Reading Update

Down

  • I walked 7 miles on Saturday while Calvin napped. Great exercise but my calves hurt enough that I reduced exercising this week. So, I probably lost exercise time instead of gaining.

  • I’ve been fighting with Qwest about our static IP. For some mysterious reason, they canceled it a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been trying to get them to fix it and repeatedly was shuffled between tech support and billing. Finally someone in tech support said they could reorder it for me but it’d be a $20 setup fee since they had no record I’d ever had a static IP. I was tempted to tell them that I would be happy to pay the $20 fee if they could refund the $5.95/month I’ve been paying for years for a static IP. However, Jaeger found what our old static IP was and using that they somehow confirmed that, yes, they did make some sort of mistake though no one seems to know what or how. Anyway, we have a static IP back but I’m still waiting for the next bill to see if they forget and try to charge us a $20 install fee. They claimed they put a note on my record that my fee should be “refunded” but we’ll see what really happens. I’m particularly annoyed that even though it was because of nothing on our end, they’ve wasted multiple hours of my time of this issue.

Ups

  • It was good weather so Calvin and I went to the park today. As usual, he loved it and had a lot of fun running all over the place.

  • Thanks to the RRA-L listserv I subscribe to, I got a huge number of books to read. I’m not sure they’re all exactly my style but it still is interesting to at least try them. The first one I read was Dark Mirror, by M.J. Putney. She’s written romances before under a different name but this is her first young adult book. I did enjoy it though it was very obviously young adult and I’m not much into time travel adventures. I finished Dark Mirror last night and immediately started reading Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. I also finished it last night. This is a young adult retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty set during the Holocaust. It’s funny. I’ve read a lot of holocaust non-fiction but for some reason, this fiction book made the horror more real to me. The non-fiction books seem to emphasize the triumphant survivors of the concentration camps and it’s easy to not pay as much attention to the millions that were murdered. I suppose it also could be different because I read a lot of the non-fiction books as a teen before I had a child. Anyway, very good book but also very disturbing. Glad I read it but probably won’t re-read it. I can’t decide what book I’ll read next. Possibly The Greyfriar by Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith. I’m really tired of vampire novels but I’ve heard pretty good things about it and the vampires being evil again would be a novel change.

Calvin Moment

Calvin is growing up. Today in the park he started climbing the rope pyramid (Kind of like this. I really need to take pictures of these playgrounds so you can actually see what he’s doing). He’s been enjoying hanging on to the bottom rope for a while. However, today is the first day I saw him actually trying to climb several levels up. I decided the rule was that if he requested help at the higher levels, I would help but then bring him back to the ground and he’d have to start the climb over. This seemed to work fairly well. He did fall a couple of times but pretty close to the ground. Anytime he got higher I hovered underneath him. It’s very encouraging to see him grow up and achieve new abilities.

Freedom, Common Sense, and Safety

Down

  • Calvin slept in today and, perhaps as a result, skipped his afternoon nap. This meant he was incredibly cranky and clingy by 5. We (tried to) eat around 6. Calvin picked at a bit of his food before announcing he needed to use the potty. He did use the potty but didn’t want to get back in his chair. However, one of our rules is that you don’t have to eat but you have to sit at the table when everyone else is eating supper. So, I sat him back in his high chair. He complained a little bit but then asked for his milk. I gave him his milk and he put it in his burrito bowl. I was starting to tell him that milk was for drinking, not playing, when he exclaimed, “no milk!” and threw his cup across the table. The bulk of the milk narrowly missed our computers. I picked Calvin up and put him in his room for a 2 min time-out. Calvin screamed the entire time and I thought he threw up but after the two minutes I went in and didn’t see any evidence of it. I hugged him and explained that we don’t throw things when we’re upset. However, we decided that he probably needed to go to bed early so Jaeger finished eating while I held Calvin. Then Jaeger put Calvin to bed while I finished eating.

Ups

  • We had several days of very good weather last week. On Thursday we were in at the park for almost 2 hrs and I just laid in the sun while Calvin burbled around the park.

  • We had a family outing to the plane museum yesterday. That excursion went really well. Calvin especially enjoyed riding around in little plane tricycles they had.

  • I have officially resigned from the PA committee at church. I tried to do it back in fall but couldn’t find anyone to take my place. However, it’s almost nominating time again and I’ve told the PA leader that I do not intend to continue next year. On one hand, I feel pretty guilty because there aren’t enough people as it is. However, I feel that me spending time on Sabbath morning dealing with the MediaShout script isn’t good for Calvin. It was only once a month but I also play the piano once a month which requires someone else to look after him. So, for now, I think I have a bigger responsibility to Calvin than I do to PA.

Calvin Moment

As Calvin gets older I’m increasingly conflicted over how much I should weigh safety risks when I let him do things. I’ve read books such as Free-range Kids, by Skenazy, and The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, by Mogel, and agree that we have a tendency to be over-obsessed with controlling every aspect of our children’s lives. However, it’s harder for me to restrain my compulsive tendencies. I keep thinking in the back of my head, “well sure, it’s unlikely that $x is going to hurt him but can I live with myself if it does?”

When the AAP changed their policy to officially state that children should ride rear-facing until two I started panicking and wondered if I should turn Calvin back to rear-facing. I specifically got a massive car seat so he could stay rear-facing for longer than standard, which was one-year at the time, but had turned him around at 21 months. After seeing the policy update, I wondered if I should turn him back to rear-facing until he reached the weight/height limit max for rear-facing. I talked to our pediatrician at our last well-baby visit and he basically told me that our society obsesses too much with safety. He pointed out that everyone would be safer in a rear-facing seat but we don’t expect adults to ride that way. Then he told me that since Calvin was two it was fine that I have him in a forward-facing seat. This is why our pediatrician is a good fit for me. He balances my more extreme tendencies with common sense.

Friday we went to a nearby playground. This playground has several different level. The first is around waist-high for me, the 2nd is just barely over my head, and then the final level is significantly higher than I can reach. We got to the playground and Calvin enthusiastically scrambled up the first level and gleefully slid down the little slide. I didn’t panic at all as he’d have to fall at a very odd angle to hurt himself at that height. Then he moved up to the middle tier. This had me a little more nervous as there was a opening on one side, opposite the slide, that he theoretically could fall from. I quickly walked over to that opening to be in place in case I had to catch him. Then Calvin started climbing up to the third level. This is the point when I started to feel panic bubble up. While the third level is high, it is enclosed with a fence taller than Calvin and also designed so he wouldn’t have any footholds to try to climb up the fence (at least at his age). In addition, the slide at the very top is a tunnel so the worst that is likely to happen if he slid down it was either get stuck or come down head first. The most dangerous area really is while he climbs the stairs to the very top level. They are fairly steep and if he fell backwards it could be pretty dangerous. Except . . . Calvin has been climbing stairs for quite a while now. I couldn’t figure out if I should be at the top of the slide to make sure he didn’t fall from the stairs or at the bottom of the slide to catch him if he came down too fast. I was listening to a babble of voices in my head. On one side I heard Skenazy and my mom. On the other, I heard child protective services. Amid all this babble in my head one of the older children at the playground asked, “is he allowed to go down that tall slide?” I replied, “I don’t know.” At which point the boy looked at me dubiously no doubt wondering why the child’s mother hadn’t given me more explicit instructions. It turned out not to be a big issue. Calvin did scramble up to the very top but decided he didn’t want to go down the slide after all so he carefully backed down the stairs again to a level I was more comfortable with.

Later on, Calvin started trying to climb the smaller arched ladder on the first level. I was a little dubious about this as I figured he could fall through the rungs and whack his head, or possibly wind pipe, on the way down. However, it only went to my waist level so was very easy for me to hold my hands in a position where I could grab him if he started slipping. Then, Calvin decided he wanted to climb the arched ladder on the 2nd level. This level goes just above my head so I would be in a significantly worst position to catch Calvin if he fell. The biggest challenge was the step from the last rung to the main playground equipment. In order to transition, Calvin had to carefully grab the surrounding fence bars and then do a mini-jump from the rung to the 2nd level. He did it 3 times. Each time I waited under him with bated breath hoping that I would be able to catch him if he fell. He never did. However, I’m still not sure if I should have been letting him do that or not.

Anyway, I’m still working on figuring out the difference between a reasonable safety rule and an excessive safety rule that will negatively impact his confidence and athletic skill. I suspect this isn’t something I’m going to solve anytime soon *sigh*.

Cranky

Down

  • Calvin no longer has a fever but still seems excessively cranky to me. He requires a lot of holding and personal attention right now. By the time Jaeger gets home from work I’m emotionally exhausted. However, the fun doesn’t end there. He’s very dissatisfied with supper these days. He either doesn’t like what we’re serving or doesn’t want to stop playing to eat. My rule to-date has been that Calvin is not required to eat anything but he isn’t given anything special either. So, if he doesn’t like lentils, he doesn’t have to eat them but neither will I specially prepare a dish for him. Theoretically, I think this is a good stance to take. However, I’m starting to doubt myself. He has a 2 year checkup tomorrow so I might ask his pediatrician what his recommendation is.

  • I really, really need to crack down on my weight.

Ups

  • I finally got back on to my exercise schedule the last two days. Monday morning I didn’t wake up early enough for my full routine so only did 20 min of pilates. However, I got a chance to make it up later in the day with 40 min of step aerobics. Today I did get out of bed and was able to do my full Tuesday pilates/abs/weight combo.

  • While Calvin has been pretty cranky during the day, if I remember to dose him with ibuprofen, he sleeps fairly well during the night. At least, he has for the last 2 days (notice it’s the last 2 days I’ve managed to exercise . . . ). Hmm . . . maybe I should be dosing him with ibuprofen during the day also . . . I’m just not sure whether he’s not feeling good physically or if it’s something else entirely.

  • Calvin loves having books read to him. While he sometimes asks for books to be read at the most inconvenient times, I am always so glad he seems to be developing a love of reading. Calvin has such a different personality from Jaeger and I but so far it seems like reading can be at least one past time the whole family can enjoy together.

Calvin Moment

  • I’m sure that I’ve mentioned this before but Calvin is absolutely obsessed with hats. For his birthday he received 4 hats and also a fleece with a hood. Somehow he manages to wear all of them fairly consistently. Sometimes he wears multiple hats at once. When I picked him up from daycare today he was walking around with a shoe-box sized plastic box on his head. I think it must have held toys at one point but he dumped them out so he could re-purpose the box as a hat.

Sick

Down

  • Calvin was sick most of this week. I blame it on all the sugar he had last weekend.

  • While Calvin was sick, I barely exercised and also tended to eat a lot of chocolate. Not a good combination. Not surprisingly I gained weight. I aim to keep my BMI just under the “overweight” designation and this week it went over. So, I really need to knuckle down, eat small portions of healthy food, and exercise a lot the next couple of weeks. It’s so much easier to have good intentions than to actually implement them . . .

  • I’m way behind at work and taking time off to stay with Calvin didn’t help.

Ups

  • I finally installed blackout shades in Calvin’s room on Tuesday. To my shock, this seems to allow him to nap in his room. For the last several months, I’ve been walking multiple hours every Sunday so Calvin would take a nap in the stroller. Pretty good exercise but there are other ways I’d prefer to spend my Sunday afternoon. I’m hoping he slept because his room is finally dark enough during the day. The real test will be this Sunday.

  • While Calvin had a fever and was much cuddlier than usual, he wasn’t exceptionally cranky which was a lifesaver. I’m not sure I could have handled a cranky toddler for four full days.

  • I did get my basic chores done this week. I would have preferred to check a few more things of my cleaning schedule but I suppose I should be thankful I was able to do even basic cleaning with Calvin home most of the week.

  • Calvin went to daycare today! It was wonderful to go back to my normal weekday routine.

  • The weather was perfect today. After I picked Calvin up from daycare we went to one of our local parks and Calvin ran around for about an hour before it was time to go home.

Calvin Moment

  • Calvin has started to become really insistent on helping me in the kitchen as I make supper. Sadly, by the time he actually is helpful, I suspect this phase will have passed. However, currently he’s consistently asking me to pick him up so he can help stir and wash the dishes. I let him stir a fair amount though he was a little too vigorous with our quinoa salad which ended up splattered over the counter and floor. He had more success loading the dishwasher. I gave him a fair amount of silverware and he carefully picked up each piece and put it in the silverware bin in the dishwasher.

2nd Birthday

Down

  • Last night I went to bed around 9:30 exhausted. A little after 10 I was awakened to the sound of Calvin screaming. I went to investigate and he was crying in the middle of his room. As soon as he saw me, he flung himself into my arms. I tried to calm him down but he was inconsolable. I sat in the rocking chair and held him. He’d put his head down for a couple of minutes and then cry out and change position. It seemed to me that he was hurting. I blame it on teething. I’m pretty sure he has another set of molars coming in. Anyway, I left him to go downstairs and retrieve some ibuprofen. I gave it to him but, sadly, it doesn’t work right away. So Calvin dozed fitfully for about 45 min until it started working and then slipped into a deeper sleep. I manage to transfer him back to his own bed around 11:30. Since I was already tired, losing more than an hour of sleep was not ideal.

Ups

  • Nana and Grandpa, Jaeger’s parents, visited arriving Thursday morning and just left this evening. Yesterday Nana, Calvin, and I went to the children’s museum in Denver. Calvin had a lot of fun. I think the highlight of the trip was a big fire truck that the kids could scramble up and down on. They also had little fireman hats and jackets for the kids to wear.

  • Calvin turned two today. We had some people over to church and had an Asian-themed meal featuring Jaeger’s Sushi. Then we had German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Sorbet for dessert.

Calvin Moment

  • In church today they sang happy birthday to Calvin. I had just finished playing offertory so Nana and Grandpa were watching him. He stood up on one of their knees and beamed graciously at the congregation the entire time they sang to him. I think he’ll make an excellent benevolent dictator.

Piano Playing

Down

  • It’s very hard for Jaeger and I to find a good equilibrium in caring for Calvin.

Ups

  • I’m starting to get adjusted to the time change.

  • Calvin did take a nap both yesterday and today though for a while I wasn’t sure he was going to.

  • Finished reading An Unlikely Countess, by Jo Beverly, yesterday and The Lifecycle of Software Objects, by Ted Chiang, today. Very different books but both were good. I’m also currently listening to The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, by Wendy Mogel. I listened to it before I had Calvin but am re-listening to it now.

  • I’ve been exercising consistently for several months now.

  • Calvin’s birthday is this Saturday and he will be two. Jaeger’s mother (and possibly father) will be coming out. Jaeger is going to make Sushi for lunch and we’re going to having German Chocolate Cake for dessert. It’s a really strange combo but both should be good :-)

Calvin Moment

  • I got called Friday night and asked if I could play piano for Cradle Roll as a sub yesterday. I said that I could try but I wasn’t sure how Calvin would deal with it. To my surprise, it mostly worked. Calvin did spend one song wrapped around my middle as I tried to play over him. Also, for a couple of songs he was a little too enthusiastic and banged on the top keys as I was playing a couple of songs. However, I think the other parents were amused more than anything else. Every time Calvin managed to sneak in a banging session on the piano another kid would come over and try their luck. It’s very interesting trying to play music while intermittently reaching out and preventing other hands from helping.

Grandma’s Visit

Down

  • I hate spring time change. I’ve been getting 8 hours of sleep every night and am still exhausted.

Ups

  • I had a really bad day Wednesday but after Jaeger took Calvin for his night time routine I went to our local Borders. They have a Seattle’s Best Coffee Shop in there and it makes some of the best hot chocolate I’ve had at a coffee shop (which sadly wouldn’t take much). They top the hot chocolate with whipped cream, white chocolate shavings, and provide a chocolate stick to stir it all together.

  • Mom came to visit Calvin on Thursday. On Saturday night Mom and I went to a “girls night out” at a church member’s house and watched The Young Victoria. Sunday night, mom babysat Calvin while Jaeger and I went out to dinner and ate ice cream. Monday night we celebrated Calvin’s birthday (part 1) and ate Pineapple Upside Down Cake (there will be more cake on his real birthday).

  • I broke down and replaced my lost iPod Nano with a black 16GB 5th gen iPod Nano. Unlike my failed Sony Walkman experience, the iPod connected flawlessly to my Windows 7 computer.

Calvin Moment

  • Calvin has started to randomly repeat my phrases as I talk. I’ll be talking to myself or someone else and out of the blue he’ll say exactly what I just said. I guess it’s time to be extra careful about what I say in front of him.

Simplification

  • Haven’t done anything recently.

Mp3 Players

Several months ago Calvin lost my iPod Nano. I’m not sure how but it’s gone and he was the last person seen with it. I have a work iPhone that I’ve been using to listen to podcasts and library audio books. However, I really need to get my own. I’ve always been annoyed with how rigid Apple can be and as time goes by, I’ve been getting more and more annoyed. So, I decided to try replacing my iPod with something else. I mainly used my iPod for podcasts and audio books. The audio books are library subscriptions from Overdrive so they needed the ability to do WMA DRM. I don’t need a huge amount of space because I don’t keep the podcasts or audio books indefinitely so 4 -8 GB seemed like a reasonable choice. Plus, I prefer smaller players.

After researching a bit, I decided either the Sandisk Sansa Clip or the Sony Walkman would fulfill my needs. I was leaning toward the Sansa Clip but wanted to touch it in person so Jaeger, Calvin, and I took a field trip to Best Buy. In person, the Sansa Clip screen looked too small. So I instead started comparing the Sansa Fuze+ with the Sony Walkman. I was pretty sure the Sansa was Overdrive compatible but wasn’t as sure about the Sony player so I went with that.

I bought the Sansa Fuze+ but when I got it home, I saw that I had gotten the “+” version which had significantly worse reviews that just the plain Fuze. Most of the users seemed to complain about the touch interface which I had some concerns about in the store. I hadn’t opened the package yet so the user reviews convinced me to return it and get the Sony Walkman instead.

Well, the Sony Walkman was a disaster. In many ways, I like it. I think the interface is reasonable and Overdrive transfers audio books to it beautifully. However, even though it’s supposedly Windows 7 compatible, I couldn’t get it to work right on my computer. I spent at least 6 hours trying to get it to work correctly. The only way I could get it to work was by telling Windows it was a USB drive. This kind of worked but it was cludgy and the (minimal) software that came with it didn’t recognize it as a valid device. Windows Media Player did but I discovered, to my surprise, that WMP does not have podcast capabilities. Eventually, I got it mostly working using Winamp. However, then I realized that the Walkman didn’t have bookmarking capabilities. That is, if I paused an audio book to listen to a podcast and then went back to the audio book, it’d make me start at the very beginning of what is usually a 60-90 min segment and I’d have to painfully fast forward until I reached the spot where I left off. I spent 12 hrs (8 of them asleep) convincing myself that I could live with this. However, by mid-day today, I had regained my sanity. To my surprise, but delight, Best Buy took back the Sony Walkman and didn’t even charge me a restocking fee in spite of the package obviously being opened.

I’ve mostly resigned myself to getting another iPod Nano. I did look for other mp3 players that had bookmarking capabilities but the reviews were pretty lackluster. However, I’d really rather not get one of the new Nanos. My main complaints are 1) they’re too small and 2) I don’t like touch screens. My iPhone’s touchscreen I tolerate because work pays for it but it’s not my favorite way to interact with devices. So, I’m considering buying a used Nano instead. Still not sure . . .

On a completely different topic, I think I’ve run out of useful books to read about selling houses. (You may recall from previous posts that we’re seriously thinking of selling our house in a year to 18 months.) I’ve now read around 8 books on the subject and they’re starting to repeat each other so I’m going to quit for now and just read a refresher course when the time gets nearer. My favorite books on house selling that I’ve read are:

  • Seven Steps to Sold by Donna and Shannon Freeman – Nice general overview written in a friendly tone.

  • Home Staging that Works by Starr C. Osborne – Discusses all aspects of how to make your house look it’s best to buyers.

  • How to Sell a House Fast in a Slow Real Estate Market by William Bronchick – This book had more detailed steps than the Freeman book. It would probably be especially useful for “For Sale by Owner” info. He offers info such as it takes 100 people walking through your home to get 10 serious buyers to get 1 buyer in a position to make an offer (i.e. marketing is very important). He also provides tips for various aspects of marketing such as when taking pictures of the front of the house you want it to be at a 20 degree angle instead of straight-on.

Calvin Moment

  • Today when I took Calvin to the park another child was filling my hands with bark chips and telling me it was “banana pie.” Calvin overheard this and picked some of the chips from my hand and pretended to eat them. I think this is the first time I’ve seen such abstract pretending from him. Normally, he will use our cell phones and pretend to talk on the phone or pretend to be driving a truck. However, the prop always is intended to represent what he doing.

Long Weekend

After Calvin was born I started dreading long weekends. Calvin is very attached to schedules and having three days at home always seemed to disrupt life too much. However, I think this long weekend was fairly successful.

Sabbath, I left the house around 9 and Calvin and I went to church. I had to go practice for music next week at someone else’s house at 4 that afternoon so instead of going home or to the Carbon Valley Library, I drove to the Westminster library. Per our normal routine, Calvin fell asleep on the way there (driving is one of the few ways to force him to nap) and I sat in the car a couple of hours reading waiting for him to wake up. Once he woke up, we went and played in the children’s section for a while before heading to our appointment. We didn’t get home till around 6:30. Fortunately, Jaeger was able to pick up pizza so we were able to eat as soon as we got home.

Sunday I had the day off from work but we had the babysitter come over anyway. I think she’s working out very well. Calvin seems to like her a lot. I went down to the basement and spent most of the time scanning mementos from past years. I plan to scan most of the papers and then get rid of them. I never look at them anyway so they might as well just be in a digital form. Afterwards, I took Calvin for a walk in the stroller so he’d take a nap and when he woke up, we went grocery store shopping.

Today we went on a short hike at Chautauqua. Calvin seemed in good spirits the whole time. Unfortunately, the last 5 minutes of the hike he tried to fall asleep. He had his eyes closed for a moment before I caught it and kept him awake. The only reason I did this is because we would have needed to transfer him to the car and it’s much better if we can get him to sleep in the car where we can just sit and wait for him to wake up. We went and had lunch at Tokyo Joes and Calvin impressed Jaeger by being able to eat with chopsticks better than me (which isn’t saying much but still seems pretty amazing for a toddler). We then made a brief stop by an Indian grocery store before heading home. Unfortunately, this is the point where we planned Calvin should nap and he didn’t oblige. While I think he would have been happier without a nap, he did seem to survive fairly well without one.

Down

  • Calvin slept very well until around 5:30 this morning. Unfortunately, I chose to go to bed late last night at 11 and so really could have used an extra hour of sleep.

Ups

  • I’ve been finding all sorts of interesting books to read, mostly about home selling. I tend to get obsessive in my quest for information (a characteristic shared by my husband as evidenced by his “India Shelf.”). I started researching pregnancy 2 years before I planned (and did) get pregnant. Likewise, I’m now researching house selling as we’re thinking of moving in a little over a year.

  • Several weeks ago I created a spreadsheet of house cleaning chores I needed to do and how often. I’ve been doing the routine stuff all along but I decided I needed to get more systematic to make sure I remembered to do the rarer types of things like dust off the fan blades, etc. At first, it felt like I kept adding more things to the schedule without being able to cross anything off but I’m slowly making it through my checklist.

Calvin Moment

  • “Parent-Teacher conferences” for Calvin’s daycare were today. Since Jaeger had the day off he got to go to it also. The teacher went through the checklist of things that toddlers might be able to do and offered comments on Calvin’s daily routine. Basically she said he’s doing well and we don’t need to be worried about anything. The teacher said that it was obvious Calvin had an engineering mind. During one day, there were a couple of children clustered by the toy shelf. They wanted to get a xylophone that was behind two other toys. Calvin was the only one to think of pushing the other toys aside so he could reach back and get the toy (this is a complicated skill? It’s often hard for me to know what I should or shouldn’t expect a toddler to think of by himself). Also, when a seat he wanted to sit on was already taken, he built his own using some gymnastic mats they have. He also likes to do things his own way (<sarcasm>isn’t that a surprise?</sarcasm>). The last time he was given playdough to play with, he decided to play with the playdough containers but stacking them up instead of the actual playdough.

  • Calvin has started indicating when he needs to use the potty even when he has a diaper on. This is a fairly new skill. I think we’re going to try having him potty train at daycare again.

Simplification

  • As mentioned above, I went through about 1/2 a box of old cards, pictures, and other memories and scanned them in and then threw away the physical item.

Updates

Down

  • Calvin has been very restless this last week. This means I sleep in later and don’t get a chance to exercise as much as usual. I’ve decided that getting adequate sleep is more important than exercising. However, the mornings that I do manage to exercise I feel much more in control of life.

Ups

  • We have a new babysitter who started today. So far, it looks like she’s going to work out well.

  • Last Friday was staff day for the library. I drove up to Greeley for the day and had a chance to see many of my co-workers that I usually only communicate via email. I met one library assistant who told me that for the longest time she thought my name was an acronym that stood for something. Finally, she asked her supervisor what the acronym stood for and he told her that I was a real live person :-)

  • I’ve started practicing the piano between when I drop Calvin off at daycare around 8:30 and when I start work at 9. It’s not a lot of practicing but it’s better than nothing.

  • It’s very warm and sunny today. During the cold spell Calvin and I spent a lot of time visiting the libraries in order to get out of the house. I really like our house but it can be a little confining day after day, especially since I usually work from home. Visiting the libraries gives us a chance to get out and play in a new environment. Plus, when I go to Carbon Valley, I know the staff and can spend a couple of minutes chatting with them. However, I’m a firm believer that children need lots of outside play so I always feel a little guilty when I’m not willing to freeze so Calvin can play. Calvin rarely notices if it’s cold. I imagine it’s because he runs around so much and is in constant motion. Yesterday we walked around the neighborhood for a little bit which Calvin really enjoyed. He always hates coming in from outside.

Calvin Moment

  • I started noticing that Calvin will turn a book right side up if I give it to him upside down. He might have been doing this for a while but I just recently noticed it.

  • Calvin is learning his colors. I’m starting to try to swap video clips with M&Ms as potty training rewards. M&Ms are a lot more convenient when we are away from home. An interesting side benefit is that I’m teaching Calvin colors using the M&Ms. He has a definite preference for blue M&Ms. Another thing I’ve noticed is that he often calls orange items yellow. I think this is because we call school buses yellow but they can look closer to orange in some cases.

Simplification

  • Because I worked a full day on Friday, I didn’t work today. Instead, I took the opportunity for our babysitter to amuse Calvin while I went down into the basement and tackled our filing cabinets. I weeded two of the drawers and ended up with a foot (literally) of paperwork that needs to be shredded. I’m hoping to get through the final drawer tonight. However, I don’t think it will be as bad since I’ve already done some weeding in that drawer previously. I also was able to straighten up the shelves above the laundry area and throw out some cleaning products that we no longer use.