My tiny ball of light

Without a doubt, my favorite moment from last night's Oscars.

Gummy Bear's Stage Debut

Today we went to a free Winter Jazz Festival. Super fun. Not only did we get all the free food we could eat (chicken marsala, quinoa salad, Moroccan stew, sushi, and all the tarts and pastries you could wish for), they also had some good music. The highlight for Gummy Bear was the magician who performed in between bands. He was picked for a very special assignment.

 He had to help the magician make a hat that would fit him.

 So first they tore some paper.

 Then he kept making more and more magic wands.

 Finally, he had to tap the paper and say some magic words.

Eh Voila! A hat! He thought it was great, and wasn't a big stage-shy. Who would have guessed that?

Countdown to Government Shutdown of Doooommmmm!

Yeah. So I have not been writing much because there hasn't been much to write about. T is going through a thing right now that includes lots of tantrums and drama. F has decided this week that he has an opinion, and it's mostly not my opinion. I've been learning lots about diabetes and congenital abnormalities.

Ry has been busy at work.  That may change pretty dramatically soon, though. It seems that there is a pretty good chance that the government is going to shut down on March 4.  Unpaid vacation time! That is exactly what we need right now!!

We don't know if he will be furloughed or not. We also don't know if he'd get paid for the time missed when he went back to work. We're sitting right in the center of a steaming pile of We Don't Know. Those of you who know me well know how good I am at I don't know. But hey, we may get to enjoy my spring break together!

Wow, this post has lots of italics and exclamation points. That must mean that I've exceeded my snark threshold and should go to bed. So. Good night ya'll.

Search Terms

Nothing to add today, except that two people got to my blog by searching for "giant cat couch."

Repeat after me

T is in the bathroom.

T: I made a mess!!

Ry: Clean it up then.

T: It's on the floor too!

Ry walks into the bathroom. How did you do this?

T: I didn't do it ... my penis did.

Ry: You are responsible for the actions of your penis.

Me: *Snork*

A snippet

Scene: The boys and I are in the car, driving to the park. I've just gotten them from school.

T: Mommy, I'm ready for another baby.

Me: You are?

T: Yes. I think we should name him F.

Me: But, we already have an F.

F: Ah. Dah dah dah.

T: It's OK!

Me: But if we have two Fs, how will they know who we're talking to?

T: I don't know ....

F: Mmmmmmmmm. Ahhh. Dah!

Me: And anyway, what if we have a girl baby next?

T: Your tummy makes boy babies.

Me: Not necessarily.

F: Raspberry noise.


T: Well. When your tummy is done making boy babies, then it'll be ready to make girl babies.

F: More raspberries.


Me: I see.

T: Mommy, do you see that ditch down there?

Me: Yes.

T: If F fell in, you would have to hold him really tight. You would hold him really tight, right?

Me: Of course I would kiddo.

T: Because if you didn't, then we'd be really sad because we didn't have a baby any more.

Me: I would hold him really tight and he wouldn't fall in.

F: Mmmmah!

T: And me?

Me: I would hold you really tight too. And Daddy. I wouldn't let anyone fall in that ditch.

T: OK. Good.

F: Aaah. Dah.

T: Mommy?

Me: Yes?

T: I love you.

Me: I love you too, kiddo.

-------------------------------------------

I'm looking for blog nicknames for us all.  All the initial business seems silly, and it seems like everyone has blog nicknames. Suggestions?

A Valentine's Day Compare and Contrast

In honor of chubby baby boy day, here are both boys, around 15 months old. They may not look a lot alike, but they sure share some facial expressions.

Consider my heart pierced.

And how

Yeah, Valentine's Day is not a holiday we celebrate around these parts. Still, Happy Naked Winged Child Day! Alternatively, Happy Arrow In Your Atria Day!

T's First Haircut

Today, we took T to get his very first haircut. He is 3 years and 11 months old.  While his hair isn't what I'd call long, it is increasing unruly and always looks like he just rolled out of bed.

 Here he is before.  I'm not sure what he spilled all over his sweater. He had only been wearing it for 5 minutes.  This is what his hair looked like 5 minutes after wetting and combing it.

 The side.

 The back.

 We took him to one of those kiddo cutting places.  When I asked if he wanted to get his hair cut, he practically jumped out of his skin with excitement.

 Here it is right after.  Strangely enough, cutting it made it look both curlier and thicker.

 Here he is about 15 minutes later, after it dried.

 And here, after a few hours. This is probably what it's going to look like most days.

I have to admit to getting a little sniffley as she was cutting his hair.  This was kind of the last "baby" first for him.  His hair looks good, although he looks older and different. My baby ... getting his hair cut like a big boy.

15 months -- big and happy

Today we had F's 15 month well-visit.  And, finally, he's well.  The cough is almost gone, and the daily nebulizer seems to be keeping things under control.

Today, he weighs 26 pounds, 14 ounces and is 32.5 inches tall.  That puts him in the 85 percentile for both.  F is my round, charming, laid-back little man. The sum total of his vocabulary is "Ma," "Da," "Bye" and "Uh Oh."  He also said "Roar" once, but since he's never done it again, I'm not including it.  Apparently, this is completely normal for 15 months, but my working hypothesis is that he can't get a word in edgewise.

The child can eat. He just recently learned to drink from a straw. F is my cuddle bug.  While he's getting better about sharing me, he can still throw a grand tantrum if he happens to notice his brother my lap when he decides he wants it. Color me shocked that he went to the lady in the church nursery last week! He seems to pick and choose who he's going to warm to quickly. He'll go right to some people, and others have to bribe him with food for weeks before he lets them into his circle of trust.

F looooves to dance.  While his brother was all up and down at this age, F has a groovy little bum-shake that you can't watch without grinning like an idiot.  I keep trying to capture it on video, but it's as fleeting as it is charming.

He has charmed everyone in the baby room. He pats the little babies when they cry, hugs and snuggles the women, and fully participates in the impromptu dance parties.

F has remarkable patience for his big brother. There are brief, lovely moments every day when they play together, make each other laugh, and give each other hugs. I can only hope that when they stop being jealous of each other they'll be great friends.

My baby has officially entered toddler-dom.  While I am sad to say goodbye to the baby, I love to see him run, laugh, and grow. I love my F, so very much. Happy 15 months, my littlest love.

When it rains it pours

On our list this year is a new TV.  Ry bought our current TV when he was in college, which makes it ... well, it makes it old.  We're noticing more and more of our favorite shows are being cut off in the most distressing ways.  You know where we notice it the most?  Sesame Street.  All the stuff to count gets cut off, so instead of seeing 14 farm animals, we see 12.  The TV has also been dying a sad, slow little death over the past several years.  However, given the current state of affairs in our household, our television may have to eek out another year.

Here's the list of (higher priority?) stuff that we will probably be replacing:

~ The microwave that turns on if the door isn't shut just right. Can you imagine? "Mommy, my dino was cold, so I put him in the microwave.  Now, he's meeeeeelted!"
~ The TIVO remote that has hit the floor so many times that it's one good toss away from shattering into a gazillion pieces.  Also, only about half the number buttons work.
~ The mudflap on my truck that a snow bank liberated for me today.
~ The cordless phones that only work for incoming calls.
~ The laptop that has been blue-screening at random intervals.
~ The set of dishes that is one or two dinner plates from useless.
~ The truck, which currently has no idea how much gas is in the tank.

Good times.

Grateful

One or another of us has been sick since Christmas.  Ry and I were both laid low with a stomach bug during one of our earlier snowmageddons, T has had a runny nose for most of the month, and F had an ear infection.  Thankfully, I was off most of the month and Ry took some vacation while my mom was here.

Monday, I felt off all day.  I tried to shrug it off, since it was our 7th anniversary and we actually had a sitter (!) for once.  By the end of the day though, I transitioned from off to downright bad.  My wonderful husband ordered food from the restaurant where we had reservations, picked it up, brought it home, set the table with candles and we had an anniversary dinner.  I didn't eat much, but it was still nice to spend an hour talking to my hubby without crying or random noise.

At 2 am Tuesday morning, I went from bad to ugly.  Let's just say I was up evacuating for several hours and finally fell back into a fitful sleep around 5 am.  Ry stayed home in the morning long enough to get the boys up and to the daycare so I could concentrate on actually dragging myself to class.  Since our class days are 6 hours of lecture and we had our orientation for clinicals starting today, I really couldn't miss yesterday.

As soon as I stepped foot in the parking lot, I received a phone call from the daycare, telling me that F had spiked a 102 temperature and was coughing a lot.  How did they know he was really sick? He wouldn't eat any lunch.  I went straight to get him and from there straight to the pediatrician.  He had a little cough when he went in Tuesday morning, but I was pretty shocked by how bad he sounded when I got him.  So shocked, in fact, that I almost drove him to the ER instead of the pediatrician. I finally decided that he would probably be seen quicker at the doctor's office.

The doctor stepped inside the room and said something to the effect that she didn't need her stethoscope to hear F's wheezing.  She diagnosed him with an ear infection and respiratory infection.  She also gave him a nebulizer treatment in the office, prescribed an antibiotic and told me that he should probably stay on a once-a-day treatment for the rest of the winter (once he got over this bout of course). This is the 3rd time we've been to the docs for wheezing in the past 2 months.  I'm afraid my baby boy may have inherited his dad's tendency to asthma.

The tylenol last night wasn't really doing much for his fever, so I put him in a tepid bath before bed (did the trick!).  Ry offered to stay home with him today so I could go to my clinical.  It was actually a really interesting day in Interventional Radiology, but that's another story for another day). When I got home this afternoon, he was still running a fairly high temperature. He'll not be able to go back to daycare tomorrow either, even if he's feeling better in the morning.

And here's where I'm really grateful: Ry is staying home with him again, tomorrow, so I can go to clinical.  He has about a bazillion sick hours stored up, but still. I'm grateful that he's willing to put his job on hold so I don't have to make up clinical days at the end of the semester (and pay $75 per day). I'm grateful that he does it with such a willing and kind spirit.  I'm grateful that his boss is the kind of guy who also takes sick leave for his kids' illnesses. I'm grateful to Ry for blowing up the air mattress in F's room so I could sleep in there last night (you know, in case I got too worried). And I'm grateful for doctors and medication and cell phones and big brothers who cheerfully play video games because his parents are preoccupied with his little brother. Yikes, that was a really long way of getting to the point of this story:

Tonight, I'm just feeling grateful.

Best. Game. Ever.

I have a girlfriend who read an article about the best games for lazy parents.  Her pick was a game where you sit on the ground, whilst clapping your hands and pretending to be a walrus. The kid then tosses you stuffed animals to eat.  Good stuff.

We have created one here in our little household that I think is far superior.  It goes like this:

I sit on the ground and play with F.  T runs into the room. Then, I say, "What was that flash F?"  T giggles and runs out of the room. When he runs back in, I say, "Wow, there it is again! It's so fast! Is that an airplane?"  More giggles.  We go through the litany of fast things: rocket ships, birds, cheetahs, cars, tigers.  The kid can play for an hour. And then ... he's tired.

Great stuff.

Herding Cats

We have decided that it's time to find and attend a church regularly.  Of course, we decided that several weeks ago.  Each Sunday, as we sit around in our jammies, eating whatever tasty breakfast Ry has created, it's far easier to find and excuse not to go than to actually get ready and out the door.

Yesterday, we finally got to church.  To quote a much-loved relative, "we are a slow-moving herd."  The church we've decided on has 3 services, an 8, a 9:30, and an 11.  At 9:30, we decided that we could make the 11.  And so, Ry and the boys hopped in the shower.  He passed them out to me, where I lotioned, dressed, and brushed teeth.  Then he took over, getting himself dressed and packing snacks, toys and drinks for the service.  I got my shower, and tracked down shoes and jackets in between drying my hair and putting on make up.  At 10:45, we walked out the door.  We arrived at the church at 10:59. On time! Score!

Next week, we're going to try and make the 9:30 service. Heaven help us.



Update for melydia:

Our cat is just a giant, lazy cat. This is about as much activity as you can expect for him. Poor T doesn't know that cats can jump, because the cat goes under our baby gates and can only get his tubby butt to the couch.

Snow days and communities

I enjoy snow days.  I love the anticipation the night before. Will class/work be canceled? Will it not?  I love watching the kids get bundled up and play in the snow.  I love comparing notes with my friends the next day. "We had a snow drift that covered our grill!"

Mostly though, I love the sense of community I have after a big snow-in.  Most weeks, the extent of my interaction with our neighbors is a friendly wave or a few sentences exchanged while loading the kiddos in the car.  After a snow day though, I love to look out in the morning and see the pristine, undisturbed snow.  There may be a single set of tire marks through the 15 inches of snow we received.  There is something very comforting about knowing that all my neighbors are tucked snug and warm inside their homes.  Usually, no one stirs until 10 or so.

Then, I start to see people venturing out, shovels and ice scrapers in hand. We bundle the kids and follow suit. For one of a handful of times during the year, I actually have conversations with my neighbors.  We chat while Ry borrows a snow blower.  We talk while the kids make snow angels and snow balls. And for an hour, I can imagine what life on our little block might be like if we didn't have television and video games and air conditioning.  We might be sitting out on our patio in the summer evenings, actually talking to our neighbors, being involved in each other's lives.  And I revel in that sense of community and connectedness. Tomorrow we'll all go back to our bubbles, but for today at least, I felt like I was really part of a neighborhood.

Neena and G-pa and the Museum

We had a really lovely visit with my mom and G last week.  All of us were sick when they got here, so we spent the first couple of days holed up, taking antibiotics and other assorted medications and playing video games.

This is pretty much our first 3 days, right here.

Oh, and I got F some dino slippers for $3. Roar!

The day before we left, we took the kids to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia.  They LOVED it.

The museum is housed in a gorgeous old building that was constructed for the US centennial.  It was going to be torn down, but the museum pumped over 80 million bucks into restoring it and putting together the museum.  Totally worth it.

T was into replacing car parts.

And I seriously need to get one of these for the basement.  Snow day? No problem!

The water play area was a huge hit with both of the boys.

And F liked chasing me through Alice's garden.

The Alice in Wonderland garden is by far my favorite part of the museum.  They lots of mirrors, a "shrinking" room, the green hangie things (above), a tea party area, dress up, and bushes with magical paint brushes where you can paint the roses.  It's seriously cool.  Isn't F the cutest?

And T sort of put up with the whole tea party thing.

Both boys also got a kick out of the pediatric hospital.

I think T may have found his calling.  He took his time weighing the babies, dressing them, examining them, and putting them to sleeping in their cribs.

And I had to include this shot because apparently Ry and I have an oven mitt thing.

2 of 4

Tomorrow I start my second semester of Nursing school.  We have 22 clinical days, which seems like a real lot. It should be a very interesting semester though, with rotations in Labor and Delivery, Pediatrics and OR.  My reading for tomorrow reads a lot like What to Expect When You're Expecting, but does include an interesting discussion about the rise in technology and cesarean section during birth.  I'll be very interested to hear the lecture material this week.

Yes, I'm posting this at 11:30 pm on the day before a school day. Why? Well, because I just finished watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I am not usually a fangirl. At all.  Harry Potter could be my one exception.  If I was 10 years younger I would be completely obsessed. As it is, I'm only moderately obsessed.  The good news is that there is only one more movie out on DVD at the moment.  I'll get that one watched this weekend (who am I kidding? Tomorrow probably), and then I'll have nothing distracting me for the semester.

Yes, well, good night then.

10 Things: The too lazy to write a real blog post edition

1. Had a lovely visit with my Mom and G.  I'll get some pictures up soon.  Since F had an ear infection and we were all a bit under the weather when they arrived, our first couple of days were spent indoors.  Towards the end we got out and about, and even visited the Please Touch Museum in Philly.  The boys were in heaven.  Every time we have visitors I'm forcibly reminded of how much I miss having family about. Still, we're lucky that we get to see most of them several times a year.
2. Go Bears!
3. I'm sporting a lovely purple bruise and bite mark on my left shoulder at the moment. (Mind out of the gutter, folks).  T was never a biter. F, apparently, is.  Every couple of days he snuggles up on my shoulder and takes a bite.  Every time, I put him down and scold him and he cries then.  Then he won't try it again for a few days.  It's like just he just can't resist. Just. One. Taste.
4. I'm less-than-excited about school starting again Tuesday. I've been avoiding eye contact with my reading list and my single nod to the impending craziness is stocking up on school lunch fodder at the grocery store today.  I know once I get back into the swing of things I'll really enjoy my semester, but I've really been enjoying my break.  Goodbye Nook.  Goodbye TV.  Goodbye sanity. I'll see you again in June.
5. We're trying to decide what to do for/about T's 4th birthday.  We did a big party last year, so I'm not inclined to do this same this year.  Still, our house reaches max capacity around 10, so I don't know how to go about a house party.  Silly March birthdays anyway. If it was summer we could have a great outdoors party.
6. Um. Go Bears.
7. We've got more snow in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday. I enjoy a snow day as much as the next girl, but seriously? It's only mid-January. Most of the East Coast has already received their entire average snowfall for the season.  Also, I don't look forward to having to make up the snow days in June.
8. F cuts his teeth in herds.  He cut 6 right in a row when he was about 8 months old, and then nothing until about 2 weeks ago, when he cut another 4. See? Come to think of it, that's probably why he keeps biting me.

9. I recently found this blog, Fed Up With Lunch, which is about a woman who ate the school lunch in her urban, Midwestern school for a couple of school years.  It's funny, and eye opening.  It's no wonder that kids get out into the real world and have no idea what healthy food looks like, let alone how to cook or prepare it.  Also, it reminds me that it's hard to get your kids to eat well when they're surrounded by junk.You'll have to go backwards a bit in the blog posts, as her project is over and the recent posts are just about her life and nutrition since.
10. I don't really have a 10. It seems like lists should come in multiples of 10 though. So here's number 10.

Snow. Sleds. Silliness

We have had more snow than we know what to do with the past two winters.  We finally got wise to the newly snowy East Coast and bought some sleds.  As it turns out, pulling them around the back yard isn't as easy as you might expect.

The boys had fun though.

Letting go

I ran across a list of things every woman should do (or be doing) by the time they are 30. Most of them were trite, but one really stuck with me: let go of your illusions about yourself.  Sometime in the past year, I've come to grips with a very difficult truth about myself: I am a better mom when I'm not a full time stay-at-home mom.  The kids are in daycare about 25 hours a week, and that seems to be the perfect balance for me.  I can get out, do "adult" things, get my brain dusted off and working, and most importantly, start to miss them.  Then, when I get them from school, I have restocked my store of patience and want to do nothing more than love on them and play with them.

It was hard to admit that I did not enjoy being a stay at home mom, nor was I that good at it. When I was pregnant with T, and discussing my work options, someone told me "Happy Mommies make happy kids." I didn't know what would make me happy at that point, but I knew it wasn't working 60 hours a week and only seeing my kids on weekends.  As it turns out, it isn't being with them all the time either.  So, maybe I don't have as much influence over language or socialization as I'd like.  But I also enjoy my time with them and they enjoy my time with them and we're all much happier. And hey, they'll be Jersey-English bilingual. So there's that.

In that spirit, here are some more things I've let go of recently:

1. Big L Literature and Important movies.  With a very few exceptions, I don't enjoy either.  If I'm looking for entertainment, I want to be entertained.  That mostly means things that are light, funny or interesting. My book list over the past month includes 3.5 Harry Potter books, The Help, Paper Towns, The Thirteenth Tale, A People's History of the United States and Little Women. So. I like to read. But I want to be entertained. Maybe I won't be able to have a discussion about Philosophy or Classics, but hey, there are only so many hours in the day and only one life to lead. I'll read books and watch movies that I enjoy.

2. A clean house.  I'm not a hoarder or anything, but my house is generally in some state of kidsplosion.  I try to keep the floors swept, bathroom clean, and dishes done, but if I go to bed with toys littering the family room ... I try not to step on them when I get up in the middle of the night to pee.

3. My ego.  I didn't realize it until recently, but I put a lot of store in my Master's Degree from a Really Good University.  I always had that to fall back on as a topic of conversation.  Then I started a nursing program with women who are in some cases, more than 10 years younger than me, and realized they don't care. We're all at the same point in the program.  I have a few more wrinkles and kids. Also, I'm not as hip. That's what makes me different. And so, that dusty degree rarely gets trotted out these days.

4. Fashion.  Right. So my goal is to not embarrass (or be embarrassed by) the young girls in my program.  I'd like to look like I've glanced at a Vogue in the past year (which I haven't, BTW), but I've given up on ever being hip or trendy.  Frankly, I don't think I ever was. It's just taken me this long to admit that to myself.

So, I have to go and give my house the once over.  My Mom and G are coming to visit for a week!  I'll try to post while they're here. Honestly though, I probably won't. Just being real, here.