Week Whatever: Potty Learning, and Back to the Nest, Again.

So, Valentine's Day. Yeah. It was good, as far as days go. I made Dave a card with a green and yellow watercolor heart complete with Sentiment Inside, and I also wrote him a purty long loveletter - just a page and a half, really, but rawther lengthy for one with my time constraints and wonderful little interruptions. Duncan and I also made valentines for everyone in our family. Dave gave me a dozen white roses, which stunk up the kitchen lovely, and a card also complete with sentiment inside. Dave let me take a good long nap with Riley, and he and Dunc had a fire outside while it snowed.
I said I was gonna talk about Love last time, so here's what I've been thinking. Love means listening openly as well as speaking honestly. When someone you love is speaking their Truth, you have to listen Openly, without all the walls we put up in our minds.
So, the last couple of weeks. Here we go.
Last Monday was a Big Day. For one, the Disney Channel changed their lineup, which meant that Duncan's favorite show -- the Imagination Movers -- was not on. I had Dave call the cable company and get Disney on Demand. So from that point on we've been watching the same four or five episodes over and over. And over. And over. So I've begun to notice similarities between "Mover Dave" and my own dear husband. There's a passing resemblance -- curly hair & blue eyes -- and Dave often wears a red baseball cap that resembles to Mover Dave's magic hat. Mover Dave builds wacky inventions, and my beloved builds useful but odd-looking contraptions. Mover Dave likes to look in the Lost & Found room, my husband likes to look in Lost & Found boxes. And finally, the Imagination Movers have a band . . . and guess who plays bass? Now, who was it played bass for the Nimrods?
The second Big Thing about Monday was this feeling I woke up with. I felt I couldn't go on much longer changing diapers filled with stinky, food-flecked toddler/child shits. So we started Potty Learning. Dave & I have been talking up the potty to Dunc for months, hoping Dunc would want to start of his own accord. But it hadn't happened. However, Dunc was showing most signs of readiness -- grabbing, looking, and hiding when he needs to go - so we watched a special show on T.V. about going potty, we got out the special potty chair, we put on special underpants with special dragons on them that disappear when you pee, we made a special potty learning chart with special stickers to put on it, and we set a special reward of chocolate covered strawberries for every two stickers, and away we went with our special day. Every time we caught a pee in the potty, I got VERY enthusiastically excited, LOUD cheering, clapping, singing, dancing, calling daddy & grandmas. Plus stickers and treats. It went really well until Thursday night; Dunc got a fever to match his cough and runny nose. So we took Friday off due to sickness. But he's realized he needed to go and de-pantsed and peed twice, and we caught a poop on Wednesday morning for the loudest cheer yet and two small pieces of chocolate and strawberries for breakfast. Yeah, I know, chocolate for breakfast, the horror. But I felt like that was damn special.
The weekend was an odd one. A rough one. Saturday was passing uneventfully. I was a dutiful and exuberant Customer Service Representative to my eight or ten early-morning Wadsworthians (Wadsworth-ites? Whatever.) and a detail-oriented data-entry clerk, and a superbly accurate money counter.
The potty-ing was going well . . . until Gramma DiHarney called to say that she'd somehow flipped over the dog and couldn't feel her left arm.
So Dave ran to Medina to get his mom to the ER. Turns out she's broken her left arm in two places right by her shoulder. So Dave was gone for about four hours. And while he was gone, I was trying to put Riley down for a nap, nursing and playing Bejeweled while Dunc watched Imagination Movers (of course) and then Dunc comes in carrying his potty. He set it down next to me and made this little kind of voila gesture with his hands. I look down and there's a BIG brown and green turd in the potty! I jumped up, put Ri in the Pack n Play, grabbed Dunc, and ran out to the mudroom. There was much rejoicing, followed with hugs and tickles and dancing, then stickers and texts to daddy and Gramma DiPietro.
Sunday was blessedly calm, what with the snow. The males played in the garage and Ri and I nursed and played inside. The timing was just exactly for wrong for her nap -- she went down as they came inside.
Riley's had a busy couple of weeks as well. Learning to crawl. She's been getting around by rolling for months now, and I was beginning to wonder if she might not just skip the crawling and go to walking. But in the past weeks or so she's managed to figure out how to get her belly up offa the ground. She was crawling with her right leg folded so that her foot sticks out on the left, and she pushed with her left foot. Now she's got both her legs right, but she's still real slow. She's also figured out how to get from her belly to sitting, and how to turn while sitting up. She's also starting to pull to standing. I was kind of hoping she'd be slower to develop these skills than Dunc, and she is, but only by a month or so.
The only other notable event is that I dug out my old watercolors and acrylics, and got to painting again. Now, it's been years since I painted, and about ten years since I've liked the results. But I did three paintings this weekend, and I'm pretty okay with two of them. I don't think they're fantastic but they're interesting to look at, I guess. But the reason that painting is important is . . . well, a hundred years ago, before my Dark Ages, creative expression was very important to me. But when things got dark for me, that connection closed, that majick dried up. The why isn't important to anyone but me, and there's such a swirl of negative influence & events surrounding that time period that I'm not sure what happened exactly. Still it was something mournfully lost. So having it come back, even for a little while, was extremely gratifying. And I think I'll try to keep it up. Moving the brush and seeing what happens is still pretty thrilling.
This past Monday we went to visit Gramma DiHarney and then the kids and I came home. It was the usual horror in that the kids slept for 20 minutes in the car and then would.not.nap for the rest of the day. And I behaved in an abomidable (spelling?) fashion. Lots of yelling and being generally mean for no real good reason other than I needed a nap. So I spent the whole evening guilty & tryin to apologize.
Tuesday, Dave had to take his mom to the doc. He took Dunc with him, and I followed about ten minutes behind. Basically I ran in and grabbed Dunc and we headed to Dominic's to visit Gramma DiPietro and get a Godfather Burger. Oh, burger of my dreams. Half pound of beef, bacon, mushrooms and onions sauteed in butter, provolone cheese, lettuce tomato and mayo on a grilled bun. Heaven. Add fair-style fries and a pickle and it's a food-gasm. Glad I got it when I did cuz on the way home my nose and sinuses filled up eye-wateringly and I lost my sense of taste. The kids did fall asleep -- Riley for a good long while -- but it was only about 10:30 or so, so I still got them down for a real nap. We had the nest all ready to go as I was feelin so stuffy, and we all crawled in and boobed to sleep. I even got to cuddle up and sleep next to Dunc, which has been a rarity since my belly got big with Ri.
That night we watched ther Biggest Loser. Surprisingly, I managed to get both kids out before the Presidential Address. So, I actually heard what President Obama had to say. Between standing O's, that is. I liked the speech, not that I know what he was saying.
Wednesday we decided to go to my mom's on Thursday instead. I'm still real stuffy. We went for a coupla short walks and played in the yard. I put Ri in the stroller just to see how she liked it, and she was into it. Just sittin and lookin around. We have an awesome stroller with like bike tires on it and that fucker rolls like a dream It's for longer hikes, really, but around our block is an all-terrain kinda ride. The library construction is taunting me. No work is going on outside now but still scaffolds all over. So we took a walk around that once, and then the line of busses at our one traffic light in downtown reminded me that it was nearly the end of the school day. So we followed the busses back to our house and stayed in the yard awhile. I dragged out the playhouse and the slide-cube-thingy and Dunc played in the icy slush on top of the sandbox. Riley watched from the warmth of the bundleme and I played with Dunc and kept a watch out for kids shortcutting thr0ugh my yard and parents parking on my treelawn. We made a christmas tree in Dunc's house out of a fallen pine branch and raced up to the garage wall.
I have to say I was pretty surprised that Ri tolerated the stroller. She's usually a very in-arms type of babe. But she seemed to enjoy the different perspective and I was glad. I like being able to run with my son. Having a baby has been really intense and I was happy to be able to make him the center of my attention.
I still miss the 'net. I've lots of questions I need answered. We're taking a break on the potty learning as Dunc's been very negative lately and I'm wanting to research these behavioral issues.
There's so much more I want to talk about but I've been trying to type all this out for an hour and a half and Ri's freaking out and everyone's patience is wearing thin. So this long ass entry is over.

Another week: thank the gods

It's been another short week full of long days. Isn't it weird how time gets? Especially now I have kids.
Anyway, we're running out of things to do inside, so thank all the gods that may or may not be out there that the weather's improved. Thursday and Friday were normal and cold, and we did lots of watercolor painting (mostly trying to remind Dunc that it goes water, paint, paper) and learning about scissor safety. Gotta learn the rules. Stay at the table, no fingers by scissors, if you're not cutting paper the scissors belong on the table. Also dancing to the usual songs -- Istanbul, Particle Man, Birdhouse in Your Soul, Don't Let's Start by TMBG. Also a selection of Gorillaz, that Crowded House song, and Dunc's finally getting into some Cure. (Boys Don't Cry mostly.)
On Saturday I went to work as usual. Got all hopped up on coffee and argued with this really old guy about whether or not black people are just bad and lazy cuz it's in their blood. I got sorta pissed -- he went on to say badness just runs in the blood and no matter what color you are if your parents are bad you will be, too. Then he laughed about it. Whatever. He's crazy. But he also can tell me good stories about what life was like during WWII. Very interesting.
Sunday I was grumpy from the time I got outta bed. So I did something I've not done in a LONG time. I dug out my old walkman and my copy of "The Siket Disc" (Phish) and I went for a walk. I was surprised that my walkman worked, I haven't used it since the Pizza Shop Days. I was even more surprised that my tape actually played, as it's been buried under a years worth of crap in the back of my car. The walk was good, it was relaxing as I remember walking around Medina for hours was when I was 18. Later that day, I put Riley down for a nap and took Dunc for a walk. We saw a disembodied bird head on the sidewalk, and Dunc poked it with a stick. Then I decided to turn when Dunc didn't want to take, and he cried for three blocks. Then, we saw another dead bird -- a blue jay. Dunc didn't want to poke this one. He said it would say "chirp chirp" if he did. Even when I nudged it with a shoe, he wanted nothing to do with it. So we walked the three blocks home. And when we got back, Dave was gimping around with a broken toe and a crying babe.
Monday we stayed in the house because I didn't believe it was really nice outside.
Tuesday Riley had a doc appointment, and it was pretty nice out. So I sent Terra a text and we met up at Kalidascope Park in Wadsworth to play. My foolish self forgot about wind, so we didn't bring jackets. I ended up with Ri in the Mei Tai with a fitted crib sheet that I found in the car wrapped around her, and Dunc wearing an old knit hat of mine. Still, Dunc and Sasha had a pretty good time. The doc was running about a half an hour behind, so we all ran across town to Wendys, where Dunc and I shared a 10-piece nugget meal. Yeah, I know, fast food is bad. But I think once every few months is fine. Everything in moderation, right? We even had rootbeer. The doc appointment went well. Riley Jean weighs 20 lbs and 7 ounces, and she's nearly 28 inches long. We're gonna need a new carseat for her soon, ours only goes to 29 inches. I have no idea where to get a rear-facing seat that will hold a long baby. We'll have to research. Eventually.
Today started off rough, but after a really nice nap (during which I had some horrid dreams) we came over here really early and got Dunc and Riley and Ari out running in the field across the street. We played ball and practiced sharing and stopping when I said to stop (there's a big dropoff.) Now my mom's taking orders for Mexican food (YUM) and I have to hurry this up cuz G needs to use the computer before she goes to driving school.
I was going to write something about love, in honor of Valentine's Day. Maybe next week. So until then.

Weeks three and four: frenzies

Well, due to weather I couldn't update two weeks ago, and last week everyone at my mom's house was grounded from the internets. So here's a rawther long post for the last two weeks.
We finally got the internet turned off at the house, and I thought it'd be nothing. Instead, I found that I wanted to use the 'net more than ever. I am constantly thinking about logging on. Oh well, I guess. So it goes. So I had to find other things to do.
One of the main things has been this frenzy of cleaning. I have scrubbed out the fridge, wiped down the cabinets, wiped out the cobwebs from around the ceilings, swept, mopped, vacuumed, cleaned mirrors, and on and on and on. Until Tuesday, that is.
Because on Monday night/Tuesday morning, Dunc came down with the flu. He woke us all up puking at about two in the morning. All over the bed. All over himself. All over me. Which then woke Riley. I knew we had no hope of getting the kids back to sleep, so I took them both back downstairs and re-built the nest. Dunc spent the rest of the night puking about every hour, which meant that I got no sleep. And then Dave couldn't stay home from work on Tuesday, so I got to struggle through. I know I have spent many days awake before, but never as a parent. And never sober. The best puke? The one where Riley had just shot shit all the way up to her shoulderblades, I had just finished putting a diaper on her, and then Dunc stood up and puked all overhimself in his toy corner. So I had a sleeper full of shit sitting on the coffee table, a bucket with half the puke in it, and two crying children. Fun.
I'm having a hard time remembering the past two weeks. Dunc is at home with his daddy, but my niece Ari is the same age and she does.not.stop.talking. Also my nephew Zain (aka Ralphie) is teething. I am repeatedly explaining that Riley eats booby-milk, that I have milk in my boobies, that Ari does not have milk in her boobies, that grandma does not have milk in her boobies, that no, she may not see my boobies right now. It's super cute, but also super annoying.
For those who care, I had an all right birthday. I'm sort of in denial, I don't want to be 28. I know it's not old, but I didn't ever really believe it'd come. Dave and I had my mom come over and keep the kids for an hour so we could go to Kasai and I could gorge on sushi. And tempura cheesecake. On my acutal birthday we came over here and had cake and icecream and crazy family time. My sis is staying here and she's doing great. She's lookin great, her kids are awesome, you know, it's just how it is.
I can't remember anything else I wanted to talk about, of course. I'm going to have to write more stuff down during the week. This improvisation stuff just ain't working right now. There's too many distractions.
So that is all, for now.