silly sunday

As I hoped, things went much more smoothly today. Dennis was still as irritable as could be this morning, but I was sick and so poor David had to deal with it. I can't tell if I'm having a fall allergy attack (because a heck of a lot of grass was mowed around here this weekend) or if I'm coming down with a cold. Dennis and I both have itchy eyes and tiredness and he is coughing a tiny bit while I have a sore throat. I have wanted to sleep all day except for when I wanted to eat, and Dennis napped a good bit as well. We realized about 7:30 that his afternoon nap had actually stretched to his bedtime without him waking up, so we got him up and fed him and played with him for a long time before putting him back down. I can hear him walking around in his crib right now.

He was in a sweet sunny mood this afternoon and we played with his cars for hours. He wanted to snuggle a little and we indulged him in that as well. The cutest things he did today were 'helping' us with the laundry (meaning he snatched clean clothes from the pile to play with) and twirling around in circles in his room and then staggering drunkenly until he fell down in a fit of giggles. I don't know why dizziness is such a fun experience for him, but apparently it is. Strange. But very cute.

He doesn't have fever and he seems to feel okay, but I think he's got itchy eyes from the way he's scratching them and he's been swiping at his nose a bit so it must be runny. Very mild, whatever it is, and I'm hoping that's the reason for yesterday's terrible moods. And I'm proud to announce the arrival of tooth #14 (the second upper incisor, so now he has fangs), which might also explain some of the moodiness as well. I have no excuse for my own moodiness and will just have to plead female hormonal-ness.

We are holed up in this house with all our healthy groceries, and we are taking our vitamins and hoping for the best. It's going to be too nice outside this week to be sick. So we won't be. I just know it. We rested all day while David took care of us (such a great Dad and husband he is!) and we'll be rarin' to go in the morning (but not early).

domestic hostility

All week I've been feeling like a successful housewife and mother. Every day I have cleaned and done laundry, played with Dennis, cooked our meals... This domesticity is relatively new to me. Yes, I've been away from work for almost 4 months now, but I have been spending my time at the lake or going shopping or with my mother... I don't know where the time has gone. But now we are settling in to a home routine. We've nearly stopped eating out, which we did WAY too much before, and we've been keeping healthy groceries in the house and a few snack things that aren't so healthy because occasionally we need those, too. And it's been so fulfilling, cleaning out stuff that's been needing it for a long time, rearranging rooms, all during naptime and all while keeping laundry going. I never dreamed of being a housewife and stay-at-home mother, having always pictured myself as a career woman, and I never considered stopping working at all until this year. Granted, I work very hard at raising Dennis, but I never thought I'd be doing this.

There is still much to be done. I have baby stuff to pack away in storage and my closet to go through. We have a junk room that I would much prefer to be a library and intend to start on that when I can. And we're planning the greenhouse garden, which is also a very big project. All in all, I've been very excited about staying home especially now that I'm actually staying home instead of going out somewhere every day.

But today I cracked a little. We were out too late last night grocery shopping and Dennis didn't get to bed until nearly midnight. I paid for it all day. He was cranky and whiny and irritable. I really wanted to reorganize our den and create some play space in there for him so we aren't always in his room. I already have a toy box full of toys in there, random stuff that David and I collected earlier in our marriage. Dennis has a table and chairs in there, so I thought today he could play at the table while I rearranged. He, however, had other ideas. Yes, he was delighted to sit at the table, and he sat there in 4 minute increments. But in between these increments, he was everywhere. He thought that today would be a perfect day to reprogram the stereo and I absolutely could not keep him away from it. All those lights and buttons--irresistible to a toddler! I turned my back and lost him, only to discover him in the bathroom opening the toilet and saying "down". I don't know what went down. I never heard a flush, but I know he was playing in the water. Thank goodness I scrubbed it well this morning! He's contained when he's in his room, but I wanted to start to allow him some freedom. And he certainly wanted the freedom!

I tempted him with toys. He played with the Chevron cars that we collected from the gas station years ago. I had no idea we had so many of the things, but we do. He was very excited when I unboxed some of them today and presented them to him. There's a major traffic jam in the den floor now. And when I was trying to convince him to sit at the table, I let him play with his Fisher Price Nativity set, which he had never seen before today. It isn't a Christmas present but something I bought for him to have to learn about Christmas. It's designed for a 1 year old and is babyproof, and he was very excited about it. He loved the baby Jesus figure, placing it carefully in the stable and saying "baby" over and over. I hadn't intended for him to start playing with the set in September, but he found the box and was intrigued, so I opened it up and let him see ALL the pieces. He played with it a good bit, but it wasn't enough to keep him from wandering the house and getting into mischief. I even brought out David's Green Giant toy 18 wheeler, and I've never seen Dennis so excited about a rolling toy. He kept saying "truck" and rolling it all over the room. He did play a good bit today.

But every minute he wasn't playing, he was fussing at me. He wanted to go outside and help Daddy cut grass and of course I wouldn't let him. He wanted to mess with the stereo all day and I wouldn't let him do that either. When I started cooking, I had to put him in his room for a minute and he was FURIOUS and let me know it. He didn't want to sit in his high chair, he didn't want what I fixed for lunch and threw it down, and he didn't want milk to drink... So much whining and fussing from him is very unusual, but I got it in spades today. Today was the first day I ever wanted to spank him. I didn't, of course, but it was the first day he was deliberately doing what he wasn't supposed to, and it was the first day he knew he was doing it. He KNEW not to touch the stereo but would not stop opening the cabinet and going to it, and each time I picked him up and moved him to something else. The last time I picked him up, he screamed and smacked my arm and then pinched me. I am not obsessed with the stereo, by the way. It's old, and we almost never listen to it in this age of the iPod, but he doesn't need to learn that it's okay to mess with things like this because he might do it at someone else's house and ruin something. I know he wanted to push the buttons. I don't know what a happy compromise would be. He could have pulled the thing over on top of himself the way he was climbing up to push the buttons, and it scared me.

Dennis got tired of me today, too. After I repeatedly denied him the opportunity to do what he wanted, he went to his room. I followed him after a minute, and he pointed to his crib and said "night night". Since he'd just had a nap, I wondered what he was up to. He pointed to his dvd player and said "movie" and then "Elmo", so I put in a Sesame Street dvd and let him have some alone time. He was a bit happier afterward and I got a good bit done while he was on his break!

It was a difficult day. Tonight I cooked supper, put him in the high chair, and when David came into the kitchen and started to fix a plate for Dennis, I just had to get out of there. I had intended to eat with them, really, but I needed a break and escaped to the shower while they ate their supper. I cried a little to let off some steam and then gradually relaxed. When I joined them again, they were happily playing together in the den, but David looked a little harassed as well and admitted to suffering some of the same treatment I'd been getting all day. We put him to bed at 8 despite his protests (he wanted to play in his car some more; we wanted to read the bedtime story and put him to bed--we're bigger, we won) and he went right to sleep. Let's hope he's well rested tomorrow!

temporary insanity

I must have temporarily taken leave of my common sense at the grocery store last time. When I got to the applesauce, I saw that they had blueberry applesauce and I thought, hey, Dennis loves blueberries, I'll get that. What I forgot to take into account was that we are letting him feed himself with the spoon now and blueberry applesauce is a lot more vibrant in color than regular applesauce. To my credit, he did love it, but I don't think I'll be buying it again real soon. I'm sure you can see why.

We started the day out kind of puny, and I was afraid we might be catching Gran's cold, but it no longer looks like that's the case. By this afternoon, after some nice snuggle time watching movies and a couple of good naps, we felt normal again. Maybe we just didn't sleep too well last night. Today I shared one of my favorite cartoons with Dennis: It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Yes, I know it's not October yet, but my fall excitement starts every year about this time. I am already getting ready for the pumpkin patch trip and the pumpkin train ride and I'm looking for petting zoos and hay rides and demonstration farms... I LOVE all this stuff, and I can't wait to share it with Dennis. Maybe he'll like the season as much as I do. We'll be camping and visiting the mountains and trick-or-treating before we know it, and then (drumroll please...) it will be time to start thinking about (gasp!) Christmas!!! And this one should be even more fun than last year's. But I'm getting ahead of myself, big time. I do it every year.

We had dinner tonight at Grandmother and Granddaddy's house and all Dad's brothers were there. Dennis enjoyed playing with his older cousins (who are actually my youngest cousins) so much, and they are so good with him. He was so pleased with himself that the big kids were giving him so much attention. He ran and played and squealed and giggled, and sometime during all this he found Grandmother's Swiffer in the laundry room and then Swiffered her kitchen floor. I wonder if he liked it better than the broom...

We had a great day after all. And thank goodness we are feeling just fine.

A Top Ten List

Top Ten Reasons it's fun to parent a nearly 18 month old:

10. He's always glad to see us.

9. He can walk now, which is good since he's heavy.

8. We have an excuse to play with toys.

7. We get lots of kisses, some without lots of slobber!

6. He has learned how to give hugs.

5. Access to a neverending supply of cuteness...

4. There's nothing like the phrase "I Love You" in toddlerspeak.

3. His smile.

2. Night-night time cuddles are so sweet.

1. So much joy in our lives that wasn't there before.

Dennis and I stayed home today and cleaned house in between serious playing sessions. The funniest thing he did? After I pushed him around and around his room in his car, FAST, I got dizzy and had to lie down on the floor for a minute. He stopped the car, opened the door, got out, and walked over to me. Then he reached down and grabbed a handful of my hair with one hand and the front center of my bra in the other (how he found that through my shirt I'll never know) and gave a serious yank to try to get me back up off the floor to push him some more. Since he didn't cause me any pain, I nearly died laughing because it was so unexpected. I'm laughing now just writing about it. He joined me in laughing and then we decided to play something else.

Remember the movie Flashdance (not you, Ellen, you probably weren't born yet...)? That's how Dennis dances, like the Maniac song dance. We spent quite a while pushing the music button on his giraffe ball sorter toy and then dancing like maniacs to it. So I had a good cardio workout today for sure! Maybe I should try and teach him to waltz...

watch me play

I was pleasantly surprised to discover a mild temperature and nice breeze when I went outside around lunchtime. I fixed lunch for Dennis and myself and then loaded us up to head to the playground. Dennis is able to do more and more at the playground and I was so amazed to see him climb to the top of the highest slide and sit himself down and push off to slide down it. When he was at the top of this same slide, Gran and Pop showed up at the playground to see him play. He began giggling and grinning hugely at them as soon as he spotted them walking into the playground. He quickly plopped down on the slide and slid down to them, delighted as always to see them. He showed off all his climbing and sliding skills for them and they had fun catching him and then pushing him while he was in the swing.

He made a friend at the playground, another little boy who was a little older. He had an extra truck that he let Dennis play with in the sand, and he wanted Dennis to slide down all the slides either right before him or right after him. He also wanted all of us to watch him slide and climb on the play equipment. I guess he heard us praising Dennis for his abilities and knew that he could do so much more and wanted some praise as well! We were happy to comply.

Gran treated us to some seriously decadent chocolate ice cream from Publix this afternoon after we picked some pears from our tree to take to her. It was a pretty good exchange. The poor pear tree is weighed down, some branches nearly to the ground, with pears (Bartlett, I believe), and many of them are not quite ripe enough to pick. The ones today were very close and Gran confirmed their deliciousness. I am overrun with the things since I didn't even think about pruning the tree. Some farmer I am! This happened with my tomato crop years ago and I had more of them than I could have eaten in two years. Since we are planning a big fall garden for the greenhouse this year, I am going to have to learn to care for the plants properly! I am looking forward to teaching Dennis about gardening. We have a giant greenhouse and will be able to garden through the winter. His apple tree is growing well but is still too young to produce fruit. He loves flowers and points them out to me whenever he sees them, and he likes to touch different plants and flowers to see how they feel. So far we've managed to avoid poison ivy and its nefarious cousins, thank goodness.

Of course we spent time in his room playing with the cars, and he helped Daddy clean up his room tonight before bed. He watched Mommy cook dinner and clean in the kitchen until his Daddy got home, and he heard David get in the shower. He ran back to the bathroom laughing, saw that the shower was occupied and in use, shouted "Da da!" and ran to the shower door and slid it open. It's a good thing he shouted a warning or David might have been in for a rather rude surprise!

Our quest-to-be-greener has been going well. We stopped at Whole Foods last week and got paper towels and trash bags made from recycled materials. This was too expensive to be feasible before, but now Whole Foods has their own brand name and the products are equivalent to the Seventh Generation ones in biodegradability and use of sustainable materials. We especially like the diapers. They are bigger than the Seventh Generation ones and leak less. And more of them come in the package, so they are cheaper. All of the Whole Foods brand products are very reasonably priced, and I didn't pay any more for the trash bags than I would have for any trash bags. The paper towels were a little bit more, but still very reasonable. The only problem is having to drive so far to get to Whole Foods! We try to combine all our northbound errands into one trip now. I really like the new Clorox GreenWorks products as well. We had bought them for the camper so that we wouldn't be polluting the campgrounds, and now I am using them at home as well--they work well, have less chemicals, and smell pleasant. This is especially good since Dennis likes to 'help' me clean now, and he likes to spray the bottle and wipe as well. It's nice that these cleaners are not as toxic for him as far as touching is concerned, not that we're going to turn him loose with the cleaning products for several years yet. His favorite cleaning tool is still the broom--he loves to sweep it through the house, even though it's twice as tall as he is and then some. It will be a few years yet before Dennis knows or cares about the environment, but we are hoping to set a good example for him and keep him healthier by choosing organic foods and natural products whenever we can. He happens to like this planet pretty well!

hot for Hot Wheels

The boy is passionate about cars. He talks about them, he looks at them, he rides in them. He would eat them if they were edible. He spent the entire day playing with cars except for a brief moment when he pulled his Ugly Dolls down from the shelf, but then he loaded them in his Little Tikes car and took them for a ride. If it's got wheels, he's interested.

We spent the majority of the day in his room and he was pretty happy about it. Since we'd spent some days at the lake, he hadn't gotten in all his car-rolling time. He made up for it today. Again today he was extremely happy and chatty. I feared it wouldn't be so when he woke up crying at 11:30 last night and we couldn't discern the reason. We cuddled him and played with him and decided it was tooth-related (we're getting tooth #14 in now) and gave him some medicine. He went back to bed happily and slept peacefully. This morning while we were playing he brought me his bottle of ibuprofen and the medicine dropper from his diaper bag, so I wonder if the tooth was still bothering him today. I quickly put the medicine out of his reach, but it was cute watching him try to manipulate the bottle that actually proved to be childproof (thank goodness). He tried to poke the oral syringe down into the bottle but that pesky lid kept getting in his way.

David asked him who he wanted to take his bath with tonight and he proclaimed "DA DA!", so David and Dennis took a nice Johnson & Johnson lavender scented Bedtime Bath. I have an aromatherapy husband tonight! We should all sleep peacefully!

It was slimy

Like many good southerners, we spent today at the river. Gran, Grandma, and Bob fished and caught a mega load of catfish and sometime soon we'll have a good fish fry. Boats were everywhere and Dennis enjoyed watching them and waving at them and saying "boat" whenever they went by. We did not get out on the water, though. It was windy and rough, our prequel to the hurricane spinoff weather that will be coming through this week.

Dennis watched the action from the screened porch for a while before walking over to the door, pointing one finger at it and insisting "side!" (which is Dennis-speak for 'outside'). He cried, full pouty lip and red eyes and big tears, when we wouldn't let him go out, so pretty soon I was lugging the pack and play down to the dock so he could visit outside with everyone. He had fun watching the boats and skiers and tubers going by, and he shouted encouragement to the fishermen. When Grandma caught a baby largemouth bass, I took Dennis over to see it. He was fascinated and reached out to touch it, so his Grandma immobilized the little fish in her grip. Dennis reached out a finger to touch it and then touch it again. He laughed and then watched as we let the fish go. He saw it flip around on the dock for a second before she put it in the water and it quickly swam away. He was pleased with his fish-touching experience, and now he's officially had fish goo on his hands like the rest of the family has. What an initiation!

It got hot down there on the dock and I took his little shirt off. He helped me undress him, giggling the entire time. He thought it was hilarious when he was down to his diaper and he grabbed at it and nearly got it off as well before I stopped him. Naked babies are not offensive to most people, but I didn't care to clean the results of a naked baby out of the pack and play. We played a strange game with the side of the pack and play. He smashed his face into the mesh side and made me laugh, so I got down on my hands and knees and smashed my face into the mesh as well. He giggled hysterically, and we repeated this for quite a while. My lip still feels like it's smashed into mesh--perhaps I overdid just a little...

Once the weather turned bad, Dennis began walking around in the cabin and saying "bye bye", so we loaded up and left. As it turns out, his Daddy was headed home from his job site then and we arrived home at the same time. Dennis was thrilled to see him and even more thrilled to play cars with him while I cooked supper. It was pizza; I didn't spend any time slaving over a hot oven (just in case you might be mentally applauding my nonexistent domestic skills).

Dennis was sleepy all day today. He repeatedly walked over to the pack and play and said "night night" and I let him take two naps there. He was still sleepy, though, and said night night again when we arrived at the house and went into his room. We kept him awake through supper and for a few minutes of play afterward, but he was rubbing his eyes and heading to the crib. When I picked him up to kiss him goodnight, he put both of his hands on the sides of my face, leaned forward (for what I thought was going to be a very sweet kiss), opened his mouth, and lightly bit the end of my nose. Taken by surprise, I couldn't help but laugh, so he laughed too and tried again. When I resisted, he removed my glasses and waved them about and then put them back on my face. He took them off and said "eye" and poked me in the eye, but I couldn't really fault his thinking process. After all, he did correctly (if painfully) identify my eye. He went happily to bed right after this and when I went in to check on him after 15 minutes, he was still awake in the dark, talking to Froggy. Lucky for us he still likes to go to bed. It may be that he is starting to enjoy his alone time because he did the same thing when I put him down for his nap. He talked for a few minutes to himself or Froggy and then went to sleep. It's very cute to listen to, much nicer than crying to get out of bed as soon as we put him in it, but I don't kid myself that we won't have to face that one day as well!

It was a very nice holiday weekend, and we are all getting to know and like Bob very much. He certainly has the Dennis seal of approval! Now the weekend is over and Dennis will have to be content with lots of Mommy time again. I hope he won't be too disappointed. He has loved being around everyone the past few days.