Fred's Bed

Our elf is named "Fred."  Today, he turned up in the doll bed, under a cookie sheet with the gingerbread man.  There's a joke on the card:

Q: What did the gingerbread man put on his bed?
A: A cookie sheet!

And another little note, a couple of days ago, this little snippet happened in our kitchen:

Me: Where did the Statue of Liberty come from?
K: I think the soldiers planted her in the ground before peace, but she means "freedom."

Bedtime ramblings

Christian is at the age that he likes to make observations - and these observations are not exactly what an adult expects, but they're usually pretty good.  And now he has the language to express it.

This evening, Christian woke up hungry and it fell to me to rock him (back to sleep?) for a couple of songs.  Here's some of what he said - and the emphasis he delivers very obviously.

"That's clock!  [Pointing to the analog clock with a second hand over his bed.]  Clock spins very slowly."

"Mommy's red!  [Mom flashed in and out of view passing in her red shirt by Christian's door.]  Mommy's big.  Mommy's strong.  Christian's small."

"Christian's pumpkin."  [Huh?  So finally, I came to understand that the orange ball attached to his crib mirror plaything he is calling a pumpkin.]

And we played peekaboo with his belly button behind the blanket and pajamas.

Mother/Daughter Outing

I have been trying to come up with ways that Katie and I can have more one-on-one time together.  I finally came up with what I hope is a great solution.  Tomorrow morning Katie will wake up to this note:

We are going to see Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells at a local theater.  Considering how much fun she had learning "Trick or Treat! Smell my feet!  Give me something good to eat!" this Halloween, the play should be a blast.  I can't wait!

Magic Pumpkin

Katie makes flossing into a game where I play dental hygienist and she plays patient. A very important part of this game for her is the prize at the end of the procedure. She likes to remind me of this before the flossing, and if I should manage to forget by the end, she will remind me again. Often,  I grab some tchotchke from the room and hand it to her,  but occasionally I will give her an imaginary prize. Once, I gave her a winning lottery ticket. This evening,  I gave her a magic jack-o'-lantern that will change all the candy she puts in it into vegetables.

This did not meet her prize requirements. "Daddy, you have to give me something real!," she insisted.

"I have given you imaginary gifts in the past." At this point I'm laughing pretty well. And she certainly is not.

"Daddy,  it's not funny!" 

"Oh,  but it is! When you get older, you will want one for your kids."

Elizabeth offered that it might make the vegetables taste like candy. Yum!

Cooking and...cleaning up (sort of)

Cooking was a family affair last Thursday when I decided to make brownies (because we needed some baked chocolate in the house and Katie asked for them) AND zucchini bread (because I had three zucchini from the local CSA and they weren't getting any fresher).   This was a lot for an afternoon, especially since we were supposed to be going to swim team practice and I had a book club meeting that night.  We were only able to do it because Katie and I decided together that we were going to play hooky from swim team.  After the meet on Tuesday was rained out after the freestyle, we had to go back on Wednesday and finish the rest of the meet.  Two days of swim meets with toddler in tow had me whupped, I was ready for a swim team break.  So, on to cooking!

Katie wanted to stir the brownies but had difficulty getting the spoon around in the thick batter.  She needed me to hold the bowl so she could use two hands to hold the spoon and even that didn't last too long before her poor arms gave out.  She did use her professional egg cracking skills to make sure that the eggs were properly cracked into the mixing bowl.  She was especially thrilled that I needed 6 whole eggs for the zucchini bread since I was making a double batch.  Christian got in on the action with the zucchini bread.  I cut the zucchini up and he and Katie put it into the food processor.  In hindsight, I should have had Katie slice up the zucchini and hand it to Christian to put in the food processor.  That would have been a great opportunity for Katie to work on her knife skills and a better division of labor so that they wouldn't fight over who got to put the zucchini in.  They both helped blend the zucchini and they loved pressing the buttons. :)  Sadly, I wasn't able to get any pictures of the zucchini bread helping but it was pretty neat to have both kids on different height stools next to me helping.  I did get some good pics of the brownie clean up though.

 This was Christian's first experience with getting to lick the spoon and oh, did he loooooove that part of cooking!

Mmm.  Yep, that's how I feel about chocolate too. :) 

Is there any more on here?

 You're the BEST Mom! 

The best part of the night was that I left immediately after putting the zucchini bread in the oven for my book club meeting.  When I got home, my amazing hubby had put the children to bed AND started the clean up.  He knows how to get me to make more scrumptious treats!

What a difference...

What a difference a year makes, especially in the lives of children.  Last summer, I had a 1-year-old.  More importantly to my life, I had a 1-year-old who Would. Not. Walk.  I know, I know, all children walk in their own time, he was building lots of neuron connections that will help him later in life, he walked at just the right time for him, you'll be in trouble when he starts walking, blah blah blah.  Sorry folks, I know you meant well and I KNOW that he walked when he was ready but after Katie had started walking right around her first birthday, I was expecting (with my other May baby) that we would get to go out and play at least a little last summer.  Parks (when it wasn't too hot), the POOL(!), the children's museum, indoor play areas, etc.

Instead, I had a child who was every bit as active as a running, jumping, climbing toddler, only without the running and jumping.  It is hard to take a crawler to a southern park in the summer because it is HOT!  Plus, mulch is not so easy on the knees.  Scratch the baby pool in the neighborhood, he tried crawling across it and just ended up drinking the water.  He wouldn't stay in one of the infant floaties in the big pool which meant I had to hold him the whole time while he tried crawling up my shoulder and I am trying to squat down in the shallow end so he is actually in the water.  That is not a position my back agrees with very well.  We ended up just going to the pool for the 30 minutes that Katie had swim team practice.  For swim meets, he was stuck in the super hot stroller.  I couldn't exactly let him crawl around on the scorching hot pool deck where there were 500 hundred parents and children potentially stepping on him.

As May turned into June, turned into July, turned into August with still no sign that he was going to walk, I got to a point where I would let him crawl on virtually any reasonably safe surface.  Germs, schmerms.  Anywhere I could put him down without out him hurting himself or others, I did because he was HEAVY.  I joined the local children's museum out of desperation, even though it is 30 minutes from my house, because I needed SOMEWHERE indoors, outside of my house, that I could put him down and just let him play.

When he finally walked on Thanksgiving Day at 18 months and 1 week old, angels sang loud HALLELUJAHS in my head.  It was a big deal, if only to me.  Now, he can run and jump and play as he really wanted to last summer.  He can go the playground and do everything he wants to do without me having to lift him up everywhere.  He can splash and play in the baby pool and I can sit on the side while he plays without worrying about him drowning or drinking all of the water.

And my body can heal and recover.  Halfway through last summer I suffered a back spasm related to an old injury making it even more difficult to cart him around places.  Carrying him was very difficult but it some places, carrying him wasn't optional.  Since he started walking I have been able to work through the back spasm and build more strength so that I am better able to carry him when I need to.  Even better, I can relax a little bit while he runs around letting off the energy that bubbles out of him without worrying that someone will inadvertently step on him or wonder if his hands are tracking through something unmentionable.

What a difference a year makes...

Exploring! (Photo explosion!)

We went for a walk around the lake near our house one day after our Stroller Strides class and we had a great time exploring.

Yay for summer!