Mickey Mantle Goes to Church

G'pa Ohio had both Patrick and Eddie completely entranced when he would play with them.
We took Ed to see the local Christmas tree. While he fell asleep on the way there for want of a longer nap, once he woke up, he could be heard calling out, "ball, ball" and pointing to the trees.

Now to the title...we took Ed to church yesterday. Everytime we go to church, We try and bring something to occupy him. We've tried books--both board books, which land with a thud and cloth books, which are filled with things to make crinkly noises. While he used to be content to look at the books, now he yells loudly--or what seems loud in a quiet church-full of people about what he sees in the books. And he knows something on each page. We've tried beads that at home transfix him as he pulls and pushes them together. At church they become rocket propelled pieces of plastic.

We feel like we play defense sitting in church, guarding as best we can against the moment he is going to launch whatever toy we've brought. Nobody typically seems to care, and Den removes Ed, usually after about 25 min. and takes him outside when he just can't sit still (this church doesn't have a cry room or even atrium to visit). This last time we brought some foam blocks in addition to the usual assortment of books. He started throwing the blocks over the next pew pretty quickly, but we were able to divert him for a while--until he started tossing them to the older gentleman behind us. Again, fortunately they were foam, but we had to nip that behavior. The old man commented on Ed being a budding Mickey Mantle. Then, when Ed started flirting with him, he said, 'and you've got a ham too'.

So I'm really interested in what are good "church" toys, when every single one becomes a projectile? Den thought we should tether some toys and see how that worked. You would think that with the standing and sitting and singing, he would do better, especially since he does so well on airplane, but unfortunately it doesn't translate.

22 Month Update on the 28th

Between tying up respective work commitments, searching for a nanny, as well as short term child care, and getting ready to leave town for Christmas on the 23rd, somehow doing Ed's 22 month update on the 22nd escaped me. We're back now and have 5 whole days of 'vacation at home' to relax and get some stuff done around the house.

Ed's latest feats include counting. He says, "wuuunnn...tu...[and then jumps to] eight, nine, ten." He can also go backwards, "10, 9, 8" and then he gets a little fuzzy. He is into nesting things--putting pieces together--and taking them apart. Stacking things are huge. Oddly he used to say the word "orange" fairly clearly, but now it comes out as "ouf."

In the last couple days, he has started making some hilarious grunting sound effects when he is trying to do something with difficulty, like pull 2 pieces of a toy apart, or get something back together. I finally figured out it's because I do that when he asks for help with something.

We think he may be showing signs of being ready for potty-training. He seems to like to stand up and try and pee during the first diaper change of the day. He also seems to like to pee against the tub before his bath--keep this in mind when you visit :)

Not about Ed's 22 months, but we interviewed a nanny today whom we really liked. She wasn't through the agency, but had all the qualifications we seek. Unfortunately, she has received about 30 other calls (and still counting) and has been interviewing steadily for about 10 days--as others recognize her qualifications. That and it's next to impossible to find part time nannies. She said she is going to decide after her last interview on Saturday, so we'll see. She seemed to be really excited about her Sat. interview, so I'm not terribly optimistic, but will think positively. She is ready to start immediately, and is looking for work on the days we need, which again would be perfect for us.

Unless You Are STILL Stuck In Denver, I Don't Think You Can Beat This...

First, the pictures...
This is Patrick, my sister and her husband's foster child, with Eddie. Ed is 10 days older.

For stocking stuffers, we gave Ed and Patrick each one of these balls--you can see who took them over...

So there are 2 types of people (maybe more?) when it comes to opening gifts. Surprisingly (especially being my son), Ed is the type who will tear off little pieces of paper and eventually open the gift, only to become consumed with playing with whatever he has opened and not want to open the next present.

Patrick on the other hand is like me (or at least me as a child), that he just likes to rip open the packages in a hurry--he knows how they are wrapped--knows exactly where to start ripping the paper--by the tapped areas--and once he opens one package, he is ready to move on to the next.

In this photo, Ed is playing with one of Patrick's presents that is resting on top of one of Ed's presents...Ed has no interest in opening this gift--we just couldn't get him to stop playing with the toys.

Many people know that my sister Lore' and her husband David desperately want to have a child. I'll spare you details, but the latest effort is their involvement in a program called foster care to adoption with the state agency where they live. They receive calls for kids who are likely candidates for adoption, but need foster care in the meantime--in fact they got a call at 10pm on Christmas. In March of this year, they took in a child they called Patrick. They had previously asked me not to post pictures or much about him. Now 10 months later, the biological parents have been located and he has been placed with his paternal g'parents, who hail from Mexico. They found out earlier in December that they would have to hand him over to these people 3 days after Christmas. Needless to say, they have become attached to him, and they are the caregiver he knows. Our hearts are broken for them.

With all the excitement and uncertainty going on with Patrick's case, my family decided to spend Christmas at my sister's house. My parents drove in on Friday after my mother's brain aneurysm was checked on in Minnesota (she had a procedure done in January of this year and they needed to do followup). We and Eddie's Uncle K and Auntie M were slated to arrive on Saturday night (the 23rd). We were offered $400/person to give up our seats and fly in the next morning. Passing up $1200 was almost more than I could stand, but Patrick was due to have a dedication ceremony at his church in the morning, so we decided to pass.

Meanwhile on the west coast, Auntie M and Uncle K were trying to get back east. Check Auntie M's blog soon for the details on their adventure, but suffice to say they were upgraded to first class and instead of arriving on Sat. night at 9pm, they arrived at 1:30 in the morning of Christmas Day, almost 29 hours later (and they weren't going through Denver). When they arrived, their luggage hadn't and they couldn't get the rental car they had reserved because the shuttle bus never came and no one at the 24-hour open rental company answered the phone at 3am on Christmas Day. Again, the blog has more details.

So the Christmas Day story... A star shone above Bethlehem...no no no, this is a different one. Our Christmas day involved considerable excitement in a different way. Uncle K and Auntie M finally made it to their lodging at 3-4 in the morning on Christmas Day w/o their bags (containing gifts!) or a rental car. As they arrived at Aunt Lore' and Uncle David's around naptime for the kids, we decided to have our gift exchange later in the day. I think Uncle David was dying to open the gifts and I must admit, I was eager for the thrill of watching my selections opened. Everything seemed under control, with time to kill, and with the kids napping and the dinner on, so Den, Uncle David & I took Auntie M to the airport (an hour's drive) on a hunch we might find their bags and be able to pick up the rental car. We were successful on both accounts. However, while we were gone, the gas oven failed to re-ignite, so the turkey sat "warming" for 1-2 hours, delaying our anticipated 5:30 eating time.

Turns out that was probably a good thing, however, as G'pa Ohio sliced his finger trying to open the blister packing of a stocking stuffer knife Den & I gave to Aunt Lore' since all her knives were dull. G'pa had a lot of potatoes to cut up, so we felt it was safer to use the new sharp knife. Nearly four hours later, he was back from the ER safe & sound w/a couple of stitches and tetanus shot. We had time for just the kids to open their gifts and stockings before bed and as I mentioned, that involved one wild present opener and one child focused on the toy at hand. Christmas dinner did finally go on the table all at the same time--at 9:30pm. The bird was actually quite good--with meat falling off the bones and everything was served piping hot and just as good as if we'd eaten at 5:30. Somehow we ended up with 3 gallons (literally) of gravy.

Our Christmas was finally wrapped up on the 26th, after one middle of the night arrival, one ER visit, and with the heartbreaking anticipation of Patrick's pending departure on the 28th. While he was with us all day on the 25th, he was gone from 8:30-5:30 on both the 26th and 27th to help transition to the g'parents he just met for the first time.

Now that I write it all down, it doesn't sound as bad as when we were living it...kind of seemed like one of those days that just wouldn't end. Here's hoping you and your family have wonderful Christmas memories of 2006--and if you didn't, at least ones you can look back on and chuckle.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Here's Eddie's nursery school 'craft'. Hope everyone has/had safe travels and enjoying the time with family. Watch this space for further development--I have quite the story to tell.

Bithdays and Christmas Pagents

Eddie's buddy Eli turned 2 this week. To commemorate the ocassion, his parents threw a party in the hippest 2-year-old play spot they could find--the local soft play room.

I will likely have another post on this, but this particular soft play room is a racquetball court turned padded playspace. You have the pre-birthday festivities in an ante-room and then move on to the action.

Ed is still playing with the yellow ball pictured here--he pulled all the balloons off the walls and began throwing them around while we were in the ante room, and pretty quickly got the other kids in on the game.

A soft play room is considered a pretty safe place for kids to play--until the adults start getting involved. One of the guests, who shall remain nameless had the idea to stack the 2 sets of steps and slides to make one giant slide (pictured here). It was a lot of fun--and the worst that happened was the daughter of Mr. Idea fell funny when she tried to jump from half-way up--but she shook it off and continuted partying.

Ed is sliding head-first in this picture, with dad ready to catch him. He went every direction, including tumbling head over heel, with only one vinyl burn to show for it.



Change of topics:
Ed's nursery school had it's Christmas program this week. Den and I wondered how they were going to involve the one-year class (Ed's)--and you can see here--they have given them batons to shake to the music. It was really cute--and entertaining to watch the teachers try and corral the kids--surprisingly they sat pretty still--aside from Eddie throwing his baton (no surprise there).

We sat about 20 rows back, Den taking the still shots and I took video.

Nanny's last day is today, I've got some temporary options for Jan. and we have a couple interviews scheduled, but other than that, we're holding our breath.

Dell versus?

I am increasingly dissatisfied with our Dell home computer. We've had troubles just about from day one. Our latest recurring problem is the media plugs you are supposed to be able to plug right into--it's not recognizing my camera memory card. Everytime Den has to pull apart the computer to fix. So no current pictures, but I do offer this flashback to Dec. 05.

We have 2 nannys set to interview in the next couple weeks and we are pursuing just about every other reasonable lead. Neither of us is particularly in love with either of these, but we figure we should at least meet them (the nanny agency referred them).

Regarding Eddie, he is really into fish lately. Probably 6 months ago I hung 3 fish and bubbles next to his changing table to occupy him. And they sure do the trick, only now when he swings at them, he can get them to fly off their nails. Guess it's time to find another source of distraction. Everytime he sees a fish, he says 'ish'.

He is also heavily into 2-word phrases. Brown dog, yellow bottle, blue ball, etc. He definitely knows his shapes. On the other end, puzzles are not his strong suit. He doesn't seem to get the concept of maneuvering the pieces into place. He has 2 age appropriate puzzles that both challenge him.

Den gets home tomorrow and then has just one more trip before Christmas. It's for one night, so we'll barely know he's gone as opposed to 4 days this time.

Kicked to the Curb

Den's office Holiday Party was this weekend, so g'parents Ohio came to visit and watch Eddie. They even agreed to watch him overnight, so we could stay at the hotel near the party instead of driving back 50 minutes to our house. Eddie was so into playing with g'pa that he didn't want to pose for this shot before we left for the night.The pictures below are where the blog title comes in. Eddie and g'pa were playing and I went to sit in the Living Room with them. Eddie walked over to me, asked me to get up, took me by the hand and pushed me out of the living room--twice. Den decided to see what would be his fate and experienced the exact same sequence of events to exile. It was clear Eddie wanted to play only with g'pa, much to g'ma and g'pa's amusement. I'm surprised I was allowed in here to take the pictures!

The first one Ed had just thrown an egg and the second picture is I believe self-explanatory.

Yogart glazed Squash

It's the last night of Den being gone and I've about exhausted my food supply/options. Tonight I gave Ed yogart. He plowed through basically what would be a serving of yogart in one of those cups. I then gave him some squash. He proceeded to "paint" the squash with the remainng yogart and eventually ate most of the squash. Meanwhile I was eating pizza, which Ed decided he wanted to enjoy as well...dipped in yogart. The boy does like his 'sauces'. You may notice some of the yogart on the black of his shirt sleeve. This is Wisconsin week for the wardrobe--makes us think of daddy. He was given this cute little sweatsuit and he finally grew into it.
Plastics anyone? Woowee, this drawer is scary looking. Not because of the mess as much as all the plastic. Eddie helped me reorganize it recently as you can see.

Since daddy is gone, I may forget to tell him about how Ed wanted soap to bathe himself and then wanted to pour the water over his head to rinse. So I let him.

Green Bay colors

In one of my few off-season buys, I purchased this turtle neck for Eddie last year in anticipation of his wearing it while he and Dennis cheered the Green Bay Packers. Unfortunately there hasn't been much to cheer this year for Packers fans. I don't typically buy off season, as I have been burned enough times to be weary, even if they are an amazing deal, yet 70% or more off is sometimes more than I can pass up. Nice when it does fit a s expected. Den is half way through his trip--2 more nights and he'll be home. Aside from the nanny quitting, it's not been too bad of a week. I'll try not to get started there, but I've morphed from empathy for her situation to being downright pist. I think it's in a large part because for these last 3 weeks she is missing one day/week so I'm only getting 2 days of work each week and am rapidly getting behind--doesn't help that I started out behind....

The nanny agency we used assures me that she can have a temporary person for me in January, which makes me feel better. I just want to chose carefully. I know there are issues with every single childcare option, that nothing is perfect, but I'd really like the silver bullet for finding a good nanny--I need Mary Poppins (only on a permanent basis).

So this is probably right for another post, but while I babble...

Had an interesting conversation with an friend I've known since we moved from Florida to Ohio about high school/college/adult life and how they evolve, intertwine, and the people involved at each stage, how they and perceptions and realities change over time and yet how people have an image/impression of you that may or may not change as you do.

And, why is it that some people, like this particular friend and I are still friends, yet neither of us has many/any friends from college. So many facets and paths to the conversation and fun to compare notes with someone on these abstract topics.

Other People's News

Cousin Kurt came from England for a conference and stopped in to visit. Had a great day eating cheese curls, chocolate and Mexican with him and Eddie did eventually warm up to him.
Remember my post about expensive baby clothes? Well, I found the most adorable blue blazer for Eddie whilst shopping for an outfit for a holiday party. This picture cracks me up--looks like he's walking down a runway--Minnie Pearl style.It's that time of year, when we start receiving (and sending) notes, cards, and extended version letters from our family and friends. I do enjoy getting these--especially when they have pictures included. We enjoy reliving the year as we write our pictogram. That said, have you ever noticed how with a couple exceptions everyone had wonderful years and with a couple hiccups, everything is going great.

Well, if I were to write a letter to cover my last 24 hours, it would go something like this:

Eddie let us sleep in 2 (or maybe 3) mornings in a row until nearly 7am. So this is what a normal sleeping child is like. Den left town for his first of 3 trips this month--he'll be gone all week. Eddie will likely be back to his "normal" sleeping patterns. Eddie repeated Den's name for most of the morning, dada dada, until I started to wonder if he was trying to say something else.

Had a fine morning of shopping. The season's dress styles this year seem to be a cut that is not flattering to my body shape (pregnant or not), so I struck out after 3 hours of mall shopping with a toddler (who mercifully fell asleep half way through). At least Eddie got something cute.

Decided to take dear Eddie to the local park. Was besiged by Mormons going door to door to spread the word. They came to my door and I ignored it as I snuck out the back door, because we were literately heading out the door and it's so freakin' cold here, why would I want to stand outside or hold the door open to talk to someone about a religion that I'm sure is just fine, but i just don't have interest in. They then had the nerve to try and start talking to me as I strolled Ed down the street, trying to get myself exercise, and Ed some fresh air. Isn't there a better time of year for this?

After 30 minutes in the cold, Ed and I returned home--his hands somehow still warm despite wearing gloves only half the time, I wondered if my hands had frostbite. Around dinnertime is when things started to go downhill. Our nanny called to say that she was quitting. I had just commented recently to a friend about how I was finally starting to feel comfortable with her. I wasn't surprised tho'. I had had a feeling ever since we hired her and I couldn't place it. We had so thoroghly vetted her that I had a hard time believing it was that she would do something to harm, or even kidnap little Eddie, and instead I think it's that Den and I hesitated in hiring her because she seemed so impossibly overqualified. That and it seemed she was overextending herself to take on our job, but she seemed wonderful in every other way with glowing references and she seemed really committed.

I really don't know what else we could have done to make her happy, I just think it truly was what she said in that it was too much for her to take on--at least I hope so. I know I'm neurotic, but I know plenty of neurotic people who nanny's don't quit. At least she told us with 4 months to spare before the baby comes so hopefully we'll get someone new in place well in advance of the new baby's arrival.

Oh and did I mention Den is gone all week? Pass the chocolate, please.