juliloquy

the move, settling in; the recap

So. We are here. It has been just under 2 weeks, and some of that time was spent back in Philly for cleaning/closing. We still have quite a bit of clutter at the new place, but we are imposing some order on it. My hair is two shades lighter and my skin two shades darker from all the playground hours I've logged. We call playgrounds "Whee"s, christened by Roo. Once she is resigned to leave the playground after a session, she calls out "byebye, Whee." 

Shmoo has had more time outs than I can count, from attempting, often successfully, to inflict bodily harm on his sister, but it seems to be waning. Roo slept for shit our first week here (and also had a fever for a couple of days), but that seems to be improving, too. I have not won any awards for my parenting techniques lately, but I think we are figuring things out a bit.

We are trying to figure out some routines. HPR's days off are Tues-Wed. We have declared Mondays to be lake days. (Rooie's language explosion included the new word "tadpole" this week.) The awesome library has story time Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Saturday is the Farmers' Market. Am trying to meet other parents but also don't want to come off as the desperate newbie hitting on all the moms at story time.

I wrote several paragraphs about the move, but the details seem so tedious. I'll see if I can get back to it later to try to make it more interesting. Our new house was built in 1964. It is on a cul-de-sac, which I believe is French for "obsession with lawn maintenance." It has a carport. It has no basement, which bothered me at first, but after I spent 5 hours dragging crap out of our Philly basement and sweeping out the whole thing, I have warmed up to the basementless existence. The carport has a small storage unit, which I think we will find sufficient. It will be a good exercise in constantly paring things down rather than just stowing them away.

I haven't really focused on the job hunt as it seems we've been doing triage on the to-do list for the last 2 months. Something part time or freelance would be best, I think, at this point.

Well, time to get some sleep, otherwise I'll be Angry Mommy again tomorrow . . .

kid vignettes

We went to the Museum of Art on Friday, our first visit there since Rooie started walking. Gone are the days when we could buy a drink and listen to the jazz performance from the stairs in the great hall. The best part was when we got to the ramp near the gift shop (which has always been a favorite spot for da Shmoo). Roo started to walk up, then paused and you could just see "mind=blown" in her face. Descending was also very amusing, when fat little legs could no longer keep up with the body's inertia. There was much "uh-oh"-ing and dusting off of the chubby hands.
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This morning.
Shmoo [looking all around]: Where's the trash can in [Roo's] room?
Me [nursing Roo, therefore unable to gesture]: It's between the changing table and the crib.
Shmoo locates it and discards his used wipe.
Me: Shmoo, that was good listening.
Shmoo: Yep, my ears are up.

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Roo has begun using a version of "May I please" when she wants something. It comes out a bit like "bay'p-EEZ" in a whimpering, panicked tone, accompanied by leaning toward the desired object and fingers waving. HPR pointed out that all the work we've done to try to instill manners in da Shmoo are paying back now that the second child is imitating the first. For once, one facet of parenting is easy.

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Shmoo has been pretty exact in language from the start. It seems to be part of his personality. So his flubs are that much more amusing to us. Some recent examples are "I'm be-carefulling" and "I'm make-suring there are no ghostes." He also mixes up "braid" and "shave." Out of the blue yesterday, Shmoo said "[female relative] has whiskers. She has to braid them."