Writing it Down

In my last post I remarked how fast time is flying, and how I haven't written many blogs in a while. Then I talked about almost nothing. I miss the days where I would chronicle what we did, and although a play by play may bore you - I think it is important to write them down so I can remember that we did not just do nothing when I stayed home with him, but we did a lot!
So, just remarking on last week alone I can tell you we did do a lot. Nothing seems too eventful right now, but we did have some fun. On Monday, LJ's friend Max joined us at Gymboree. I met Max's Mom in my "preggos in the pool" class this past winter. Max is her first as well, so it is fun to get together and learn more about eachother at the same time we learn more about our children. Sharing "war stories" such as feeding and sleeping trials has also been helpful. After Gymboree we met another "pool preggos" friend and her daughter Laurel. Laurel's Mom happens to be a close neighbor and also has a 2 year old, Bryce. Big Joel LOVES Bryce, of course as do I! I think our special love of Bryce is because we look at him and think, oh boy - LJ will be there soon, walking, talking, saying really cute things... (Bryce asked to be a Lemur for Halloween, who does that?). Anyway, it was a fun day. This week Bryce is going to come over and help me childproof. Don't worry, we will pay good attention!
And, that was just Monday! Tuesday I went to Baby-Toddler Storytime at the town Library. I was told I should try it at least to meet other Moms. Upon arriving I realized when they said Baby they meant Baby over 1 year... But we had fun anyway and we did meet a Mom or two, though it was clear they didn't want to really meet me for the long-term, as my child was not in their child's age group. Bummer. I did meet one mom who announced she was pregnant, and not happy about it. Then she proceeded to tell me that "It gets harder, not easier." I am choosing to believe she was just having a bad day and didn't really mean that. Her 2-year old daughter seemed delightful at storytime. We also took out a few books - Runaway Bunny and 123 ABC. The librarian's thought I was nuts taking out books for a three month old. They really thought I was nuts when I made them look for Grover's "There is a Monster at the end of this Book." That was one of my favs when I was a kid. Sadly, my dinky town library does not have this book. Christmas present for LJ it is! Yes, I read him books, and show him the pictures, and have since he was 1 week old. Green Eggs and Ham is our favorite so far, he loves the repetition. Mom gets to revisit her theater days as well.
Wednesday was a tough one for LJ, and eventually an excellent one for Mommy! He was a screaming man all morning. Lots of friends arrived for a planned day out, and he seemed to tuck his crankiness away, for a short while. A few mommies, and a soon-to-be Daddy took the day and visited some local NH places, including the Apple Tree Farm down the street and two wineries! Yes, we went wine tasting, on a week day, with our children. It was fantastic. LJ freaked out at stop one - and I decided he was not going to ruin my fun day out - so I bundled him like crazy, pumped him full of food and turned him away from the group. We sat and ate cider donuts and drank hot fresh cider while he screamed, and eventually fell asleep. I was embarassed, and believe I said "does anyone want a child?" I tried to convince my friend who had a perfectly angelic sleeping baby, that we should trade. Who does that? After a few minutes LJ fell asleep and was a perfect angel the remainder of the day. I guess Mom just needs to keep her cool during these times. But the three hours of crying that morning had really gotten to me. Two minutes after LJ fell asleep the Dad to be decided to go over to him and poke him and say "Are you sleeping?" I screamed at him! He will learn... soon enough... By the way, NH wineries are actually really nice! We will all be planning a visit in the spring, join us!
Both Thursday and Friday were get stuff done around the house days. We are painting a few rooms in the house now, so I am taking this opportunity to reorganize some of our knick-knacks. I know it is early, but I am starting to child proof. I am very protective of my decorating and my fancy living room and antiques, that I cannot imagine suddenly getting rid of everything and putting up gates. So, I figure slowly getting things ready for crawling, then walking - will be better than rubberizing the entire house at once. Joel and I have already talked about it, and we are going to do sensible things, like remove the heavy ceramic antique steins that are within little-hands reach, and remove the doilies from book shelves, dressers and night stands that can easily be pulled down. We will put those plastic things in all the unused plugs. But, we are not going to be those parents that lock the toilet seats (sorry if you are one of those), put stuff on the corners of all the furniture, and lock every single cabinet in the kitchen. Yes, lock the one with the chemicals. But all of them? I am just going to have to pay attention and I am hoping a child is as trainable as a dog. Otter does not chew on things, and Angus eventually learned to go outside... If we can teach Angus... Who knows, I could be eating my words. Keeping our coffee table is our big thing we would like. Even I hurt myself on the coffee table when I was younger, what kid didn't? Do I want to deprive my child from this momentous rite of passage? Just like the stitches all kids need under their chin from the first big bike accident?

Ah, this is a better post. I did not even get into yesterday, a rainy day in with our friends Cristel and Doug. I made awesome beef stew and apple cake. They brought delicious cheese. There was lots of wine, and Up! (the movie). LJ was a delight. Until we started to sing him the Sesame Street song. For some reason, he really does not like that.

Ok, off to new adventures today!