All Better

A little update on Mia. She had a rough 2 days of high fever and general out-of-sortsedness, but she woke up today, Friday morning, much improved. Just in time for Halloween. She was a champ all day long in her Halloween costume (photos to come). Yea!

A little worry

Mia is having a negative reaction to her vaccine from Monday. She only had 1. We've been spacing them out. This was her Hep B vaccine and she developed a mild fever about 24 hours later. They said that was a typical reaction and it would go away within 48 hours. That was Monday. Today is Thursday. She's had two fitful nights and this morning she woke up with a high fever, listless and not eating. We're giving her a bath to cool down, continuing tylenol every 4 hours and bringing her to the doctor today. Poor babe. I  hate vaccines. 

Pumpkin Demise

After seeing photos of my friend Therese's pumpkins after the squirrels had a go at them, I couldn't resist showing what our brigade of outdoor critters did to our pumpkin...

This pumpkin was about 20 lbs. I actually had to use a broom at one point to step outside out front door. They'd become so brazen and wouldn't dismount from their prize! Needless to say, the remaining pumpkins we had are safely inside waiting their turn to become pumpkin pie.

Horsing Around

The girls had a blast horsing around today while trying on their winter hats. Way fun.

Stepping in to Fall

Zoe had a great time raking leaves today. We made a big pile in the driveway for her to play in. She hardly noticed that she was using a hoe instead of a rake...worked just as well. 

Happy

By many measures, today has not gone well, and it’s not even 9 am yet. I won’t go in to detail, but two examples can illustrate. 

First, Scott was traveling this morning. I set up a huge play area right next to me and set about pumping, which literally takes 5 minutes. Almost as soon as I started, Mia crawled just out of my reach and started pulling the phone and computer wires, which are securely tacked against the wall under the carpet, out. Zoe, trying to be helpful, went over to try and remove the wires from Mia’s tight, sweaty little hands and…pulled the wires completely out on accident. (Scott if you’re reading this, take a deep breath, it’s no big deal.) All this while I’m not even TWO FEET AWAY in a space of not more than 30 seconds while I’ve got the blasted cones on my boobs!). 

Ok, one more example, running late for school I go to put Zoe in the car seat. It’s not in my car. It’s tucked away neatly in the living room Ofcourse, where every car seat belongs. That set us back getting to school, and we were late enough that the “greeters” had already left. I had to do the parent’s walk of shame and bring Zoe in to the classroom myself. If I had to write a note to excuse her, I think I would have simply written: “My mom’s an idiot.”

Tack on a few more "incidents", a dog with special needs, and a mom with a major work deliverable due, and you can see that this morning has been touch-and-go.

That said, I can't help but smile. I think all this is a bit fun. It's the good crazy. I find most emotions easy to identify…anger, sadness, anxiety, ambivalence, excited, silly, etc., but happy is often harder to notice. It’s more subtle. I think this mix of chaos and family and general day-to-day engagement with life is happy. I’d take all this entanglement and nuttiness any day over the freedoms of high school, I’ll tell you that.

Games

Mia and Zoe each have new games (as well as old ones) that they've been enjoying a lot lately. Mia has learned to pull herself up by the window sill and look outside to see what's happening in the backyard. I have great pictures of her scaling along the window on wobbly tip-toes, but can't seem to upload them.  She gets very giggly during games of hide-and-go-seek and peek-a-boo and any time Zoe jumps anywhere near her, she breaks out in to extreme giggles.

Zoe has crafted a new game which I LOVE. She will run up behind me and grab my hands and then trot along next to me singing a song she's constructed which has one verse but many melodies: "I love my little mommy."  She sings this over and over again while swinging off my hands. Then she waits for me to sing: "I love my little Zoe." How awesome is that?

Bed time?

Today we spent the afternoon at a public park in DC. On our way home, I asked Zoe if she wanted to use the bathroom. Yes, she would . Ok. So we go to the bathroom and she wants to use the bathroom by herself. Ok. Over the course of the next 40 minutes, I check on her, see if she's having any issues, etc., and she assures me she's not. We're pretty careful not to make bathroom time stressful, however, she was in there a long time and I felt like I needed to keep checking in to see if there was a problem. Finally, I tell her that the park is closing and we need to go. Now I learn the real story. She tells me that she plans to sleep on the toilet at the park. That's what has been taking so long. She doesn't want to leave. There must be a better way to express that you've had a good time at a park and wish it didn't have to end. At bath time later that night she still had the potty imprint on her behind from sitting there so long. 

Lobsters and worms?

We step outside and notice that someone has been nibbling at our pumpkin during the night.

Mom: Hmmm....I wonder if that was a squirrel or a chipmunk that took a big bite out of our pumpkin Zoe.

Zoe:  (long pause) ...or a lobster...or a worm.

Interesting. If there are lobsters roaming around my yard that would be good to know for sure!

Learning

Zoe's little brain seems to be working overtime lately. You can almost see her learning. Her new favorite saying is "mommy I have 2 questions." And, I'll respond, "Zoe, do tell. I'm happy to answer your questions." At which point she giggles and starts thinking really hard of any questions she can ask. She'll then amend her comment to let me know that she actually has 3, 4 or 5 questions. 

One of the things she's really trying to understand is the concept of aging. At her school, called  the Hippo House (don't they know that Hippos are actually super dangerous scary animals?), they celebrate birthdays a little uniquely. They talk about the person's life and show photos and tell stories of them from each year. I think that her participation in these events is prompting the fascination with aging. She'll routinely say things, like "mommy, one day when I grow up and you get younger, I'll drive you to Hippo House."

As a complete aside, I had the unsavory task of buying a new swimsuit to deal with.  I am 100% committed to never demonstrating any negativity about my body or food with Zoe or Mia, but buying a new swimsuit still isn't fun. Anyway, Zoe came with me. As I put on one suit and then another, Zoe sat there saying, "mommy, we're going to buy something really great." And "mommy you look pretty." Now, as distracting as an almost-3-year-old can be in a store, she was a sweet champion (and superior to her father who was more inclined to say things like "it fits." Thanks.

An Early Demise

I know that having kids means lots of broken or damaged things over a period of many years. I have shirts stained with markers, small pieces that have been broken off larger things (neither of which I can figure out the origin) which sit on my countertop waiting to be reaffixed, scratched hard word floors, pencil on walls, and on and on. But, generally speaking, my kids have fun and are well behaved. 

But my sunglasses met an untimely and unfortunate demise this weekend. Zoe is an accomplished bathroomer although she on occasion needs assistance getting on and off the loo. While bending over to help her off the toilet, my glasses fell off my head and landed in a big pile of you know what. Unrecoverable. There is no clean that would be clean enough to wear them again. 

Although, I don't feel too bad. It was relatively easy to abandon them and buy a cheapo pair from Target. Not the case for a friend who once dropped her passport in a similar mess. Yes, I'd say I'm lucky.

Monitors

I've realized lately that I get a lot more sleep if the monitors are not turned on over night. The last 2 nights, Scott accidentally didn't turn the monitors up loud enough that we could hear their every turn, cough, and mumble. Instead, we didn't hear them until they were full on talking and ready to wake up. This meant that I didn't wake up from the kids (the dog is another story), until at least 6:15 am. This may sound early to some, but for us, it's progress. Maybe it's time to ditch the monitors all together and just trust if there's a problem, they'll holler loud enough? 

Aiming Low

During the Jewish New Year, some of us think lofty thoughts about the year ahead. We sit in temple and think about what we hope for in the year ahead...health, happiness, love, peace, a new President...

Not so for Mia. Today we took her to services with us. She was in a good mood and also eager to move around. So, we obliged and put her on the floor. She immediately spent her time crawling away from us...under other people's chairs...to play with their feet. We would get down on the floor and make efforts to gently and gracefully pull her out from other people's chairs, and put her down about 20 feet away. Moments later she was tugging on their shoelaces again. 

Yuck and Fun

After a good week of much reduced spitting up, Mia decided to make up for lost time today. While at the bookstore, surrounded by people, Mia projectile vomited out of my arms about a foot or so away onto a pile of lovely books. Faaantastic. A big puddle remained solely on the pile of books ("Oh The Places You Will Go!"), and I was left completely unscathed as were the onlookers. So, I, as gracefully as possible, accumulated a massive pile of wet and dry paper towels, wiped up the mass, and then rubbed the whole thing down with Purrell. I felt bad about it but not bad enough to buy several books I didn't need. When going to the restroom to throw the paper towels away, I saw a few moms in there with their kids who were attempting to use the toilet. Each kid was holding a train from the communal bookstore train table. I think that is nearly as gross as what Mia did. Note to self: think twice before purchasing bookstore books in the kid section.

Totally unrelated, later that night, I was feeding Mia while we ate Chinese food for dinner. I learned to eat with chopsticks left-handed in order to hold/feed her at the same time. Neat trick for a righty.

On the Zoe front, she is having soooo much fun! She was introduced to the game of hide and go seek which we've been playing nonstop. In our world, the game goes kind of like this: I count to three, she runs about 10 feet away and stands somewhere completely visible, I come to find her, she giggles hysterically like a lunatic.  

She was also introduced to football in a more significant way after hearing some people cheering wildly while watching the Redskins/Cowboy game today. She kinda gets it and LOVES cheering. She kept clapping and making up little chants. 

And, Scott's back in town which is terrific. It means that I'm still going to bed too late and still waking up too early and still highly engaged during wake up and bed time routines, but it's all a lot more fun.

Weird Kid Radar

Tonight, we're out to dinner. We're in a booth at PF Changs and both kids are happy at the same time. And, they are both engaged and eating at the same time. Ahhh...moment of Zen. 

Then, out of nowhere Zoe starts to wail, crying that she doesn't want "the man" to come near her. I start looking around wildly to see what the hell she's talking about and realize that she's noticed a waiter by the hostess stand walking towards the table next to ours to greet a new pair of guests. This guy was totally nondescript. Nothing unique or disturbing about his appearance. He wasn't making any moves or sounds to draw attention either. I didn't recognize him from any of American's Most Wanted ads either.  

Zoe was inconsolable. Until he actually greeted the table and began an exchange with them at which point she simply stopped crying and moaning and went back to her dinner. What did I miss?

Flying solo

When Scott travels for work, I tally the time away by the number of morning and bedtime routines I'll need to manage alone. The day time, with or without Ruth, is pretty smooth sailing. But Zoe, Mia and Chloe all seem to wake up (needy) at about the same time. So I'm usually in some manner nursing, walking a dog and coaxing a kid on/off the potty with/without milk at once. Night time also comes on fast and furious at our house. Basically, once Mia decides she's done with the day, the girl means business. She wants out of the highchair, into her bath/pajamas, and in bed as fast as possible. The silver lining is that after an intense 10-20 minutes in the morning/evening, everyone is in decent shape. Both girls went easy on me tonight though. Mia tolerated extra books in Zoe's room while I nursed her and they both went to sleep (I think) by 7:30 pm. (I'm blocking out the ant swarm and the cat that killed a bird in my front yard and focusing on this instead.) Two mornings down, two nights down, one to go.

Penguin Steps

Today, I was a little confused why Zoe was walking the way she was when I picked her up from the Hippo House. She was taking tiny dainty steps and when the parent helper went to put her in her car seat, she kept her legs close together and we could hardly buckle her in. When we got home, again, she just toddled along moving quickly with short little steps. 

Then, it hit me! She wore a skort to school today. At school they go to the bathroom independently, which means they also dress themselves after using the toilet independently. It appears that Zoe used the bathroom right before coming home and put both legs in the same hole. No one noticed from the outside because it looks like a skirt and she didn't complain. The staff she had little opportunity to see her walking before I picked her up. We had a silly conversation about how each leg has it's own hole. She thought the whole thing was very funny.

New Tricks Continued (woops)

And then, Mia learned to wave. This is the best. Zoe kept encouraging her by waving at her, and Mia did not disappoint. Way to go Mia. You're well on your way...

New Tricks

In the past 24 hours, Mia has decided that she's ready for more action. Her crawling has become much more organized and has morphed to something between an army crawl with elbows and feet and knees all touching to something more of a traditional crawl. She has also managed to pull herself up. The location was not ideal...the bathtub. She simply reached up to the edge of the tub and stood up. And then, 

I take it back

Zoe informed me that she does not like lizards and she does not want to go to the Hippo House. She didn't cry but she was definitely not enthusiastic about going in to class this morning. I think a major part of the issue is that the parking lot is too small for parents to get out and bring their kids in. Instead "greeters" (aka other moms and dads) get the kids out of the cars and bring them in. A bit of a tuck and roll situation. I don't blame her for not wanting some other random parent to be taking her out of the car and in to class. Stay tuned...