August Recap

Bye-bye, summer. We had fun.

The adventures!

More good times at the various state parks. Z loves going swimming. We went to a park with a beach area without his swim suit one day and it was a tragedy on par with Romeo and Juliet (according to Z).

We very much enjoyed a visit from Joe's grandma and Uncle John. It was nice to see friendly faces in town.

We celebrated another year of Joe in a considerably more low-key way than last year, (sniff... we miss our friends!) with blizzards at DQ and dinner out at our favorite local place, The Dish and Spoon.

We were thrilled to get to rendezvous with Tim and Leigh and the rest of the Hill clan for a delightful lunch and coffee break for a few hours in Minneapolis before they had to hop on a plane. Mr. Hill has the magic touch for soothing a suffering Z. (He had been sick).

The parents!

The biggest news this last month was my new job, which I already wrote about so I will not bore your further. I'm excited/scared to start and have a lot of work coming my way this semester.

Joe is thriving at work, but busy.

The boy!

Z had his first big illness since we've lived here. He had Fifth's Disease (nothing like getting a call from daycare telling you that your son's whole torso has a rash. Yikes!). It was a rough few days of high fever and no sleep for anyone.

On the bright side, he has gotten much more proficient at walking and toddles adorably around with reckless abandon. He's a bit of a daredevil when it comes to the playground, (which is strange since he's so cautious most of the time) trying to climb things, leap from heights, and sliding down big slides. He refuses to talk even though I think he secretly might know how. The other day on a walk he was holding our hands and said, "One, two, three" so we would do the whole, "One, two, three, whee!" and swing him. We stared at each other in confusion. Now I am suspicious. What else does he secretly know how to say?

Not to say he is ever quiet. The child literally wakes up and starts immediately babbling the second he is upright. He went through a horrible screaming phase which, thank God, seems to be losing its charm. Beside that he just likes to babble all the time, so fluently that he legitimately sounds like he's just speaking a foreign language and if I could crack the code I would know what was going on.

He's also really big into testing limits right now. He loves to do things he knows are naughty with a huge grin on his face. We're working on that. (grimaces) His favorites include touching the television and trying to run into the road. I know. Sigh. Telling him that running into the street might result in his death has no effect and taking him back inside usually results in a full blown tantrum. Pray for us.

In all reality, we are doing well. Still feeling the pains of adjustment, definitely missing our friends a LOT, and certainly feeling the overwhelming confusion of parenting a toddler, BUT! Push comes to shove we're loving River Falls and our life here.

The Ups and Downs of Toddler Mothering

This morning Z decided to wake up at 4:15 AM. No amount of rocking, singing, snuggling, ignoring, etc. would convince him to go back to sleep. Not only that, but he then stayed awake until 10 AM when he finally fell asleep... for 30 minutes. You other moms know that 30 minutes is barely enough time to heave a sigh of relief and start accomplishing things. Between 4:30 and 10 there was a lot of fussing, throwing breakfast on the floor, whining, screeching, inexplicable tantrums, and what appeared to be attempts at fusing our bodies together. He would not, could not, be physically separated from me or apparently something awful was going to happen. While changing his poopy diaper, he rolled over, crawled rapidly away, squatted, and started pooping again! ON THE CARPET! I was to the point that I was getting teary with frustration. Thoughts like, "Maybe having an only child might be the right choice for us because HOW am I ever going to handle this and another child!?" were running through my mind. Nothing made him happy. Nothing. I was at my wit's end.

After the 30 minute "nap" I decided the best idea was to just go about our day. I packed him up and went to Target to let him run free in the store while we picked up a few things. He had a ball. He ran around, giggling and laughing, playing hide and seek, taking tumbles. People smiled at us fondly or said hi to him as he toddled by. It was so fun. He was great in the store and we left feeling much more cheerful.

Lunch time!

When we got home he ate his lunch up like a little angel. No food throwing, no whining. We sang songs and played with toys. We went for a walk to the park and played on the playground. We went on the swings and sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." (His version went "geego, geego, gee gee") I carried sleepy-head home and he went down for his nap without a single squawk. We had a really wonderful afternoon.

This has been a big learning day. I try to tell myself over and over when things are rough that this will pass. The tantrums. The waking all night while sick. Not being able to communicate with him when he gets so upset. Some days can feel so hard.

This will pass. All of it. The frustrating parts and the glorious parts. The baby giggles will pass just as surely as the baby screeching. I need to treasure the wonderful times and think of them when Z is testing my last nerve.

I can do this. I'm doing okay, I think. I'm pretty sure I haven't ruined him yet.