Sturm Haus

I got up today and had the feeling that I'd walked out of a bank of fog into daylight.

This horrible cold I've had for 3 weeks is finally receding, allowing me to eat, sleep, breathe and think again. There's a viral cough thing going around, and for the past 3 weeks I've been wheezing, hacking, barking, coughing so hard I gagged... it just wouldn't let up. I'd talk to people on the phone and start coughing so badly that my mom finally said one night "I'm just going to ask yes/no questions, OK?" Christmas Day I thought I was on the mend until 8pm rolled around and I had to retreat to our bedroom to hug a pillow to my chest and lie under the plume from the humidifier, hacking and hacking and hacking... I thought I'd be filling an antibiotic scrip on Wednesday, but magically, Wednesday morning I was better. Maybe it was the brief spell of sunlight we enjoyed, or the cheesy/tomatoey lunch we had. Whatever it was, I actually felt like myself again. The doc I saw last week was right -- this thing hangs on. And on. And on. I'm still congested, but no longer coughing so hard I impede the oxygen flow to my brain, so life is good.

This is all to say I'm just now starting to feel up to loading pictures and detailing life at the Haus over Christmas. Otto was a gem, opening each gift with appreciation (there were a lot of "oh wow!"s and "cool!"s), and it took all day to get the gifts open because he had to play with everything as soon as he saw what it was. Jon and Jamie and I each got some wow cool gifts, too, and in general it was a laid back cozy day.

For now we're enjoying having Jamie here. It's so nice to have him visit. He and Jon have been talking, watching TV together, just hanging out. Tomorrow I'm off to work and Otto's off to day care, and they'll have the day together to explore Detroit.

Right this minute, though, I'm heading up to bed. I'm still pretty knackered at the end of the day, and since I want this cold to go away and never come back I'm pushing extra-early bedtimes.

Otto's asleep (we read Olivia Helps With Christmas before bed, which made him laugh, he loves Oliva).

There are cookies and milk on the mantle for Santa.

There are clean sheets on the guest bed.

I have cleared a 512mb memory stick for photos.

Jamie will arrive around 5:45 a.m. (he's hitching a ride with Santa).

And I am wearing flannel sock monkey jammies.

I believe we're as ready as we can be for Christmas morning!

dashing through the snow

I don't know about you, but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.

We got a grand total of 10.5" of snow in about 12 hours on Sunday. It took them 2 days to get to our subdivision plowed. I got out Sunday afternoon to Kroger, and then Monday morning to daycare/work, slaloming along our street like I was driving Santa's power sled. Secretly? I love driving in the snow. I go just a little too fast so I slip and slide around corners, and then chuckle and pat the dashboard and thank my AWD for keeping me out of trouble. Never say I'm not easily amused.

Jon and Otto were shoveling slush off the drive last night when I got home, Otto wielding our miniature, car-trunk-sized snow shovel with serious authority, just like Daddo. When he throws snowballs he grabs a chunk of snow, walks close enough to touch you, and then slams the snow into your coat and laughs. Guess he wants to make sure he doesn't miss. They had a snowball fight at school on Monday and it was all he wanted to talk about Monday night, how "Miss Kim throw snowball Otto."

Tuesday he refused to nap. He "rested" and spent all of nap time singing Jingle Bells over and over again. In desperation Miss Kim asked Miss Martha to sit with him, Miss Martha who sang Otto to sleep when he was in the infant room and is the epitome of calm sweetness, and not even Miss Martha could get him to shut up and settle down.

Last night I asked him what he wanted from Santa and he said "presents!" I asked if he wanted any present in particular and he shouted "more presents!" Hmm... guess he's all about quantity this year.

After shoveling last night Jon decided to make hamburgers for dinner. "Are we going to try one on Otto?" I asked, and he said "that's the plan."

Otto sat down to his plate, immediately grabbed mustard and ketchup to put on the top half of the bun, helped me squash it down on the burger, and told Daddo to cut it in half (not in quarters). Then he took big bites and said "mmm! good!" Jon and I about fell out of our chairs while trying to play it cool, shooting each other surreptitious looks of amazement. Our child ate a hamburger! Not a hotdog, or chicken nugget, or fish stick, or other breaded thing. Oh, sure, he got a little obsessed about squeezing out more mustard, but he ate. Enthusiastically. Could broccoli be next?

I've had the chest cold and cough from h-e-double-hockeysticks this week, even went to see the doc on Tuesday, and it's put me behind on the Christmas to-do list. So some of you, dear friends and family, will be getting your gifts on, say, the 3rd day of Christmas. I'm sure that'll be OK. And we haven't done cards yet. Maybe we'll enlist Uncle Jamie's help in taking a family photo and send a New Year's card instead. Or Valentine's Day.

But! The jigglers for Otto's Christmas party are done. He'll get to see Santa in person tomorrow and give him his request for "more presents!" He plugs in the tree every morning when we get up and every evening when we get home. He's a veritable bundle of Christmas cheer, which has kept me going through all the other madness of this week.

we have snow!

Jake the intrepid snow dog can't get off the deck. We need to shovel a path across and down the stairs for him.

Jon the intrepid husband is out doing a first scoop of the path and driveway. Our kind neighbors to the south ran their snowblower as far as the driveway, clearing most of our sidewalk. If Jon's lucky he'll be able to cadge a snowblower off our neighbors across the street, paying them back by filling the tank with gas and doing their drive while he's at it. That actually works pretty well for everyone, I think.

Otto and I are still wearing our jammies. I found his snow bibs, so we're set to play outside later today if he's interested. He hasn't been so far, and I don't blame him -- it's pretty blowy out there!

Jon complained last night, "You haven't updated your blog. How am I supposed to know what you're thinking?"

So, for my husband, here's what's on my mind:

• I'm thinking about the snowstorm headed our way, and the fact that I cannot, for the life of me, find Otto's snow pants.
• I'm thinking about the Christmas shopping we have to do today, before said storm, so that we can mail everything Monday.
• I'm thinking about ordering free boxes from the post office to ship said Christmas gifts.
• I'm thinking there's no way to properly thank all the people who've been putting books back on shelves this week at the library. Whether paid or volunteer, it was all work above and beyond the call of duty. One team of volunteers got all the non-fiction back on the shelves in order, from the 641s back through the 000s. The pages finished unloading fiction together yesterday afternoon, laughing as they worked. Volunteers and staff worked together to move the big heavy moving carts, unload books, and then take the empty carts down the elevator to storage. They put large print back, sci fi/fantasy back, most of mystery back, while I spent the day back-shifting and weeding non-fiction, with J.'s help. A. kept glaring at me for creating piles of books to withdraw (heh), but I was pleased to have cleared at least a dozen shelves worth of space. Everything is looking really wonderful.
• I'm thinking this croupy cough I've been battling all week really, really needs to take a hike.
• I'm thinking of how glad I am that mom finally got power back (she was in the midst of the horrible ice storm last week), so has heat and hot water and a kitchen again after several days in the dark.
• I'm thinking there's a lot of work to do in the guest room to make it a nice place for guests to stay over the holidays.
• I'm thinking it's funny that Jake waited for Otto to get up this morning before going outside. He went downstairs for a few minutes with Jon, came back upstairs and climbed into bed with me (where I was coughing pitifully), and waited patiently for the noise of Otto's turning doorknob. When he climbed off the bed and went to greet Otto on the landing, Otto said, "go ahead Jake, you go downstairs first," and he did. I'm beginning to believe that if we didn't close Otto's door at night, he'd sleep in his room.
• I'm thinking it's time to strip the linens off our beds and start the Saturday laundry routine.

And... that's about it, for this morning.

We're in the midst of a remodeling project at work.

So I beg you to imagine...

• 30,000+ books, movies, audio books, magazines, etc.
• 12 staffers + various fab volunteers
• 23 massive carts (specially made for moving libraries)
• goal: move everything out of the way for carpet installation next week

Friday we spent all day moving. Moving moving moving. Moving books onto big carts. Shifting books from one end of the shelving area to the other. Moving the entire juvenile collection off carts to its new location in the reconfigured childrens' area. Pushing big heavy carts down the hall (2 people per cart, please). Pushing smaller shelving carts from one end of the aisle to the other. About a third our staff spent all day at it. The rest came in for 4 hour shifts, and we signed voluteers up for 2 hour stints. We don't want anyone to get hurt.

I wasn't sore or anything Friday night. But I was tired, definitely. We have 2 more weeks of this to go, and next week we have to get the adult fiction and non-fiction back on the shelves. In order. I feel good about how it's going, actually, we're meeting our deadlines. It's a huge job, though, and for me almost more mentally stressful than anything else. I mean, most of the adult collection is now in storage on big ugly carts that splinter if you grab them in the wrong spot. Last weekend it was our entire juve department. It's just wrong.

Just a couple more weeks though and we're done. Thank goodness.

My office is only partially put back together. I have enough of my stuff out to get ready for the next Board meeting, but still have boxes to open and paper to file. It'll get done later, after the books are back.

Last night we went to see Andy and Deb and their two munchkins. Otto was stubbornly entranced by their toys upon arrival, and I can see why his current teacher isn't thrilled with his playing style. But after a little while he settled down and laughed and ran around and played more with his two hosts. He's getting there. We've invited them to visit the weekend before Christmas for an afternoon of cookie decorating and maybe, if the weather cooperates, a little sledding on the big hill down the road. And then Uncle Jamie arrives on Christmas Eve to spend a few days! I'm starting to really look forward to the holidays.

independence, here we come

We met with a couple of people at day care last night to get the scoop on Otto's behavior.

Long and short, he's a bit young for his age when it comes to social skills. He needs to interact more with his classmates and be more independent.

Also, he's stubborn. Surprise!

We came up with a couple of things to do to help him improve so that he can move to preschool shortly after his birthday next month. Our plans involve using egg timers and alarm clocks, to start with. More on that later.

Not sure yet how we get him to start doing call and response style communication, answering questions like "what's your name?" and "how old are you?" When I work with him on it he just ignores me, as though the questions are either completely beneath his notice or completely over his head. Guessing more the former. Maybe I need to resort to M&Ms or something, I don't know. We don't bribe much. Life might be easier if we did.

Today I made him choose whether he would have a banana or apple in his lunch (apple). Then I made him tell me whether or not he wanted the apple sliced (yes). We're also working on dressing/undressing. Today he stripped off his PJ bottoms and put on his shoes before coming out of his room. I think that shows progress, don't you?

So everything's OK, pretty much.

And hey, did you know that it's December? And that Christmas is only, say, 3 weeks away? Must get to work on my cookie plan...

Sunday afternoon. Otto and I are snuggling on the sofa. I ask what has been, up to now, a rhetorical question. "Are you my baby today?" I like to tease him a little sometimes, tell him he's still my baby when we get all snuggly. He's got his head on my shoulder, arms tucked in, and I have both my arms wrapped around him. As Otto would say, "comfy cozy."

Then Otto sits up, looks at me, shakes his head. He says slowly and deliberately, as though he's thought about this, "No, I not baby. I big boy."

Lord save me, he's right.

---

The original plan was to get a Christmas tree this weekend. The weather has been so miserable, though, that there was no chance. It's been raining all day, a cold hard horrid rain, beating on the windows like there are dozens of elves pounding with their tiny fists saying "let me in!" And then there's the wind, which even now sounds like it's trying to peel the roof off our house the way I'd peel the top off a can of soup.

Jon had a quite nice birthday. I took him shopping at the mall Friday night and dragged him straight to the Apple store. His selection? A new, shiny, beautiful iPod Classic. A Classic for a classic guy! He loves it. He's spent much of the weekend wandering around the house, iPod clipped to his pants and earbuds in. A special purchase... but he's been wanting one for quite awhile. He immediately loaded our entire combined iTunes library, about 100 photos of Otto, This American Life and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. It's pretty nifty.

My other special purchase last week was a new coat for Otto. I started thinking over Thanksgiving weekend about how we live where it's cold in winter. How Jon and I both have down coats to get us through said winters. How Otto often goes outside to play at school, no matter the weather. And I thought hmm... Lands End? Yes indeed - Lands End has classic down coats for toddlers. Otto's arrived on Thursday. And Friday night, when we got home from the mall, he was so comfy cozy in the back seat wearing his coat that he had a fit when we pulled into the garage and demanded that we keep driving.

He was mighty displeased when we didn't.