This evening, the Hatchling came over to the sofa, snuggled up to my left side, took my right hand and put it over her tummy, and then held that hand in both of her little chubby ones. Then she leaned back and crossed her ankles, perfectly positioned to watch a little evening telly. (We’re partial to Seinfeld.)
So, that’s pretty nice.
Last night, I slept for nearly 11 hours. Please keep your fingers crossed that this is the start of a new pattern.
I know. I know! A whole week without any posts. Erk. Last week really kicked my ass, mental-health-wise. Insomnia kicked in again (it seems to be going around) and I just could not get out of a deep blue funk. I’m still not totally out of it, in fact, which is really getting old. Something’s going on, and I’m try to figure out what it is, but so far it’s stuck deep down in my subconsciousness, which means that it’s all coming out in sleeplessness and restlessness and general feelings of inadequacy, because my subconscious is a bitch like that and really needs to learn some damn manners. This week Mr. Squab is off work, which means that I can take some time for writing and other child-free activities (like, um, writing this blog entry, actually). I’m hoping that will give me the reflection time I need to puzzle out what the hell is wrong with me and what to do about it. Although if anyone wanted to send me on an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii for a weekend, I’m sure that would help even MORE.
But that is not the point of this post. The point of this post, my friends, is to tell you that the Hatchling experienced her first corn-on-the-cob this weekend, and it was joyful to behold. We’ve offered it to her every time we’ve had it this summer, but she wanted nothing to do with it until Saturday, when she saw me eating some and decided it was a) funny and b) worth copying. I gave her bites off my portion, and she liked it enough that we gave her a little bitty ear of her own, complete with holders. And I don’t know why I’m even still typing, because this is really a case where pictures are worth … well, you know. Click the photos for bigger images:
What happened this weekend:
1. The Hatchling got a vicious cold. Much mucous ensued.
2. Mr. Squab got the Hatchling’s vicious cold. Even more mucous, and much sneezing.
3. Said colds notwithstanding, we hosted a dinner party. I swear to god, until I graduated from college, my vision of adult life consisted largely of throwing dinner parties. I dunno if my parents threw an unusual number of them when I was little, but they definitely loom large in my memory – falling asleep to the pleasant sound of adults socializing outside my bedroom door, or crashing on the guest bed of one of my parents’ friends, and being sleepily carried to the car when it was time to go home. My generation doesn’t tend to throw dinner parties so much. We’re more of a backyard barbecue, happy hour, game night or movie night kind of crowd – more casual, bigger groups. But sometimes it’s nice to socialize with just a few couples at a time, I tell you what. The meal could have been better (yet another skill that suffers from toddlerus interruptus), but the wine was yummy, the dessert was sinful, and the conversation was just dandy.
4. I got the Hatchling these shoes on summer clearance. Aren’t they just the CUTEST?
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Posted in good times, random tidbits, trials and tribulations
Tagged 16 months
She’s so right. (As usual.)
Oh, it’s not selling unsafe toys to American kids that’s so shameful. What’s fucking shameful is that we–and I include myself–only give a shit about the American kids whose rooms are stuffed to the gills with cheap-ass toys made in sweatshops in China, whose workers are often not much older than children and who not only handle the lead paint or other toxins that we don’t want our kids to have even minimal contact with, but do so for 12 hours or more a day, for a few cents per week, while living in cities where the air is polluted by the same industrial toxins that we’re suddenly so concerned about.
Gah. It cannot be denied. What’s to be done? I will say, all the toy recalls *have* made me rethink what I buy for the Hatchling, both for safety reasons and for the reasons Bitch cites above. I mean, hell, she already has more crap than she knows what to do with, and often her favorite toys are things like my measuring spoons or toilet paper tubes. And when I stop and think about it, I mean DUH, of course I’d rather buy her one or two really top notch toys than nine or ten shitty cheap ones. But then we get to Target, and her eyes light up at some plastic geegaw, and it’s only $5.99, and, and, and … And gross. Feh. I gotta stop that. Mass consumption on that scale is good for exactly nobody’s children. Next time we’re at the store I pledge to take the time to remember that what I’m buying affects more kids than just my own. Who’s with me?
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Posted in current events, outrage
So our ECFE class? Is AWESOME. First, it’s in this beautiful school which is in a beautiful area of town – the school was built about 5 years ago but you walk in and it feels like it’s been built to last: stone walls, high ceilings, spacious classrooms and lots of windows. The ECFE classroom was like the Hatchling’s dream come true. Soooooo many toys and things to climb on and things to push around and cubby holes and water tables and – the Hatchling’s favorite of all – an old plastic bottle with wooden clothespins in it. Oh, joy! There were about 10 other kids there, most with moms but a few with moms and dads, which is cool. The Hatchling was TOTALLY in her element. Interacting with loads of other kids? Check. Charming the pants off the other parents and teachers? Check. Freaking out the other parents with her off-the-charts height and crazy number of teeth? Check. (“How many teeth does she have?” several parents asked. “All except her 2-year molars,” I replied. “Wowwwww,” they breathed.) When it came time to sit in a circle with the other parents and kids and sing songs together, little miss always-on-the-go actually sat in my lap and grinned her little head off the whole time. When it was time for the parents to sit together while the kids played under the supervision of the aides, the teacher warned us that most of the kids would probably want to stay closer by for the first couple of sessions. Before the warning was even out of her mouth, the Hatchling was over on the other side of the room, showing one of the aides her mad skillz-of-an-artist on the magnetic drawing board. She played catch with one of the dads, stole surreptitious teddy grahams from several of the kids, and said huge enthusiastic “HI’s” to everyone she encountered. In short, she had a blast. And since all the parents seem like nice, interesting people, I had a pretty good time, too. It will be really great to meet with this group once a week, if for no other reason than to allay my COMPLETELY IRRATIONAL AND INSANE anxieties about the Hatchling’s developmental milestones. Because, look! It’s a whole room of kids her age or thereabouts, and hey – they all throw tantrums! And none of them are really talking yet! And most of them don’t sleep as well as she does! And none of them are as cute!
Yep: reaffirming my child’s inherent awesomeness. THAT’S what it’s all about. (Where’s my eye-rolling emoticon?)
* Maybe I just needed the weather to change. It’s been in the 60s the past couple of days, real autumn weather, and I’ve been feeling a little more of my accustomed seasonal appreciation. The Hatchling and I had a good day today, getting out the warmer clothes and putting away some of the lightest summer tank tops and shorts, running errands and then stopping by the park to play for a little bit.
* The Hatchling went down the slide ALL BY HERSELF for the first time today. I put her at the top, sitting down, and then went and crouched at the bottom and held out my hands. She grinned a little nervously, but she knew what to do and used the sides of the slide to s-l-o-w-l-y pull herself down until – whee! – she was sliding into my arms. She was both scared and excited, but the excited part won out enough for three more trips down the slide.
* Tomorrow we start our first ECFE class. We’ll go once a week through December. It will be really good for both of us to have a scheduled activity to get us out of the house, especially once it gets cold and gross outside, and I know the Hatchling will love to meet the other kids. This, of course, doesn’t mean that I’m not kind of nervous about tomorrow. Will the other moms be nice? Will I fit in? Will the other kids be nice to my kid? Will there ever come a time when I can breeze effortlessly into new social situations without anxiety? The answer to that last one, I fear, is no: but I can ACT like it’s effortless, anyway, and sometimes that helps.
* Looky, Daddy, a long-time resident of the blogroll (look under “Parental Units”) just sent his twin daughters off to preschool for the first time today. He posted a video reflecting on the experience which is really not to be missed.
* Did you know that in China, kids who aren’t potty-trained yet mostly just wear crotchless pants and do their business wherever they are? This post gives an overview, including some mighty cute pictures of baby butts.
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Posted in linkage, random tidbits
Tagged video
I just saw the news that Madeleine L’Engle has died. I absolutely devoured her books, starting at about 10 years old. I can’t imagine having made it through Jr. High and High School without them – they made me feel OK about not fitting in, and helped me to think big thoughts about big stuff: morality, love, death, religion. I still go back and reread her stuff occasionally, and I look forward to passing the books along to the Hatchling when she gets old enough. L’Engle lived a long, fruitful, interesting life and I imagine she was ready to meet her maker. But I sure am grateful she leaves behind such a large body of work.
(x-posted at After School Snack)
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Posted in Pop Culture
It was a lovelygorgeousbeautiful day today, so the Hatchling and I decided to go to our favorite park and look at the flowers and play in the fountains. Er … with the fountains. At the fountains? Anyway, Mr. Squab joined us after work, which totally blew the Hatchling’s mind – Daddy! In the park! Whoa! She showed her pleasure at his company by generously feeding him bits of fresh grass. Enjoy:
Sorry for the lack of postage this week. Just haven’t had the gumption to put anything in blogular form. Instead, how ’bout some bullets?
– Took the Hatchling for her very first visit to Urgent Care on Labor Day. Considering she’s almost 17 months old, I’d say that’s not too bad. The cause: we suspected that she dislocated her elbow while Mr. Squab was swinging her a bit too enthusiastically by the arms. In the course of diagnosing the problem over the phone with the doctor, they told us to extend her arm and turn her palm upright to see if that hurt. It did, all right, but it apparently ALSO fixed the problem, because by the time we had her signed in at the Urgent Care clinic she was running around the waiting room entertaining all the kids who were actually ailing by smiling, saying “HI!” in her usual enthusiastic manner, twisting, going down on all fours, balancing on her head and lifting one leg in the air, etc. Of course, we still had the doctor take a look at her, but she was totally fine, the little bugger.
– The insomnia seems to be getting better, slowly. I’ve gone to sleep no later than 1 am for the last three nights in a row, which is a damn sight better than the 3:30, 4:30, and 5:30 am times I was doing last week. Thank you, Atavan and Tylenol PM.
– It’s supposed to be in the 60s and 70s this weekend. WOOOT!
– I can’t believe I only got 80% on this. On the other hand, can you beat me?
80%
FilmCritic.com – Movie Reviews
Comments Off on Not dead; merely resting
Posted in Pop Culture, random tidbits, sleep
Tagged 16 months
