Downs

• N/A

Ups

• I like to have an extravagant breakfast on Sunday mornings. However, Sunday mornings is also the day I can sleep in since Jaeger gets up with Calvin. As a result, I’ve been looking for good breakfast recipes that I can make the night before. My Rhubarb Coffee Cake was a success last week so this week I tried smashing 2 French Toast recipes together. I ended up with Overnight Apple French Toast which I think turned out pretty good.
• A couple of weeks ago our Sunday morning babysitter gave notice. She was great with Calvin so we were sad to see her go. Also, we didn’t fancy having to go through the whole babysitter selection process again. Then it occurred to me to check up with the other woman we had interviewed to see if she would still be interested. It had been a very hard choice between the two of them and both Jaeger and I had thought she seemed good too. To my surprise and delight she said she was available. She has to start about an hour later than I had been working but the upside is I get a more leisurely breakfast. Today was her first day and so far it looks like she’ll work out great. I’m very relieved.

Calvin Moment

• Within the last month or so Calvin has become very good at pointing to body parts. An adult will say something like, “Where is Calvin’s ear?” and he’ll point to his ears. Or, “Where is mommy’s ear?” and he’ll point to my ear. One body part he find particular joy in finding is belly buttons. If asked, “Where is Calvin’s belly button?” he’ll quickly whip up his shirt and start poking around in search of it. He does this for adults too, pretty much any adult. Ask him where someone’s belly button is and he’ll barrel toward the indicated person, grab the bottom of their shirt and yank it up in search of the belly button. The enthusiastic yanking sometimes reveals more than is optimal.

Simplification

• Through away some old magazines.

Downs

• N/A

Ups

• I’ve now walked to daycare 5 days in a row. This includes the day I discovered I had a flat stroller tire and had to change it before I could leave.
• Even though I had to put Calvin to sleep tonight, since Jaeger was gone, he stopped crying within 10 min. I don’t remember the last time that happened.
• I have a couple books from the library that look like they’ll be interesting to read.

Calvin Moment

• Calvin is starting to request specific books by attempting to say either their title or the most memorable element. For instance, tonight he first requested Sheep in a Jeep by pointing and saying, “baaa!” which he followed with “boom! boom!” for Chicka Chicka ABC. He also is enthusiastically saying “Moo,” “baa,” and “neigh” at the correct times for Moo, Baa, La La La!. It makes a librarian’s heart proud

Simplification

• Yesterday I spent a significant amount of time in Calvin’s room packing away his 12 month clothing and cleaning up all the small blankets and things we no longer use.

Downs

• Calvin has been cranky the last couple of days. Yesterday, he bit a kid at daycare. I think it’s because he’s teething, not because he was malicious, and daycare agrees. Hopefully we’re correct.

Ups

• The church sponsored a zoo trip on Saturday. Calvin eats at 11 so we fed him his lunch and then let him take his nap on the way to the zoo. Once there, Jaeger and I ate our picnic lunch and then we gathered at the entrance to meet up with everyone else. Once the tickets were handed out most people dispersed. Calvin enjoyed the zoo more this time than the last time we were there in May. He was especially excited when we were able to get a very close view of a mother tiger roughhousing with her cubs. He also liked watching the spider monkeys swinging around their cage.

Calvin Moment

• Recently Calvin become enamored with playing “catch.” He’ll toss the ball a short ways and then is delighted when someone throws it back to him. He does a relatively good job catching the small soft balls we have.

Simplification

• Found about 6 gallons worth of frozen vegetables, mostly cabbage, in the freezer. This is from back when we were part of a CSA. I like the idea of a CSA but we really don’t like cabbage and we got a lot of it. I froze the cabbage in hopes of finding something to do with it later. However, it’s been a couple of years and is getting freezer burn so I decided it was time to throw it away.

Downs

• I still don’t have enough time in the day. Whenever I mention this I feel like I’m whining because of course I’m making choices that restrict the amount of time I have. If I was willing to either keep Calvin in daycare longer or was willing to listen to him scream, I wouldn’t have to make supper at night and I would have more free time. However, I can’t quite compromise enough for that. At least I get to listen to interesting stuff as I cook. Today I listened to Podcast Beyond Belief’s “Raising Skeptical Geeks” episode. While I’m not a secular humanist, I do find many of their topics and discussions interesting. I was surprised that several of the panelist encourage their children to believe in Santa Claus when they’re young. This is something I’ve never understood. My family did celebrate Christmas but I always knew the presents were from mom and dad, not Santa. Anyway, one panelist said he purposely let his children believe in Santa so later in life they would be able to remember believing in something only to discover it wasn’t true. I find that idea a little disturbing. To me, it feels like you’re purposely betraying your child’s trust in order to teach an object lesson. Anyway, even though I don’t agree with every opinion, I do like hearing about different parenting beliefs and techniques.

Ups

• My TMJ episode seems to be going away. I’m still taking ibuprofen multiple times a day but don’t have to have as high a dose.
• Jaeger said it was funny that in the last entry I mentioned I liked routine and then the next bullet point talked about a new way I was trying to exercise. I do admit that at first this sounds contradictory. However, for me, my routine is that I exercise. I’ve been really struggling ever since Calvin was born on how to get a reasonable amount of exercise each day. I’ve now walked to daycare 3 days in a row and I think this may be my best exercise idea yet. Calvin would get restless if I tried to do a full hour of walking with him in the stroller but I get about a 1/2 hour of exercise walking to daycare and then feed him snack on the way back. Today I also was able to squeeze in a little bit of weights and ab exercises.

Calvin Moment

• Calvin loves pushing his little umbrella stroller around. I don’t know if he enjoys it because he’s pretending he’s a grown-up or if he just likes things with wheels. However, he had a lot of fun wandering around our neighborhood pushing his stroller today. For the walk to daycare I take our jogging stroller which is too large for Calvin to manipulate. However, the umbrella is just the right size for him.
• Calvin has learned how to spin himself in circles and make himself dizzy. In fact, I think he might be working on a new word, “de-e”

Simplification

• Shipped off another box of books to the thrift store.

Downs

• My weight is creeping up again. A fondness for food and not much time to exercise are a very bad combination. However, now that life is back to normal for at least the next couple of weeks I’m going to work on it more.
• Around Monday I started having a TMJ flare-up. Not sure why it’s happening now as it usually is triggered by stress. Ibuprofen is my friend.

Ups

• Mom left on Tuesday. It was great having her here but I also like going back to my normal routine. I’m sure I would be a very boring person to observe but I really like routines.
• I tried something new today. Instead of driving to pick Calvin up from daycare, I walked. It took a little longer than driving but it allowed me to squeeze in almost an hour of exercise. I’m going to see if I can do this on a regular basis. I also was able to do weights and abs today.

Calvin Moment

• All of a sudden Calvin has an obsession with daddy. He frequently points to the door and says, “daddy?” hopefully. Daycare has asked me to bring in a family picture that they can put on the wall. I was going through pictures yesterday and Calvin excited pointed and said, “daddy!” every time he saw a picture of Jaeger. Eventually, I printed out a couple which he eagerly clutched in his hands.

Simplification

• Jaeger did a lot of work in the basement Sunday. However, I haven’t done much recently. I’m just trying to stay afloat.

Downs

• N/A

Ups

• Mom is here. She’s having a lot of fun interacting with Calvin and giving me tips on how to potty train him.
• Speaking of potty training, Calvin is making significant progress. Today he told us three times he needed to go before he actually went.
• I survived another week of playing the piano at church. This week was particularly hectic as I was moved up 2 weeks from my normal schedule. I didn’t pick my music out until this week. In addition, I had to accompany someone for special music and wasn’t going to see the music until I got to church. I don’t sight read well. Several days ago I finished Mercedes Lackey’s The Sleeping Beauty. In it, one of the princes is fated to have a tragic end. Anytime fate is about to catch up with him, his talking bird companion trills, “DOOM!” at which point he usually can avoid his fate one more time. Anyway, I woke up this morning feeling very stressed about playing for church. All of a sudden, I heard the little bird trilling “DOOM!” and decided messing up special music probably wasn’t the worse thing that could happen Anyway, it all went fine. I’m very glad it is over and have another 6 weeks before I do it again.

Calvin Moment

• After church mom, Calvin and I met up with Jaeger and had a picnic at the Eben G. Fine Park which is right next to the Boulder Creek. After Calvin’s nap, he played beside the creek for a while. At one point, a little dog came bounding up to Calvin and licked him. Calvin was startled but laughed. Shortly afterwards, the dog’s owner showed up with a tennis ball. The owner threw the tennis ball into the creek and the dog joyfully jumped in after it. However, instead of returning the ball to his owner, the dog gave it to Calvin. We transferred the ball back to the owner and he threw it again and the whole process repeated several more times. Eventually, we decided to teach Calvin how to throw the ball. He couldn’t throw it far but was delighted every time it left his hand and the dog frantically scrambled after.

Simplification

• Didn’t do anything today.

Food Diary

• Breakfast – Peanut Butter Berry Fruit toast
• Lunch – Hummus Sandwiches, Doritos, and Panda Bar Brownies
• Supper – Burritos
• Evening Treat – Maybe some chocolate?

Downs

• I don’t enough hours in the day. Just finished making supper for tomorrow and am exhausted.
• I wasn’t able to make supper last night so had to make it while Calvin was around after daycare. He whined and hung onto my leg almost the whole time begging for my attention.
• I’m playing for church this week and haven’t had a chance to pick out my music yet.

Ups

• Managed to sneak in both weight and ab exercise. I tricked Calvin into letting me exercise by putting on a video of children singing.
• Listening to a new audio book, Still Life by Louise Penny. Several years ago I listened to the second in the series, not realizing at first that it was series, and enjoyed it. I ran across the series accidentally and decided to start with the first one and work my way through it. So far I’m enjoying it. The descriptions in the book are so relaxing.

Calvin Moment

• Jaeger brought Calvin down from his bath to say good night to me. I picked him up and Calvin looked at me then opened his mouth and leaned forward like he was going to bite my nose. However, he went for my lips instead. My best guess is he was trying to kiss me. I kissed him back and he tried it a couple of more times obviously pleased with himself.

Simplification

• Didn’t do anything today but shredded great swaths of paper over the weekend.

Food Diary

• Breakfast – Oatmeal with berries and soy milk
• Morning Snack – Apple
• Lunch – Toasted cheese sandwich and 2 chocolate pieces
• Snack – 1 chocolate piece
• Supper – Mac & Cheese with lots of broccoli
• Evening Treat – 2 chocolate pieces

Downs

• Calvin refused to take an afternoon nap today. He sat and alternated between screaming and mumbling in his crib for an hour. Finally, I gave up and got everything ready for a stroller ride in hopes he would sleep that way. He didn’t fall asleep for a half hour but did eventually take an hour nap. Unfortunately, I managed to puncture my tire with vicious stickers and so had to push the stroller the last mile home with a flat tire. The silver lining to all this is that I exercised for more than 1 1/2 hrs today.

Ups

• Other than Calvin’s nap, he was in a pretty good mood today which was good because daycare was closed for an in-service day. In the morning we stopped by a second-hand children’s store and I bought him a couple of books. I was really looking for a tambourine but am having trouble finding one that doesn’t come in a set.
• Yesterday, a library copy of Blameless arrived for me. I was momentarily startled when I saw it in the library catalog because I thought I had preordered it but apparently I hadn’t. The second in the series had a shocking end so I sneaked a peak at the last page of this book to make sure it wouldn’t end on a horrible cliff-hanger. Reassured, I started reading it last night and am enjoying it immensely. Come to think of it, maybe I decided not to buy it until I could see the ending for myself.

Calvin Moment

• When Jaeger got home he took the tires off the stroller so he could inspect the considerable damage to the tube. Calvin wanted to play with the wheel and Jaeger inquired if I thought that was safe. There was a nut at one end that he conceivably could choke on but I wasn’t worried as he hasn’t been able to unscrew anything yet. I relayed this to Jaeger so we let him play with the wheel. A couple minutes later I looked up from what I was doing just in time to see Calvin successfully unscrewing the nut. I took it from him just as he got it free. I suppose I should get use to my son proving my wrong about stuff

Simplification

• Didn’t get around to doing anything today.

Food Diary

• Breakfast – Oatmeal with berries and soy milk
• Morning Snack – Blueberry pastry and the crusts of a peanut butter jelly sandwich (this was Calvin’s lunch but I thought the crusts would be too hard for him to chew).
• Afternoon Snack/Lunch – Several pieces of Cinnamon Raisin Bread
• Supper – Haystacks
• Evening treat – 2 Chocolate Pieces

Downs

• Calvin had a very restless night last night. This wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if I hadn’t gone to bed at 12:30am.

Ups

• Yesterday, I decided I needed a break from Cast in Chaos so I picked up Ruthless by Anne Stuart. I wasn’t really expecting to like it. The only reason I even knew about it was it was mentioned several times on RRA-L, one of my favorite places to find good romance books. Anyway, I didn’t think I’d like it because the Publishers Weekly review said in part, “Stuart’s writing is crisp and quick, and her characters are finely and memorably drawn, but Rohan’s often violent and predatory treatment of Elinor goes well beyond what most readers will find acceptable in an ostensible hero . . .” I will admit that Stuart skirted a very fine line but somehow she pulled it off for me. Reading this book felt like consuming a whole box of chocolate at once. I knew I should stop but I couldn’t.
• In a similar vein, I just finished listening to Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Cruise. I didn’t think I’d like it as I had started trying to read the book a while back and given up. However, excluding Agnes and the Hitman, I often like listening to Cruise better than reading her. This surprises me a little as usually I don’t like listening to romances and prefer to read them.
• Because I was only 1/2 hr away from the end of Welcome to Temptation, I went ahead and did ab exercises so I could do something useful while listening.

Calvin Moment

• Jaeger gave Calvin his bath tonight and then brought him downstairs. I was in the kitchen making supper for tomorrow night and Calvin rushed over to me and begged me to pick him up. I did so and he sat there in my arms chirping happily while playing with my headphone cord. He can make the cutest little noises when he gets his way . . .

Simplification

• I emptied the shredder and shredded yet more paper. Does it ever stop?

Food Diary

• Breakfast – Oatmeal with berries and soy milk
• Lunch – Toasted Cheese Sandwich and 4 chocolate pieces
• Supper – Thai Stir-Fry with Brown Rice and a Kiwi
• Evening treat – 2 Chocolate Pieces

Just got back from our anniversary trip. It was a good break.

Friday
Jaeger’s mom arrived Thursday night to take care of Calvin while we were gone. Friday, we hung around in the morning so Calvin could get use to Nana again. We left around 11 and drove to Boulder to look for 2-person board games. We ended up getting Ingenious. We decided to grab lunch before heading up to the Breckenridge area. We originally intended to eat at Noodles but got sidetracked by Modmarket. It was good food and I was impressed by the calorie counts on the menu.

We headed out of Boulder and made it to the Galena Street Mountain Inn Bed & Breakfast in Frisco right around 3. We checked in and went to our room which was nice and tastefully decorated. After relaxing for a bit we headed out and walked down the main street in Frisco. Naturally, we had to pop in to the local book store and got seduced into buying a copy of Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids.

For supper, we went to the Dillon Dam Brewery. In general, I’m dubious about “American” food but Jaeger seems to like it. However, I was pleasantly surprised. I got the Naked Pasta which was really good. Since it was our anniversary trip, I also convinced Jaeger to split an ice-cream topped brownie with me. It was HUGE but very good also.

After supper, we went back to the inn and played one round of Ingenious. It’s an amusing game. Not quite as captivating as Catan or some of the other multi-player games but for a two person game I think it’s pretty good.

Saturday
I woke up too early Saturday morning. I think I’ve become too use to getting up with Calvin. Also, we had a king sized bed which always seems too big to me. It’s hard to snuggle up against Jaeger and still be able to stick my feet out of the covers at the same time with a bed this big. The good thing about waking up early is we had plenty of time to get down for breakfast. The breakfast options included granola, fruit, French Toast, and bacon. We passed on the bacon but the French Toast came with real whipped cream and was delicious. Thus fortified, we headed off to hike up to Mohawk lake.

The Mohawk Lake hike was good and just about right for my fitness level. It was a little wimpy for Jaeger but he seemed to survive anyway. I especially liked the beginning of the trail that started in forest. I’m not as fond of the rocks and bare landscapes that appear after tree line, from both an aesthetic and hiking perspective. We got up to Mohawk Lake and Jaeger wanted to explore the ridgeline. I headed back down to the lower Mohawk lake and waited for him while listening to Welcome to Temptation.

After we arrived back at the car we headed into Breckenridge to eat lunch. Lunch was good but I was especially impressed by the German Chocolate Cake Hot Chocolate. It was a little warm for hot chocolate but I had to order it anyway because it’s so rare to see something other than just boring hot chocolate on the menu. It was quite tasty and I didn’t regret my choice. We spent the remainder of the day wandering around Breckenridge. For supper, we at at Shangri-la. The food was very good but unfortunately they were short staffed that evening which resulted in very slow service. This caused some altercations with other restaurant patrons but we weren’t starving, didn’t have children, and had plenty of time so still managed to enjoy ourselves.

We went back to the hotel and played two more games of Ingenious, so far I’ve managed to lose every round, before heading to bed.

Sunday
Today, I still woke up pretty early. Jaeger was still sleeping and it was too dark to read in the room so I just listened to my audio book some more until he woke up. We ended up being too late for breakfast so grabbed donuts from Daylight Donuts in Breckenridge. After breakfast, we took the free gondola ride up to the Peak 8 base area and wandered around. During the summer area they reconfigure everything to offer activities aimed at families. Once Calvin gets a little older we’ll have to take him up there, I think there’s a lot of stuff he would have fun doing. We took the gondola back down and decided to take a tour of a mine. It was pretty interesting and we learned several interesting tidbits about mining in Breckenridge. For instance, the mine we toured used rats instead of canaries to warn of impending cave-ins or oxygen problems.

After our tour finished we ate lunch and then just relaxed for a bit. I read Caste in Chaos. It’s the 6th book in the series. I really like the series but this one isn’t inspiring me as much as the others. However, it’s still a good read. After reading for a while, we decided we were done with Breckenridge and were ready to start heading back home. However, Jaeger wanted to see Boreas Pass so we took a slight detour on the way home.

By the time we were nearing Denver, it was 5:30. If we had continued home, we would have gotten there right before Calvin should go to bed. I was worried that seeing us would make it harder for him to go to bed on time so we decided to go eat supper in Boulder. We ate at Black Pepper Pho because we thought it was time to start eating a little healthier. I really enjoyed all the eating during our trip but I’m afraid I’ll be paying for it later. We headed back home and arrived just as Calvin was going to sleep. Jaeger’s mom reported that Calvin was in a good mood all weekend which is always good to hear. Whenever I leave him, I always have this slight fear that he’ll spend the entire time crying, even though I know he won’t.

It was really nice to get away for the weekend. I was giddy with the feeling of freedom for the first day. However, now I’m ready to see Calvin again.