Putting It Together

I just wanted to share a break through.  Tonight, as I was lifting him out of the bathtub, my adorable son said "Bye, duck."  He had been playing with his yellow duck during bath time and I suppose he just wanted to say a proper good bye.  Very polite, indeed.  AND, the first time, to our knowledge, that our son has put together 2 words in a logical (any) fashion.  Moving forward....in more ways than one.

Apologies, Apologies, Apologies and an Update

I feel SO GUILTY! I just got my Site Meter stats and saw that you're all still checking in. And what have you been seeing here lately? NOTHING! And I'm sorry...so, so, sorry.

I think about what I'd like to write every day, but just haven't found/made the time to get it written. Perhaps I should be tweeting (joking).

There's a lot of stuff going down over here. We are moving in 5 days and I have been feeling pretty overwhelmed by it all. For instance, today I had a complete meltdown because I waited for the phone/internet/TV guy for 4 hours and then spent an hour on my cell phone trying to sort out what was going on. And I was in an empty house. With my 21 month old son. That was not my idea of fun. So I got back to my rental (and realized I had forgotten the lap top at the new house) and just started balling. That pretty much says where I'm at.

But I'm OK now....in fact, I forced myself to get over it quickly because I had another appointment to cancel for tomorrow, so I stopped crying and made my next call. And you know what I did next? I put the little guy to bed, made some lunch and watched TV all by myself. There was no computer to distract me with tasks, and I have a lot of catch up watching to do (Weeds), so I did. It was a necessary distraction from my current life.

We all know moving sucks. But I think we manage to hide it away in our minds and gloss over it when we think back on it (kinda like what they say about child birth....although I will NEVER forget that). Moving with 2 kids is a whole new world of pain. It is hard. The kids are always around and they don't care if you need to focus on packing, cleaning, dealing with contractors, or making a zillion phone calls to people who don't really care about you. And life doesn't stop. There's still laundry, 3 meals a day, pick up, drop off, bills to pay and errands to run. It ain't like the old days, that's for sure.

So, back to the kids. I think they've spent enough time at the new house that they aren't going to completely freak out when we officially move in.  I actually think the babe understands that our days in our rental are almost over.

The babe is doing well and is so happy to be back in school. Sadly we just had a very scary experience; she was attacked by a swarm of wasps as we were leaving the playground on Monday (she lifted up the wrong rock). It was one of the most disturbing things I've ever been through and I am so grateful we didn't end up in the ER. I was putting the little guy in his car seat and had placed her on her side of the car temporarily. I walked around to load her in and found her swarmed by a LOT of wasps. I grabbed her and ran across the street trying to get away (I've never had to deal with anything like this before and wasn't exactly sure what to do). They were everywhere....in her hair, up her shirt, on her legs. It was overwhelming and terrifying.

I didn't know if she was going to go into anaphylactic shock as she had about 20 bites on her little body. After the spectacle on the sidewalk (I ended up pulling her shirt off to swat the wasps off her body), I ran back to the car with her where I proceeded to hold her in my arms in the driver’s seat. I called my husband and he searched the internet for information on wasp bites while I tried to calm her and give her a healthy dose of Benadryl. The screams I heard while the wasps were attacking her are something I won't soon forget. I ended up taking her home and watching her closely. I've now learnt that it may be the next exposure which we have to be concerned about. I hope that day never comes.

The little guy is flourishing despite all the chaos surrounding him. Today he walked up to me holding a book (Where's Spot), saying "boo, boo (which means book). I like that he's asking me to read to him.

And last week he learnt how to say "bubbles." Really, that made me day. Bubbles. It sounds so sweet coming from his little mouth.

I'll try and do a better job. I miss you and my writing. It feels like I've been ignoring an old friend, and I don't want that. I want to be 24-7 Mommy....in Maryland. Thanks for reading...

Getting Paid

Hello friends.  It's been a while.

As usual, I have a lot to say and no time to write it.  I am the Queen of distraction these days.  And I must admit, I've been going on short walks around my neighborhood at night before bed instead of sitting in front of the computer.  I feel like the walking has been helping more than the writing can right now.  The big move is 2 weeks from tomorrow and I'm slowly getting closer to being ready.  And I can honestly say I am ready to be ready!

Anyway, something happened today that I needed to share.

We were driving to school this morning and the babe was talking about school versus work.  I always tell her how lucky she is to be going to school to learn and play with her friends.  This morning she said she'd rather be going to work because at work they pay you and then you can buy things.  I wasn't sure whether to be horrified or impressed.  I suppose I'm both.  She's not even 4 and she's already worked out the basics of our consumption oriented society.  I keep telling her she should enjoy going to school and being young because things get a lot harder when you get older. 

I think it may be true what they say, youth is wasted on the young!

Hair Elastics

I'm not sure what it is, but the little guy loves hair elastics (and we have hair elastics all over our house).  He has a thing for putting them over his wrist and pushing them up as far as they can go.  As he's normally in a T-Shirt, I only realize he has a band on his upper arm when I get him ready for bath or I'm lifting him and his shirt sleeve goes up.  He doesn't appear to be able to get it to the point where he is cutting off his circulation, which is good.  But it is a little strange, no?

Satisfaction

I am not getting a lot of satisfaction these days.  I am a tad overwhelmed but don't want to drag you down in my muck.  Like I said the other day, these are all good problems to have.

Anyway....

I do all the laundry in the house (surprise, surprise).  We have one central basket and everyone's dirty clothes get thrown in there every day.  The basket is usually empty for about 10 seconds before someone is throwing another item in it.

What I wanted to tell you about is the feeling of satisfaction I have when I have completed and folded a load of laundry.  It is such an awesome sense of accomplishment.  As a Stay at Home Mom, I suppose my perception of "accomplishment" has changed from my working days.

I am almost sad to put away the basket of folded clothes because the evidence of my job well done is gone.  How sad is that?

Anyway, here's a shot of my latest "accomplishment."

Strange Days

It was a strange day.  Mostly good, but strange.  We dropped the babe off at school and the only one crying was the little guy.  I think he knew he was losing his play mate.  The babe was happy and confident and gave me a great big hug before we left.  She was thrilled to be back.

The little guy and I then went to the dermatologist to have a potentially funky mole I recently found checked out.  Turns out it was nothing to be concerned about.  Another good thing.

After nap time the little guy wandered around the house calling out his sister's name (not really, but his version of it).  He had forgotten she was at school and couldn't understand where she could be.  Poor kid.

But the story I think you'll really appreciate is the poop on my foot story.  At bedtime I brought the little guy upstairs and took off his diaper at the entrance to his room.  I assumed it was just pee in there.   It was not (you know what they say about making assumptions).  So I brought him over to the changing table and tried to avoid allowing any poo pellets from falling on the ground.  I was concerned I had gotten poop on the bottom of my black pants so I took them off.  I cleaned my son up and put him in the tub.  I then realized I felt something strange on the bottom of my foot.  I had a look and found a nice chunk of smushed poo on my left foot.  So there I was, standing in my underwear, with stinky poop on my foot, and a happy son in the tub.  Not the end of the world. 

I got my husband and daughter to watch the little guy while he played in the bath so I could retrace my steps and wipe up any poop smudges I could identify (there were a few).  I will never know if I missed any spots.  Luckily I hadn't walked beyond my son's bedroom and the bathroom.  Regardless, it was gross and totally my fault.  Lesson learned, I should always assume my son has poop in his diaper!

Summer 2010

I never thought it would happen.  I never thought we'd make it.  But tomorrow is September 1st and the babe, the little guy, and I, have offically made it through the summer together in one piece.  I have to be honest, I wasn't sure we were going to be able to pull it off.  It has been hot, hot, hot.  There have been a million mosquitoes ready to attack us whenever we leave the safety of the indoors, and there were many, many, many hours to fill.  But we somehow managed to fill them, buy a house, deal with a zillion contractors, and sort of keep our sanity.

Tomorrow morning the babe will head back for a second year of preschool.  And while she initially complained that she didn't like being home and liked school better, I think she's going to miss the little guy and I.  And frankly, while I know my life is about to get WAY easier (even though I'm moving in less than 4 weeks), I am going to miss having her around as well.  My daughter keeps me on my toes and is quite the conversationalist (unlike my son).  I can't get much past her and she really challenges me to be a better parent.  And I try and challenge her to be a better kid. 

Hopefully we will all come out of the summer of 2010 better and stronger people.  I'll admit it has been really hard to keep it together at times, and that I'm not always the most patient, stable and loving parent (or wife).  Buying your first house and trying to coordinate renovations while watching 2 little ones in the middle of a ridiculous summer is not a recipe for "good times," but I recently heard a great saying, "these are all wonderful problems to have."  Once again, I will be attempting to focus on my many, many blessings.   

With that I will say good night. 

And thanks for checking in.

Talking About Desserts...

The babe polished off her dinner (which included a lot of olives) tonight with gusto and then wanted dessert.  As she'd been fairly good throughout the day (except when I was trying to have a conversation with the chimney inspector at the new house), I told her she could have some chocolate soy pudding.

While we were chatting, she pulled off her bib.  I know some kids this age don't wear bibs, but my kid does.  She is sloppy and I don't feel like doing any more laundry than I already do.  Anyway, I asked her why she took off her bib before her dessert.  She told me not to worry and that she'd "be careful."

I then asked her what I could do if she did spill any chocolate pudding on her dress.  She looked at me and replied, "you can clean me up!"

I sometimes wonder if she really is just 3 years old or if I somehow bumped my head and missed a few years.  The girl has a mouth on her, but I was impressed by her comment so I let her eat her chocolate pudding without a bib.  And ya know what?  She didn't spill any pudding, just the soy milk I asked her to finish up after the pudding was done.

The Nannies at the Park

I'm on the neighborhood list serve so I can "keep on top of things."

A couple of this week's posts made me stop and think.  And I'd like to start off by saying that I'm not anti-Nanny, but as a Mother who spends a lot of time at the park, I do agree with these comments. 

I'm not saying all Nannies are bad.  They are not.  I am also not trying to generalize (in fact I met a great Nanny just this morning).  But there are a lot of negligent care takers out there and I'm sure the parents who employ them would be horrified at the lack of care and attention being directed to their children.  Just something to think about.

From the list serve:

Re: NANNIES @ TURTLE PARK

Are you confident that your Nanny is properly caring for you child?

I have been taking my grandchildren to Turtle Park this spring and summer. I have been overwhelmed at the poor quality of child care being provided to the young children who come to the park with their nannies. I have been hesitant to post something, but today after observing a nanny hitting a child, a nanny talking on her cell phone unaware that her charge had fallen & was crying and a child open the gate and leave the area without being noticed by the nanny, I am posting this asking families to make unannounced visits to Turtle Park at a time your child and nanny plan to be there.

I am a retired Early Childhood Educator with over 35 years experience. I would fire many of the care providers I have observed this summer. They are regularly completely distracted by their cell phone conversations or their adult group conversations.

I hope that you can find a time to observe and ensure that your little ones are receiving the quality of care you are expecting.

Re: NANNIES @ TURTLE PARK

I've seen the exact same thing and would be horrified for most of the the local Nannies I've witnessed to care after our child.

While at Turtle Park some weeks ago, I saw a toddler vomiting in to the side of the sandbox while his Nanny continued talking on the phone; almost like she couldn't be bothered to attend to him.

Crazy

The Colors of Us

I wanted to recommend another book.

A friend gave us a copy of The Colors of Us (by Karen Katz) a while back.  We hadn't read it to the babe much when we originally got it because it was a bit beyond her.  But we are now at the perfect place for this special book.

Such a perfect place that the babe has me read it to her every day (a few times).

I quickly looked at reviews on Amazon, and while the majority are positive, there are some which attack the book, claiming it reinforces negative stereotypes of different racial groups.

This criticism doesn't really mean much to me because the babe likes the book and so do I.  I'm not sure how much I've mentioned in the past, but my husband is of Indian descent and I am a mix of Irish/English and French.  That makes our kids a mix of many things, and with Indian names and slightly darker skin, they are going to confront issues I never confronted growing up.

This book talks about all the different shades of brown and I like that it brings so many groups of people together in its simple story line.  Tonight the babe asked what color she was and I told her she was a creamy cappuccino (the book has many flavour references).  That made us both giggle.

While we have been slowly broaching the subject that Mama and Papa have different skin colours, it seems as though we are still at a point where that is perfectly normal, and I'd like to keep it that way.