surfacing April 16, 2008

Hello there! Oy, has my non-posting been hanging over my head. Busy, busy, blah blah blah. I just today caught up on most of your blogs, and also deleted some subscriptions on my Google Reader, so I am feeling much more capable.

My parents are visiting, and Sherman’s birthday party was this past weekend. It went well and the weather held out for the afternoon. Lauren has some great photos. I can’t decide which my favorite is.

I don’t even really want to talk about it, because living it is more than enough, but our house has been Tantrum City lately. I’m not sure if it’s gotten worse, or if Train and I were just used to it and now having the additional audience of my mom and dad has brought it back into glaring focus. Sherman now hates, with the fires of a thousand hells, getting dressed. WTF? It takes two of us to get him dressed (even to go “outside” like he wants). Lately he doesn’t want to get out of the bathtub. I try to give him plenty of warning…draining the tub (which has the potential to send him spiraling off into Freak Out Land), putting away toys, telling him “I’m going to put away the laundry and when I get back we’re going to get dressed.” Sometimes he gets out willingly but still has a shit fit putting on pajamas. The other night I got him in his fleece sleeper, just to have him ask to take it off half an hour later and run around naked with no diaper. ??? Then there are just the random fits that have no explanation. “Do you want the light on?” “NO NO NO NO NO!” “Do you want the light off?” “NO NO NO NO NO!”

I’m guessing this is the “Terrible Twos”, and like I said, I feel like Train and I had gotten used to it (we take a mostly wait-it-out-slash-ignore-it approach) but it is still…draining. It’s hard to watch your son scream and cry and have no clue what his problem is.

It’s got me thinking more about how in the hell a toddler and a newborn can co-exist in the same house. Surely these fits are going to wake up the baby. And surely the middle-of-the-night crying is going to wake Sherman. I don’t get it. I’m trying not to think about it too much. That worked well for me with my first pregnancy.

Otherwise, Sherman had a great 24-month checkup on Friday, with no shots (just a finger stick), and the doctor even told us we didn’t have to worry about his habit of banging his head on the floor when he’s mad. Just frustration from not being able to communicate. I’ve actually noticed a huge increase in his speech. Sherman is really trying hard to imitate and repeat after us. It’s so exciting!! I always notice a big jump when my parents visit, but that may because I’m around him more during their visits because I take time off work.

In other news, my nosebleeds have gotten worse, and I’m going to see an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist next week. I’m actually very, very excited. I had told Train that as soon as this baby was born, I was going to go get checked out and see if anything could be done (perhaps the blood vessels in my nose could be cauterized, if that was the source). But after a sudden, gushing, messy episode in the car between Kay’s wedding and reception, he encouraged me to make an appointment now. Turns out, according to my OB, most of what the ENT might do to help me will be safe during pregnancy. We’ll see. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, and I can get some real relief.

hail to the redskins…wait, what? February 5, 2008

Well, I survived the Super Bowl party.

painted by Train

The party mainly consists of Train’s work friends and our random couples-with-or-without-kids friends in the area, and usually some of our college friends can make the trip from somewhere in Virginia, even though it is a crappy Sunday night game. Why why why? If it’s GOT to be Super Bowl “Sunday”, can we move the President’s Day holiday to the Monday after?

Train always wanted to have an “annual” something and at our first house there simply wasn’t enough room. We bought this house in November of 2005 so the 2006 Super Bowl was our housewarming party, when I was about 7 months pregnant. 2007 was stress time, because although this time I could drink, my mother-in-law didn’t come like I expected, and Sherman was 10 months old and didn’t have a bedtime or a sleep routine. I remember barricading myself in my bedroom with him watching Baby Einstein. Ditto was trying to do the same with our niece, but she was only about 4 months old and still sleeping all the time anyway. We have a split-level house and the noise travels all over the place.

I was dreading this year’s party. Actually, it really snuck up on me since Train ordered and mailed out the invitations with only minimal guest list input from me. I had to keep asking if so-and-so had even been invited. I hate the stress of whether or not we will have enough food, if the house is clean enough for guests, if the house has been completely disinfected after the guests leave, if Sherman will behave, what to do with all of the leftover food. At least we didn’t have to worry about leftover beer this year - since the preseason purchase of the kegerator, most everyone knew not to bring any extra.

I said I wasn’t going to clean, because the house is always so disgusting after the party, and really does anyone actually notice the spots on the kitchen floor when they are standing around crunching chips and dropping brownie crumbs? But of course my inner OCD got the best of me and by Saturday afternoon I was mopping, Cloroxing the refrigerator shelves, and windexing the french doors.

This year I once again couldn’t drink (although Train fixed a great cranberry/raspberry alcohol-free punch) but I was more confident that Sherman would be able to go down a little late and stay asleep even with the noise. He usually goes to bed around 8. I figured it wouldn’t hurt him to stay up until 9, since most of our guests are usually gone by then.

Of course, he spent his entire (regularly two hour) afternoon nap time goofing off in his crib. And then Mrs. MIL (Train’s mom) brought mini M&Ms, and by about 4:00 Sherman was running laps through the kitchen and living room. As Ditto’s husband would say…he was off the heezy.

And of course, the new teachers at Train’s school this year are all fresh out of college, so our basement was one big frat party and they stayed until the bitter end, so I had to keep going down there to ask them to be quiet. Yes, me, even though they were Train’s friends, isn’t that always how it goes?

But Sherman had a terrific time. There were a good number of kids there (including a few dreaded “older” ones…these kids always seem so BIG and NOISY and…ACTIVE in my house, especially when they are ricocheting off the 3 basement couches three minutes after they walk in) and there were more than enough toys to keep everyone occupied, so the parents were even able to have a little break. I have no idea what Sherman ate all night, except that every time I saw him (which was pretty infrequently) he was munching on something, and eventually he dropped all pretense and just started pulling snacks off of people’s plates (hey, it’s his house). I did see Triathlete sneaking him some cake icing about an hour before bedtime. So basically Sherman was totally glassy-eyed and too junked-up to actually respond negatively to any of the kids, so that worked out well.

Triathlete plays with the kids

Kat and Robert brought the charming George who did really well for so much excitement. With all of his aunts and uncles I suppose he is used to it.

Around 8pm I thought Sherman was hitting the proverbial wall (actually leading me up the stairs to his room and Goodnight Moon), but he wandered downstairs to where the real party people were and I heard lots of cheering and clapping and Sherman giggles. After no nap and all of that excitement, he went down at 9 and we didn’t hear a peep out of him, even after the Giants comeback and the drunken roars that floated up the stairs.

enough toys for you?

On Monday morning we woke up to realize we had forgotten to turn the heat back on after the party, and it was 65 degrees in our room, which is upstairs. Train’s brother had spent the night in the basement, but he said he didn’t get too cold.

I spent most of yesterday cleaning up…another round of vacuuming/mopping, wiping down the counters, packing up leftovers and dishes to be returned to their owners, emptying coolers, putting the household junk back in its collection spot on the kitchen table, scouring the kitchen sink, some quality time on hands and knees trying to get jello droplets out of the basement carpet (tell me how you spill a jello shot? I mean…that takes talent), etc. I can say that each year, the day after Super Bowl is the day my house is the absolute cleanest. Train had taken off work too, but didn’t even make it to 11am before he went in, feeling too guilty about leaving his assistant alone for the day with some double PE classes.

Good night, George!!!