Thursday, July 22, 2010

stuff n stuff



I am a single mom for a couple of days. Aaron is off to Nebraska (of all places) for one-night art exhibition. He had planned to do this last winter but a terrible storm and car accident kept him from it. So he rescheduled for this weekend. He's sick, though, and that will make it a challenge to do the long drive for such a short show. But he has left. He's going for it.

Sam just went down to nap.

But I'm not alone. Meg is just across the river and can help out, and Aaron's mom is actually coming to visit on Saturday. And I just got a message that she might come tomorrow night. So maybe I just have to manage one night on my own.

Things remain busy and scattered. I feel so all over the place. Like I can't keep up with seemingly simple things. Stuff I feel like I should be able to handle easily. I forget stuff. I ask stupid questions. This move has been hard for me and I'm not entirely sure why. Sure, it's change. And it's scary commitment. And it's hard to move with a toddler. And I'm not able to get enough sleep. And I don't do well with not enough sleep. And there is just so much going on. Already we've had a leaky shower, a clogged sewer line. (I seem to often have water problems where I live and blame it on my completely water-lacking astrological chart -- you astrologers reading this can tell me if that is nonsense -- it may well be.) We have all this other stuff we want to do to the house. It's easy to drop too much money on it, here and there. And then things like Comcast accidentally charging us a second installation fee don't help. I get so angry with Comcast it's silly. I'm only doing one job right now -- teaching. So I feel like I should be on top of everything. But I feel so completely not on top. It's exhausting.

Today I went to a playgroup through the mom meetup.com group here in town! Yay me! But I completely failed. I didn't introduce myself to people, though some people introduced themselves to me. And Sam was being completely shy too (gee, where does he get that??) So pretty much Sam and I played by ourselves while other moms and toddlers played nearby. Maybe I'm forcing it. Maybe I don't need more mom friends. I dunno. I would probably try again. Maybe an indoor setting works better because Sam and I can't just run off to another part of the park or whatever. The park the playgroup met at was right near our house, though, so we were able to walk to and from. But I didn't take the stroller because it is rocky/hilly terrain taking the back path there. And on our way home, we completely got soaked in an unexpected warm summer rain. It was actually pretty fun.

Aaron is doing better than I am at meeting other parents and toddlers. When I'm teaching he often takes Sam to play at the little park near our house and he has met neighboring families. So that's good. Sam, I guess, is still very reserved in those groups. Yet, he's very outgoing at the library lap-sit, which Aaron takes him to (again, while I teach). So I think he just takes a bit to warm up.

I have also been shopping around for a daycare. Aaron will be going to Iceland for an artist residency at the end of August. He will be gone two weeks. It is the first two weeks of the semester and I can't take the whole time off. So I am going to need help. Luckily, it seems some of our friends will be able to watch him a few mornings each week, so I'll take some vacation time but get some work time in. Still, I think it might be good to have more of a scheduled group socialization opportunity for Sam. I don't want him to be too shy or uncomfortable around other kids. And sometimes I really do think that preschools are becoming more and more necessary, just because more and more kids do them. It's almost expected that by kindergarten kids have already had some sort of "schooling". Plus, I do sorta wonder if other people know more how to teach my child stuff than I do -- I mean, I really don't know much about early childhood development and though it's interesting, I don't think I'd be able to learn it all just to teach my own children. I don't know. He's only two. There is time for all of this. But I will say shopping around for a daycare is hard. It's hard to know the right questions to ask. It's hard to find a program that does what you want. I am guessing we'll be waiting another year. But, I guess that's good, because waitlists can take a while.

wet from the rain

Saturday, July 10, 2010

TWO YEARS!

So somehow the days just keep going by. I wake up at 6:45 and before I know it it's 10 pm. And in the midst of all of that, my little one has been with us for two years! two whole years! Today, we wish Mr. Sam a great big happy birthday!!!

He is currently napping.

We have moved to our new house. From move til today, sleep has been erratic I guess. It's not missing, but it starts late and ends early. So today he woke up at 7:30 despite going to bed at 10 or maybe later, so he crashed at noon on our way home from the zoo. Hopefully he'll get a nice long nap and we can get back to our regular sleep routine. Tough to have him tired and cranky on his birthday!

We converted his crib to a toddler bed. Jumping the gun? I dunno. So far he has rolled off onto the floor twice. Last night was the second time. Poor guy. SO sad to wake to him crying and pick him up off the floor, shocked, tired, and probably in pain.

This morning we got a donut and went to the zoo! Lafayette has a neat little free zoo that they are expanding all the time. They have a great wallaby "exhibit" and the wallabies have little joeys in their pouches! And the river otters are really fun too. Always swimming around. There is one of those tubes that kids can crawl through too and Sam always likes that. He might like the old-fashioned tractor by the petting zoo the most though.

His grandma is getting to town in about an hour (Aaron is picking her up in Indy right now). We will have a simple Sam dinner (grilled cheese and tomato soup) and cake and ice cream. And, of course, presents! Sam is starting to get into presents -- curious to open boxes and see what's hiding under paper. So that's fun.

Non-birthday updates:
Adjusting to the new house is going well. The first week was rough. Really missed the yard and land around the old place. We also had a leaking shower that required different plumbers to come and fix over the span of like four days. They inevitably would show up when Sam was (*finally*) napping, the dogs would go nuts, and there went the nap. And we couldn't shower. So it was rough. Dogs were having trouble adjusting to lack of privacy/yard and having strangers in their house. Aaron and I were seriously tired because moving with a toddler is HARD. You do not have nearly the time to settle and all of that that you did pre-kid. We had to wait until after 10 pm or so to get unpacking and settling in. Oi. But, finally, on Thursday we got internet so we could finally feel like home. Pathetic, but it did really feel that way. Plus, we're all just getting used to the new surroundings and dogs are getting used to being in a neighborhood again. I, however, cannot wait to get a fence installed.

I'm still tired and scatter-brained and feel like I'm all over the place, but we're settling in. Seems like it's taking forever.

Sam continues to grow like crazy before our eyes. He is talking so much more now. Sometimes it takes me a minute to realize what he's saying, but out of the blue he'll say some new word like "stairs" or "towel". He combines two words frequently; not usually three. He likes to play pretend. We have changed Mr. T's diaper, marched dinosaur toys around, pretended to be airplanes, or sleeping, or whatever. Two is a very fun age. He's getting bigger all the time. He is such a kid. I really think I need to find playgroups for him and stuff, but I'm terrible at it. I've started to look into daycares, but no obvious winners there. I had joined a mom group through meetup.com but so far have not really found a way in, despite some meager attempts. Hopefully I'll figure something out.

So that is that. Now for a few pics:

Signing "Mom" and saying it too

Signing and saying "Dad" (or "dee")


Signing "Sam"! We came up with a sign for Sam -- Thumbs Up!


The elephant sculpture at the zoo. He always puts his head under the trunk to get wet.

He loves drinking fountains.

The tunnel at the otter exhibit

Tractor fun!

First time we've done one of these. They had a step for Sam to step on.

The Erlewines found out Sam was into Dinos. Nuf said.