Trip Out West

I was really trying to be good about blogging and then we made a trip to Denver this past weekend and it all went to hell. Oh well, the trip was worth it. Before the trip, however, last week we had our new nanny, Nanny C, start full days with LR. He really seems to like her and we're very happy with the new schedule. I have to get up too early, but it puts me at home with LR by 3:30pm every afternoon, so it's worth it.

Sat morning we took our time, packed up, planned our car, bus, train, and plane adventure and stepped out the door at 11:00am. We drove to a satellite lot at Logan and parked. LR kept asking for the "last tunnel" but since we'd already gone through the big dig tunnels, there were no more to be found. We boarded a bus to get to the airport and LR was very excited to both be on a bus and see all the planes. We had him in the stroller, so it all went pretty smoothly, even security. (They do make you take baby shoes off, just like SwingDaddy reported.)

The novelty of the planes wore off just in time for LR to pass out as the plane took off. Unfortunately, the captain came on over the intercom with about 45 minutes left and woke LR up. He was pretty groggy until we landed in Milwaukee. He took some time to run around while we were in the airport and then we boarded the second flight to Denver. We got bulkhead seats, so LR couldn't kick anyone in front of us. That was a great advantage. A gentleman next to us was kind enough to let us out whenever LR decided to run up and down the aisle. Daddy and I had prepared a bag of tricks which included favorite foods, new toys, and new books. His favorite new books are "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear," and "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." The pigeon one is his favorite though and we all read it to him multiple times over the long weekend. The big toy winner of the weekend was a wind up travel fishing game. LR was quiet for 10 minutes at a time focusing on catching a fish with his magnetic fishing pole. I'm still shocked we made it both ways without losing any of the tiny, plastic fish.

When we landed LR was wowed by the Denver airport (and their trains) and could scarcely be bothered to greet Grandma and Granddad H. He warmed up quickly to his playmates though and played lots of games of peek-a-boo with Grandad. LR loved all their cubby furniture, face-plant friendly couches, and giant ceramic frog. Just about everything makes him smile which, in turn, makes us smile. The grandparents were amazed by his verbal skills. He mimicked everything everyone said this weekend, but he's also somewhat of a trend setter. His favorite saying is still "no like" and by the end of the trip, we were all saying it.

The weather was extremely hot, so we spent most of the time indoors, but Sun. we did go play at a great new park they have nearby. LR went down the highest slides over and over on equipment made for 5-7 year olds. It made Daddy and I nervous, but he's tough to stop sometimes. We also hit a mall on Mon. with an awesome play area. I forgot to take the camera, but it was giant rubbery breakfast foods that they could jump, climb, and slide on. Very cool. We spent the rest of the weekend playing with the Brio train sets that Uncle D had when he was little that he's lending to LR. LR absolutely loves it. Thanks D! Oh, and I believe LR has absconded with my Ratatouille stuffed animal you bought for me, D. Something about the spoon appeals to him.

We left Tues and had a rough time on the way back. We weren't quite as organized and LR had already seen all the new toys and books. He slept the first flight again which was nice, but the second flight was all squirming and kicking the seat in front of him. We were absolutely exhausted by the time we got home and still haven't quite recovered. Really wish we could travel more since it was so wonderful to see family, but we're just going to have to wait until he's a little older. He's getting too strong for me if that's possible. That and he's really close to being two. I think my wagging finger is sprained.

Evening in the Park

The first picture is of LR enjoying a partially put together kitchen island. Thanks, Uncle Corbin! I just have to make one more trip to pick up the counter top. In the meantime, LR thinks of it as his own personal fort. The hat he's wearing was a gift from grandparents Y and C. You can't see in the picture, but it's a Cubs hat. In a town as rabid as Boston for its sports teams, the grandparents are sure trying hard to get him beat up. So far he has a Tampa Bay shirt and a Cubs hat. Want to throw a Chargers visor our way, SwingDaddy? Good thing we only have a few NY family members or we'd really be in trouble. (Go Sox!)

Monday evening Daddy came home early and we decided to take a picnic dinner to the park. The day had been in the high 80s, so it was a perfect temperature. LR was more than willing to go for a car ride, so it was easy enough to get over there. The park was deserted as, presumably, most people took their kids home for dinner. (Suckers!)

LR started in the sandbox with the big dump trucks and then moved on to the swings. We convinced him to come over to the picnic table for a quick bite of mac n' cheese and pickles before he went on to other equipment. He loves dill pickles, but he wouldn't chew them up and swallow. He would just bite off a hunk and keep it in his mouth while running around. It was driving me crazy thinking that he was going to choke on it as he climbed the rock wall and slid down the tunnel slide. That tunnel slide is just about the greatest slide ever, according to LR. He found it just as I was starting to think about heading home. It was too nice an evening to keep him from enjoying it completely though, so we waited until he tired of it. Then he found the path into the Fells Reservation at the edge of the park. He headed into the woods, mosquitos and all. He was convinced he heard water and kept trudging farther into the darkening woods looking for it, saying "water, water." We followed until we hit a family of gnats. Then I put LR on my shoulders and we tromped out of the woods and to the car. He didn't fuss about getting into the car and it was a pretty awesome evening overall. The last picture shows Daddy playing a game of chase with LR.

Weekend Grandparents Visit

This weekend we were lucky enough to have a visit from Grandparents Y and C and Uncle Corbin. The arrived with adorable Thomas the Train outfits for LR which he happily wore all weekend. He entertained them their first night by screaming from 2:30 to 4am. Not sure what his problem was, but because of the illness last week, I'm guessing it had something to do with him wanting to be in our bed instead of his. At least he slept through on Saturday night.

Saturday we spent much of the day playing outside and then had dinner at Jasper White's Summer Shack. When LR finished his dinner we all took turns walking him around the restaurant. He fixated on the lobster tanks in the center of the restaurant and it was all we could do to keep him from going for a swim with the lobsters. Uncle Corbin, however, encouraged it. :)

At home LR spent a lot of time playing with and climbing on his new train table provided by a gift certificate Y and C gave us to Pottery Barn. At first we tried to keep him from climbing up, but after 24 hours, we gave up. Now he can climb on it, but not stand on it. When he does stand on it, I usually give him the warning, "you can sit down, or get down." He smiles. I say it again. He dances around. I make a move to come over to him and he drops to his butt. Such a character.

Sunday night we convinced our friends D & H that he was fine on the table and hadn't yet fallen off. Moment later he tumbled off and I only half caught him as his forehead hit the floor. He cried for a minute and then fussed for a minute, but there was no major damage (to his head or the floor). It was another example of stunningly adept parenting.

Happy Belated Father's Day to all the dads out there. Special thanks to Daddy for being so amazing with LR. LR pretty much worships him already. You won't see a happier kid when he hears the garage door open in the evening.

Goodbye Nanny M

I've missed a bunch of major events in the last few days, so I'll try to catch up in the next few posts. Last Friday was Nanny M's last day. The whole family misses her already, but we know she's going on to great things. We are forever grateful to her for her dedication to and loving of LR. He has been extremely well taken care of and I'm just sorry we don't have more photos of their time together. Luckily, Daddy snapped a few pics on her last day.

Congrats on the new job and thanks for everything Nanny M!

Won't Anybody Help?

Last week I took LR to the grocery store. When we got to the prepared foods counter, I ordered a small container of mac n' cheese for him. While waiting for the man to fill the order, LR decided it was time to get out of the shopping cart disguised as a car, which he calls "car cart." He was strapped in, so was making very little progress. As he strained, he decided to announce that he needed help to get out of the cart by yelling, "help! Help! Help!" To the casual observer it looked like a scene out of the DSS handbook. I was a little embarrassed and the man behind the counter was terribly amused.

Floor Tantrums

Mark the calendar. Yesterday was the first time LR threw himself to the ground to express displeasure. None of the tantrums were major, but I'm sure he's just priming the engine. He did it twice for me during the day and once for Daddy last night when he wanted Daddy to take him outside. Speaking of Daddy, yesterday morning while LR and I played cars downstairs, Daddy got ready upstairs. When it was time for me to leave for work, I called out, "Derek! Are you coming down?" Daddy came down the stairs, LR looked at him and called out "Durk! Duuuurk!" I'll have to remind myself to just say "Daddy" from now on. He's getting much better with names though. He can now say his own name, but it comes out very much broken into 2 parts: Hud-san.

LR finally seemed to be mostly recovered from his illness yesterday although he's still napping a lot and he did throw up his dinner of zucchini, rice, and beans. Not sure what it was, but I'm glad it's almost over. He slept through Tues night, but didn't make it through last night. I think he's gotten used to sleeping in our bed again. *sigh*

LR has a favorite new expression, "no like." He uses it when I pick a book he'd rather not hear for the thousandth time. "No like." He uses it when he's finished with his dinner and pushes his plate away even though he ate all but 10% of it. "No like." He uses it when I walk in the direction opposite the way he wants to walk. "No like!" It's expressive, but annoying. Just right for a burgeoning two year old, I guess.

Tummy Hurts

LR woke up with a fever on Saturday morning. Because it was low grade and he was playing happily, we decided to try a run to Ikea. It was a little overwhelming to all of us and he fell asleep on the way home. When he woke up, his fever went up to close to 103 and he spent the rest of the day resting on me on the couch while watching A Bug's Life. (He loves the scenes with the bird.) Saturday night was a rough one. Very little sleep and lots of attempts to get the right medication into him. The problem is that he'll take Motrin, but it doesn't break a fever as well as Tylenol. Unfortunately, the Tylenol is gross and once I start giving him that, he'll reject the Motrin too. I picked up 3 version of Children's Tylenol, grape, strawberry, and meltaways, on Sunday hoping that he would like one of them. No dice. Every time I made him take it, he dissolved into tears and hiccups.

We're were supposed to host my book club's BBQ on Sunday, but I canceled it to keep the other kids from picking up whatever LR has. It was by far the nicest day of the summer so far and it was a shame we had to spend it inside. In the afternoon Daddy and LR decided to nap in our bed and LR woke up screaming. He was inconsolable. He was stiff as a board in my arms and clenched his fists and raised them to his head. When he calmed a little, I asked him if something hurt. He said, "hurt, hurt, tummy hurt, tummy hurt" and then cranked up the volume on his wailing again. It's the very first time he's been able to tell me what's bothering him and I felt completely helpless. I didn't know what to do that might help. He hadn't eaten much for the past 2 days, so it could have been hunger, or maybe gas, or upset because of the Tylenol. He drank a little water when he calmed down and the episode passed. Unfortunately, it wasn't the last one. He woke up at 11:30pm last night with the same thing and we were just considering taking him down the street to the hospital when he calmed down and fell back asleep.

During the night his fever broke and he slept much more peacefully. The fever spiked again this morning, but I'm hoping we're on the tail end of whatever this is.

Su-sha

About a month ago we exposed LR to sushi. We're not big fans of sashimi, but we like vegetarian maki. When he expressed interest in my dinner, like he always does, I unwrapped the seaweed from an avocado roll and gave it to him. He popped the whole thing in his mouth, chewed, swallowed and asked for more. I ended up splitting my dinner with him that night. He called it "su-sha."

Since then his sushi appetite has ramped up. He asks for it on site when we're at the grocery store. At Whole Foods they have a giant plastic sushi roll hanging above the sushi station, so he knows when it's coming. It's not really grocery store finger food, so I try to restrict him to crackers and grapes when we're in the aisles (despite mighty protests). In the past month, his pronunciation has improved. It's now "su-shi" and he eats 8-10 pieces on his own in a sitting. I stopped unwrapping the seaweed and started cutting them in half. He doesn't seem to have a problem with the seaweed as long as it's in small pieces.

I love that he's a good eater, but did he have to have such expensive tastes?

This week we went with friends to StellaBella, a great toy store in Cambridge. I could have spent hundreds of dollars, but I ended up with an adorable wooden sushi set. (I think my sister-in-law Lady M mentioned the same set in a blog post a while back.) LR loves playing with it so far. He uses the wooden knife to cut the velcroed sushi rolls apart and practices dipping the pieces into soy sauce using the chopsticks. It's really adorable. We spent the last play time this evening playing a family game of "sushi." I should contact Milton Bradley...

Have? Have.

LR's favorite new word is "have." He uses it both as a question "have?" meaning "may I have this object that you have but I dearly want," and "have," a command, telling Daddy or I "you shall have this thing this very moment." The first is the equivalent of "gimme," but much nicer. For example, in the picture I'm pretty sure he said "have" as he reached for the camera. The latter he uses when I ask him to share something. Usually his playmate doesn't know why she is receiving such a gift, but she doesn't often complain.

LR is just getting the hang of saying his name. It's usually in the context of "Hudson's turn," which comes out as "Hudnes tourn" or "Huds tourn." (It's not usually mommy's turn.)

A few pics

watching the cougars with Mommy









walking with Daddy at the zoo












sharing a bowl of raisins with King J