Amusing anecdotes for April...

As I mentioned in my previous post, it is just a struggle to find 40 or so free minutes to write/edit a post every 7 or so days. I always think of great things to write about as they are happening and even go so far as to jot them down on a legal pad on my desk or in the notebook I carry in my bag because I want to be sure to capture and remember Cole's (and mine as a mother) formative years but actually sitting down to compose somewhat cohesive, witty and relatively succinct script each week has just proven to be a challenge under the constraints of my new schedule.

I will create longer entries when the stars align allowing me the ample time I desire to write but in the interim, I thought I would share some of the entertaining tidbits that Cole is dishing out these days.

He seems to have acquired a wee bit of the Irish in his gait as of late. He'll be running full tilt and all of a sudden do this little hop step where his feet come together like a leprechaun and then off he continues to race. It is his funniest quirk to date.

Cole still exhibits stranger anxiety. Any new people or interactions typically send him burying his head into my arms/legs. He warms up eventually or when you walk away, he gladly says "bye bye". However, he is always friendly with inanimate objects such as trees, cars, slides, rocks, and most recently dirt. He says "Hi Dirt" with such excitement as if he is greeting me or Dave and then gives the dirt piles a glance over his shoulder as we pass along with his lilting voice exclaiming "bye bye dirt".

He is the messiest eater this side of toddlerdom but when he eventually realizes the complete sticky chaos around him he wigs out and holds up his hands as if they are on fire. He fights me still on wiping his face but at least he has clean hands some of the time. Dirty hands don't seem to faze him, just gummy, tacky ones. So picture this, he wants a rice crispy treat, I give him one and he walks away. As the warmth from his hands softens the texture, he obviously decides to remedy the situation by grabbing a tissue and wrapping it around the treat. Then I begin to hear him whining and I find him with this incredulous look on his face as he shows me his issue. The fine tissue has now fused itself to every nook and cranny of the rice crispy treat. He won't allow me to give him a new one, he wants this original one. So there I was picking off finite pieces of tissue from a gooey rice crispy treat with him watching my every move (just in case I might try a substitution or some silly move like that). I hand it back to him with minuscule traces of tissue and he hands it back. I then pry off the remaining bits with rice crispy residue now under my fingernails and he happily pops the entire thing into his mouth and smiles.

Me, only a bit more mellow...

Since starting my part-time gig almost 8 weeks ago, I have found it more and more difficult to set aside "quiet" time to BLOG. There is very little "quiet" time in this house but I used to at least get the better part of two hours on a good day while Cole napped to rush around completing TO-Do's, along with running errands and getting some household chores accomplished while my little rascal tagged along or supervised (or in full disclosure, just created a bigger mess somewhere else in the house while he went unsupervised).

Now, I am working three days a week, I have fewer "free" hours to fit in grocery shopping, vacuuming, laundry, cleaning, bill paying, budgeting, vacuuming, dog walking, the post office, the dry cleaners, the library, vacuuming (you can tell it is spring when Tucker sheds and I literally have to vacuum every day), and so on.

I don't know how moms work full time, raise a child(ren) and run a household. People tell me often how nice the house always looks and how organized I am. I cook or at least prep dinner five nights a week. Dave never has to rummage looking for a clean shirt or socks. I am proud that I run a tight and relatively upright ship (and a clean one) but it is because there are so many things out of my realm of control now that I am a parent to a toddler that those things that do remain under my authority and management have to be just so. Thus, I prefer to leave and enter a "quiet" and clutter free home. It is just my thing and my husband stopped questioning my motives long ago!

Anyone who knows me well, knows however, that becoming a mom has certainly mellowed my Type A ways. I used to go as far as to turn labels facing out on items in my refrigerator (though I still tend to do it with things in my cabinets) and alphabetized my CDs and books (which I no longer do probably because we don't listen to CDs anymore and my book collection has waned the past 2.4 years). I don't obsess about dust bunnies as much as I do dirty paw prints on my floor or dishes in the sink. I shrug when Cole's hands become filthy or he picks up food from the floor (which is actually rare since Tucker has dibs on those) but I detest a snotty laced face, it literally makes me cringe.

The mess Cole makes when he eats is, well overwhelming, but just getting him to eat takes all my patience and energy so I don't fret over the slovenly manner in which he chooses to go about his meals. I used to care more about wiping up EVERY speck after EVERY meal but over time I now let a few days go by before I chisel the dried jello and dribbled ketchup glue from off the mat beneath his chair (hey at least I had the sense to buy a replaceable mat). I do loathe little people hand prints and dog nose smudges on my glass doors and thus you can find me carrying around a bottle of vinegar (I've gone GREEN) nightly to rid glass surfaces and door jams of sticky little finger residue and slobber.

I don't have major piles of anything on my desk (other than books & magazines which I doubt I will ever get around to reading). However, I do have a tendency to accumulate and overstock our basement storage shelves and chest freezer with enough "stuff" to feed us all for a month should we ever be held captive in our house because the entry doors freeze shut (ha, you laugh but our garage door froze shut this past January).

I do make our beds every morning before going downstairs but I don't mop the floor everyday like I used too. I do stack full outfits (top/pants/socks) in Cole's closet for two weeks at a time (just in case I die, he'll match for at least that amount of time) but in all honesty I started doing that because when we have accidents, I just whip a new set off the shelf since Cole doesn't hold still for more than 10 seconds and I don't feel like chasing his naked bum around while accidents typically occur when we are already running late for somewhere (another thing I hate to be is late).

The morale of this post is that I believe that though I still hold high standards for portions of my life, becoming a mom has taught me to let go of many of them and just enjoy the moments. If that means laughing to myself as my son hands me a half-chewed gooey graham cracker at a play date and I without a napkin pop it in my mouth to dispose of it or if it means rolling with it as he licks the sidewalk chalk off his hands before I can stop him, well then, I've already done that and it wasn't the end of the world for me (or for Cole).

Whew...I didn't think I'd make it!

I really and truly thought I would need to go into the "gone batty" asylum as winter here in Minnesota was like nothing I had ever experienced before. We certainly got away with our first winter here (2007-2008) as only a handful of days (11 to be exact) went below and stayed below zero. The winter of 2008-2009 we had 42 days of subzero temperatures, 12 of those -10 or higher. The other 3 months it barely got above 15 degrees and when it would get into the 20s, it was like WHOO HOO, you almost left the house without your jacket!!

The four walls of this house began to close in on Cole and I about mid-February despite my coordinating playdates for him (and me) and hosting 6 toddlers at our house every Monday afternoon. We had art class and music class and rec center time but there are still a lot of hours to fill in a day when you can't be outside. We had a good deal of snow but sadly, we didn't sled much either because it was just too cold and frustratingly, they just don't make good gloves for toddlers. I found great gear for him for next year but Cole's hands were still just too small this year and his poor fingers became icicles because nothing was lined (believe me I searched high and low and bought 6 pairs so he could double up because we lose them much like we do socks).

Anyway, we mustered through 6 more weeks of winter and finally are scarf and hat FREE (though it has taken about 2 weeks for Cole to NOT automatically put on his fleece hat each time we leave the house. We spend afternoons after work/school out in the yard, absorbing the warm sunshine and the earthy breeze. It still gets chilly at night but the lilac bush has buds and the grass is greening up.

Cole is all about dirt and rocks now and is filthy from head to toe each evening but I love that he loves nature. We keep finding ladybugs (which are good luck I've been told), we have heard the woodpeckers in the park, the birds are back chirping and there is a bunny living under our deck (we had bunnies last spring so she is probably back). Why she picked our fenced yard with Tucker roaming around I don't know but I suspect she knows there are no other predators lurking about.

We do a lot of playground time now and fearless Cole is climbing all over just like the big kids do. I can't believe how much he has changed and grown stronger since the fall. I was shocked as he scrambled up the bars without even glancing in my direction awaiting my assistance as he did 5 months ago! He is already needing me less which is just as it should be but it still causes a lump in my throat as I watch him become less dependent.

So we are getting our Vitamin D fix and glad to have shed the layers of clothes (and the extra 10 minutes it took to get out the door). Hurray it is FINALLY spring!!