The Small Family   

August 30, 2009: Walkin’ After Midnight

Now that Theo’s a big boy with a big world to explore, we’ve decided it’s time for him to get to it. So every night, we send him outside for a nice walk while we enjoy some quiet time in the house with the pug. We think it’s good for his independence to encourage this sort of exploration, and his natural curiosity keeps him busy out there for hours.

Kidding, of course. However, we have introduced some new fun into our routine, and that is walks with Theo (not after midnight, as the blog title suggests—I just had that Patsy Cline song running through my head as I was thinking about this week’s blog!).

Theo has always been a fan of walks. Even when he was a wee tiny guy, screaming like a banshee all night, a good walk would usually mellow him out. And now that he’s older, he still likes riding in the stroller, but what he really likes is being allowed to run around. So, one night when he was being a crabby guy, I decided a change of scenery was in order, and I took him out front and just let him wander where he would (with me close behind). And he had a blast! It was the slowest walk around the block in history, of course, because being a curious almost-17-month-old, Theo had to stop and examine everything along the way. He was actually pretty good about staying on the sidewalk, too, because much more interesting than the street were all the exciting bushes and shrubs planted throughout our complex. In fact, he stopped at every single one, pointed carefully, and said, “Wha’ dat?” To which I replied, “Um, a bush!” when I realized I had no idea what kind of bush it was. (After the fiftieth time of repeating this, I decided it would be really helpful to have my Uncle David, a botanist, here to help me out!) Theo then had to touch each bush and then happily trot forward three or four more steps to the next bush, where the cycle began again.

He also had to walk up to almost every garage door and knock on it (a fun trick Grandpa Tom taught him). Hopefully no one was in their garage at the time, as an unexpected rapping on the door might be slightly alarming—especially given the recent “suspicious death” in our complex! (No, we don’t live in some scary neighborhood. In fact, it’s a very quiet neighborhood where the worst crime before two weeks ago was a stolen bicycle. However, two weeks ago, a man was found dead from stab wounds in a house that we can see from Theo’s window. The police haven’t yet released whether it was a homicide or a suicide, but I honestly have a hard time imagining anyone committing suicide by stabbing himself. However, neighbors report hearing arguing from that house the day before, so we’re guessing it may have been a domestic violence issue. It’s sad either way, but I have to say I’m more comfortable with an isolated domestic violence issue than the thought that it might’ve been a random break-in or something. But I digress...let me move on from a very gruesome topic.)

It being Sacramento and August, some nights are just too darn hot to walk. But the next time it was cool enough, Theo and I embarked on yet another walk while Chris stayed home and did yard work. This time, Theo was still interested in the bushes, but even more exciting was tanbark! He would toddle forward a few steps, muttering happily to himself, then squat down (why is it that toddlers look so darn cute when they squat?! If only we could all look so cute sticking our bottoms out...), carefully examine his tanbark choices, and pick up the very best piece and hand it triumphantly to me. In the span of two or three houses, I became the proud owner of seven pieces of tanbark, a long twig, and a dead leaf. And I have to admit, clichéd as it sounds, it’s crazy what a lump in your throat you can get when an earnest little face beams at you with such pride, having just bestowed upon you the gift of...tanbark.

The funniest thing about these walks is watching Theo gesture and chatter as he walks. He babbles incessantly while we’re out walking, while at the same time repeatedly throwing his hands up over his head. I’m not sure why he does this, but picture an exasperated executive in a board meeting throwing his hands up in frustration at his company’s poor performance. Theo makes a very similar gesture while walking, and I have no idea why, but it’s hilarious to watch him stagger down the sidewalk, gesturing wildly and babbling up a storm. I really should try to get it on video....

On Friday, I decided Chris and I needed a date because it had been a long, rather emotionally exhausting week. So I took my Mom up on her offer to babysit “whenever we need a night off,” and we walked over to the restaurant across the street for dinner while my Mom played with Theo. As we rounded the corner into our court after dinner, who did we see staggering toward us but Mr. Theo, gesturing like a madman and babbling away! It seems Grandma Diane was taking him out to walk around, and he was having a ball!

The only problem with these walks is that Theo never wants them to end. In fact, he pitches quite a fit when it’s time to go inside. Ah well, such is life...at least we know he’s enjoying them!

Speaking of walks, Theo and I also met up with Janeane and Emma for a mall walk this week. Emma’s little brother is due to arrive pretty much anytime, so Janeane was hoping a mall walk would help coax him into making his debut. No such luck, but it was nice to see Janeane and Emma anyway! Theo and Emma both enjoyed playing in the play area for a bit, and Theo finally achieved his lifelong (ha!) goal of climbing up the slide in the play area. Yay for him!

Speaking of yays, Theo’s other great achievement for the week was floating fully clothed (and wearing one shoe)! To graduate from his float class, he eventually needs to hold a float for at least five minutes (up to 15 minutes) while fully clothed and wearing shoes. (This is because if a kid falls in the pool unexpectedly, most often they are fully clothed, so the idea is that the child learns to float with the added weight and resistance of clothing.) Well, Theo isn’t ready to graduate yet, but he’s gotten so comfortable with floating that he’s now starting to play in the water. Which is great...but play also means he sinks, since you have to be relaxed and relatively still to float. So, he kept rolling to one side and starting to sink. And so, Miss Deborah suggested we try putting jeans on him, as well as one shoe (to weigh down the side he wasn’t rolling toward). And wow—it worked! He went back to floating like a little board, without nearly so much roll to one side. In fact, he did so well that he free-floated (without me touching him) for a full 10 seconds. Yahoo!!  There are a few pictures of him working with Miss Deborah in this week’s album—you can see that he was free-floating well enough for her to take her hands completely out from under him. Deborah thinks we can finish up and graduate in about two weeks, so even though the season has technically ended, we will probably finish up lessons in her spa after we return from our trip. (Theo is still short enough that he can fit in the spa for floating purposes.) Now that he can float, we need to make sure he can float in situations where he falls in and is perhaps disoriented. In other words, he needs to be able to roll himself onto his back and find his air. He should be able to do it—he can roll, and he knows to hold his breath when water gets in his face, so it’s just a matter of putting the pieces together over and over, until it’s all he knows how to do when he hits the water. And then after that, it’s just a matter of taking him in the water every now and then to sort of remind him about floating...but when he graduates, his body is basically trained to flip on his back as soon as he hits the water, so it’s a natural behavior that he should retain...until he’s three years old and ready for formal swim lessons, at which point we teach him it’s okay to put his face in the water. J

No float class on Saturday, but it was too darn hot to do much of anything. (I think it topped out at something like 104 degrees.) So we decided to drive to Napa for lunch, hoping for slightly cooler temps. Well, we didn’t get cooler temps, but we did have a nice lunch at a Peruvian place we like at the Oxbow Public Market. And, of course, mini-cupcakes from Kara’s for dessert! The banana-caramel with cream cheese icing was our favorite (amazingly, it beat out the chocolate for both of us), with the chocolate coconut coming in second. Theo liked all the cupcakes (we shared four minis) very much, although he of course couldn’t have any of the icing (too much dairy). More than anything, though, I think he liked the little table and chairs just his size at the Market. He had to try out each chair at each of the kids’ tables. I’m not sure whether he picked a favorite....

Because it was too hot to let Theo play outside, and because we like to get him exercise each day, we stopped at a mall in Fairfield so he could play at their play area. He enjoyed that, as he always does, and then he got an extra treat—his first ride on a carousel! I’m not really sure how he felt about it. He seemed to enjoy riding up and down on the elephant (why ride a horse when you can ride an elephant, after all?!), but I think the fact that he had to be belted onto the elephant annoyed him. Theo’s not much for being contained...

Sunday we had a float lesson in the morning, but because it was a weekend, we splurged and stopped at a European pastry café I’ve been eyeing near Theo’s float lessons and had breakfast. It was mighty good. I had a smoked salmon, egg, and cheese croissant, and Chris had a ham, egg, and cheese croissant—with a side of bacon ordered for Mr. Bacon Fanatic—of course, we helped him with most of it. But Mr. Bacon Fanatic was such a good little diner that the owner of the café was completely charmed by him. He came over to say hi, and Theo promptly offered him a veggie puff, which he was clutching in his sweaty little hand. And the café owner, who I suspect must have grandkids of his own, took the sweaty veggie puff and ate it, which delighted Theo. He then brought Theo a peanut butter cookie, which was met with great glee, although unfortunately I had to secretly confiscate it, since Theo’s still too young to enjoy the wonders of peanut butter. (It’s a highly allergic food, so they don’t recommend giving it to children until age 3.) So, Chris and I took it upon ourselves to eat the cookie and tell the café owner that Theo had very much enjoyed it. A tiny white lie never hurt anyone, after all...and hey, it was a really good cookie!

Sunday afternoon, Theo and I went to the mall with Auntie Jeanette so I could buy a windbreaker for our trip. (Western NY has been having very unpredictable weather this summer, so I want to be prepared for cold!) And then the boy amused me by figuring out how to climb into Chris’s desk chair and assault his desk, which I suspect Chris will not find nearly as amusing as I find it!! J

By the way, I’ve posted a cute little video clip captured on my iPhone to the Videos page. Click on the Videos link and scroll to the bottom, and you’ll see one called “He’s Gonna Walk 500 Miles.” Those of you at our wedding might recall that for our recessional, we played the ridiculously happy and upbeat Proclaimers’ song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).” It’s actually one of my favorite “love songs,” so lately I’ve been playing it in the car. Theo seems to like all music, but I turned around one day to find that he REALLY likes The Proclaimers, apparently. Whenever the chorus comes on (“And I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more...just to be the man who walked 5,000 miles to fall down at your door...”), Theo starts grinning and kicking and waving. So, I caught a clip of it on my iPhone one day because I thought it was so darn cute. (I played that song a lot while I was pregnant, since I was still a sappy newlywed—I wonder if he would jig to it in utero?!)

So, we won’t have a blog post next week, as we’ll be in Buffalo on Sunday (actually, probably en route to Philly on Sunday). But the following week, we’ll have lots of stories from our grand adventures in Western New York and Philadelphia, along with tons of pictures. Until then, enjoy...and wish us luck on a cross-country plane trip with our little traveler!