Mama Come Back!

As my now 2 1/2-year-old son says every time I walk into the room, "Mama come back!"  I've been busy with my BUSY boy, but I'm hoping to post more regularly now.  I would say, "I'm hoping to post more regularly now that he sleeps through the night, but unfortunately he hasn't mastered that yet.  He knows all of his letter sounds, 12 colors,  how to gleefully lock me out of the house, and what types of soda to bring Daddy and his friend from the fridge, but he can't seem to figure out that SLEEPING IS NICE AND MAKES MAMA HAPPY!  It's now 11:14 and he's been asleep for all of 5 min. after having been tucked in just before 10:00.  Ick.

On to more fun news!

The connections Keaton's brain make are so fun to watch!  Last week he was pestering me (for the 10th time) to open the "Nifty Knitter" set that's in my craft room.  I decided to take a few minutes to appease him, so I grabbed a ball of yarn and showed him how to wind a few rows.  He then ran off, so I assumed his attention had waned, but he quickly returned with his own demonstration.  Check out the photos below!

Why Can't We Just Have Lunch, Dinner, and 2nd Dinner?

In response to Open House With Four Moms I've added my thoughts on breakfast. Check out what these other moms do about the "most important meal of the day."

Kim at Life in a Shoe
Deputy Headmistress at The Common Room
Kimberly at Raising Olives
Connie at Smockity Frocks

Personally, I would much rather sleep through this cruel institution called "morning," but as that is not a viable option, here is what breakfast looks like for us.

Since my 1-year-old is developmentally-appropriately impatient, he enjoys an appetizer of cheddar cheese and Cheerios practically every day while I make breakfast.

His regulars are:

1. Egg scrambled with broccoli and ham and fruit (mandarin oranges, kiwi, mango, cantaloupe, strawberries)
2. Peanut butter on a wheat Sandwich Thin, banana, and yogurt frozen into bite-size dollups for self-feeding.

And occasionally:

3. Ham and swiss pockets (made with store-bought on-sale crescent dough), avocado, fruit
4. Quesedilla, avocado, fruit.

During my teens through early 20s, I rarely craved traditional breakfast foods, so I usually ate leftovers or nothing. I still rarely enjoy pancakes, waffles, or french toast, and usually only for dinner! Now, however, skipping breakfast is not an option because of nursing and attempting to match Keaton's energy level (yeah, right!)

My favorites are:

1. Leftovers!
2. What Keaton's having.
3. Oatmeal w/brown sugar, cinnamon, dried cranberries, and walnuts.
4. Grilled ham and cheese on wheat.
5. Grande-decaf-iced-upside-down-caramel-macchiato and a Perfect Oatmeal (my once-a-week bad morning vice).

Warning: Wishes Do Come True

As I teen I babysat extensively. Being the perfectionistic, list-making, future accounting major that I was, I kept a notebook with the names & ages of these children. Though the notebook has not been survived the millennium, I remember that there were nearly 200 names on the list, many of whom were my "regulars." While spending all this time with children, I decided that when I grew up, I definitely wanted to have boys. Busy, rough-and-tumble, energetic boys were my ideal. Sure, girls were fun and sweet and all that, but boys were more likely to share my deep and enduring love of LEGO-building! Plus, they were more likely to enjoy an outdoor tickle/wrestling match than subject me to endless permutations of Barbie and Breyer horse fantasy play. Since I was not a girly-girl, I shuddered at the thought of possible having a ballerina-fairy-princess girl and not bonding well with her. At one point my sister and I joked with each other about getting pregnant at the same time and switching children without our husbands' knowledge if I had a girl and she had a boy. (I don't think we considered that we might both have one gender!)

Disclaimer: Now, before you start heaping indignant comments on my about my stereotyping of boys and girls and my short-sightedness, remember that the paragraph above applies to my thinking at about age 15, and I have matured considerably since then and no longer am afraid of having a girl!

Well, the old adage "Be careful what you wish for!" has come true. I got my busy, rough-and-tumble, energetic boy in a tiny package. I don't think that I fully realized the implications of the fact that crazy-energetic, yet adorable 5-year-old boys who can be somewhat reasoned with start out as crazy-energetic, yet adorable infant boys who can't be reasoned with.

Keaton is irresistably adorable but he NEVER STOPS MOVING. I laugh when friends ask me if we co-sleep. No, we tried that for a few months when Keaton was not sleeping more than an hour at a time and it became "co-toss-and-turn-in-bed-and-get-kicked-and-cried-at-all-night". We all sleep much more peacefully with Keaton in his crib--especially now that he actually sleeps.

AG I recently visited a friend whose 4-month-old daughter happily sat in her bouncer for a full 30 minutes while we ate lunch and talked. AG kept glancing at her like she was an alien creature, and not a peaceful little girl. Every few minutes he remarked incredulously, "I can't believe she will just SIT there!" Yes, that's 30 MINUTES, not seconds (are you listening, Keaton?) Keaton was never content to just sit anywhere at that age. He had to be doing something even if I was holding him. As a result, I got very little done for the first few months after his birth. Well-meaning friends raved about various slings and baby carriers, but Keaton revolted. He wanted to see and interact with everything, so even at 1 month, the only way I could carry him in a carrier was facing outward holding his head upright! Yeah, you can see how it would be a bit hard to load the dishwasher that way. Then there was the matter of him weighing 17 lbs at 2 months!

As you fellow mothers know, now that Keaton is crawling & cruising around furniture, he is constantly getting into things. Fortunately, my 2009 Keaton model came with an upgraded K.E.W. System. For those who don't know, this is the Keaton Early Warning System. When he is headed for something he knows is off limits, he starts laughing/squeaking hysterically as he heads for it! Just this week I was able to avert several potential disasters involving a soda cup, my childhood photos, and my laptop thanks to the K.E.W. System.

Fortunately, my busy boy seems to be blessed with the ability to entertain himself at a relatively young age, provided there are enough random things around for him to explore. We've started "room time" recently, and he can spend almost 1 hour happily exploring his baby-proofed room (minus the poster he shredded the 1st day).

Another bonus is that I have no need of a gym. Hundreds of daily repetitions of hoisting a 26 lb. weight up the slide, onto the changing table, into the car, off of a trunk, and just up and down for kisses and belly blows is a workout in itself. He certainly will keep me in shape as I am quickly progressing from a large step, to a quick shuffle, to a run to keep up with him!

So here's hoping Keaton's next sibling is a ballerina-fairy-princess with a massive collection of frilly pink dresses, Barbies, and Breyer horses who likes to sleep as much as her mama does.

7 Happy Years

Today AG and I celebrated 7 years of marriage with a Chinese food dinner and 2 baby-free hours. As I reflected on our marriage this evening, I decided to jot down 7 tips that have helped us have an incredibly happy marriage thus far. Some of this was advice I was given, some of it I read, and others I have discovered firsthand--all of it I have internalized and benefitted from. I hope they inspire someone else as well!

In no particular order:

1. Never gripe to anyone about your husband.Don’t “bond” with other women by complaining about him.Complaining behind his back weakens your relationship and abases him in the eyes of others.If he changes something that bothered you, you won’t remember to go back and sing his praises to all the people whined to, so they will continue to have a low opinion of him!THIS INCLUDES YOUR MOTHER.If you have serious problem you can’t resolve on your own, seek wise counsel from a mature, discreet Christian.
2. Figure out what he wishes you would do with him, and do it, even if you don’t enjoy it very much at first.It may be as simple as dropping whatever you are doing to get a soda at the gas station (ask me how I know!) but it could make his day.
3. When he’s in a communicative mood, drop what you’re doing and join the conversation, even if it is 3:00 am and the baby will be up at 7:00.You will learn SO much during these times!They don’t happen often, so make the most of them.
4. Make fewer excuses for skipping s*x.Enough said.
5. Wear clothes that he likes on you, even if they are lime green and/or “not your style.”
6. Embrace his “guy time” instead of just tolerating or even resenting it.Be a warm and welcoming hostess to his friends and they will gather at your house and you may even enjoy yourself.
7. Touch him A LOT.Little, hugs, squeezes, pats, neck scratches, arm brushes, etc. throughout the day mean the world to him.

My 1st Easy Scrapbook Page

Ever since I was introduced to scrapbooking as a teen I've loved the idea of it. I've spend hours browsing the aisles of JoAnn's fingering the crisp, colorful papers and admiring the adorable little embellishments and adornments. However, scrapbooking this way takes money, time, and "creative decisiveness"--all of which I lack right now. Of the three problems, I think my biggest one is "creative decisiveness," by which I mean being able to narrow my ideas down to an acutal layout and execute it. I agonize over the best arrangement and end up not buying anything because I might find a cuter item or have a better idea later. Thus, in 10 years I have not made a single scrapbook layout!

Today, however, I decided that it is more important to me to have a scrapbook than to have the perfect scrapbook. Thus, I decided to use the free (or almost free) resources I have on hand--my computer, printer, and cardstock. Instead of buying scrapbooking software or credits on a scrapbooking site, I'm making use of Publisher and free clip art and font sources. Since I'm nursing my 8-month-old, I can work on digital layouts while I feed him without feeling like I'm "wasting" time by not cleaning the house. Plus, if I decide to rework a layout to make it better, I can edit it and print it out again later for very cheap.

Here's my first layout. Keaton loves to see pictures of babies (including himself!) and giggled aloud at the picture of himself giggling aloud. Hmm, if I scrapbooked that I could end up with an endless series of him giggling at a picture of himself giggling at a picture of himself giggling...

2 Minutes in the Life of Goopy

Isn't he an expressive little guy? He is 3.5 months old in these photos.

What's in a (nick)name?

My husband (a.ka. Alpha Geek/AG/Boy) has always been a nicknamer. Co-workers, classmates, gas station employees, random people he sees walking down the sidewalk, and our cars all have nicknames. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember the given names of some of my college friends because I can only remember his nicknames for them! When we were dating, he started calling me "Girl" and it has stuck through almost 7 years of marriage. The looks of horror we get from people who don't know us when he calls me "Girl" in public are pretty funny. They seem to equate what we see as a sweet term of endearment with "WOMAN, GET ME A BEER!" I generally call him "Boy" in return, though I do actually use his real name as well. When our son was born, AG quickly dubbed him "Goopy." Those of you who have children (or ever were one!) will understand why. Other nicknames for him currently include "Little Boy" and the lengthened "Goopster McCrankypants"

What amuses me is that Alpha Geek is very particular about nicknames. He refuses to call anyone by a "corruption" of their given name unless requested to do so. For example (hypothetically, of course) if your name was Caroline, he would never call you Carol or Linny, but sprain your ankle once, and you'd never shake the moniker "Gimpy"! When acquaintances or co-workers "corrupt" his given name, he doesn't answer until they say it correctly. One particularly stubborn guy (who knew this!) chased AG down the hall, calling him by a "corrupted" name 20 times. When the guy finally said AG's real name, AG stopped, turned around, and said, "Yes?" as though he had never heard the guy before. Fortunately, the guy learned from the experience and always addresses him by his real name now. If the guy made up some random name for him like "Mr. Nacho Cheese", however, he'd answer in a heartbeat!

When Geeks Procreate

As a child and teen, I was called strange, a geek, teacher's pet, etc. nearly every day. It turns out that liking school, reading the dictionary for fun, respecting your teachers and parents, hanging out at the library as much as possible, and getting straight A's doesn't make you popular in school. I was never a "Magic: the Gathering" kind of geek, but just a smart, driven, walking-dictionary/thesaurus kind of geek.

My husband was known as the "Alpha Geek" amongst his friends in college. Though just barely 17, he quickly became the geek to which other geeks looked up--and not just because he towered over them at 6'3". For one thing, he had the distinction of being able to "pass" in the "normal" world and had a girlfriend--me. Secondly, he was observant and tactful. It was he who would kindly point out to the others when they stepped over social boundaries (storing leftover food in the beard, wearing too short pants, prattling incessantly at an uninterested person, etc.)

Over the years I have discovered that there are some hazards of being married to a well-socialized geek. It turns out he can secretly fulfill his inner geeky dreams while coming across as normal to me. Most recently, I just found out that I unwittingly named my first child after a video game character! We picked the name Keaton months ago after "Alpha Geek" suggested it. When I asked where he had heard it (as I never had), he just said, "I knew a guy with that name when I was a kid." Yeah, well, it turns out the guy he "knew" with that name was a ROBOT from AeroFighters 2.

I'm not sure I'll be sharing this fact with my parents. They already think I'm strange for "letting" AG turn our dining room into an arcade. Since all of our friends would rather play four-player Ninja Turtles than eat at a table, I personally think it was a very practical move. Knowing that their first grandchild is named after a robot may just be too much for them. (ADDED: I did tell my parents, and they like the name, finding it to be different enough to be uncommon, but traditional-sounding enough to not be weird. They are amused about the source.)