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Today was "beach day" at school. O's teacher said "he has sunglasses, right? Have him wear them, and if he wants to bring a beach ball or something, that'd be good."
We decided we didn't want to stop there, though. We got out the swim trunks and the floppy hat, too.
Anything to make school as fun as possible, is my motto.
Happy Friday!
Tonight for dinner we had grilled brats, potato salad, corn on the cob -- you know, a summery sort of menu.
This is what my son ate:
Then he asked for more hot dog, and I explained we were out of regular hot dogs and just had special hot dogs left (brats). He climbed under the table, popped up by my chair and crawled into my lap, and then proceeded to eat:
Add to this the fact that he ate at least half of one of mom's bierocks the other night, and I start to hope for a future with a child who will eat something other than chicken nuggets and peanut butter sandwiches.
I've done a few things around the house this weekend, but have spent most of my time hanging out, trying to knock my latest cold and gather energy for the coming week. Hope you had a good holiday weekend!
I love shopping on-line. I admit it. I love the geeky research you can do on-line before you buy. I love being able to shop for the best price without having to go to 5 different stores. I love not having to wrangle a 3-year old through the aisles while avoiding end-cap displays of random plastic things that capture his imagination and attention.
Over the weekend I ordered some stuff from Amazon and Target. And then yesterday I ordered our infant car seat, an extra base, and a car seat adapter for our InSTEP stroller from a site that has a warehouse right up the road from us. Shipping is really quick when your stuff is just coming from Lake Orion.
So there will probably be 4 boxes sitting on our front step when Jon gets home tonight. Fun!
Hopefully Otto won't mind too terribly if the baby uses "his" stroller at first. Jon and I are trying to decide what to do about a stroller for two. Neither of us likes the front-to-back double strollers. They're so big and bulky, especially when you think about how little Otto uses one anymore -- he likes walking (well, running) on his own most of the time now. We looked at the Joovy, which is a cool idea, but in practice not so useful. Once the infant seat is slotted into the front there's no room for Otto in back. So it won't really work for the first few months when it's easiest to keep baby in her car seat.
We'll keep looking. For now we're happy to be able to re-purpose our walking stroller into a stroller system. We'll just have to see what Otto thinks of it.
He was in an excellent mood this morning, all due to a field trip. I woke him up and said "hey, we have to get moving. You get to ride the bus and go on a field trip today!"
His eyes popped open pretty fast and we talked about him going to the farm while I got him dressed. He even decided to leave Puppy in bed for the day, since Otto was going to be too busy with his field trip to want him. Hopefully he had a good time. If bus rides still make him this happy in a couple of years, starting school is going to be a breeze.
I'm sick again with yet another nasty cold/respiratory virus. Last week I felt really good, got a lot done at work. Then the weekend hit and I kind of shut down. I don't function well when I can't sleep -- and I can't sleep well when I can't breathe. I particularly hate waking up with drool marks on my t-shirt or pillow because I'm sleeping with my mouth open, likely sawing logs with abandon. Ugh.
Add pregnancy to that (must sleep on side, must not take most cold medicines, etc.) and I swear, I've never felt so useless in my life.
We've dusted and cleaned and scrubbed bathrooms, I've got us caught up on laundry, and I spent 20 minutes brushing Jake in the front yard last night, making the birds happy by giving them tons and tons of fur to use in their nests. I cleared out the red dresser and all of Otto's clothes are now in his closet. We went to BRU, tested infant seats, and decided which one we're getting. But no, the baby's room isn't done yet. My being sick put the kibosh on any real activity in that quarter.
I have to remind myself that the last time I was pregnant? We moved house twice. And yet we managed to get Otto's room done before he arrived (with timely and wonderful help from family). If I remember right, most of that work had to happen the month or so before he was due. We will get this little one's room done in time, too.
Our new, all-enclosed computer desk arrived yesterday. Jon put it together and it looks fabulous (it'll look even better once my new lamp shows up). It holds everything we need it to and sits nicely in the corner of the living room next to the fireplace. Now that all the computer gear is moved, we can get rid of the old computer desk and keep clearing the baby's room.
It's like we're rearranging the pieces of a house-sized puzzle... move this piece here, and we can put a different piece over there, which means we can fit a new piece where the old piece went... I imagine it's kind of how life will be for the first few months after the baby arrives. Things will be mostly the same (work, house, schedule), but also entirely different and requiring daily adjustment.
In the meanwhile, regular life goes on. Thursday evening was Parents' Night at day care, the big spring event when teachers and kids put on a show. Otto was so good this year! He sang the songs, did the hand motions, and really participated. I was very proud of him and he was pretty pleased with himself, too. He's getting so big so fast this spring, shooting up in all directions. My big little man, who shouted up the steps at Jon and me this afternoon, "Is everything OK up there?" (we were putting laundry away).
As he likes to say, he's a funny guy.
I kind of overdid it Friday and yesterday.
So today I have been a lump on the couch.
It helps that it rained all day long, so I felt no guilt about doin' nothin'. Otto took a good 3-hour nap. I watched a lot of my DVRed shows (Ugly Betty!) and looked at random web sites. Jon made us a huge breakfast of fluffy pancakes and bacon, which stuck with me until about 4pm. A relaxing day.
Yesterday we got some work done on O's closet. He loves his new closet organizer/dresser and immediately began moving things into it (toys and t-shirts, mainly). Mom got me to sort a mountain of baby clothes. I have one laundry basket of things we're saving for the new baby -- the rest is going away. Which is OK as long as I don't think about it too much.
The other day on Flickr I was looking for a specific photo, so I searched my photos for "me" and came up with a bunch of random images, many of them of Otto as a baby. I love who he is now, his independence and sense of humor and big-boy abilities, but man -- he was a sweet baby. I held him a LOT and wish I could go back and hold him even more. These days you have to tackle him to get him to snuggle. The other night he asked me to 'nuggle with him at bedtime, and I laid on his bed next to him and watched him sleep for 15 minutes while I tried to remember the baby days and the weight of him in my hands, how his head used to fit on my shoulder. Now he's all arms and legs and grin. We're back to making popcorn about once a week as an evening treat, and the biggest treat of all is that he'll sit next to me on the couch for 20 minutes, tucked under my left arm and head against my shoulder, so that we can share the bowl while we watch Dancing with the Stars or whatever.
I find myself thinking "I'm so glad I get to have another one." And then wondering if two will be enough, or if I'll be craving another baby in another 2 or 3 years (shh... don't tell my husband).
For Mother's Day Otto's teachers interviewed each child about their mom. Here's his interview:
My mom's name is MOM
My mom is 2 DOLLARS years old.
My mom loves OTTO
My mom's favorite job is CLEANING CLOTHES
My mom's favorite book is ABOUT A STRAWBERRY
My mom's favorite TV show is FIRE ENGINE
My mom's favorite color is ALL COLORS!
My mom's favorite food is FRUIT
My mom's favorite thing to do is FINDING ME
My mom's best friend is OTTO
My mom's favorite present is FOOD
My mom loves me because I LOVE CANDY
(Actually, Otto, I love you because you're you. Though you're plenty sweet, too.)
The refrigerator, she is running again. It will be my husband's choice whether or not to ever divulge why it stopped running (and no, it had not been unplugged). But it was a simple fix, the kind of fix that made him feel silly. "And I think I'm mechanically inclined!" he said.
The problem might have been caused by a certain 3-yr old, though we can't prove anything. He's not talking. On the plus side, we now have the phone number of a really nice appliance repair guy. And have burned extra calories this week walking the extra 10 feet to the garage refrigerator. So that's a bonus.
I was at work until 9 last night, back at 8 this morning. I've met with my committee and answered email and worked on reports. It's time to go home again now. Closet-cleaning might be on the agenda. So might a nap. Or a trip to the nursery to ponder purchasing a lilac-on-a-stick tree.
When I got home tonight it was dinnertime, and Otto was about to settle down with a peanut butter sandwich. He decided he wanted to eat sitting in his stroller in the garage, though -- odd, but Jon was going with it. I went out to help get him settled in the seat while Jon put the cup in the cup holder and his sandwich on the tray.
While we were there, trying to figure out whether Otto actually wanted us to walk or just wanted to eat outside, Jake strolled through the open door from the kitchen into the garage.
This is something he just doesn't do. He doesn't like that door much, and knows that unless there's a leash involved it's probably not worth the trouble to walk past the spooky broom closet (brooms can fall out and attack, you know).
So I have my hands around Otto, lowering him into the seat, and Jon's just straightened up from putting the cup etc. down, and I spot Jake, casually wandering through the garage and onto the driveway.
And then he trotted across the street.
Calling him back does no good. He's never ever minded us when it comes to recall -- it's not in his nature. But he took his time sniffing the grass on the other side of the street until Jon and I could grab leashes and go after him.
We proceeded to take a very brisk walk, Jon keeping up with Jake, me pushing Otto in the stroller down the opposite sidewalk, Otto eating his sandwich. Jake kept Jon in sight, often stopping to sniff a convenient shrub if he ran too far ahead. When we got to the corner where we usually turn left towards the park, he and Jon went thataway, and I went straight. He was following our normal walk route and behaving quite nicely, leashless though he was. I figured I'd try to head him off at the pass -- take a shorter version of our route and catch him as he headed home.
I got to the corner and called to check on Jon, who by then was just a block north of us. I figured I'd try to tempt Jake with a corner of Otto's sandwich, if needed. Thankfully, Jake stopped for a second too long at a tree, and Jon snapped the leash on before he could take off again. Because Otto wasn't about to share his sandwich.
And then we all headed home. Otto ate the rest of his dinner, Jon and I got our exercise, and Jake? Well, he got to go for a walk.
The end.
You know that silly prank phone call, the one where kids ask "Is your refrigerator running?"
They should've called us about 7am so I could go down and check, because ours isn't.
I spent a good half-hour this morning shuttling things out to the fridge/freezer in the garage. THANK GOD we have a fridge/freezer in the garage, yes, but STILL. I filled the garbage can with anything that looked unsaveable, plus a bunch of stuff I didn't feel deserved emergency fridge space. The garage fridge was running when I left, the indoor fridge was empty and sad and only slightly cool.
Otto heard me banging around downstairs and got worried that I wasn't going to bring him his cup of milk (sometimes we have breakfast in bed). He was OK after I apologized and told him the refrigerator was broken, that I had to move everything outside. He started saying "the REFRIGERATOR is broken? the refrigerator is BROKEN!" and laughing. Because it's funny (I guess).
Saying sorry is getting to be important in our house. So is expressing how we feel. This morning I handed Otto his toothbrush, and he told me he was "very very cross" because I laid it next to him instead of putting it in his hand. He's big on the whole "don't touch me!" thing right now, which makes dressing him fun most days. I'm using the old 1-2-3 warning system, as in "OK, kiddo, I'm going to count to three. If you haven't turned the TV off/climbed in your car seat/shut the door by the time I get to three, I'm going to do it for you." Works like a charm 90% of the time because he wants to Do It Himself.
I'm trying to make sense of budget stuff at work, get ready for our annual meeting, and plan summer reading and programs for adults. Lots of brain and phone work, when what I really need is a nice quiet stint of weeding or a long session with the review journals I've neglected this month. It's supposed to storm today. I hope it does, it might help me get focused again.
Mom is coming to stay with us this weekend, with the goal of kicking us into gear baby-wise. We have a lot of stuff to sort through, organizing and cleaning to do, washing and rearranging and planning. Most of it's related to how messy our day-to-day lives are and how behind we are on some tasks. There just isn't enough time. We rarely watch TV, so it's not that we're lazy couch potatoes. But keeping up with work and child and basic household chores keeps us busy enough that there never seems to be time for cleaning out the basement or hauling everything out of our closet to reorganize so that things fit properly. Or, heck, mopping the floors on a regular basis and getting the dog to the vet. I have no idea what we're going to do when we have two kids creating chaos. Well-meaning friends laugh evilly and say helpful things like "you know the work load increases exponentially. It's not 1+1=2, it's more like 1+1=20."
And then the refrigerator breaks, and I start to think I should just put caution tape across the front porch for awhile. Say, 5 years. Maybe 10.
So how about you? Is YOUR refrigerator running?
Sunday:
Our 3rd year attending A Day Out With Thomas in Greenfield Village... each year Otto likes something different, but the train ride itself is still the big draw. We arrived around 10 and left around 2, which seemed like just the right amount of time. The weather was gorgeous.
Wednesday:
Review with Otto's teacher. He's a "young 3" but seems to be holding his own with classmates. His social/emotional skills need work, ie: learning how to go find a teacher and describe why he's upset rather than have instant meltdowns if someone takes a toy or disses him. Academically and physically he's doing fine, even recognizes more than a third of the alphabet (upper and lower-case!). He's a visual learner, sensitive, and finds it easy to get lost in a task and forget about the world around him. Hmm... sounds eerily familiar.
Overall I feel better about him being there. He's been much happier since backing off the potty training thing. His teachers care and work hard to keep him involved in the class. I gather he's a challenging personality in the classroom, but he has many years of classrooms ahead of him, so the sooner we start figuring out how to help him adjust the better.
Wednesday night: OTTO EATS PASTA AND MEATBALLS FOR SUPPER and says "Mmm, this is good, Daddo," then asks for more. Jon almost cries.
Thursday:
Midwife appointment. Baby and I are doing well, still measuring a little ahead of the curve but not like last time. I think it's the positions she takes. This kid moves around a lot during the day -- sometimes I can breathe, sometimes I can't! We review my chart, and I went into labor the day after my due date last time. T says it's not a myth that second babies often come earlier, though it's not something you can plan on. We talk about hiring a doula, and I say "I'm not sure how I feel about it." I like the idea of staying home as along as I can, but once we hit the hospital we'll have a midwife to help. Even on the holiday weekend I'm due there will be someone on-call to labor with me. T is quiet a moment then shakes her head. "I think this baby will fly right out," she says. I leave feeling relieved and more certain of myself. I'd rather have a 20% chance of major abdominal surgery than a 100% certainty. Jon's with me, we're going for it.
Friday:
Took a vacation day to run errands, get a massage, take my car for an oil change, and meet my mom for lunch and baby shopping. We found some cute fabric at the fabric store, and mom's going to help me make a crib skirt and window valance. I'm picking red and white for the nursery this time -- Michigan cherries, Swedish gingham, cheerful and simple. I hope she likes it as well as Otto likes his room.
