Fuzzy Love

Baking, Baths, and Beth

It's a quiet cozy day in Colorado today; we're staying inside since there's a high of 42F and lots and lots of rain. We've actually got the heat on in here (don't tell Mark - he'd say to put on a sweater). But we're prepared: Liam and I made bread on Sunday, which is always nice to have on a cold fall day. Liam insisted on helping, so I gave him a spatula and he went to work. I hope that he understands that those specific circumstances are the only ones under which he is permitted to stand on a chair.

Anyway, here's a bath picture, because I don't believe that I've posted one here before (and they are so cute when tastefully done).

Normally he doesn't use our tub, but it seemed like it was time for a change. We won't be doing that again anytime soon because we must be water-conscious.

In other news, Beth came to visit us yesterday. She dropped off some clothes that don't fit her (too big)and I passed on some that don't fit me (too small). Beth can mountain bike up mountains, go down the other side, then do it all again to get home. She actually has biked to my house from hers and back (which mapquest tells me is a distance of over 30 miles). As a result, she is fatless and tan and looks good in my old stuff.

Finally, you know how kids sometimes have runny noses? Well, guess what happens when a kid with a runny nose trips on the beach. This happens. Remind you of any former German dictators? That's actually Jake, and you'd be grumpy too if it happened to you.

All is quiet

Today is a quiet, rest, and lie on the sofa kind of day. Liam is napping (as he is prone to do) and, last time I checked, Mark was almost napping too (as he is prone to do). I have been quietly taking pictures for my photography class. Not of those two, but of things I found in the backyard. I'm using the fancy camera, which requires real film, so you can't see them yet. If any turn out, I'll let you know.

I do have pictures of Liam from Tuesday though.

Once Liam wakes up, we'll be going out for a bit of a hike. The leaves are changing here already and, after this (possibly last) weekend of nice weather, it will be cooooold here. By cold I mean in the 60's and that's pants-wearing weather.

Well, that's all I've got: naps and weather. I told you it was a quiet day. Be happy you got some pictures. Here's one for the road.

Mow Mow

The other night, Allison and I went out for coffee and she drove. Her new car has one of those fancy XM radios in it so, for the first time in a long time, we heard the song Elvira. You know you know it: my harrt's on fiiiiiire, El vi RA. Oom papa oom papa oom papa mow mow. We couldn't get out of the car until the whole thing had been sung along too.

Anyway, Liam has learned how to bounce recently (not a pure jump, but a funny two-step thing), and the other day he applied it to the sofa. Can you say dangerous?! He wouldn't stop, so I had to pull out a punishment, which is very new to me and not very much fun. To think this is only the beginning. Right now we are using the "bear hug" method of punishment. If you are not familiar with the bear hug, it means simply to remove the child from the bad situation, to sit the child in your lap facing outward, and to not allow the child to move for about fifteen seconds. Liam hates it, so it works. I like it, because it works, and because I get to give him a hug while he's upset. I am attempting to be 100% predictable, as Dr. Phil says I should be. I don't think I am quite at 100%, but might get a B, B+ or something.

I was really quite surprised how fast the need for discipline popped up. One day he was a perfect little angel who was exploring and experimenting in a sweet and thoughtful way, the next day he was emptying the contents of my wallet into the kitchen garbage. That's when the seed was planted: I need to think about punishing this little sweetie. Note that I was still not mad at that point - anger came later when he emptied the garbage onto the kitchen floor and ignored every one of my firm no's. So, I did a survey. Of our friends with toddlers, one uses the "baby jail" method (a time out behind a baby gate), one uses little smacks on the hands, and one also uses the friendly punishment: bear hugs. My ped suggested using "emotional time outs," or, in other words, ignoring the child for a minute or so, but Liam tends not to notice me ignoring him, so I must not be doing it right. Does anyone else have any ideas? What did people used to do? I can't honestly imagine my father employing the bear hug method, but he must have done something (since I turned out so well).

Speaking of punishment, when I was pregnant (so I had no actual child-rearing experience yet) I saw a woman dragging a small child through the Boston airport at high speed. The child didn't understand the urgency of whatever the situation was and obviously wanted to be doing something else, so he bit his mother on the arm. She immediately bent down and bit him back without even slowing her pace. I was horrified in an entirely self-righteous way: how could anyone bite her own child?? Well, I related this story to some long-time parents, Mark's brother and sister-in-law Sean and Heather, who were (and still are) the type of calm and nurturing parents I admire. Heather told me, "sooner or later, every parent bites her child." Oh. Well, so far Liam has not been bitten, but I'll be sure to let you know if it happens.

Well, there is some good news today in the world of fingernail polish. OPI, the polish with by far the best names out there, has a new Canadian Collection. By far, my favorite new color is "Nice Color, Eh?", although I also like "Paint Your Toron-Toes Rose" and "You Ottaware Purple." Unfortunately, the Atlantic provinces are not represented.

Post-Baby Pudge

I used to be quite skinny, you know. Too skinny, some would say (well, at least my mom would have said that). Now I am curvy (isn't curvy a great word for it?). Why can't I be both at the same time? In all the right places of course. I do know why I'm not skinny right now, actually, and it can't be blamed on Liam anymore. Mark and I made a cake yesterday, for no reason at all. We just had a cake mix, so we mixed it up, and now we have a cake. Well, actually, at this point we have half a cake. Sure, Mark did eat some, but then he went to work this morning and, several times today, I felt like a little nibble of something. Honestly, I need help.

In the meantime, Liam is finally feeling better. He had a bit of a fever yesterday, but not much of one, and today he's tired but otherwise fine. Here's another picture, because I know you just can't get enough.

Anyway, to continue the story from the other day, we took Liam to the Children's Museum on Saturday to tire him out enough that Mark and I could see Capture the Moment: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs (and because you just can't go all the way downtown without going to the Children's Museum). The Pulitzer show was great. They started giving Pulitzers for photographs in 1942, so it was quite a show and, of course, quite emotional at times; as you might expect, very few of the photos were of happy subjects. If you check out that link, they have a small slide show online that will give you a taste of what it's like - by the time we got to it, 1974's Burst of Joy was a much-needed smile for me. I also liked another picture of a car accident on a bridge that was taken by a vacationer in the 40's or 50's. The guy remembered that the local paper paid $10 for the "picture of the week," so he got his wife to dig around in the car to find the camera and he took the picture. He ended up with ten bucks and a Pulitzer.

Shots

Poor Liam. A week ago yesterday, when he had his fifteen month check up, he also got his shots for both Hib and MMR (which is Measles, Mumps, and Rubella). That MMR shot can have some side effects and Liam has all of them. Our little information book from the doctor says, "five to ten days after the shot has been given, there can be an increase in temperature as well as a rash that can last 2-3 days." Well, yesterday Liam had a little itchy rash on his chin and was a mite bit cranky. "Piece of cake," I thought, "side effects have checked in and been handled." Well, not quite. Late this afternoon he developed a fever of 101F and was very upset and hard to console (my arms are tired). He's been Tylenoled and is doing much better, but this is by far the worst side effects he's had so far. I expect we'll have a hard night tonight.

Speaking of Tylenol, I got a very stern talking to the other day by a Pharmacist when I requested Infant Motrin. You see, I like(d) the stuff because it seems to work better and last longer than Infant Tylenol for all sorts of problems. Apparently I shouldn't be using at all unless a doctor tells me to. She said it shouldn't be used for the same reason that aspirin shouldn't. I'll be sure to ask my ped about it, but in the meantime we aren't using it (and Tylenol seems to wear off so fast).

In the meantime, Liam has developed this curl on the top of his head. I think it's cute, so I'm leaving it there.

This morning we went to two museums (before Liam got that fever). First, we went back to the Children's Museum to let Liam run around and wear himself out.

We discovered the most amazing thing: no one visits the Children's Museum at 10:00 on a Saturday morning! We were the first ones in the baby section. First ones to pull a carrot from the garden, first ones to climb in the fishing boat, first ones to try on a costume (don't tell anyone!).

Notice that there is no one in the background? It was pretty great. For the first time, Liam was really able to get into the stuff that the bigger kids play with. Like the firepeople uniforms (is that what they are called in a PC world?)

And the basketball court.

He even did some announcing.

Well, more tomorrow. Liam is down from his bath and needs some more cuddles.

Disgusting Stuff

We've learned a lot around here in the last twenty-four hours. First of all (and most painfully), we've learned not to trust Huggies. You see, Liam was always a Pampers boy, because that's what was sold at Sam's Club. But we've moved on to Costco, and Costco sells Huggies. How could we go wrong? Well, here's how we could go wrong: Liam's diaper fell off yesterday. Just fell off. He wasn't doing anything un-baby-like, but off it came. Trouble was he was wearing a romper at the time, which made it next to impossible to see that the diaper fell off. Actually, the real trouble was that he picked that moment to have a poo. He immediately detected that something wasn't quite right and came running to me. Of course I swooped him right up and got a handful of....poo. Yup. End result: we both ended up having a late afternoon bath and I don't know if I can trust Huggies again.

Here's something else we've learned: don't leave an opened string cheese in the car on a hot day, even if it is just for 45 minutes while you go to Gymboree. That is a smell that lasts.

Finally, if you have a child in diapers, never, never, NEVER miss garbage day. Especially in the summer. You see, we have garbage pickup on Mondays, but this last Monday was Labor day and the garbage people didn't come that day. They came on Tuesday. We didn't think about this until it was too late. So imagine if you left a very dirty diaper out in the sun all day and that's what our garage smells like.

Aren't you glad I don't have any pictures today?

Belleview Park and So Long Pointers

I am very pleased to report that Liam sat through all the songs today at Tumbling Tots. Turns out it was another child's day to be the hyper one (Matthew), and Liam was a perfect angel. We certainly weren't smug about it, however. And I got another bit of a surprise today when we walked into class. The teacher (who might be all of eighteen years old) tried to remember each child's name as he or she walked in and guessed a bunch of girls' names for Liam! Finally another mother said, "That's Liam," as I, being my usual slightly dazed, didn't even realize that she was talking about my child. I guess he might need a haircut, or is there some rule that only girls can have curly hair? I'm sorry, but I don't think Liam looks like a girl.

In other news, the Pointer family went back to Seattle yesterday and we're feeling the loss. It was a lot of fun to have them around for a little while. Of course we had to keep all our little guys (and girl) entertained, and on Sunday afternoon we went to nearby Belleview Park for their petting zoo and miniature train. Now that's a great way to spend two bucks. Liam loved the whole thing, although sometimes it seemed that the pea gravel under the animals was as interesting as the animals themselves. Here is Liam, after briefly watching the ducks, ready to bolt.

And Jake and Liam looking at an empty pen (although the fence itself was fun).

And Liam playing with the pig's water, with no apparent interest in the actual pig.

The train was especially exciting. I know this because Liam happily sat still for five minutes. So did Lauren.

And so did Jake.

I only wish we had discovered this place earlier in the summer. That's a lot of entertainment for two dollars. Anyway, here's one last picture: myself, Kelly, and Jenn in our backyard on Sunday evening, drinking some soooooo good margaritas that Jenn whipped up (I swear, I don't drink often enough).

Not Much

Nothing but (mostly topical) silliness today folks, spawned by this, which we saw downtown last week.

I had just read a book that talked about the last time The Scream was stolen, which was during the opening ceremonies of the Lillehammer Winter Games in 1994. I guess the gallery wasn't guarded very well, so the thieves simply put a ladder up against the building, broke a window, took the painting off the wall, and drove away. Problem was, the thieves stole the painting because they thought they could, but they didn't really have a plan for what to do with it afterwards. I hear there isn't much of a market for stolen priceless works of art, and what market there is is apparently made up of drug lords (with good taste). But the poor Norwegian thieves didn't know any art-collecting drug lords and said drug lords are hard to meet. That painting was back on the wall pretty quick. I'm wondering if these new thieves have some sort of plan.

Here, for your enjoyment, is a picture of Liam.

And here's some extreme silliness: Spiderman reviews crayons (at least my brother will find this funny).

Stoopid

I have pictures for you today. After looking for days for that picture-computer card thingy, I asked Mark to pick up a new one. I had looked everywhere for it and decided that I was comfortable blaming the disappearance on Liam's garbage obsession. Mark bought one today, tore open the packaging, began downloading pictures, looked down...and there the damn thing was. Next to the printer. Right. By. My. Feet. The. Whole. Time.

Enough of that. Liam had his fifteen month appointment today, so we have some new stats.

Height: 33 1/2 inches (that's 2 foot 9 and a half)
Weight: 26 pounds, 3 ounces

In case you don't know, that's a big little guy. He's the height of the average 21-month-old boy. Crazy big. Strangers probably think he's developmentally delayed. But now I have confirmation that he is NOT hyper. I shared my worries with our pediatrician ("He won't sit through songs at Tumble Tots!") and our pediatrician said, "Well, don't make him sit through songs. Enroll him in soccer or something." Okay then. He didn't exactly say that Liam has signs of genius, but I'm thinking perhaps Liam is some sort of soccer prodigy.

Here he is dressed for Tumble Tots.

And here are the promised pictures of Ocean Journey.

And finally Liam in a bear costume. Friends Hadar and Liza gave it to us and we're holding our breath that it will still fit Liam on Halloween. Hopes aren't up though, so I'm making him wear it now even though the costume is made for sub-zero weather.

Also, our friends the Pointers are visiting from Seattle this weekend (they moved there in April), so we're having fun. Here's their son Jake. More will follow tomorrow, because we're having a girls night out and I'm outta here.

Tumbling

Okay, still no pictures, but just think of the bonanza you'll get once I replace the camera thingy.

I enrolled Liam in Tumble Tots at our rec center and yesterday was our first class. The center describes the class as: "a dynamic, developmentally structured, yet flexible parent/child program providing a opportunity for fun and learning. Activities encourage muscle strengthening, coordination, and balance." This is what we actually experienced: A smallish padded room full of toddlers zooming in every direction with moms following. I have honestly never seen more mats in one room. Unless two babies crashed head-first into one another (which is always a possibility, I guess), there is no way anyone could possibly get hurt in there. Anyway, after about 15 minutes of zooming, we parents sat in a circle with our babies on our laps and sang a song or two (well, most of us parents did, but I'll get to that later), but then went right back to zooming. The whole class was so free-form that it's hard for me to imagine how somewhat wrote that description with a straight face. But however you describe it, Liam loved every minute of it; I had to tear him away when our 45 minutes were up.

From the moment he set foot in Tumble Tots Liam was off to the races. He didn't slow down or even really pause to look around - he just ran. Up ramps, through tunnels, down stairs, over blocks, wherever. I need not have been there as far as he was concerned (next week I might try sitting down with some coffee). You'd think that I'd kept him locked in a basement all week and he was just thrilled to be out in the surface world. I actually had a hard time keeping up with him.

Now I don't mind being the mother of a speed demon. It was during the song section of the class that I started to get worried. All Liam had to do was sit on my lap through one song (The Wheels On the Bus) with actions and holding a little steering wheel, but you'd think by holding him there I was trying to kill him. He would NOT sit down, he would NOT turn the little steering wheel, and he would NOT smile cutely at my song actions. Instead he arched his whole body, did the alligator death roll, went completely limp, and tried to slither away. I tried to keep him down, but he wasn't having it. I did a quick mental calculation and decided that zooming around would be less disruptive, so I set him free. The whole thing wouldn't have bothered me so much except that he was the only child that would not sit quietly for all of three minutes. I thought the other mothers were sympathetic, but one of them commented later, "My, he has a lot of personality, doesn't he?", which we all know is code for, "You really can't control your child, can you?" Allison pointed out that I could have left the room with him, so that he wouldn't get to zoom if he didn't sit, but I don't think that clearly under this sort of pressure (yet. I hope it will come with practice).

So now I'm lying awake at night worrying that he might be hyper and, even though a part of me doesn't think he should sit through songs at this age when there is zooming to be done, I will still ask his pediatrician about it tomorrow at his 15 month appointment. Perhaps it is actually a sign of genius.