Old Blog Posts: November 2007

The case against Third and Fourth Baby struck another blow today.  Within twenty minutes, Will had both peed in my underwear drawer (which I will grant you was not in the dresser where it belonged, but on the floor where it didn’t belong) and climbed over the gate at the bottom of our stairs.

sigh.

“Waffles” are “flas” as of this morning’s breakfast between Nic and Will.  Nic says Will’s still working on “pancakes.”

Nic worked a 20 hour day yesterday (leaving the house at 2am), so he got to sleep in this morning.  Although I wouldn’t call it sleeping in, since I had a morning meeting and Nic got to watch Will during it.  I was meeting with a local chapter of BNI.  It seems like a great networking organization, but unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to join.  All of the chapters meet weekday mornings every week, and getting childcare for Will wouldn’t be so easy (or cheap).  Oh well, it’s something to keep in mind for when the kiddos are in school!

What a full holiday weekend!  Of course, it helps that for us, the holiday weekend was five days long.

On Thursday we drove up to Denver to have our Thanksgiving meal with Nic’s Aunt Terry and Uncle Dee.  After a delicious meal, it was off to the airport to pick up Joan and then back to Colorado Springs for our second take on Thanksgiving dinner–a little turkey roaster, some mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry relish.

On Friday, Nic and I shot our first wedding together while Joan stayed and watched Will (who was coming down with a cold).  It was a short morning wedding, so Nic and I were back in time for dinner.

By Saturday, Will’s cold was in full swing, so we decided to stay home for the day, but that didn’t keep us from tackling some pretty tough stuff!  I had planned on saving potty training for after Joan’s visit, but she thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea for us to try…and I was so glad for her help!  We introduced Will to the general idea and Will peed in the potty chair!  We will be doing some more potty training this week.

Sunday was Christmas Tree Day–we went to the same tree farm as last year and picked out our tree.  I was actually disappointed, as it was a very easy choice for us this year!  Since we had picked out our perfect tree so quickly, we let Will run around for a while before heading home.

Today was probably my most favorite day.  Will took the day off so we could spend some time playing in Denver before dropping Joan off at the airport for her night flight back to Seattle.  We started the day by visiting Santa.  I was pretty disappointed that Santa wasn’t like he was last year…but it was still a fun time, there was no line, and Will even smiled for a picture or two!  I couldn’t believe how happy he was to hang out on Santa’s lap, especially since we’d just woken him up from his nap in the car.  Then again, we spent the weekend prepping him for the visit by watching Santa movies and reading Santa books.  So maybe Will just knew that he was visiting a celebrity!

After our Santa Success, we had lunch with Terry before heading as a group over to the Aquarium.  I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.  It has to be the best aquarium in the world.  So super -duper fancy.  Will had an orange balloon (he got it at lunch and didn’t let go of it until we pulled it from his fist on the way home at the end of the day) he was carrying, and the fish would follow it around!  It was so funny to see them be attracted to the balloon….and even funnier to see that Will was completely oblivious!

We still had some time to kill before Joan’s flight, so we hung out at an outdoor mall in Denver and had dinner before calling it a night.  The hero of the day?  Our family’s early Christmas present that I picked up at a crazy cheap pre-black-friday price last week.  I had planned on giving it to Nic for Christmas, but then gave away the secret as I also came to the realization that it was ever-so-slightly like that episode of The Simpsons where Homer gives Marge a bowling ball with his name engraved in it.  I had thought it would be a wonderful thing for the family to have, since we always seem to be getting lost.  What I didn’t really think through at the time was that the reason we are always getting lost is me.  So getting Nic a present that compensates for my own failings as a navigator didn’t really seem fair (as he was more than happy to point out to me).

We decided to keep the GPS as a Christmas present for the family, since it was intended to benefit our family adventures.  Well…any misgivings Nic might have had about the merits of the GPS quickly fell away as he saw it in action today.  I don’t even think I’d be overstating it if I said that, knowing what he knows now, he would have been happy to receive it as his Christmas present.  It rocked the day.  It allowed us to go here and there throughout the day without pre-planning.  We began the day with the Santa mall’s address, and then just worked from there.  Want to meet Aunt Terry for lunch at a restaurant on 120th and we’re at a mall in Denver in an area we’re not familiar with?  No problem–GPS Girl will tell us how to get there.  When it was time to head to the aquarium, we just typed in “aquarium” and off we went.  Next stop, the airport?  Sure thing!  Want to go check out that mall over there?  No problem–switch to the map view and we can scurry on over.  And so on, and so forth.  (And should we have felt the need to stop at a Starbucks, GPS Girl knows where the nearest one is.)

We marvelled at GPS Girl’s majesties all day.  Talked about this marvelous Information Age and all the ways that family outtings would forever be changed.  But a part of me is sad that our children might never be able to understand the stories that previous generations tell.  Stories about getting lost, about the dad freaking out, about the family getting into a giant fight and turning around before they ever reached their destination…all of that classic American family dream will be unknown to our babies who have GPS systems and iPhones keeping them from the misadventures of their forefathers.

Will likes spicy food, so when I served buffalo style chicken breast for dinner last night I didn’t worry.

Until, that is, we saw Will shove the pieces of chicken into his mouth, chew, swallow, and then grab the tablecloth and wipe his tongue with it frantically.  We handed him his milk and tried to teach him that milk makes your tongue not so hot.

Later at dinner Will seemed to be struggling with his mashed sweet potatoes.  He was holding the bowl up to his face and licking it.  I picked Will’s spoon up off the floor, piled it with a bunch of potatoes from my own plate, and tried to feed it to him.  He stuck his tongue out and closed his lips around it.  He wouldn’t let me put the food in his mouth.

That’s when Nic figured it out–he was trying to put the potatoes on his TONGUE.  Trying to put out the spice fire.  So I wiped the potatoes onto his tongue and he sat there will them. “Just coat potatoes on my tongue, please.  It’s on fire.”

It was one of the most adorable things he’s done all week.

To be fair, Will does put SOME energy into learning new words.  In the wake of Halloween, he has, in fact, learned “candy.”  Although it’s more like a panicked “NDEEE!  NDEEE!  NDEEE!” whenever he sees a wrapper or anything that looks suspiciously like candy.

Yesterday Will locked himself in the car.  The keys were inside.  My cell phone was inside.  I was outside.  And my sanity was rapidly disappearing.

We had showed up to our playdate at My Gym (remember the last time we visited and Will puked all over the place?) way early.  An hour early.  I thought our errands were going to take a lot longer than they did, and I didn’t want to drive all the way back home, so we were chillin’ in the parking lot playing.  We read books, ate a Starbucks pumpkin loaf, and then I let Will play in the drivers seat while I wiped the pumpkin loaf crumbs out of the back seat.  I finished brushing out his car seat and shut the door, ready to go around to the driver’s door, open it up, and play some more with Will.

Except that Will had locked all of the doors, and was now happily playing inside a locked car.

Sure, it is November and 40 degrees out so there wasn’t really any immediate danger, but there was panic in my heart nonetheless.  Babies and parked cars–not good.

My cell phone was inside.  I was going to have to leave Will and go inside one of the stores to call Nic, and even then it would be 40 minutes before he could come rescue us (I was also not looking forward to the eye rolling this would cause).

But then I remembered something.

That very morning I had been curling my hair when I watched Will outsmart the childproof locks on our bathroom cabinets.  (This cause a very similar “holy shit” feeling in my blood.)

As I sat there curling my hair, I watched my 21 month old pull out the cabinet door with one hand, and dress down on the white plastic with the other.  His eyes got big.  He closed the door to test and see if he could repeat the trick.  He could.  And then he giggled.  The giggle of power.

Now, not to go off on a tangent, but why did *I* have to get the criminal-in-training?  Other babies are working on learning, you know, WORDS.  Will is perfectly happy to go through the rest of his life with fifteen half-words, several dozen signs, and the mind of a criminal genius.  I guess I see his point–why bother with the intellectual stuff if you can just puzzle your way into any locked box and steal your way into making a living?

He figured out how to open up childproof medicine bottles MONTHS ago.  I still haven’t mastered that all the way.  And yet he can’t say “train.”

Standing there looking at Will inside my locked Civic, I remembered this.  The kid is a mechanical genius.  He can get himself out of a locked car!

I called him over to me and pointed at the lock button.  “Will–push up on the button!” I said.  So he pushed down.  Over and over and over again he pushed the button down, sure he was doing what I was asking.  And finally, all of 90 seconds later (a lifetime in my mind) he pushed up on the button.  I had my handle on the door, waiting for the second he unlocked it, because I knew as soon as that button went up, he was going to push it down again.  He unlocked the door, I opened it up lickity-split.  And cheered and clapped for my smart boy.

He thought he was pretty awesome…but he had no idea why.

Here’s the latest on Mr Will.

I’m pretty positive that he is, indeed, a leftie.

He calls popcorn “corn,” which is pretty good considering that “eggs” are still “quos”.

He spent the majority of our three day weekend with Nic, since I was at a wedding all day Saturday, and shooting in Denver for most of the day Monday.  Nic said they had a great weekend–Will played with the ferrets a lot.  Putting them in laundry baskets and pushing them around, picking them up and putting them down somewhere else, playing tug-o-war.

We went to Red Robin for dinner last night and when we pulled up Will started shouting his word for “balloon.”  That he remembers that Red Robin and balloons go together blows me away.  He held on to that balloon all through dinner, all the way home, while playing once we got home, and all through his bath.  It was really cute in the bath!!  We had to sneak it away from him before bed, and that was no easy feat!  I think he was reluctant to let go because the last time he brought home a balloon from Red Robin, it popped on some sharp point in the ceiling.  He talked about it every single morning for days.  So this time, he was determined not to “bro” it!

Nic wins the Husband of the Year award for folding out towering mountain of clean laundry while I was out on Monday.  My job today?  Tackling the hall closet.  It’s become a catch-all for my photography stuff, and a “hidden cave” for ferret treasures (“THAT’S where all the diapers went!”) so I have my work cut out for me.  Willie will be helping, of course. 

Will runs around half naked a lot of the time.  I just put pants and a shirt on him and he said “zoom,” signed “car,” and ran for the garage door.  It seems he associates clothing with leaving the house.  I had to tell him that we weren’t going anywhere, but he still was going to wear clothes.

(One of our friends from VA [a Texan] told us a story about how she went to a friend’s house one day and made a comment about the son’s stuffed animal [like, “what a nice stuffed animal you have!”] and the mother corrected her, saying “oh no.  X doesn’t have stuffed animals.  They’re plush action figures.”  Which is why Will’s doll that pees will forever be called a “potty training action figure”)

I wasn’t going to say anything about our upcoming potty training plans for a number of reasons.  (1) It might upset the potty training gods and (2) in today’s world potty training a 21 month old boy is crazy talk.  But Will has been driving us crazy lately with his diapers.  He removes his pants and the diaper the INSTANT he pees/poops and announces “Ka.”  He holds it in the tub and shouts “Ka!” to let us know that he needs to pee, so we better get him out of the tub and put a diaper on him fast.  And he’s displaying all other signs of readiness…so after much research/thought/advice from mommies and medical professionals, we decided that we would go for it.  And if it fails, oh well.  It it’s a success, wahoo!

This weekend I ordered a potty training doll action figure, and it arrived today.  I wasn’t sure what was in the box, so I opened it in front of Will.  It was love at first sight.  I couldn’t get the box opened fast enough, couldn’t cut all those stupid wires that hold the doll to the box fast enough.  Will loves Paul.  Immediately my plans to sell Paul on ebay once we were through with Will’s potty training were shelved.  Will grabbed Paul, then ripped the bottle out of the box (literally–it was taped in).  He started trying to feed Paul the bottle, all the while saying “wa-wa-wa” (Wil[speak for babies).  He carried him around.  He stroked his “hair” and gave him lots of little kisses on the cheek saying “mwah-mwah-mwah-mwah-mwah” (what I do to Will).  When I filled the bottle with water, the game got even better for Will–now he and Paul took TURNS drinking from the bottle!  Will showed me Paul’s toes, his hair, and nose, and eyes, and of course his weiner, too (and, as an added bonus, not only is Paul anatomically correct, he’s anatomically correct for Will–Paul is a European doll, so he’s uncircumcised).

I’m thinking I made a mistake showing Will the doll before potty training day (and he’s sick now, so I’m not about to move our plans forward), so I snuck Paul upstairs into a hiding place and distracted Will with my cell phone.  But I’m thrilled that Will is so loving and caring.  AND that he has an instant bond with the doll we’re going to use for potty training!