The Small Family   

Well, this was quite a week in the Small household. For me, the most momentous event was my first kiss. Yes, I am 36 years old and just now receiving my first kiss! Okay, that’s not entirely true. Chris is very good at giving me kisses. Luna is very good at giving me kisses. But one person who has not kissed me before this week is my dear sweet little Theo. But the long wait is over, and I have had a kiss bestowed upon me by Mr. Theo, at long last!

I’m not sure at what age babies/toddlers normally give kisses, but I know Theo was a little slow to hug. I seem to remember reading that a lot of babies are giving hugs by around 7 months or so, and Theo was more like 15 months by the time he’d give them. (He gives them a lot now…I think he’s making up for lost time! He keeps running up and spontaneously hugging me around the legs, which is quite sweet.) And we’ve never pushed him because, well, we just don’t parent that way. Theo is Theo, and we respect his right to do things like gives hugs and kisses on his own time. I’m not a particularly physically affectionate person myself, so I’m definitely not one to push my son to be--I’ve never asked him to kiss me, although I kiss him frequently. And I do make it quite clear that I love it when he hugs me, and I occasionally request hugs, but I don't push it if he doesn't feel like giving one. And so, I turned into a complete bowl of mush one night this week, when little Mr. Theo finally decided to give his Mama a long-awaited kiss with no prompting.

Theo has a book called Snuggle Puppy that he loves, and in it the mama doggie sings to her snuggle puppy a song that ends with a kiss. We’ve read that book a bunch of times lately, and recently I noticed Theo giving one of his flashcards a kiss. A few days later, he gave his beloved stuffed giraffe (which he fondly refers to as “Fraff”) a kiss. But still no kisses for Mom or Dad. And then one night this week, Chris was going to put Theo to bed. I said, “Oh wait--I need to give him a kiss goodnight.” I dropped to my knees and said, “Can I have a hug?” and Theo ran up and hugged me--and spontaneously gave me a kiss!! He hasn’t done it since, but I don’t care…I am holding that one kiss in my heart and never letting it go. I have reached the point where I am clearly held in as high of esteem as Fraff and his beloved blue flashcard. Yes, folks, it doesn’t get any better than this!

But I did get a close second in excitement this week…on the work front. I’ve always had a dream to see my name in a bookstore. Now, my name is actually all over bookstores because I’ve edited more than 150 books, so almost any big bookstore you go into, there will be a book with my name on the copyright page and in the Acknowledgments section, if the author was kind enough to mention me. And this is very exciting, even 10 years after my first book…I still love seeing my name in print. (Yes, I know…it’s some weird ego gratification, I’m sure. But heck, we all have our vanities, and mine is seeing my name in print.) But what I realized after seeing my name in a bookstore is that, although it’s exciting in any capacity, what I really want is to see my name on the cover of a book, as an author. And I thought this was an unattainable dream. I don’t have the time to put into writing, and frankly, I’m not talented enough to be likely to ever get anything published in the fiction world. However, after having edited technical books for 10+ years, I do have a pretty good grasp on how tech books are written. And so, this week an incredible opportunity fell in my lap. I’m working on a book called Not Your Parents’ Wedding Photography. I was really excited to be assigned this book because I love photography…particularly when there are people involved, as obviously there are in wedding photography. But it turns out this author, while a fantastic photographer and a heck of a nice guy, is not at all a good writer. Really, he's pretty bad at writing. So the acquisitions editor feels his book needs a ghostwriter/coauthor…and the author himself agrees. So, I talked to her and volunteered my services…and she accepted! Whether I’ll actually be credited as a coauthor still remains to be seen, but she said if it did in fact turn out that I had to do significant rewriting of the author’s material, she had no problem listing me on the book as a “with”…in other words, the book would be written by Joseph Prezioso with Cathleen Small.  And so, we shall see…but it sounds as if I may reach one of my life goals that I thought I’d never attain. Yay, yay, yay!!! I was beyond excited about that! You can bet that if my name really does end up on the cover of a book, I’ll post a picture of it on the blog for all to see.

This was a busy, busy week for us in general. Chris has had several work deadlines to keep him busy, and I’m working on the monster 52-author book (which should go to the printer in a few days), plus four others going to the printer in the next three weeks. I am definitely going to be ready for our Disneyland trip (tentatively scheduled for the last weekend in February) by the time it rolls around!

We had a lot of fun stuff this week too, though. On Tuesday Theo and I went over to see Janeane and Jason’s new house, which they moved into right before Christmas. The idea was for Theo and Emma to play while Janeane and I visited, but Theo was kind of a cranky monkey, so rather than playing, the kiddos watched some Baby Einstein together while Janeane and I visited and Baby Jamie hung out. (SUCH a cutie he is…what a flirt! Makes me reminisce about those early smiles from Theo. There’s not much I miss about early infancy, since Theo’s wasn’t all that much fun, but I do miss the baby smiles!)

So why was Theo a cranky monkey? Teething. I would bet all my worldly possessions that his bottom two-year-molars are coming in, although we haven’t been able to see anything yet. But he’s following the exact same pattern he did when he cut his top molars right at Christmas--fussy and feisty, problems napping, trouble going to sleep at night, middle-of-the-night waking, chewing on everything in sight, and grinding his teeth like crazy. This evening he was drooling so much that Chris proclaimed, "Dude! You're literally foaming at the mouth!" Oh, and biting us. Thankfully, he only bites when he’s teething, so I don’t think it’s an aggression thing…he’s just got a lot going on in that little mouth of his. Hopefully this will be like last time, and the molars will pop through within three weeks. If not, we may postpone Disneyland until he’s feeling better, since nobody really wants to travel with a crabby toddler!

We also got to have a long-belated birthday lunch with Auntie Lynnie this week! Our birthdays are four days apart (in early January), so every year we get together with our Mom for a birthday lunch. This year we had to postpone several times due to illness (first my Mom’s diverticulitis, then our stomach flu), but we were finally able to get together this week. And Auntie Lynnie, glutton for punishment that she is, offered to babysit Theo for our upcoming tax appointment. (Our tax lady is in Elk Grove, and she always does our taxes when she does my Mom’s, so the three of us go together. Last year we took Theo and traded off with him, but it was rather hectic. So having my sister babysit him will be a HUGE help. But I’m hoping he’s not a feisty little tyrant for her!)

Speaking of babysitting, Theo had babysitters TWICE this week, which was pretty exciting for him. (He gets bored with us…loves to have new “minions” come around to entertain him.) Briagha came over Friday night and babysat so we  could go out to dinner. We went to Johnny Garlic’s (Guy Fieri’s restaurant that’s across the street from our house), and it was delicious. We tried to go bowling after, but all the lanes were tied up with a league, so instead we played arcade games and air hockey for a bit, then headed home. And Saturday, my Mom babysat so Chris and I could go see Avatar in the theater. We figured if we were going to see it, it’d be a good one to see on the big screen. Chris really enjoyed it. I wasn’t much of a fan, but it’s really not my type of movie, so that was no surprise. I think for people who tend to like sci-fi/fantasy things, it’s probably quite good. Those just aren’t usually my cup of tea (although I love Harry Potter and the most recent Star Trek movie). I will admit, though, that the visual effects were stunning. If it wins an Oscar for special effects, it will be well deserved. I just didn’t much care for the storyline and the characters--I thought the characters kind of over-acted (especially the ridiculous commander guy), which made it hard for me to take them seriously. And the storyline just seemed to beat you over the head again and again with the same points about genocide, persecution, corporations, and environmentalism. All good points…but after getting hammered with them over and over again, I kind of thought, “Okay, enough--I get your point!” I’m like my Dad that way…I get kind of out of patience with things repeated again and again. It’s probably something I should work on… :-) Anyway, as I said, Chris enjoyed the movie a lot, so it was three hours well spent.

Sunday we decided to take a drive, since the weather was gorgeous and sunny. We went to Napa, where we ate lunch at the Oxbow Public Market (our usual spot) and found not one but two good parks for Theo. He was in heaven! We stopped at one before lunch and one after, and both were excellent. You’ll see in this week’s album what a delightful mess of himself he made at the second park. They had a sand and water area, and naturally he gravitated toward that. I think he would’ve stayed there for hours, but we called it quits when he started trying to drink the water and eat the sand. Ewwwww…

Speaking of water, I’ll close this week’s blog with a fun developmental observation. Lately, Theo is rather obsessed with attempting to catch water droplets. In the bathtub, he’ll hold up a washcloth with one hand and let it drip, while carefully catching water droplets with the other hand. And he does the same with water drops that fall off me when I’m showering--tries to pinch them between his thumb and forefinger. I’m really impressed by his dexterity. Perhaps he is not the klutz his parents both are, as he has great success catching water droplets between his thumb and forefinger. I shouldn’t be surprised, after his “reach out and catch the yellow jacket” incident in Buffalo….

Anyway, have a wonderful week, all! Next weekend we’re headed down to Santa Cruz for a baby shower for Auntie Sarah (cousin Billy’s wife…they get honorary Auntie and Uncle titles). Little Liam Kristian Fletcher is due to arrive in early March, and we can’t wait to meet him! In the meantime, we’ll enjoy a visit to Santa Cruz and the Bay Area and some festivities for Billy, Sarah, and Liam….