get my first load of laundry outside so that I'd also be able to get a second load in the sun before noon. Actually, there is no sun but that's my normal Saturday routine. Today we picked up the dryer! Fortunately we were able to just push it up our stairs because there was no way the two of us would have been able to lift it. I've got arms like toothpicks. It looks like Dylan's smocks will be ready for school on Monday, won't smell like a wet dog AND I won't have to iron them. Yeah! I even took a video of the dryer actually DRYING. Exciting stuff!

Untitled from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Don't mind the packing materials. Isn't she a beaut? I hope so because it's the first thing you see when you walk in our apartment! The big fat plug makes it jut out into the hallway so we need to figure out how we can enclose it and make it fit in that space.

School days

Dylan is really starting to like school and to go willingly in the mornings - yeah! The first month was about as fun (for mom) as having a root canal every single morning of the week what with his crying, complaining, carrying on and refusal to get dressed and ready. Now he says "Look at me, mom. I'm NOT crying!" and skips out to the car. He is learning a lot (one day he said "Mom, did you know it was autumn?"), and is really making friends. The school is set up Montessori style, so his class has a table of 3-year-olds, a table of 4-year-olds and a table of 5-year-olds. He has a 5-year-old "big brother" who takes him to get a drink of water or into the nap room after lunch. A mom of one of the 5-year-olds told me that the "big kids" had a vote on who the least annoying 3-year-old was, and Dylan won since he is the one who cries the least.

His teacher lives across the street so often when I run into her she will tell me little anecdotes about how he is doing. She said that he is a child who pays a lot of attention to adults and what is going on around him. He is not "in his own world" and he processes everything he sees, hears and overhears. This is very true as lately when he gets frustrated playing with his cars, I sometimes will hear him say "dammit!" There is only one person he could have learned that from, and she will make a bigger effort not to say that word around him! Oops. The school nutritionist is a family friend and lives in the neighborhood. She has promised to put pasta al pesto back on the menu just for Dylan as he was getting tired of pasta al pomodoro and is not a big fan of ravioli, lasagna or baby pasta in broth. He loves risotto, however, and doesn't complain on risotto days.

In other news, we will have a new "addition" to the family come this Thursday!!! After much research, I have finally settled on a clothes dryer. It is not a "big, mega powerful American clothes dryer" but it should get the job done. I've only seen dryers here in the last few years, and they work via condensation (you have to dump out a tub of water after each load) so I'd heard mixed things about them. But the new generation of condensation dryers seems to work pretty well and be very energy efficient. We have limited power in our apartment so I had to find one that would only use about 1 kilowatt per cycle. The funny thing is that the dryer we decided on is the same model we had in our New York rental apartment this summer, so every time I use it, I'll feel like I'm back in the Big Apple, but with no bagels and less Bounce. The only space we have for it is in our entryway where we always meant to put a telephone table or a plant (but never did) so we are going to enclose it in something to make it appear to be an extension of our kitchen. Otherwise, the dryer would be the first thing you'd see upon entering our apartment, which actually would probably be fitting considering how much I've complained about doing laundry these last ten years!

Feeling mellow before school in flannel PJs from Grandma Mimi.

Before school we put our "little people" on the school bus and Dylan tells them "Don't be scared. The teachers are nice." He's making a funny face because he doesn't like his hat.

I have struck a deal with the laundry Gods, and on warm sunny days I will still hang things outside! Promise!

Rainy weekend

It was a miserable, gray, rainy weekend - shades of December in October. Aargh. Fortunately, all of the activities we had planned were indoors. Yesterday the big event was cousin Matteo's fifth birthday party, which was held at the indoor play space where we had Dylan's second birthday party. Fun was had by all (the kids). Dylan got a much needed haircut, though it's a "home cut" so he will be sporting "the Dorothy Hamill" until it grows out a bit. Having him look like a female figure skater from the 1970s was not our intent, but then we aren't hair stylists and he doesn't sit still.

Behind the wheel of the "Ferrari"

Ready for cake with nonna

Getting into the Halloween spirit

After school it seems like most moms show up to pick up their kids with a snack or "treat." The first few days when I showed up empty handed, Dylan asked why all the other kids had a juice box and usually a Kinder chocolate bar or some other pre-packaged (what I'd call a "Little Debbie" in Midwesternese) snack. If left to his own devices, Dylan would be a junk-food junkie and would subsist on candy, Kinder bars and Nutella. He has a massive sweet tooth. He's too young to understand what trick-or-treating is and that he is seriously missing out on that living here (Halloween is fairly "new" here and is not really celebrated at all but happens to coincide with All Saints and the Day of the Dead Catholic holidays so they put up a few random decorations). For his snack, I usually bring a mini pizza from the bakery, but he complains when he looks around and sees all the other kids munching on their Kinder bars. So I was happy when I went into the bakery on Friday and saw they made these Halloween-themed cookies. It was the perfect snack (still sugary but fresh baked and not full of preservatives) especially because he had worn his glow-in-the-dark Halloween shirt to school.

Stupendous

Dylan was sent home from preschool yesterday with a fever (in the end, we think he just has a tooth coming in because the fever went away and he has no other symptoms) so we played around at home making videos. Here he's talking about the red car his zia always says is "stupenda." His hair is super long. He really needs a haircut.

Stupendous from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Off to school

Time to get ready for school. I don't want to go, but I like my briefcase thingy for storing my projects.

Let's get this over with!

Scuola Materna

He's old enough to go to school, so when will he stop waking up every hour all night long?

How do I look?

Starting to have second thoughts about going...

Tomorrow is the big day

Cars-themed smock and some of his "school supplies." He is in the "pink" class, which is why his stuff has to be in pink bags with his name on it.

Tomorrow we begin the orientation process so he only goes for two hours. When he feels comfortable, he will stay for lunch. And then when he feels comfortable at lunch, he will stay for a nap. After the nap, I pick him up and the school day ends. I can't believe my baby is beginning his three-year journey in "kindergarten." Starting scuola materna is a huge rite of passage in Italy. When he finishes he will go right into first grade in elementary school.

Each student at Dylan's scuola materna is given a symbol to represent him. Dylan's symbol is the umbrella. A lot of kids get their symbol embroidered on to their smocks, but we aren't all that attached to the umbrella symbol. The car was already taken!

Beach

New York was sweltering (my black flip flops were literally melting on the pavement under my feet), smelly, noisy and chaotic, so it was great to get out of the city and get some beach time in. Dylan loves the water and is just like his father in that he could spend sunrise to sunset on the beach. He was even able to nap on the beach once! That's pretty unprecedented.

Beach in Rye, NY

Lunch on the beach in Rye

I love the water!

On the beach in Westport, CT

Ridiculously big Coke...and fries
Tired boys on the beach!

Westport beach from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Counting the towers on his castle

The nighttime bandit

I've decided that the upside of having a kid who doesn't sleep at night is that you don't worry about things like jet lag because your "routine" is already thrown off. So you are equally tired pretty much anywhere you go and it feels just like being at home. During the two months away, Dylan got used to sleeping in our bedroom since we never had a bedroom just for him. Fortunately, he was in his own toddler bed or in a pack and play (which he seems to like even though it's small - he likes sleeping all cuddled up to the sides). Now that we are back home and he is in his own bed, he can get in and out of it freely. He knows he's not allowed to sleep in our bed, but he gets around that by waiting until we fall asleep and then crawling surreptitiously in between us. At some point during the night, Cristiano and I will wake up (Dylan kicks, tosses and turns like crazy) and realize that Dylan is in our bed and that neither of us put him there. Sigh. Last night I said, "Dylan you have to go back to your bed" and he told me "Mommy, but my bed is not comfy cozy," which made me laugh. I realize how much he takes in the things I say and then repeats them back to me verbatim to get on my good side. The compromise last night was that we wheeled his bed into our room and let him sleep there. These are the compromises you make at 3 a.m. when you are exhausted and don't know what to do anymore. When will this kid ever sleep like a normal person?

The good thing is that he is (so far) maintaining his English. He is set to start "big boy" preschool on Sept. 16, but we are seriously considering sending him to an international school. My father-in-law had one of the big international schools as a client for many years. He just spoke with the principal of the school and he said Dylan is welcome any time. I am a big proponent of public school and have been reluctant to consider private school, but if it means Dylan maintaining his English and keeping in touch with his American side (perhaps even Cristiano and I would meet more "mixed" families that way), then I'm open to it. We should be visiting this week and then make a final decision.

Amici

We have been back in Italy for two days, and I realize I was not a great blogger while away. I was either at my computer frantically trying to get work done or out doing stuff with no desire to be on my computer if not absolutely necessary. Here are some pictures of Dylan with some of the friends he hung out with while in and around New York.

Dylan and Jack eating pizza

Dylan and Claire in the wagon

Kylie, Dylan and Avery at Dylan's Candy Bar in New York (three whole stories of candy, candy, candy!)

Dylan took a particular liking to Kylie and they walked down the block hand in hand

City kid

Hailing a taxi at 57th and Lex

Maniacs riding the rides at Victorian Gardens in Central Park

Our working vacation becomes a real vacay!

Work has finally begun to slow down and we are able to enjoy this trip a bit more. This weekend we got away with friends. Here are some pictures of what we've been doing in and around New York City.

First night in New York

I've been lame about posting, but my days have been insane. I've been rising between 4 .m. and 5 a.m. to work on "Italian time" and then going about my day and to bed on U.S. time. I am beyond exhausted. Did I mention I spent the last two days in the car alternating driving while trying to translate and write articles "on the road" with a laptop whose battery dies after about 15 minutes? By about mid next week work should slow down, and the vacation portion of this trip should begin. Today is our first day in New York. We were really sad to leave friends and family in green, leafy Ohio. Dylan had a fantastic time. I hope we are able to make New York kid-friendly and fun for him. Here we are tonight having Pinkberry frozen yogurt after our Chinese food dinner. If you look closely you'll see that my black circles have black circles.

Two beds are not necessarily better than one

Dylan has two beds here. One is the toddler bed that is going to stay at Grandma Mimi's and the other is his inflatable bed that we are going to use in New York. We have both out just for fun and so that Dylan gets used to them. You'd think having two beds would (perhaps) make him a better sleeper. Naw, no such luck. He likes to alternate between the two but he prefers the bigger toddler bed. That is when he is not stealthily climbing into bed with us while we sleep and waking us up with his tossing and turning. You can see both beds have the same theme - Cars! It's to the point where he actually quotes the movie running around the house saying: "I ain't no Mac. I'm a Peterbilt!"

Dylan in the toddler bed with my flowery childhood blanket he's become extremely attached to

Dylan zipped into the Cars inflatable bed with the Cars pillow and looking like he's ready to nod off. Don't let him fool you!

Fun stuff!

We are having a great time exploring new parks, new pools, new museums and new "spraygrounds" every day. This is the one nearest our apartment. Dylan loves it!

More sprayground from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Very first haircut!

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Originally uploaded by michellanea

Sprayground

My big new discovery is the "sprayground." It's a playground with water features for the kiddies. There are tons of them here in Ohio, and so I'm realizing that we are going to need to have a swimsuit (or swim diapers as it were), sunscreen and towel at the ready at all times. Today we encountered one at a shopping center. Tomorrow we move into our new rental apartment where we will have a little "office" making it easier for the two of us to juggle working and taking care of Dylan, and I just found out that there's a huge park nearby with gigantic "sprayground." Here's a slide show of some of our adventures so far, many of them involving water. Some I've already published in the previous post but there are a few new ones from the Cincinnati Children's Museum and other random spraygrounds we've encountered.

U.S. fun

Our plane touched down on U.S. soil exactly a week ago. I think we are finally over the hellacious trip and jet lag. Here are some pics of our week. I love the parks and pools here. Life just seems so much easier with a kid here, and it makes me realize even more the things that are lacking in Italy. Cristiano and I are balancing working from "home" and getting to spend lots of quality time with Dylan. It's working out great, and I love that I can do my job from anywhere. Here are some pics of our week!

Cool local park with water features

Fun with water at the park on a hot day

The Kettering pool. This is the pool I went to as a kid, where I learned to swim and where I used to scope out boys as a teenager.

Everyone in this pool is a cousin of Dylan's. How fun!

Pool from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

This pool has EVERYTHING. Multiple shallow pools for the kids, free lawn chairs and a huge playground and sand pit. Dylan gets in free. In Italy, going to the pool costs a lot and the pools near us are usually Olympic-sized indoor pools (no shallow kiddie part) and they let you sit outside on the concrete if you want. You pay extra for a lawn chair.

T-2 days

Two days from now we will be on a plane flying over the Atlantic. Woo hoo. We get into JFK about 1:50 p.m. on Thursday. The plan is to hop in the rental car, make a run for the Verrazano Bridge, drive about four hours and stay overnight in Pennsylvania. The next day we will drive to Ohio where we will stay (except for a jaunt down to Charlotte to visit my aunt from around July 12 - July 16) until July 28. After July 28 we will be in New York until Sept. 1. I currently have no U.S. cell phone so I'll have to let everyone know my info once I get set up. I'm sure I'll find a way to get on the Internets...See you in the U.S.! Perhaps over a bagel, a burrito or Chinese food! Mmm, what to eat first?

Il Divo

Did I mention Dylan sings constantly? He was singing in the car one day while I was on the phone with my grandma and she is convinced he has talent and is going to be the next "famous Italian tenor." Those were her exact words. My grandma was also convinced I was going to win big on Jeopardy but alas I never even tried to get on the show. Forget Mensa. In grandma's world, you are smart if you make it on Jeopardy. Or even the show that comes on after Jeopardy that is actually more about how "fortunate" you are than how high your IQ is - "The Wheel" as she calls it. Anyway, grandma can't wait to spend six hours in the car with Dylan driving down to see my aunt in North Carolina (Josie are you going to be around?) in mid-July because she wants to sing along with him. We are all already rolling our eyes imagining the duets that are going to be heard coming from the backseat between 80-something grandma and mini "Il Divo." The other option is to put grandma on a plane so she will be "more comfortable." Or maybe we would be. Hee hee.

Yard work

I'm trying to embrace my "yard" (ie, the intermittent and uneven patches of green space we have outside that belong to our whole building) as a place for Dylan to play despite all of the hazards and obstacles out there. There's also the incredibly steep stone driveway that he loves to run down. When we are out there I pretty much have to watch him like a hawk. Dylan loves yard work and watering the plants and flowers. I wonder if he will feel the same when he's 14 and we want him to take an interest in yard work? Something tells me he won't.

D pushing his lawnmower up the driveway

Turning the hose on to water some plants. Note 10-foot drop on to stone driveway to the right. We were supposed to have fenced that off years ago but neighbors are cheap/difficult.

Getting things done with my shades on...

Last day of preschool

These are not the best shots, but Dylan is not the easiest subject to photograph these days. There was a nice party at the school for the last day. I thought it was just going to be "a piece of cake on the playground," but it was really well organized with a special story hour for moms and kids in the school and then a circus performance outside. I was more emotional about it than I thought I would be. Dylan only went to the school for five months, but he was really attached to his teachers and the other kids. His favorite teacher said she was really, really sad to see him go and wished they had had more time together. They gave him a scrapbook full of all of the art projects he completed while he was there as well as photos of him "in action" at school. I can't read the messages the teachers wrote to him without sobbing. If I am this emotional after just a few months of preschool (he starts "big boy school" in the fall), I will have a nervous breakdown when he finishes elementary school. He's growing up, and it is very hard to "let him go." Sniff, sniff.

Before school

A little slide action

Every other picture I have of him, he is drinking. He must have been thirsty. Here he is with nonna.

Party in full swing!

Jackson Pollock with finger paints

Rainy day activity. Starting off with a bit of blue...

Finger painting from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Fun weekend!

Pre preschool antics

The good thing about Dylan being an early riser is that we have several hours in the morning to lazily eat breakfast, cuddle and play before he goes to school. One of the teachers was telling me that some kids wake up so late that their parents don't feed them or change their diapers before they get there. That would suck (plus sending your kid to school on an empty stomach and with a dirty diaper is kind of weird, but then who am I to judge?). I think morning is my favorite time of day. Afternoons are very "rush rush" with trying to find the perfect park that isn't too overcrowded or locate some other kind of safe outdoor play space. And then we hit the most hectic portion of the day - bath, dinner, dishes and attempting to wrestle the maniac into bed. So I like mornings because they are very chill. Here is Dylan this morning playing the "1,2,3 Go!" game that we made up. You'll see I repeat every single thing he says in Italian in English so that he makes an association between the words. It will be interesting to see how fast he switches over into English once we get to the U.S. We leave in 20 days!

Pre preschool antics from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

When did my kid turn into such a clown?

D making a ridiculous face for effect

Dylan is such a social creature. He LOVES to be around other kids, and goes out of his way to ham it up or try to be the center of attention when other children are around. I'm wondering if this is a passing phase or a glimpse into his future as a class clown. He either gets so excited to be around other kids that he just can't contain himself (throwing toys or he's even been known to walk up and slap kids in the face out of sheer excitement - I do not find this cute, and I have no idea how to curb this because punishing him and explaining "that's not nice" so far have had no effect) or he will go out of his way to make sure all eyes are on him. This past weekend he was playing with a couple of little girls on the beach and suddenly put a ball in his mouth just to look silly. Now normally, he doesn't put things in his mouth. Even in the phase when kids normally put inappropriate things in their mouths, he wasn't too extreme about it. But now he is doing things that are potentially dangerous (putting things in his mouth, running away from us and toward heavy traffic, climbing under cars in a parking lot) just to be a "show off." Another thing he does is flip his eyelids up! This is so gross. I hated when kids did that when I was in school, and I have no idea how my 2.5-year-old learned to do that. He'll walk up to kids he doesn't know and say "look, look!" with his eyelids flipped up. Most kids are not impressed and run away. I know these are his attempts to be "social" but, so far, he doesn't seem to have the skills down. He is definitely not the most suave of toddlers out there...