Sturm Haus

Halloween

Poor Otto.

I got a call just before 3:30 today that he had a fever of 101. So I headed home to pick him up, and we're not trick or treating tonight. He's really not up to it. He's been dosed with ibuprofen and is happily ensconced in his truck chair in front of the TV, watching endless reruns of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He helped hand candy to our neighbor's two-year old, Abby (she was dressed as Mickey Mouse) and has eaten 1 Reese's PB Cup and 1 miniature KitKat bar. I think that's the extent of our Halloween this year.

He did, however, participate in the Halloween parade last Friday at day care. And this was his costume:

Here, this might help with identification:

Yep. We were at Target last week, and he found this costume and had to have it. He liked it more than Thomas, folks. More than Buzz Lightyear, too. He wore it for awhile Saturday morning, and I'm sad he doesn't feel good enough to wear it tonight. It'll be great for dress-up, though.

Jake, of course, is in his element. If I'm not manning the door he stands there, ears alert, watching the front walk for little people. He likes the 6-8 year old boys best, and they return the favor by exclaiming "Cool! Is that a Husky? Can I pet him?" And of course we say yes, and Jake lets them ruffle his fur and touch his ears.

The one thing we did accomplish last night was the ceremonial carving of the pumpkins. Otto helped by telling us where eyes, noses and mouths should go. Can you match the jack o'lantern to its owner?

Happy Halloween everyone!

Oy.

I had a great morning, until I left the house.

Should've stayed home I guess.

Poor Otto - he was doing so well! He sat on the potty, ate breakfast, let me get him dressed. We even picked out a book to take to school and share (Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo). And then we got to school, and I left him, and my last glimpse was of him standing in the middle of the story time rug, book in hand, mouth wide open as he howled with teary eyes screwed shut.

He's probably doing just fine now. Sigh.

And then I got to work, where "circumstances outside my control" have been making life interesting lately, and started putting out fires. I'm going to lunch now and hoping that when I come back I can do what I'd planned to do today.

Before I left the house.

I think I'm being ignored.

Otto just walked from the kitchen to the stairs without acknowledging me and went straight up to be with Daddo. He's not given Jon much space since he got home yesterday afternoon, and oh, he's happy!

Last night I uploaded all the snapshots from our trip, and from the weekend before when I cooked the Biggest Pork Chops Ever.

Today is Reformation Sunday - are you wearing red?

We need to buy pumpkins and decorate for Halloween today. Must buy candy, as well. Our subdivision is lousy with little kids on its own, and on Halloween we add tons of people who pull up in mini vans to drop off a gang of kids and let them loop around the neighborhood.

You probably have your Halloween decorating done already, don't you? Huh. Well, in that case you have nothing better to do than to admire photos:

Right. Off I go, then. Otto is asking for me (his Dad is making him change his diaper - the horror!).

Otto and Jake and I all snuggled into bed together last night. It's been rainy and cool, and I haven't pulled the space heater out yet for Otto's room, so I let him crawl into bed with me for warmth. We believe in sleeping cold and have the big down duvet and flannel jammies to prove it. You know the weather's really changed for good when Jake starts curling into the duvet for the night and tucking his nose under his tail.

This is what Otto carried over from his bed to sleep with: puppy, Taggie, and his miniature jet airplane. Yesterday he told Miss Nancy at day care that Daddo went to work on the airplane. Last night we talked about it again, and I explained that tomorrow morning Daddo would come home on the plane and we'd go to the airport to pick him up.

So when he woke up, I wasn't particularly surprised when the first thing he did was pull out his airplane. He flew it over the pillow and said "Plane carry Daddo home."

"Yes," I agreed, impressed by his use of 'carry' as a verb. "Daddo's on the plane right now!" We imagined him looking out a window at the clouds, and Otto pointed out which door would open for Daddo to come out.

Then he laughed and said "Daddo drive car!" He's been worried all week that Jon's car is sitting in the garage with no Daddo to drive it. The other night he kept asking Jon about it, why his car's in the garage while he's gone, so Jon promised to take him for a ride when he got home. It's like the world just isn't right if Dad's not driving the Impala, and he's worried about Dad being separated from his car.

I've been more worried about Otto being separated from his Daddo. Soon we'll take off for the airport, though, and then everything will be OK. Our little pack will be back together.

homecoming

We pulled into the garage this afternoon next to Jon's car, and Otto said "hey, Daddo's car!"

I said "he's at work, sweetheart."

I unbuckled him and let him into the house, then went back to the car to get our bags. He came to the door seconds later saying "Daddo's hiding! I find him."

Explaining work-related travel to a 2-year old is obviously difficult.

We had a great trip, really fun. The last 4 hours or so were a little difficult for me, but Otto had a great time all around. He loved the trip, loved staying at my Grandma's house, loved getting to meet new people. This evening on the phone he told his Daddo, "train fun!" If we went back to the train station tomorrow he'd probably be thrilled, train-crazy boy that he is. We got in just after midnight last night. A very kind cabbie gave us a short ride across the bridge to the extended-parking area to pick up my car, and we were home about 20 minutes later. Otto slept through most of the disembarking, waking briefly when I moved him into the taxi, but going back to sleep again almost immediately. We got out the door this morning at a reasonable hour considering our late night.

Adjusting back to real life will probably take us the rest of the week, complicated by the fact that real life normally includes Daddo. Tonight Otto couldn't get to sleep on his own, which means I spent half an hour putting him to bed, closing the door, listening to him cry and climbing out of bed to come back to the door... repeat. Eventually I let him fall asleep here in my lap while I read news and caught up on my favorite blogs. Tomorrow night should go better.

I'll upload photos and write about the trip as soon as I can, hopefully before I forget everything.

One of my favorite moments: in the rush to board the train Monday morning, with people cutting in line for the elevator, trying to sneak past the woman with the stroller AND a suitcase so they could board a precious 30 seconds faster, Otto said clearly, "wait a second, wait a second, everybody take turns!"

Toddlers have a keen sense of justice and aren't afraid to call it as they see it.

Jake seems to have had a great time at the doggy spa. He was bathed and had a pawdicure, and when I picked him up this morning he was wearing a cheerful kerchief patterned with grinning pumpkins. He spent a good chunk of the day in my car, but after my meetings were done and lunch was through I let him hide out in my office while I caught up on email and messages. He is a good good dog, and charmed several people while I tried to sneak him in and out of the building. He's now snoozing comfortably on the sofa, worn out from his beauty treatments and the busy day. To cap it off, he and Otto had a good race around the house and back yard together after we got home.

I'm for bed myself too, now. Like Otto it'll take me a few days to get back to normal, but also like Otto, it's good to be home.

I have butterflies.

Oh, God.

Tomorrow morning Otto and I are taking the 8:23am train to Chicago, where we then switch over to the Southwest Chief for our trip to KC. Tomorrow night we stay at the Westin Crown Center (thanks, Hotwire!). We're hitting the Nelson-Atkins Museum on Friday morning, heading down to Arkansas Friday afternoon, and spending the rest of the weekend with family.

I have stickers. I have a DVD player and many DVDs (including a couple for me, in case I need calming down). I have books, crayons, diapers, clothes, and itty bitty bags of Teddy Grahams. I even have 2 little bags of M&Ms, in case of emergency. My sanity seems to be missing, however, and I have a feeling it's not going to make the trip.

Who would do this, other than me? I keep reminding myself I traveled to Germany alone at age 21 with too much luggage and absolutely no Deutsch. I can handle going home to KC for a weekend with my charming toddler. I hope.

Keep your fingers crossed, OK?

No computer access where I'm going (plus, I'm on vacation!), so any updates will be via Twitter.

Wow. Is tomorrow Monday again already? The week has flown by! Things that made it go fast include...

The Fresh Air interview with Stephen Colbert -- laugh-out-loud funny, great interview.

My first two Etsy purchases:

The Dine-N-Doodle and...

this Sock Knitting Pouch. Can't wait until they get here.

Friday night I actually cooked dinner. Michel helped and offered moral support (I mentioned that Herb and Michel are visiting this weekend, didn't I?), but I picked out the menu, shopped for the ingredients, and made pork chops. The pork chops had a wine/dried fruit sauce to die for, and alongside we had a lentil/goat cheese salad and baked sweet potatoes. Yum! The recipes/menu came from an old Martha Stewart Living magazine -- I'd saved them for years, waiting for the chance to make them.

Watching Otto with his Nana and Pappi has been great fun. He talks so much now -- Herb said "I wasn't sure he knew who I was, but then he said 'Hey Pappi, look at this car!'" He and Nana have been cooking in his pretend kitchen today, and his new favorite word is "delicious!"

Michel bought an iPod Touch yesterday, and we're all in love with it. I set her up as a Guest on our computer so that she could download a few podcasts, and Jon hooked her into our wireless router so that she can use the browser function. It's pretty slick. I think maybe I'd rather have the video iPod, but I'm not sure. The touch-screen navigation and bigger viewing area are pretty sweet.

Today at Target I picked up a few things for our trip. Otto and I leave early Thursday morning and will spend all day on the train, with a mid-day break at Union Station in Chicago. I grabbed a few Cars-themed Matchbox cars, a portable AquaDoodle, and Finding Nemo. I'll buy a DVD player tomorrow or Tuesday evening -- I think I'll order something at Best Buy and pick it up on my way home from work. I have my big ole' North Face backpack out, and we'll take one suitcase and the umbrella stroller. I will do my best to pack light while still being prepared for emergencies. Does such a state exist?

The only bad thing about my trip is the fact that on Sunday, while Otto and I are down south, Jon will head out east for a work thing. He'll be gone until Saturday. That's 10 days apart, 10 days we won't see each other. I think the last time that happened was during our move to Michigan, and I'm not sure we went more than a week apart even then. So that part will be... challenging. Otto will miss his Daddo, and so will I.

For now, though, we have a few days to enjoy together before I take off. And that's exactly what we're going to do!

   

Sunday night, Otto and I watched this little video about 5 times:

And then yesterday at day care, he used the potty for the first time ever! Yay, Otto! He did it for Dad again last night, too. Who knew that Japanese toilet training videos were the key? We'll see how he does today.

We'll have to do something special to celebrate this weekend. Nana and Pappi arrive Thursday night, and we're getting all excited to see them. Every morning at breakfast I'll say "guess who's coming this week, Otto?" and he laughs, and I say "Nana and Pappi!" He usually laughs some more and says "Nana! Pappi!"

It's just a grandparent kind of month, I guess. I bought tickets today to go see family next weekend, and it's going to be just me and Otto. I'm excited and slightly nervous about taking him all by myself, but I think he's going to have fun because we're going by train. I'm taking advantage of this little window I have between Board meetings and the start of our remodeling project to take a few days off. The weather should be great, and it's been too long since I've seen my grandma.

Poor Jon will be home alone that weekend, though oddly enough he sounded almost cheerful at the prospect.

Otto and I made it to yoga again this morning, and we're both loving it. It's so fun to do yoga with kids. They keep everything light, and I think yoga is easier if you can laugh at yourself. There are two teachers, and we start out with moms and kids together. After 20 minutes of playing snake, ring-around-the-yogi, etc., the kids go to the far end of the room with a teacher and play with the blocks while the moms get some instruction with the other teacher. Today Otto actually did a few of the poses and paid pretty good attention to the instructor. His downward-facing dog was especially good. I did better today too -- I can still feel how tight my shoulders are, but was able to relax them a little more in class.

We came home via the Bakery again, too. We stood outside one of the windows for a few minutes to watch the workers shaping loaves for the big commercial oven. Then we went into bread heaven and commenced our shopping. Otto picked out 2 bottles of strawberry-banana smoothie, and I picked up a fresh baguette, a loaf of pumpernickel, and a loaf of sweet wheat (for PB&J this week). I am spoiled forever for grocery store bread.

After a nice, quiet afternoon (the funky baby sweater is slowly coming to life), we decided to have a family night out at the mall. I've been thinking the past couple of weeks that Otto probably needs new shoes. So we started with dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (again, I am spoiled), then headed to Stride Rite. Otto was really good tonight for the sales lady, standing patiently while she measured both his feet. We last had him measured in August, I think, and at the time he was still a 6.5 wide.

Tonight, though, he measured an 8. EIGHT wide (of course). So I went to look at the wall of little shoes sizes 5-8, and the sales lady very kindly said, "none of these shoes come in his size, he's wearing an eight and a half now. You'll need to pick from this wall," and she pointed to the right. To the wall full of BOY'S shoes. I almost cried. Just a few weeks ago we were still in toddler territory!

It took me a few seconds to get oriented, but I found him a cute pair of Nikes with a single velcro closure, easy to get on and off. He tried them on and went back to playing, so we figured they were good, paid, and headed back into the mall with his old shoes in the new shoe box. Otto immediately started running back and forth, back and forth, and Jon and I looked at each other and said "guess those new shoes feel pretty good, huh? Maybe that's why he kept wanting us to carry him?"

We get a C on our parenting report card this month, I guess.

Then I was sucked into the black hole of the Apple store while Jon and Otto went to the book store, and I discovered the following magical gadget:

This, my friends, is the iPod Touch. It is the iPhone without the phone part - BUT - and this is what got me tonight -- it is a WiFi device with a web browser. Which means not only can you watch movies and listen to tunes, you can check email and read blogs, too, if you're in a hot spot. Genius! I surfed to my library web site, searched the catalog (both of our copies of Love in the Time of Cholera are in transit to other libraries), and started thinking about how cool it would be to have this at work for the reference desk. I could walk into the stacks with this palm-sized device, search the catalog, search databases, email files to people... oh, this makes tablet PCs look clumsy. I am in love. Eyelash-fluttering, cartoon-hearts love. Sigh...

Still, if I have to choose between mommy/toddler yoga class every week and saving up for one of these puppies, I'll pick yoga every time.

Because in yoga class? You go barefoot.

So, remember a few months ago when I got a ride to work from my car dealer?

I had to catch another ride today. And it was my ex-Polish Freedom Fighter retired Special Forces body builder friend again.

He's planning to move to Amsterdam now, instead of Wyoming. Maybe visit friends in Poland. He needs a break from the daily grind, you know?

And he's starting a new on-line business venture, the name of which I can't remember, B* Incorporated something, and is planning to retire from his librarian-chauffeur job when it takes off. He's optimistic, sure that will be just a month or two from now.

I'm rather selfishly hoping that he has to hang on to his job a little longer. I really like having a personal driver. If I ever win the lottery, I'm offering him a job.

Now, the only important question left is, what would I be driven around in?

I'm kind of a fan of the big BMWs - I mean, really, look at this back seat:

the 7 series -- it's a contender. I could put Otto's seat on one side and still have plenty of room to stretch out on the other.

Then there's the Suburban -- the Texas limousine, and even though I'm not from Texas, I can see the appeal. Plus, I kind of got attached after being so close to the GM Janesville plant all those years. Live around them enough and they start to seem pretty normal.

I guess if I feel environmental, I can buy one of the brand-spankin-new hybrid Tahoes -- they make pretty good gas mileage, as good as some 4-cylinders.

But what if I win a little lottery? A very small one? Not enough to buy one of those behemoths? Well, then I guess I'll get this:

The new MINI Clubman. It's stretched out, so there should be room enough for me and Otto in the back. At least until he turns 5.

Getting the little man out of the house today wasn't too bad. He was relatively cheerful.

Yesterday he ate a huge amount at lunch -- leftover chicken and pasta from supper the night before, a hot dog, strawberries, carrots, milk, and a yogurt (or cheese? I forget.). His teacher wrote Wow! on his chart by the "ate everything for lunch" box. And then he ate a huge supper for Jon. Can we say... growth spurt? Today I sent a pb&j in his smiley face sandwich box, and a yogurt, more strawberries and carrots, and some goldfish/craisins mixed together. Hopefully that will tide him over.

Last night I had 8 knitters at Knit Night! And I started a Baby Surprise Jacket -- Anne and I are each knitting one together. If I'm lucky it'll fit Otto. If someone else is very lucky, it won't, and it'll be a great Christmas gift. I have a nice mishmash of yarns to use in it, so it'll be blue and gray with a tiny stripe of red here and there (as far as my little bit of red will go). I'm quite excited about it, actually. I have vowed to take more pictures of my WIPs, so once I have enough rows done to have something to show, I'll post a pic of the jacket.

Now I'm kicking myself, because I could've gotten a few rows done while being driven to work today, and it never occurred to me to pull out my knitting. Rats!

this one's for Jon

The one thing I've noticed since trying to do a little yoga on Saturday is that I am extremely, extremely tense in the shoulder area. We did a few stretches for shoulders/back, and besides feeling awkward, I noticed how tight I am from the neck to the shoulder blades. Which made me feel even more awkward, because those places just don't want to stretch at all. When I sit down now I feel like there's a steel bar sewn into my shirt. I guess it's good that I'm more aware this week. Now, if only I could shake it out.

I'm sure this probably says something about my life. I went to church alone on Sunday, and naturally people asked "where's Otto?" I tried to explain that for just one morning I wanted a break from battling with him about getting dressed and brushing his teeth. And it was great to sit quietly for an hour without a monkey hanging off my arm, hip or leg. At work we're in the midst of our annual audit and I'm still waiting for a start date for our remodeling project. At home, only .5 of my 2.5 bathrooms is clean and I have 4 loads of laundry to do to finally get caught up (I hope).

I'm used to being on top of things (or at least I used to be used to being on top of things), and for me that's been the hardest adjustment in this whole parenting thing. I'm no longer organized. I no longer know where things are. I'm never caught up on laundry and the house is never really clean. And that chaos spills over into all the other parts of my life -- work, relationships, everywhere. Like I lost a vital part of my brain. And I want that part of my brain back!

For now, I think I'm going to have to settle for trying to work the kinks out of my upper back.

Reading: 8 Entirely New Ideas About Love

Buying: Lightening McQueen Pull-Ups

Wondering: which blue for our bedroom?

for Otto

I'm resorting to desperate measures.

In an attempt to make leaving the house each morning more fun, I have ordered the following:

This is the School Bus Tote from fredflare.com. If you were 2, wouldn't it make you leap out of bed with joy, imagining the fun day to come? 

O was fine this morning until it got to the point of "ok, kiddo, let's get in the car and go!" I was cheerful. I was upbeat. I reminded him of his friends and the wonderful stories Miss Kim reads and the great playground.

In the car all I could make out between sobs was "back home! back home!"

And all I wanted to say was, "you and me both, kid."

You and me both.

(He was perfectly happy once we arrived, of course.)