We of course didn’t have a holiday this weekend, but Saturday was a lovely winter day: about 55 degrees and sunny! Daddy was able to get away from his weekend work for an hour midday, so we took a family walk up to the park. Paul went on a swing for the first time!
I also took him down the slide. He wasn’t very impressed. By the walk home, he was tuckered out.
It was a delightful day!
P.S. Paul is nine months old today!
After I asked you for your opinions on signing and other things, I decided to sign every word I can remember to Paul. The day after I started signing everything, Paul started “babbling” in sign. It was so cute! Now he consistently signs “More” but I don’t think he actually knows what he means. Video here.
(I’m starting to feel conflicted as to which site to put these things on: it’s about Paul so it should be on Paul’s Page, but I’m the one trying to figure things out, so it should be on my page. I guess I can’t separate him from me anymore!)
As for sleep, Paul’s been going from 6:30 or 7 p.m. until 6 or 7 a.m., except for the few days lately when he’s awoken screaming in the night or in the early hours. I’m pretty sure it’s teething but I’m hoping we can get back to a normal schedule. I like the waking up at 7 a.m. thing! I wish it happened more often.
I’ve figured it out what to cook for Paul. I refuse to make food for myself without salt, so for now I’m still making two separate dinners. Paul eats at 5 and we eat at 8 anyway, so it’s not that big of a deal. But Paul’s food tastes pretty good these days! I really like pumpkin. It’s a good base for just about everything.
When do kids actually notice TV/movies? We don’t have a TV but I did try to introduce Paul to Winnie the Pooh, watching it on my computer. He didn’t pay attention for more than 5 or 10 minutes.
I ask because I want to buy Signing Time and I’m not sure it’s worth it for such a little boy who won’t sit still anyway. It’s not that I want to encourage TV watching anyway, so I might as well wait, I guess. We do have an actual TV screen in storage, so we’ll have it again when we return to the USA. (We still won’t have TV, though.)
What is the best kind of toy for a 9-month old? I’m still relying on his rattles and other 6-month-old toys and they are just not enough for him. (I was going to wait until we got back to the USA to get more toys, but I’m tired of waiting and he’s bored!) I got him a ring tower and today I’m going to look for a peg puzzle. Any other ideas?
I’ve started signing to Paul, every sign I can remember. The day after I started signing everything, he started babbling with his hands. The only sign he has consistently made is “More” and it looks like a clap. He signs it for everything: when he’s been in the bath long enough, when he’s ready for a drink of milk, when he wants to eat, when he wants more food, when he wants something. Obviously, he doesn’t know what it means, but he knows it communicates something.
It’s quite cute. Now it’s just a matter of time before he figures out that other signs mean other things and that this sign means something in particular.
And now I need to teach him “please.”
P.S. Tooth four, the other top tooth, came in this morning.
I’m still in Australia.
Why, you may ask? Good question. Here’s a rambling answer:
USA Client wanted Husband to do Said Project. Australia Client said if USA Client asked politely for Roll-Off (i.e., finding another person to do Husband’s job and sending Husband and family home), then Roll-Off would be in three weeks. Husband agreed to perform Long-Distance Telephone Consulting for Said Project during Roll-Off period. USA Client promptly neglected to ask Australia Client for Roll-Off. After one month of Husband performing Long-Distance Telephone Consulting for Said Project in early Australian hours of morning, Australia Client said to Husband, “No Roll-Off until USA Client asks for you,” and USA Client still didn’t ask Australia Client for stated Roll-Off. Why? Because Long-Distance Telephone Consulting is cheaper than Flying Husband to Virginia each week. So, Husband stopped awaking for 4 a.m. Long-Distance Telephone Consulting for Said Project. Now USA Client for Said Project says “Help, or we’ll find someone else,” Husband says, “Arrange Roll-Off from Australia Client or find someone else,” and Australia Client says “I won’t allow Roll-Off if USA Client doesn’t need you.” So Husband and family are waiting for someone’s mind to be made up. As soon as Said Mind is made up, Roll-Off will happen in about three weeks. Husband and family will then return to USA.
Clear as mud, huh?
When I was seven or eight years old, my mother gave me a cloth-and-porcelain doll she’d loved as a girl. I loved that doll, despite the arm falling off at the seam. My mother sewed a new arm on her.
My doll was my baby. I put her in a doll crib at the foot of my bed. I changed her clothes. I rocked her to “sleep.” She “napped.”
At some point, I moved on and left her in my closet. She’s still there somewhere.
Almost nine months ago, my firstborn son was born. I admit that I did try every single newborn outfit on him within the first days, just because he was the most adorable baby I’d ever seen, better than any doll. But I love him. I rocked him to sleep, day and night.
Now that he’s squirming and crawling, he’s less doll-like. But he’s perfect, and caring for him is my life every day, 24 hours a day. Even when I get a break, I am thinking about him, worrying about him, loving him. I’m constantly writing things to him and about him, in my mind.
At some point in my life, I’ll probably go back to work. I may write a book: fiction, nonfiction, who knows at this point. When you turn to the About the Author page, you’ll probably see my picture with a description like this:
Rebecca Reid is the proud mother of — and the wife of —. She loves her family with all her life.
It won’t be unusual, though, because everything in the book, fiction or nonfiction, will relate to motherhood, family relationships, and the love of a mother for her child. That is my line now, but it is also my imagined happy ending.
True response to Write on Wednesdays: What is Your Line?, Write Anything: About the Author page, and Sunday Scribblings: Endings.
It is so winter right now. And it’s so cold. And all the leaves are brown and the sky is gray, as usual. And I’m sick of it.
I wanted to go with him, I really did. But one thing led to another, as usual, and I was left behind in Gray Sky Chicago. Dred went to L.A. without me, I’m sure.
Maybe I should explain.
I am the most unlucky girl in the world. I mean, ever. And it’s partially my mother’s fault and partially my father’s fault.
Long story short: I was born on Friday the Thirteenth. You may think that’s not my mother’s fault, but she was induced, so yes, she chose my birthday. Then, it was raining on Sunday when we went home from the hospital, and my father wanted to keep me dry. So even though my mom tried to stop him, he opened the umbrella inside. I’d so rather have gotten wet.
I could tell you my unlucky sob story, with all the significant and insignificant details, like how I broke my leg while sleeping when I was 8 months old, how I broke every single plate in my mother’s china just by eating on it, how my folks died in a plane crash when I was twelve (yeah, how often does that happen?), how I went to live with my Wicked Step-Aunt, how my Wicked Step-Aunt kicked me out last year, how I lived with three different friends, and how they all turned out to be losers.
But I won’t; that’s just my luck. Bad things frequently happen to me. I’ll just try to explain why I didn’t go to L.A. with Dred.
I guess I’ll start at the beginning, as usual. Continue reading
Paul’s third tooth (the top middle right) has pushed through the gums! He also has had a cold so he wasn’t very happy this weekend. But he’s finally sleeping and seems in good spirits.
When my sister and I were young, we watched Mary Poppins almost every day. One favorite part was when Jane, Michael, and Mary were taking their medicine after being caught in the rain.
“Lime cordial, delicious!” says Jane.
“Strawberry, Mmmmmm!” says Michael.
My sister and I would take a spoon, pour water or something in it and pretend it was magicked into delicious lime or strawberry cordial.
This last week, I bought cordial.
Cordial = Kool-Aid.
It was so disgusting. It was so disappointing.
Right now I sit on the couch with my laptop on my lap. I’m downstairs, beside the playpen full of toys, in our living room. The playpen is empty, the baby that usually occupies it asleep upstairs for his morning nap.
I see the dusty hardwood floor that needs to be swept. I see the dishes in the sink that need to be loaded in to the dishwasher. I see the basket of clean clothes that need to be folded and carefully returned to the dresser.
I have no comfortable chair in a private office with “Do Not Disturb” the door. I have no quiet peaceful retreat on the porch in the early morning hours. I have nowhere beside the couch downstairs or the office chair at my lopsided desk upstairs in the loft.
Instead of doing my chores, I sit here on the couch, my feet on the coffee table, and face the empty page. The cursor blinks.
Response to Write on Wednesday question.
I made a fun tunnel for Paul to crawl through out of the foam alphabet letters. I was excited for Paul to crawl through it. He didn’t really get the point.
At least I had fun!