Long Week

This week was so long, I don't even remember last Sunday.  Ugh. 

School started this week.  Noah goes M-F from 12 to 3:10.  His school day would end at 3:25 if he rode the bus.  They like us Moms who drive our kids ourselves to come get them out of the way of the end of day processes and to help with loading all the kids on the bus.  Nope, I'm not missing those 15 minutes at all. That said.  It is nice having one more year that Noah and I don't have to be morning people! 

As I've mentioned, this schedule means that Noah no longer takes naps.  Technically, he could nap when he got home from school for an hour or so.  But, his bedtime has been about 10 pm forever.  We'd like to move that up an hour or so!  This week, that has meant that we're all tired and cranky and kinda tired of each other in the evenings!  We're hoping he learns a little bit of self-control even though he's so tired it hurts. 

School.  He's still so very happy to go to school.  He loves his backpack and putting in on and going into the school.  He loves playing in the fake kitchen again this year.  He loves playing in the big sand box on the playground.  He might even like other parts of the school day.  He's always happy going to and coming home from school.  There are ten kids in his class, and three teachers.  We're hoping this year he learns their names.  We have a picture of all of them to help with that. 

Just to add in a little craziness, yesterday we changed out Noah's crib for a twin bed.  We had decided to wait until this weekend when he wasn't napping anymore so he'd only have to adjust to one bedtime in the new bed and not two.  So, off we went to Ikea yesterday morning, after donuts of course.  We had looked online and decided theirs was nice and simple enough.  Then we ended up getting a different one anyway.  As if the chore of simply going to Ikea wasn't fun enough for one day.  We then had to come home and put the bed together.  While Noah didn't nap.  Yeah.  Fun. 

He seems to be happy with the new bed.  Even better, he wasn't sad when we took his old crib apart and moved it out of his room. 

We also finally got him one of those Ikea rugs with the roads on them.  We'd often thought he would like one, but he never showed any interested.  Yesterday he finally did, and it's his favorite new thing!  It goes well with all the cars Ching buys him when the two of them go shopping.

It took him a few extra visits from us to go to sleep last night.  Part of that was being overly tired and overly stimulated - and the big new bed.  He woke up once in the night. 

He's been waking up at 8:15 or 8:30.  Or maybe sometimes he woke up earlier, but played with his collection of cars that he sleeps with for a while before yelling for us.  Today was 7.  Ugh.  The funny part was he didn't even get out of bed until I came up to get him!  We know that won't last forever, but it's cute in the meantime.

Today was also the day Ching's company rented out King's Dominion amusement park.  So at least getting up early got us on the road and to the park while it was still cool outside. 

Unfortunately, our dear boy is not a rider of rides.  Any rides.  Part of that may be his aversion to standing still, even in lines for rides. 

I, on the other hand, got to ride the big roller coaster.  I'm pretty sure I was the oldest one in that line.  I had a blast.  It was a lovely day to be walking around outdoors and people watching.

Because all of that wasn't enough fun.  Tuesday morning we have painters coming to paint our upstairs living area and the stairwell.  That means moving all the books on the built in and not built in bookshelves.  (Having the built ins painted, the other just has to be moved out from the wall.) 

Sigh.  This week didn't have enough chocolate or alcohol, even though it had some of both.

Our Ridiculous Kittens

We're really glad we decided to go ahead and get the kittens almost two months ago.

Our house-sitter called them ridiculous while we were on vacation - and they really are. I'm glad they're siblings and they play and chase and chew and clean and lay on each other!  Silly and Little Man occupied the same space, but were so different and didn't really enjoy each other.

They've taken over the house - as only cats can do.  They get into and play with everything.  They get up when Ching does in the mornings, which means they run all over me and the bed my last hour or so of sleep.

They're also pretty snuggly and in the afternoons when Noah is napping and I watch a little tv, they're usually both on my lap.  This will be much nicer in the cold winter!

We were not sure how Noah would do with them.  But we hoped as kittens they would adjust to a toddler chasing them.  They have.  He's doing better.  If he's sitting on the sofa with me and they jump up, he'll let them come and sit and not be too loud.  He likes to push their ears down. Then again, I think it's cute, too.  He'll pet them and say "awww, so cute".  When he's more rambunctious, he'll chase them when the go under the sofa or bed and lay on the floor and try to get them.  A few times he's tried to pull them out by the tail.  Ugh.  But, kittens are very sharp and fast, so I don't worry about them too much.  As long as he's calm, they'll sit with him and let him pet them. 

Noah's been watching the Curious George Christmas episode a lot the past week.  We were talking last night and just how much fun it's going to be having a Christmas tree this year with Noah AND the cats.  Sigh.  (We haven't had one before.)

Poor Sick Boy

We've been very blessed that Noah doesn't really get sick.  He's had his breathing issues, so we're used to those.  But "normal" sick was new to us.

Yesterday, after Ching got home from work, he wanted to go for a ride in her new car.  Actually, he sat in the back seat and checked it all out, and then decided he'd sit in the front seat and drive.  We never put a car seat for him in her Matrix because well, it was her commute car.  He knew my car was his.  We've got a car seat for the new car coming tomorrow. 

We finally got him out of the car and to the park.  But, when we got there, he just sat on the bench with us and was all snuggly.  He didn't want to go home, but he never got up and ran around and played like his normal self.  Sometimes when he needs to poop and hasn't yet, he'll tell us his tummy hurts.  We assumed that was what was going on. 

After a while, we finally came home and he wanted to sit on the sofa and watch Curious George (again). 

We could tell he didn't feel good, but didn't know what was wrong.  Then he sat up and threw up, and then threw up again.  Poor baby.  This was his first time throwing up and being aware of throwing up.  He wasn't too upset by it and we told him it was all ok and we'd clean it all up.  That was laundry load one. 

He was also starting to get warm, so we came upstairs and took his temp, just about 100.  Gave him some meds. 

I thought we might have to stay with him into the night, so we put him to bed in the full size bed in the guest room, and we plugged in his night light, and we brought in his music. 

He fell asleep for a few minutes, then woke up and was laying there.  Then he sat up and threw up even more.  That was laundry load number two.  He seemed to finally feel better after that and we did his normal bedtime routine, with a bowl of cereal and some honey.

He was funny though, he wanted to stay in there and sleep on the big bed!!  Heh.  Soon...  we'll get him a new bed soon.

Today he's pretty low key and not eating a dozen snacks all morning.  We chilled on the sofa and watched a lot of George and then Cloudy With Meatballs. Did another dose of medicine. 

The upside is this is happening this week and not next - which is when school starts. 

Nashville Recap

Ching is once again switching from one contracting company to another one, so she decided to take a week off in between so we could do a road trip/vacation.  Almost everyone here in Virginia goes to one beach or another for their summer trips.  Having an aversion to lots of sunshine (sunburns and skin cancer) and heat and humidity, summer beach trips aren't at the top of my list.  Noah won't get in water with waves anyway, so we can always go in cooler weather and just run and play in the sand.  Ching and I would love to go to a nice place with casinos, but we'd also need a babysitter for Noah there if we wanted to do any gambling together.  So we nixed that idea.

Really, our biggest goal in vacations is usually to eat some really good food.  I know you're all more than aware of just how much we hate the local offerings.  Sigh.

We became more aware of Nashville as a possible destination a few years ago when another lesbian mom couple who lived there had a blog.  They gave us some good recommendations on food and things to do with Noah.  I also knew Tennessee was a beautiful state to drive through.  We have thought about going to Dollywood, which is actually a little closer, but Noah's not so much into amusement parks and rides and such yet.  Maybe another year.

So, we looked up driving time and decided we could do it.  (It ended up being twelve hours instead of the ten or so we thought, but still within a day's drive.)

After our first day of driving, we stopped at the Black Eyed Pea to get some dinner and fried green tomatoes.  Yum.  Thankfully the place was mostly empty on the Monday evening, because we knew after being in the car all day Noah wouldn't be so great at sitting still.  He spent a lot of the time playing waiter.  It was new and funny and cute.  He'd make a great waiter!  We also got lucky that our actual waiter told us of some additional places to eat in a new-ish, hipster-ish East Nashville neighborhood that wasn't all that far from our hotel.

I got smart on this trip when finding a hotel and put all the places I knew we wanted to go into Google maps and then found a hotel within that vicinity.  One of the reasons we like road trips as opposed to flying is having the car to do more exploring and driving around in the cities we visit.

I had also checked the weather for the week, I knew we'd be driving in rain on Monday, just didn't know it'd be so much, or such downpours.  It was still a little wet out Tuesday morning, so we went to the Adventure Science Center.  It was really cool.  It had two things Noah loved, an ambulance he could pretend to drive, and a big mouth you could try to throw soft balls into as it open and closed.  (Actually, Ching had just as much fun with that!)

The next day we went to the Nashville Zoo.  There was a lot of walking, a lot of skinny moms, and not so many animals.  It was kinda ok there weren't a lot of animals, because Noah just wanted to run and run on all the trails. 

Nashville also has a full scale replica of the Parthenon.  It's part of the huge Centennial Park.  There was also a local outdoor Shakespeare presentation that Noah sat through about ten minutes of going on.

Other than that, activity wise, we went down to the pool every evening.  Noah spent the first two days sitting on the steps, not going out into the pool at all.  Even with other kids there, he's engage with them, but not get out in the water.  Finally, on the last day, he let Ching carry him all around the pool!  So brave!

As for food.  Yum!!  Southern cooking for the win.

We had the best hot dogs ever at I Dream of Weenie.   This was the first place we tried in the hip neighborhood.

Then we tried Martin's BBQ.  Oh my.  Best bbq we've had outside of Texas.  It was so good, we went back for lunch another day.  Their brisket sandwiches are put on Texas Toast - so how could it not be good.  

For lunch another day we went to Batter'd & Fried Boston Seafood place in the hipster neighborhood.  Sounds crazy.  But I had the best fried seafood platter and Ching had an enormous platter of fresh sushi!

Our last morning there we decided to find a good southern breakfast.  There were so many choices, but we went with Loveless because they're supposed to have great buttermilk biscuits.  It, too, lived up to the hype.  Ching came home with a couple of jars of jam!

We enjoyed our little stay in Nashville.  It often reminded us of Austin - but a more southern, conservative, less hip and rich version.  I would probably prefer the Austin of 15 years ago, but the Austin of today, with it's overgrowth, would be harder to choose.

It also led to me pondering, too much, about the difference between being a Texan and being a Southerner.  I have a feeling a lot of the difference has to do with Texas' limited role in the Civil War and such. 

We Have A Four Year Old

Noah turned four just over a couple of weeks ago.  We're already starting to notice the difference.

He's always been independent, but it's increasing.  On our trip to Nashville, not only was he in charge of all elevator button pushing - and he always got it right, he also decided to be in charge of using the key card to open the room door.  We had to tell him which way it went a couple of times, but he mostly go it right.

Today, at the grocery store, he decided today was the day he was in charge of pushing the grocery cart.  Now, he's tall for his age, but not tall enough to see over the cart.  But he did a good job, with a little verbal correction - because there was no way he was going to allow one of us to put a hand on the cart to help him!

One of his new phrases is "follow me".  Heh.  He's still using a lot of "I'm fine."  As in, when he's being a bit bad, "Do you want to go to your room?"  "Nope, I'm fine."  And he'll say "No, I can't have it." instead of "I don't want it."

We were talking today about how we're looking forward to him using "I"m fine" on his teachers at school.  "Noah, will you sit down and listen to the story?"  "Nope, I'm fine."  Sigh.

Big Changes Coming

Noah turns 4 in a week.  Yesterday would have been his birthday if he'd been born on his due date. 

For me, it feels like he's been 3 for at least two years.

Partly because he's getting older and bigger, and partly because of his school schedule this Fall, some big changes should be coming soon. 

Before all of that, my parents and nephew are coming for a visit.  Noah's going to love having them here, and then he's going to be sad for a while after they're gone.  Ching's cousin came to visit last weekend, and he's still asking where she is sometimes. 

One change is that he's about to outgrow his crib.  We decided to wait until after the family visit to change it - one crazy thing at a time.  We can change the front of the crib to be a low bar so he won't fall out, but he'll be able to get up and out of bed if he wants to.  We're not really sure how he's going to do with that. 

For the past month or so, he keeps waking us up in the middle of the night (sometimes two or three times) to turn his Sophia The First soundtrack back on. So we're pretty ready for him to be able to get up and do that sort of thing for himself! Of course, we're also expecting him to play with his toys half the night and fall asleep in the middle of his floor.  

We're also going to have to get night lights for our stairs (thankfully, for some odd reason there are not one but two outlets on the walls of the stairs).  We'll have his door closed and the kid proof handle so he can't get out and around.  But, if/when this dear child ever really does potty train and needs to get up and pee - well, then we can't have him "locked" in his room.  

Seriously - how often do 4/5 year olds get up and go pee in the middle of the night?

Yes, then there's potty training.  We haven't pushed him on this.  For the whole last year at pre-school, they would go to the potty every day and he learned how to pull down his pants/diaper and sit and pee.  If you tell him to go pee, fine, he will.  But, even when we tried regular undies and training undies, he would just pee and not tell us he needed to or that he was bothered by it.  Ugh.  

Again, after the family visit, we're going to have to get a little more serious about training.  He loves lollipops and Starbursts and stickers - so we'll see if bribery/rewards work.

Then there's the new school year.  Instead of MWF from 9-12, he'll be going M-F 12-3.  

That means no more naps.  

The upside is that hopefully means 8 pm bedtimes instead of 10:30 bedtimes.  We've been bad about late nights this summer.  

It's going to be weird not having to get up for school.  Noon to 3 isn't always his best time of day, but it'll be fine.

We know he really misses school and playing with his friends all the time.  

Lots of fun the next 6 to 8 weeks.

Noah's First Misheard Lyrics

Starting last week, Noah's new favorite song is Back In Black.  I'm a little proud of that.  For the past three days, when the song would be on, Noah would yell "LIONS" from the back seat.  We were puzzled.  Whenever he tells us things from the backseat, like fire truck, or bus, or balloons, or lights, he's never wrong.  So we had no idea where this Lions thing was coming from.  We'd repeat it and he'd say "yes, lions". 

Today we decided to pay closer attention to the song and see what it said when he yelled "LIONS".

It's the lyrics "I've got nine lives..."  He hears "I've got LIONS" I guess. 

Which, hey, would be way more cool than nine lives!