Snot, new couch, date night

Poor Maren has had a cold, and poor Jeff has been using the snot sucker on her multiple times a day. We think she may have a sinus infection, because the sheer quantity of mucus she is producing is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

We got a new couch. It complements another couch that we bought for a room that we originally had no furniture in. We are starting to figure out how to use the space in our house, but it will probably be a long time before we completely figure it out. Here are some photos of Maren and Jeff on the new loveseat.

Last night Jeff and I went out for a date night. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant that we haven’t been to for at least three years. I had kind of written it off because I didn’t like how they prepare their tofu, but we decided to try it again and it was actually quite good. They have improved in the last few years. We also went out to a board game café and played boardgames for couple of hours. It is something that we could do at home after Maren goes to bed, but we never do. So we had a pretty great time :-)

Strange Situation

A little over a week ago Jeff was grading exams for his developmental psychology class. He came across a particularly bad answer to a question about attachment, and read it out loud to me. Part of the answer (the best part of the answer in terms of accuracy) said something like “The mom left and the baby cried, and the mom came back in the baby felt better.” This was referencing a particular test of attachment behaviour called the strange situation. 

After that, Maren kept asking for the “mom left story.” So we told her over and over again about the strange situation task. Now, in the past couple of days, she has started playing strange situation. And she calls it that. Tonight her doll came to the lab with her, played with some new toys with her for a little bit, and then she called me in to be the stranger. Then she left and the doll played with the stranger, and then she came back and gave the doll a hug and made her feel better. I’m pretty sure this is something only the child of two psychologists does.

Some pictures from the week:

Eating spaghetti

The other day Maren insisted that we take a photo of her eating spaghetti. Actually, what she said was “we don’t have any pictures of me eating spaghetti!“ 

My birthday was Saturday, and I decided to make an ice cream pie. Chocolate cookie crust with two flavours of homemade ice cream – coffee and chocolate – topped with crushed Skor bar and caramel, and a bit of whipped cream. It was delightful.

Locked in the bathroom

This evening just before dinner Maren locked herself in the bathroom and then proceeded to get stuck on the toilet, and there was no mechanism for unlocking the door from the outside.

She was tired. She went into the bathroom to pee before dinner, and was already upset that she was being taken away from her Legos. We told her not to lock the door and then she did, and she proceeded to try to unlock it but couldn’t, got frustrated, and then went and sat on the toilet to pee. Then she accidentally kicked her stool in such a way that she couldn’t get off the toilet. It took us forever to figure this out, because she had been crying the whole time related to being overtired and upset that she couldn’t keep playing.

When we finally did figure it out, first we try to coach her on how to get off the toilet without the stool, and that went nowhere. Then Jeff scrounged around the house for things that could be taped together that would fit under the bathroom door to try to move the stool. He succeeded moving the stool closer to the toilet but it was at an angle, and although Maren definitely could have used the stool to get down, she did not believe she could and therefore she couldn’t.

At this point Jeff was frustrated and wanted his toddler out of the bathroom, so started talking seriously about breaking down the door. Fortunately, just before we were about to destroy the door, I thought of trying to drill a hole in the door to access the lock mechanism. We were lucky that the first place Jeff drilled was the bullseye, and we were able to use a screwdriver to unlock the door.

All told, it took about an hour to get her out, and the whole time she was just sitting on the toilet. It’s kind of hilarious but also definitely not funny to us in the moment. I am sure every parent has a story like this, and I’m sure the number of such stories multiplies as children get older and there are more opportunities for ridiculous things to happen.

As an antidote, here are some adorable pictures: