The Small Family   

We finally got some decent weather (several days of beautiful sun and warm temperatures) early in the week, so Theo and I took advantage of that as much as we could before the cold drizzle returned for the weekend. We started out the week on Monday with a trip to our neighborhood park. Theo had a ball because there were so many kids out. (It was Presidents’ Day, so a lot of parents apparently had the same idea I did.) He played hard for almost an hour, which I thought would net me a good nap from him, but no dice--he slept for a little over an hour and then was raring to go again. So, out we went again--this time for some front-yard play and then a walk around our neighborhood. We’re still working on walking on the sidewalk, but this time it was easier because there were so many very interesting things to look at along the sidewalk, such as bushes and doors. (Why doors, I couldn’t tell you. Theo has to stop in front of each house, point at it, and announce, “Door!” before moving on.)

We normally go to Little Gym on Monday mornings, but it was closed for Presidents’ Day, so this week we went on Tuesday. Theo was cracking me up this week! He really never participates in the class--he likes to go climb on the equipment and play with the balls (his favorite part), but he stays pretty quiet the whole while, watching the other kids. This week, however, he was a little ham. He still didn’t want to join in on any group activities, but he did take a moment to stop and dance for everyone during our warmup, and he would applaud wildly and yell “YAY!” every time one of the kids would demonstrate a new skill. Then he ran off to partake in his favorite activity of late--opening doors. He can now open all doors except front doors (and I’m sure those are soon to follow). So the Little Gym room has two doors of interest to Theo--one to a bathroom and one to the ball closet. Theo opened and closed the bathroom door many times, and then inspiration struck: The balls are his favorite thing, so why not get them out?! And so, my son the cat burglar broke into the Little Gym ball closet. While the rest of us were still doing the warmup, Theo ran over to the ball closet, struggled with the door for a moment, then proudly pulled it open. Then he stood there gleefully, clapping and chortling and saying, “Ball! Ball!” until the teacher ran over and shut the door. (I would’ve shut it, but frankly, I was laughing too hard. And I was waiting to see whether he would actually enter the closet and attempt to drag the garbage-can-o’-balls out into the Gym. I admire the monkey’s ingenuity; what can I say?!) Theo was nonplussed by the teacher shutting the door--he went back later and opened it again (and that time I closed it and tried to explain that the balls would come out later). 

Wednesday we tried something new: Mother Goose on the Loose story hour at one of our local libraries. My friend Janeane has been taking her daughter, Emma, to story hour near their house and really enjoying it. And Grandma Kathy has taken Nik a few times and said he had a great time. So, I did a little investigating and discovered that our local library has a tot-friendly story hour designed for kids age zero and up. (Age zero always sounds so odd to me!) I figured we’d give it a shot and see how it went. Theo seemed to really enjoy it. Because it’s structured for young toddlers, they move from activity to activity pretty quickly and keep it really interactive. We sang songs, watched puppets, rang bells, played with colorful scarves, listened to a story, etc. Theo lasted for 25 of the 30 minutes before heading over to the door and attempting to leave. After his third attempt to break free and exit the building, I gave in, and we left. I was very pleased by how long it held his attention, though, and I think we’ll definitely go back. It’s a neat free activity for kids. It’s amazing how many kid-friendly activities there are (many free or very reasonably priced) if you just do a little scouting around!

After story hour Theo and I met Grandma Diane at the park behind the library for some playtime, and then the three of us went to Starbucks for a snack. All in all, a successful Wednesday morning, for sure!

Thursday morning Theo was crabby. I was a little disappointed because he has been such a sweetheart for well over a week, but such is life with a toddler. So, I didn’t think much of it, and we set out to meet my friend Shelley and her daughter, Ella, at a park in Lincoln. Theo and Ella had fun playing on the two playgrounds, and we also took a walk around the park. It’s fun to see the two kiddos together--Theo is considerably older than Ella (almost 23 months versus her 14 months), so mostly they just eye each other a lot. But Ella saw Theo climbing a staircase at the playground, so of course she had to try it too! And later, Theo had a nifty big stick he found (SUCH a boy!), and Ella began to look quite interested in it. Theo immediately took off running down the path and kept looking over his shoulder at Ella as if to say, “Don’t you come near my stick, little girl! I found it; it’s mine!” Later we went to grab an early lunch with the kids, and it was interesting again to see them try to copy each other. Theo was yanking on the tablecloth to peer under it, so of course Ella had to try that too. And Ella had some banana puffs (which pretty much look just like Cheerios), and even though Theo had his own Cheerios, he HAD to try Ella’s puffs. Because if Ella has them, they must be something very yummy!

So overall Thursday morning went pretty well, and Theo wasn’t too crabby while out with Shelley and Ella. But when we got home, he didn’t take a good nap--which surprised me because he had played hard all morning and was clearly tired. And then he fussed and fussed while eating his lunch. And I was somewhat exasperated by his crabbiness…until he threw up all over himself, and I realized he probably hadn’t been feeling well all day. And then I felt like Mean Mommy for having been frustrated by his crabbiness. I’d be crabby if I had to vomit, too!

Theo seemed much happier after he got sick, so I have a feeling something just didn’t agree with his tummy, and he felt better after he got it out. And so, I decided to try an experiment. I used to love to do yard work. I looked forward to it every week, and in fact I mowed the lawn and did all the yard work the day before I went into labor with Theo, giant and pregnant though I was. But since Theo has been born, Chris has usually done the yard work. I’m often just too tired to do it, so I watch Theo while Chris does it. But recently, at the park, Theo spent a great deal of time watching the landscapers blowing the leaves and doing general park maintenance. He was so fascinated by watching them work that he would not leave the park--answering a polite but firm “No” every time I suggested that we ought to head for home. And when the landscapers left, he cried. So I decided to see whether Mama as landscaper was as fascinating to him as the landscapers at the park…and we headed out in the backyard. Indeed, my experiment worked! Theo was delighted to be out in the yard “helping” with yard work, and I got the yard cleaned up (Luna cleanup, you know…eww!) and all the grass edged. Theo was very content to sit on the patio and watch me edge the lawn, staying far away from the edger so I didn’t have to worry about him getting hurt. Whenever I’d stop to move the cord, he’d sign, “More, more” and look pleased when I’d resume edging. And so, although my plan was to just do the edges of the lawn and let Chris haul out the lawnmower when he got home from work (since I don’t trust Theo not to come charging over to the giant lawnmower while I’m pushing it), I ended up using the edger on the entire lawn. (For those of you who haven’t seen it, our lawn really isn’t very big at all, so cutting the entire thing with an edger is actually pretty doable.) We then sprayed down the patio, and Theo had a grand time running up to catch the water coming out of the hose. He laughed like crazy and in fact had quite a fit when I had to drag him back inside because the mosquitoes were coming out and attacking us. So perhaps now, two years later, I can get back to my favorite household task of doing the yard work…now with a little blonde helper in tow!

Friday is generally my all-day workday while Chris watches Theo, but I ended up finishing most of my work by the time Theo was up from his nap, so I spent the afternoon with Theo and Chris, which was wonderful. We went to a build-your-own hamburger place we like for a late lunch, and Theo had fun playing on a nearby playground after we ate. It’s amazing how adept he has become at climbing up play structures and going down the slide. What amuses me most is that most play structures (around here, at least) have multiple slides, and Theo will never go down any of the smaller slides…he heads straight for the biggest, baddest slide of ’em all! Little thrill-seeker, that boy of ours….

Saturday we decided to go out to the Farmers’ Market in Davis. Theo was not amused by the Farmers’ Market, but he was quite pleased by the small museum at the end of the park, which had a set of three concrete stairs he could climb up and down, up and down, up and down… Seriously, for 45 minutes this amused him! Does anyone know of a stair museum we can visit?! Or an amusement park with nothing but stairs?! I’m not sure why stairs are so entertaining to him--we have them in our house, so climbing them is a daily activity for him. But somehow, they never lose their allure. Speaking of the stairs at our house, though, Mr. Independent will not hold our hand anymore while ascending or descending them. When we offer a hand, he very firmly tells us “No!” and grabs the banister to do it himself. Okay, kiddo…but you better not end up taking a tumble down them like your Mama did when she was your age! Lucky for me, my scar from that fall looks like a dimple…but I don’t really want to see what would happen if my kid followed in my footsteps!

When we got home from Davis, I sent Chris out for some alone time, and Theo and I took a stroll, ate some lunch (Theo did, anyway), played, and read books. Chris will tell you that the thing he misses most about life pre-Theo is the ability to just go wander around down at his leisure, puttering in this store and that one. So lately, we’ve been swapping Theo care so we each get some alone time. Chris, as predicted, spent his puttering around Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, and Marshalls…and, also as predicted, came home with lots of new books and a couple outfits for Theo. For my Theo-free time on Sunday, I continued my movie-going binge and took my Mom to lunch and a movie--Crazy Heart. I believe that wraps up my Oscar-nominated-movie binge, and now I feel quite informed for when we go over to my friend Amber’s house to watch the Oscars in a couple weeks. Every year we have a contest to see who can guess the most winners, and I came in dead last in 2009. I hadn’t seen any of the movies, so I was just guessing off the top of my head…and not very well, at that! This year I’ve seen several of the nominees, so I shall be much better informed!

Last but not least, I must announce that there will be NO blog post next week. Why, you might ask? Because the Small family is headed for Disneyland!! Yesirree, we have a tax appointment (sob!) on Thursday afternoon, and then we’ll leave for Disneyland in the wee hours of Friday morning. Tax day is always incredibly depressing for us (we ALWAYS owe thousands of dollars, despite dutifully paying our estimated quarterlies--the curse of me being self-employed), so we figure we can either cry about it or go try to drown our sorrows in Mickey Mouse-themed fruit punch. We’ll be gone through Wednesday, thus no blog next Sunday. But I’m sure I’ll have lots and lots of pictures and stories for the blog the following weekend! The 10-day forecast for Anaheim looks decent (only two days with the possibility of rain showers while we’re there), so we’re going to go for it. We’re staying at the Disneyland Hotel, which I’m really excited about. We’ve never stayed at a Disney property (well, Chris thinks he might have when he was about seven years old, but he can’t remember for sure), so we think it’ll be fun to experience the “magic” of Disney accommodations at least once. And, more than anything, we did it for convenience’s sake. The hope is that after a few hours in the park in the morning, Theo will be ready for a nap, and we can just hop on the Monorail and take it straight back to the hotel for his nap…and then head back into Disneyland after he wakes up. Will this work? We shall see. As you all know, our boy fights naps like crazy and will rarely take one anywhere other than his own crib or in a moving car, so it remains to be seen whether our plan will work. But the alternative was staying offsite and having to either drive back to the hotel at naptime or wait for the shuttle, and that didn’t seem like a particularly fun option with a tired, nap-needing toddler. So wish us luck! If nothing else, I know we’re going to have a wonderful time, sleepy toddler or not! This time I’m not pregnant (as I was for our Disney World trip two years ago), so I’ll be able to go on roller coasters, which I adore! (Disney has a “parent pass” program where one parent can go on a “big” ride while the other waits with the children (or child, in our case), and then the other parent gets to go on immediately after the first one gets off and resumes childcare. Great idea!) And I’ve never seen the Disney fireworks, so I’m pretty excited about that. We’ll see what Theo thinks of them--I know a lot of little kids are frightened by them at his age, so we’ll give it a shot and see how he does. And I think he’ll get a real kick out of the parade with all the Disney critters marching by. And the last time I went to a Disney park, I was just so impressed by how wonderfully family-friendly everything is. You pay the price, for sure…but in return, it seems you get a really well-done experience. We can’t wait to experience it through the eyes of our little boy, who has recently decided that Mickey Mouse is a really neat guy. (He has a Mickey Mouse shirt, and every time he wears it, he gets very excited about the mouse on his shirt. We’re wondering whether it will be exciting or terrifying to him to see the great Mickey striding toward him in real life, five feet tall!)

We’re also hoping to visit Griffith Park Observatory and possibly Pasadena in our non-park time, so that should be fun. And we’re meeting my friend and coworker, Orren, and his wife, Michelle, for lunch on Sunday, which will be a nice treat. I rarely get to see the people I work with, since we’re scattered all over the globe, but we’ve gotten together with Orren and Michelle a few times and really had a lot of fun. As long as Theo cooperates (which he usually does at lunchtime), I think we’ll really enjoy getting to meet up with them.

Hope you all have a wonderful two weeks!