Foto Finish Friday: 2013 Week 4

Foto Finish Friday: 2013 Week 3

Roddie Report: My Baby's Other Love

I’ve heard that mothers of sons sometimes have a hard time letting go, when their baby boy one day finds another woman – you know the one they want to marry?  I get to be the most important woman in Roddie’s life for a few years yet, or so I thought…

Roddie is resisting growing up in some ways, and for good or for bad, I’m letting him.  He likes to pretend he’s a baby and sit and cuddle in my lap (who wouldn’t, really???)  It doesn’t really manifest itself in other ways, except maybe potty training, where it’s kind of backfiring (note to self: must deal with this…) in any case, part of our baby routine is me telling him I love him and he loves me.  It’s a  nice routine that leaves us both smiling – until recently.  Now, when I ask him who loves him and who does he love, the answer (at least not the FIRST answer) isn’t Mommy, (as it should be, in my opinion, at least until he’s 30) but KENDALL!

Now, Kendall is adorable and all, but isn’t he a little young for this?  I hesitate to mention it to Kendall’s parents, lest they think Roddie is a mini-stalke!  Their teacher, Miss Julie told me this morning that indeed Kendall does love Roddie, so I guess he’s not making it up.  Also, I must admit they have been good buddies since early in their daycare careers, way back in the baby room – but Love?

I just really thought he’d be older, that’s all.

Foto Finish Friday: 2013 Week 2

Roddie Report: January 2013 update

Roddie has been growing and growing up in leaps and bounds!  We saw some friends today who last saw him in October, and they commented on how much older he seemed.  He's becoming more clear every day, it seems, with talking.  In addition to the enunciation, he's also expressing himself very well and in full sentences.  He still won't eat a vegetable, but we're expanding his palate all the time and I'm hopeful that he will eventually come around.  

He had his 'exit interview' for EI (Early Intervention) recently.  We were in the program to try to get to the root of his eating issues which we feel are sensory related.  I'm not entirely convinced that it really made any difference, but he tested well above his age level on all their standardized tests, so overall, we certianly have no cognitive or developmental concerns.  

He has kind of stalled out on the potty training front... we didn't exactly stay on him over our extended Christmas vacation, and he claims he'll only go potty for Miss Julie, one of his teachers at school.  On the up side, he does go for her multiple times each day, although dry diapers are pretty rare.  I've been trying to entice him with some big-boy underwear, but while he thinks the dinosaurs and monkeys are cool, he says "Me Baby, Norah wears underwear"  Alas, I guess he's not ready quite yet.  They say boys tend to be later than girls in this regard, so we may have a while to wait - Norah was potty trained just before Roddie arrived, at 2.5, which he is fast approaching!

I am amazed at how quickly the kids pick up new technology... I suppose each generation is surprised by the next in this regard.  In the past few months I've started doing some Kindle activities with both kids.  Norah, of course, doesn't need my assistance at all, and apparently neither does Roddie.  

Who needs old school wooden puzzles when you can do it  on the tablet?

If you're wondering what the full story was about his face smashing the other day, here it is.  He was really excited to show one of his teachers something he had built with blocks.  In his excitement to get her attention, he tripped and fell face first into the slide in their classroom.  I felt so bad for the teacher who had to call us, at the end of her work day, on her birthday!  Both she, and the other teacher were so worried about Roddie, who, it turns out is fine after all.  He and Matt went to the ER on Wednesday, then on Friday, when the swelling went down, he had an X-ray, that confirmed that there was no fracture.  So, I imagine by now you're wondering just how bad it looks.. well not that bad after all!  He has some bruising around his nose, and a scratch on top, but that's about it!

My Bruiser!

This holiday season, Rod was learning how to express himself, and see how we reacted to it.  For instance, he had a hate on for any incarnation of  "The Nutcracker", backing away and saying "I don't like that guy!"   He's also got quite the extensive bag of tricks when it comes to bedtime stalling.  Far beyond anything Norah, who does love her sleep, ever did!  One of Roddie's "I don't like"s was the snow.  He did NOT want to walk on it!  In any case, he got over if after a few tries...

I like this snow!

Both kids continue to amaze me with their active imaginations.  They make something out of nothing, all the time.  Or rather, they make spaceships out of chairs, cash registers out of steering wheels, food out of blocks, and so on.  For some reason, the other day, they were big on taking the bus to church, which, to my knowledge, they've never done.

"I'm just waitin' for the bus, with my bag and my drums..."

So, that's the summary of what our baby boy is up to lately.  Turning into a real boy!

2013: Off to an Inauspicious start!

Dear 2013, can we just start over please?

I know some superstitious folks may find your 2 trailing digits to be unlucky, but I’m not one of them.  Even after how things went these past few days, I still think we can do great things together!

We started off well enough, with a fun party with the neighbors while we waited for your arrival.  Sure, we may have had a few drinks, but nothing crazy (the kids, you know) and I came home 20 bucks richer after this year’s round of left, right, center.  The kids, Norah especially, were excited about staying up to see the ball drop on TV, and those fireworks outside as we carried them home in the cool night air?  Very nice touch!

But that’s when things started to go a bit downhill between you and I… early in the morning, as I was trying to rehydrate with a cup of coffee, there was that call for a playdate…who calls for a playdate at 8:30 am on New Years Day???  I thought, what the heck, we could use something to do today, and why not start off the new year with some new friends!  But 2013, the playdate, oh the playdate!  I didn’t know the little one was coming too, and why didn’t they bring snow gear for the outdoor play we talked about?  No matter, let’s make the best of it.. oh, but they’re staying for lunch… which would usually be fine, but since I had put off cooking (and, it turns out, shopping) until your arrival after the cooking fest that accompanies Christmas, all there was to eat was PB&J…. oops, or not.  Mostly Jelly as we scraped out the bottom of the PB jar… good thing I happened to take a loaf of bread out of the freezer!  Did I mention the kids were up past midnight last night?  Cause now it’s 2:00 and if I don’t get them some down time soon, it won’t be pretty… oh well, it was only our first day together, 2013, and the people were nice and the kids had fun, maybe I’m just not a playdate person.  Plus the kids slept the rest of the day away….

So what was up with the 1-2 punch?  Like it wasn’t hard enough, going back to work after a glorious 12 days off, but did you have to cut the heat on the coldest day of the year?  My bad – it was only day 2 of the year, but it was the coldest day of the season!  With all the news coverage about the upcoming cold snap, it didn’t occur to me immediately when it was a little cool in the morning that there was something wrong with the furnace.  With temps approaching zero (that’s Fahrenheit, seriously, 2013??) it really could not have been a worse day.  No matter, we swallowed our anxiousness about the return to work and called the furnace guy.  They sent a fresh face kid named Cam, who quickly diagnosed a bad controller.. crap, what’s that gonna cost?   Six hundred bucks and you can have it tomorrow?  Great!  That’s manageable, and 2013, we had only just gotten together, so I took this as a positive show of faith.  Yeah, it was cold, but the up-side of living in a small space is that a couple of space heaters can do a decent job of making it comfortable.  It was great that Matt was able to stay home that afternoon and get the house up to temp before we got there, but then we got the call about Roddie…

I mean, I guess I should thank for you having it happen when Matt was only 5 minutes away.  I guess I should also be happy that he likes his teachers so much that, in his excitement to show her his tower of blocks he tripped and fell flat on his face on the slide.  And I am definitely thankful that after that trip to the ER he seems to be fine…so, I guess alls well that ends well on that one eh?  My poor boss, he wasn’t sure what to say when my response to a late afternoon “How’re things going” was met with “well, my furnace is broken and my kid smashed his face and is on the way to the ER, so I gotta go home and tend the space heaters since it’s 10 degrees outside”  tee hee, it’s funny in hindsight, I guess.

Speaking of ending well, I guess when it comes right down to it, we did ok on the furnace thing too, didn’t we?  Young Cam blew it, on the controller.  After we waited for the part, it wasn’t that at all, was it?  Luckily the gas company works until midnight these days (who knew?  Is that you’re doing?)  15 minutes with a guy who knows what he’s doing (but wasn’t as cute as Cam) and the heat is on!  Not only that but the controller was fine and we get reimbursed for the service call.  Nice.  Alls well that ends well!

So, dear 2013, maybe we don’t really have to start over, but if you wouldn’t mind taking it easy on us, I’d appreciate it! 

Looking forward to a great year together, Alls well that ends well, remember.

Yours always

S

Foto Finish Friday: 2013 Week 1

12 Days of 2012: Day 12

After Nanny and Papa left, life went on here at the homestead.  The kids, Roddie in particular, looked around at some of their less flashy presents.  Their imagination has also returned, in full force!  They re purposed a number of toys into new and exciting adventures - note, no parents participated in the adventure, it was all them and their imagination!

Snuggly in new robes from Oma

They made their own spaceship, and flew to the moon for lunch

12 Days of 2012: Day 11

The big event on day 11 was... skating!  I know, you're shocked.  While it wasn't as AWESOME as the first time, it was still pretty darn fun!

Go Norah!  Nanny and Papa, who make quite the skating pair, coming up behind her

oh yeah, I got this!

Norah (and Mom) busting a move.

This day, Roddie was having most fun at break time

12 Days of 2012: Day 10

We really didn't take a lot of pictures on Christmas day, choosing instead to enjoy the moments.  Someone (Matt?  Papa?) did take this one later in the day, after all the chaos had subsided... Yeah, that's Norah, on a walkie talkie, in a construction worker outfit and footie PJ's, while Roddie is srumming his guitar, as he did ALL DAY on the chair.

12 Days of 2012: Day 9 (again)

We actually had a busy day on Christmas eve, and after a good post-skate nap and some seafood chowder, we went to midnight mass... at 8pm.  Don't ask, but suffice to say we were all spiffed up for the occasion and it was a good chance to get some pictures.

Nanny and her girl

Nanny and the Boston grands... Roddie is unimpressed!

Happiness is...

All the girls!  and no, we did not plan the co-ordinating, blue sparkly outfits!

Happy New Year!