The Small Family   

Hi all! This week’s title derives from several things, but most notably Theo’s newly developed affinity for Ritz crackers. He found a box of Ritz crackers in the pantry one day, brought it to me, and said, “Please!” so I gave him one. And I have created a monster…or at least a little boy very determined to eat as many Ritz crackers as Mama and Daddy will give him! They’re not exactly a nutritional powerhouse, so we don’t let him gorge on them, but they don’t contain dairy, and he loves them, so they’re a good bribery tool. Lately, I use them to get him to climb into his stroller for our morning walk. That’s snack time for him anyway (I bring along his snack cup with some Cheerios, graham cracker sticks, etc. in it), so we kick it off with a crisp, buttery Ritz (isn’t that what the commercial used to say?). It makes me smile because my Dad was a big fan of Ritz crackers. I remember him putting together a snack of Ritz crackers carefully topped with Cheez Whiz and a half a green olive as a tasty treat. (Some of you are gagging, I know, but it was really quite good! I would hang around in the hopes of scoring one or two.) Kinda fitting that my son would suddenly develop a taste for Ritz like his grandpa, since twice this week I had friends who were over look at a few pictures of my Dad as a toddler that we have on the wall and say, “What? Isn’t that Theo??” It’s the hair that does it…my Dad had the same wild blond curls as Theo, and so did I. If you look at pictures from far away, it’s hard to tell the three of us as toddlers apart.

But Theo was also puttin’ on the ritz at Little Gym this week. We had a two-week break over Christmas, and this was his first week back. What a difference! Just before Christmas, he was feeling lousy (sick and teething) and didn’t do much other than stand around and watch the other kids. This week, as I pulled up at Little Gym, Theo squealed happily and started wiggling to get out of his car seat. When we got into the lobby, he immediately ran over to the gym door and started signing, “Please!” to get me to let him in. (Alas, we had to wait until Miss Whitney was ready for us, which did not please Theo.) When Miss Whitney opened the door, Theo ran up to her and yelled “HI!” and waved. Then he charged inside, went straight over to the bin of bells, and got his jingle bells. (We start by singing a song with jingle bells every week, but Theo would never go get his bells…I’d always have to walk over with him. This week, he took the initiative and did it on his own!) Later, he tried to charm Miss Whitney into bringing out the balls (one of his favorite class activities) early by helpfully showing her exactly WHERE the balls are kept (‘cuz she obviously doesn’t know, or she would’ve gotten them out already!).

But the cutest part was later in class. A couple kids went and sat on this little sill by a window, and Theo went over and sat by them. (This in itself was a change…he isn’t shy, but he usually won’t go over to other kids--he waits for them to come to him.) And then up trotted little miss Ally… Ally is Theo’s female physical counterpart, really--big blue eyes, fair skin, and blond curls. She’s a very sweet little 2 1/2-year-old who was also in Theo’s backfloat class--she graduated just before this past year’s session ended. Anyway, Ally came up and sat down next to Theo, beaming at him. And then scooted closer. And closer. And closer, until she was nearly sitting on his lap, beaming widely at him the whole time. Theo kept looking up at her, kind of shyly smiling, then looking down at the floor. But that smile kept getting wider and wider until he was grinning at her too. Toddler flirting--so cute! Ally’s dad and I were laughing at how cute they were.

That was Monday, and Tuesday I settled in for a long day of copy editing the 500-page project management book I got Monday night. Ick.  And then things got crazy… My Mom (a.k.a. Grandma Diane) emailed me and asked me if I would do her a favor and pick up a prescription at Kaiser and deliver it to her house, as she was feeling horrible and didn’t think she could get out on her own. She was hoping she could just call her doctor and get a prescription, since she was pretty sure she was having another bout of diverticulitis. Now, my Mom never asks me for help unless she is really desperate--she’s always worried that I’m too busy or she’s imposing or whatever, even though in reality I never mind helping her. So I knew if she asked, she must be feeling horrible. And so, I called her…and she was on the phone with Kaiser (our medical provider), and they were insisting that she get to the emergency room immediately, no time even for a shower. So she told me she had to go take herself in. Um, no. If you’re so sick that you can’t even take a shower before heading to the ER, there’s NO WAY I’m letting you drive yourself in there! So I told her to stay put, and I’d be over in 10 minutes. Chris was working at home that day, so I asked him to watch Theo (since I really didn’t want him at the Kaiser ER, around some probably really sick people), and I went to my Mom’s house. When I got there, she said, “I’m afraid I’ll be sick in your car. Let’s take mine.” Okay, fair enough. We got in her car, and I drove to Kaiser. Only thing is, about two blocks away from Kaiser, my Mom said, “Do you hear a rattling sound?” I did…and right then we both noticed the steam rising from the hood. Uh oh. “We’re only two blocks away--we can make it,” I said. And I started laughing as we pulled into the ER parking lot, steam billowing from the hood of the car, the temperature gauge on Hot. I mean, what are the odds that my Mom’s car is falling apart at the same time as she is?!

First order of business, get her checked in. We did, and the Kaiser doc very quickly came to the conclusion that my Mom was right--it was likely a bout of diverticulitis. This is usually not overly serious (more extremely painful than anything else), but given my Mom’s history of pancreatitis and the fact that there are some rare but very serious complications from diverticulitis, they wanted to be safe rather than sorry. So, they ran some bloodwork, got her on an IV, started pumping in two kinds of antibiotics, a painkiller, and an anti-nausea drug, and all was well. Mom was feeling much better as soon as the painkiller kicked in, so once she was settled, I went back out to deal with the car. It had been almost two hours, and the automall was just around the corner, so I figured I could drive the car over without it overheating. No such luck. By the time I drove the couple blocks to the Honda dealer, the temperature gauge was on Hot again. Sigh…

Turns out the car needed a new radiator and a new timing chain. That sounded like a lot of work, and I needed a way to get Mom home from the hospital, so I rented a car. As luck would have it, Mom’s car was ready the next day (to the tune of $1,500…ouch!), so we only needed the rental for a day. But it was good to have it anyway, as she wasn’t in much shape to take a cab home from the hospital.

As I write this, Mom is slowly but surely recovering from her bout of diverticulitis, and she has sworn never to eat popcorn or walnuts again! (Diverticulitis is usually brought on by eating nuts or seeds. Will spare you the rest of the details…) Unfortunately, this recovery has been slower than the last one (about two years ago), so she’s not feeling as well as she’d like…but she’s getting there.

That said, Mom was supposed to babysit Theo for Chris and I to go out to dinner on Friday, so we could “put on the ritz” for my birthday and go to a real, grown-up restaurant. By Wednesday, it was very clear that Mom was not going to be well by Friday, so Chris emailed our friend Briagha (Sac State pal who is partly responsible for our meeting!) and asked her if she could babysit. She’s sat for Theo a couple times in the past, and she said she was happy to do it. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Briagha! She and Theo reportedly had a great time together, and he went to bed like a champ--no fuss, no muss.

Meanwhile, Chris and I had an awesome dinner at a relatively new restaurant in Roseville: Suede Blue. I thought the name was appropriate, since my birthday also happens to be Elvis’s birthday, so there’s that whole “Blue Suede Shoes – Suede Blue” connection! :-) For my foodie friends and relatives, I’ll share the details of the meal: We both indulged and had a drink with dinner: a Snickers martini for me and a pomegranate mojito for Chris. I had oysters on the half shell for an appetizer, and Chris had a seared ahi salad. (I know some of you are gagging at the oysters, but I love them. Blame it on my Dad, who introduced them to me when I was about three.) I had pistachio-almond crusted sea bass with Israeli cous cous, seared leeks, and wild mushrooms for dinner, and Chris had pancetta-wrapped chicken with artichoke hearts, parmesan whipped potatoes, and asparagus. For dessert, I had a chocolate mint lava cake, while Chris had sabayon (a custardy thing) with berries. All in all a fabulous meal, and we topped off the evening with a relaxing trip to Borders bookstore for some Theo-free browsing. (Theo starts fussing within about 30 seconds of any browsing that doesn’t interest him, so a trip to the bookstore is rarely leisurely and relaxing. It was a real treat, even though they didn’t have any of the books we were looking for.)

What really made Friday wonderful, though, was taking the day off work. I rarely take an entire day off, but I did on Friday--answered a couple emails, but that was it. I just spent the bulk of the day with my two favorite guys. And oh, it was heavenly. Instead of cramming in as much work as possible during Theo’s nap, I went over to my Mom’s house to visit her and spent a lovely 90 minutes chatting with her while Chris held down the fort and Theo slept. I was spoiled in the gifts department, too. Theo and Chris got me some chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, a pair of earphones for jogging, a giftcard to JC Penney (along with an hour of Theo-free shopping time--bliss!), and the DVD set for Top Chef Season 5. (Chris and I have been going through Top Chef withdrawal since Season 6 ended, and we never saw Season 5, so this will be a real treat!) My in-laws (a.k.a. Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom) sent me a beautiful flower arrangement with tulips, carnations, and baby roses, and my Mom got me a necklace with my birthstone (a garnet) in it. Couldn’t have asked for a better day!

Normally we take a trip for my birthday (since travel is one of my greatest joys in life), but this year I decided to forfeit my birthday trip in the interest of taking a trip in the spring instead…to Disneyland! So sometime in February or March, when the weather forecast looks promising, we’ll be heading down to Anaheim to visit the Mouse. Can’t wait! It’s only a five-hour drive from here, and there are a bazillion hotels in that area, so it’s not something we really have to plan ahead…we can just keep a date in mind, and if the weather looks iffy, we’ll move it to another date. March is starting to look rather busy for us, so we may try to hit it sometime in February. We'll see...

Last week I talked a lot about how Theo is Mr. Imitator lately, and I have a fun follow-up story on that subject. I don’t get mad very often, but one thing that irritates me is when Chris “HUHHHH”s me! Let me explain…a “HUHHHH” is a big, exasperated sigh accompanied by eye rolling, hands raised in the air, and a “she’s being unreasonable” expression on his face. Chris has long since learned that this irritates the heck out of me, so he doesn’t often do it…to my face, anyway. This week, I went to the bathroom in our downstairs half-bath, and I discovered that Chris had pulled another trick that drives me nuts--he used up the last of the toilet paper and didn’t replace it, so I was left dripping and helpless, not wanting to waddle to the garage with my pants down to get more TP. He was downstairs, so I hollered for him and said, “You used the last of the toilet paper again!! Can you PLEASE bring me some? I don’t know why you didn’t replace it when you used it!” (Yes, I know I was being slightly shrewish, but come on…he left me high and dry, er…dripping.) I wasn’t sure he heard me, so I found a shard of TP left stuck on the empty roll, and I used that to clean up as best I could. I then stepped out of the bathroom to find Theo toddling around going, “HUHHHH!” and throwing his hands in the air. Hmmm…now where could he have learned that?! Chris, as it turns out, had heard me and had gone out to the garage to get more TP. When he came back in, I said, “You ‘HUHHH’ed me, didn’t you?” with a grin on my face. He looked a bit sheepish and said, “How would YOU know?” I pointed to Theo, who was still toddling around and “HUHHHH”ing. Ha ha, Daddy…Theo ratted you out! Poor Chris can no longer “HUHHH” me, even when I’m not around. He he he he he…

Speaking of things being out of the mouths of babes…you may recall that last week I mentioned how very interested Theo is in my bra. At the risk of yet again being indelicate (I already talked about being stranded in the bathroom with no TP, so my dignity is gone anyway), I have another bra story to share. One of my two bras has disappeared. It’s very inconvenient to have only one bra, so I’m in the market for a backup or two. So Saturday night, Theo and I went to the mall to get out of the house and leave Chris to watch the Cowboys game in peace. I let Theo play at the play area for a bit, and then I decided maybe I’d use my JC Penney gift card to replace my missing bra (which I suspect a small blond gremlin stole, but I don’t know where it is…probably the same place the missing dog leash and collar are). So Theo and I headed to the lingerie department. I’m always kind of modest about shopping for bras. Call me a prude, but I find it rather embarrassing, so I try to quickly and quietly pick a few, try them on, and leave. Alas, Theo does not really support this plan. Not when his favorite word to yell out is “BRA!” I raced through the lingerie department, trying to find a new bra, with Theo chortling, “Bra! Bra! BRA!” the whole way. Egads… (Needless to say, I didn’t find a bra. I just fled after a few minutes of this.)

All of our pictures this week are from our Saturday trip to the Nut Tree in Vacaville. They have an awesome outdoor play area for kids, and everything is free (except the carousel and train…but even that’s free for kids under 2). They also happen to have an excellent pizzeria there (Amici’s), so we drove out there for lunch, a little bit of shopping (running shoes for Chris, whose New Year’s Resolution includes jogging four times a week), and some fun playtime for Theo.

Hope you all had a wonderful first full week of 2010!