juliloquy

just alright with me

We have been doing holiday festivities up proper around here. Shmoo couldn't be more zazzed about it all. We have watched Olive and the Grinch and Frosty and Charlie Brown. (Not Rudolph. Looks like someone's done some serious copyright restricting there; we can't find it free anywhere online.) Last weekend I took the kids to a live nativity with real animals, including a camel.  Shmoo's review: "The camel is big . . . and STINKY!"

As I mentioned before, the kids have been playing with their nativity sets. Shmoo has this one and Roo just received this one, both from my parents. Roo took baby Jesus for a ride in her toy stroller, along with a wind-up penguin. Also, according to Roo, the manger is where he gets his diaper changed. Jesus, not the penguin.

So you can see I'm trying to give the religious aspect of Christmas a lot of play around the house since public events focus so much on the secular.

It appears the religious theme has sunk in. The other day, Shmoo said, "If I ever have a son, I think I'll name him Jesus." (Anglo pronunciation). I nodded and thought thought to myself that could be a very satisfying name to give a child, and not for the reasons one might think. Imagine:

"Jesus! What do you think you're doing?"

"Jesus! Get off the cat RIGHT NOW!"

And of course my favorite: "Close the door! Jesus, were you born in a barn?"

mama fix doot

So much for the desired two- to three times per week posting schedule. Ah well, I'll just dive in.

Back when Shmoo was just a wee lad, HPR was explaining to him what we do at our jobs. His simplified explanation of my editorial work was that I "fix books." As a parent, however, I've become an expert at that earlier explanation: I literally repair quite a few of our well-loved children's books, many of which were mine or my siblings' all those years ago.

I think I've gotten pretty good at it.

We have a deluxe pop-up version of Olive, the Other Reindeer. The book has seen quite a bit of love since I took the holiday stuff out of storage after Thanksgiving. One part of the book [spoiler alert!] shows Santa's sleigh crashing into a tree, and the book features a cut-out simply glued onto the page. (Kind of a head-scratcher for me, honestly. The feature doesn't seem to add enough impact to rationalize the expense of the special die-cut and paste.)

Anyway, the kids didn't understand it, either, and pulled Santa and his sleigh right out of the book. 

I took it as an opportunity to improve on the book, and fashioned an accordion-pleat zoinger* out of cardstock.

Yay!

To explain this post's title: Although Roo has been able to pronounce the "b" and "k" sounds since she was tiny (in fact, book was her first word: simply 'k), she calls books "doots."

*coined on the spot.

the swing of things

I didn't give proper credit on one of last week's posts. The swing featured in the post's recent photo is new. Pop-pop (HPR's stepdad) surprised us by knocking on our door midday on a Tuesday the week before Thanksgiving. His business handles jobs all around the region, and although he delegates many of the trips to his employees, he looked at the location and decided to do the one near us himself. He delivered part of Shmoo's birthday gift that didn't fit into our car (the base of a desk). He also brought a swing he had made out of leftover Trex® from their deck, some nylon rope, eye bolts, and electrical tape. He installed it right away. What a great surprise! I had looked online for swings to buy, but shelved the idea.

The kids tested it out right away. Giggles.

 

Kiss-kiss!

Thank you, Pop-pop!

glad it's the last week of daily posting

Not feeling a theme to post today. I peeked around the NaBloPoMo site to see whether they have a suggested topic, but I couldn't find it. So I'll just say what I did today. /yawn/. I'll take any topic suggestions/questions you have!

Woke up in the outskirts of Pennsburg, PA, at the home of HPR's mom and step-dad. Roo woke me up at 4something. I got her back to a fitful sleep, but had to lie beside her on the floor next to her portable trundle bed (thanks, Aunt Cathy!). A bit later she was still restless, so I took her to another room and we slept a bit more. She woke for the day, ready to play, at about 6:30.

I had been in deep REM sleep by then and thought about waking HPR to take the early shift with Roo, but Shmoo was asleep in the same room and I didn't want to risk waking him. So I went downstairs with Roo and set her up for playing. HPR's mom and step-dad had work and his sister had school, so they were bustling about getting ready to go. Shmoo woke up after a while and came down to play. I pointed out to him that the donut fairy had come (I made a trip after we arrived Tues. night).

HPR was up by 7 something and we traded off childcare activities, eating, bathing, and some computer time. We decided to take the kids to the Crayola Factory and Canal Museum in Easton. We packed up the car and left by about 10:40. We arrived in Easton at 11:19 (a missed call told me the time). Roo had fallen asleep about 10 minutes before we arrived, which was not ideal, but we persevered. The factory/museum is fantastic and we stayed for a couple of hours and probably could have stayed longer if we weren't bumping up against naptime.

Shaky from low blood sugar, we got into the car to head back west to the Allentown area. Roo kept asking for a snack and we kept having to explain to her that we only had apples, which we offered to her, but which she didn't want. Then I found two fruit leathers in my purse (angelic chorus). Roo and Shmoo were doing a silly imitating game with each other that made us smile. I mean, it was pretty obnoxious, but they were making each other happy and didn't rely on us to entertain them, so it was music to our ears.

We ran into a bit of traffic, so didn't get to the grocery store until about 2:30. We grabbed a bite to eat from the Asian buffet and then HPR and Shmoo went to gather our small list (pie, berries, and cider). Stopped for some wine (I had to go back into the store because the clerk had directed me to Beaujolais rather than Beaujolais Nouveau), then arrived at HPR's dad and step-mom's empty house at 3:30. I crashed on the couch a bit until everyone got home. (His dad was at work and his step-mom was picking up his step-brother at the bus station.)

And we've had a great evening with them and the puppies (one black and one chocolate lab). The amount of wine consumed may have something to do with my lack of ideas for a post. The exhausted and nearly napless kids went to bed with only a glimmer of protest. A lively discussion of politics ensued.

It's 10:30 now and I'm going to drink some more water and head to bed. Most noteworthy parts of the day were Roo's obvious playing-up-of-the-cute for her grandfathers and Shmoo's focus on dog training. Our theory is that Shmoo loves to have someone to boss around who actually listens to him.

baa baa bat eep, hay ay woof?

Roo has been singing up a storm and we want to capture it all on video. She doesn't want us to sing along, as you'll hear after I try to join in. "No, I want to sing ALL BY 'auf."

We also love the place in the video where she is distracted by something on the road behind me, then something on the ground.

quick learner

You have perhaps seen the video of Roo's birthday where she is clearly perplexed about the blowing-out-the-candles business. HPR helped her with the cake candles and Shmoo helped her with her birthday ring candles.

Shmoo's birthday is six weeks after Roo's, and this video shows that it didn't take long for her to catch on. I ended up having to restrain her while HPR relit Shmoo's candles.

mistakes were made

A few recent photos have me wondering what kind of example I'm setting for my kids.

First is Roo's Britney imitation.

 

She went on to give the baby an underdog-push in the baby swing.
Seriously - she said "unnadod" as she was doing it.

All right, so two minor lapses in judgment and no one is hurt, right?
I'm afraid I can't say the same of microwaving the baby.

 

Ding! Fresh baby!

So I guess I should make some changes to my parenting tactics. Maybe the first step should be to let the kids out of their cages more often.

 

meals on wheels

It's a good thing I signed on to the everyday-in-November thing. Typepad changed at some point when I was in not-posting mode. This will force me to navigate in the new set-up.

I announced on twitter and facebook that Roo is now in a big-girl bed. We had a few rough nights (funny - when Shmoo transitioned to a toddler bed, he didn't realize for several weeks that he could get out of it by himself. He called for me to get him when he woke up in the morning.) and a few limits-testing bedtimes (yes, you're cute, now go back to bed), but she has taken to it quite well. 

In the morning* she gets up and wanders through the living room, in case we're awake, then through the kitchen, to the powder room, and into our bedroom. This makes a nearly complete circle, since the 3 bedroom doors are all near each other at the end of the hall. She says "'ood morning, Mommy! 'ave dood schnooze?" I get up and we go to the living room for a nurse,** and sometimes we'll fall back asleep until the guys wake up.

ANYWAY with the time change*** Roo has awakened at 4:19 and 4:22 the past two mornings despite our putting her to bed at the standard time bedtime. This morning she came around to our room and said "Mommy, 'n I have nursey?" and I said OK. We went to the couch. When she was done, she slid off of me and started back for her room. At first I didn't understand what she was doing. I suggested a snuggle and then followed her. Then it hit me—she was going back to her bed. She crawled right in and I pulled the covers up. I was thrilled at the prospect of going back to bed myself even as my mind flashed to how I'd have to discourage the before-morning feedings, yet still chalking it up to the time change.****

Turns out I didn't have to think about new rules/boundaries because she got back up (for the day, alas) a few minutes later.

Both kids are currently napping, so I will do so myself.

* "morning" here defined, unfortunately, as 5 a.m. or later.

**yes, still nursing and not interested in weaning. I don't nurse her until morning (see fn* above). I can often distract her during the day; the bedtime nurse is just perfunctory, but the morning one THOU SHALT NOT MESS WITH.

***GRRRR

**** cf. note ***

Halloween recap

Daylight savings ends. An extra hour of sleep, right? Yeah, tell that to a 2-year-old. Specifically, my 2-year-old. Because the kids both took good naps yesterday (a rarity for Shmoo these days) and because of trick-or-treating and the required combing through of the haul, we let them stay up late. It still seems so unfair that that never works for getting them to sleep in.

So, Halloween. We weren't sure how our new neighborhood would be. Seems like it would be the kind of place where people really get into the holiday. Probably it was back in the 60s when these houses were first built and there were kids everywhere. Long story short—our cul-de-sac is lame. We were the only house open for business. We are at the bottom of the cul-de-sac and only had about 10 visitors. (Wishing I had been more generous with the first visitors.) Anyway, now we know for next year.

HPR stayed home to answer the door while I took the kids out. Roo was in the stroller for some of the time. Shmoo was sweet in asking folks if he could have some for his sister, too, motioning back to us in the driveways. (Not sure how truly unselfish were his motives, but I'm choosing to put that spin on it.) Our route was a nice loop around the neighborhood. We were out from about 7-8 and toward the end, people were virtually pouring the candy into our bags. So between the kids' take and our leftovers, we're doing well.

It's crazy, but it just might work

I signed up for NaBloPoMo, which requires me to post every day in November. I believe that means more posts in November than I've put up so far in 2009. I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes me.

Also crazy: we invited all of Shmoo's Pre-K classmates to his birthday party next weekend. Nineteen 4- and 5-year olds.

Shmoo wanted to be the Easter Bunny for Halloween (?!). Easy costume! I bought a second pair of bunny ears and tail for Roo, but she wouldn't wear them.

And Roo just woke up from her nap. More . . . tomorrow!