Good News/Bad News

The good news: Our lovely friends tried for ages and ages and ages before having their now-two-year-old daughter. And they've been trying just as hard for a second child. Their last two embryos were implanted last week, so we've all been waiting around with crossed fingers hoping for a good result. And so far so good. Her levels weren't looking great over the weekend but as of Monday they had quadrupled. Two sets of identical twins perhaps?

The bad news: We have some other dear friends who had a baby boy in early May. They found out about halfway through the pregnancy he had a serious heart defect that would require surgery immediately after his birth. They were finally able to bring him home from the hospital mid-June. Then this weekend we learned the devastating news that he didn't make it.

Colin was their second child and I've found myself thinking a lot about the loss of a first child compared to a later one. The death of any baby is so tragic and heart-wrenching, but as I look at Kiddle now I realize how much easier it would be to imagine the growth and potential of a second child, rather than being overwhelmed by the raw in-the-moment newness of your first child. Does that make their loss even harder to bear? Or maybe their daughter is such a vibrant, visceral reminder of happiness that she'll help them get through these sad times. I would imagine it's a little of both, plus a whole lot of other emotions that I hope we never have to experience. My heart just aches for them.

Pool Time

A big part of summer in our town is the pool. I'd never even been before -- not being much of a pool person myself -- but I finally broke down and signed the family up for the summer. I really had no excuse anymore, especially since our house is close enough for us to walk there (and hear all the loudspeaker announcements. "Adult swim. All kids out of the pool!").

I thought I'd put off going until they had regular hours during the week (School doesn't get out here until JUNE 25TH! Can you believe that?!), but when Jack's mom called on Saturday to see if we wanted to go post-nap I realized it would be a good idea to go with a seasoned pro. So we slathered on the block, packed up all our towels and headed out.

One surprise: Living in the Land of No I thought we'd get a dictionary-sized book of rules and regs, but no. Although it would be nice to know for sure when the toddler pool is open. (I think they were simply out of them. And no it's not a manual; just a tri-fold pamphlet, from what I later heard.)

Another surprise: It was actually really great there. The toddler pool is perfect for Kiddle right now. (But I'm so thankful I didn't join last year. What an exhausting experience that would have been with a just-found-his-feet walker.) There is quite a bit of shade. And the pool is ringed by a grassy berm so you aren't stuck on concrete for the entire time. (Note to self: take some pool toys so I don't feel so guilty when my little one picks up every little boat and rubber duck he can get his hands on.)

Maybe I will become a pool person after all.

Oh that? Yeah, that's NYC. Did you want to go?

I spend all my time now in the suburbs on a two-year-old's schedule. Which means we don't go far because, well, he's two. And two-year-olds LOVE their schedule. So when we have out-of-town guests now it's a very different scenario than a few years ago. Pre-kid it was all about shopping and sightseeing and theater. Post-kid I seem to forget that Manhattan is all of 20 minutes away and that my guests might want to do something besides go to the park.

My best friend from high school was just in for a visit. Fortunately she's very laid back and had been well warned that our life is quite boring at the moment. It was so lovely to just be able to hang out with her for days on end and really catch up on each other's lives. Something we never get to do even when I go back home for a visit. We did finally drag ourselves into the city to see "Xanadu." Adorable show. Very campy. And, as it turns out, CJ's first Broadway show. (Maybe we should have seen something more traditional for her first show? Oh well.)

So thanks for hanging out with us in the suburbs, CJ! We miss you already and hope that your visit was relaxing, not boring. See you in July!

Two Words! Two Words!

Yay! I finally heard a two-word combo. We were draining the water from Jack's kiddie pool on Friday and Kiddle said "bye bye waa." Progress! Woo hoo!

In the Dark

Oh, how I love electricity! After 30+ hours of living in the dark (and the hot and the boring) I experienced the blissful sensation of my bedside lamp shining in my face at 5:45 am. Yay lights! Yay air conditioning! Yay computer! Yay TV! (Although I'm devastated I missed the first Top 20 episode of So You Think You Can Dance.) Yesterday felt like Kiddle and I were hanging out in a black hole.

And what caused this void of electronics? A wicked storm that tore through here Tuesday night. It seems our neighborhood caught the brunt of it. Huge old lovely trees are down on every block. Little K's backyard has two trees that didn't fall, but have to come down ASAP. One is partially uprooted and leaning on a massive oak; the other will be too unstable on its own because they were already growing in a terrifying V shape. Fortunately no damage for us but we'd been without power since that night.

Friends and Neighbors

I've never really had neighbors that were also friends. Well, except for the time a friend lived in the apartment across the hall from my roommate and me, but that was totally a Melrose Place phase of our life (oh, how I miss those days!).

Anyway, I've already written about our neighbors with the two-year-old daughter (I'll call her Little K from now on). I haven't mentioned that next door to them is another family with a two-year-old as well (he'll be known as Jack). The kids all just turned two within eight weeks of each other. Technically both families live around the corner from us, but we can see into each others' backyards. Little K's backyard is fenced and they have a big swingset/slide so we spend most of our outdoor time in their yard.

On Friday we had our first neighbors' cookout at Jack's house. The kids played in the kiddie pool until they were blue. And the adults ate lots of yummy barbeque and had some drinks. I love having these kids so close in age; they're adorable together. And I love having other moms/friends so close by. It was relaxing and fun and I can't wait to do it again.

I Slept In Until 10:30!!

Last weekend was heaven. Know why?

Because I was away for three whole days ... BY MYSELF. Well, not really by myself because I was with other people. But none of those other people was a three-foot-tall tornado named Kiddle.

I went to Orlando with some friends and had a good old-fashioned girls' weekend. I got a mani/pedi, had dinner without once saying "use your inside voice, please," saw the "Sex and the City" movie (even though I've seen all of one and a half episodes of the show). But mostly we relaxed by my friend's pool and read and chatted. It was great to not be responsible for anyone other than myself for only the second time in two years.

But I missed Kiddle terribly. He's so funny and interesting right now, it just killed me not to know what was going on with him every second of the day. He and Mr. P spent a couple of days upstate with Mr. P's brother and girlfriend -- a great distraction from the fact I wasn't around, plus Kiddle follows his uncle around like a puppy.

It was a good separation for both of us: I got some great downtime and Kiddle has been much more inclusive of Mr. P this week. Well, until last night ... but more on that later.

Oops.

Wow. What an afternoon.

We spent a couple of hours, like we do several times a week, playing in our lovely neighbor's backyard. Their daughter is two weeks older than Kiddle and is his best friend (as much as two-year-olds can be "friends"). So today Kiddle (and keep in mind this is all done good-naturedly):

• dug out several inches of dirt from a large planter (intended for the kids to dig in) then climbed in and threw out more by hand onto the patio
• knocked over a terra cotta pot of vegetables then tossed the saucer on the ground, breaking it
• "hugged" his friend so hard that he pulled her backwards off the bench she was sitting on
• and to top it all off, I had taken his overly full diaper off just before we were going to leave, so he was running around the yard for a few minutes without any pants on ... HE POOPED IN THEIR YARD.

Oh Jeez. I guess we wore out our welcome there.

Whew.

Busy, busy Memorial Day weekend for us. Here's the recap:

Mr. P's sister, brother-in-law and nephew came in for the weekend from San Francisco, so on Friday Mr. P started his holiday weekend early and we all met up at the Bronx Zoo. Kiddle hasn't been to the Bronx Zoo since he was about four months old, so I was really excited to take him. As mentioned before, he's completely obsessed with animals right now (in current order of importance: horses, elephants, giraffes, cows, pigs). We thought he'd get a kick out of seeing the real thing since our local county zoo doesn't have any "big" animals like lions and tigers and bears (oh my).



It turned out to be one of those days that I really wish I could know what's going on in that toddler brain of his. He seemed to think the animals were pretty cool, but you know what's even cooler than big, technicolor, right-in-front-you animals? Apparently signs about the animals. As demonstrated by the pic below, he's pointing at the picture of the zebra, yelling "neigh! neigh!" and ignoring the in-the-flesh zebra that's right in front of him. Whatever floats your boat, kiddo.


We'll get to the best thing about the zoo in a minute, but before we do, here's the second best thing about the zoo for Kiddle: the children's zoo. Not the animals. The prairie dog tunnels, the hollow log, the rope spiderweb and the tree slide. He spent ages climbing around on each stop along the way.

Then we hit the motherlode ... HORSE!


He planted himself in front of the horse and donkey in the children's zoo and wouldn't move. NEIGH. NEIGH. DA-KEE. NEIGH. NEIGH! If we knew this was going to be his favourite spot we could've just gone to the county zoo.

Speaking of horses ... a local stable had a student show over the weekend, so we took Kiddle to see the horses on Saturday. He was totally fascinated and, of course, kept heading directly for the entrance to the ring.

On Sunday we went to Mr. P's uncle's house in the Hamptons for the day. Traffic (and distance) wasn't nearly as bad as I was preparing myself for. Such an interesting family dynamic with this clan. I've never been introduced to half of them, and as it turns out Mr. P doesn't know who half of them are or how the fit into the family, so I've learned not to worry about it. I just smile and say hello as needed and focus on the people I do know.

It was nice to spend another day with Mr. P's family. Kiddle is with his baby cousin Tag in the picture.

So Monday we just rested and picked up our tornado of a house. Whew.

This sucks.

Here's the dilemma: I've thrown away at least 10 pacifiers with holes in the last couple of weeks. I hate to buy more because I really do know that he should be off a pacifier by now, but he's soooo obsessed. He would keep one in 24 hours a day if I would let him, so it's not going to be easy to eliminate. And now our supply is quickly dwindling.

Now that he finally seems to be feeling better, I've gone back to only allowing him to have a pacifier upstairs. Here's the result:

Now I just have to convince him he can't stay upstairs all day.

Baltimore and beyond ...

For our family, a road trip most often means driving to the airport.

However, this weekend I needed to head to the D.C. area for a friend's baby shower, so we decided to make a family trip out of it. We packed up the car and hit the road at 12:15 -- perfectly coordinated with Kiddle's nap time. Or so we thought. Three hours later, a mere hour before we arrived in Baltimore, he finally fell asleep. Fortunately the yelling and crying during those three hours were minimal.

We stayed with Mr. P's college roommate. He's got a serious bachelor pad near the Inner Harbor. Now, I don't feel like I've done a ton of child-proofing, but I must have kept future children in mind as I furnished our house, because I was caught off guard a bit by how truly un-child-proof this place was. Nothing horribly dangerous, just sooo much stuff for Kiddle to get his grubby little hands on. And did I mention the full bar's worth of liquor bottles on glass shelves in the living room? That was a horror show waiting to happen. We just tried to stay out of the house as much as possible.

Friday night we went down to the east side of the Inner Harbor for dinner. We ate at a wonderful restaurant called Lebanese Taverna which is owned by friends of Mr. P's old roommate. Very beneficial because they at least acted like our whirling dervish of a child was charming, not annoying.

On Saturday we headed to Virginia. Mr. P and Kiddle dropped me off at the baby shower (at a lovely restaurant right on the river) and went to visit another friend from college who recently moved with his family to Arlington from Connecticut. They have a three-year-old boy, a six-month-old girl, and all the toys that go along with that, so Kiddle had a fantastic time. So much so that we went back to their house for dinner after they picked me up from the shower.

Sleep was definitely the challenge of the trip. Friday night we finally got him down at 11:00. Saturday night was an improvement ... 10:15. He was utterly exhausted both nights, but just couldn't give in to go to sleep in his pack-n-play. Which, by the way, he was about two seconds away from climbing out of. If only I had a picture of him balanced across the corner! He just couldn't figure out where to put his hands so he could swing his legs down without tumbling out. I'm really hoping he doesn't apply those skills to his crib. I can't imagine how many hundreds of times a night he'd get out of bed if we were forced to take the side off now.

Anyway, our plan for Sunday was to take Kiddle to the Baltimore Aquarium (he loves aquariums), have lunch with our friend, then hit the road in time for Kiddle's nap. But life with a two-year-old doesn't always (ever?) go as planned. We made it to the aquarium, but he was so tuckered out from the previous two days that he completely lost interest after the first couple of tanks. All he wanted to do was leave. I doubt anyone has ever gone through that aquarium as quickly as we did. It was like speed dating for tourists. We did at least get a couple of EEEE-EEEEs out of him when he saw the dolphins right at the end.

Note the dark circles under his lifeless eyes and the pacifier gripped tightly between his lips. Such enthusiasm for this wonderful family outing.

We finally got out of there, threw our stuff in the car and hit the road. Lunch was the drive-thru at Taco Bell. He fell asleep before we got out of Baltimore. As they say, the best laid plans ...

Note to self: plan the toddler-focused activities earlier in the trip. But no complaints. Really. It was a great weekend. I can't wait to go back and do all the fun Washington D.C. things ... when he's a bit older.

How do they know?

How do they know that you've got a to-do list a mile long? How do they know that you're trying to get ready to go out of town the next day? And that you're staying at a child-free home where you have to take every scrap of kid paraphernalia you might need? How do they know that today is the day that you really wanted them to take a three-hour nap (like they did every other day this week)? And that you really did not want them to spend the last hour and a half in their crib kicking the wall, jumping up and down, and yelling?

It couldn't have anything to do with that 13-grams-of-sugar Nutrigrain bar you let them have at lunch, could it?

Nah.

No way.

Neat and Messy

Two cute things from today:

While I was cleaning up after breakfast I saw Kiddle come into the kitchen and put something in the trash can. Curious, I lifted the lid to see what he had dropped in there, but all I could see was some plastic wrap. I looked around the corner into the living room and was surprised to see that he was working at getting the cellophane wrap off an unopened puzzle. I couldn't believe my eyes. The Master of Disaster cleaning up after himself?! Not possible. But sure enough as I watched, he got another piece off and headed for the kitchen. It was like someone had switched him with my super-neat nephew. But then he finished up by throwing the puzzle pieces all over the floor and walking away. That's my boy!

Later in the day he was sitting on the couch when I asked him if he had a poop in his pants. He responded by leaning to one side, reaching around to touch his bottom and said, "POO." Well, ok then. I guess the answer is yes. That's the first time I've heard him say "poop" and most definitely the first time I've seen him associate the word with the action. Again, oh, the things we celebrate as parents.

It's 2am. Do you know where your children are?

Yes, fortunately. He's passed out in his crib. I, on the other hand, am wide, wide awake. Let's recap.

As mentioned in my last post, Kiddle has a cold. However, I've become less convinced it's a cold and more convinced it's really just a horrible allergy attack. I did stop the Singulair night before last because it really didn't seem to be helping and he's also had sleeping issues. So tonight I started him on Zyrtec. A possible side effect is drowsiness ... and it's dropped him like a ton of bricks. But not before he decided he was going to die unless MOMMY got him ready for bed, NOT DADDY.

Poor Mr. P endured an agonizing hour as Kiddle wailed like somebody shot his dog, all the way through his bath and right on through putting on his PJs. At one point, Mr. P said he was combing Kiddle's hair as he clutched the gate at the top of the stairs, sobbing for me. Then he crashed and went to bed without a whimper. Jeez. I guess a yoga class one night a week is too much to ask of him.

I really haven't had any allergy issues this year. Surprising, since we've had record pollen highs and everyone is miserable. But I was finally starting to feel it today and since I needed to get some more decongestants for my ear (a whole other long ridiculous story), I decided to try some 24-hour Claritin-D. Bad idea. Or at least a bad idea to take it in the evening. I don't think I've slept a wink yet. Argh. It's going to be a long day tomorrow.

It Snot Funny

Oh, my poor little snot-nosed Kiddle. He's had a monster cold since last Thursday that just isn't abating. I won't gross out anyone with pictures of his alternately goopy/crusty face; let's just say he's nasty and leave it at that. Of course we went to Liberty Science Center that first morning he came down with it (... thought it might be allergies ...), so my apologies to all for his germy little hands.

One benefit to the massive amount of goopiness flowing out of him ... he's starting to grasp the concept of blowing his nose. Of course he WILL NOT let Mommy hold the tissue, HE HAS TO DO IT. But at least he will, on occasion, make the attempt. Oh, the odd things we celebrate as parents.

He's been on Singulair for almost a month now, but I can't say I've seen much of an improvement with his cough. I think I'll finish out the week with it, then try taking him off. I haven't noticed any aggression issues like my nephew had, but he has had a hard time going to sleep at night since he's been on it. Connected? We'll see.

Holy Bowl Cut, Robin!

Let's first get it out there that I love, love, love Kiddle's shaggy surfer-boy hair. I hate to cut it because I always think he looks somewhat silly at first. He has gorgeous hair but it's so, so straight it shows every single snip of the scissors which means layering it is out of the question. And it also grows straight down into his eyes, so I can't push it over to the side when it gets longish. But ... it was in his eyes and if I just trim his bangs he'll end up with a mullet. And as entertaining as a mullet might be, I just can't go there. So, yes, I did it. I cut it last night.

So without further ado ... one freshly trimmed Kiddle. It turned out fine, if I do say so myself.

It'll grow, right?







And the title of this post? That's the not-nice comment I got from Mr. P when he saw Kiddle's hair. Grrr.

The Zoo Was a Zoo

Yep. We took our first excursion of the year to Turtleback Zoo this morning. Pretty scary when we pulled up to see several buses, and the entrance was mobbed with preschool field trippers, but once we got through the gate it wasn't too bad. Kiddle has been to this zoo before but this was the first time he was actually interested in the animals. (He's completely animal obsessed right now and usually has an elephant clutched in one grubby little hand and a horse in the other.) The farm animals were definitely his favorite part. Although he thought the penguins were pretty cool too.


The zoo was doing a ton of work ... new exhibits, a new picnic and play area. Which is fantastic because it's really quite a poor, pitiful little zoo. But perfect for small kids and very close to home, so I'll hold my criticism in check! I'm looking forward to seeing their progress on our next visit.

Night Night!

This completely melted my heart last night. I was getting Kiddle's room set for him to go to bed and said, "Why don't you help your animals get ready to go night night in their barn?" When I turned around this is what I found:


Apparently cars and trucks sleep on their sides as well. Who knew?

Two-Year Checkup

We had Kiddle's two-year checkup with the pediatrician this week. Here's the report:

Weight: 25.0
Height: 34.25
Head: 20.75

Which translates to "grapefruit on a toothpick." What a noggin he has! Poor skinny kid. The only reason he's finally wearing 12-18 month pants is that Gap and Crazy 8 now have them with an adjustable waist (at last!!). So at least he's not walking around in his highwaters anymore.

Unfortunately he might be heading down an allergies/asthma path. (Poor thing was born during the worst allergy season we've had in ages, so I hate to think how much he was exposed to so early on!) The doctor put him on Singulair to see if that helps his cough. We'll give it a try but I'm a bit hesitant because my nephew had some increased aggression side effects when he was on it. Hopefully it will help Kiddle.

The only other concern I have is his speech development. At this point he has about 25 words plus 15-20 animal sounds. However I don't think I'd recognize any of the words if he said them out of context. He also doesn't have any two syllable words except for "gir-ah" for giraffe. (Which, by the way, is the only animal he actually calls by its name and not its sound.) His doctor doesn't seem terribly concerned but she did give the number for EIP so I can get him checked out if I want. I try not to compare him to other kids but unfortunately the two he's around the most have amazing speech capabilities. I know he'll get it together eventually but I'd hate to see it cause him a lot of frustration in the near future.

Two Already?

How is my baby two already? I know I'll be saying this every year for the rest of his life, but really ... how is he two? Although sometimes I think it's not so much that he's two, but that I haven't been in my former career for TWO FREAKING YEARS! That means even though we worked waaaay in advance, all the programs I developed there are done and gone. My legacy is over! Damn.

Anyway, moment of mourning former life over. Back to the Kiddle.

Grammy and Ahdah came up for a week-long visit. Kiddle is totally, completely, absolutely enamored with my dad right now. I have to say having him around finally gave me a nice break. Kiddle is such a mama's boy right now that he wants me -- and only me -- no matter who else is around. But that all changed when Ahdah arrived. Woo hoo!

Still reeling from last year's 55-strong birthday blowout (who would've thought everyone would be able to come on Easter weekend?), we went low-key this year. Just us, both sets of grandparents, his uncle and future aunt. He seemed really excited about all his presents but I think the favourites right now are the sandwich set (we're offered bites of a wooden hamburger several times a day; it's important to say "yummm" after each bite), a stuffed horse named Nutley (intended to replace the very large, very hard plastic elephant he insists on taking to bed with him), and ....

bubbles!

He's always thought bubbles were pretty cool, but to get his little hands on his very own bubble blower? Awesome!




Happy 2nd Birthday Kiddle!!