Happy New Years

Well, it's New Years Eve and there is a magic Blue Moon out tonight. I wonder what it 2010 will bring us?

M is now in bed. I had hoped to let him stay up late enough to celebrate a Newfoundland New Years but he had no nap today so I sent him to bed. Since he went to sleep immediately I don't think he had any complaints.

M spent his last day of 2009 showing off some new skills. He has figured out how to get one of the cupboard doors open (so much for the child proof latch) While I was baking he was showing me all the things from the cupboard that I should use. Obviously my pumpkin squares needed a carrot cake mix and some raisins.
After exploring the cupboards he decided to show off his skills at the window. He can open and close the blinds which I was not aware of until today. After a big disagreement over the blinds and how he was not supposed to climb up on top of the couch, he finally left them alone and curled up on his little couch for some Sesame Street. I had hoped he would fall asleep but instead he just grabbed his big bear and snuggled up for the show. At least he was quiet so I managed to get dinner prepared and my pumpkin squares in the oven.

We had a little toast with our special New Years drinks. Everybody had Bellinis although M's had 7 up instead of champagne. The drink was a hit and I'll be sure to make him another the next time we have a special night. Now we are relaxing and will likely have an early night. I'm guessing that's pretty typical for a lot of parents. New Years Eve is lovely but sleep is lovelier.

My Blue Moon wish for M is that he has a happy year. I think we're on a pretty good track for that. Micah does manage to smile through just about everything and I hope his sunny disposition continues.

My Blue Moon wish for all of you is that the New Year brings contentment, happy memories and smiling moments to outweigh the stress or hurt that we are all bound to experience at some point.

Christmas Presents

M was spoiled this Christmas. Big surprise :-) The picture above is M playing in his new ball tent today. I might regret putting the tent up as I suspect the balls will not stay inside it but he's having so much fun it doesn't matter.

I'll give a brief synopsis of M's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:

Christmas Eve was spent with my family, mom, Grandma, my sister and her husband. There was a lovely table with munchies that was the perfect height for M. Apparently there was some trouble getting the table higher so they gave up and my optimistic sister said "M won't try and take the food". M took the food. He tried to snatch food and put his half eaten food back most of the evening.  Bet the table won't be that low ever again. Mreceived some great presents that he adored. They all make noise and he had great fun ripping off the wrapping paper. His auntie did a wonderful job of helping him and he enjoyed the whole process.

Christmas Day was spent with Glenn's family at his sister's house. With 3 children, one who was just learning about presents and two who were really hyped up about presents, it was wrapping paper mayhem. Again M got great presents and most of them make noise. My favorite present was his bear from Grandpa. All the kids received one in a different colour. It's a forever kind of bear and when he's older I hope he'll understand the significance behind that teddy bear. For now, he just likes to hug and kiss it, so maybe, somehow, he does understand what his bear really means.

Today M spent the day helping me sort his bags of toys. He was a lot of help. He dragged his Elmo doll all over the house. Elmo spent most of the day saying "Elmo fell down, can you help Elmo stand up?" Once Elmo was standing he would say "Thank you, you're Elmo's best friend" Then Mwould climb on his fire truck and roll around the living room. He had to have his fire hat on though and if he didn't he would run around until he found it and then climb back on the truck. He then proceeded to press every button, making it sing while the horn and siren were going off. After the fire truck he would run to his couch with his bears and sit for a few minutes, then he was off and running again to the stool and desk that I spent half the morning putting together. In my wisdom I had put his crayons and singing sketch pad on the desk so he sat and drew on it. Did I mention it was a singing sketch pad? When he was finished there, he grabbed his drumsticks and banged on his electronic drums. The drums have buttons to push which make different kinds of music and it has five drum pads for different types of drum set sounds. Is anyone seeing a pattern to these toys? I think we must have unknowingly bought a lot of noisy toys for people over the years and this is just a little karma payback.

In order to end the noise I set up the ball tent. It was really desperation on my part. I was hoping he would have so much fun playing in it that he would temporarily forget about all the noisy toys. It worked pretty darn well and he played in the tent for over half an hour which means I had half an hour of no noisy toys. I have now turned all the toys off except for his fire truck so that we may enjoy our evening and hear the hockey game. M has not noticed yet and since it's almost bedtime I think I'm safe until morning.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I know ours was full of laughter, tears, hugs and kisses. That's just the way I like it.

Christmas Eve

The presents are wrapped, the bags are packed and we are ready for Nanaimo whenever Glenn gets home from work. M and I are spending the day watching Elmo's Christmas Countdown for what feels like the millionth time. Over and over again. He's lucky that it's not too annoying and it has good music. I mean really, who doesn't want a Snuffleupagus for Christmas? That's way better than a hippopotamus. And the Count is right.... why does it have to be Three Ships sailing in? Why can't it be eight or ten?

Tonight and tomorrow M will discover the joy of Christmas which at his age will be all about ripping the paper off the present and he might care what's inside for about 2 seconds. I happen to know a couple of the things he's getting and one of them is a new ride on toy. He has recently started to appreciate ride on toys. His latest favorite is the dog. He likes to climb on her back while she's napping and bounce up and down while hanging on to her fur or her ears depending on what he can reach. He proceeds to yell "Whee!!" as loud as possible until Mokey finally decides she's had enough of being bounced on and she sits up. Naturally this causes M to slide to the floor and does not please him. After being dumped on the floor he always tries at least once more to get her to lie down so he can ride her again. Sometimes she complies but usually she just walks into another room. I am so glad we have a dog with such a good nature.

Here's hoping Mokey gets a break tomorrow. I'm sure that will be a nice Christmas present for her. Let's also hope that M doesn't open too many presents that don't belong to him.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have lovely dreams filled with Christmas Eve magic.

Shopping with Micah

M started his day unwrapping a present. He was not supposed to start his day like that. In all my wisdom last night I decided to put a couple of his presents under the tree rather than leave them cluttering the table. M saw a nice big one and before I knew it there was no more paper left. He didn't care what was in the box, he just wanted to rip the paper off.

After the present incident I packed him up and headed off to Nanaimo for a little last minute shopping. This is something I dread since he's not the best shopper however we started the day at Costco with my sister in law who he adores. It was the best Costco trip I've ever had with M. After Costco we were off to my mom's for a little visit and then to the mall to finish our shopping. M did pretty well for the first hour. After that I had to bribe him with Purdy's peanut butter fingers to keep him quiet. After a couple of hours the last stop was Toys R Us. This went pretty well until M saw the Elmo Live doll. When we walked away from this doll he had a very loud, very angry outburst. I hightailed it out and started to head home. This was the point when I talked to my mother about the toy and suggested it would be a good present for him. She agreed so I turned around and went back to the store. Once we got to the aisle with the toy M grabbed it and wouldn't let go. I actually had to hold the box while he held on with both hands, never letting go of the box, constantly pressing Elmo's tummy to make him talk with a look of absolute rapture. When we reached the cashier and she took the toy, M was really unhappy with her. When she dared to put the toy in a bag he was quite vocal about his displeasure.

Thankfully M had a good sleep on the way home and had forgotten about the toy. Hopefully he loves it as much when he opens it Christmas Eve. I am ending the day with a hot buttered rum. It's a good way to end a long day. Tomorrow will be a day to wrap presents and maybe I'll end the day with another Hot buttered Rum.

Precious Sleep

As always sleep is a precious commodity around here. Between the holidays, M, stress and the unfortunate events of the past couple of weeks, there is not a lot of sleep to be had.

The last couple of days we were in Nanaimo. We went down Friday after work to stay with Glenn's mom. Saturday was the Remembrance for his dad and was a lovely, long, sad, exhausting day. One of those days that no one really wants to have because it means you're saying goodbye but at the same time there were beautiful, funny and touching moments that you're so grateful to have experienced. By the time the day was done it was about 9:30pm and we were on the road home with a napless child who was well past his bed time. Which means he promptly fell asleep in the car for the ride home. It was a white knuckled drive home for me though. It had started raining at some point in the evening and on the highway it was coming down pretty hard. I hydroplaned a few times and there was a gigantic puddle that I really thought was going to send us off the road. However, since I was going pretty slow to start we were okay. Definitely one of the more nerve racking drives I've had though.

We got home about 11:30 pm and naturally M woke up as soon as we pulled in to the driveway. This meant that I spent another hour and a bit convincing him to go back to sleep in his own bed. Another long night for me but he did sleep solidly until 7:30 am so that was a plus. Sunday he spent the day a bit on the cranky side and had a long nap. I actually had to wake him up from his nap so that he wouldn't sleep all day.

Imagine my surprise last night when he went to bed late but fairly painlessly and slept through the whole night. Not only did he sleep all night but when I ignored his crying at 6 am he went back to sleep until 8. This makes me wonder if maybe he is starting to catch up on all that missed sleep and we are ready to go back to some sort of normalcy. At least until the end of this week when we muck him up again with a trip to Nanaimo for Christmas. I figure I'll take what solid sleep days I can and deal with the rest later.

All things can be toys

Yesterday I took out the Christmas tree. This was not the easiest of tasks as it's a big tree in a fairly awkward box on the top shelf in the garage. I did manage to get it down and into the living room upstairs with a few choice words along the way. It was M's nap time so I was allowed a few choice words. The box stayed unopened for a bit and M discovered that it made a great seat/table. I think the picture shows how he felt about it. Note that I have him in a zip up sleeper so he can not pull his diaper off.

After I took the tree out and started putting it together M discovered that he fit in the box as did all his toys. He spent another hour or so climbing in and out of the box and placing his toys very precisely in the corners. I love that he is at this stage. The time when a big empty box can be anything he wants it to be and is the best toy in the whole world in that moment.

Today M discovered the fun of the tree. He has been playing with the branches and exploring the lights. This afternoon he realized that he could hide under the branches. I think he was watching the cats and decided he could crawl under with them. I tried to get a picture but he managed to crawl out before I could get the shot. I will describe his process instead (at least until I manage to snap that picture) M gets down on his hands and knees, peeks under the tree, turns himself around and starts to inch his way under backwards. I'm not sure why he has to go backwards but he must go feet first. Once he is under the tree he can then peek under a branch and giggle. Or he grabs a cat and tries to kiss them. The latter led to one good scratch and a crying boy. He did this throughout the day whenever he thought I wasn't looking.

I'm glad he's getting enjoyment out of the tree however I think that I will not bother decorating it. It looks pretty with just the lights and it's safer than a tree with ornaments.  Last night I found one of our cats hanging sideways about half way up the tree. I think ornaments would turn that into a very bad scenario. I also think my stress level would go up significantly having to teach M to leave it alone. So this year we will have a lovely tree with pretty lights. There's no rule that says you have to put the ornaments up and if there is I'm going to break it. I've never been very good with rules.

Bathrooms

Today has been an adventure of sorts. M had a day of discovery and exploration while I had a day of clean ups and chasing after M. I'm pretty sure he thought it was a great day, at least until bed time.

M is learning how to help with various things and one of his favorite things to help with is getting dressed. He likes to point to his arm or leg and say "there" so that you know which sleeve or pant leg to do first. The other side of this is ..... all the moms know what's coming.... he likes to take his clothes off all by himself too. Usually when I'm not looking. Which often leads to the obvious accidents since he isn't too proficient with the top so he tends to take of his pants. This obviously leads to his diaper coming off with the pants or pretty quickly after them. We've only had some minor accidents until today. Today he was playing in our room when he got very quiet. Lately this means he's busy going to the bathroom. He's taken to going in to a corner or another room when he has to go. I went to check on him figuring it was time for a diaper change. Boy was I surprised to find him with his pants down trying to wipe things up with his sleeve. It was very messy and took a whole lot of wipes to clean up.

The frustrating thing about all of this, he is starting to understand how to use the potty. Tonight, as I was drying him off after bath time, he grabbed a piece of toilet paper, wiped his nose and then wiped his bottom. He then lifted the toilet lid, dropped the paper in and flushed. He gets it! I was thrilled and frustrated all at the same time. If he gets it, why did I have to clean up the big yucky mess earlier. I suppose I already know the answer. Hopefully lots of practice over the next few days will work some potty training miracles or at the very least avoid any future yucky mess to clean.

Wish me lots of potty training luck and no more messy mistakes. Hey, a mom can dream can't she?

Loss

We had a major loss in our family this past weekend so we have spent a large portion of our days in Nanaimo staying with family. We spent the weekend in hotels and then Glenn stayed with his mom while I came home with Micah. Tuesday night I headed back to Nanaimo where M and I stayed with my mom because his other Grandma needed a bit of peace and a toddler (no matter how funny and distracting) is anything but peaceful and quiet . Glenn stayed with his mom because that's where he needed to be this week and sometimes in life you have to choose between two places you want to be. He made the right choice.

I have to wonder how much of it M truly understands. He knows that things aren't quite right in his world and his routine has pretty well been thrown out the window. He knows that people who are really important to him are sad. Little fellows pick up on how everyone around them is feeling.

I hope he knows that he is now missing a truly wonderful person in his life but I think this is the part he won't grasp and I'm a bit sad for that. As he grows older he will know his grandpa through the stories people tell him and the pictures he is shown. This is not the same as having those memories which are just his own. I hope his cousins tell him stories of what his grandpa was like as they knew him because what they will remember will be dramatically different than what the adults will remember. Their memories will be similar to what M would have known.

During all this sadness there have been lovely moments too, as there always is. Life manages to give us some balance with a little good to make up for the bad/sad. M has started calling our dog Mokey "Mo Mo" which I think is too cute. Grandma taught him to say Ho Ho Ho when we were going to see Santa since he was having such a hard time saying Santa. We managed to get a pretty decent Santa picture taken seconds before he started to cry and holler.

The ultimate moment this week though was that M learned "Cheers" This means that if he has his bottle and you have a drink in your hand, he is going to come up and tap his bottle to your glass, wait for you to say cheers and then take a big swig. His daddy is teaching him how to give a big "Ahhhh" after the swig. It's one of the funniest things I've seen him do in a while. We may regret this little trick later on but for right now it's a great distraction and pretty darn funny to see.

So, my wish today is that all the broken hearts in the family will slowly heal. That all the people I love get at least one bright spot in every day and that M never truly understands the sadness that those around him are feeling right now.

I will choose my daycare

Today M and I went to look at two possible day care options for M. Glenn and I went and looked at a day care a few weeks ago that appeared to fit our needs. M was okay being there but there was something that we weren't totally comfortable with. Nothing specific but we walked away feeling like it would do but it wasn't great. It was also stupidly expensive for the service you got compared to other centers in town. We did book him in as I start work Monday and we have to have him placed somewhere but I kept looking for a better solution.

I found two more family run day cares who also had space available for Micah but trying to get in to see them had turned out to be difficult. Today we were able to see both of them however Glenn couldn't come along so M and I went. I figure M is the best judge. The first one was a place that I had found on my own. She has space, she is really close by and we had a great phone conversation. I liked it better than our first option and M seemed to be ok but he wasn't thrilled.

The second home I heard about from a mom who owns a consignment store M and I go to occasionally. She and I started talking the last time I was in and she suggested I give this place a call and check them out. This afternoon, M and I did just that. We arrived and the woman (we'll call her S) answered the door and showed us into the main play room. There were 6 kids, all of whom are older than M, most are about 3 years old. M was a bit overwhelmed but he let me put him down right away and stood watching the other children. S and I started to talk and she suggested we go look at the garage which was converted into another play area. Suddenly there was a little boy and a little girl trying to hold M's hands and lead him into the garage. M still wasn't so sure about them so he grabbed my leg and followed along. This garage is a child's fantasy. It has a play mat over the floor, a big jungle gym, a play house and ride on cars and bicycles. M stood and watched the other children play until he couldn't resist any longer and he had to check out the slides himself. S's husband was home so he stayed in the garage while S and I went off and chatted about the policies etc of the day care. M didn't even notice.

The day care is not even close to what we had in Whitehorse but it is still a good place. A place where the kids are obviously happy and seem really well adjusted. They have rules and a schedule which a lot of places here seem to lack. When we arrived S had asked one of the little boys to tell M what the rules were. Here's what he told us " play room toys stay in the play room, we have to share, no pushing is allowed, always use your manners and always wash your hands" These are pretty great rules to live by and I would be happy if my child lived by these rules. It was a successful visit. M did not want to leave. He was happy playing with the kids and running around. I had to pick him up and drag him out. I have to say I sort of didn't want to leave either. There was a part of me that just wanted to sit with this woman and thank her for doing such a great job. I wanted to watch my little fellow run around with other kids happy as he could be.

Tomorrow we take Glenn to visit this day care. I am hoping he loves it as much as M and I did but if he doesn't, that's ok. We will keep searching until we find one that all three of us like. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is the one we all like. It would make life so much easier.

So, M has chosen his favorite of the day care centres and I have to say I concur. Here's hoping his daddy feels the same way.

Travel days are just no fun

Today M had his check up with the Urologist to make sure everything had healed up properly. The urologist is in Vancouver. This means a lot of travel to get there so to save myself a 5 am wake up call I chose to drive in to Nanaimo and stay at my mothers house last night. This was supposed to get me an extra few hours of sleep. See the word supposed? Yup, sleep was foiled by M again. M felt that sleeping in a play pen was beneath him and he wanted to sleep with me. I was so desperate for sleep that I let him curl up with me. M is not a quiet sleeper. He starts out snuggled in with his head on the pillow, then he half wakes up, gets cranky and flips himself around so that his feet are in my face. Once this has been done, he wakes up again, gets cranky again and sits up. Now he's going to fall asleep sitting up, leaning against me. Again he wakes up, snarls and fusses, flipping around so that he is in his original position with his head on the pillow. At this point he falls asleep for a while only to repeat the process within an hour.

6 am I wake up, get us packed and loaded up for the trip to Vancouver. I'm exhausted, thanks to he who flips in his sleep, however, armed with a very large latte I am ready for the 8 am ferry. Ooops, turns out the ferry doesn't actually leave until 8:30. A few choice curse words were said in my head. My mouth just kept saying "bad words" which is what I say when I really want to curse but M's around.

We got on the ferry, after a long sit in the terminal, and headed for the play zone. M was tired but all revved up once he saw the slide. He played in there for a while until he decided he did not want to share the slide with the other children. Then we had a knock down, drag out, screaming match when I put him in his stroller to head back to the car. Once we were in the car he fell asleep in his seat right away. Which would have been fine except we were meeting a friend for coffee in North Vancouver so he had a very short nap. He was tired but we had a lovely coffee with my friend Irma. M loved Irma (she's pretty special) and had a nice long dance with her in the middle of the coffee shop. This set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.

We arrived at BC Children's, and after a short ooh and aah over the fishes in the aquarium, we went in to see the doctor. M likes this man and spent the appointment trying to make him laugh. He does this by throwing his head back and laughing himself. His expressions are so funny it's pretty hard not to laugh back. He won the doctor over very quickly. Here was our report almost word for word... " this looks great, you can't tell he had surgery, this is a penis to be proud of little guy (honestly he said this) now when you get older you be careful how you use that" Yup, that's the pep talk M got from the urologist who was very proud of his work. I really felt that my estrogen self was out of place in this testosterone bonding moment. Glenn should have been there, he could have related to the sentiment in the room.

The appointment was about 10 minutes and then I was rushing M out to try and make the 3 pm ferry. A quick stop in Chinatown for the most amazing steam buns and sauce. I bought the frozen ones and stuffed them into the cooler bag for the trip home. M still hadn't napped so he was getting cranky. Once we were on the ferry it was upstairs for a quick change and a snack then back down to the car with hopes that he would fall asleep. He screamed. A lot. Then he fell asleep for the last half hour of the ride. We stopped at mom's on the way through town as I had left a couple of things there and wanted to pick them up. Another coffee stop and some drive thru dinner for M and we were on the road home.

A couple of minutes on the highway, not quite out of town, and I hear M gagging. This is not the normal "I'm going to throw up because I know how to make myself gag" This was an honest to goodness, I don't feel well gag followed by everything he had eaten, all day. I am a prepared mom though. Assuming I remember to put everything back in the car I will be prepared once more for future drives. I pulled over to the side of the road, opened up the trunk, grabbed the paper towel, towel, plastic bags, air freshener and pj's. I mopped what I could with the paper towels, stripped him down, wiped him with the towel, threw all of this in the bag, used the baby wipes to clean him up, buttoned him into fleecy pj's and popped him back in his car seat. It took about 10 minutes. Can you tell this has happened to me before? I have a child who vomits and thus I am prepared for vomit. God help me if he has any other kind of accident as I am only prepared for the stomach issues.

We had a quiet drive home. M was awake the whole time however he was snuggling with his blanket and Bert and Ernie dolls. It was almost like having a little me time. I got to drive through the evening, hardly any traffic, singing as loudly as I wanted, to whatever I felt like listening to. Once we got home I let him run around for an extra hour and he fell asleep right away. If he wakes up at 2 am (as he has for the last few nights) I am choosing to ignore it. I am too tired now to try and fuss with him so early in the morning. It won't hurt him to holler a little before going back to sleep and it will hopefully give me a little of my sanity back by tomorrow morning.

I suppose you will find out tomorrow if it worked.

I will be naked

Bet that rule caught your eye. That's the theme in our house right now. I have put M in pull ups recently because I am slowly trying to get him on to his potty. The pull ups are working a little too well. he has discovered that he can easily pull them up or down even when he's wearing pants. Yup, we've hit the naked stage.

My sweet little boy runs around the house with his underwear at his ankles laughing his manic little head off. Alternately he runs around with his pants pulled down just enough to fit his hand down the waist band. I'm not quite sure what to do with this. It's ridiculously funny to watch especially when he's so darn proud but at the same time I have visions of him doing this in public. I'm sure I wouldn't be the first parent this happened to. In fact I know I wouldn't be because I know someone who's little guy did the public nudity already. It's all fine that logically I know he wouldn't be the first to flash his bits in public. That doesn't mean I'm not completely terrified of the thought. So there comes the dilemma.  Do you attempt to correct the behaviour or just let nature take it's course.

At this point I'm partial to just letting him do his thing and get it out of his system.

Rule: If I can reach it, I will take it

The last few days have been pretty calm by M standards so I really haven't had a lot to say. Today was also a fairly calm and chilled out kind of day although he was being a little extra stubborn.

We have entered the asserting my opinion stage and boy does it ever come with some tantrums. It's actually funny to watch him go into meltdown mode when he's told "No". This is the magic word that will trigger Spazzy M. Spazzy M has a set of lungs and he uses them. He also has a face that can contort into various forms of rage and frustration accompanied by at least 5 shades of red. Spazzy M stomps his feet, balls his fists, pulls hair and grabs on to your leg and will not let go. Yup, Spazzy M is highly entertaining but very hard on the ears.

Tonight M wanted to play in the dogs water dish. He likes to put his blocks in, let them fill with water and then drink the water, Gross to us, great fun for him. I took the dish away and put it on the counter. I then wandered to the other side of the kitchen to finish making dinner. I happened to turn around in time to see him reaching for the water dish. I hollered a quick "M, no!" he looked at me, grinned and pulled one side of it. Yeah, you know what happened next. He tipped the dish, water poured all over him and the floor, he started to cry (I assume because he was startled) and I laughed.

I couldn't stop laughing. There's my poor little guy, standing in a huge puddle of water, soaking wet with the dog trying super hard to clean up all the water. He was looking at me with the saddest little face, crying his heart out all because he had to grab the water dish after I told him to leave it alone. Consequences. I keep hoping he'll figure that word out.

Off I went, grabbed a towel, stripped him down and started to dry the floor before the water leaked any further. This did not sit well with M. He wanted me to pick him up. Now. His solution was to stand there and pull my hair and hit my arm. I politely asked him to stop and explained that I would pick him up once I had finished drying the floor. Still not a good enough answer so he hit and pulled some more. I'm about to admit I'm a petty human being. I pulled his hair. Not hard, just enough to show it's not nice. It didn't go over very well but he did walk away. He was crying but he walked away. Once I had dried up all the water I went over and cuddled with him for a few minutes. He was perfectly fine after that.

Hopefully he learned a lesson from this although I doubt it. I'm guessing he'll need to have a lot more water fall on him before he learns this lesson.

Rule: Good intentions can go awry

Our friend L has been staying with us for the last two nights for the last couple of days of her trip. It's been nice for me to have some company. I'm pretty social and it's been really hard to be in a new community and not have friends to visit with and people to talk to when you feel like it.

The downside to visitors is they don't know the house rules and it doesn't always occur to you to tell them things. I mean, it's not like you have a list of all your family quirks, although, maybe we should all start doing that. It could make visits a lot less painful for everyone involved. K, on to the story...

M slept pretty darn well on Thursday night. He had a little wake up fuss but put himself back to sleep. Last night started very much the same way. He woke up around 10 and we let him fuss himself back to sleep. He was out like a light. Around 4:30 I heard him wake up and start to cry. This was his "I'm yelling really loud to get your attention cry" which leads into his "I'm going to gag until you come get me cry" which then leads into his "I'm frustrated oh wait I can suck my thumb, nope I'm frustrated" and so on cry. Once he gets to that point he'll fall asleep pretty quickly. The whole process usually takes about 20 minutes. During this Glenn got up for a facilities break because, let's face it, we were awake anyway.

As M was starting to wind down we heard L come upstairs and into M's room. She thought Glenn was in the shower and that I was still asleep so she thought she would be helpful and get M. She had the very best of intentions. She had no idea we were trying to get him back into his normal routine and that this required letting him fuss sometimes.

5 am and I am on the couch with M trying to get him to go back to sleep. I think we dozed a bit. Once he passed out I tried to get him into his room. He woke up (you knew he was going to) so I spent another half hour in his room trying to get him to sleep. I finally gave up and took him into our room thinking I could get him to cuddle in bed but he thought this meant he should holler a little louder in case daddy had managed to fall asleep.

Back to the couch. Ok, now we're snuggled in again and getting cozy. Apparently I've taken the dog's spot on the couch as she has jumped up and is trying to get my feet out of the way so she can curl up. Now she's comfy and I am permitted to get comfy around her. This is the time that the snobby stray cat has chosen to snuggle up on my shoulder except he's pretty big so he's half on me and half on M. Which is keeping M up because he wants to pet the kitty cat. It's 6 am by now and I can hear Glenn getting up. I have realized that I'm not getting anymore sleep so I turned on the coffee pot (the last of the really good coffee) and turned on Sesame Street ( it was early enough that it was on) for M hoping for a quite hour or so.

L felt terrible but it was just one of those things that happen. I can't say I felt quite so benevolent at 5 am but after a cup of coffee I was feeling much better about the whole thing. At least M had a nice long nap today.

Rule: I'm sick. This means I'm not sleeping unless you snuggle me

Sleep is the best fantasy I could possibly have today. Not just sleep but a whole night's sleep. Like maybe a straight 8 hours. If I were religious I'd be praying for it now. Here was my early morning:

2 am (is there some sort of toddler alarm that nobody else hears at this time?) M starts crying. Not just any crying, it's the I'm going to make myself throw up crying. Yeah, that's right, my kid cries until he throws up. Sometimes I'm pretty sure he just makes himself throw up so that I"ll come get him. So this is what I'm dealing with at 2 am. A kid who's stopped crying and started gagging. No matter how much cuddling he gets he is still gagging and trying to throw up but he has nothing in his system so it's just not working. I'm half asleep and dead on my feet so I head for the couch. We curl up, I fall asleep with M kicking me and wake up an hour later. M is asleep so I carry him into his room and put him in his crib. He wakes up. I run out of the room, shutting the door behind me. He cries harder. I do my very best to ignore him and hide in my room.

4 am: Obviously M and I have both fallen asleep but now he's woken up. Again. he's gagging. Again. I realize I have to get up. Again. Off to the couch we go. M's freaking out but does finally settle and fall asleep. i get him back to bed. It's about 5 am now.

5:30 am: M's woken up and is having another fit. This time I get smart (or stupid, depending on how you look at it) and I grab a blanket that I keep in his closet. I stumble to the couch, settle us both in and pass out. M is fussing and mewling a bit but I fall asleep anyway.

7 am: Phone rings. It's the some of my husbands employees looking for a phone number. M has officially woken up. I want to cry I feel so tired. I turn on the coffee and prepare for the day.

M's fever is down today and he's been acting slightly more normal although he still has no appetite. He spent most of the day whining and wanting to snuggle so not a lot got done. He refused to nap which was a given since he didn't sleep much last night. He passed out on the couch about 6:30 tonight and I managed to get him to bed with minimal fussing. If he cries tonight I'm ignoring him. I am too tired to worry. I know he has nothing in his tummy to throw up so maybe he'll figure out that gagging does not always bring mommy running. If it gets too bad I'll pop a pillow on my head to dull the sound. Here's hoping for sweet dreams.

Sick Kids

I have a sick kid. So much for my little pipe dream of M sleeping off whatever was bothering him.

He's been running a fever all day which always puts you on alert. It seems to be manageable so I'm not stressing too much. The silver lining to this is that it was a very chilled out kind of day. Well, as long as I kept Sesame Street going for him. The second it stopped he freaked out as only a sick child can do. "Mommeee!!! More! More!" as he wildly pointed to the TV. After the 3rd episode he was yelling as soon as Elmo started to sing his song to signal the end of the Elmo portion of the episode. Great. Now my kid knows that when Elmo starts to sing his word of the day to the Jingle Bells tune (really annoying, by the way) that this is the signal that his Sesame Street episode is ending. Today this triggered epic proportion meltdowns except he didn't really have the energy to pull them off so they came out as a big long whine.

There's the better part of my day. A kid who alternated between laying on his little couch, with a big pillow behind him because he didn't really want to lay down, or he was curled up on the couch beside me for some cuddles. All the while watching Sesame Street. He even managed to muster the energy to dance a little when Feist came on and sang the Sesame Street version of 1, 2, 3, 4. I am sad to say I sang along, it was pretty good.

During this chilled out sick kid day we have had a big storm brewing. I snuck outside twice to bring in some wood while it was lightly raining. This was done smugly with the knowledge that I was being proactive and building a nice fire in anticipation of a nasty afternoon/evening. What better than a fire to take the edge off the damp chill air. I should know better than to be smug about anything because there is always payback.

At about 2 pm the wind kicked up and the rain really started coming down. I understand what sideways rain means now. M had fallen asleep on his little couch and the racket outside wasn't about to wake him up. I'm sitting on the couch, reading my book, enjoying the inside quiet, when I see out of the corner of my eye, our patio table sliding along the deck. Naturally at this moment, M woke up. Now I have a patio table sliding along the deck, a toddler who's just woken up and isn't exactly Mr. Personality when he's still half asleep, and what sounds like a 400 lb man banging on the sides of my house thanks to the 90 km winds (seriously, they're calling it the pineapple express but I'm not feeling so tropical about it. It is not inspiring any happy, happy, joy, joy around here). I give M some juice mixed with Pedialite and a few crackers and pull out my waterproof jacket to brave to weather. I figure I'll go outside, move the table to a more secure spot and come straight back in. Nice and easy.

Until I get out there and realize the wind is blowing so hard I can barely move and not only has the wind blown the patio table it's also managed to blow the bar fridge about 3 feet, the door is open and there are full bottles blowing under the barbeque. Oh, and M has noticed I'm out there so now he's standing at the patio door screaming because I'm not inside with him. And let's not forget the driving sideways rain that's managed to get at me through the sleeves of my jacket. Decisions. Do I take care of the patio table or deal with the bar fridge that obviously has to come inside. I chose the bar fridge. I unplugged it, grabbed the bottles rolling around, picked up the fridge and shuffled it back in to the house trying to avoid hitting M or the dog. All right, now the fridge is in, I'm soaked, M's upset and I have to go back out there so that I can fix the table. Back out I go, grab the patio umbrella from the table, slide it off to the side of the house, grab the table (which seats 6, not so small) and flip it upside down, run back into the house and out of the gale force winds/rain.

Boy oh boy wasn't that fun. Oh, look, the hatch on the RV is open and letting in the rain. I put the really wet waterproof jacket back on, grab the keys for the RV, pop M in his crib (yup, now he's really mad) and run out the front door, around the side of the house. Open the rv, hop inside, close the hatch, lock the door, make a run for the front of the house. Grab the front door, open it, fight the wind to get it closed, toss the super wet jacket on the stairs, get M out of his crib and spend the next hour cuddling the poor guy and promising that I wasn't being a bad mama and ignoring his poor little sick self.

Dinner did not get cooked. Pizza was ordered. It took over an hour but seeing as half the town has no power I figure they're pretty busy. M went to bed around 7 just like he should with a little advil in his system. We watched a movie, finished it and popped in Star Trek even though we've seen it.

9:30pm  M wakes up and he is not going back to sleep. I go get him (I interrupted typing this just to cater to his little fellow needs) I give him a bottle and I think he's going to fall asleep with me until he spots daddy eating popcorn. Daddy has just given him the big pay attention this is Star Trek, it's a great movie speech. As I type this M is curled up with his daddy in the recliner, right by the fire, eating popcorn and hollering Mommeee to his daddy every time he wants another popcorn. I'm praying it all stays in his stomach because my hubby is looking pretty Scotch happy and I'm not sure if he could deal with puke on his chair. It'd be funny though. Huh, now I'm kind of wishing it would happen just so I could watch and laugh at the outcome. No, no I wouldn't really wish that (ok maybe a little)

Well, I guess I'll let you know tomorrow if everyone survived the evening. Wish me a night of solid sleep. I'm betting I'll need it with my sick boy tonight.

Dining Out

Tonight I tried to go out for dinner with a friend and M. Note that I said tried.

A friend (I'll call her L) from Whitehorse is in town this week for work. Glenn's working tonight and I had suggested she come over for dinner. She offered to take M and I out instead. This is a nice treat and not something we get to do often. She came over to the house, got the tour, we drove back to her hotel, dropped her car and all piled in to my vehicle to head for White Spot. A reasonable choice for a family friendly place and not available in Whitehorse.

We get seated, M's in a high chair, he has crayons and a cool paper menu, we give our order and we have a nice chat while waiting. M starts to get antsy about half an hour into the wait for our main meals. He's drinking apple juice but he's not really interested in our zucchini sticks. Actually he had a couple of vehement head shakes, an "All Done" and then spit it out over the floor. So, we stopped giving him the zucchini and figured he'd eat the french fries when the food came. The stage is set now. One, starting to get cranky, toddler, one very patient friend (who happens to have 2 toddlers) and one slightly panicky mother. I was at that "please don't freak out in the restaurant" stage. You know the one, you're trying everything you can think of to distract them until the food gets there. Banging spoons on the table, handing them the laminated menu, I got so desperate I actually tried a Kit Kat bar. He didn't want it. You know it's not going to be good when your kid turns down chocolate.

I finally take him out of his high chair and let him play in the booth beside me. This seems to work. He's trying to talk to the people in the booth behind us, he's drinking from his cup, he's basically happy he's sitting like the big people. Our meals arrive, mine is wrong. The waiter takes it back to get the proper burger (that would be chicken please, not the beef) and brings back the fries and gravy so I have something to eat while I wait. I hand M a fry because french fries are an ultimate treat to him. He takes a teeny tiny bite and puts it back on the plate. I'm pretty confused because he hasn't had anything other than apple juice and a halloween size Aero while we were driving to the restaurant. And then it happens.

He's standing there, looking at my plate that once had fries on it and he gags slightly. I am on full alert now. I've got my hands on his waist, trying to angle him away from the booth because he has started to spew chocolate coloured apple juice. All over the table. All over my pants and he even managed to get some in L's dinner. I'm now stunned/mortified. L and I are scrambling for napkins. She gets up and grabs some from our waiter who comes over with a cloth (he obviously has no children or he would have just brought us the whole stack of napkins) L made 2 extra trips for more napkins until we had the table cleared off. She was also sensible enough to request my burger to go. Which arrived just as we finished cleaning the table.

L sends us out to the car while she pays. This now requires me to slink through the entire restaurant with a child who has puke splatters all over his front. Let us not forget the very obvious wet spots on my black cord pants and the lovely smell that I'm sure trailed behind us. This was not one of my finer moments.

We dropped L off at her hotel and headed home. So much for dinner. I didn't get to try my burger until about an hour after getting home at which point it was pretty cold and soggy. There is now a quick casserole in the oven because I'm very hungry.

M has passed out after a bath and some Pedialite. Now I'm hoping that converting him back to the crib will pay off tonight and he'll be back to normal tomorrow. Maybe a good night's sleep is all he needs. Maybe it's wishful thinking and I'll wake up to a sick kid but for now I'm sticking with my sleep theory.

Sleep

Today (Last night's) rule: I will wake up as early as I can and be really loud and annoying.

11 pm: I go to bed for some desperately needed sleep

1 am: "Mommeee, mommeeee, MOMMEEE!!!" this is followed with tugging on the blanket because yelling mommy at one o'clock in the morning is not quite enough to wake me up in his little boy mind. (he may have a point since his daddy did not wake up during this episode) It's way too early for me to process anything other than "annoying little person trying to disturb my sleep" Therefore I do what any good parent does at 1 am and I lift him up on the bed so he can curl up between us, kick daddy in the back (still no movement from my other half) and finally after a lot of twisting and turning he falls asleep with his foot in my neck. I figure I'm super smart so I pick him up, shuffle my way to his room, get him into his bed, go back to my bed, promptly pass out. It's about 1:45 am.

2:45 am: "Mommeeee, Mommeee, MOMMEEE!!!" more blanket tugging, no movement from the other side of the bed. Grab M's hands, pull him up, pray he'll go to sleep. He twists, turns, huffs, kicks and then about 3:30 he starts to cry. Loudly. Loud enough to finally wake up the spouse, who rolls over and attempts to comfort the spazzing toddler by putting an arm around him and trying to cuddle. It didn't work. Actually I think it made him cry louder. Now it's my turn to suck it up, pick up the tired writhing mass and shuffle off to the living room hoping to get some sleep on the couch.

4 am: lying on the couch, pretty sure I could sleep through a  marching band in my living room. M will not lay down with me. Instead he has declared his independence and is sitting straight up halfway down the couch with his feet in my belly. He passes out and starts to droop sideways. I manage to move him so he's lying down by me, he wakes up (of course he does) but he's too tired to fight it now so he goes back to sleep. I attempt to sleep which is pretty difficult because I'm on the couch, have M kicking me and a 75 lb dog trying really hard to cuddle on the other side of me.

6:30 M has woken up and there's no way he's going back to sleep. I get up, make him a bottle, turn on the morning news, turn on his bedroom light, watch my spouse get up, crawl back on the couch and try to pretend I'm sleeping. It doesn't work. Now I have a dog nudging me to go out, a cat purring and kneading me because I'm up so I might as well pay it some attention and a little boy trying to give me every toy that exists in his room (at least that's what it feels like as he brings me one after the other)

I fought it until just after 7 at which point I broke out the really good coffee (the stuff you save just for these kind of days because it's too powerful to waste on a regular day)

Today I am putting the side of the crib back on so there will be no more MOMMEEE's at 3 am. Or if there are, I know he's safe in his bed and I can just go back to sleep. Screw the toddler bed.

I did not think of this myself. This was my logical spouse who said "Why don't you put the crib back on, it's not like he could get out anymore" Huh, why didn't I think of that.

Fingers crossed we will sleep with no interruptions tonight.

Naps

Generally nap time is not a big deal in our house. M is pretty good about going to bed and it's usually a simple process. That was before he started having his toddler independence streaks. Now, if you don't catch him at just the right moment it is a fight to get him to sleep. Today was a fight day. Completely my fault as he had woken up disgustingly early this morning and I knew he was going to be tired earlier than normal but I had to get groceries so I took the risk. That meant that after lunch he was absolutely not going to sleep. It meant that he was running around grabbing toys and pointing at the TV yelling "MORE!" in M speak this means he wants me to put Sesame Street on the television.

I caved. I caved because I couldn't bear the thought of standing over his bed, fighting with him to stay there until he finally fell asleep. So, I turned on Sesame Street and let him sit on his couch with a bottle. He was asleep within 15 minutes. It worked so well I was able to pick him up and put him into bed for what turned out to be a nice long nap.

Today's toddler rule was..... I will not nap unless I get to watch Sesame!

Strangers and Wooden Spoons

Toddler Rule # 1: All people exist to play with me, stranger or not.

Today I had to take M to the walk in clinic for a mild rash. One of those better safe than sorry kind of things. We had a pretty short wait by walk in standards and I had packed some toys to keep him occupied while we were there. The Bert and Ernie dolls were brought out and he was happily playing at the kids table. Until he noticed the other people in the waiting room. He proceeded to do a run around the waiting room scoping out the other people for potential play mates. M has no internal Stranger Danger alarm. After a couple of turns around the room he chose his victim and started to be his oh so cute self and say Hi numerous times. She responded not realizing just what she had started. He took this to mean that she was a willing participant and he bestowed on her the greatest gift he could. He gave her the Bert and Ernie dolls. And waited. And waited. This poor woman had no idea what to do so she gave them to me. M took great offense to this, stomped his feet, grabbed the dolls and gave them back to her. She sat them on her knee which satisfied him and he ran off again to tour the room and say hello to anyone who would respond. The second he left she gave them to me and I followed him. There's nothing I can say after that other than thank you. Thank you stranger for humoring my toddler and pretending you really wanted to play with Bert and Ernie while you are no doubt not feeling well or you wouldn't be sitting in the clinic.

Toddler Rule #2: Kitchen utensils belong everywhere but in the kitchen

Once we were home he had his nap and came out to play for the afternoon. He was playing blocks, throwing them over the stairs and putting them together on the coffee table. He got bored with that pretty quickly and started delving into the kitchen drawers. He found the wooden spoon that I had left there just for him to grab. After banging the spoon on every surface in the house he started following me around, waving the spoon and hollering loudly. I stopped and looked at him, he grinned and promptly stuck the spoon up my shirt. Every time I tried to take it out he yelled and put it back up my shirt. I walked around for half an hour with a long wooden spoon up my shirt. This is what one does to avoid a meltdown over a wooden spoon.

The day is not done yet and already M has established two toddler laws. We'll see what the rest of the day/night brings.

Chicken Soup and a laugh

Today I felt the edge of a sore throat and just didn't feel quite right. My other half has been complaining of this for a couple of days. That made today a chicken soup day. I'm a total cheater when it comes to chicken soup. I buy some good organic broth and a couple of chicken breasts. I cook the onions, garlic, celery and carrots and then I cook the chicken breasts and add them in after breaking them up. Some frozen peas, curry, cumin, cayenne, thyme and ginger and I'm pretty much done. It's enough to clear up anything and everything.

So, the combo of soup and some good Monday night comedy has me feeling pretty good. Thank god for laughing because it really does make a big difference.

Happy days

I am doing my uber happy, oh so proud, feeling fantabulous dance now. It's almost midnight. I've spent the last two hours trying to catch a cat. Said cat is now in our guest room. Probably feeling trapped although he has food, water, litter and a nice big bed. I am feeling victorious. I have been trying to catch this cat for four months. He has eluded me. I win!

Cody the Siamese cat belongs to the woman who used to own the house we bought. She was unable to catch Cody so he has been coming to eat on the front step and running away as soon as he sees/hears a human. I vowed to catch him the day we moved in and I finally have.

Cody was outside meowing so I opened the window downstairs and tried to entice him in with some super yummy kitty treats. He was not fooled by me and simply stuck his head in, grabbed a treat and ducked back out. I thought I'd be smart and go outside to sit on the step so that Cody could go in the window and just maybe I could shut the window from the outside. Again he mocked me. This time he came up to me, sniffed and shot to the other side of the steps. I went back in the house, got some more treats, went back downstairs to the window. Rattled the food, listened to him meow in response, rattle, meow, it was a bit repetitive. I had one hand on the window and decided not to look directly at the opening. I heard him take a few treats off the window. I peeked and saw him halfway in. I quickly looked away as he saw me because I didn't want to spook him. I stood with one foot half off the floor, arched to the left with my hand on the window, head down and eyes closed so I wouldn't scare Cody the cat. It took about 10 minutes. 10 very long minutes. I could hear him slowly moving in and I took an occasional peek to check his progress. In my sneakiness I had put the treats on a chair away from the window with a trail leading to them. As soon as I heard him step onto the ledge I slammed the window shut. He responded with a very loud meow.

He's not happy to be trapped inside. He was sitting in the window yelling when I left. I am beaming because I finally achieved my goal. Now I have to decide whether or not I tell the woman who lived here or if I should just let him chill out for a couple of days first. I will tell her because if I were in her position I would hope that whoever had my cat would let me know. I also know that she really wants him back and so does her daughter. Is it really bad though that I want to keep him? After all this work I feel like I've bonded with him.

It will be interesting to see how he is tomorrow morning. I guess that will help decide when I let his human mom know that he has been caught.

Happy Halloween

I love handing out candy to the kids and checking out everyone's costumes. This year we had an added bonus of taking M down to see the family for his first trick or treat. Yup, we drove an hour and a half each way just so M could show off his Yoda costume to everyone. We started with Great Gramma, moved on to my mom's house which included my sister and other family members (by choice) After that it was off to G's parents where he was sufficiently spoiled. Over to Great Grandpa which was an adventure as we had never been to his housing complex. That ended up with a few u-turns and finally a phone call asking which damn building we were supposed to go to. Finally a pit stop to see his uncle at work and then Taco Bell/KFC for lunch. After all of that, we were home by 4 with lots of time to get the candy ready for the kids. Aren't we exciting?

Here's the thing that's bugging me about Halloween this year. Apparently there are towns that have actually cancelled trick or treating due to H1N1. A lot of newspapers have been encouraging parents to keep their kids home this year to avoid exposure to the flu. Am I the only person who thinks this is insane. I understand the concerns about the flu but is cancelling Halloween really the way to deal with it. Can't we trust that parents can be responsible enough to take care of their children? I think that there has been a little too much hype about this in the media and all it's managed to do is panic people. I plan on getting my flu shot and I plan on having M vaccinated too but I am patiently waiting until next week. Next week BC is opening up the vaccinations to children under 5 as well as folks like myself who are considered at risk. I plan on calling my doctors office to find out when and where they are doing the shots and then I'll plan from there. I am not going to stand in line with a toddler for hours on end just to get a needle. I am not going to sit in my house and hide until i get it and I AM taking my child out for trick or treating or shopping or whatever else I deem ok.

Oh, and I think I'm also going to stop listening to the hype because it's just annoying me now.

New Discoveries

It was a day of discoveries for M and myself. I learned how to carve a pumpkin today and I think I did a pretty good job of it too. I also learned how to roast pumpkin seeds and this weekend I'm going to experiment with a few pumpkin recipes.

M discovered the joy of removing his diaper like a little Houdini. This overshadows my great pumpkin achievements. Every time I turned around he was running naked. He was extremely pleased with himself over this new skill. Everything is about what he can do for himself lately. this includes brushing his teeth and feeding himself which both make for very messy moments. The diaper removal trick is a little more of a nuisance though. I don't mind if he runs around naked but I do mind the lack of bowel control and the likelihood of a big mess. I suppose I could look at it as a chance to try potty training while he's naked. He has a potty which he takes great pleasure in tipping over and trying to step in. This makes me think that a potty around the house could be more trouble than it's worth. He does have a great fascination with his boy bits but I don't think that has much to do with his readiness for a potty. I think that's more likely just because he's a boy, it's there and he can.

So the great debate today has become..... diaper fight or naked with good potential for mess. I suspect he will decide for me.

Decisions

It seems there are so many decisions in a day and I have to say I'm not a fan of making decisions. I find the big ones to be pretty easy and as a general rule my spouse and I agree on those life changing choices. What I find annoying are the little everyday decisions. Trying to decide what to cook for a meal or what to do with a family day.


The big decision of the day is the H1N1 vaccine. I'm comfortable getting the vaccine but I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with M getting it. Actually I think my biggest issue is the adjuvant in the vaccine which is the only version currently available. I know M is in a high risk group because of his age and because he had pneumonia a couple of months back. I know the risk of complications is less with the vaccine than it is with contracting H1N1. What I don't know is what is the effect of the adjuvant that is in the vaccine. Apparently no one else knows this either because there have been no studies done for M's age group. This makes me think that I should simply wait for the unadjuvanted version which is supposed to be out in a couple of weeks. Theoretically this would be a safer option for him and yet it is still effective. Not as effective right away as the currently available version but still effective. Which then takes my mommy brain right back to....am I putting my child at risk by waiting. This is a never ending circle that is making my brain hurt because there is too much information out there. I haven't made a decision but I think I'm leaning on waiting for the vaccine without the adjuvant. If they had the time to include this strain in the seasonal shot it would not have included the adjuvant so that's likely the way I'll go for him. Wow, funny how something that should be so simple has become so big.

Stormy days

Today has been a rainy, windy, all round stormy kind of day. The kind of day when you want to curl up with a cup of tea, flannel pj's and a good book. Yeah, that didn't happen. Well, I did get the cup of tea but I don't own flannel pj's and, while I have a good book on the go, I generally don't have time through the day to read it. I suppose that's not exactly true since I could have read it during nap time and I chose not to. Instead I got a pot of soup on the stove, the dishwasher loaded, a chat with my mom on the phone and then I played on the computer until nap time ended. All in all a pretty normal day around here.

We have a stray cat who comes around daily for his food which I obligingly leave out every morning. (I say we have a stray but really I have a stray) We know that this stray siamese fellow actually belongs to the people who used to own this house and his name is Cody. They did not willingly abandon him, they simply couldn't catch him when they left. He is a pretty skittish cat and runs when he hears someone coming. So, I feed him and keep hoping that I can lure him in so I can call this poor woman who really wants her cat back. The reason I am telling you this is because on a day like today I worry about whether he will come eat or where he is sleeping to stay dry so I tend to watch for him a little more often.

One of those moments today, when I looked out, I saw something black eating at the dish. I figured it was the little black dog down the road as he has been known to visit our yard. I looked out the front window for a better view and I saw a crow. This is a first. I am used to the raccoon, other cats and the occasional dog but I have never seen a crow. Now I have. I watched the crow grab some food and fly up to the telephone wire for a bite to eat. It was a pattern of swoop, food and back to the wire. He did this about 4 times before he flew off. (I always assume crows are male, don't know why) So, now I have to watch for food stealing crows during the day. It was bad enough that I have to bring in the food once it's dark. Otherwise the brazen raccoon eats all the food. I have opened the door a couple of times to find the raccoon sitting on my step giving me a dirty look for shooing it away.

Cody cat did come by at least once today. He didn't stay long as it was pouring rain and there isn't any shelter on our front step but at least I know he came and ate. It means that I won't worry too much about him tonight but with the weather turning wetter I may have to find a drier spot to leave the food for him.

Spinning

The last couple of days M has discovered spinning in a circle. He does it consistently all over the house smiling and laughing the whole time. In honor of his great new fun past time I thought I'd include another favorite poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside—

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

May this poem remind you of the utter joy and abandon that swinging (or spinning in circles) brings to anyone who takes the time to enjoy the activity.

This morning I was greeted by this site about an hour into my day. M was playing and babbling and generally sounding like he normally does in the morning. I was in the kitchen cleaning up. I heard him behind me, turned around and saw this. I actually had the camera around my neck. I have an entire sequence of M and the underwear. He has a thing for laundry. Particularly laundry that he has taken out of the laundry basket. Usually it's one of my tanktops but today he outdid himself. I spent a good 5 minutes laughing while he took them off of his head and tried to put them on the dog. Our dog Mokey is so relaxed she just laid there while he stuck underwear on her head. Thankfully he gets bored with the laundry quickly so I didn't have a big mess on my hands.

How is it that he goes from this smiling lovely little boy to toddler demon by the afternoon? I think that waking from his nap is a trigger for a personality switch. Mornings are fun and happy and afternoons are whiny, screaming, stomping messes. Obviously it's not like that all afternoon but boy it sure feels like it some days. know it's simply a stage he has to go through and I try not to coddle him too much or give in to his tiny dictator demands. He needs to figure things out on his own and learn how to problem solve. I'll admit though I'm not above a little TV if it means a happy kid. I actually have some recorded episodes of Play with Me Sesame just for those unbearable moments when I can not take one more second of his crazy little toddler world. So, thank you Sesame Street for having this lovely half hour show so I can regain my sanity and take on the rest of a day.

Disappointments and Gifts

Every day there are disappointments in life but we forget to see the gifts through the day.

I've had my share of disappointments this week. I didn't get the job that I really wanted, I'm not going to go to the U2 concert even though I have a ticket, I have to keep applying for jobs and hope something happens, I came home to a house full of sick dog with the evidence all over the house. These are all everyday disappointments that so many people face all the time. They are simply new to me and I'm not too sure how to deal with them. Ultimately I have to suck it up and move on, which I think I'm doing pretty well at.

On the flip side of all of that, there are some great gifts that happened all week too. Since I'm not going to the concert, I get to spend my 35th birthday with my family. Not just my husband and son but my mother and my sister who I haven't spent a birthday with in 5 years. We've had a couple of really nice nights enjoying a fire in our wood stove which we started up for the first time this week. We had a late Thanksgiving dinner at my sister in law's with all the mayhem that goes with it and it was great. I got to spend a couple of hours with my mom yesterday just us and M. This is a giant rarity which makes it all the better. We've found a wonderful gift for my mother in law from everyone which should make her happy on her birthday this week. When you can make someone else happy I think you've found one of the better gifts in the world. I have a little boy who's learning his independence and having major fits when he gets frustrated. He has the best laugh when he's happy and it doesn't take much to get that smile. Let him climb down the stairs or play a game of chase and he's happy.

So there really are gifts in every day if we look for them. We simply have to notice them. Pay attention to those little things that matter because doesn't it matter more that a little boy laughs than whether or not I got a job or went to a concert?

I thought I'd throw this picture in because it's one of my favorites. M was on our bed playing with the laundry, because, let's face it, what's more fun than throwing clothes over your head, when the cat caught his attention. This shot captured him trying to hang on to the cats tail while the cat tried to jump off. This is one of his favorite activities. You can always tell if he's seen a cat even if you can't see them. He starts to giggle and talks to them in a totally different way. He loves to try and pet them. He hasn't learned that they will scratch him if he hasn't been nice or if he starts to annoy them. I'm sure he'll figure it out after a few scratches.

I'd like it noted that tonight I'm being a good wife and watching a horror movie. Sort of. I'm typing my blog while the horror movie plays. Let's be clear on something. I really dislike horror movies. Beyond dislike. They scare me because I see possible truths in them. Obviously not all of them but ones about ghosts, spirits etc are the worst because I think that some things might be possible. So let's just say that a movie called Drag me to Hell is really not on my list of movies to see. However I rented it for my other half who loves them. Murphy's law says that I would marry a man that loves horror movies. Occasionally I rent them for him if I think that they won't be so bad and I usually make him watch them during the daylight hours. Tonight I was sideswiped a bit although it was accidental. We watched The Proposal (my kind of movie and points to him for always watching the chick flicks) and when it was done he said " let's put the other movie in" He didn't know it was a horror but I did. I sucked it up and put it in. He's been enjoying the odd opportunity to try and spook me. Guess I owe him for all the chick flicks. I'm going to have to watch ANTM before I go to bed to get it out of my head.

So there's my randomness for the day. Is this really worth reading? Guess it doesn't matter because I'm finding it pretty cathartic and I think I'm really starting to enjoy having somewhere to put my random indecisive thoughts.

Twitter

I've finally gone on to Twitter and started exploring. I'm amazed at how easy it is to get sucked in. I've lost my whole evening to searching Twitter. I suspect that it could be pretty addictive so I'm going to try and stick to updating my Twitter rather than trying to find people on it. Really, I have Facebook to stay in touch with friends so Twitter can be more of a lark. We'll see how that goes.

On another note, I think I could really enjoy the whole blog thing. I haven't told anyone I'm doing it yet, though that may change in the next few days. I've wanted to keep it to myself until I'm comfortable with it. Maybe it's just so that I have something all my own to record my random thoughts. Whatever. I'll give up the secrecy soon enough :-)

M is in a test his boundaries stage now. It was bound to happen. It's hard to be annoyed with him when he looks so darn cute. He'll touch the lamp (which he knows is a no touch item) and I'll do the usual mommy rote. " M, no touching, do it again and mama will give your hand a smack" He does it again (obviously) I give him a hand smack (nothing too hard just enough to startle him. So, his solution is... touch the lamp with his head, get in trouble, touch the lamp with his belly, get in trouble, touch the lamp with his toes, and it goes on and on and on. During this little ritual he has a super grin on his face and is giggling. What am I supposed to do with that?? I'm really hoping this phase runs it course soon. Oh, who am I kidding, this phase is going to last for years isn't it? It's just the items that will change.

Well, off to bed. I've really got to start getting to bed earlier.

Mornings

I'm a fan of quiet in the morning. I love to curl up with a coffee and a book for the first hour and just enjoy silence. However in the world of M there is no such thing as silence unless it's nap time and even then he mutters. This morning he decided to play with his corn popper. This toy has been sitting in his room for months and he has shown minimal interest in it. This morning he chose to run around the house pushing it in front of him so it popped nice and loud. To accompany the popping he found it necessary to yell Whoo Whoo as loud as he could with the energy only a toddler can muster. So much for quiet but is there anything better than a happy toddler in the morning? I can't think of anything more joyful than when he's happy.

First Time

Here it is. My first time trying out a blog. This is a way for me to record special moments which really means all those day to day things that seem inconsequential at the time but are actually pretty important in the grand scheme of life. Hopefully I'm not the only one who feels that way.

So for today I'm just going to post one of my favorite childhood poems. called Otherwise by Aileen Fisher

There must be magic,
Otherwise,
How could day turn to night?
And how could sailboats,
Otherwise,
Go sailing out of sight?
And how could peanuts,
Otherwise,
Be covered up so tight?