A Duet

Kissing

Elias' class at school just had a round of Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. I think Elias might have had a mild case, but it was (mostly) on the weekend so he didn't miss any school. There were 4 reported cases (out of 10 kids), but I can't see how all of the kids didn't get it. Case in point:

When I picked up Elias from school one day, Natalie, one of his classmates, went over and hit him. The teachers asked Natalie if she could give Elias a hug to say she was sorry. She promptly gave him a hug and a kiss on the lips. Not to be out done, another classmate, Julia gave Elias a hug and a kiss on the lips. This is all during the peak of Hand, Foot and Mouth. No wonder all the kids are sick all the time.

Talk About Not Fitting In

I'm in 2 book clubs. They couldn't be any more different from each other. I really don't fit in with the first book club I joined, but they couldn't be more fascinating. I would describe most of the women as socialites. Most of them don't work and have lots of money to spend. They have style and class...this is not the way I would describe myself.

The last meeting was at a woman's condo near the Cherry Creek mall. Her entire place was decorated in pink...but it wasn't tacky. It was a posh pink. She had a giant walk in closet like you see on t.v. with shelves of expensive shoes and bags. It really is indescribable. I should have taken pictures.

I have to host next month. Maybe no one will come.

Talking and Talking and Talking

Elias is talking a ton these days. When I go into his room get him up for school, he usually says, "Good morning." He used to say it all day until he finally got, "Good noon." We are still working on, "Good evening." He likes to give directions, "That way." I think pretty soon he is going to know better than I am how to get home. He loves counting from 1 to 10, and doesn't usually skip 6, 7, 8 like he used to. When you ask him what he wants to eat, he always says, "Bunny crackers, yeah, yeah." He is obsessed with these crackers and only gets them on special occasions. The last time he asked, we gave him some, and he ate about 2 before he was all done. What a crazy kid.

Phew...I Have a Job

My current project is ending and a new one will start in July. They talked about cutbacks for the new contract: people, salaries, benefits. It was a very stressful month with many people now on their way out to new projects. As one guy put it, "They're breaking up our happy little family." Things are already different. Change is hard. Luckily most people who are left got job offers on the new project. I'm planning on staying on with the new project for a while, even though I'm taking a salary and benefits cut. At least I have a job. Let's hope I'll still want it come July.

I Love You

Elias has started saying, "I love you." It's about time.

Feeling Real Again

We had our friends Shari, Brad and Mika over for dinner a while ago. It was good eating, talking and laughing. It made me feel like a real adult again. Thank goodness for good friends.

Slacker

Man I have been such a slacker.

Ahhh...Contra Dancing

We were lucky enough to have our good friends Wendy and Mike come for a visit last weekend. Wendy was calling two contra dances in Denver, and Mike was here to dance. Matt and I split the weekend, I went to the fabulous dance on Friday, and he went to the one on Saturday. The dances were exceptionally good for the Denver area. Only one person told me what move came next because he didn't recognize me and thought I needed help. That is quite an improvement from the last time. A few people even thought I looked familiar. There were great dances (of course) and a wonderful band. Even some young people. Ahhh...contra dancing.

Don't Come Here

If you don't like music playing, don't come to our house. From the minute Elias wakes up, he is asking, "Songs, songs?" I think he must sing in his sleep. We mostly listen to children's CDs, some from his Music Together classes, some I have bought, and some we have gotten as gifts. For most of the CDs he predicts what the next song will be before it even starts. If you want to get Elias to talk to you on the phone, just ask him to sing a song. It will almost certainly be ABCs. You might get lucky and hear Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or maybe even the rare Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. Let's hope he can learn more than just the one tune before he's 5.

Say It Ain't So

Elias is going to be 2 on April 5th! Hard to believe. Here is are some birthday gift ideas in case you were struggling:

Poppers (those rubber toys that you flip inside out and set on the table and they pop up after a few seconds)
Bath toys
Good children's CDs
Duplo lego sets (those small sets with fun themes. He has the mail set, the street sweep set, and the rooster chicken set)
Stickers (but he really only just puts all the stickers together, so they don't need to be good stickers)
Any kind of magnet toy (I already got him letters for the fridge, but he loves magnets, so anything else)

Big ticket item: Something similar to the kitchen helper. An easy to fold up chair/stool thing that lets kids help in the kitchen.

Elias is all set with clothes (thanks Amy, Jillyn and Steph), so any other fun toys you can think of would be great too.

We Sure Cleaned that Store Up

As I mentioned before, we have a family membership to the children's museum, and it has been great fun! This last time we spent some time in the kids' grocery store where they have little carts, plastic food, a mini checkout lane...even kid-sized Whole Foods aprons. Too cute! It was particularly fun this time because when we got there, it was a mess...and there weren't really that many kids inside, so it was surprising. After watching for a little bit, I spotted the culprit. There was a boy (I never did figure out who was "watching" him) who was maybe 6-years-old who was filling carts full of plastic food and dumping them on the floor. I could hardly handle the mess, so I started picking up the food and putting it away (I need help, I know). When the boy kept dumping it out on the floor, I told him he should help me clean the store up instead. I told him we needed to make it look nice so we could get more customers. It worked like a charm. He helped me put the food back on the shelves. At one point he was moving vegetables from one bin to another because they were on sale (all his idea). Unfortunately Elias wandered out, so I had to leave in a hurry. Later on in another part of the museum the boy spotted me and said, "We sure cleaned that store up." We sure did. I'm hoping he got promoted from shelver to manager.

People Watching

I am a people watcher. Everywhere I go, I can't help but stare at people. It is one of my favorite things to do. With the children's museum membership I bought this year, it has been super easy to get my fix. I'm surprised no one has asked, "What are you looking at?" yet. At least I try to smile at people as I stare. Elias seems to do the same thing. We had some nice weather this weekend, so the park was super duper crowded. Instead of playing, Elias mostly just stood and looked at everyone. That's my boy.

Who Invented Pull-Ups?

The school said if we wanted them to get Elias started on the potties they have, we needed to bring in some pull-ups (Man those diapers are expensive...and on a side note I think Elias may be allergic. He has some bumps appearing...sigh). What I want to know is how do you change a child who has a gigantic poop (when he only goes once a day, it's big), didn't make it to the potty in time and is wearing a pull-up? I have absolutely no idea. If I try to pull it down, poop goes all down his leg, onto to his feet and onto the changing table. Perhaps I get the scissors out and cut them off?

But I Wanna See

Elias already knows that you can look at the picture on the camera. What he doesn't quite have down is that I actually have to take it first.

Don't Want to Jinx it

At the risk of jinxing it, I'm going to say that Elias has learned how to sleep again. Yipee! Thanks for all the advice we got (much of it not posted here). The first thing we did was take down his crib and put his mattress on the floor. Even though that made some things difficult, I think it was the right thing to do. He sleeps on a mat at school, and I think he needed the freedom to get up and move around. Now we just need to get him a bed.

We tried just about everything after that to get him to sleep...us sleeping in his room, closing our door (he slept in the hall, but not well), letting him sleep in our room on the floor (that didn't even last 10 minutes). Nothing was successful. Turns out compassion and sacrifice don't come naturally to me when I haven't been sleeping well.

I finally got the Richard Ferber book, "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" from the library. I had already decided Elias needed to sleep in his own room, so this book just gave me the steps I needed to get the job done. We installed a lock on his door (with our old house, the doors don't even close). The first night I went in at put him back to sleep a few times right away, them at 3 minutes, 5 minutes and he fell asleep before the 10 minute mark. Amazing! Every night since (with a small setback when Matt was back) Elias has only gotten better and better at falling (and staying) asleep. It sure seemed impossible just a few weeks ago.

We still have a few things to work on. I still lock the door because I barely get done saying goodnight before he is at the door with a little cry. Then he often talks a bit and finally snuggles up with his blankets on the floor by the door for a good night's sleep (although not very comfortable I would imagine). For some reason he doesn't want to be in his bed. At this point, it doesn't much matter to me. All that matters is that everyone is sleeping better at our house...knock on wood.