Going Uphill

Yesterday, Wiggle fell asleep on the way home from a late morning playgroup, but I woke him up when I was changing his diaper before I put him down for his nap. I thought he was still going to go down, so I sat outside of his room as I normally do, and waited for him to fall asleep. Then it got quiet; not asleep quiet, but "oh, crap" quiet. I opened the door to check on him, and found this.

He had absconded with the pen earlier in the day and apparently hid it.

He eventually went down around 5 o'clock; we had to wake him up at 6:30 pm, so he wouldn't be up all night. Some days are crazy.

Today we went to our last music class of the session. We start up again in two weeks though, so it's only a short break. Then he had a nap, while I worked my abs on a video. When he woke up, we had lunch and then went our for our first "jog" in the jogging stroller. I ran whenever I could, but these hills are killing me. Both up and down are hard to maneuver with a stroller. Then he watched a little Nemo while I made couscous stuffed peppers for dinner. The stroller was great; lightweight and easy to navigate. 

In the middle of our walk we went to a park where Wiggle played in the sandbox.

How did he get so grown up?

He's also started requesting songs by title. He'd done it for awhile with the music on his mp3 player, but now he's started with things we hear on Pandora. The other day he asked for "Monkeys!" C and I thought and thought and suggested any monkey related song we knew, but he refused them all. He also told us that it was "green." He had apparently looked at the album cover that had come up when the song was playing and remembered it. We managed to find the song - a version of "5 monkeys jumping on the bed," by chance, but it was a lucky find to be sure. I seriously can't keep up with him sometimes. The boy blows my mind nearly every day,

Jogging Ahead

I got a jogging stroller today! It's a totally awesome Kelty Joyrider -lightweight, folds compactly, two cupholders. I've been looking on craigslist for awhile, but the stars didn't align until today. I will try to go for my first run tomorrow. I'm really excited!

I went to the gym tonight and climbed the stairclimber for 15 minutes. Ugh! I pretty much hated that. But it was worth it to come home and eat sweet potato and shrimp enchiladas. My dad has requested that I start including recipes for my awesome dinners, and I am happy to oblige. Generally, I use recipes from epicurious.com, and when that is the case as it was tonight, I will just post a link to the recipe. I skimped a little on the sauce, and it was a mistake, so next time I will buy a bigger can of salsa verde for sure. The parsnips and sweet potatoes rock though. I highly recommend it.

Before cooking; it looked even better after

Broke my tv ban tonight to watch last week's episode of Parenthood. Totally worth it after tonight's workout.

The face of a boy who just realized he can take pictures of himself with my phone.

Americana

On Sunday, we went into the District to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Museum of American Art. We met our old friend, Red Hawk (think politics, not nature), who lives in DC, but whom we see much to little of, at the museum.

We weren't allowed to take any photos in the exhibit, but I was not all that wowed. They had a lot of famous pieces by Rockwell, but few of them portrayed family, which is what I think of most when I think of him. It was still a nice exhibit, but I preferred the bits of the National Portrait Gallery that we saw. There are apparently two other floors of portraits, so I guess it's good that we live only half an hour away. I really love free museums!

Afterward, we went to get a cup of tea, and Wiggle had a mango lassi, which he wouldn't share with either his dad or me.

Wiggle doesn't trust him for a minute.

Red Hawk entertained him with the light saber app on his Iphone. The boy figured it out right away and was hooked. Next he'll be giving him Star Trek toys.

Today we did the First Haircut. I had debated going to a place called Cartoon Cuts in the mall, but a surprising number of reviews on yelp mentioned kids' ears getting cut, so they exited the running fairly early in the game. I decided instead to go to an old-time barber shop that a woman in our playgroup recommended. I think it was definitely the right choice. They had birds and an aquarium with fish to look at while we were waiting.

Wiggle had to sit on two booster seats so that he would be tall enough. When we propped him up on the seat, he was upset that his feet wouldn't reach the footrest at the bottom of the chair. They also had a big tv and put on cartoons for him during the cut.

The Shaggy Boy

The woman who cut his hair was very nice and quite good with him, but she did take a long time, which I was prepared for because the woman from our playgroup had mentioned it.

Getting started

The first cut

Resting on Daddy's arm and taking some M&M's to make it through

The Haircut

Checking the results

Afterward, C got a haircut too, and both my boys went from chic to geek - that is until we tousled them up a bit and realized that they were still my chic boys. I'm still mourning Wiggle's long locks a little, but he does look pretty grown up with his big boy hair now.

After some other errands, I was scheduled to go to the gym, but was dragging my feet about it. I managed to change into my gym clothes, but was hanging around talking to C as he was giving Wiggle a bath, when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My first thought? "Damn! I look good!" Yes, I actually thought "Damn!" and two exclamation points. It's only been a week of my ramped up exercise and healthy eating plan, and I could see a difference. I look a little sleeker, well, let's be honest, maybe not sleek, but less lumpy to be sure! I hightailed it to the gym and had my best run yet. Plus, I made a plan with Red Hawk to run a 10k in April, and I'm getting a used jogging stroller tomorrow, so I have both motivation and an extra tool to get me to my goal. 

Tonight, I could have watched TV again, but I didn't. So far, I still really like it without it. I feel less anxious about what I have to do. I don't even think I'm getting that much more done, but I'm more aware of what's on my plate, so I feel more like I have a handle on it. Change is good; I like change, when I initiate it, especially. Another week of the eating changes, and I will get to re-evaluate to see if I want to stick with this, or go a different route. 

Oh yeah - we are already Christmas tree crazy at our house. Wiggle would spend hours in the tree aisle at Target if we let him. I haven't gotten him one for his room yet, but will as soon as they have the small ones in stock again. And he wants colored lights to C's great dismay. I prefer white lights too, but I totally see the appeal from his point of view. After all, he doesn't even know about ornaments yet. 

I did get this awesome advent calendar though. Someday I will make one that has special significance for us, but in the meantime, this one for $2.50 will do. I think it's really cute, don't you?

Note to self

Try to write your blog posts earlier in the day, so they don't sound so much like a mishmash of random notes to self from throughout your day.

Thank you.

Me

No Nap

Today C and I wandered around like zombies for most of the morning. We had gone out to dinner and a movie last night, and when we got home around 12:30 am and had been talking to the neighbor who watched Wiggle, he woke up. I got him back down around 2:00 am, but he was still up bright and early at 5:30 this morning. Luckily for me, C took the first morning shift, so I slept until 7, and then C went back to bed for a bit. Around 11 we went to Costco. I thought it was perfect timing, and Wiggle would be ready for a nap when we got home. He gorged himself on a variety of samples and half a hot dog there, and was clearly exhausted when we got home, but he would not go down. We waited for an hour, but he wasn't even close. I hate when he misses his nap.

At 3:30 we had a playdate at one of the neighborhood tot lots with a new little boy who is two days older than Wiggle. Another neighbor boy was there too, as was his buddy with whom we swap sitting. The four boys romped around the playground for an hour and a half or so. While they all had a good time, I think my little Wiggle might be a bit of a bully. Not to sound like that mother, but he's really not a mean bully, he's just an overly excited bully. He was going around giving everyone high-fives, but if you didn't put your hand up, he high-fived your face. I normally think of a bully as a thug, and Wiggle certainly isn't that, but he has definite ideas about how things should go, and he's willing to, uh, "help" you to see how they should go.
Today was very successful regarding his responses to time-outs, so I have some hope that we will be able to cut down the hitting very soon. If we don't, we just might become the family on the block that everyone talks about behind their backs.
After the playdate, I went to the gym and C took Wiggle to the store to pick up some ingredients for dinner. I tried to run, but I had run yesterday, plus I had had so little sleep that my legs felt like lead, so I did the stationary bike instead. I have managed to workout every day this week, which is awesome!

After C picked me up and we got home, we tried to give Wiggle some dinner, but he only wanted to snuggle on Daddy, so we opted for bedtime instead. C was going to give Wiggle a bath, so he went into the bathroom to run some water, and told Wiggle to start taking off his clothes in his room. By the time C got back into the room, Wiggle was alseep in his crib. Talk about tired - I don't know if that has ever happened before. C managed to convince him that a new diaper and some pajamas were a good idea, but then he was right out again.

For dinner, I had bought some salmon from Costco. I can't remember the last time I cooked salmon, but it really hit the spot tonight. Of course, since we got it at Costco, it's going to hit the spot again tomorrow too.

Salmon with a star anise and tomato sauce, lentils with tomatoes, cucumbers, and goat cheese, and, of course, kale.

While I certainly don't mind eating like this - it's been delicious, I still hate having to be so conscious about what I'm eating. It will get easier once I have more recipes in the hopper without pasta or rice, so I can think about them ahead of time and look forward to them. 

Tomorrow, we are meeting a friend in the District at the Museum of American Art to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit. C said it will look like we lifted Wiggle from one of the pictures. Our little all-American boy. There will be pictures, I promise.

Stargazing

Thursdays are my toughest days. C is gone until 10 pm, and although we generally have music class in the morning, that 45 minutes of structured time just doesn't do it for the day. Today though, Wiggle woke me up at 5:30 am saying "hun-gry," and when that didn't work he put his little face to mine and whined "HUN-GRY!" So I got up and fed the little boy milk and three eggs scrambled with a couple of sauteed mushrooms grated in for good measure.

Turns out we didn't have music class today, so the morning eked on with several time outs for running with knitting needles (that project I had "on the needles?" It's off the needles now), and for refusing to clean up his blocks after dumping them and wanting to move on to the next activity. Then I worked out during his nap; yes, that's right, I have managed to get some On Demand workout shows in, which has had the immediate result of rendering me useless from the waist down from too many squats and lunges.

His latest phrase is "Ever!" which means "Never!"

Me: Are you going to put your pants on?
W: No. Ever.
Me: Do you want to go to the playground?
W: (when feeling surly) Ever!
Me: Hungry? Tired? Play with blocks? Get a diaper change? Clean up? Give me a kiss?
W: Ever.

You get the idea. It's all about the attitude at our house right now, and the boy has it in spades.
We did have some sweet snuggles after he got up from his nap and was still groggy.

My sleepy boy

This evening we went to the grocery store to pick up a couple of items for dinner. When we were in the parking lot, he pointed to an airplane and said "star." It was flying low enough that you could see multiple lights and that it was moving, so I pointed those things out and said that, no, it was an airplane. I then pointed to the two meager stars we could see from the parking lot. He was having a little trouble seeing them, so I asked him if he wanted to go look at stars when we got home. As you might imagine, he answered in the affirmative. When we got home, I walked him up the hill to the empty field behind our house. We could see tons of stars. He pointed to a bunch of them, but then I think the dark empty space around us started to make him uneasy because he said "back in" and he wouldn't walk, preferring to be carried instead.

I really kind of wish we had a telescope because the moon has been looking awesome lately, and he's so interested in stars. I know though, that he's still too young, really, to close one eye and look through a lens. But it's yet another thing to look forward to.

Productive

Today I managed to vacuum, get three fillings, workout, and make dinner all before 5 o'clock. It felt a little weird.
I made dinner early because I got to go to knitting tonight, and I didn't want to stick C with making dinner two nights in a row. We had a Moroccan stew with butternut squash and carrot over quinoa. It was delicious, and even better it's the kind of thing into which you can throw whatever vegetables you have on hand. Definitely, a keeper.
It was great to be able to go to knitting again. The group I had found met on Thursday nights, and C teaches then, so I couldn't go at all once the semester started. The group leader is having a long recovery from Lyme disease, one of the definite negatives to living in our wooded wonderland, and stepped down as leader; the new leader moved the group to Wednesdays, which is why I can start going again. Yea!
I started a scarf tonight. I don't really know how I feel about the yarn or the pattern, but I like having something on the needles, so it accomplished my first goal. It made me miss tv a little though. I normally knit while I watch tv, and I was excited to knit more when I got home, so the urge to watch was there. Luckily, dinner, listening to some music, and talking to C made the urge pass almost unnoticed.
I've been trying to decide what classes/activities Wiggle and I are going to do next semester, and I'm thinking about switching music classes. Right now we are in Musikgarten right up the hill, which is cheap and convenient, but I don't like it nearly as much as I liked Music Together in Chicago. The downside if we switch is that it would be further away and it's more expensive, but the upshot is that I like the music a lot more, which matters a bunch if you are listening to the CD's ad nauseum. Also, I would get to meet a new set of parents. I've met a lot of very nice people so far, but none of them are my people. Maybe a different class would yield a different set of parents.
I guess I didn't realize how lucky I was in Chicago with a built-in best friend for me and for Wiggle right downstairs! It's definitely going to take a little more work on my part here.