Indiana Idylls

  Tuesday, Alex and I made our first solo sojourn to Indy. I ran some errands at the mall, we stopped at a little bookstore for the Playmobil Nativity set, went to the Children's Museum, and shopped at Costco before our return home. My plan for the Children's Museum was to snap Alex's Christmas picture on the carousel, which he'd never ridden before. Turns out they do a big holiday "thing" in December and the place was packed. There were at least two field trips there. The kids were probably 7 or 8 years old and a bit too rambunctious to watch out for a toddler in their midst, so we made a beeline for the carousel. Alex didn't protest, but silently clutched the pole on his stationary horse and looked the scene over very seriously. They were playing calliope Christmas carols. I thought at any moment that it was going to prove too much for him. When the song ended and we came to a stop, Alex -- almost inaudibly -- said, "Again." I untied him, ...

It wasn't two-thirty, but Alex had his first dentist visit this afternoon. He was very good, as usual -- if you allow as "good" the running around the office and playing with one of the foot pedals that made a satisfying "whoosh!" noise when stepped upon. My check-up was first, so he sat on my lap for quite a while watching the hygienist work. Of particular interest was the little suction nozzle, which I was asked to hold during the polishing segment. Alex was on my lap at that point, and the hygienist expected him to be startled and afraid, since most kids are skittish about the noise and the mysterious little device. Instead, he was very curious, and after he saw me use it the first time, he took it from me and was putting it in his mouth and trying to figure out how to close his lips around it. The hygienist and I were cracking up! I'm sorry I didn't have my camera. Needless to say, Alex seemed to love every minute of his own exam: the moving chair,...

Well, that's not strictly true. It IS the first quilt that I made following some semblance of instructions about to execute a quilted square. Previously, I had madly scribbled a pinwheel pattern on the back of a church bulletin, and despite the seemingly divine inspiration I forged ahead with no knowledge of how to properly cut a square, much less how to measure and cut and sew a properly-sized triangle. I digress. I did make the potholder you see here as a sort of tutorial project on piecing and binding, inspired by these beauties here at one of my new favorite "happy blogs". I love her palette and the colors and bright white make me smile. She's even doing a crazy give-away to celebrate her 100th post , including some of her lovely handmade things and beautiful fabric squares. Check it out! (Just yesterday, she posted a tutorial on making rick-rack napkins . The rick-rack I could take or leave, but it's a nifty idea and probably a better use of my small linen...

I feel like three months of chaos must be nearing its end. I mean, it's got to end, doesn't it?! Last week, we drove up to Dunkirk for Paul's grandmother's funeral. Paul caught a cold while we were there and was feeling pretty lousy for the first half of the week. I thought I was just suffering the aftermath of allergies, but last night I really started to feel awful, as if I were under water. As I'm lying on the couch after dinner, about to nod off, I am vaguely aware of this: Alex calls Paul a Bobo and falls in front of the couch. Paul says, "That was close. [Alex gets up and takes a step backwards] No. Don't do that again. You'll get hurt." There's a bang as Alex falls in front of the couch again. Paul jumps out of the recliner to get him, and heads off towards the kitchen. "You'll probably need stitches for that. Jess, I need your help." Turns out Alex was balancing on my crocs and jumping off. The second time he landed full...

Somehow, paying $1.98/gallon for gasoline again made everything seem better.

Thursday, October 16: Draft discovered from return duct in family room. Friday: Serviceman comes to repair duct. I voice my discontent with prior workmanship -- our THIRD fallen duct in less than two years?! He goes under the house, discovers more extensive damage due to "chipmunks or squirrels". His boss agrees to cover the work under warranty, and will send an install crew Monday morning. Monday, October 20: Install crew works under the house for a while, then comes sheepishly to the door and asks that I call someone to vet the crawl space to confirm that no animals are currently in residence -- they fear a raccoon was responsible for the damages, and that the damages were more extensive than initially thought. I call several places, most of whom refuse to go into the crawl space. Finally, Critter Control comes and crawls underneath the house but there's so much damage and so many places to hide, that they can't verify that the raccoons have left. They set two ...

Alex has been recently fascinated by stickers. Slow to reorganize my office, my sticker stash -- until very recently -- was at home in a chest of drawers easily accessed by a curious toddler. Thankfully, he can't pull the stickers off by himself! I saw no harm in giving him a sticker the day he discovered them; it was a small price to pay to work uninterrupted for a few more minutes. I was somehow surprised that it was such a hit. I've since moved all my "good" stickers out of reach, but left the freebie stickers from various magazine offers there. I have several sheets of Disney characters, and even though Alex has never seen a Disney production he recognizes Mickey Mouse and likes the fact that there are ducks. I usually let him pick one out to put on his shirt. The other day, he chose Jiminy Cricket. He was lost for a while but Alex found him today and kept repeating "Um. Ick," which I took to mean something-sticker. So I kept replying "Yes, it...

10-12-08 17-45-09 : first boo boo : theGteam Two minor injuries worth noting: Last Saturday, the 5th, we learned that Alex is not allergic to bee stings. I bought a bushel of apples at the Farmer's Market and Alex was eating one as we walked around. I was bustling about my market business, leaving Paul to tend to the wagon and Alex. I'm picking out potatoes when I hear a boy crying. Then I realize it's MY boy, and I'm scanning the crowd for Paul and Alex when they approach me. Alex is very sad and has a bee bum sticking out of his upper lip. Paul tells me that a bee was after his apple and Alex batted at it and the bee retaliated. I had to pull the stinger out (which I later learned one should never do -- scrape the stinger out) and we found some ice (that he didn't want held on his face). He calmed down fairly quickly, and after his nap the swelling had gone down considerably and he was back to his old self. It seems he's learned to have a health...

A week ago Sunday, Paul was at a meeting and I was getting dinner ready for Alex and I -- leftover chicken, sweet potatoes, and brussel sprouts. Alex had been snacking in his tower so when I had everything together I told him that he should go to his seat at the dining room table. He scurried down and off... to the microwave? He rummaged through his cabinet there and returned holding the red, semi-divided dinner plate on which we had previously served this meal, as if to say: " Now I'm ready for dinner." It was the first time he's been concerned about his place setting and it cracked me up.

Alex and I flew to Baltimore last weekend to spend some time with his godfather and their baby girl. We had a great visit, even if we caught a weekend nor'easter. The one "touristy" thing that I was really excited to experience with Alex was a visit to the National Aquarium, so I was glad to have the opportunity to go before we flew home on Monday. Alex gets such a kick out of the supermarket aquariums that I thought he would delight in all the different and exotic marine life. This was not entirely the case. In fact, a good 85% of the exhibits seemed to spook my little boy for no apparent reason; and since the aquarium doesn't allow strollers, I had to carry him with few spells for over two hours. The aquarium has four floors, I think. You walk past the ray tank and go up an escalator, walk around the perimeter exhibits and end at another escalator that takes you to the next floor... etc., until at the very top there is a simulated Amazon Rain Forest basin. The mai...

... it doesn't make a sound. I'll upload pictures tomorrow, but I wanted to say that our handsome Bradford Pear -- smack in the front of our lovely, newly landscaped house -- fell victim to Ike's gusty winds. I don't know how we missed the big event. All three of us had been playing in the living room, then went back to the kitchen to start making dinner, and next I hear Paul asking, incredulous, "Jess, how did we miss this?" It was our very favorite tree and seemed to be the picture of perfect health. The main trunk snapped, so I doubt for its recovery. It's just a shell of its former self and it's hard to imagine how things will change without it. A new tree would take decades to match its height and shade. Notably, the two sickly trees that would do us a favor by falling over are still standing tall and proud. Thank goodness no one and no thing was hurt.

For the record, last Thursday I noticed the protrusion of his left lower and upper canines! The other day his top right one appeared. Soon, we'll be just second molars away from a complete set of baby chompers!

I think it's safe to say that our favorite playground equipment is the slide, or "Aah". Most often we bike up to the small playground situated outside the married-student housing near us, but this week we've branched out to  and down to the The campus playground offers little more than swings and a small structure with monkey bars, a curved ladder thing, and two slides: one, three feet long, and the other, maybe four feet long and slightly steeper. All summer long, pretty serious coaching was required in order to get Alex to go down the longer slide. It's been fun to watch him grow more confident, going down the little slide all by himself and then more eagerly tackling the slightly steeper one. Still, I was not prepared to go to Morrow's Meadow in Yorktown (the next town over) and have him go down a seven-foot slide all by himself without a care in the world. There are two playsets there, and we ended up on the one intended for older kids simply becau...

Our bedtime ritual more or less involves me taking Alex potty, handing him off to Paul, and Alex giving me a kiss goodnight as the boys head to his bedroom for a book or two before tucking him in (very recently, his favorite part of sleeping!). Tonight, Paul and I "gave him one". (This involves two kissers, one for each of the kissee's cheeks. The kissers say "mmmmmmm" and end with a simultaneous "smack!") Alex loved it and asked for another one. And another one. And another one.... but Paul told him to hold onto that one in his heart until tomorrow and carried him off to the reading chair. On the trip across the landing Alex started humming and smacking, and after one or two times he added a hand motion and blew me two kisses. (His version of "blowing kisses" is more like "throwing kisses". He kisses his hand and then swings his arm to the side. I don't believe any actual blowing is involved.) My sweet little boy!

We've had a string of beautiful days here and we've tried to take full advantage of them. On a long walk around the neighborhood yesterday, Alex and I went down to the stream, saw four ducks, and all along the way Alex would stop now and again to pick up rocks and pebbles. He's getting remarkably steady on uneven ground, but isn't 100% trustworthy yet. Something did seem amiss when, on our way back home, there was a stretch where he seemed to trip after every step. He'd take a step, then lean over as if to catch himself or pick something up, but always came up empty-handed. Finally, I was aware of a group of kids playing outside and looked ahead to see what they were up to. Everything became immediately clear: They were playing hopscotch. My ever-observant toddler was just doing what he saw the other kids doing, taking a step and bending over.

On Monday, after at least two months in which he paid the stairs no mind, Alex climbed all the way to the top. Three times. He's getting the hang of climbing down backwards, but he hasn't done more than a handful of stairs before either needing to be rescued or climbing back up again. I need to remember to gate the bottom of the stairs, as he's quiet as a mouse going up -- twice we've been surprised to find him upstairs. He's clearly tickled by his new accomplishment. I guess it's been an eventful week. Monday I took him to get his first pair of real shoes. There were all sorts of toys and shoes -- some of his favorite things! That particular day he was most fascinated by the quarter-flight of stairs for the kids to climb up to a platform for ease of fitting. Alex was eager to test his new skills, and seemed unhampered by the fact that one side of the staircase was completely open. I'm sure the fine view of the busy street served as extra motivation. Yeste...

Alex is getting his first molar! Isn't that exciting?! He had fallen asleep on the way to Meijer and was none too happy about being disturbed. I was sorry to see him so upset but I had a perfect view of his mouth and was surprised to see a big white tooth poking through on the left side! Imagine all the fun snacking we'll be able to do when he can chew like the rest of us! I've been telling him for weeks that it'll be great. He's so good about getting his teeth! He's such a super boy. :o)

02-13-08 18-05-54 : : theGteam A whole year old. It's amazing to think how he went from a helpless lump of baby to a whole-birthday-cake-eating toddler in such a short period of time. Alex is our joy and delight.