Toddler shopping, eating and naughty corner

Today is a beautiful sunny Saturday! A bit chilly but the sun is shining so hopefully this afternoon, it will warm up enough for me to take Lucas to the playground.

Yesterday I was feeling ambitious so I took Lucas shopping - BAD, BAD idea! He lasted the drive and about 15 minutes in the mall before he started fussing and pulling at the straps, wanting to get out of the stroller. So I left empty handed, bundled Lucas into the car and took him to his favourite cafe. As the carpark was full I had to make a loop and I forgot I was in France and started to turn right on the wrong side of the road. Luckily the van coming towards me was going slow and stopped and the car behind me didn't plow into me! It all happened really fast and my heart was still beating fast when we finally parked the car and walked to the cafe.
"Simply Food" is a small cafe with outdoor seating and a play area for toddlers at the back of the cafe. The owner has thoughtfully made the place child friendly with playmats and toddler tables and chairs and a lot of toys to keep the young ones occupied while mama and papa have their meals.

Lucas hasn't been eating a lot, as he is at the stage where he just likes to taste the food, so he has only a few mouthfuls of most foods I eat and I supplement his diet with his milk and cereal. However at Simply Food, Lucas loves the 3 cheese toasted panini. I actually considered going there everyday so Lucas will eat but at 4 euro a panini, its too much to have everyday.

When I came home, I found that Baby Center has sent me another email as Lucas is now 23 months 4 weeks old and what a nice coincidence - the article was about mothers with toddlers this age who isn't able to sit still for more than a few minutes. I'm so glad to read that its perfectly normal that Lucas will not let me shop or sit down and eat quietly. Mealtimes have been hard as he will sit for a few minutes and then he starts to get out of his highchair and climbs on my lap to eat from my plate. He does that for a few minutes more and then gets antsy and starts to climb on the dining table, or he pulls me to play with him. He is getting better at using the spoon but still prefers to use his hand. Mealtimes can get really messy at this household :)

A few weeks ago, while I was on Skype with my friends in London, Kelvin & Ling Ling, I overheard Ling Ling asking her son Kieran if he wants to go to his naughty corner and I asked Kelvin if it really works. So a few days ago, I tried the 'naughty corner" on Lucas as he was throwing a mother of a tantrum. I picked him up and placed him in a corner and told him (above his screaming and kicking) to stay in his naughty corner until he calms down. It didn't work as everytime I placed him there he would just run off screaming more. But after that incident whenever he starts to misbehave, I would point to the corner and said "do you want to go to your naughty corner" he would either protest loudly or calm down! We didn't even need to really explain to Lucas what is a naughty corner - he just understands!

Yesterday I made a quick run to Carrefour for some salads, and came home with 2 kgs of grapes for 1.87 euro! What a bargain! Its grapes and pears season now, so the fruit is in abundance. Lucas doesn't seem to like grapes very much. In fact he only seems to eat pears mashed into his cereal, sometimes I add applesauce. His favourite pasta right now is macaroni - I suppose its because its small enough for him to pick up with his little fingers.

Last week, I took Lucas to the playground at L'Ormeau. I like going to this place as Lucas is allowed to run in the grass, and on a nice sunny day, the college kids are out sitting on the grass in groups, drinking beer and some playing the guitar and singing. On that particular day, there was a guy who was practising his flame throwing baton (without the fire) and Lucas was totally fascinated. He kept going near the guy when he was resting and started talking to the man in baby talk and pointing at the baton. Lucas also started chasing the rugby ball thrown by a couple of guys ( to my single friends out there who are planning to visit me - take Lucas to the park and he will chat up all the guys for you!!!!!) who were totally charmed by him and even tried to throw the ball near Lucas for him to pick up.

Lucas also grabbed a ball from another little boy and threw the ball in the boy's face. Sigh. That was so bad :( But it was a light throw tho' the other boy's mom didn't look too happy. I asked Lucas to apologize and he lightly touched the other boy's face to say sorry :)