10/10/08 The Doll

Jobsite meeting today. We decided earlier this week to move a doorway into a guest room, and it's been reframed and looks great. Now you can see through the new doorway, through an arched entryway, down a hall, and straight through to the original old swinging door (on the left). It's a terrific improvement and is going to make that whole space wonderful to move around in.


Siding's going up!


Windows are all in too.

We got a lot straightened out today, I'm glad.

Last night's project was decorating cupcakes for a little birthday celebration for Katrina at Tonya's. I made the cupcakes from a mix -- horrors! I haven't done that in a long time, and I really didn't like it. My standards have gone way up. I did make the frosting, and made liberal use of my box of sprinkles and candies to decorate. This was a lot of fun.


Katrina cried at first when I arrived at Tonya's and we wouldn't let her get her shoes to leave, but she got over it when she realized that cake is involved.



Then Tonya gave her a present -- a doll! Her first doll! Silly boy-mom-me, this hadn't ever occurred to me. Tonya, having three daughters, knows better.


Katrina loves it, and calls it "my baby." At home, she sat the doll down on a chair next to her at the table, and talked to it, and to me. I'm seeing all sorts of typical girl-behavior emerging now -- it's very cute, but it still makes me nervous!

I was invited this evening to enter the Lego-building world by Gabriel, quite an honor. The boys really enjoyed having me sit with them, ask them questions, and build my own little dune buggy, and asked if I would "build Legos" again with them tomorrow. So sweet! Building Legos is much more my speed than tea parties, but it seems I'm in for both, and I'm happy about that.

10/10/08

10/9/08 Depression

I should have known.

Yesterday seemed so awful, far beyond what it should have been given the circumstances. I've been stuck in traffic before, and I've felt tired before, it's not the end of the world.

I'm not a depressive person. I know what it's like to be bummed out, as we all do. On the whole, I face setbacks head-on, form a plan, and find comfort in taking action. I don't really get "depressed," and I don't sink into gridlock.

But the unshakeable blues, sense of despondency, hopelessness, futility; of
obstacles being too great, of being trapped and helpless....that's different, and new. That feels a whole lot different from being annoyed about something. Rationally I still know that nothing in our lives is that bad, but sometimes it all "feels" completely beyond my control, like it would be no different if I were spending life in a dark well.

Last night as I was falling asleep, I was startled awake by bright flashes in my eyes. I went fitfully back to sleep, only to be tormented by dreams of being so
furious at Julian for being in the office that I roared at him, red eyes blazing, and cruelly bit his back numerous times until he was able to escape, shirt torn and back bleeding, screaming in terror and betrayal. Then Katrina crawled up on top of a rickety plastic cart and tumbled off headfirst and I barely looked up from my desk, irritated, letting Gabriel decide if her neck was broken or not.

I wake up from stuff like this deeply rattled, feeling as stricken as if I had truly lived through these awful scenes. It takes hours to shake off the black feelings, and for relief at it only being a dream to creep in. I spend the day feeling like every time I close my eyes, tears will stream out.

That's depression. Clinical, chemical, depression. Add that to yesterday's
inability to think, exhaustion, flashes of light and awful nightmares, and you have: migraine. It took until tonight for the strange wave feelings and intense pain to strike.

In a perverse twist, it's something of a relief to know that life isn't really that bad; it's just the chemicals talking. Some people struggle with these demons throughout their lives, and far far worse I do. I'm "lucky" -- migraine-depression doesn't impede my ability to have a fun evening with friends, I can usually detox through exercise, and it's not a day-to-day battle. Indeed, my migraines have overall been on hiatus since the summer, catching me with my guard down.

Still, real-life genuine bummers are no help, such as another major drop in the stock market today. That's nothing compared to the awful feeling left from the nightmare of torturing my poor sweet son, but I could still do without them.

Going through the motions of dinner-making was excruciating tonight as the full-on migraine settled in, but there was still comfort in keeping busy and normal. And after dinner, I had the best therapy possible: floor games that involved crawling, chasing, hiding, rolling, and being pushed, with a delighted 2-year-old. That was topped off with a game of "Boing!", in which Katrina and I did little frog-leaps down the hall again and again, with Julian joining in too. Her funny floppy hops and full-body giggles were exactly what my sick, worried psyche needed. Then after she was in bed, I had Julian help me sort the boys' laundry by throwing items into bins and drawers for each boy, resulting in lots of high-fives and kisses.

I'm in for a rough night, but thanks to the simple joys of childhood, against steep odds, I had a good evening.

10/9/08

10/8/08 Balance

Commute was horrendous this morning.
Work was extraordinarily boring and impossible due to a sickly slow computer.
I was dead tired and distracted by a remodeling issue.
I went home early and took a sound nap, completely unable to function.

Gabriel lost his second tooth.
Julian's proud of reading books every day.
Katrina is full of new phrases and antics.

Today when I picked her up, she was pushing a jogging stroller around Tonya's driveway, with Dylan happily holding onto it.

They were SO SO cute.

I miss scrapbooking.
I want to volunteer for the PTA and help with Running Club.
I want to take the kids to swim lessons.
I even want to be a soccer mom! (I draw the line at the minivan though.)

Something's wrong with this picture!

Never mind me, I'm just super grumpy today. Or was until I went on a Mom's Night Out to a ceramic-painting place tonight. That's more like it.

10/8/08

10/7/08 The neighborhood bank

On the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Court St, not far from where I grew up in Brooklyn, was a small neighborhood bank that held my first savings account.

I still remember the time I ventured bravely in there to open my first bank account. I still feel so bad for the poor lady who had to break it to this earnest 11-year-old girl that she didn't have enough for the minimum deposit of $5! It took a few weeks, but I saved and earned enough to open my first account with just over $7. That bank held my entire net worth, which never topped $100, until I went to college.

That bank is gone now. But the building remains, and today my brother sent a photo of its replacement. If this isn't a sign of hope, I don't know what is. (See the lit vertical sign at the very left of the photo.)


Gabriel decided to finish his entire week's worth of language homework tonight. When that kid gets motivated, there's no stopping him. Just one night's worth of homework was to write a sentence with each of his spelling words, of which there are 10 required and 5 optional. Ten minutes? No way.

I couldn't persuade him from doing the optional harder words; he insisted and likes them better. The regular words are ones like "map," "cap," "me," and "us," but the optional "context" words are baffling -- "flexible," "rigid," "rough," "pointy," and "opaque!" Opaque?! Are you freakin' kidding me? Is this a first-grade spelling list or SAT preparation?! But, he can spell and use all of them -- in fact, he had an easier time coming up with sentences using them ("Wood is opaque") than sentences with "us" and "her."

I found a fond moment in the homework though. Gabriel's sentence using the word "me" was "My Mom loves me." You better believe it, kid!

10/7/08

10/6/08 Teacher Conference

We had our conference with Gabriel's teacher today!

We got across our two main points well, I think. One was that the homework takes far more than 10 minutes. Two is that it's designed in such a way that doesn't allow the child to complete it themselves. We don't mind helping if they need it, but it should give them the chance to have a sense of accomplishment, pride, completion, and independence. The recent daily math homework he's had (hunting around the house for thermometers and dates) is part of a pilot program, and our feedback was strong, clear and negative.

Her feedback to us about Gabriel was interesting, some surprising. She said he always comes up with topics to talk about in class, that he's good at explaining his reasoning process (like how he came up with an answer), and that he's honest. We can never drag anything out of him about school, so to hear that he participates enthusiastically was a nice surprise.

She also emphasized his self-confidence and how things roll off his back, that getting things wrong never fazes him. Indeed, Gabriel has never been hampered by sensitivity. Also, she said his math skills are very strong, both his knowledge and his ability to learn new things, he gets thing quickly and easily. On the downside, he hums in class a lot, distracting other students. A written goal was to "be aware of his actions" -- the flip side to not being very sensitive.

To our surprise, though we were only the 4th set of parents she'd talked to so far, we were the first ones who'd offered any feedback at all on the quantity or quality of the homework. She was gracious and welcoming and appreciative of our feedback.

As we were waiting for the conference, we watched Gabriel playing soccer. Goalie again, this time for quite a while.

I watched with interest as two different sets of three boys at a time taunted him, disrupting the cones, standing in front of him, and generally harassing him, while the "coach" was occupied at the other end. Gabriel stood up to all three boys at a time -- one set with hockey sticks -- pushing them out of the way, hollering at them to stop -- angry but not intimidated. He was completely focused on getting the cones back in place and resuming their guardianship. No complaining to the coach, no crying, not so much as a glance at me, just complete attention to the game.

New phrases of Katrina's today:

"I want to find the other shoe!"

"I want a song!" (demanding to sit on Dad's lap while Dad was overseeing Gabriel's piano practice).

"I pushed you down!" (after doing exactly that to me)

And my favorite, spoken with seething venom as she furiously objected to my brushing her hair:

"You're BAD!"

10/6/08

10/5/08 Two!

Two years. I can't believe it.

Two years ago today, at 2:30am, the pain I'd been living with for months organized itself into distinct moments. "I think this is it," I gasped to an alarmed Dave. Less than four hours later, these words changed my life: "It's a girl!"

And what a girl. And what a two years with that girl!

A party for a two-year-old is really for the mom and the scrapbook, and I think that's fine reason enough. We had a nice small group of moms & 2006-born toddlers, though the older siblings brought the kid-count to 10.

Notice anything missing from this table? Girls!

And another boy wasn't able to make it. Gina was the only girl guest today. Somehow, all three years of Las Madres moms' groups I belong to are dominated by boys. I've joked that that's because boy-moms need more support, but could that be far from the truth?

I really had fun making and decorating this cake. My years (yes, years now!) of scrapbooking have really helped me find my design instincts. A vision of a brightly colored cake with flowers on it had popped into my head, and instead of being completely stumped, I went with it. It doesn't look anything like what I'd pictured, but that's the artistic process.

And it has just the right amount of lopsidedness to give it that authentic homemade touch.

Happy Birthday To Youuu....


I love this photo because you can see Gina and Gabriel in the background escaping to Gabriel's room to play Legos.


Mm, tasty frosting! Never mind table manners!


(Oh the frosting...ugh, I felt so bad....we had a mom and two kids with soy and egg allergies, and I'd taken great care to make sure the cake was friendly to them. Only to realize while chatting about the frosting recipe that it contained shortening, which is made from soybean oil. The package said "All Vegetable!" and I didn't think past that. Argh! The mom was very gracious about the mistake, but I know this created a real pain for her today.)

Stacey gave me the great idea of decorating cookies to give as party favors. This is a great idea, but it's a ton more time and work than buying a bunch of little diddlies. And two of our birthday guests couldn't have these anyway (eggs).



Still, it was worth it to see the birthday girl's delight in a stack of '2' cookies.



I couldn't believe it...in an eerie deja-vu, she almost wouldn't eat this blue '2' cookie, holding it while plowing through the others (no she didn't get the entire plate), playing with it and pretending it walks. This was just what Gabriel did with a '3' cookie once, and he cried and cried when it broke apart. Katrina didn't take it that far, and she was easily persuaded to eat the cookie.

(A note about the wardrobe change: Katrina got herself soaked in a water spigot out back, so I took this as an opportunity to see how new and old clothes fit. This adorable new shirt was one that Gabriel had picked out. He proudly observed that the little berries stand out. "It's three dimensional!" By far the most comments I get about the cuteness of Katrina's clothes or hair come from her smitten brothers.)

Then the moment of truth....this big box that's been tormenting the boys for a few days can finally be opened!


She loves this barn playset, and played with it nonstop until bedtime. She even permitted Julian to play with her. She shows more interest in the animals as characters than I remember her brothers doing; lining them up or giving them names or roles: "Mama!" "Baby!"

Thank You Bonne Maman and Papa Paul!!!!!

Look at this beautiful card Bonne Maman and Papa Paul sent. Gabriel and Julian were really impressed with the drawing. Julian asked with his precious wide-eyed incredulity, "Papa Paul did all that -- even the coloring?!"


What a wonderfully satisfying birthday!

10/5/08

10/4/08 Costume Day

Halloween Season is here! Recognize this costume?

Except she's taller and chubbier around the waist than her skinny older brother, who was also 4 months younger at the time.

Katrina wasn't really into the trick-or-treat portion of the party until she found the bag of ducks. Ducks and trucks for her today (other kids kept pushing her around in this, it was pretty funny.)


After her nap, we took The Three to the house, mostly because Dave and I both needed to be there to notarize documents with our next-door neighbors, thanks to our favorite travelling notary, Melissa. She and Katrina were happy to see each other again. I didn't get a photo of them, darnit.

I did get a few crummy ones of Katrina endlessly looping through the under-stair storage hideaway.



10/4/08

10/3/08 Croup

Gabriel saw one of those big battery-operated Jeeps that kids can ride in today, and said he wanted one. I told him he could save up for it if he wanted, so he asked, "How much does it cost? 60 bucks is my limit!" Such the budgeter.

Julian came home from school early with a temperature today, which I wouldn't have bothered with a doctor's visit for, except for the labored breathing and occasional very strange sounds coming from his throat. He was overall fine by the time we got to see the doc, but the symptoms I described sounded just like a mild croup, which is going around, she said.

This evening, it hit him a lot harder, with a higher temperature that put him to sleep as soon as we returned from picking up the other two. He woke up after dinner, coughing the telltale "barky" cough typical of croup. It's the most surreal sound I've ever heard come from a child; it casts itself away and is strangely stuttered and just doesn't sound human.

While I was frantically searching for some Cloraseptic (in the hopes of briefly relieving his throat pain from coughing), I heard crying in addition to the bark-coughing. I called out to Dave in slight irritation, "WHAT is Gabriel crying about? I can only handle one at a time!" Dave called back to me that Gabriel was sitting right next to him and wasn't crying at all, it was Julian. "No it's not, Julian's in the other bathroom right near me --check Katrina!!" Dave called out again, "Katrina's fine, that's Julian!" "Oh, give me a break," I thought as I finally turned up the bottle and rushed back to Julian, "that's a completely different sound coming from a different place and a different child than that awful coughi..." I was stunned as I entered the bathroom and saw Julian alternately crying (sounds normal) and barking (sounds absolutely horrible). It was Julian. Oh my goodness.

He was so miserable it brought me to tears as I searched for ways to help him. I persuaded him to go into the shower bathroom with me and I turned on the hot water to make it all steamy. I don't know if that helped him, but sitting him on my lap, rocking him, holding him and talking softly to him helped me. He put his head against my cheek and twice, he turned to kiss me.

Suddenly, he'd had enough of the steamroom, got up abruptly and practically ran back to bed. I sat on the floor and watched him as he quickly fell asleep, thinking about the millions of mothers around the world who also look helplessly at their sleeping sick children, far sicker and hungrier than mine. There is nothing worse than seeing your child suffer.

Thankfully, about half an hour later, Julian got up again and seemed to feel better. He asked for dinner, then ice cream, and then put himself straight back to bed. This really isn't a bad case of croup, but even a "good" case sounds downright eerie.

Windows and doors are getting installed in our house! The rest of the windows are awesome, though now that they're in, it's quite obvious that we should have ordered some with obscured glass (like a downstairs bathroom window, duh!).


We're getting a lot of improvements that should have been there to begin with, such as a beadboard detail on all the second-story roof underhangs, to match the original part of the house. Actually, the new stuff in place is done a lot better than the old from 1913.


I'm holding my breath about the big focal-point living room window -- if I had a mouse I'd stretch the upper section downward and make the rectangles squarer. It's not perfect, but as I say about everything else, if that's the biggest mistake we made, then we're in good shape.


Four south-facing windows, and a tall new dormer, will brighten up our formerly cave-dark family room, though it will take some serious fencing and landscaping to keep us from getting too personal with our neighbors.


I love bay windows, and this one was intended to be low enough to really sit on, hence the elongated vertical proportion. I can't wait to sew a beautiful cushion and some beautiful pillows to fit into the window seat.


With every passing step on this project, I'm alternatively thrilled and terrified. I really, really wish the economic news and the stock market would get off the airwaves, it's seriously stressing me out listening to 2 hours of bad news and grim predictions. It's giving me genuine financial jitters for the first time in many years. What if our line of credit gets cut off and we have to sell seriously depressed assets? What if our house value falls so low that we find ourselves upside-down? What if Dave's company goes belly-up? A week ago, these scenarios were unthinkable. Usually I tackle "what-ifs" with "thens," and formulate a plan for any potential bad angle, but I don't have an answer for the next Great Depression.

Maybe it's a good thing that the nervousness about remodeling and the national economy are happening at the same time -- get it all over with in one fell swoop. Saves money on alcohol.

But even if we were to lose our house and have to move to Ecuador, what I need the most right now is for my little boy to feel better.

10/3/08

10/2/08 "Kiss Mom!"

Tonight I turned on the radio in the hopes that a sentence or two of the VP debate might filter their way through kid-cacophony. Amused at the moderator's comment that neither candidate had answered a direct question (a pet peeve of mine of all politicians -- answer the darned question!), I asked Dave if he remembers Gwen Ifill from when he used to watch the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour.

So we opened the cabinet doors and turned on the TV in the living room, a rare event for the kids around here. We've never resumed our Sunday-night half-hour of TV, so the kids have no TV habit at all at home, though they still get bursts of screen time on the computer and Dave's iPhone. I can't imagine how we'd fit in TV with Gabriel's homework and all, it's out of the question.

Julian and Katrina instantly planted themselves in front of the TV, not realizing right away how kid-unfriendly this show would be. Katrina, being (almost!) 2, found great delight in the images anyway. There's been so much angst about Sarah Palin that many readers will find this truly mortifying: she saw a closeup of the candidate and shouted, "Kiss Mom!" and stood up and kissed the screen!

Not having developed partisanship yet, later she also kissed Joe Biden's image. (I think "Mom" was just her way of saying adult brunette woman; she didn't actually think that was me.)

Katrina's been so funny and adorable lately. Even her usual mealtime tantrum has largely subsided down to plain old toddler finickiness and unpredictability. She likes to sit at the table now, which despite the extra mess and lack of room for a 5th person (as if a mom can actually sit during dinner anyway), I'm all in favor of. Now if only she'd eat more than "uhr-uhrt" (yogurt).

10/2/08

10/1/08 Getting sent home

Aww, how peaceful, how idyllic, how warm, this little scene of all three having breakfast together (Cream of Wheat with milk and strawberries for Julian).

The behind-the-scenes version, however, is a lot more hectic: tending the stove, cutting, arranging, mixing. Then it takes a long time to cool enough to eat, it's a sticky mess to clean up and the whole thing sucks up valuable seconds in the morning. And Katrina would only eat a few bites, though she couldn't get enough on Sunday.

But I can't resist putting raisins in the shape of a smiley-face on the cereal. And that's OK.

I left work at 12:30 today, because it's October 1st and my contract through the agency expired Sept. 30th, and my own corporation's approval as a vendor has been delayed again. It was all I could do to maintain a serious expression when my manager was somberly telling me to go home until the contract is straightened out, lest I not get paid.

YIPPEEE! I'm so outta here!

I made a beeline for Rancho San Antonio, and spent some quality time with the late-summer brown foliage and all the warm earthy scents. I had a very tough run on a modest route that used to be a "walk in the park" for me when I was in running shape, but I loved being reunited with the hills and the canyon and the tree canopy again.

I always stretch before I run, including some modified yoga poses (meaning, I don't know the right way to do it).


Stretching is supposed to help prevent tendonitis, on the off-chance my back would ever allow me to run enough for my ankles -- remember them? -- to become a problem again.

Tonight's homework struggle had me in tears. What an astounding PAIN IN THE ---- ...! well, you know.

Either Dave or I were completely absorbed in pushing Gabriel along for a full hour, and I was really starting to resent this control of our time. Meantime, Katrina peed twice in training pants, squandering a fabulous potty-training opportunity.

Every night, there are four elements to Gabriel's homework: a language exercise, spelling, a math exercise (now due the next day) -- these are supposed to take 10 minutes -- then an additional 10 minutes of reading.

Today the math exercise was exceptionally insipid: the student is supposed to tell the parent about their favorite Explorations mathematics exercise they did today, and then draw it!! Gabriel had no idea what an Explorations exercise was, and neither did we. It took over 10 minutes to drag out of him any math exercise he did today in class. Finally, he came up with Minute Math, but couldn't describe it well enough for me to understand what it was about. He did say it had to do with writing something on a whiteboard, so he drew a whiteboard, complete with the brand name of the whiteboard maker at the bottom. This is math homework?!

I'm starting to notice that the aspects of the homework I like the least are those that look for other ways of looking at something, to put a concept into context of day-to-day life experience, relate it to the real world, make it hands-on....I think that's called "whole learning" in modern parlance. Maybe this is based on the kind of kid I have, or kind of kid I was, but I'm much more of the mindset to give the basics, teach the tools, focus on fundamentals. Not exclusively -- you can't learn a language without conversing in it for example, but you still have to start with the grammar and vocabulary. I think real-life examples should support that learning, not drive it.

Overall the math and language work he does in class looks pretty good, but it's all language and math. It was Julian who informed us tonight that "...sound travels in waves!" Oh, really? "Yeah, through air and water!" He likes his Wednesday science classes.

Dave and I are already actively practicing and working on how to discuss our concerns with Gabriel's teacher at our 20-minute conference on Monday. "No no dear, don't jump up, slam your hand on the table and shout 'THIS IS STUPID!!!' Try again...let's start with the positives...."

Still, homework couldn't completely dim the glow from running on my dear trails again today.

10/1/08

9/30/08 The way minds work

Tonight I commented that something was "random." Julian pondered this for a moment, then piped up, "That's like Peggy's...er, child!" Huh? After some probing, it turned out that he meant that the word "random" sounds like "Miranda." (And that he doesn't know the word "daughter.")

A few nights ago, I was half-listening to the Presidential debate on the radio, and Katrina picked up on the name "Dr. Kissinger." "Dah-ta KEES-GEH! Dah-ta KEES-GEH!" she chanted again and again. Not exactly baby talk.

At dinner tonight, I was reading Gabriel's weekly curriculum, and noted that he had P.E. tomorrow. "PEEEEE!" Gabriel hollered, and he stood up and thrust his crotch forward, pretended to hold himself and spray the room, still shouting "PEEEEEEE!!!"

Sigh. This is our hope for the future?

9/30/08

9/29/08 The Homework

There are lots of things wrong with our evenings. Homework isn't the only one.

But now Gabriel has daily math homework that must be done that day and turned in the next. Between the math, the spelling, the English worksheet, and the reading, it takes up the entire evening after dinner. I'm OK with homework in general, and I'm even OK with a lot of homework. But 6-year-olds who need to go to bed at 8:30 just don't have time for that much. It took 50 minutes to get the "10-minute" portion of his homework done tonight.

The math homework wasn't even the easy worksheet of equations that he can blow through himself in a few minutes. Instead, it was to list things around the house that have dates on them. Gabriel spent 10 minutes sitting in frustration trying to think of things until we were free enough to sit with him and help.

That's another thing -- a first-grader is apt to have young siblings in an un-self-sufficient stage of life, and we're frequently interrupted. Tonight, we were lucky that Julian and Katrina were playing very happily together, but other nights, we really have to come down on Julian for bugging Gabriel to play. I hate doing that.

Getting homework started before dinner, in theory, would be the answer, but there's absolutely no way that can happen. When I first walk in the door with all 3, I am on duty, dealing with making dinner, unpacking lunch sacks, changing Katrina, feeding Katrina (she insists on being spoon-fed now, and even when she doesn't, she still requires constant attention), putting things away, and maybe if I'm really really lucky, taking a few minutes to change my clothes and put my hair back. I can't possibly sit with Gabriel to help him with homework.

But even if I could, I don't want to push him through the door and right into the homework chair. The kid just got home, he'd like some unwind-time too. So it has to wait until after dinner when presumably things are calmed down. Yeah right: dinner cleanup, lunch prep, changing Katrina, herding Julian away, attending to assorted bumps and toy malfunctions, baby-bath, setting clothes out and maybe even sneaking in a moment of play with the younger two.

Our rental house is set up so that the "family room" is the large room off to the side when you first enter the house, and the "living room" is right off the kitchen. All the kids' toys are in the family room, and they play there, away from the kitchen. Overall this works well; we can eat dinner in peace and toys aren't scattered all over the living room.

But now, working-mom guilt creeps in. I don't have time in the evening to sit and play, and often they don't even want me to -- but I do wish I could watch them, talk to them, insert myself as I'm invited. Our reconstructed house will have a family room, eating area, and kitchen all together. I had doubts about that, but now I'm looking forward to it. Except we'll need to find a homework spot where the homeworker is protected from siblings and toy temptations, yet still accessible to the parent-partner-participant.

Grump.

9/29/08

9/28/08 The Water Frog

Katrina's new phrases now include "I finiss da PEES!" (I finish the peas) and "I found it -- on the floor!" and, when rocking on a footstool, "I make a noysssss!" (noise). These new phrases indicate some new conceptual expression now, indicating abstract things (noise) or locations (on the floor). She still doesn't do a lot of back-and-forth; mostly she answers "Naaaahhh!!!" if you ask something, with an occasional, "yeaaaaHHH!" but she sure is getting good at announcing her accomplishments.

When Gabriel was a toddler, I'd walk in a room and find things (usually cars) lined up all the time. Today, Katrina was doing the same thing, only this time with the little characters that came with the house playset.

It almost sounded like she was telling me what they were saying to each other. Oh no, she's turning into a girl on me!

I took the three to Michael's today to look for doodads for Julian's Halloween costume. As I was checking out, an elderly lady behind us on line smiled as she watched Gabriel play with Katrina's feet as she was sitting in the cart, making her giggle, with Julian watching closeby. She looked at me and said, "You're going to have a great Christmas!" then, very sincerely, "I wish I could see that."

Then I took them to the park near our house, briefly I warned the boys, because Katrina was way overdue for a nap. I'd planned for the day to be a down day, but they really needed to get out, so I stretched Katrina anyway. Fortunately, there was a frog water feature at the park, and she didn't budge from there.


I had a great time playing "soccer" with the boys, though I've never played and have no idea how to "handle" a soccer ball. I think the rules are sort of like hockey, but without the checking. My ignorance didn't bother the boys at all, we kicked it around together, tried to get it past each other, tried to steal it from each other and "scored" sometimes.

If I do turn into a soccer mom, does that mean I can play too?! This was fun! Making banners and organizing trips I'm not so sure about, but the running-around part is a blast.

Meantime, Katrina got herself completely dripping-wet soaked.


I'm not in the habit of bringing extra clothes, but I did have a towel in the car, so she went home in a diaper. Boy was she mad about being pulled off that frog though! I think I got as wet as she was from trying to carry her to the car. She really, really likes to play in water, we'll have to do this some more.

9/28/08