Monday, Monday

Wow, last night was one of the first in a long time when we had to get up in the middle of the night to comfort John. He woke up at about 5:00 this morning and cried and cried. Finally mama and I went downstars and he was inconsolable, even when we picked him up and gave him a bottle. Usually he's pretty good about quieting down when he gets what he wants, so when he kept crying we figured that something was up. After a few minues he started to calm down a little bit, but he didn't want to be left alone at all. In fact, he wanted to be held by mama only! After about a half hour or so we decided that he either had bad gas or a sore tooth. He wouldn't let us touch his mouth, so we gave him some ibuprofen and cuddled him for a while. Finally we brought him upstairs with us and gave him a bottle. He drank it and went to sleep between mama and me. The cats woke us up at about 7:00 AM and mama took John down to his crib when she went down to feed the cats. John let mama sleep late, but papa was a tired puppy all day!

Busy Weekend

We haven't posted much since last week, so I'll summarize.
Saturday was actually pretty quiet. I had to sneak away from John while he was sleeping and work in the morning. When I got home around 2 we played around the house. We grownups did housework after that, and mama made grilled cheese.
Sunday I was gone at the game store all day. When I got home I played with John and had the pot roast that mama made. It was Really Good, and we made it last. We had pot roast again on Monday and beef and lentel soup on Tuesday. There's even some soup left today!
Monday I got home from work and we played and I moved some furniature around. We decided to rearrange the living room again, and I started by moving a bank of shelves upstairs to our bedroom. That opened up a bunch of floor space, and we called it a night after we planned for the next day. Finally we all got together and went to the grocery store. John was glad for the change of scenerey, but when we got home he was ready for bed.
Tuesday John got to go play with Lilly. When I got home from work John and Mama were both still gone, so I moved furniature around for a while. When Mama got home John was ready for his nap, so I showed her what I had done and she vacuumed and cleaned while I went to a training for one of my jobs. When I got home I finished moving the couch, chair and crib so that the center of the room would be more open and available for use. So far it seems to be a good setup, though there are some little tweaks that we'll no doubt make. One thing that we noticed that was really exciting was that John got his first molar in! it's on the bottom on his left side. No wonder he's been cranky lately!

playdate

John woke up late on Tuesday and I was glad, because I was tired from all the cleaning and moving and cooking lately. He got up at 11:30am and I changed his diaper and his clothes and gave him some milk. I had a slice of apple bread I baked the night before (I've been baking quick breads for Charles to eat in the morning, and I have some too). I got on the computer and Christi Lee Instant Messaged me. She asked if I wanted to come over to her house and let John play with her daughter Lily. We've gone together to baby cafe before. So, her husband same came to pick us up. We put John in Lily's car seat (Lily stayed home with mama). We picked up some sandwiches and went over. They made their dining room into a little playroom full of toys and soft cushions for Lily. John was surprisingly shy for a good 20 or 30 minutes, hiding his face in my lap and peeking out. Lily stared and stared at me, but then got used to a stranger in her room and started playing and trying to pet John's hair. She wanted to sit in my lap and John got jealous. Soon, they were playing together (kind of) turning on all the electronic beeping toys, and stripping the toy shelves of all toys. We left them alone for 30 minutes or so to watch TV and they were sort of chasing each other. John would drop his blanket when he went after something, and Lily would pick it up and go after him to give it back. Then we checked on them because Sam saw Lily was eating John's shoe. But, having had their mama's back, they wouldn't let us leave the room. We tried to go watch Teletubbies together, but John wouldn't sit still. He wanted to rip apart their living room. They had exposed electronics he wanted to get. They had a large cat tree that he climbed and took all the cat toys out of. He found one of Lily's old pacifiers (she never took to a pacifier) and kept it (I forgot to bring his). Then the babies were cranky and it was nap time. Lily went to sleep in her cute little room, but John wouldn't go to sleep in the playroom. He cried and cried and kicked and made the "I'm scared" cry, even thought he had mama's lap and his favorite blankie and a baba. The only thing that calmed him was a little music box toy that played Moonlight senata.
Finally, Lily went to sleep and Christi could drive us home. John nearly went to sleep in the car for the short 5 minute ride home. We had to back down the driveway because Charles was home and she couldn't fit the SUV up the driveway. Then we had to walk up the driveway. We finally got home and Daddy was there! Moving furniture. John got very happy to see Daddy, but Daddy had to leave to go to training class. Then it was finally nap time! But John didn't want to go to sleep. His crib was in the middle of the room and the visit with Daddy gave him a second wind. I left him in the crib and took a shower. John finally stopped fussing and went to sleep. I crept down the stairs and cleaned up until he woke up, then I vacuumed. John likes the vacuum. Meanwhile, I made some lentil soup. I boiled half a bag of lentils in the broth I strained from the pot roast. I had chilled it and threw out most of the fat. The broth had a lot of gelatin in it from the bones left in the roast. I threw in the meat tidbits I pulled off the night before, and the vegetable mash left in the roast, plus half a can of veg all. It came out pretty well. Needed a little salt.
I've decided I need a baby safe playroom, and its a shame to waste that extra bedroom we have. its too cold to have as a bedroom like I would like, so I can at least clear it out and make it safe if cold. Its a lot of work! we'll see how it goes.

Matching Games

Yesterday Windy and I were getting ready to go to the store with John. I was changing from my work shoes into my sneakers. As I untied my work shoes on the couch, I realized that my sneakers were over by the door. The action that followed went like this:

*John lookes a little bored (by that I mean hitting me with a board book)
*Me: "Hey John, go get me the shoes!"
*John: Looking where I point, confused look.
*I ask him again; he goes over and picks up the ball next to my shoes and brings it over.
*Me: "Good John!"
*John: laughs and claps; cuteness goes everywhere.
*I try again; "Get the SHOE!"
*John: Blank look. Slightly frustrated look. Run off to grab something that isn't a shoe at all, but looks like fun.
*Me: Get up, go over to the shoes, take one and goes back to the couch.
*Me: "OK John, go get the OTHER SHOE"
*John: Happy face, run to shoe in question, brings it to me, hands it over, laughs, claps, dances.
*All: Short break for the appreciation of the galactic amounts of cuteness just generated.
*Me: (Going for broke): "OK John, now take these work shoes and put them over by the door"
*John: Smile, laugh, take one shoe, carry it over near the door, stick it in the trash can, take it out, run back to me laughing, hand me the shoe.

OK, so we have the basic skills down; now it's just fine-tuning. :)

On Pain

Last time we were at Totland, John ran right under the big boy swings as a 5 year old was vigorously swinging and got kicked right in the mouth and knocked down. He was really crying and bleeding from his cut lip and gums (his pumpkin pacifier got kicked into his mouth). I mopped him up with my sleeve and consoled the kid and his mom. It wasn't really their fault. The older boy couldn't stop, he was in mid swing. The mom wasn't right on her boy because he was a big boy and could swing all by himself. So I quickly wiped up John and rocked him until he stopped crying. He got over it and went off to play, but was sensitive to every time he fell.

John is usually a tough little guy. Once, when were were at the smaller baby park, he was all sweaty and wet and playing in the sand. Then he decided he wanted to go up the slide. He started to climb up the slide, slapping down his sweaty hand and pulling himself up by the traction of his wet hand, like a lizard. He made it halfway up when he slid down. I picked him up then I noticed that he had sand stuck to his wet hand and he had ground it into his hand climbing up like that. He was bleeding and he showed no sign of noticing! He'll run into things with his head and not cry, too. Other parents comment on this at the park.

on Monday, we took our walk down to the mailbox. I had the doggie harness on him. He wanted to cross the street so we went over to the neighbors driveway. It is a very steep concrete slope with rocks. He tried to go up it with his treasure bucket. The slope was too much for him and he fell flat on it and slid down a little. He dropped his bucket and all his nuts went rolling down into the street. Then he started really crying. I thought it was from loosing his nuts, because he didn't fall far, he was pretty much crawling up the slope. When I picked him up, however, he was just covered in blood! Way more than when he got kicked in the face. I couldn't really mop him up, because he kept bleeding. I rocked him and when he settled down some, I carried him (and the half empty bucket) back up our driveway. By the time I got to the house, he felt better and was playing even as I was getting some wet paper towels to clean him. He wouldn't let me look in his mouth much, I was worried about his teeth. He seems to have cut he gums but his teeth looked ok. I gave him a cold bottle and he eventually went to sleep.
At least I know he can feel pain, I guess.

Sunday at Totland

Sunday again. We went to church, where John ran around and squawked and Charles had to take him out into the foyer. As usual. Then we went to Berkeley so Charles can play 40K at GoB. I took John to the larger play park, Totland, after stopping at the alternative medicine pharmacy in Berkeley, Elephant Pharmacy. There, we picked up some expensive, all natural, organic cotton baby wipes in hopes it would help John's worsening diaper rash.



We got to Totland at about 3:30 or 4 and already the sun was casting off the long golden rays of late afternoon. It was the first day after Daylight Savings ended. John ran around and played. I made sure he stayed clear of the swings, since he got kicked last time.



He played in the toy log cabin there, and then got into a little car you can sit in and drive with your feet like the Flintstones. As sundown came on us, I put him in the swings, which he loves. He sat there, with a cookie clutched in one hand, the swing chain in the other. When I pushed him slowly, he took a bite of the cookie (he had it from church, he likes to carry it, not eat it). Then he started to do a slow, long lick of the swing chain! Gross! It must be filthy. He kept licking it and it was sooooo funny! Hahahaha! I would have stopped him, but I figured it was too late, he already caught plague and cholera, might as well enjoy the show.



Finally, I got him to get out of the swing as it was growing pretty dark. He ran around in the grass. Then, a little dog came squeezing under the gate. He was some sort of Jack Russell mix. He ran all over the park, eating up all the little scraps of food the babies had dropped during the day. The remaining babies chased the little dog, but he was very nice about it. He'd run away, but if they gave him food, he would throw himself down on the ground and roll on his back and let them scratch his belly! What a funny little dog! Then, a large fluffy Persian kitty came under the gate. I went over to him, but he ran away. Bad experiences with kids I guess!

I went over to the little dog and John gave him some cookie. He rolled over and we pet him. I looked at his tags. Eleanor, Milo foundation. Looked like a boy to me, but I guess not. Milo foundation rescues hard to place dogs from the shelter and then finds them homes through a rigorous placement process, after training them. The kind of place Ellen was crying about last week. Anyway, this old homeless guy who was in the park said, "That's little Eleanor. She lives next door. She always comes at night and cleans up the park. What a good little dog! Always sweet."

We said goodbye to Eleanor and went back to GoB. John drank some water from his water bottle and talked to himself for a bit but then fell asleep before we reached the store. Then we loaded him into the car and went home.

Happy Saturday

We had a really nice Saturday. We got up late (well, after Windy went and fed the cats at 9) and had a nice brunch (John got his very own pancakes!) After breakfast we went down the hill to the mailbox and walked up and down the street looking at everything. We played some more upstairs. John's favorite games are "eating my favorite book" and "taking the phone off the hook until it makes that funny noise." Then we had a nap. After our nap John got a bath, which was a lot of splashy fun. Mama made one of our favorite dinners, red beans and rice with kielbasa! She also made garlic spinach, which was really yummy. John got some spinach and rubbed it all over his face. After we cleaned that up we played some more and then it was bedtime!