HIIIIIII

I am an adult (most of the time), and I have come to a somewhat shocking revelation.  I HATE school vacation.  Let me clarify, I LOVE college summer breaks because it means that all of the annoying undergrads evacuate campus and only the few awesome ones that stay over the summer to help us with the research are around.  It means no long lines if you want to grab lunch on campus or need to mail a package at the campus post office.  It also means that you no longer have to plan your day around the class schedule (don't go any where on campus during class changes throughout the semesters unless you want to be trampled by a mass of headphone-wearing, cell-phone talking, inappropriately dressed pseudo-adults).  I LOVE summer break.  What I do not love is school vacation for the smaller members society.  I remember wildly anticipating summer breaks as a kid myself with almost as much excitement as Christmas.  I had time to play with friends, swim in the pool, take tennis lessons.  Back then I LOVED summer vacation.  Now, not so much.  Yes, I do love the lack of extra bus traffic during my morning commutes and the more relaxed feel to the days, but due to recent changes that have taken place in our neighborhood, I have come to hate this vacation concept.  

About a year ago or so, a house (2 story, with an apartment on each floor type of place) across the street from us went up for sale and was purchased by an Indian couple with 2 smaller children (think 4 year old girl and 6 year old boy or so).  We thought nothing of it until a few month later when the younger college-aged girls who were living upstairs moved out and in moved what I can only presume is the entire rest of their Indian family.  Its like a compound over there, with so many people I can't even keep track of them all!!  There is the creepy grampa who sits on the porch staring you down every time you go outside (a whole other post for some other day), and then we get back to the 2 children.  During the winter, we hardly knew they were there.  Its New England, come on, you never see anyone in the winter.  When the weather warmed up, I presume they were in school and so you wouldn't hear them much, just in the early evenings and occasionally on the weekends.  Then it happened this week, school vacation started for the summer.  And I have been working from home, attempting to write a manuscript.  Notice I said attempting?  I have been somewhat successful.  I'd be more successful if I didn't have to hear "HHHIIIIIIII" every time something moves outside.  The kids say "Hi" to everything and everyone.  If you don't answer them, they say it louder and louder until you answer or you go inside/drive away.  If you are really lucky and don't answer, the little girl screams bloody murder like someone is tearing her arm off and when you turn around to see if she really is dying she smiles at you and yells "HHHIIIIIIIII."  If you do answer them (which I have attempted in the past), they say it again and again AND AGAIN until you go inside/drive away.  Notice a pattern?  All day yesterday as I am writing, they are screaming "HHHIIIIIII" to everyone.  And when they aren't saying "Hi," they are just plain screaming, about what...I haven't the slightest idea.  I looked out at one point and I didn't see any blood, all of their limbs were still attached, and quite frankly they didn't look to be in any distress at all.  So today, I continue to try to write and hope to learn to tune out the screaming, perhaps I will blast some music to drown out the noise (and simultaneously piss off the nasty lady upstairs).  If you are planning a visit to our place in the next couple of months during daylight hours, plan to be greeted LOUDLY by a couple of screaming Indian children across the street, but please, don't judge us by our neighbors!

Pierogies & Bob Seger

Today was the first real day back to reality since our family trip to the cape last week. Tim worked the night shift last Thurs./Fri. and Fri./Sat. nights, so he was home all day with the wee dude (with a little help from Memere B. on Friday to catch up on some sleep). By lunchtime on Saturday we had Daddy awake and could move on with the rest of our weekend. It was kind of a rude awakening to have to drop off the little man this morning with Nana Lou (who incidentally was beside herself excited to see the little man), but such is life and on we went. Tim closed the store tonight, which means I picked up the small man from Nana Lou's and we had dinner and the evening fun just the two of us, best buds! He was in and exceptionally lovey mood this evening and was great fun to hang out with. I put on some music while we were making dinner and on came Bob Seger singing Old Time Rock and Roll. I turned around to see what Noah was up to and there is the little guy bouncing up and down and swaying back and forth, clearly digging the music a great deal. I laughed, told him he was an excellent dancer and then did what any sane parent would do...I turned up the tunes and started jigging with him! (Incidentally, after dinner I tried to get him dancing on video, but I think he was a tired boy and just wasn't feeling it...we'll try again another day). We enjoyed some dancing and he helped me to put the broccoli into the steamer. For dinner we shared some steamed broccoli, which who knew Noah loved, and some pierogies, which I haven't made in forever. Given the fact that we are clearly not of Polish decent, I am not sure I prepare them in the most ethnically correct manner, but we like them, so we're sticking with it. I just boil them until they float and then saute them up with some sliced onions and salt and pepper. Noah absolutely loved them and they disappeared without complaint. A peaceful, well-eaten meal with an appetizer of dancing in the kitchen with Mommy, couldn't ask for a better night!

Can't we all just get along??

Also known as the introduction to mom guilt 101.  There has been a lot of attention lately given to the notion of working moms and stay-at-home dads.  While its clear that everyone has strong opinions on the matter, what shocks me is the amount of judgment being passed around about a topic that is clearly a very personal family decision.  The conversation has been brought up in a couple of blogs that I regularly read, and in the news...most recently on the Today show with a story about Mr. Mom, which seemed to stir up some hard feelings from quite a few mothers.  The portion of the conversation that gets be the most upset, however, is really the lack of consideration from both sides that the job of "Mom" is hard work whichever way you cut it.  Clearly society places a great deal of pressure on mom to care for the children.  Its completely acceptable and expected that Dads return to work soon after a baby is born.  What is less clear and intensely debated, is what Mom will do once the traditional maternity leave is over.  Moms are now typically highly educated, many with ambitious career goals, so the concept of abandoning all of that to be a stay-at-home mom is not an ideal situation for some.  For other families, the mom's job provides a higher salary or a better set of benefits, leaving little choice financially than for mom to return to work.  Our scenario is really a combination of many of the above situations, not only does my position provide better benefits and my income is necessary to live in this area, but I also spent many many years in school and when I eventually got my Ph.D., I knew that I would always need some level of intellectual stimulation from outside the home.  There are so many sides to the story really...I love being at home with Noah and spending the day with him, watching him grow and learn, knowing everything there is about his routine and his personality and getting to know the independent little person he is growing up to be.  I also like having a sense of my own self-worth, that I can work at something else and contribute outside the home too.  Ideally, I will eventually find a position where I can work a true part-time schedule with plenty of time to be at home with Noah and any other little people who might come along, but also a chance to be outside the home where I can exercise my mind and use my education.  This is my ideal, that doesn't mean it is ideal for every mom and every family.  The most important aspect really is to find the situation that brings the most peace and happiness to everyone in the family.  There are terrible working moms who truly do see their children as an afterthought to their career, but there are also wonderful working moms who spend quality time with their children whenever they can.  There are amazing stay-at-home mothers who enrich their children's lives and love them fiercely every day, but there are also stay-at-home moms who resent their children for preventing them from "having lives," who see their children as an inconvenience.  The key is to find the scenario that makes the best mom a woman can be with the happy and well-cared for children.

Many moms dream of staying at home with the children and choose that as their contribution, I admire and respect that choice as long as it comes without the need to judge moms who choose other paths.  Frequently I've seen and heard stay-at-home moms judge, intentionally or otherwise, moms who work outside the home for leaving their children with a stranger, or not being with their children every minute of everyday.  This judgment may come from a sense of insecurity with their decision, a sense of a need to defend their decision to not work outside the home, or a true sense of superiority in thinking that the path they have chosen is clearly the more optimal option for everyone.  I couldn't disagree more, not with their decision, but with their need to judge moms in a different situation.  In the same breath, it is important to point out that I have also encountered a self-righteous working mom or two, who feel that their decision to work outside the home is clearly superior and moms who stay at home are wasting themselves and are taking the easy route and some how not contributing to society.  I disagree with these moms too.  Being a mom is work, whether it is inside or outside the home.  And there is guilt, a sense of not being with your children all the time if you are working outside the home, or a sense of perhaps not helping out financially if you stay at home.  Both jobs are hard, and they are never-ending.  Moms take care of children, help homes run smoothly, and some work outside the home as well.  That is a lot of directions to be pulled in, we don't need an additional sense of guilt piled on from other moms who can't look past their own noses to stop judging a person and a situation that they know nothing about.  We should all be able to choose our path, love our families, and find the happiness that is the most right for us and leave those around us to be able to peacefully do the same.   

Family "Vacation"

Nana Lou has been on vacation for the last week and half and since both Tim and I were overdue for some time off, instead of scrambling to find backup care, we decided to hang out with him ourselves!!  As I already posted, we took a few days at home and then on Sunday morning, we headed to the Cape for our first official family "vacation" just the 3 of us.  We all went to the camp last July, but for some reason that doesn't count in my head since we weren't on our own that time and we weren't staying in a hotel room and going out to restaurants for all of our meals.  I will preface by saying that it was really nice to be in a different place seeing new things, but I will also say that I have never been so glad to see home!  I have heard it from multiple sources and I didn't believe it until I experienced it myself, but taking a toddler on vacation is NOT a vacation.  Its hard work!! The chores, they follow you where ever you go!  Also, hotel chains are clearly not interested in child-proofing.  However, kid-friendly they claim to be, if you don't have at least a couple of rooms in the building with outlet covers and covered trashcans...I mean seriously!  The first thing Noah did when we walked in the room was lick a finger and walk directly towards an open outlet!  Then he played incessantly with the buttons on the safe in the room, which, thanks again hotel designing morons, was out in the open on a rather flimsy pedestal???  Then, after getting shooed away from that six times, he decided to play with the buttons on the AC unit, then pick through the trash, then open the mini-fridge.  By minute 5 I was questioning the sanity of the trip and wishing we were back home.  Thankfully things got better, after hearing it enough times, he did finally get the picture and started attempting to avoid the no-no objects...sometimes.  He was really well-behaved for 95% of our meals out, he lost it at one breakfast with some screaming, crying and in general nasty temper displaying, but I can't really complain in that department.  He even ate a couple of meals in the hotel room to accommodate naps and even without the highchair strapping him in, he sat very nicely in the hotel chair and ate like a really good boy!

I would have loved to have had a day to spend playing on the beach, but it was June on the Cape, the beach weather that time of year is hit or miss.  Given the sunny, but really chilly weather, we decided to make the best of it and spent an afternoon at the children's museum where Noah learned how to play on a submarine just like Pepere L.

In keeping with Pepere L's line of thinking, Noah also had a great time playing in the woodworking room, trying on the tool belt and seeing how many fun toys he could fit inside.  We are going to have to start getting him some tool toys since he had such fun with them!

We did make a point to get down to the beach after dinner almost every evening to play at the little playground they had there.  Noah fell in love with riding this seahorse.  He looks a little lost in this picture...it was from the first night where he was still mesmerized by the waves I think.  He looked less lost on subsequent trips.  You can tell how cold it was, I have a hoodie sweatshirt and a hooded coat on the poor guy.  We never stayed long since the cold damp air and the wind froze us out!

This picture just cracks me up.  Noah has a new thing where he sticks out his little lips trying to say new words like shoes.  He must have been in mid-word when we got this picture...too cute for me!

Tuesday was planned to be our beach day, but since the weather was forecasted to reach a high of 60 for the day, we decided to take a day trip instead.  We drove up to the tip of the Cape and checked out some lighthouses along the way.  Around lunch time we stopped around Chatham to try a find some lobster rolls.  Incidentally, Nickerson's make great food, but be prepared to drop a load of cash to get it.  We grabbed our ridiculously over-priced lobster rolls (you forget we were raised in Maine where we can get lobsters at reasonable prices just about any where), and checked out the observation deck.  There were great views from there, but my favorite was a cute seal who was hanging out in the water around the deck.  He was adorable, see...

We stopped in Eastham at the Nauset Light.  We checked out the beach first, but it was too cold and windy to stay there.

Here's the lighthouse

Along the way, just about the point we were going to stop and do some fun things, this happened...kill-joy.

Instead of waking up his highness, we decided to drive the rest of the way up the cape and then work our way back down.  We saw a couple of lighthouses from a long distance since they were accessible only by a hike sadly.  We did get to stop to see the Highland Light (also known as Cape Cod Light), which is the second oldest lighthouse in the country.  It was sitting much closer to the edge of land, but due to erosion, they moved it back about 200 feet in 1996.  Its really a quite beautiful lighthouse.

At that point it was clear that Noah was less than thrilled about continuing our drive, so we headed back to the hotel and found some dinner.  On our way home, we stopped in Plymouth for some lunch.  Tim had never seen Plymouth Rock or any of the that waterfront area, so we went downtown to check it out...as I described to him, its just a rock.

We also saw the Mayflower II...we asked Noah to point to the big ship, he decided the ones in the harbor on the other side were more interesting, fair enough dude!

In an attempt to burn off some of the pent-up energy the little man had from sitting in the car for hours, we decided to stop again at the spray park.  He ran around every where for quite a while.  This is how we decided it was time to head home and get some rest!

So, while the "vacation" part is definitely gone for the foreseeable future, the "family trip" we had was a nice escape from the everyday and a nice way to spend some time together.  Next time I will be more prepared!

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Dear Daddy -

I hope you have a wonderful second Father's Day. Mommy and I are such lucky people to have you around. You are such fun to play with and know how to tickle me just right so that I snort when I laugh! I hope we can have lots of fun together today playing and hanging out.

You are the best Daddy ever!

Love you lots,

Noah (& Mommy too!)

"Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Daddy"

Backyard Helper

After a day of fun on Friday, we had some household chores and cleaning up to do before we headed out of town Sunday.  First on the list (and what ended up being the only thing on the list due to the sheer size of the project) was tackling the enormous shrubs that serve as a pseudo-fence in the backyard.  Noah went down for a nap early, so we got the trimming mostly done before my hair appointment and lunch.  After lunch, we all went outside to attempt to clean up the mess all that trimming caused.  Noah decided that he was going to be a big helper and he certainly did his best, such a cute little helper.  It took a bit of convincing to get him motivated in the right direction.

"Daddy, are you sure we have to clean up ALL of this mess???"

Once he got going though, it was adorable to see how much he really wanted to help out.  He would grab wee man sized branches and heave them in to the trash barrel.

He also helped me to open up the lawn & leaf bags so that we could put more of the trimmings in there.  "Good job Mommy!  You got it opened all the way!  Can you still breathe in there?"

Once most of the trimmings were picked up, it was time to sweep the patio and the back of the driveway.  Noah helped with that too, and we were done in no time!

P.S. After all of that hard work he did, he spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in his pint-sized Adirondack chair and playing in his kiddie pool, a welcome respite to all that yard work!

Penguins!!!

We have been having lots of fun over the last week or so.  Nana Lou went on vacation to her house in Florida and Tim and I decided to take some much needed time off to hang out with the wee man!  Last Friday the fun began with a trip to the Aquarium.  Noah is in love with the fish tank at home and is a huge fan of penguins, excitedly pointing out a picture whenever we come across one.  We figured the aquarium, with its huge fish tanks and the penguin exhibits.  We were right about the penguins, the wee man absolutely loved them!

Sadly, the rest of the aquarium, with all of the gorgeous fish, turtles, sharks, and jellyfish exhibits didn't really seem to impress the little dude much.  Instead, he spent much of the rest of the day doing this...

that would be him, pilfering items from the diaper bag and in general causing mischief.  Note to selves, wait a bit longer before spending that kind of money on a wee man activity!  Side note:  Tim and I really enjoyed the whole aquarium and we bought the little dude a fun fish book to reward him for his patience! :)

Irritating

Thanks to Nicole, we were told that our blog, along with others who used the same source for a new template, converted almost completely to an advertisement for photobucket, how nice!  We are in Cape Cod for a short family vacation and are enjoying ourselves too much to take time to troubleshoot while we are on vacation.  We'll get back to a nice template once we return home later in the week.  For now, we are back to the pathetic Blogger in house templates, but its only for a short time, not to worry.  Pictures and stories of our vacation will be coming once we have time to get back and unpack.  Thanks for the heads up Nicole!

New Look?

Like the new look of the blog? I think its still a bit of a work in progress, but Tim and I seemed to have learned a few things together working on it, so hopefully more aesthetically pleasing changes will come some day soon!

Mommy & Daddy's Little Helper

Noah has become quite the little helper around the house and I must say that while the actual amount of help that is occurring is not worth discussing, the pride and excitement I feel with the little dude when he accomplishes something is rather amazing. I never thought I would get so excited about someone successfully retrieving a bib from the bin in his room and depositing it on his own high chair, but I do, and I do every single time. On a very regular basis the little man brings his towels to the bathroom at bath time. He helps to put the bath toys into the tub too (only occasionally does he get confused and over excited and put the towels in the tub). Noah has also started to help put clothes in the hamper (teaching the man early will only help his future wife, right???), he'll bring the clothes over, wait for someone to open the lid and then proudly deposit his treasure. Last week he even helped Daddy to water the plants in the garden. He had his very own bucket and carried the water to the back yard.

Too bad the pavement he decided to water wasn't growing anything at the time other than weeds!

Words we say

Just a few weeks shy of his 18 month milestone, Noah is still in the stage of understanding far more than he is speaking, but he is certainly making some progress in the right direction. The doctor (and everything else you read out there on the interwebs) tells us that the language explosion is right around the corner, usually occurring between 18 and 20 months. From my child development courses over the years, I have learned that usually boys' language development lags some what behind that of same-aged girls on average. As you might expect if you know Noah at all, he is too busy perfecting his motor skills and testing the laws of gravity (and simultaneously learning how hard he has to bang into something to bruise) to spend too much energy on his language skills beyond the pointing and grunting I have learned to interpret so effectively. He is making some effort, there are some consistent words thrown into the midst of the caveman routine. Here are the ones I can remember off the top of my head, I'll come back in a month or so and see how far we've come!

juice

light (sounds more like a-light)

all gone

kitty (sounds like ditty)

all done

Hi

buh-bye

Daddy

Mama

car (sounds hilariously like K-arrrrrrrrrr)

thank you (sounds like tank chew)

uppies (to indicate he wants to be picked up, of course)

A-Bee (blankie, this one sounds closer in real life, trust me!)
Memere (sounds more like Mem-mem-a)
cheese (sounds like ChEEEEEEEse)

Sunday Fun

As Noah gets to be a bit older and takes a bit later morning nap, we have been able to start planning more on his consistent routine and working in productivity and fun around it. This past Sunday was one of the most successful days we have had with this "plan" thus far. Since Sunday is the only day Tim and I both have off together, we usually make a plan to insert some fun in there some where, whether it be a trip into the city, or just playing all together in the living room, time must be made for the fun. Unfortunately, usually time is also dedicated to productivity, yard work, errand running, etc., and somehow, as I imagine happens in a lot of families, the chores have a way of taking over sometimes. This Sunday, we managed to have more fun than we did chores, what a success! We spent the early part of the morning hanging around, having breakfast and working our way into the day. After showers, we all headed to Target & PetSmart for a few errands to re-stock the fish tank and prepare for the upcoming mini-vacation to the Cape coming up soon. As usual, Noah was a fairly patient shopping buddy as long as you let him hold some of the items we are picking up off the shelves. When we arrived home, he easily drifted off to sleep and took a really good 3 or so hour nap. During said nap, Tim and I were able to clean up the house a bit, cut the grass, rake, sweep the patio, hose off the playhouse and patio furniture, and then bag up all of the yard waste. We still had some time left over for lunch and a bit of relaxing. After feeding Noah some lunch, we headed off to the Beaver Brook Reservation to see what Noah thought of the spray pool this year, now that he is independently mobile. The picture of the 3 of us at the top right of the blog is from the spray pool last summer, when Noah was hardly sitting up by himself, now he can run around on his own...scary, huh? As with most things, it took Noah a few minutes to warm up to the idea and he hung around my legs for the first few minutes, but after a bit, he decided this was fun and he had himself a blast. He is still, understandably scared of the big water jets, but really enjoyed running in the ankle-deep water and playing with the small, wee person-sized sprayers. Tim and I (okay, mainly I) worked on our penchants for hovering. We picked a dry rock and sat right there and let the little dude run around on his own a bit. There was only one point where I about lost it. When we first started getting comfortable with the place, he decided to take off a bit and didn't seem to know exactly where we were for a minute or two. He was only about 20 feet away at this point, but it was a bit crowded and given the fact that I am normally within 2 feet of him, it was a tense minute or two for me. Once he found us, he spent the next hour or so, running around in the water and coming back to us for a quick hello, and then promptly taking off again. It was so much fun to watch him run around independently and have fun all on his own. He seemed to really enjoy himself and it is sure to be a place we will be frequenting throughout the warmer months.

After a dry off and the drive home, we all had some dinner and decided to try for a bike ride. Remember thus far, Noah has had a hate-hate relationship with his bike helmet. I spent some time working on adjusting it before putting it on him. He freaked, had a mini-fit, but once I got the thing well adjusted, loose enough to slip on fairly easily, but tight enough so that it sat well and couldn't be pulled off in anger, he seemed to calm down a bit. I let him roam the house a bit to see if he would forget about it. He seemed to and so off we went.

This bike ride was so much more successful than the last, no screaming, instead we had happy smiles and a wee man taking in all of the sights. He even spent some time harassing Daddy's back while we were riding along! We found a new quiet bike path, and a very low-stress route to the nice park at the school up the street. Now that we have the bike helmet obstacle overcome, hopefully we'll have many more family rides to come this summer! All in all, it was a great Sunday, productivity and fun found a balance for a change, what a concept!