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GRANDPARENT WARNING: Take this with a grain of salt. He is 2 after all.

A tradition in the Motylinski family has been advent calendars. When we were kids it was a great way to tide us over until Christmas. Every morning before school we would get to open another door and enjoy the bits of chocolate inside.

My parents have passed the tradition on to Riley. Being responisble grandparents they chose to fill some of the days with little trinkets, cutting down on the daily sugar intake. As parents we have appreciated it.  Riley’s sugar spikes tend to lead to fits so the less sugar the better.

We’re 10 days through the calendar and I thought I would break down the trinkets and Riley’s reaction.

So far the candy and the slinky have been the big hits with him. Which anyone with children could have guessed. But I do appreciate the wrist bands.

Courtney informed me we are 18 weeks from our second baby. We have gotten a few things out of the way. We finally settled on a stroller and purchased Riley a big bed. Oh yeah, and we found out we’re having a baby girl. We’re quite stoked for a girl. Although it hasn’t changed our planning much, just the color of clothes we’re picking out.

One thing we tried to change that didn’t work out was daycares. In an effort to save money we decided to give home daycare a try. When Riley was born we planned on using a home daycare provider but at the last moment decided to send Riley to a TutorTime “school”.

This attempt we did our homework, did many interviews, had another misfire, but eventually settled on a caretaker we felt comfortable with. We’ve been taking Riley there for about 2 months. Since the change Riles’ personality changed drastically. He became very stubborn and was in tears on our way out the door. For the first few weeks we chalked it up to adjusting to the change. But his attitude has persisted throughout.

We also had concerns about the amount of television Riley was watching. Prior to changing daycares Riley would watch a bit of television here or there. We’d turn on Wilbur while giving him his nebuliser. We knew the provider had the television on but we were uncomfortable with the amount he seemed to be watching. Riley was always in front of the television when we dropped him off and picked him up. This week he started asking to watch TV too rather than play with his toys.

I’m not against television. Trust me, the second Riley goes to bed we flip on The Office. Courtney pointed out that Riley had stopped doing art projects. When confronted, the provider told us he refused to do them. We started to question if Riley was getting the type of attention he needed.

He’s never been, nor will be, the kid you can ask to do something outright. He’s always going to give his opinion on the matter before doing something. We hoped in-home daycare was going to provide more attention to Riley. But it appeared it was doing the opposite. Because he was a quiet, opinionated child it felt like he was being ostracized.

Frequently we were told about how “naughty” he was being, something we never heard from TutorTime. We initially were glad to hear a more honest account of how Riley was being during the day. One of the problems we had with taking him to a center was the lack of personal information the teacher could give us. Between taking shift breaks and moving between rooms it felt sometimes that he was getting lost in the shuffle. So we took the new feedback and worked with Riley. We stressed at home the need to be gentle and careful. We cut down on all the “wildness” that is our house. But the negative reports kept coming.

It all came to a head yesterday as I was picking Riley up. He was in a surprisingly good mood when I walked in the door. The provider and I had a great conversation. All was looking fine. I was glad to not hear any bad news. I think secretly Courtney and I were both trying to avoid taking or picking him up for fear of the conversations. As we were leaving I said goodbye and asked Riley to say goodbye to all the kids and the provider. One the children sitting in front of the television looked up at us and exclaimed, “Bye naughty Riley! Bye naughty Riley!” My heart sank. We all know kids don’t make this stuff up. I called Courtney. I knew we were going to need to have a tough talk. It was time to make some tough decisions.

For now we’ve decided to continue at TutorTime. The people there have been nothing short of great to us. Its tough to afford but I think we’re to the point where we are willing to sacrifice a lot to make sure Riley stays happy. Will he continue to be “naughty”? I don’t know. We’re hoping the more engaging environment of TutorTime will help balance him out again.

Preparation for the next kid has swung into high gear after this past weekend. We’ve been holding out before doing anything too serious until we found out the gender of the next baby. Besides, we had Riley’s 2nd birthday party to plan and execute to keep us busy.

On Friday we found out that our next kid will be a girl. We are excited and relieved all at once. We were just happy to hear we had a healthy baby still in the hopper. We’ve been so busy keeping Riley entertained  we haven’t really stopped to grasp the fact we have a second one on the way. Having a girl will be quite different for the Motylinskis. It’s been almost a full decade since the last girl was born.

There are only a few things we think we need to accommodate a second child. Since a bigger house is out of the picture for awhile (Thanks terrible housing market), we have moved on to getting Riley his own bed and getting a bigger stroller. We knocked out the bed a few weeks ago and picked up a stroller this weekend.

With Riley I’ve felt we’ve been able to maintain some sort of identity as a couple. We always made time to enjoy life with and without Riley. For our sanity, sometimes it has been nice to hear each other over dinner instead of Riley’s constant opinions. But the new stroller I think put us firmly into the parents column. Our initial thoughts were to get a side-by-side stroller for the two kids. Riley loves riding in strollers. But after talking with a lady at Babies R Us we discovered that our infant carrier wouldn’t work in a side-by-side. To make matters worse, we now have a very large 2 year old who shows no sign of shrinking anytime soon. So we ended up not getting the fancy stroller we thought we wanted but a practical Sit and Stand stroller. It’ll accommodate an infant seat and also allow Riley some “Big Boy” freedom.

If you haven’t seen these Sit and Stand strollers, they have a “seat” behind the infant seat where a toddler can either sit or stand by. It’s nothing fancy, more like a ledge of convienience for a toddler who’s engine craps out a mile from the parking lot. Riley really enjoyed it but I think we should be more concerned with the fact that he jumps off of it every time we come to a stop with it. He exits it like some guy jumping from the getaway van in a jewelry heist. I can easily see this turning into a race to Jamba Juice in the mall.  I’ll just slow the stroller down enough for him to make his getaway.

I’ll hopefully get pictures of Riley’s 2nd birthday party online soon. I’ve got some sweet pinata video too.

Yesterday we took our quarterly trip to find shoes for Riley. Riles has a “unique” foot size: extra wide. For the uninitiated, that’s one side bigger than wide. It presents a challenge every couple of months to find him affordable shoes that fit comfortably. After 2 years of the same struggles I have finally come to the realization that his shoes are always going to be expensive, quite expensive. So instead of fighting to jam his foot into Target shoes, we headed straight to the Stride Rite store.

After the mall Stride Rite was a bust we motored to Maple Grove in hopes of them having a better stock of the extra wides. We entered the zoo (or madhouse, whichever you prefer) and quickly found the pair we needed to have sized. We waited, and waited, and waited for help. There appeared to be 2 people running into the back for shoes for about 6 families.

While we waited, somewhat impatiently, Riley began to explore the vast amount of toys the store had out for kids to play with. He was immediately drawn to a car ramp. He put a car on the ramp and zoomed it down the ramp. “Whee!’ he shouted. A young toddler girl wandered over and started grabbing the cars from Riley. I’ve had to get to this type of behavior from not only my child but other kids as well. We let her take the cars and I showed Riley the bin next to the girl where we could grab a few more cars. With each car we grabbed the girl would take them from us. Time to move on to something else, I figured.

We moved onto the puzzle stand. Riley started thumbing through the various puzzles on the stand, pulling them out and looking at them. The toddler girl followed us over to the stand to look. She moved in on Riley, pushing him squarely in the chest and screeching. She grabbed the puzzle from him. Stunned that this girl’s mother was watching her and not doing anything I squated next to Riley and helped him look at the puzzles without getting harassed.

The clerks were nowhere to be found so we had to shift to the back part of the store to get some help. I gladly grabbed Riley up to get away from this rude girl and mother. The backside of the store had a bookstand which Riles started purusing. We found a book and went in search of chair to sit down in. He pulled himself up at chair and began scanning the book. The girl from the front of the store found her back to Riley, and away from her mother mind you, and stole the book from Riley. She started to push Riley out of the chair. I had enough.

Unfortunately, my passiveness has bled into my parenting style. Her mother finally came over to her to grab her. In a literal huff I picked up Riley and said, “Come on, Riles. Lets leave her alone. We’ll go read elsewhere.” The mother heard me and huffed herself. I wasn’t sure if she huffed at me or at her daughter. But she got the point that I didn’t want her kid around my kid.

After we got help we were out of the store in 5 minutes. I hate judging how others parent their children. Riles has a lot of free reign in life. But one thing we don’t tolerate with him is poor manners with others. I wish all parents would do the same.

With the lack of a Macbook Pro update at the WWDC 2008 conference I was safe to march down to the Apple store and pick up a new computer. I have been holding off for months just in case Apple announced something at WWDC. With my fears subdued, I proudly took Riles to the store last night to get it.

I chatted with the kid with an eyebrow bolt for about 10 minutes. We discussed the merits of a matte vs. glossy screen. I thanked him for the suggestions and ordered up a Macbook Pro and Apple Care. Like all magic Apple store employees he whipped out his little handheld cash register, took my card, and swiped it…Then he swiped it again..and again. I told him that I typically have this problem with my card wearing down. He insisted it was the device and we walked to the back of the store to try the real cash register.

A few swipes later he looked up at me with a bit of shame and said, “I’m sorry sir, your card is declined.” Embarrassed, I tried to not look like an idiot backing out of the store. I told them that we have had problems with credit card theft in the past. Whether or not he believed me, I’m not sure, but I quickly ran out of the store and to the nearest lounge chair to figure out what went wrong.

After a 10 minute navigation of Chase’s phone menu I finally received a person. I explained the situation and asked why my card was declined. He informed me that no charges had been attempted on the card and that my line of credit should easily cover the purchase price. I felt a bit vindicated, but I was still short one Macbook Pro. I took Riles home and griped to Courtney about the whole ordeal.

Assuming Amazon.com would solve my credit card woes, I hopped online and ordered up the same thing, except with a delivery date of Thursday instead of “RIGHTFLIPPINGNOW”. I waited for the email receipt to come from Amazon so I could take it into work and be reimbursed for the computer. What I received instead of the receipt was a notification that Amazon was having troubles processing my card. In a fit of Macbook Rage I called Chase again to give them an earful.

This time, though, instead of getting the phone menu I received from the mall, I was dumped immediately into a payment verification process. I was informed that a large charge was pending against my account and would I like verify the charge. I pushed “2″ and hoped for the best.

So, the computer was flipping some sort of fraud monitoring process at Chase. In the long run I appreciate the security that the card provides, but it would have been nice if at the store instead of getting a decline message at the register, that the card company could inform the cashier to have me verify the purchase. Even better, Chase should send me a text message when I charge something and allow me to respond with validation.

It’s been too long since I’ve posted last, but honestly nothing all too exciting has been happening. Riley has been keeping us on our toes this spring. Every waking moment he’s telling us that he wants to go “out-si” == outside. When we went in for his 18 month checkup the doctor asked me how many words Riley knew. I thought about it for a second and said, “6″. The doc gave me a funny look and said he should easily know 10-20 by now. So I started counting again and came up with 12 easily. He said they didn’t even need to be actual words, but some sort of gibber-gabber that we understood the meaning of.

So here’s my attempt at a translation table between Riley-speak and English:

Every day Riley tells us something new. We just hold our breath every time and hope it’s not a curse word.

Let me get you up to speed on our life, as it stands today:

Courtney and I went to Cancun in February with Chad and Tina. It was probably the single greatest time that we’ve had in a very long time. Here’s the proof that we were there, and here’s me swearing off booze and Mexico. When in downtown Cancun, I would highly recommend La Habichuela. We had quite an excursion trying to find our way to the restaurant but it proved well worth the adventure.

I have recently been rolled off my first consulting engagement and was quickly put on a “tweener” project, something to keep me busy while a more permanent engagement was arranged. In the beginning I was quite reluctant about the short-term project. I was told that I was supposed to be a hired gun for some legacy VBA work in Excel, both of which I have little to no experience with. I was told that I needed to put on a good show because if all went well, I would be a good “foot in the door” for other projects. Now, over the course of my career I’ve heard this excuse uttered hundreds of times but this was really my first experience with the “foot” working. I cranked out the project for the client quickly and successfully. They were so happy with the work that they promised future engagements. w00t!

Now, for Riley. As it stands today he’s just passed 17 months old. He has entered toddler mode fully, which means just about everything with him is a struggle. When he laughs, he laughs long and hard. When he’s frustrated he throws himself on the ground in a tantrum as only a Motylinski/Angerer offspring could. He’s more fun then I ever thought he would be. But he’s also mind-numbingly infuriating a the same time. He’s beginning to talk, so we can rationalize with him in a small way. He loves being outside. A few times we’ve caught him running out he side door, which he can open without trouble. We spend the majority of our time trying to keep him entertained. Sadly, he’s not one for spending lazy afternoons coloring. He’s more the type to go splash in a puddle or the dogs’ water bowl.

We were put on notice today that Riley will be moving up from the infant daycare room to the toddler daycare room. I realized that while the transition for him might be tough, it may be harder on me.

For the last 12 months I have taken Riley to daycare in the morning. Every day I say good morning to Carol and chit chat about the weather. We discuss what we did for the weekend and she might mention how long Riley’s hair is, in an obvious reference to our lack of parenting. Many mornings Riley runs up to Carol to greet her and begin the morning Cheerios routine. The other morning he came in and hugged her leg. She smiled and commented on how hard it is to see kids like Riles grow up and leave the room.

For most of his time at daycare Riley has been the gentle giant of the room. He’s been a big kid all his life and his classmates have been mostly girls. He stands out in the room. He’s the tallest, biggest kid around. Now, he’ll be in a group of even bigger kids where he is just one of many “big guys”. Riles has never been a violent kid. He’s never bitten anyone but has taken his fair share of being bitten. I worry that the change in classmates will force Riley to act out in ways we aren’t used to.

It’ll be tough for the next few weeks. All of the sudden the $50-a-week savings doesn’t seem worth it. I’d rather Riley continue to stay who he is. But, I know if there’s one thing that is certain it’s that he will grow up.

Over the weekend we noticed yet another obvious change in Riley. He started mimicking our habits. In the past he’s found a rag and started wiping up the floor, a common occurrence in our house with a child and 3 dogs. But this weekend he started doing more complex tasks.

We were watching television last night when Riley picked up a dog bowl and walked to the stairs. He proceeded to bang on the gate until I opened it for him. He crawled downstairs (I carried the dog bowl for him), went into the laundry room, and pointed to the dog food containers. Riley wanted to feed the dogs. The problem was, the dogs had already eaten for the evening. Not wanting to start WWIII, I helped him fill the dog bowl and carry it back upstairs. Once upstairs he poured some of the food into Dottie’s bowl, some on the floor for Joe (Accidentally of course), and gave the rest to Sydney. It was cute and he was quite proud of himself when he finished.

Then this morning as I was shaving Riley carried one of my clean sweaters into the bathroom, pointed to the clothes chute, and threw my sweater down the chute. I bit my tongue on the clean clothes part because he was so happy to be helping.

Next up, I need to teach him to lay tile.

Riley happens to have big feet. I don’t know which side of the family he got it from, but his feet are extra wide (which is one step above wide, even). Since it started getting cold out we could no longer just take him around in his socks. We dropped 50 bucks on Stride Rite shoes for him since it seems Stride Rite are the only makers of extra wide shoes for 1 year olds. I wasn’t happy about dropping that kind of dough on kid shoes but after a frustrating day of trying to find something that would fit him, I gave in and he got a fancy pair of shoes.

We’ve considered those shoes gold. We don’t ever want the day to come that we have to replace them. He wears them everywhere we go just so we’re certain to get our money’s worth. On Friday Riles and I went to the mall to do a little holiday shopping. We hiked the mall for 3 hours, had some food, and came home.

While packing Riley up on Saturday for an overnight stay with the grandfolk one of his shoes went missing. I knew the shoe had to have been in the house because I remembered putting him down for a nap right after the mall. I had to remove his shoes before the nap. In fact, we had one of the shoes. He had carried it around and dropped it in the family room. In a hurry, we ran out the door without finding the second shoe. In their place were a set of fancy moon boots straight from Target.

Last night, fed up with missing a $25 shoe Courtney set out on a mission to find it. We tore apart every nook and cranny of the house. Bedrooms, bathrooms, play rooms were all flipped upside down. The shoe was gone and the finality of it all started to sink in. We both muttered curse words and sat down on the couch.

In a light-bulb moment Courtney checked Riley’s ride-on bulldozer. It had a compartment under the seat. To our amazement Riley had put his shoe away in the bulldozer. There it sat, exactly where he thought it should be. With happy sighs we enjoyed the moment and wondered what else he had stashed in other places.