Cat Teeth Cleaning

Down

  • I took the cats to their yearly vet appointments last month and the vet said they needed their teeth cleaned. This didn’t surprise me because the prior year a different vet (that use to be at the clinic but isn’t anymore) had told me that Willow would probably need her teeth cleaned next year. Up till now, I haven’t had any experience with cat teeth cleanings. I have no idea if this is usually done on an annual basis or if they just do it when they see a problem. Willow had her teeth cleaned first which was fairly expensive but also pretty straight forward. Cat5 just got her teeth cleaned today and it turned out to be a much bigger deal. She had to have five teeth pulled. Last year the vet hadn’t said anything about Cat5 needing her teeth cleaned so now I’m wondering if she needed it and it just wasn’t mentioned or if her teeth really deteriorated that fast. I feel bad for 5 and annoyed that I didn’t realize I needed to be paying attention to this earlier. The new vet, who I like so far, also said that Cat5 throwing up all the time might be due to allergies. I hadn’t thought about cats being allergic to their food but it makes sense since humans can react poorly to food allergies by throwing up. She suspects that 5 might be allergic to chicken so I’m now buying special rabbit-based food for her. We’ll see if this helps. Hopefully this is the end of our cat expenses for a while since the two cat cleanings (and teeth extraction for 5) added up to about $700.

  • I’m really sad that Borders is closing. I know it’s a chain bookstore but it’s one of the few places I enjoy that catered to people interested in some solitude and a book. When Jaeger was gone for some reason or another I would often hire a babysitter and then go to Borders to drink their hot chocolate and read a book. When I went, I always bought a book as sort of an entrance fee. Now I feel like I should have bought more books there sigh The Longmont library doesn’t have a cafe or any particularly relaxing place to hang out (they also have an aggressive “no cell phone” policy which, while no doubt well-intentioned, is a non-starter for me when someone is babysitting my child). In addition, they close at 5pm on Fridays and Saturdays and aren’t even open on Sundays during the summer. The other bookstores in Longmont are small and aren’t really designed as places to hang out. I guess I could go to a coffee shop and have mediocre hot chocolate but then I don’t have the special treat of buying a new book to read. I suppose I could drive to Boulder which has several good bookstores but driving 1/2 hr away means I have less time at the bookstore itself. I could also go to Carbon Valley Library but they also close early on the weekends and isn’t quite as relaxing since I work there :-) Anyway, I’m pretty annoyed about the whole thing but haven’t figured out a good solution yet. What’s particularly exasperating is I believe the Longmont store made a profit.

Ups

  • Today was my “day off” and I couldn’t handle doing my normal exercises today. So, I walked to the Longmont Library and checked out a copy of Don’t Throw It, Grow It. While there, I found a used copy of Cry Wolf, by Patricia Briggs, that was in good condition. Cry Wolf was the first Briggs I ever read. I think I like the Mercy Thompson series a bit better but this one is still pretty good.

  • Jaeger was gone Thursday-Sunday to climb Kings Peak in Utah with his brother. To my surprise, I survived alone with Calvin perfectly fine. In fact, I think it was less work than when Jaeger’s here because I didn’t have to make supper most of the nights. Calvin and I require substantially less food than Jaeger so we’re fine if I just whiz up Tomato Bean Soup. Nighttime was still a problem. Jaeger does put Calvin to bed easier than I do. The first night I didn’t get Calvin asleep till it was my bedtime. I finally dragged our “yoga mat” into his room and slept on that and he happily slept next to me. The later nights I lay down on the mat as soon as it was time to go to bed and listened to my iPod until he was firmly asleep. This worked fairly well.

  • Several months ago we ordered a sleeper sofa and a new dining room table with 8 chairs. They’re suppose to be delivered this Thursday. It’s the most expensive furniture we’ve bought so far but hopefully it’s worth it. Our current couch was used when I bought it in college. It has lasted pretty well but the fabric is almost worn all the way through in some places. Our dining room table and chairs were bought at the thrift store right after we were married. The table has lasted pretty well but the chairs have been breaking for years now. Jaeger was able to patch them together for a while but at this point we’re only left with two functional chairs. As a result, anytime we entertain we have to pull out the folding chairs which are a little tacky. At the moment, we’re planning to keep the sofa and just move it down to the basement. However, we need to get rid of the old table and chairs.

Calvin Moment

  • Jaeger likes chopsticks. I think he feels my inability to properly use them is a moral flaw. Calvin appears to be taking after his father. He adores chopsticks. This summer his daycare had an “around the world” theme. Last week, their theme was China. Since it’s zucchini season, we had Ratatouille for supper. Calvin was already at the table preparing to eat when Jaeger arrived home. Jaeger glanced at Calvin’s daily report card and noted they had done something with chopsticks at daycare. Calvin heard Jaeger mention chopsticks and immediately demanded we provide him with chopsticks for his Ratatouille. Ratatouille is not something I would normally consider eating with chopsticks but Calvin insisted. He certainly doesn’t have the technique down but he does have the motivation to learn how to use the chopsticks.

Calvin & Cat5

Down

  • It’s hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. I don’t like hot. I miss the misty Oregon beach :-( (It seems a bit cooler today but still, too hot.)

  • I’m getting increasingly annoyed by all the machinations around the debt ceiling issue. Very unhappy with my representative at the moment.

Ups

  • A got a chance to clean the house for the first time in two weeks. I feel much better now.

  • My tomatoes are starting to ripen. Like last year, I doubt they’ll be able to keep up with Calvin’s appetite but he’s very intrigued by eating tomatoes off a plant. Unfortunately, it’s hard to explain the “no, they’re not red enough” concept.

Calvin Moment

  • I referenced this next anecdote on twitter a couple of weeks ago. However, it’s funny enough that I think it deserves it’s own mention. Calvin usually watches kid DVDs while I make supper. This time, the show had ended and he wanted me to start it at the beginning again. I told him no because it was almost supper time. He insisted but I kept declining. Finally, he became so upset that he literally stomped up the stairs, opened the baby gate at the top and then closed it, ran into his room and slammed the door. When he heard me coming up the stairs, the baby gate is very squeaky, he poked his head out of his room and yelled, “Go way! mommy! Go way!” while gesturing me frantically away. It was the funniest thing I had seen in a long time. I’m sure his mood wasn’t improved by my helpless peels of laughter. I went back downstairs and waited for him to cool off, which he did fairly quickly, and then he wanted to cuddle.

  • Calvin has started picking his own books. I took Calvin to Pajamara Story Time at the Carbon Valley library last night. Its theme was trains so he was entranced. On the way out, he veered and grabbed a book from the bookshelf and then demanded we read it immediately. Since it feels like sacrilege to deny such a request, I complied. We then checked it out and he’s asked me to read it three times since. There’s a segment in the book where Molly, the protagonist, is being carried away by helium balloons. Each time we come to this section Calvin tries to pinch her friends between his fingers and move them up closer to Molly to help her. I’m not entirely sure what he thinks he’s doing. He does have a sticker book so maybe he thinks he can peel them off the page and put them closer to Molly and everything will be better.

  • This evening Calvin decided he wanted to go on an expedition on the path behind our house. I shrugged and hopped the fence to follow holding the book I was reading. Cat5 decided she wanted to join the walk also. When I was a teenager, I developed the ability to walk and read at the same time. So, 5 and Calvin walked side by side with me following slightly behind with my nose in a book. (5 follows us when we walk better than many dogs I’ve seen.) However, once Calvin got closer to the busy road beside our subdivision, I stopped reading to keep a better eye on the two small mammals. There’s a pretty wide grassy area between the busy road and the first houses in the subdivision so I let Calvin run around in circles giggling to himself. All was well until, for some reason, both Calvin and 5 headed straight for the busy street with the fun vehicles. I shoved the book under my arm, scooped up 5 with one arm and Calvin with the other and firmly started walking back toward the walking path. Neither mammal was pleased by my interruption of their run and protested loudly. Eventually, once I felt we were a safe(ish) distance away, I set them back down. I told Calvin that we needed to find “daddy” at which point we started our journey back home. However, it was a very long meandering one, very like the story of the Israelites in the dessert. I’d suggest going one way and 5 and Calvin would protest and run squealing in the exact opposite direction. (Well, Calvin ran squealing, 5 just followed Calvin.) Then I’d catch up and Calvin would reverse direction and run circles around me before falling down in the grass. It was exhausting but Calvin seemed to have a lot of fun.

Family Beach Vacation

Down

  • Jaeger’s mother, her sister, and their offspring made plans for a family vacation this summer. As mentioned by Jaeger, hail at the Denver airport disrupted our original plans so we ended up flying in two days late. Not only were we late, but the only flight available left at 6:40am which means I had to wake Calvin up at 4am. He seemed excited by the adventure but I wasn’t happy to deprive him of that much sleep.

Ups

  • All things considered, I think the vacation went pretty well. We stayed at Oceanside, near Tillamook, OR. I think I might have been the only one to appreciate the weather properly. I’ve been dying of heat in Colorado so it was wonderful to get back to more misty climates. However, it was never quite cold enough that I could justify pulling out the hot chocolate.

  • We got back yesterday but I took today off in order to unpack and recover from vacation. I got most of the items on my “to do” list checked off including taking Willow to the vet to get her teeth cleaned and cleaning out the car.

  • My herbs didn’t die while we were gone. I was worried about leaving them that long outside without water. While they did look awful when we got back, I watered them yesterday and they look like they’ll recover. In fact, the Thai Basil went a little wild while I was gone. Prior to going, I had harvested as much of the herbs as I could and froze the leaves just in case our trip killed them. Hopefully I’ll get another harvest out of them though. I also have two tomatoes plants. Given that I general grow herbs, not vegetables, I’m having to remind myself not to nip the flowers off the tomato plants in order to promote more leaf development :-)

Calvin Moment

  • Calvin enjoyed playing with the three other children that were on vacation with us. They were all older them him but they were very good in helping him play and he ran around in an excited tizzy most of the time we were there. He also appeared to bond with Jaeger at the air museum “the men” went to and afterwards would worriedly ask where “my daddy” was anytime Jaeger left the room. Jaeger went climbing Mount St Helens on Tuesday but Calvin was distracted by a visit to the cheese factory. I’m not sure how much he was able to process of the visit but he was mesmerized by the cheese packing process which we could see through the glass walled balconies. He also highly approved of the ice cream treat afterwards.

  • Upon arriving in Portland, we made a quick stop at Target to pick up a booster seat (it was more cost effective to buy a new one then try to pack it in our luggage). I had brought Calvin’s sand shovel but couldn’t fit the bucket in so I thought I’d pick up a cheap bucket at Target too. However, on the same row there was a plastic sand dump truck which Calvin fell in love with. After consultation, Jaeger and I decided it would be an appropriate buy for Calvin to have on vacation. Calvin loved that dump truck. The first day we were there he pushed it all over the beach and kept running into the ocean with it. I was following closely behind and several times had to scoop Calvin in one arm and the dump truck in the other to prevent them from being washed out to sea. Unfortunately, it was a very cheap dump truck and the wheel broke off after a couple of days. Calvin was devastated. Upon returning to Colorado, I stopped by Toys R Us and picked up a sturdier Tonka dump truck which hopefully will last longer. However, even this dump truck has a large number of plastic parts so I’m dubious it’ll last as long as I think it should.

Long Weekend

Down

  • Calvin is still pretty clingy. Fortunately, he isn’t crying as much when I drop him off at daycare. However, right at 5:30 for the last couple of nights he starts clinging to me and refuses to let go. It makes finishing supper prep and eating tricky.

  • I haven’t been exercising as much as I should. Part of this is due to my sleep getting disrupted in various ways. First, Calvin vomited in the middle of the night last week and then fireworks started going off culminating on Monday night. The last couple of nights I have slept reasonably and so have been able to get up and exercise.

Ups

  • On Sunday we went up to Rocky Mountain National Park and went hiking. Because of the crowds, we parked in Estes Park and took the shuttle bus to the main parking lot and then another one to our trail head. This ate up a fair amount of time. However, for Calvin this was the highlight of the experience. He did appear to enjoy hiking but he was really excited about the bus rides.

  • I’m so glad libraries exist. It’s been miserably hot outside so instead of playing outside, Calvin and I have been visiting libraries. Longmont has a train set in the children’s room that Calvin particularly enjoys.

Calvin Moment

  • Calvin is starting to count. I don’t think he really understands the concept yet though. For instance, tonight we were reading Finicky Felicia in a cat poem book. There’s a picture of 4 birds on the page so I suggested he counted them. He pointed at the first one and counted “one,” the second one “two”, the third one “three,” and then for the fourth one he pointed and said, “four, five six!”

Simplification

  • I cleaned out my pants drawer and put all the pants that no longer fit or look ghastly in the thrift store box.

He’s Playing with Duplos!

Down

  • I’ve been kind of off the latter part of this week, not sure why. Maybe it’s just the heat.

  • Calvin’s been pretty clingy lately. The last couple of days he clung and cried excessively both when I leave him at daycare and when Jaeger takes him for bedtime stories. It’s very exhausting.

Ups

  • I managed to exercise several days this week. I’m not up to my normal routine yet but it’s gotten better.

  • I just finished reading Just Like Heaven, by Julia Quinn, which I enjoyed. Quinn is one of my favorite historical romance authors.

Calvin Moment

  • This week whenever someone asks me how Calvin’s doing I proudly announce, “He’s playing with duplos!” Prior to Tuesday, most of the time Calvin tried to play with duplos he was constantly asking for help in putting them together and taking them apart. This was particularly bad because Calvin’s artistic vision never match Jaeger’s or mine so he’d get really upset when we did things wrong. However, on Tuesday he appears to have figured out how to put them together all by himself. He spent literally hours making “trains” (which in this case are just towers that are next to each other). It was fantastic. I think it’s the first time I’ve been able to make dinner without him crying for him for me to pick him up the entire time or him sitting in front of the TV. The rest of the week didn’t turn out quite as well. However, I’m relieved that he now has the potential to amuse himself for significant periods of time.

Simplification

  • I spent a lot of time earlier in the week cleaning up the basement. It’s a never-ending job but I did manage to pack 4 boxes for the thrift store. I decided that there wasn’t any point in keeping my maternity clothes and I also packed up all the old toys and books that I didn’t think were worth passing on to any of our friends or family that might have children.

Airport Day

I got up late yesterday and so only got an abbreviated amount of exercise. After exercising, I started breakfast. I convince myself to eat oatmeal 5 days a week by promising myself something different on the weekend. Recently, I’ve been making Challah Friday and then using the bread for French Toast the next day. Slathered with peanut butter and syrup, it’s hearty enough to keep me filled up most of the day (since my lunches on Sabbath are often sparse) but still is a treat. However, I had forgotten to make bread on Friday. So, I made Whole Wheat Waffles instead. It’s still decadent but I don’t think they fill me up quite as well as the French Toast does.

Yesterday was my day to play for Cradle Roll. So far, playing has been going really well. I was worried yesterday because Calvin spent the entire morning clinging to me. However, it turns out that I can still play even if Calvin is wrapped around me as long as he keeps him arms under my arms. About halfway through the program he loosened up and starting participating more.

After Sabbath School we left church for the Boulder Airport. They were having Airport Day. When Jaeger told me about it, I wasn’t originally sure what it involved. However, since it involved airplanes I decided we probably had to go. Calvin loved it. They had quite a few smaller airplanes on display as well as some old military airplanes. In addition, there was an air force helicopter and even a firetruck. Calvin got to sit in a glider, a firetruck, and the air force helicopter. For those who wanted to pay for it, there were helicopter and bi-plane rides. Calvin had a lot of fun watching the helicopter land and take off. I think he would have stayed there all day if I had let him. It made such as impression that at bedtime he told Jaeger all about his experiences. This is the first time we know of him explicitly relating something from memory.

I had praise practice later in the day so after the airport I packed Calvin up in the car and headed down to Westminster. I started drie1ving several hours early but I was hoping Calvin would nap on the way, which he did. I found a nearby side-street with lots of shade close to the house we were going to practice at. I sat in the car and read for a couple of hours while Calvin napped. Since we were in the shade it was pleasantly warm instead of oppressively hot.

Praise practice went well and we got home at a reasonable time for supper. I had made Mutter Paneer the day before so except for the rice it was just a matter of heating it all up. Sometimes Saturday can be very stressful so it was nice to have a busy Sabbath that still didn’t feel overwhelming.

2nd Camping Trip

We just arrived back from the second camping trip Calvin has been on. Last summer was the first one. This one went great during the day but was disastrous during the night.

Wednesday night I had created a list of what I thought we needed to bring. Thursday I gathered most of the food-related items and precooked some meals. Jaeger worked a half-day Friday and then came back and we both finished packing. The idea was to pick Calvin up from after his nap time and head out to Stillwater Campground. Our trip up went mostly according to plan except Calvin hadn’t slept at daycare so ended up with a very late nap on the way up.

We arrived at the campground around 5:30 and wandered around a bit looking for a suitable site. It’s pretty early in the season for camping at that elevation so we had a lot of sites to choose from. Our first nomination turned out to be a bad idea as it was extremely windy. It was obvious that it was often windy as the campsite explicitly came with rings to tie down the tent with. We ended up with a campsite on the other side of the hill where it was less windy. It wasn’t quite as scenic. However, we got a great view of the boat ramp area which Calvin might have found more interesting than just a lake anyway. Unfortunately, due to the pine beetle infestation, almost all the trees in the campground had been chopped down.

I had opted for spendy freeze-dried meals our first night that just required boiling water. It always takes a while to setup camp and I wanted to make sure I was able to feed Calvin in a timely manner. We still didn’t end up eating supper till around 7:00pm. Calvin was excited by everything around him. He roamed up and down the hill several times, found the tent fascinating and basically was having a blast. He did not like the idea of going to bed. His normal bedtime is around 8pm but we didn’t get him to bed till closer to 10. We also found out that while he was enamored with HIS sleeping bag, he didn’t like the idea of actually being cocooned in it. Eventually Calvin fell asleep nestled on top of me in my sleeping bag. This left my arms exposed which was pretty chilly.

Calvin sleeping on top of my wasn’t ideal. However, it got worse. Around 1am he woke up screaming. We had no idea what was wrong but he kept creaming for at least 10 min (which feels like an eternity at 1am in the morning at a campsite). I kept expecting someone to come by and demand to know how we were abusing our child. However, there weren’t any other tents near us. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. One, of many, theories I had was he was having night terrors Another thought was that he was feeling suffocated being in the sleeping bag with me. Eventually he fell asleep with the sleeping bag partially open and another small child’s blanket draped to stop the worst of the draft. I was exhausted but apparently Calvin was fine as he woke up cheerfully at 7am.

A couple of weeks ago I started researching ways to make food while camping without all the mess associated with it. I’ve tried using heavy duty zip-lock-like bags before. These are kind of like the freeze dried meals you buy that just require adding water except you put your own dried ingredients in. It worked ok but I thought the commercial freeze-dried meals tasted better. Plus, I’m a little dubious about adding boiling water to the plastic bags, even if they are technically rated to be able to handle that much heat. This time, I discovered Dutch Oven Liners. I have a cast-iron skillet that is very similar to a dutch oven and it turns out that the 10″ liners fit fine. Then I prepared our meals at home and put them in zip lock bags in our cooler. To prepare, I just placed the skillet with a liner over the camp stove and poured in the food to reheat it. It’s easy to lift the liners out and replace with another one so you can heat up several things without having to clean in-between. The only thing I might do differently next time is bring aluminium foil to place on top to keep the heat in better while other items are being heated. Obviously, this wouldn’t work for backpacking but it was great for car camping. For breakfast, we had scrambled tofu, pastries I had bought a couple of days before, applesauce, and hot chocolate/milk/coffee.

After breakfast, we headed out to a visitors center. Jeager asked a ranger for suggestions of good hiking trails that weren’t covered in snow. The ranger offered two suggestions that she thought would be relatively snow-free the first 3 miles. We ended up trying the East Inlet Trailhead. Jaeger carried Calvin and our food in our kid backpack carrier and I carried toileting supplies and some other stuff. I brought along our little potty chair which is small enough to fit in a backpack and that worked well for Calvin (I didn’t think he was advanced enough yet to learn the other outdoor potty methods :-) ). Calvin really seemed to enjoy the hike, especially when we went by the waterfall. We decided to stop for lunch about 3 1/2 miles in. Since the ranger didn’t think we’d get much farther without running into snow, we decided to turn around. Calvin walked a little bit of the way back. However, he soon gave up and went to sleep in the backpack. It looked uncomfortable but he slept for almost an hour that way.

After returning to the trailhead, we decided to head back to Grand Lake and grab some ice cream. Upon driving down the main tourist street, Jaeger and I were surprised to hear Calvin suddenly call “ice cream!” from the backseat when he spotted the shop with a picture of two large ice cream cones out front. When reviewing flavors, I asked Calvin if he would like strawberry. He said, “No!” I tried a couple other flavors, each getting a negative response, until it occurred to me to specify I was asking about ice cream flavors. I rephrased and asked if he would like strawberry ICE CREAM and he immediately agreed that was a great idea.

It was extremely windy when we got back to our campsite but fortunately it calmed fairly quickly. We all headed out to the lake where Calvin played in the mud/sand mixture and occasionally splashed in the water. I read a book for a bit on the “beach” while Jaeger made sure that Calvin didn’t drown. We headed back for an early supper in hopes that eating earlier would inspire Calvin to go to bed earlier.

For supper, I heated up the rice and dal I had made Thursday as well as an Indian-flavored peanut tomato sidedish. Calvin ignored the tomatoes but ate a large serving of the dal and rice. After supper, we went to see Smokey the bear at the camp’s small “auditorium.” Calvin seemed to find the bear mascot fascinating but was even more excited by the forest-service fire pickup (equipped with a hose and a generator to allow pumping of lake water onto a fire).

I thought one reason Calvin might have taken so long to settle down the previous night was because I was in the tent with him. Jaeger often has better luck getting him to sleep than I do. So, I encouraged Calvin to run-off some of his excess energy and then turned him over to Jaeger for bedtime stories and bed. I sat in our car and finished reading my book. I was in the car for quite a while but kept hearing the murmur of Calvin’s voice. Finally, around 10, I decided Jaeger wasn’t having anymore luck than we’d had last night and went back to the tent. Eventually Calvin did fall asleep, sans any blankets. After he was asleep, I put a blanket and his sleeping bag on top of him. This seemed to work pretty well until he once again woke up in the middle of the night. It wasn’t as bad as the night before but he absolutely refused to have any blankets on top of him. He got quite hysterical whenever I tried. This was a problem as it was in the 30s outside and not suitable weather for just sleeping in one’s pajamas, however thick they may be. Eventually, he fell back asleep and I successfully snuck the blankets back on him. I woke up multiple times during the night to make sure he hadn’t shaken them off and had avoided freezing to death so far. Fortunately, Calvin slept in till 8:30 so I ended up with a lot more sleep than I had the previous night.

We had a slow start but eventually had breakfast and then packed up our campsite. On the way home we stopped at a trailhead to stretch our legs. Calvin really got into the hiking, especially when we encountered snow, so the whole hike took longer than expected. We decided to eat lunch there which delayed us further. Jaeger’s initial plans were to stop by the Alpine Visitors Center but we were running late by then and Calvin and I were both almost asleep. I napped until we exited the park and Calvin napped almost the entire way home.

Overall, I think it was a good trip. However, Calvin’s problem sleeping in the tent make me less than thrilled at another camping trip in the near future. We might try some camping in our backyard to get Calvin more use to sleeping in a tent. At least if he starts scream in the middle of the night in our back yard, it’s easy to come back inside for the rest of the night.

Calvin Updates

Down

  • I haven’t exercise consistently for the last two weeks. First I was in Washington, then I was catching up to the (minor) timezone change, and then I was too busy. The good news is I did manage to get up early and exercise the last three days.

Ups

  • Potty training is going extremely well at the moment. During our trip, I only put him in diapers for naps and nighttime. The last couple days of the trip, including our flight home, he didn’t have any accidents. He’s been doing fairly well at daycare too.

  • Jaeger’s mom and sister were here over the weekend for a wedding. They had lots of fun playing with Calvin who, of course, greatly enjoyed the extra attention.

  • Finished listening to A Civil Campaign, by Bujold, which I found to be a lot of fun. I’ve started listening to One was a Soldier by Spencer Fleming. The Clare Fergusson mystery series is very good but much more serious than the Bujold book. I’m also reading The Red Wolf Conspiracy, by Redick, for book club. It took me several chapters to get into it but I was hooked once I met Thasha. I’m trying to decide whether Jaeger’s dislike for fantasy will outweigh his enjoyment of naval fiction :-)

Calvin Moment

  • Calvin is talking in multiple complete sentences every day. His single words are still very unintelligible but his saying whole sentences help interpret meaning better. However, he has a very annoying habit of pointing at some random thing and saying, “this! this! this!” either when he wants it or he wants to know the word for it. Then I have to get down at his eye level and try to guess where his finger is pointing.

  • Not surprisingly, Calvin is having a lot of fun playing in the water with the hotter weather (he probably wouldn’t require the hotter weather to play in water but wasn’t given the option before). I’m hoping the herbs I planted last week don’t die from him over-watering.

  • Everything is “mine, mine, mine” now. This has been coming on for a while but it’s very prevalent now. We’re planning to go camping this weekend and I went to REI to buy a sleeping bag for him today. He was SO excited when I told him this was HIS sleeping bag. Once we got home he insisted on me zipping him up in it even though it was around 80 degrees in the house. He also shoved all of his favorites toys in it.

Simplification

  • Shredded a whole bunch of junk mail that had been piling up. Sometimes I feel like Sisyphus. The shredding never ends . . .

Visiting Grandma

In July we’re all going to the Oregon coast to meet up with Jaeger’s family. Since this is near where my family lives, relatively speaking, I was hoping to be able to see them at the same time. However, the timing didn’t work out so instead Calvin and I flew out to Washington for Memorial Weekend.

We left Wednesday right after breakfast and got to the airport 2 1/2 hrs early. However, since we weren’t in a dreadful hurry, I let Calvin walk a lot of the way and stop and gawk at every plane we passed. In addition, I decided to keep Calvin in training pants instead of diapers so we also had to make a couple of stops on our way at various bathrooms. By the time we got to our gate, I only had enough time to feed Calvin a small snack before it was time to board.

The flight was fairly uneventful. Thankfully, Calvin refrained crying, screaming, and joyful shrieking. He didn’t nap but neither did I expect him too. He was entertained a fair amount of the time by watching a couple of videos and playing with his new Duplo Motocycle that I had bought specifically for airplane entertainment.

Because Calvin didn’t nap, he was extremely hyper when we arrived. He literally ran in circles while Grandma watched in bemused fascination. Eventually we made it to the car and Calvin fell asleep on the way to my parent’s house.

That evening I was very tired so I decided to go to bed at the same time as Calvin. Now that Calvin is too big for the pack ‘n play (i.e. he climbs out) we weren’t sure what to do for his bed. Eventually, I decided to just have him sleep in the big bed with me. This turned out to be a very popular decision with Calvin. I laid down on the bed next to him. Calvin closed his eyes, then popped them open with a wide smile delighted that I was still next to him. He repeated this for about the next half hour. Eventually he did fall asleep. I had been worried about him falling off the other side of the bed. However, that turned out not to be an issue as he stuck to my side like a little magnet. In fact, several times during the night he felt the need to crawl over and sleep on top of me.

Thursday we left for the beach. On the way we visited the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria. Calvin was getting cranky due to either hunger or sleepiness, sometimes it’s hard to figure out which, so we didn’t see much of the inside of the museum. However, he did seem to enjoy touring the Lightship Columbia. I also managed to buy a souvenir for Calvin in the form of a picture book titled A is for Astoria, by Karen L. Leedom and illustrated by Sally Bailey.

After the museum we ate pizza and then continued to the beach. I hoped Calvin would take a nap but that turned out to be too optimistic. Calvin has trouble falling asleep in the car now that he can point out all the different kinds of trucks on the road.

Once we settled in to our rooms at the hotel we went and explored the hotel pool. We lucked out in that there was a reasonable sized shallow area in the pool before the steps descended the rest of the way. The shallow area came up to Calvin’s thighs so offered a good area for him to play with some bath toys I had brought along. Every so often he’d ask me to take him and we bounce around in the deeper parts of the pool. Calvin especially enjoyed it when I twirled around with him making large waves.

The day must have really worn Calvin out as he fell asleep within 5 min of me putting him to bed. I don’t recall the last time that happened.

We started off the next morning by picking up pastries and then returned to the hotel to supplement them with scrambled tofu and strawberries. After breakfast we decided to venture out to the ocean. In case you haven’t visited the Oregon coast before, it’s not a very warm experience, particularly this early in summer. The weather was very windy and overcast. However, this didn’t stop Calvin from enjoying the ocean. Dad took Calvin out to the ocean and held him up when waves came letting them wash over his boots. Calvin also enjoyed shoveling sand into his sand sorter.

When the adults decided they had enough, we went inside. Calvin was completely soaked on his lower half so we gave him a warm bath and then 1/2 a cup of hot chocolate. I think this is the first time Calvin has had hot chocolate but he really enjoyed the experience.

We then decided to head to Seaside to check out the aquarium. However, Calvin looked like he might fall asleep so we took a long detour and to my surprise, he fell asleep. I don’t remember the last time he fell asleep before lunch. Maybe this means I don’t usually give him enough exercise in the morning . . . In any case, by the time he woke up it was time for lunch. After lunch we went to Seaside and Calvin got to ride a carousal. We then planned to walk to the aquarium but Calvin seemed much more interested in the beach. We hadn’t brought beach clothes with us (in this case, fleeces, boots, and rain coats) so we returned to the hotel before heading out for beach part 2. Like before, Calvin greatly enjoyed the beach and ended the experience with a bath and Hot Chocolate.

Unfortunately, Calvin didn’t go to bed as easy last night. I sat in his room for a long time waiting him to go to sleep while listening to A Civil Campaign by Bujold. By the time Calvin fell asleep I felt droopy so followed quickly afterwards. Unlike prior nights, Calvin didn’t insist on clinging to my side the entire night but I noticed that he always had a hand, a foot, or a head touching me.

We woke up this morning and squeezed in a bit more beach time before packing up and heading to Astoria for church. Mom was a little over-optimistic in how long cleaning Calvin up and packing would take so we got there just in time for the sermon. I didn’t hear most of it being preoccupied with helping Calvin put a puzzle together. The puzzle set I brought was unfortunately configured so you could easily put pieces together that didn’t belong. I got one puzzle finished before realizing I needed to swap two pieces.

After church we went to the Astoria Column for lunch. We ate at a picnic table there but didn’t actually climb the column. It’s very toddler unsafe. However, the hill itself still provides a spectacular view of the surrounding area.

Magically, Calvin actually napped on the rest of the way back to Longview. I think the beach trip was a success and I learned some pointers for our next beach trip with the Tramblie-Logan side in July. Specifically, I should make sure to take along wool socks so they can still keep his feet warm even when completely soaked.

In the next couple of days we’re going to attempt to see my grandparents and show off Calvin some more before going back home.

Park Visit

Down

  • I started feeling sick Monday evening. Took Calvin to daycare Tuesday, told them he was going to be there the whole day, and went back to bed. Tried to work a couple hours but I was too tired so went back to bed. I woke up at 5pm to pick Calvin up but when I stood up, I threw up. Called Jaeger and asked him to pick up Calvin and deal with Calvin’s evening needs.

  • While I was only really sick on Tuesday, I’ve been really tired all week. As a result, I’ve been sleeping in and only exercised one day this week :-(

Ups

  • Started listening to Paladin of Souls by Bujold. I’ve listened to it before but it’s a very good book and I’m once again mesmerized.

  • I’m on the potluck team for this week. In my case, the sole thing I do is make food (normally I’d also help with setup and cleanup but I’m excused since I have Calvin to look after). Usually this means that I’m making something late into the evening the night before. However, this week I managed to split my cooking into two days and finished by supper time. This week I’m taking a Stacked Vegetable Enchilada casserole, South Indian style Peas and Carrots, and Persian Almond Cookies.

Calvin Moment

  • It’s been rainy for the last couple of days so, even if I had felt good enough, I haven’t taken Calvin outside much recently. However, today was a bright and sunny day so I took him to the park. It’s the park that inspired my fear in this post. However, today he didn’t try to climb up the biggest slide by himself so it wasn’t nearly as nerve wracking. Below is a picture of the playground.

  • Calvin enjoys “helping” me in the kitchen. Usually this means anything I do takes twice as long but I’m trying to make the best of it and explain kitchen science to him. Yesterday he helped me make cookies by adding some of the ingredients like baking soda and vanilla. In hindsight, I should have made the cookies after supper. Calvin was so excited by the cookies that he refused to eat the healthier part of his meal. Finally, I got him hooked on eating strawberries instead. I had bought a 2 lb container of strawberries and I believe he ate 3/4-1 lb by himself. I didn’t realize his stomach could fit that much food.

  • I took Calvin to story time at the library last night. This is the first time we’ve tried bedtime story time at our local library (versus the one I work at). Unfortunately, it was the last one until the end of summer. Technically, it’s aimed for kids 3-6 but I decided to take Calvin and just pop out early if it didn’t catch his attention. However, he was enraptured the entire time. At the end, the librarian asked me how old he was and I told her 2. She told me it was obvious I read to him a lot because he was so well behaved (yes, this is more of a “proud parent moment” than a Calvin moment :-) ).

Simplification

  • I took a box of clothing Calvin no longer needs to our local used children’s clothing store. I’ve bought a fair amount of clothing there but never tried to sell any. I got about $10 for the box so we probably would have come out ahead if I had donated it and taken a tax deduction instead. However, it still was enough to pay for a used board book, Duplo set, and firetruck. Calvin loves both the duplo box and the firetruck and insists they sleep with him in his bed.