Public Meltdowns

After being stuck in the house for a couple of days, we decided we'd take Noah to the big indoor play place with the big inflated slides and stuff.  He was talking about the big slides on the way there. 

Once we got there, something didn't set well with him and he started clinging to Ching and wouldn't go into the play area.  This is phase one of his meltdowns.  Kinda silent refusal.  Sometimes we can coax him out of this.  Sometimes we have to be more forceful and physically carry him or move him along.  If we can coax and move and be patient, sometimes he'll be ok and things are fine.

Other times he just melts down.  He will lay on the floor and wrap his arms around Ching's legs and cry NO NO NO... 

This usually ends in me picking him up and carrying him out of wherever we are and getting him into his car seat.  You know how tall and strong his is, so you know this is no easy task. 

This is the second time we've had to come home from trying to take him to go play.  The other time was at the park.  Same thing, he wanted to go to the park, and then when we got there he refused to go play, refused to go home, refused everything. 

Both times we came home and put him in his room for a few minutes and everyone cooled off and he was fine.  The rest of the evening he acts like nothing happened.  

We just don't know what to do. He is so epically stubborn.  These episodes aren't pretty.  And later we feel horrible. 

First semi-scary movie

Last night, Ching was doing the usual bathing of the boy and getting him ready for bed.  I had headed downstairs and was just starting to watch a 1971 Spielberg film called Duel.  The description sounded just strange enough and there was nothing else on.  (Duel is a 1971 television (and later full-length theatrical) thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Richard Matheson, based on Matheson's short story of the same name. It stars Dennis Weaver as a terrified motorist stalked on a remote and lonely road by the mostly unseen driver of a mysterious tanker truck.)  I enjoyed seeing things from 1971 - old cars with the old instrument panels, pay phones, etc. 

Noah, as he sometimes does, came downstairs to get something he'd left down there and to see what I was up to.  But, instead of heading back upstairs, he sat on the sofa with me and began to watch the movie.

Now, I can see how a simple, prolonged scene with a bright orange car and a big truck driving along could get his attention.  I didn't expect it to keep his attention.

We kept trying to get him to stop watching it and go to bed, but he wasn't having it.

The good thing was, the movie was tense, but not really scary or violent or bloody or sexy or anything.

So, he got his first taste of a movie making him all anxious and nervous. The times when the truck tried to run the car off the road, or into the on-coming train, and failed - Noah would say "whew, that was close". 

At one point we were laughing and I said, well, of course he likes it, it could only be better if it had a helicopter or firetruck.  A minute later there's a big long train.  Then we really cracked up, because of course there's a cool train in this movie! 

He watched the whole thing.  Then was hard to get upstairs and get into bed because he'd stayed up a little late.  But, he slept through the night, so that's good. 

Tying the Knot

As most of you know, the Supreme Court didn't do something a few weeks ago, so now gay marriage is legal in our dear state of Virginia.

We were kinda surprised by this.  At first, we really didn't think too much of it or have any grand plans.  As it sunk in, and we thought about it, we decided why not. 

Now, if that seems underwhelming, well, we've been together well over 15 years.  We own a house, have a kid, have pets, you know - all the things that make most people married already. 

Also, as most of you know, getting married is a two step process - get the license and then have the ceremony.  Neither of these was as easy to schedule as they could have been.  We had thought that Monday the 3rd would be good - we could go to the courthouse in the morning and then have the ceremony and a good lunch.  Noah is out of school that day.  But, the person we (I) chose to do the officiating wasn't available that day. 

Well, Ching had a doctor's appointment scheduled for this afternoon, so we decided she could take the whole day and we could go to the courthouse this morning.  And that's what we did.  We now have the state's license to get married.  Took longer to drive there than to get the forms and pay the fee.  It all felt bureaucratic, not romantic.  (I know, the romance is in the next part.) 

The official ceremony is next Thursday evening at our house.  Just us and Noah. 

I told Ching if she just imagined she was writing some loving words about beef noodle soup and applied them to me I'd be pretty happy. 

I also told her she's getting upgraded from Baby Mama to Wife.  heh. 

I think that until the ceremony is all said and done, I always have this fear in the back of my mind something will prevent this from happening.  But, as the day creeps closer, we get a little more excited. 

After the Supreme Court decision, we got a letter from our lawyer that explained this also means I can finally adopt Noah.  That makes me very happy!  That process will start after the ceremony and hopefully won't take too long. 

Big Changes Update

We're a few weeks into school and so far he still really loves it.  He's learning his friends names this year.  From what we know he's following directions well and having fun.  Two cool things that have happened since school started.  He will let us read books to him now.  He would usually just flip through the pages really fast and either name the things on the page or just ignore it all.  Now, on Wednesdays they check out books from the little school library and he will let us read it to him along with some books we already had.  He also busted out the Pledge of Allegiance the other day.  He couldn't say the whole thing, so he made us take turns saying it - and then he'd tell us "good job".

Another new thing is he's starting to sing along with songs in the car.  He's always loved music, but hasn't generally been a singer.  The past couple of weeks, his favorite songs are "Ain't It Fun" by Paramore - about being all grown up and out on your own, which is pretty funny for a four year old, and "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift.  Could be worse.  He's also likes No Doubt's "Hella Good".  He's down with the chick singers.

In the mornings, he's also doing some music time when getting out of bed.  He'll turn on his little Casio keyboard, hand me the bongos, get his little guitar and play along to the pre-set tunes on the keyboard.  I think it's pretty cool!  He's always been able to keep a beat, and now he strums along to the rhythm.

The downside of everything is this whole no naps change.  Ugh.  It's horrible.   And it's taking longer to adjust than I would have thought. 

The first hard part of this school year is that he doesn't go to school until noon.  So when he wakes up at 7:30 I've got a good four hours to fill.  I'm not good at that.  Especially now that he's not so into going to the park in the morning.  (Extra special fun - our favorite park has been removed, we can only assume they're going to replace all the equipment.)  We play in his room a little while.  He finally decided to play with the little train and track we got from Ikea two years ago.  Then we watch his cartoons on the computer while I make the coffee and his juice and snacks.  We head downstairs for Disney Jr and my shower time.  By now it's 9:30 or 10 if I'm lucky.  He and I just aren't good at indoor activities.  But, I'm working on it.  Gonna try a few little games and stuff.  Pretty soon it'll be too cold to go outside anyway. 

I'm so happy when he goes to school.  You know, until an hour in and I actually miss him a little. I'm also very aware that this is my last year to have this much time with him.  It's hard, but I really am trying to enjoy it as much as possible. 

This year when he comes home from school he's really trying to tell me more about it, and then tell Ching when she gets home.  That's cool! 

He and I have about another hour and a half to fill before Ching comes home.  Mostly he wants to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Then more snacks.  I try to get him to at least play in the front yard a little.  In spite of cooler temps, the mosquitoes have been horrible.

We know we need to get him to start eating dinner with us and trying new foods, but he's so hungry after school, in spite of eating snacks there, it's hard to make him wait until our dinner is ready.

By this time of day, he has gotten so very tired, and then so very excited that Ma is finally home, that he's terrible.  A little hyper, a little emotional.  Sigh.  He's still learning how to function while tired.  It's not pretty. While we're aware he's still better behaved than a lot of kids, it doesn't make it easier.

The big upside to no naps is he's finally getting to bed earlier.  7:30 bath times, asleep by 9. 

Growing up is hard work. 

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.