Minivan envy

Playing at a cool playground in the upscale Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. I've never seen so many $800 strollers as I did at that playground.

The resort in Rancho Mirage. It was far away and chilly, but very pretty.

Guess who also likes the heavenly bed at the Westin?

Andy, Bjorn and Erik at the Water Grill.

In California, we rented an awesome minivan (in my defense, it was the same price as a mid-size at Alamo). It was so awesome and had a DVD player and everything. I've spent my life mocking them, but since I've been back, I'm having a little bit of minivan envy. I loathe myself.

Andy has come down with a cough that is turning into a cold. Poor guy. I noticed it this morning, but Bjorn convinced me it was not bad and we sent him to school anyway. His sitter kindly told me when I picked him up that it was worse and that I should call the doctor to ensure it wasn't croup. It doesn't sound like it (according to my mother), but I called the doctor's office. They recommended Robitussin or Dysem with a healthy dose of fluids. They weren't that worried, but said to keep an eye that it didn't get worse with a plan to call tomorrow if he isn't on the mend. Based on the hacking I heard a moment ago, I have a feeling we'll be at the doctor's office tomorrow.

Oh, man

Zane, Simone, Cat and Erik

Rather than say "oh no" like Andy, Zane prefers to say "oh man" when something surprises him or isn't just has he had expected. Andy loved that and now says "oh man" to everything. It's really funny to hear him say it as it seems like such a grown up expression somehow.

White

We have returned from what was eventually sunny California. We stopped in Los Angeles on the way out to visit Bjorn's brother and his family. Andy loved playing with Zane, who is 4, and was quite entertained by the toys for the 11-month-old Simone. Zane is a pretty energetic kid and Simone is a pretty quiet, content little girl so I think their personalities were a little more in sync. It was really funny to see the different stages just by looking at what each kid was doing.

Andy was so tired from the travels that he fell asleep on takeoff yesterday and slept for two hours. I hadn't been paying attention to the weather and was shocked to come home and find that it had snowed several inches and was icy on the roads. It took us a lot longer to get home from Dulles due to the sand and salt trucks on the Beltway - not that we minded, we were glad they were there. Andy finally got to bed around midnight and did not want to wake up this morning. About nine, I finally went in and picked him up. He was ready to stay asleep until I pointed out the window to the snow. He was so surprised. "White, white," he kept saying. He liked the snow, except for the fact that it's wet. How I ended up with a kid fastitious about being clean is beyond me.

Praise yee heavenly portable DVD player

We are out in sunny (but chilly) southern California for the next few days. We flew to LAX yesterday which which surprisingly smoothly, thanks to our trust friend the portable DVD player. Watching "babies" (his code for TV for babies as Bjorn calls it) kept him occupied off and on for the 5 hours and 30 minute flight. He took a decent, but small nap but was generally in good spirits and not overly hyper. Although he did manage to drink about four full sippies of juice requiring frequent diaper changes. Thankfully, I thought to make an extra change of clothes once he leaked through a diaper due to all the water.

Speaking of diapers, we need to figure something better out because if he really needs to go, he can easily fill a size 6 diaper full of pee yet often a diaper change three hours after is almost dry. He's not taking to potty training at all so perhaps more laundry is in order until he is ready? Any thoughts, let me know.

Numbers

Andy is fascinated by numbers. Unfortunately, at this point he doesn't know one from nine. It's quite funny. On our walks, he sees street numbers on mailboxes and houses and proudly tells me that 5105 is nine-ten-four-three. I cheer and say good job and try to repeat what is really is. He's also bugging Bjorn about the digital clock and again proudly naming the numbers. He's also shocked - shocked! - when the clock advances a minute. He sits breathlessly waiting for it to change and then is thrilled when it does. We've also been practicing with colors. In the car, he's learning that red light means stop and green light means goooo (with much enthusiasm). He doesn't always get it right, but today he was more often right than not. I just need to remind myself to trust the light and not the backseat driver or I might find myself in an accident.

Bjorn, Andy and I are off to California on Wednesday. I have a work event and the boys are going to visit Bjorn's brother and his family out in Los Angeles. As awesome as it is having them with me, it's always nervewracking trying to make sure I'm doing right by everyone and getting all my work done. Fortunately, this isn't as busy as our big meeting was in November and with any luck, I might get to see some of the area.

Another milestone

We reached another milestone this weekend -- I put away the high chair. For weeks, Andy has been refusing to sit in it and I've been nearly killing myself tripping over it to get to the booster chair at the table in the dining room. It was simply time. It was not, however, time for what abandoning the high chair means.

I have been in denial for some time, but it seems clear that I have a little boy and not a baby on my hands. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. I've grown so accustomed to handling a baby that dealing with a little boy seems so scary. Pretty soon he'll be asking me where babies come from, wanting advice on calling girls on the phone and trying to get his driver's license. I'm not much of a planner, per se, so this fills me with fear and dread. Plus, I really like Andy as a baby (well, most days) that the thought of him growing up seems so foreign. Sigh.

In other news, Bjorn's mother came over today for a belated birthday celebration. We've been celebrating for so long now (starting with Mark's birthday two weeks ago) that Andy clearly believes all cakes with candles and all presents are meant for him. Well, duh. Except we went to a birthday party yesterday and I had to restrain him from rushing over to blow out the candles on Charlotte's birthday cake. It just seemed so obvious to him that candles on a cake plus singing means he needs to be there to blow out those darn candles. He loved today's celebration as well as the awesome V-tech toy she brought him. It's aged for 3+, but he figured a lot of it out already. Clearly he's gifted. The best part was he loves it so much I took it with us to Old Navy and he happily played with it while I shopped. I imagine the other patrons didn't want to hear "The Wheels on the Bus," but given the choice of a tantrum vs. the song, I think they'd choose the song.

Madeline

Andy has really taken to the book Madeline, but Ludwig Bemelmans. That's a good thing as it's one of my favorites, too. It's fun reading through it again and again as I know the story pretty well. My problem is that the despite being beautifully illustrated, it's illustrated WRONG. And by wrong, I mean, incorrect. If you don't know the story, there are 12 little girls in Paris and Madeline ends up in the hospital getting her appendix out and the other 11 girls are miserable about not getting their appendixes (appendexia?) out, too. The problem is that in some of the pages without Madeline, there are still 12 girls and other pages where they have 11. The story is also a little fishy as they talk about their Papa, but clearly the girls (who all seem the same age) are being raised by Miss Clavel. Is this some sort of home for orphans? Perhaps a boarding school? It's all very confusing. I still love the story though and now Andy gets to the page where Madeline talks to the tiger in the zoo and he says "pooh-pooh" just like her.

Two year visit

We went to see Dr. Staats today for Andy's two year visit. He weighed in at 28 pounds (on the standing scale, no less). They measured him at 34.5 inches, but he was really, really not into getting measured so I think he's a little taller than that. We initially tried the standing measurer, but the plastic thing on his head really freaked him out. I thought I saw him standing closer to 36, but whatever. Bjorn is freaking out that if the old wives' tale is true and doubling his height at age two (69 inches) means he'll only reach 5'9". Bjorn is the shortest of his brothers at 6'3", but since I'm only 5'2", the cards were stacked against him. Bjorn then consoled himself by vowing to make Andy a really good point guard for basketball.

The doctor said he seems perfect - that his motor skills and verbal ability seem right on target, which is always great to hear. The bad part was he had to get the flu shot and have blood drawn to check for anemia (apparently lots of kids this age don't eat enough iron). He didn't like the finger prick, but he really didn't like shot to his thigh. The nurse did distract him with a lollipop, which went over surprisingly well. You'd think these folks treat kids for a living. Afterwards, he'd forgiven me enough for all this that I had a hard time dragging him out of the waiting room which is filled with really awesome toys. I actually really appreciate that they have tons of great toys. The old pediatrician's office really had nothing for him to play with so it's great that there is so much to see out there. Plus, if he gets into something, I can take it back with us to keep him busy during the appointment. I also like that they have a ramp for strollers. We don't take the stroller out the way we did a few months ago, but it's so nice to have it as an option should I need it.

Happy birthday to me

Helping me cook his cupcakes.

Faux food from grandmother for his kitchen.

Singing happy birthday.

Playing with the awesome train table.

Today was the big day. It was two years ago in the evening (I would say 10:30 p.m., but at this point, I've chosen to forget what a looong day that was) Byron Andrew was born. Whenever I say anything about how cute he was as a tiny baby, Bjorn reminds me how bad labor and delivery was. I really can't believe it's been two years. In some ways, I still feel like a rookie in this business. Other days, I can't believe I didn't have him with me.

We had a busy day today. We opened a couple presents this morning then I came over at lunch and brought cupcakes for his class. There are only three of them (including Andy) right now and so it was an intimate group. I like that. His babysitter was so sweet and gave him a cash register (complete with faux money), a hat and some mittens. After school, we met Bjorn at Chipotle, our favorite, for dinner. He even picked up a balloon from Tree Top where I had to restrain myself from buying more train stuff. It may be for Andy, but man, I like it too. As a kid, we used to play with the Brio train set at Neiman Marcus. I don't remember my mother ever actually buying anything at Neiman's, but I sure remember that train set.

Dots

It turns out Andy isn't calling stars "dots," rather he's pointing the outside saying "dark" it just happens to come out "dah-tks." He wanted me to personally let everyone know that.

I took Betsy's advice and made a visit to Tree Top Kids where we got to check out a train table set up with an awesome track and probably 15 trains. Andy loved it, which gave me some time to shop. The Ikea tracks I have are compatible with Thomas and Melissa and Doug so I bought a couple extra pieces from Melissa and Doug (some switch pieces so I, er, he can have more than one track). I also wanted to get him a few trains. Then I realized trains each cost like $12 for a little piece of wood. They did have the Byron (see right) that naturally I had to get for him. (Shhh...my dad might end up with one for his birthday, too). Once we got home, he chased Bjorn around with it in the package saying "open, open" so we went ahead and let him play with it. He'll be even more delighted when he sees what it goes with.

As for Thomas, checking online it seems a lot of the trains are cheaper if I were to order from Amazon so I have a feeling that's where I'll be going in the future. As for Tree Top, totally a cool store. The folks there were very nice and when Andy made signs of never leaving, they kindly flipped the lights off and on and said they were closing so he'd get the hint. That didn't stop some loud protesting, but I think it may have muted it a bit.

Happy almost birthday

Someone turns two day after tomorrow and my mother is hard at work spoiling him from afar. What a lucky kid! He's getting an awesome train table made by Melissa and Doug. It's awesome and was easy enough to put together after a few false starts. The only downside is the size. Granted, this was my idea, but the darn thing is huge! I've been doing some rearranging in the basement to make it fit. Purple Heart is coming this week for a pickup so we took this as an opportunity to sort through some old books and games to make a pile to give away. By the end, the pile was pretty huge. We love books (and have tons of them), but getting rid of some of the old ones is a good feeling. We also found some gems in the racks, including a book of Swedish rhymes that Andy is going to love! Now I just need to keep Andy out of the basement tomorrow evening so he doesn't see his new table. I have a feeling he's really going to love getting to spread out and play with his train set.

Right now, I've got a couple of sets of the Ikea train pieces. They're similar to Brio, but more basic with just wooden tracks and trains. My goal is to include some Thomas or Brio sets to complement the plain tracks. I went to Target tonight during our bizarre, brief snowstorm only to find out they had neither. They sold Thomas stuff, but it was plastic and said in the small print "not compatable with Thomas sets." Um, what? Turns out they have a "travel" system that is different than the wooden stuff. Glad I read that or things might have gotten complicated. My mom also got him some cool Melissa and Doug food that he can cut. Should be interesting to see how that all works. He adores his kitchen so I think he'll really get a kick out of it.

Andy is getting more vocal and verbal every day. It's just amazing to listen to some of the stuff he says. He now asks for "dots" when he goes to bed, which turns out means he wants the curtains open so he can see the stars. He can say stars, but for some reason he calls them dots. Go figure. He's also starting to throw his weight around to get what he wants. Last night he insisted on going for a ride in the wagon. When we were half way on our route, he decided he wanted cookies (crackers) and HAD to get out and proceeded to wander into other yards. I finally strapped him into the wagon and he screamed at me for maybe three blocks. Then he was happy again and chirped at me the rest of the way.

Movin' on up

I've been in denial for some time now, but I think it's officially time to move up to size 6 diapers. This disturbs me because this is the final frontier for diapers - they don't make size 7 diapers. This is it. This particularly scares me because while we've had some successes with the potty, he's not ready. Take a look at this list on the signs of readiness to potty train. I don't think he can do any of these. Although we have been practicing with him pulling his pants up after a diaper change, he can't quite pull them off on cue. Not that he knows what that cue would be necessarily. The good news is that he's been in size 5s for ages now, it seems, so I'm not expecting him to blow through these they way he did size 1 diapers for example. Still, it's unnerving to know we've maxed out. It also sucks because not all companies make size 6s. I have really liked the Costco/Kirkland brand diapers, but they only go up to size 5. It seems that it's generally the more premium (therefore more expensive) diapers like Huggies Supreme that go to size 6. I think the manufacturers are trying to get him into Pull-ups, but from what I hear, they're confusing for potty training since they're not quite a diaper and not quite real underwear.

Speaking of pants, getting them onto his increasingly strong little body is turning out to be a challenge of late. The good news is that I think I've figured out that he'll wear pants, so long as they're sweats or pajama bottoms. I can't really argue with him as I'm sure they're way more comfortable than jeans. My main argument is that he has some cute pants that finally fit and that I don't have enough sweats to keep him in clean ones. I stopped by Target this weekend to get a couple birthday presents for him and stocked up on a couple pairs. They're not as cute as the Old Navy version, but their Hanes sweats were on sale for $1.88. Hard to argue with that price.

Why?

Why do we have to do this to each other? Can't working/stay-at-home moms just agree to respect each other and leave it at that? It's not about who sacrifices the most or whose spouse makes the most money, it's about raising kids the best you can with the resources you've been given. Bridget Jones makes reference to "smug marrieds," you know, those who are married and force their superiority upon others. I believe their is another category called "smug mommies," who are women who believe they're better mothers (and better people, naturally) simply because they stay home.

That said, I think by and large most women whether they work outside the home or not respect each other. I know I respect stay-at-home moms because it's a tough job that doesn't allow many breaks and often comes with serious financial sacrifices. I also respect my working mommy friends for figuring out how to juggle the competing interests of kids, office politics and husbands. I read somewhere that motherhood is a marathon, not a sprint, and to pace yourself because it's a long journey. Seriously folks, can't we all get along?

As a gender fighting for more equality in the workplace and more flexibility to have families within the confines of a traditionally male-dominated work force, we should be supporting each other and not tearing the other down. Together is the only way we're going to successfully fight for change.

Am I wrong? What do you think?

Stepping off the soapbox slowly...

Global warming?

It's been unseasonably warm here the past few weeks. That sucks because I really love the snow, but the upshot has been that it's warm enough for Andy and I to spend some time outside, usually with me pulling him in the wagon. Everyone here seems to be freaking out that this is a sure sign of global warming and that we're all shortly going to drown this month as the ice caps melt and North America becomes under water. I do think there is some cause and effect with emissions and such, but I also believe the earth goes through periods where it is warmer and colder. Fortunately, no one is counting on me to predict these things.

The funny thing is I vividly remember nearly two years ago walking into the hospital to deliver Andy. It was a warm January morning. Granted, I was 9 1/2 months pregnant, hot and hormonal, but I walked in with just a light jacket. I don't even think a jacket was required when we checked out. That last long enough for me to get off the narcotics and driving again for the temperatures plummeted and we were stuck indoors for most of the rest of my maternity leave. Funny, I couldn't tell you what I had for lunch yesterday, but I can describe the weather patterns from those few weeks.

Meanwhile, we tried to get a family picture with Andy's grandmother when everyone was together for Mark's birthday. Guess who didn't want his picture taken. I think next year I'm going to pick the Christmas card photo where he's bawling. At least it would be funny.

Suit up

The big boys went out tonight for a steak dinner in honor of Mark's 18th birthday. Eighteen. Seriously? Mark's big present was a brand new (expensive) suit so he can now hit the important milestones this year in style. Bjorn's mom came over to wish Mark a happy birthday and see the boys dressed up. Andy - never one to miss a photo op - even insited on smiling as I tried to take their picture. I included him in a couple of frames because it was so funny. He just walked over and inserted himself into the picture because of course if the camera was out, he would need to be in front of it.

In disturbing news, guess who has figured out how to turn on the TV with the remote control? Between the DirecTV box and the TV itself, I know several adults (cough, Mom, cough) who can't turn it on successfully, but an almost two year old can. He is fascinated with "babies" which is what he calls cartoons. To lure him into the bath, I turned off the TV and put the remotes out of the way only to turn around and see that he's this close to being able to reach up and turn it on manually. I can't really fault the kid - I lurve me some TV, too.

Mean tricks to play on children

Yesterday we had a surprise birthday party for Mark, who turns 18 this week. My mother-in-law brought over her famous Swedish cake and we lit candles and sang as Mark blew out the candles. Funny thing was she had one of those re-lighting candles. They're totally annoying as an adult, but we showed Andy that it relit itself and he was shocked. "Oh no!" he cried. We encouraged him to blow it out, which he did (with our help). We praised him for a job well done and then, poof!, the candle was back on. "Oh no!" he cried once again. It went on like this for probably 6 or 7 minutes. I wished I'd had the video on because it was so funny time and time again to see his complete shock and surprise that the candle was back on. By the end of it, we were all in tears from laughing so hard.

The Christmas tree came down this weekend. I first moved it to the front yard and now it's out by the curb. Every day, several times a day, Andy races into the living room and shouts, "Gone! Christmas gone!" Then he has to peer out the window to look for it in the front yard. I started coming up with a lame story about how the tree has to go back to the North Pole and how it has to wait outside for Santa to come get it and take it home until next year. He's not old enough to get Santa, but it seemed like a better thing to say than, "Kid, Christmas is over and the tree is dead, really dead. In fact, it's so dead it's crispy and we have to get it outside before it spontaneously combusts." I have now told him the story about Santa coming to get the tree so many times that I now have a nice mental image of Santa on his sleigh riding through the neighborhoods collecting all the Christmas trees so they can relax and get bigger for next year. It just sounds better than going to the landfill to be turned into mulch.

Let the embarassment begin

Our friends invited us over for a kid-friendly New Year's Eve. It was hysterical to see the kids, most of whom go to bed at 8 or 9, start to get super hyper as the evening wore on. We didn't stick around to midnight, mostly because my stomach still hurts and I was tired of having to tame it while out. The funniest was when Andy and Mia starting hiding in a closet. She had been trying to be friendly all night, wanting to hold his hand (he had her on "ignore" as her father said) and kindly offer him snacks. During the closet game, we started joking about kissing and then they did pose for us a few pecks. Just hysterical to watch and the adult jokes did abound, as you can imagine.


Oh, and if you're wondering why the kids are wet, we'd had them on the back porch lighting sparklers in the rain. The kids loved the sparklers and were careful not to burn themselves (or us). I loved that I finally got them out of my house. I think I bought them when we moved here in 2003. I was surprised they were still sparkly.

Christmas after

I'm still sorting through everything. Take a look at this picture and you'll see there is a lot to get through. I'm still missing my new running shoes that I wore on Christmas morning. Certainly no one else wants them so they're clearly stuck under something in this house. I suppose that means I need to clean. With both of us just trying to get through the day all week, the house is a total mess - even more so than a regular Christmas. It's all good though. Hard to believe the long holiday week is almost over though and we have to go back to work on Tuesday. Sigh.

+

Updated to add that I found my new shoes. They were under Bjorn's side of the bed, where I kicked them off while hanging my awesome new curtains that match my new duvet cover. Phew. The mystery of the missing shoes was really getting to me. Now if I could just find those wooden letters.

Fun

It's a fact - throwing diapers all over one's naked body and all over the floor in the span of about three minutes is about the most fun a 23 1/2 month old can have. Kudos, my friend, for ignoring the wealth of new toys Santa brought you and heading right for the Luvs.

Bjorn and I are both better today, but neither is close to 100 percent so at 8 p.m., we're both thinking about going to bed. In talking to folks, it seems just about everyone we know has someone in their family who has a stomach bug this week. Considering how similar Bjorn and my symptoms are, I'm wondering now if I had a stomach thing and not a reaction to the antibiotics. Either way, my stomach is still mushy. In theory, it should be making me us thinner, but we're both too bloated to see any measurable difference. Damnit. At least that would be one positive out of this whole mess.

We're bringing walkin' back, yeah (sung to SexyBack by Justin Timberlake)

My parents gave Andy a wagon for Christmas. He loves, loves, loves it. The best part is that he wants to take walks around the neighborhood again. Of late, he's had little tolerance for the stroller, which has cut down on our walks, but now that he likes being dragged in the wagon, we can start them up again. Today I even let him get out to see if he wanted to pull. He didn't and promptly climbed back in where he sat like an old lady with a blanket on his knee.

Oh, my head

Despite having a fabulous Christmas with good food, family and friends, we've been invaded by germs. I came down with a bad ear infection Saturday where Bjorn had to take me to the emergency care place to get seen. It would figure I would need medical attention on the Saturday of a holiday weekend. The very nice doctor on call confirmed that I did indeed have a "raging ear infection" and prescribed lots of goodies including antibiotics to kill the bacteria, Nasonex to clear the passages, ear drops to numb the pain and Percocet to help me deal with pain and sleep. The pain had eased by Sunday in time for Christmas Eve festivities and by Christmas Day I still had the ringing in my ear, but otherwise felt better. By Tuesday, however, the stomach bug hit. I went to work for a few hours and endured stares from people saying "Get out of here, you crazy lady, and don't get the rest of us sick." I went to the doctor who said the ear was healing up nicely, but that stomach trouble was just a side effect of the antibiotics. He said to stay on them for another week, but after a night like last night where I couldn't keep anything down, I opted against starting up again. I figure I'll kick the stomach bug and then go back to the ear infection. Bjorn has also managed to get some type of stomach bug so we've been a joy to be around. Fortunately, Andy has seemed to miss this one (knock wood, HARD). Keep your fingers crossed that today was the worst of it for us. Those last 24 hours have been tough.

I have a new appreciation for how kids with ear infections feel. The pain hurts worse than I remembered and those antibiotics really do a number on an already sensitive stomach. It might make me rethink treatment for him in the future.

In my seclusion, I stumbled upon this Web site and this rang true for me -

I love my kids. I just don’t love the actual work of raising them. Oh and the amount of talking it requires. And the public humiliation. Also, the guilt of doing this job. But otherwise I love it all.

I, too, love my son more than I ever thought possible (oh, cliche), but what she said made me chuckle. And feel better that I'm not the only one out there, especially on a day like today where I feel so crappy, who wishes for a live-in housekeeper/nanny. You know, Pam Ewing on Dallas was always touted as the nicest, sweetest, bestest mom ever and she's always handing her kid off to the nanny to put to bed.

Wretched excess

As you can see, Santa has been very, very good to us. We are a very lucky family.

Christmas

The Jul Tompte (Swedish Christmas Elf) came to our house tonight with tons of great stuff for good boys and girls. Andy made out (no surprise) with some new pajamas, a stuffed reindeer, a Little People alphabet thing, a new John Deere truck, a couple of books in English and Swedish, and a grocery cart. Unfortunately had to be put together so he could only play with pieces of it. It's going under the tree tonight so when he comes down tomorrow, he'll be thrilled. The whole day was so exciting that by the time we got to open presents, Andy was already pretty worn down and not as gracious as he could have been. We'll need to work on that for next year. The rest of the gang went on to another party, but Andy was so exhausted I stayed home and put him to bed. It was only 8:30, but I think he was asleep before I actually closed the door to his room to leave.

Tonight, fingers crossed, Santa will come so I'm trying to clean everything up in preparation. What I'm realizing though is that I'm now entering the phase of parenting where I have to stay up late putting toys together in anticipation. With the older kids, they're fine getting something in a box and putting it together, but these Little Tykes things are so complicated, they usually require the electric drill and a hammer. And often a glass of egg nog for me to calm my nerves while I try to figure out the instructions.

Gone?

Last week, Andy refused to go down for his nap. I left him in there for a while to relax, well, so I could relax for a bit only to find out that he somehow pulled a picture off the wall and broke the frame. Impressive actually. So the picture is now repaired and hung in another room, but now every time he gets in or out of his crib he points to wall and says "Gone?" We explain that he broke it and now it's in another room so now he gets out and runs to the computer room and points to it and says "Gone." I am thinking I will now hang his wooden initials BAB on the wall that he loves so much (preferably higher than the picture). Unfortunately, in his love affair with the letters all I can find is one B. I've scoured the regular places and I can't find them yet. I have a feeling they'll reappear in a drawer somewhere random.

Jack's Big Music Show

Good stuff - I just heard that new episodes of the Noggin program Jack's Big Music Show are starting January 6. We're huge fans of Jack here, in fact, I think Bjorn might like it almost as much as Andy. I'm afraid Laurie Berkner gets on my nerves a bit, a shame since kids really seem to like her stuff. I prefer some of the other artists better and they never fail to have some cool musical guest star. Bjorn loves the Schwartzman Quartet best, but I think Mel is my favorite.

Only four days until Christmas. I can't wait!

The strange things they do

The good news - Andy is back to eating. The strange news - he only likes to eat if he's sitting on the kitchen floor. The other strange thing is he's attracted to baby food at the moment, like sweet potatoes and apple sauce. I can't quite explain it, but I'm not complaining since he's eating. The bonus is the kitchen floor is easier to clean than the rug in the dining room. Baby food also has the advantage of not having to be prepared.

Code Brown

Me: Bjorn, we have good news and bad news. The good news is he didn't freak out when I gave him a bath. The bad news is we had a code brown.
Bjorn: Code brown, huh? Was it near the potty?
Me: Kind of. If you consider my leg near it.
Bjorn: Your leg? I'm not sure I even want to hear how that was possible.

That's right - somehow my kid managed to use my leg as a toilet. I had him undressed and ready for his bath and was in the process of talking up how fun his toys are and doesn't he want to get in, blah, blah, blah, when he came and sat on my lap. And proceeded to use it as his personal toilet. Odd, it felt warm, but it wasn't the same as when he's peed on me. Isn't this great? I can now tell the difference in his bowel movements based on the warmth it brings to my leg. Mad skillz, my friends, mad skillz. I know you're all jealous.

On a more positive note, we didn't have any temper tantrums tonight. I took him to Wegman's in the evening to get stuff for the office pot luck tomorrow and he was a good sport. We looked at the train, played with twist ties and he was helpful in picking out what he wanted for dinner later. And then when I got home, we put him in the booster chair at the table and when I asked him if he wanted things, he nodded and then ate them happily. He even asked for "addle-sauz" (applesauce) which I understood and brought him. It was pleasant all around.

Oh, and in case you missed Saturday Night Live this week. Check out this digital video short. It was on network TV, but still, you might not view this at work.

What a gas

After a challenging day, I think I figured out the culprit behind my son's multiple personality - gas. The poor guy had some rather colorful diapers in the afternoon and immediately started to feel better. Today he's been mostly a joy to be around. And no problems getting dressed either. That said, dinner was a nightmare. I've been letting him sit on a booster chair at the table, which he likes, but tonight everything I offered and in every manner set him off. He had been at the mall earlier with Bjorn so he was definitely tired. He also was dehydrated, as evidenced by the very dry diaper, so I'm giving him the Pedialyte type stuff. I find that stuff actually tastes okay. The Pediasure stuff, well, not so much. I ended up putting him down after only three or four bites of dinner. We'll see how the night goes with him on a practically empty stomach.

Last night we finished up with the cookies and baked them. I used the cookie cutters, which is always kind of fun except that after the first couple of sheets, I'm ready to be done with it. I have some cute Swedish ones, including the Dalahest cookie cutter. I love the way they look, but the leg mold is too thin making it tough to actually keep the legs once I transfer to the sheet. Poor one-legged horses. Andy tried to help me. I thought it would be more fun, but he spent most of the time grabbing my hand so I had to abort and come back after he'd gone to bed. Maybe next year he'll be at a better age for that kind of stuff.

What a Long Strange Week Its Been

This has been a very odd week. Andy has alternatively been a beautiful angel and a tantrum-throwing, non-sleeping mess. I did figure out he's getting his second year molars. I did venture to stick my finger in the back of his mouth this morning and felt one of them on the bottom. It was a pretty good-sized bump, but it hasn't broken through the surface yet. I have no idea if there are others popping as when I tried to feel the other side, he bit me. Hard. I can't say I blame him, I was sticking my finger in his mouth, but still. That kid has some chompers.

This morning was initially blissful as he slept until 9 am. Then he threw a tantrum from about 9:15-11. It was quite a challenge. I tried to feed him breakfast which set him off on a crying jag. After about 15 minutes, I put him back into his crib to cool off. He was chipper in like 5-10 minutes only to do the same thing when I tried to do anything - get him dressed, go outside, play with toys. I gave him a little Tylenol and that settled him down briefly. I finally got him to eat some raisins and drink his milk, but my efforts to put pants on him were fruitless. When I asked if he wanted to go to playgroup, he said yes, but if I even had pants in my hand, he would freak. In fact, once I had the door open to the carport and he saw the pants and grabbed them from me. He screamed at me "no, no, no" and proceeded to climb the stairs to his room to put them back where they go. It was funny, except for the screaming part. After a few more visits to his bed to calm down, I finally got him to eat breakfast and let me put his pants on. At playgroup, he was a doll, too. I wish I had any idea what was making him so mad other than the teeth. He doesn't seem sick, I can only think that he wants something and can't tell me. If you have any idea, let me know.

On the flip side, he's been a doll. He seems to love Christmas and we spend time each evening walking around the block pointing at the lights. Our next door neighbors have a ton of lights and he likes to walk through them all and point. It's precious. He also demands that we turn on our outside lights and the Christmas tree lights. I'm thinking he's going to be sad once it's time to take them all down. We might have to take the tree down after he's in bed some evening. We also spent time last night on the floor of the kitchen making sugar cookies. He was "helping" me stir and pour in the ingredients. It makes me smile just to think about it. Tonight we're going to roll out the dough, use the cookie cutters and do the baking. I plan to take lots of pictures.

Eureka!

For the first time since Thanksgiving, Andy slept through the night. I feel like a whole new woman today. I put him down about 8 last night and kept telling him as hugged him and rubbed his back that I loved him and that his job was to sleep through the whole night and that I wouldn't see him until the morning. A friend says she tells her daughter every night that her job is to stay in her bed and sleep until morning so I tried that and it worked. That or he was so tired he finally gave up.

His vocabulary continues to evolve, must to our amazement. He does seem to put "nenen" at the end of some of his words. So the fire is really "fire-nen-nen." Christmas tree? "Chris-nen-nen. It's so cute I might have to gobble him up.

We saw Santa last night as he made his way through the neighborhood on a firetruck blasting Christmas music. Andy recognizes Santa, but doesn't get that he delivers presents or anything. We spent some time waving. It was very cute.

Very sad, shocking and disturbing news

After I had Andy, I joined a new mom's group organized by INOVA Faifax Hospital. It was held at a local church and it was moderated by a nurse who answered basic questions and assured us new moms that we could handle our new jobs as mothers. After a bit, the group dwindled as those with older babies (those with four month olds, which seemed really old compared to my six week old) left to start a playgroup. My group left a few months later for babies born November through February and if the group still meets, I'm sure that's still happening.

As such, I'm on two online message boards, one for the group of older moms and one for my specific playgroup. I'm much closer to the women I see regularly, but I keep tabs on the other group and usually get a lot from their posts. Today, though, I learned that one of the little girls in the other playgroup died. That's right. Died. She was 26 months old. The details are sketchy, but it had something to do with a GI infection. I didn't know the little girl or her mother. The mere fact of our paths crossing or nearly crossing around here for the past few years and with similar experiences makes me feel like I know them. I hate to be all melodramatic (despite what you've heard, it's not my strong suit), I just don't get it. First my friend Karen, now Joey. It is all just so, so sad. Andy has been a pill this week (he still refuses to sleep at night), but I think I need to sneak into his room and give him a kiss.

3T

It's official - Andy can now wear 3T clothes. It's funny, it sort of snuck up on me. For the longest time, I would buy the next size up, so at 3 months, he was in 6-12 month stuff. Then after blowing past 12-18 months, we settled on 24 months. I had been thinking that 2T was slightly bigger than 12 months, but I discovered at Target this weekend that the sizes are the same (if that's true though, why bother having size 24 month and 2T in the same style? What's the point in that if they truly are exactly the same measurements?) At the airport last week, we found out that Andy weighs 29 pounds (while checking our bags, the flight attendant thought we should weigh him too for fun). With that knowledge, I started to realize that the 2T clothes stop at 28 pounds.

I realize that's a guideline, but considering my mother kept complaining him pajamas were too cumbersome to get over his arms and legs (despite my chant "They're supposed to fit snugly. It says on the label!) it is perhaps time to graduate up. So I bought some 3T pajamas by Carter's figuring the pants definitely would be too long. Instead, the whole ensemble fit. Go figure. Now the poor kid only has like four pairs of pajamas that aren't 18-24 months and most of those are in the laundry trying to get the remnants of meals past off them. Of course, tonight he decided that the only thing he wanted to wear was his Spider Man costume for next Halloween so perhaps we don't need pajamas after all.

Christmas cards

We spent about a hundred hours this morning (okay, maybe one) trying to get a nice picture of all five of us for a Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa card. The older kids were late because they sleep later and Andy was starting to need his nap by the time we finally got started. It was a little tense, but after some trial and error with the self-timer, we got a decent picture of all of us. This isn't the picture we selected, but Andy's expression sums up what we were all thinking. After we finally got a good one though, we all liked each other again.

I ordered them again from Costco. It's cheaper than Ofoto/Kodak Gallery with the huge bonus of the cards (allegedly) being ready tomorrow. With that pace, these might go out before Christmas after all. Maybe.

Andy's new thing this weekend (in addition to his cold) is his letters. A while ago, I bought the letters B, A and B, painted them white and planned to hang them on Andy's wall. It's been a while now so I currently make a point of explaing the letters to him and having him repeat after me. The funny thing is he's become so attached to two of them "AB" that he calls for them by name, rather insistently I might add. He even took a nap with them yesterday. I got him a wooden puzzle that says "Andy" for Christmas. I'd say based on this he's ready for it.

Counting in the Bath

Megan and Andy "counting" together in the bathtub. I think Megan's got the hang of it while Andy mostly thinks the words are fun to say.

Sleep?

Andy has decided that his parents don't need a good night's sleep any longer. For the past week or so, a night hasn't gone by that he hasn't been getting up and screaming. We've been going in to comfort him, and the last few nights he's made it clear that he doesn't want to lie back down, he wants to come sleep with us. We don't mind him in bed with us every once in a while, but we're both afraid of it becoming a more regular thing. Last night from about 3 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., he yelled. We went in at different times - Bjorn is usually better about convincing Andy to lie back down than I am. At alternating points, we let him yell it out only for him to go to sleep around 7 a.m. and stay asleep until after 10 a.m. I guess the yelling wore him out. It also, turns out, means he has a cold. Figures that us trying to enforce better sleep would happen when he's sick. Today he's been cranky and easy to upset. He's been on the Little Colds though and that stuff does it's job. Probably half an hour after giving it to him, he perks up and is more like his regular self.

I'm also trying to get everyone together tomorrow for a Christmas card picture. Of course it would figure that Andy is sick on what's probably our last good weekend day for the photo in order to get them processed in time. Perhaps we'll send Valentine's Day cards this year.

More pictures

Yup. They were tired.

Elizabeth and Megan who STILL didn't want her picture taken in front of the fireplace at Mary's new house in Austin.

With my old camp friends Mary and Hale. We look much older than in the pictures from 1985. Go figure.

Megan and her Tia.



Andy with the drum set my cousin Katchie gave him as a present.

Pictures

My cousins Frances and George.

Megan wasn't psyched to have her picture taken, but she sure is pretty.

Andy and his Pop playing in the front yard. It was hysterical to watch.

Megan with her father and great-grandmother, Grammy. Grammy is 94 and is so impressive.

Here is Andy with my parents on Thanksgiving at my sister's place .

Once Upon a Potty

There is a semi-famous book in child-rearing circles called "Once Upon a Potty." It's supposed to help kids understand soiling a piece of plastic instead of their diaper. It's actually pretty straight-forward and good, although I don't particularly like using the phrase "wee-wee" for urine. I don't know why, I just don't. We picked up a copy at the seriously awesome Half-Price Books in Dallas and it has quickly turned into Andy's favorite. He now wants to read it over and over again. I'm totally supportive of the potty plan, but the plot of this book is rather lacking. "Goodnight Moon" doesn't have much of a plot either, but at least it's a story. It seems odd to be reading an instructional book as a good night story, but as my mother always reminds me, there is no accounting for taste.

Sleep has been an issue all week. Andy still isn't sleeping through the night. Last night, he got up at four and after I calmed him down, he did not want to go back to bed. I opened the curtains and tried to explain that it was still dark and thus sleepy time, but he wasn't having it. I finally left and after about 10 minutes of yelling, Bjorn got up to convince Andy to lie down and go back to sleep. He eventually did only to have to be woken up at 7:45 this morning. Why won't he ever sleep late on a day I could sleep late?

Back to work

We've returned from our trip and I, for one, am exhausted. I think I need a vacation from my vacation. Andy was a champ on the flight home due in part to the portable DVD player (for those keeping score at home, this was the third of three that I tried to buy in Dallas. Polaroid turned out to be the winner). In contrast to our flight before Thanksgiving, lines were non-existent and there wasn't much traffic anywhere except the international baggage claim area next to ours at Dulles. I'm always amazed that people travel with huge cardboard boxes with their names on them, but I digress.

The trip to Dallas was great, lots of fun catching up with old friends and family. Andy picked up about a hundred new things, including calling his Aunt Mary "Tia" which both seem to enjoy. He also can say Pop, Meh-han (his version of Megan), and Lexie. Saying Grandmother thus eludes him, but it's funny to hear my mother try. By the end, he could almost say Cowboys, which is a must in Dallas.

The last few nights have been long ones with Andy waking up every 30 minutes for some reason or another. The night before we were in Dallas so I attributed it to the stress of the Christmas party and us sleeping in the room with him, but last night in his own bed in his own room, he did the same thing, much to the chagrin of his exhausted parents. I have a feeling it might be gas due to all the weird stuff he's been eating and drinking the past couple of weeks. Keep your fingers crossed that tonight goes better as I'm quite tired.

Winter storm

We're in Dallas for what turns out to be the story of the season - winter weather. We got a combination of snow, sleet and freezing rain today making it look and feel like Christmas. It's sort of off actually since it was 80 degrees yesterday. That's Texas weather for you. Bjorn arrived back in town safely last night despite DFW closing temporarily due to wind shear, definitely a cause for concern. Dad and I spent the interim time shopping at the Bass Pro Shop nearby, which has a surprising selection of cool stuff, in addition to boats and other things.

Andy has been picking up tons of cool stuff this week, in fact, almost too much stuff to mention. He now yells "phone" whenever it rings and then lumbers toward wherever it is. He has also figured out how to manipulate us into giving him whatever he wants to eat rather than a more discplined diet at home. Course, he is on vacation, right? His sleep schedule is off, but so is everyone's I think. We're having lots of fun with Megan, or "Meh-han" as Andy calls her. She's a few months older, but they're starting to be at a place where they can finally play together. Well, and shout "mine" whenever coming in contact with a toy the other is touching.

Austin

We've just returned from a whirlwind trip to Austin to check out my sister's awesome new house. Bad weather on the horizon, illness and my neice's new found ability to climb out of her pack and play encouraged us to leave today rather than tomorrow. I think we'll all like each other better after a good night's rest. We did manage to hook up with my cousins Frances and George. Photos to follow when I return to Washington.

Andy has positively been a trouper this trip with all the strange places to sleep and new faces to encounter. We're been sharing a room all week and it's actually been more fun and interesting than I would have thought. My mother lent me a book light so I keep reading once he is in bed and it's been kind of neat watching him fall asleep. Normally I tuck him in and leave the room so watching his thought process has been neat.

On the flight here, our portable DVD player broke. Dead. Just what you need on a long flight. I bought one at Academy (a coveted Coby brand that no one has heard of) that worked, but it made a really loud whirring noise - so loud you could hear it over the audio. I know, what do you expect for $69. I returned it and after two failed trips to Target (these are obviously the It toy this year), I found one at Wal-Mart. I got it home only for it to not recognize any DVD. Great. Now I've got to return that one, too. Of course, in our haste to leave Austin, I think I left our DVDs at Mary's. With all this travel, I feel like I've been leaving crumbs across the state that I'm going to be hard pressed to collect before we leave.

Dallas

Sorry to the lack of photos in the past week. They're all sitting on the memory card on my digital camera. I tried to take some cute pictures of Andy and Megan today, but neither kid was cooperating at the right time. I did get some fun pictures of my dad wrestling with Andy that I'll post next week. Dad was doing the trick where he lays on his back and puts Andy's stomach on my dad's feet/knees and pulls him up. The cackling laugher was really great. My mother keeps trying to get Andy to say "grandmother" but most times he just says "no" (sometimes more emphatically than others). In fact, no has been the theme word of the weekend and the answer to everything. He went through this for about a week a couple of months ago so I'm hoping it passes quickly.

The only downside is that it's been a whirlwind few days with family visiting and I haven't had a chance to call my friends who live here. Tomorrow we're headed to Austin to see Mary's house and show Andy off to the Austin relatives so I'm planning to make my calls later in the week.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a mostly uneventful flight from Washington to Dallas, despite the wind and rain in Virginia that threatened to make things delayed. We gave ourselves lots of time to get through security and then managed to breeze through in less than 10 minutes. Figures. If we were running late, it wouldn't have been so easy. Everything worked great except the DVD player refused to work on the plane. I had purposely not packed tons of toys knowing we could rely on it so it was a challenge keeping Andy busy for all three hours. He was generally a good sport although he refused to sleep despite my best efforts.

Dallas has been great for catching up with family. We had a nice Thanksgiving at my sister's and my cousin Katchie is in town from Pecos. Great fun. Bjorn leaves tomorrow and then we're on our own most of the week until he comes back for the Christmas party and flies back with us on Sunday. We've also done some power shopping with my dad today and it will indeed be a very merry Christmas. We spent some time at Northpark shopping center which in some ways is just the same as when I was a kid and in other ways, feels 20 times larger. On the contrary, Andy and I took a walk past my alma mater Highland Park High School yesterday and it seemed much smaller, despite the additions that have come since my days.

Beta Blogger

Sorry for the lack of posts, we're gearing up for our travels and have been busy trying to get everything packed and get the house in some reasonable order so when my neighbors stop by to check on the cats, they don't report us to Child Welfare Services for hoarding. Blogger is also switching over to a beta version that is giving me some problems on my computer making it difficult to log in and post. I have, however, switched over to Google Analytics which tells me who is visiting. I was using Bravenet before, which was basically just a counter. This is a counter, but it tells me random stuff, like where people are logging in from. So you folks in Austin, Herndon, Norway and St. Louis, stop staring at me. =) I don't know how it knows that, but it's really cool.

Have a great Thanksgiving and keep your fingers crossed that Texas beats Texas A&M on Friday if there will be any peace in my house.

Mr. Fastidiuos

I have somehow managed to have a kid who is bothered by a mess. If you've ever seen my house or office, you know that things being messy doesn't bother me. I like to think I'm personally clean, just cluttered. Andy however is now fixated on being clean when he eats. If he hands get messy during a meal or play, he stops to make sure I clean them. He's also bothered if the tray gets really messy. He wants me to clean that up, too. I suppose it's not a bad trait to have a kid who is clean, it's just surprising. I have a feeling he'll grow out of it.

We leave for Dallas day after tomorrow. Andy and I will be there for 12 days. Seriously, 12 days. That's so long I can barely comprehend it. I really need the break, I just hope my family isn't sick of me by the end. Well, no more than usual.

Potty training is gross

It's a fact - potty training is gross. I'm sure that sounds ridiculous reading it. You're probably thinking "Of course it's gross," but let me explain. After nearly two years of diapers, I've got it down. I can clean up the messiest diaper using only three wipes, put it in the Diaper Genie and not get anything on my hands (well, most days anyway). It's gross, too, but I'm used to it now. Potty training on the other hand, involves my son's excrement on a piece of plastic that I then need to dump in the toilet and then wash out the plastic thing while keeping his hands out of it (naturally, he wants to see what he's done). And naturally at that time, he finds a way to pee on the floor (peeing in the potty earlier apparently doesn't dampen that need).

The good news is that with minimal pressure, he's kind of figuring out potty training. Twice in four days, he's done number two in the potty. Both times he seemed to really know what he was meaning to do. I'm not pushing it on him just yet, but I try to find a time to offer it to him, usually before his bath (when he's already naked). His vocabulary is coming along, but he still can't quite communicate what he needs to do. I think that means the Kirkland Diaper folks won't lose our business for some time.

Hair apparent

Bjorn took Andy to get a much-needed hair cut last week in anticipation of our trip to Texas next week. Andy did great, but when it got to the end, Bjorn decided he'd had enough and stopped before letting her trim the back and sides, declaring to me that we would fix it at home. Problem is, asking ME to cut anyone's hair is a terrible idea. I worked on "evening things up" last night and it's like eating goldfish crackers - you can't stop at one. Now the poor kid now has more of a Marine hair cut that I'm not sure is even. Poor guy. At least hair grows, right?

Magic dust

We still have half a box of infant oatmeal left over. To try to get rid of it, I occasionally put it in yogurt and other things to thinken it up a bit. The last couple of days though, Andy has decided he wants it sprinkled on his food - whatever it is. That means his chicken breast and green beans from last night had to be dipped in oatmeal first. It's funny because it's really flakey and doesn't taste like much. We've decided he must think it's sugar.

Documentation

Photo evidence of the one bath Andy had last week. The towels at our Westin were so nice (HeavenlyTM if you read all their stuff) that Andy was loathe to get into his jammies. I can't say I blame him.

Both these boys are sick today. Bjorn is actually feeling worse than the younger, but I was called home to take over so Bjorn could take a much needed rest. They're both still asleep. It's kind of precious. Everyone, it turns out, is sweeter and cuter when asleep.

Dancing fiend

This kid can really bust a move, can't he?

Fart jokes

I'm not much into bathroom humor. It seems lame to me since there are a million things in the world funnier than that. It's like a writer writing about not being able to write about anything. It's just a cop out. That said, I was shopping for a birthday present for a two-year old and came across an awesome book called "Walter the Farting Dog." It's about a dog with really bad gas so the family wants to take him back to the pound until his gas conspires to thwart burglars to they keep him. I'm not sure I get the lesson for kids, but it certainly gave me a laugh at Target.

Welcome Natalie

My friend Shelly just had her second baby. Welcome Natalie! It's funny seeing the children of friends. I find myself saying things like "I remember when you were yay high" and "You look so much like your mother/father/aunt/poodle." I do find it amazing looking at the faces of these kids and seeing their parents. It certainly makes me feel like an adult.

More pictures

My brain is still fried from a week of not sleeping so I don't have anything interesting to say. Some might argue I rarely have anything interesting to say and they wouldn't always be wrong. Like the double negative there? Andy and I took the day off to play. We visited the Hidden Oaks Nature Center in Annandale. It's in a beautiful wooded location that looked amazing with all the leaves in color. The center had lots of fun natural history stuff for kids, but he preferred the two story fort to any of that stuff. Such a boy.

Finally some pictures

I've been out of town for the past week in a blur of a big scientific meeting. Now that Andy's in bed, I'm going to shortly go to bed myself and perhaps get more than five hours of sleep. Score! This past week of late nights and early mornings and subsequent exhaustion has reminded me of when Andy was a tiny baby and sleep was so hard to come by. Since I've been gone, Andy has picked up about a dozen new words. His other new trick is pointing at every door jamb and saying "ding dong." The boys had a good week without me, but except for the Saturday night they were with me in Philadelphia, I don't think Andy had a bath all week. Natch.

A music Nazi among us

Andy has turned into a music snob. What's worse is he can't explain to me what it is he hates so car rides have turned into a battle of wills with him yelling from the back seat and me trying to figure out what he's saying while trying not to kill us both. Half the time I just turn it off and listen to him yell. It's not pleasant. I'm thinking about finding a little portable CD player for him to keep in the backseat for himself. I'm not sure about letting him have earphones yet so the ones I've come across with speakers are all too big. I'll keep looking.

His latest musical preferance is for song 2 on The Lion King CD. He dances around his room and even in the car seat to it. I'll admit it's adorable to see him bobbing around and so happy. I'm surprised how many Disney audio CDs I have in my collection. I guess I am/was a bigger fan than I thought. I do like me some musical theater though.