Down

• There’s never enough time to get everything I want to done.

Ups

• Had SF Book Club Monday which was amusing. Calvin didn’t stay in one play so it was hard to “discuss” anything but we did manage to pick the next book, Blackout by Connie Willis.
• Went on a travel related shopping spree and most things have arrived. Got a suitcase for our stroller (I hear airlines can really mangle them) and a fold-up potty seat. Also ordered some toys and a leash for Calvin (now that he’s mobile it’s harder to keep track of him so I got an animal backpack for him that has a tail I can hang on to).
• Potty training has been going well. Calvin still doesn’t do particularly well away from home but at least it’s reduced the number of home diapers to deal with. I think on our travel days I’m just going to put him back in diapers but let him use the potty whenever he wants to, just not stress about it.
• Calvin is enjoying Christmas so far. We have a little tree in the china cabinet that lights up which he loves. We also had Christmas part 1 last night which consisted of Calvin open up a couple boxes of waffle blocks. We found one that lets you build your own car. Not only do Mommy and Daddy enjoy playing with it but Calvin does also. Occasionally our artistic visions differ. Calvin tends to win as he destroys our creations.
• Calvin is now wearing shoes other than the same type of tennis shoes he has been insisting on for the last 6 months. I went shopping and bought some snow boots for him. He loves them and is constantly putting them on and taking them off.
• We’ve had some decent weather recently so Calvin has been able to spend more time outside. Today he greatly enjoyed sitting in the tree in our front yard.
• Jaeger has managed to reduce Elmo segments down to 5 minutes. Once Calvin caught on that a deposit in the potty meant he got to watch 15 min of Elmo, he got very good and portioning them out. As a result, he could easily spend several hours a day watching Elmo which I felt was way too much on a regular basis. Calvin isn’t particularly excited by the short episodes but has decided they are better than nothing.

Calvin Moment

• I don’t have any one moment but Calvin keeps getting brighter and smarter every day. It’s so nice to see him develop into a little person. As I write this, Calvin is wandering around the main level of our house pushing chairs up to light switches so he can turn them on and off. Probably not good for the lights but he’s having a great deal of fun. Oh. He’s just figured out how to unlock and open the sliding glass door. This can’t be good . . .

Simplification

• Haven’t done anything. I’m now aiming to restart after Christmas and travel is over.

Down

• Wednesday night Calvin was very clingy and didn’t want to go to bed without me. I’d leave him but he kept frantically screaming so eventually I caved and we both snuggled down in my bed. Once he finally drifted off to sleep, I transferred him back to his crib. Fortunately, both yesterday and tonight he went to bed without as much fussing.

Ups

• Got my hair cut today. Also decided to color it again. This is the first time I’ve had it colored since before I was pregnant.

Calvin Moment

• Yesterday, I picked Calvin up from daycare and got him settled in his car seat when he suddenly proclaimed he had to go to the bathroom. I asked him if he was sure and he nodded a solemn yes. I wasn’t sure what to do as the last time this had happened, I had raced him back inside daycare only to discover we were too late. This time I took his potty chair, which I take to daycare every day, and decided to plop it in the back of the Rav4. To my relief, Calvin hadn’t gone yet so he and I sat in the back with the door mostly closed to protect us from the wind. At this point, I learned that we don’t have a handle on the inside of our back door. Obviously, none of the vehicle’s engineers had to huddle in the back while their child was contemplating using the potty. It turns out Calvin didn’t have to go. However, I had some fabulous time to contemplate how my life has changed since having a child.
• This afternoon I was in the kitchen getting a snack for Calvin when I remembered I had left a plate on the sofa in the living room. I asked Calvin to go get the plate on the sofa and bring it back to me. To my surprise, he did. Up to this point, I’ve normally pointed at something when I asked him to bring it to me. However, the plate was completely out of sight.

Simplification

• Haven’t done anything. Hopefully I’ll work on this more next week.

Down

• Jaeger is in San Diego. So far, Calvin and I are surviving but we will be glad when he’s back.

Ups

• Potty training is going very well. For the most part, Calvin properly uses the potty while at home (though anywhere but home is still a trick).
• I actually got Christmas decorations up this year.
• My project for this week is to make Christmas Candy. Last year I was too overwhelmed by Calvin to consider making any but this year I have more energy.

Calvin Moment

• Calvin was playing upstairs where he stumbled across a pair of my socks in the hallway. He picked them up and then trotted into our bedroom and tried to reach the top drawer in our dresser which is where the socks are stored. I wasn’t quite tall enough so I opened it up and then picked him up and he put them away and shut the drawer. I’m not sure how he knew that’s where those socks went. I’d be much more excited by this neat trick if he wasn’t also so good at making huge messes.

Simplification

• I’ve been making candy at night so haven’t had time to do any weeding of our stuff.

Down

• Wednesday afternoon/evening was bad. Calvin was so cranky and crying the entire time, even when I gave him constant attention. When Jaeger got home, I practically threw Calvin at him in relief. Calvin wore us both out and by the time it was his bedtime, Jaeger and I were getting snippy with each other. Neither of us wanted to face having 4 days with Calvin all to ourselves.
• My oven is dying. At the moment, it takes 45 min-1 hr to preheat to 350 degrees. I did manage to use it for Thanksgiving dinner but I had to leave the oven on practically the entire day to get it hot enough.

Ups

• Jaeger bought Agricola and taught me how to play it Wednesday night. So far, we’ve fit in three games either after Calvin goes to bed or during his nap. I’ve lost every time but I’m starting to get a better grasp of the strategies involved. It’s all about balance which is hard for me to deal with. Last game I pretty much definitely proved one could not win based on fences/livestock alone
• Fortunately, Calvin recovered from whatever was wrong Wednesday night and Thursday and Friday were surprisingly pleasant. I woke up Thursday morning and made crepes stuffed with apples and topped with almond whipped cream. Jaeger played with Calvin while I did food prep for Thanksgiving meal. Calvin resisted his afternoon nap but did eventually sleep and I took a brief nap and then Jaeger and I played another game of Agricola. Once Calvin woke up, I did my final dinner prep and we ate Thanksgiving meal around 4.
• Yesterday, we went to the zoo. We got there at 10, around opening time, and parked exceptionally close to the entrance. Calvin seemed a little dazed the first hour but revived after having lunch at 11. This time, the giraffes were inside so it was easier to get close to them. Calvin seemed very impressed by their height. There was a baby giraffe that was born in October that weighed about as much as Jaeger at its birth. Calvin also enjoyed many of the other animals but seemed to have a special fascination for the ducks. I need to see if we have any duck ponds in our area. After the zoo, we went to Watercourse, a very good vegetarian restaurant in Denver, for lunch. Jaeger was dubious about trying to fit in lunch before Calvin’s nap but it seemed to work out okay. Calvin fell asleep almost as soon as he got back in the car.
• This last week I decided to up our potty training intensity. The only time I’ve put Calvin in diapers since a week ago Friday evening is for naps or bedtime. For other trips, such as at the zoo, I put him in disposable pull-ups but I’m not very impressed with them. He’s been making pretty good progress. Yesterday, he didn’t have any accidents at home though we started out with a big one this morning.

Calvin Moment

• Calvin is really into hats at the moment. He’ll take all sorts of random objects, place them on his head, and then announce, “haat! haat!” In addition to real hats, current other favorites include waffle blocks and empty egg cartons.

Simplification

• Packed three boxes from the basement for the thrift store. Now I just need to schedule another pickup.

Down

• Sick again. This time I had some sort of short-lived stomach flu on Sunday, my least favorite illness. I woke up around 4am Sunday morning with some cramping but couldn’t figure out what was going on. By the time it was morning, I knew I wasn’t feeling good. However, I dragged myself downstairs for a late breakfast of applesauce to be told that our Sunday babysitter had canceled. I tried to work for a bit but couldn’t concentrate so I went back to bed. I got up around lunch time again only to throw up and decide I should go back to bed again. I got up around 4pm feeling marginally better. Fortunately, today I feel almost normal.

Ups

• Jaeger was around to look after Calvin while I slept on Sunday. I don’t know how I would have survived if this had hit the previous Sunday while he was gone.
• I’m back to part-time this week. While I think I could enjoy working full-time, I don’t have the mechanisms in place to do so. For instance, if I worked full-time, I think I would, at a minimum, want to hire a house cleaning service.
• I decreed that last weekend was a “Calvin potty-training weekend.” My sickness on Sunday interrupted some of that, but he still made enough progress that I decided it was time to try out potty training at daycare. While not an unqualified success, Calvin has made definite improvements over the last couple of days.

Calvin Moment

• Calvin has become re-enthralled with The Cat in the Hat. When Calvin was in newborn, we would read The Cat in the Hat to him and he really enjoyed it then. However, once he became more mobile, we had to put it away because he didn’t have the dexterity to deal with the pages (why don’t they have a board book version of this?). Recently, we’ve started trying out non-board books so I pulled out The Cat in the Hat again. He loves it. It has a kitty and a hat! Two of his favorite words. What could be better? In fact, it also has discusses balls, books, and fish, also favorite words.

Simplification

• Found more stuff to throw away in the basement.

Down

Ups

• Calvin has been sleeping better the last couple of nights. Hopefully this trend keeps up.

Calvin Moment

• Calvin helped me make supper tonight. We had Tomato and Bean Soup which I really love because you throw 5 ingredients in a food processor and than you are done. Calvin helped me by turning on and off the food processor as I held him up to the counter. He got a big kick out of it.

Simplification

• Last night I went through more kitchen stuff in the basement and designated a fair number of things to the thrift store bin.

Down

• Calvin has been very restless for the last couple of nights. This has meant very restless nights for the rest of the family.
• I haven’t exercised in over a week. I was planning to start this week but with having to get up so much for Calvin, I think I need my sleep more than getting up early to exercise.

Ups

• Jaeger’s back! Not only is it nice to have my husband back in my bed for the normal reasons but it’s also much warmer. I had to add a second blanket while he was gone.

Calvin Moment

• I bought a bunch of sweat pants for Calvin in preparation for potty training. He has fallen in love with them. He’s currently on our couch trying to put one on by himself. He doesn’t want any help from mommy! He can consistently put one leg through correctly but getting a second leg in has stumped him so far.

Simplification

• I haven’t had time recently to do anything. I’m hoping to get a bit of time tonight to do something useful.

Down

• Haven’t had much free time this last week but other than that, things have been going well.
• Jaeger is gone for the weekend to Lincoln for a wedding. Hope he has a good time but still miss him.

Ups

• The major part of the upgrade at work has been successfully completed. Now there’s just a lot of clean-up. The upgrade prep started 7pm on Wednesday night. I had misjudged how long everything would take so didn’t get to bed until after 3am. Unfortunately, I had to be up in Greeley by 7am to start the actual upgrade so got less than 3 hrs of sleep. It was a very long day at work. However, our core ILS system was back up within my estimated time frame. Jaeger picked up Calvin for daycare and also got takeout so all I had to do at home was eat and watch Calvin for a little bit before he went to bed. Then I went to bed and got 9 hours of sleep. Upgrade day 2 was much more relaxed. I still worked 10 hrs but it was easier since I had a full nights sleep the night before. Once again Jaeger took Calvin to daycare and picked him up in addition to getting a takeout supper. Based on the last couple of days, I don’t think I’d mind working full-time again if I could have takeout every night. The only downside is the guilt I would feel over having Calvin in daycare all day (which is silly because there is no consensus in the research community that a high quality daycare is worse than a stay-at-home mom).
• I can now read library eBooks from Overdrive on my iPhone! While I was waiting for some of the systems to be upgraded on Thursday, my Google Alert found an article about How to read public library eBooks with DRM on an iPhone. I didn’t have time to try it out on Thursday but managed to sneak some time on Friday to verify that the Bluefire Reader really does work. This will be a great way to provide reading material during my extended time away from home around Christmas.
• Since Jaeger was gone this weekend, I decided I should get a babysitter to provide a little break yesterday. Sarah, one of Calvin’s normal babysitters, was available and came at 5:30. Originally, I was thinking about going and watching a movie but nothing spoke to me. So, instead I went to Borders, our closest major bookstore, with the intention of finding a good book and then snuggling down with a hot drink. Normally, I first read all my books at the library before deciding whether or not they are worthy to buy. However, I decided I would be bold tonight. An average paperback book costs less than a movie ticket anyway. It turns out I was in luck. N.K. Jemisin’s newest book, The Broken Kingdoms is out. I had read her previous book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, in one sitting. I approached the second book with a little trepidation as it is not unusual for me to love an author’s first book and not the second. However, I was equally enthralled by this one. I read at Borders till it was time for me to go home and then continued reading at home until midnight. Not a particularly good sleep strategy considering my prior week but I don’t grudge any minutes I lost.
• I got Calvin to nap today! For the last couple of Sundays Calvin has been refusing to nap. Today Calvin didn’t seem particularly interested in napping but I was. When it was nap time, I put him in his crib and then sat in the rocking chair in his room. With me in the room, he didn’t seem to mind being in the crib but he wasn’t interested in sleeping either. However, he seemed happy enough to play in his crib that I started snoozing in the rocking chair. Every so often I would open my eyes and he was still awake. I kept trying to convince myself it was a lost cause and I should just get up but by the time I finally woke up enough to do so, he had decided to go to sleep after all. It took him an hour to go to sleep but he’s now been sleeping for 2 hrs. I have this feeling I should wake him up so he’ll go to sleep tonight.

Calvin Moment

• I was on the potluck team so we went to potluck at church yesterday. Not surprisingly, Calvin charmed everyone there. Potluck is at an awkward time for Calvin’s nap so my plan was to take him on a stroller ride during 2nd service so he could nap and then come back and catch the tale end of potluck. Those involved in potluck preparation were downstairs in the basement and they helped wear Calvin out. One of the men chased Calvin all around the halls with Calvin laughing hysterically the entire time. It’s good that Calvin’s such an extrovert. I’m just not sure where it came from.

Simplification

• Since the upgrade, I haven’t done much simplification. However, I did go through my books Tuesday and week out the ones I don’t think I’ll ever read again. Ended up with a fairly good sized box. I scheduled a pickup to have both those and the piano books I had weeded previously taken away.

I’m just a couple of days away from our massive upgrade at work. I’ll be spending most of Wednesday night doing prep work on the server and then need to be at Greeley by 7am on Thursday. This is one of those time when I really wish caffeine worked for me. Jaeger will be taking care of Calvin Wed night and non-daycare hours Thursday and Friday.

Ups

• My cold really is almost gone. I’m back to being able to read a couple of books to Calvin without my throat giving out.

Calvin Moment

• I bought 10 pairs of cheap blue and brown sweat pants to put on Calvin while we potty train him. This morning I had taken off his night diaper and asked him to go grab a pair of sweatpants for me while I setup his high chair for breakfast. He obligingly ran over to the drawer and pulled out a pair of sweatpants except he managed to get 2 pairs instead of just one. One pair fell to the floor and he looked at it and then started walking my direction with the pair he was still holding in his hands. He got almost all the way to me before stopping, turning around and running back to the sweatpants on the floor. He then put the sweatpants back in the drawer and firmly closed it before proudly trotting back to me. If only he stays this organized growing up . . .

Simplification

• Last night I weeded a large number of my piano books from my collection. I divided them into a thrift store pile and a pile that I thought the other church pianists might get use out of.
• Today I weeded my collection of books and found about 40 to give to the thrift store.
• I also spent a lot of time cleaning under our sink. The cabinet under our sink annoys me because it seems to be designed to make it useless. It’s a corner cabinet so there’s a significant amount of space under there that I just can’t reach. The plumbing is in the way so I can’t put drawers or a lazy susan or anything that could make the space better. As such, anything down there tends to fall in to disorder very rapidly. I did a comprehensive clean-up of all the gunk that accumulated and threw away tons of plastic bags.

Downs

• Still have a cold. Wednesday night I was coughing so hard I couldn’t sleep. I felt miserable the next morning so Jaeger got Calvin ready for daycare. I attempted to call in sick to work but as I was opening up my email, I saw a notice that our catalog was unresponsive. So, for the next hour I hopped on and tried to figure out what was going wrong. Once I finished that, I lay down for a while before getting back online to talk with my manager about our upgrade next week. By the afternoon I was feeling better so I picked up Calvin on time and told Jaeger he could go to Boulder like he usually does Thursday nights. At 6:30, my catalog went down again. Fortunately, Calvin entertained himself pulling laundry out of the basket while I got it working again. Even so, the day wasn’t as relaxing as I was hoping a sick day would be.

Ups

• I’m hopeful the end of this cold is in sight . . . I have a lot more energy today than I did yesterday. I even was able to clean the kitchen.
• I still don’t have the energy to exercise but I’ve had so little appetite that I’m not gaining weight anyway.

Calvin Moment

• Today after I picked Calvin up from daycare we wandered around our neighborhood. There is a fairly large common area one street down that we meandered into with Five following (now that she can go outside, Five tends to wander around with us on our walks). There was a group of kids we had seen before that were very fascinated by the cat. It’s a good thing that Five is so good with people because the kids swarmed all over her. I was amused when at one point the older boy (maybe 6?) approached Calvin trying to be friendly. He started gently stroking Calvin’s arm like he had been stroking the cat. Calvin didn’t know exactly what to make of it but seemed to understand that the boy was just trying to be friendly. We eventually walked back up the path that goes behind our house and ran into the neighbors behind us. They have a 6-year-old boy and the mother suggested that Calvin might like to slide down their little plastic slide. It’s small enough that Calvin can climb up and slide down by himself and he thought it was very fun.

Simplification

• Packed away more china but I’ve run out of plain newsprint so I’m going to have to pick up more.