Things I forgot

I forgot to post two pictures the other day.

Picture #1:  Amazing sunset we had on Thursday evening, which was well-needed after an afternoon of toddler melt-downs over completely trivial things, plus meeting program deadlines for Fair Hill, plus general "I am a bitch, how about you don't talk to me" attitude by me.

Picture #2:  Dexter and I watching the drummer in the Elvis band at a community picnic on Saturday.  The band started playing and Dexter looked over and listened for a little while, then saw the drummer, pointed, said something about drums, and ran over to see.  We watched for many many songs.  The boy is fascinated with drums, lord help us all...

He was also very sad that we didn't let him climb on the moon bounce inflatable obstacle course thing there.  It really was too big for him, and Daddy tried to explain that he was too little.  Dexter's response?  "You want to be BIGGER!"  He was only mildly appeased by the fire trucks.  And then he saw the "train crossing" go up and down to let people in to the retirement community.  His little eyes lit up and you'd have thought he'd never seen anything cooler.  Want to go inside this fire truck, Dex?  NOOOOOO.  Want to watch the train crossing.

My kid is weird.  I was encouraged today at the playground, though, when he was actively playing with his friends, calling them by name, and saying hi and bye to them.  AND he went up to a strange boy and asked him his name.  Love it!

Your Clock is Yellow

I've told you about Dexter's clock, right?  The most fabulous invention ever?  Don't know how other people with kids make it through life without one?  Yes?

We've had sleep rules for a while.  Close your eyes.  Go to sleep.  No talking.  Those were the originals.  I had to add "No whispering" to the mix after Dexter would be up there in bed softly whispering his cares away.  And then I added "No kicking" after hours of thumping on the crib mattress drove my nerves to the very edge of their limits.  When Dex started adding singing and humming to the mix I was at a loss.  My list of rules was getting too long.  And I really had no recourse or punishment when he didn't follow the rules.

The boys scope out what's going on outside

Enter - Tah Dah!  The fabulous M&M.  Fixer of all that is bad.  I put a small bowl in his room.  I put 2 M&M's in it.  I explained that if Mama heard him through the green light (his monitor), I would come in and take his M&M's.  But if he could be quiet the whole time his clock was blue, HE could have the M&M's when his clock turned yellow.  It took a couple tries, but man, I haven't had myself an M&M in a while.  And now I giggle at the end of nap time, as Dexter stands up when his clock is yellow and says "Your clock is yellow.  You can have your M&M's now.  Your CLOCK is yellow.  Your can HAVE your M&M's now!"

Lest you think I am brilliant for thinking of this fabulous idea...  No.  Not so much.  I totally stole it from the internets.  So glad I did!

I do have to keep the M&M's in Dexter's room on a tall shelf, though, because if they lived in the kitchen or someplace else where I could find them in the evenings, the entire pound of M&M's would have been gone by the first day.

Who'd have thought that VACUUMING  would be one of our favorite activities?  When I turn if off Dex says "We can vacuum another place."  Also, I know, right?  I VACUUM!!

Let's see.  What else has been happening around here?

Dexter started school a few weeks ago.  It's an Intro to Preschool class at the Y, for 1.5 hours, twice a week.  Perfect.  His teachers say that he is very polite and helpful and lovely and maybe one of these years he'll actually talk to his friends.  I get only snippets of info about school.  What did you do at school today?  You don't know.  Did you have a snack?  Yeah.  What did you have?  Animal crackers.  You LIKE animal crackers.  Did you read any books?  Yeah.  What were the books about?  Apples.

And so it goes.  A tiny bit at a time I get a little piece of his day.  But mostly what he does at school remains a mystery to me.  I am sending Miss Lisa in next week to observe and report - she can do a little spy recon work.  He doesn't seem to hate school, which is good.  And I try to make sure we do fun things at the gym after.  We'll go shoot baskets, or go swimming, or go to the playground across the street.

This may well be the best ten dollar garage sale purchase I ever made.

While Dexter is at school I stay at the Y and take a FIT class - which is basically a group of ladies doing circuits of weight and sprint training.  Essentially, it's a little bit like killing yourself, twice a week.  The first time I went I was pretty sure I was going to die, and I could not straighten my arms for about five days.  It's gotten better, slowly.  I am still pretty sure I am going to die.  But the soreness has reached a tolerable level now.  And it's fun.  I compare it a bit to basketball practices in high school.  Except, you know, worse.

Dexter's favorite book these days has been "Puff the Magic Dragon."  I like it quite a lot, but I have a really difficult time making it through the whole book without crying a little bit.  I really never understood why my dad said he needed to listen to the song a whole lot in his car before I danced with him, to that song, at my wedding.  He wanted to be used to it, so he wouldn't cry when we danced.  I mean, really?  It's just a song about a dragon.  Why would that make you cry?  But, yeah.  I totally get it now, Dad.  I'm sorry I thought you were nuts.

This is why we keep cameras around.  I totally forgot he climbed right in his water table.  We put this one in the file of "things we don't tell Daddy..."

We've been working diligently on trying to get Dexter to use his pronouns correctly.  He refers to himself as "you" and refers to other people as "I."  We're so totally used to it now that it doesn't even phase us, and we translate in our heads and carry on with the request.  It's so much harder now that we're trying to correct him.  We have to think about what he said, and think about what he means, and only correct him the 75% of the time he says it wrong.  It's arduous.  It's frustrating.  But, in other, related, Early Intervention news, I think the child has finally figured out how to ask a question.  A "Can you do this for me?" question.  Thus far in his life he has approached these sort of situations with demands instead of questions.  I think we might have turned the corner on that one.

So long, farewell, purple Jeep.  You served us well for two weeks.

Let's see...  John couldn't quite handle the fact that his son was driving around in a purple and pink Jeep.  Actually, "driving" is totally the wrong word for it, because the child freaks out if anyone touches the gas pedal.  So, I suppose John didn't like that his son was SITTING in a purple and pink Barbie Jeep.  His reasoning was that kids are mean, and when they see pictures of him on the internets driving said Jeep, he would be teased mercilessly.  So he made it his duty to find Dexter a non-purple and pink Jeep.  And we sold the purple and pink one to a family of, I THINK, two girls and a boy.  So their son can get the shaft now.  And we ended up with a cool green Jeep for the little man.  Because, of course, green is his favorite color.  Til you read the book "All About Me" that got sent home from school with him Tuesday, where it says his favorite color is brown.

What??  I'm supposed to PUSH the gas pedal?  NOOOOOO.

Dex gives the green Jeep an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Speaking of things being sent home from school - holy large piles of crap being sent home!  Also, my kid is a piss-poor colorer.  I don't blame him.  I hate coloring, too.  But, man, kid, could you at least put a little effort in to it?  A picture gets sent home, with about three scribbles on it.  Like a teacher told him to color his picture, he took a crayon and went "zoom, zoom, zoom" and that was it.  One point five second later he was done with his coloring and off playing in the corner by himself again.  That, at least, is what it looks like.  I need to sneak a peek at his classmates some time to see if this is how ALL two-year-olds color.  Or if mine is just special...

Dex and I went to see Thomas this week.  You know, the train.  Where we went in the summer with about thirty million other people.  It's MUCH more civilized on a week day in September.  Far fewer people.  Lines were non-existent.  Lovely.  I think Dexter had fun, after he finally un-plastered himself from my chest. Which is where he spent the entire five mile train ride out to the turn-around point.  If you ask him if he liked riding the train, he will say "Yeah."  Ask him if he wants to ride it again?  "NOOOOOOOOO."

Somehow we're swamped this week with play dates and school and orthopedic appointments for the child who is still limping off and on, and Miss Lisa, and Aunt Jeanne coming to visit next weekend, and Buddy going to get groomed, and damn we have zero time to just sit around and watch vi-vee-oh's on the computer.  So we might better do that tomorrow, when it's going to rain.  Again.  Holy crap our grass is long.

More Thomas pics for you:

Fab little model train display in one of the stores

Here's our ENTIRE train ride out to the turn-around point.  Apparently the open-air car is a no-go.

He finally perked up a little bit when the train stopped and we got to watch the engine go down to the other end of the train.

And I peeled him off me and got him to look around a bit on the ride back

There.  That's not so damn bad, is it?

THIS made the small one happy.  We stopped for a picnic and had a chance to swing

And push the merry-go-round

And ride the teeter totter UUUUUUUPPPP

And DOOOOOOWWWWNNN

So by the time the train came back to pick us up Dex was in a pretty good mood, and all was right in the world again.

Dex also used his big old muscles to drive the cranky cars (fun!)

And we watched the black engine hook up to its coaches.  Backward, right?  It was like this the whole time.  I don't get it, really, but there was nobody around to ask why.  It's a cool engine.  Has coal in its tender and everything.

Hey, Longwood. How've you been?

First of all - I am sick.  I totally blame the small child, and if he's been feeling like I feel now all week, I suppose I have to give him a pass for being a big old Grumpy-Puss.  As I listen right now to his shrieks of protest while Daddy is trying to put him down for a nap.  Anyway - I don't feel terrible when I am sitting down, but when I walk up the stairs or walk around the house I huff and puff like an out of shape fat chick.  Oh.  Wait...

This self-imposed sedentary lifestyle for today (who am I kidding - it's like this every day) has resulted in me FINALLY posting pictures from the few days that Dex and I spent in Massena in August.  Here's the link.

Dexter and I went to Longwood on Wednesday for the first time in, I dunno, more than a month?  I think we went in July with some friends of ours, but I am pretty sure we didn't go at all in August.  Which is kind of a miracle for us.  We always seem to go at least once a month.  The model train tracks were up, and Thomas AND Percy were chugging around, along with some other cool trains.  We stayed there for an hour and a half and Dex could have stayed longer but I was about ready to stab my eyes out from the boredom, so I finally dragged him away to go splash in some fountains and get really wet.  The pumpkin display wasn't up yet, so we'll have to go back another nice crisp fall morning to take some pumpkin pictures.  I ought to make him go in his Halloween costume, just to torture the poor boy.  :-)

Hey Longwood.  We're obviously delighted to be here...

Yay!  Look who's here!

And Percy, too.  Goddamn terrible train show overload.  Gaaaahh!  Notice small child in the background, intently staring down every single train that goes by.

And there were lots of them.  Four in this picture, alone.

Plus cool water features, bridges, tunnels, flowers, peppers (???  random, but pretty)

Yeah, yeah.  Here comes Thomas again.  But there's SO MANY MORE trains over there.

Oh, yeah.  And also cute girls to flirt with.

What was your favorite train?  The blue one.

We looked at trains for a hour and a half.  AN HOUR AND A HALF.  I like trains and all, but not a goddamn hour and a half of them.

Finally dragged him away to go do some of this.  Getting wet trumps watching trains any day, I think.

With Mama in the butterfly chair.  The glasses are not a permanent addition.  Simply a "Holy hell, I can't see a damn thing, too much pollen under my contacts" two day change.  I kind of like them, really.  John said I looked very "studious."

We eventually wandered inside to the Childrens Garden.  Yeah, we still like doing this.  See fountain chasing in action, below.

And then Dex discovered what may well be a new love.  It started as a "Hey, check out this cool waterfall/shower thingie"

And then got a little braver

And finally turned in to this.  I totally love the fact that we influenced this other cute small child, and I hope his parents had a change of clothes...

One change of clothes and fountain show later, and we went home happy.  Thanks, Longwood!

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

During our summer of swimming at the Y, I saw a mom showering her kids after swimming and putting them in their pajamas before they went home.  Brilliant!  Shower the kid when he's naked anyway!  Amazing!  And so the next time I brought some soap, and turned on a shower, and...  listened to Dex scream bloody murder and cry while I showered him.  I'm sure the few times we did this someone outside was wondering if they should call CPS for that poor child whose mother was obviously killing him.

And then something amazing happened.  We went to a water park.  A fountain park.  A spray park.  Whatever you call it.  We went after Aunt Maria's graduation.  The first time in that afternoon Dexter screamed and cried and we left after about ten minutes (but, BONUS, the lake looked super fun after that experience so he splashed right in, and loved it, much to my surprise).  The second time John took him in, and after some hesitation and fear, he got a little bit braver.

The third time?  Stayed in the spray park for an hour, running under and over and through every single fountain he could find.  Total blast.  Had to tear the child away so we could go eat dinner.

And then we went back to swimming at the Y.  First time trying a shower - some fear and crying, but after I chatted with him for a while and splashed in the shower myself, he decided that perhaps he could splash in the fountain, too.

Second time - A little look of panic when I mentioned a shower, a couple whimpers, and then we both splashed away in the shower fairly happily.

The third time?  We went with Daddy, and he was in the men's bath house next to us changing his clothes while we took a shower.  I think he was grinning the whole time listening to Dexter exclaim at the top of his lungs "You are taking a shower in the shower!  You are taking a shower in the shower!"

Third time's a charm, eh?  So thanks, splash park.  You've cured the shower phobia.  Now I get to take a shower with Dex and listen to him chatter away, "This is your butt.  This is my butt.  We are taking a shower.  You don't want to get your face wet.  We are taking a shower.  This is my butt."  And I just thank heaven we don't know very many people at the gym...

Capture the Moment

There've been times this weekend when I wished I had a video camera in my hand, to capture some of the sweet moments we've shared as a family.  But then, those moments wouldn't be as sweet, because Mr. Video Ham would be running over to see what he looks like in the pictures.  And everyone would be all self-conscious and all "how's my hair" and it just would not be as spontaneous and sweet.  So I'll just have to remember those moments, without the help of technology.

I'll have to remember Dexter coming downstairs on Saturday morning, looking around, and declaring, before taking off at a dead run, that "we still have all new floors."

I'll have to remember our family melody of "The Fan is ON" sung to the tune of "The Heat is On" by Glenn Frey (seriously?  I had to Google that one.  I have never ever heard of Glenn Frey in my life.  Never would have guessed that one).  It was complete with "woo-hoos" and the saxophone noises, sung tremendously well by Mr. Dexter.

I'll have to remember Dexter asking Daddy to sit in his car, and Daddy saying that he would not fit because his butt was too big.  And Dexter saying "Daddy's butt want to be SHORTER."

I'll have to remember Dexter earnestly using his shovel and wheelbarrow to do exactly as Daddy was doing, moving dirt from Buddy Mountain to various holes in the lawn.  And then raking.  And then, instead of pounding, just jumping up and down on the dirt to pack it down.

And I'll have to remember Dexter wandering down the sidewalk to the driveway, after our Sunday evening picnic in the front yard, only to come trotting back saying something about the moon and it's not dark out.  So we all went out to the driveway to check out the moon, and the sunset, before giving good-night hugs and heading up for books and bed.  Right after one more "Dexter Sandwich" hug from Mama and Daddy.  Here comes the bread.

Love you, Dex.  Love you lots.

I did, of course, take some pictures.  Like this one, of Dex and Daddy putting air in the tire of the wheelbarrow.

And this one, of Dexter romping through the living room on the new floor.

And this one, of Dex riding his bike on the road

And this one

And this one.  Dex is kicking some ass on his bike.

C'mon, Daddy!  Is your butt too big to fit in my new car?  Which, by the way, John is not pleased with.  He keeps shaking his head and saying that we can't show anyone the pictures of our son riding in his purple and pink car.  And that when his girlfriend ever finds such pictures, he'll be doomed for life.  I don't see what the problem is.  It's just a purple car...  :-)

Hugs for Aunt Jeanne

Aunt Jeanne has been having a rough few weeks.  And is likely having a bad weekend.  Although I suppose I should call her to find out for sure.

Anyway, we were thinking of her today and thought we could make her a little video to cheer her up.

Whassup, Aunt Jeanne?  We love you!


Hugs for Aunt Jeanne from Alissa Norman on Vimeo.
Aunt Jeanne needs a hug this weekend.  We thought we could help.