So dinner tonight was my version of stir-fry (not so authentic, but soy sauce was used, so close enough), not particularly to Calla's liking since it didn't contain a) pasta, b)cheese, or c) tomatoes. Looking across the table, she did see something she approved. Pointing at the bowl of stir-fry, she asked "broccolic?"
That's right. My child identified, reasonably articulated, and requested broccoli. She didn't gag on it, didn't let it sit on her plate until it was cold. She asked for broccoli and then she ate it. Willingly.
As my parents will attest, this does not resemble any of my childhood dinner table experiences. Perhaps there was some mix up in the hospital. Maybe she's getting sick. And maybe Carbondale is the place where the aliens really are launching their invasion and they're beginning with the babies. I can think of no other reasonable explanation for this phenomenon.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
18 months and counting
Since we're coming up on the big 18th (month) birthday, I thought I'd capture Calla's latest developmental milestones, as I see them.
Calla as Naturalist
Loves those birds. Loves the squirrels. Since she hasn't actually seen the deer who bed down in our cypress needles late at night, that's about the extent of Calla's nature encounters. She has recently branched out into new animal sound territories, however. For a long time, she thought the animal kingdom was divided into those who barked (or, "Foof!" as we say at our house) and those who meowed ("Mow" as in Chairman). Recently, though, she's allowed for horses to neigh and cows to moo. Hasn't actually witnessed a neighing horse or a mooing cow, so perhaps we'll have to try to make that happen when it's warmer.
Calla as Theologian
Calla loves her Little Lutheran magazine. Loves it. The July/August 08 issue gets read 2-3 times a night. The Christmas issue, now tucked away, had a poem about Christmas bells with the last two lines "Christ is born - Hooray! Hooray!" We read that poem six, seven, eight times in a row on the ride to Lexington. For a while afterwards, all I had to say was "Christ is born!" And Calla would throw up her hands and say "Hooray! Hooray!"
Tonight, lifting up all Calla's 26 pounds, I groaned "oh man." Calla answered, reverently, "Amen." As Joe would say, the indoctrination has started.
Calla as Anatomist
Nose. Mouth. Ears. Belly Button. Teeth. Eyes. You got 'em, Calla wants to point at them. The latest is "knees," which can range from hip to ankle on Calla. I've occasionally walked into Calla's room in the morning and after making sure I know her diaper is wet, she'll start in on the anatomy lesson. Nose. Ears. Teeth. The advice at our house is if you hear "EYES, " it's time to duck and cover because you've got a pointer coming straight to your corneas.
Calla the Gourmand
"Is she a picky eater?" asked the pediatrician at our last visit. Well. Not exactly. Pasta, tomatoes, avocados, applesauce are among her favorites, but if those aren't dominant on her plate, she'll really eat anything. Broccoli, peas, green beans, spinach (if chopped and mixed with pasta and tomatoes). Last night, she gobbled down couscous, broccoli and broiled salmon. At a play group last week, I served pasta salad. Other moms served small platefuls to their children who quietly ate a little and then got up to play. Calla got a huge bowl-ful, and sitting at her tot-sized table and chair, started scarfing away. 10 minutes later, all the other kids were playing. Calla's still sitting there, with a firm grip on her bowl, eating away. Hardly blinking and not taking her hand off her bowl lest a rambunctious child or Chloe knock it over. Nope, not a picky eater.
Calla the Nurturer
Loves those babies. Three dolls now, four if we include the "night night" doll. They need to be blanketed, strollered, fed, night-nighted, and occasionally scolded. The other baby who is a continual focus of loving is cousin Baby Julia. See, we made the mistake months ago of showing Calla how we can look at pictures on the web, including those of Baby Julia. Now, that's a popular past-time for Calla. She no longer wants to look at pictures of anyone else (except for maybe cousin Josh) and now only videos suffice. Baby Julia eating applesauce is the absolute favorite. Unfortunately, the Gormans don't post new videos all that frequently. Why? You got me. I think it has to do with a lack of family loyalty. I mean, for the love of pete, please, please Carrie and Brian... just turn on that camera and stick Julia in front of it. Even Bob might do the trick. If it could go on for 3 or 4 or 12 minutes, I might be able to fold some laundry.
Calla the Talker
Too many words to count and it grows daily. New words include "sit" and "fall." Sit, because she loves to sit in chairs and will frequently request being positioned in places she can't climb. Fall, because if I forget to remind Calla to sit carefully and not fall, she will repeat "fall, fall, fall" until I remind her about gravity and its implications. Not entirely sure it helps, but it's important to her that I say it apparently.
That's the snapshot. 26 pounds, 33 3/4 inches tall. 11 teeth and still not really enough hair for barrettes. She's a hoot, a stinker, one smart cookie, and our beautiful girl. It keeps getting better and better!
Calla as Naturalist
Loves those birds. Loves the squirrels. Since she hasn't actually seen the deer who bed down in our cypress needles late at night, that's about the extent of Calla's nature encounters. She has recently branched out into new animal sound territories, however. For a long time, she thought the animal kingdom was divided into those who barked (or, "Foof!" as we say at our house) and those who meowed ("Mow" as in Chairman). Recently, though, she's allowed for horses to neigh and cows to moo. Hasn't actually witnessed a neighing horse or a mooing cow, so perhaps we'll have to try to make that happen when it's warmer.
Calla as Theologian
Calla loves her Little Lutheran magazine. Loves it. The July/August 08 issue gets read 2-3 times a night. The Christmas issue, now tucked away, had a poem about Christmas bells with the last two lines "Christ is born - Hooray! Hooray!" We read that poem six, seven, eight times in a row on the ride to Lexington. For a while afterwards, all I had to say was "Christ is born!" And Calla would throw up her hands and say "Hooray! Hooray!"
Tonight, lifting up all Calla's 26 pounds, I groaned "oh man." Calla answered, reverently, "Amen." As Joe would say, the indoctrination has started.
Calla as Anatomist
Nose. Mouth. Ears. Belly Button. Teeth. Eyes. You got 'em, Calla wants to point at them. The latest is "knees," which can range from hip to ankle on Calla. I've occasionally walked into Calla's room in the morning and after making sure I know her diaper is wet, she'll start in on the anatomy lesson. Nose. Ears. Teeth. The advice at our house is if you hear "EYES, " it's time to duck and cover because you've got a pointer coming straight to your corneas.
Calla the Gourmand
"Is she a picky eater?" asked the pediatrician at our last visit. Well. Not exactly. Pasta, tomatoes, avocados, applesauce are among her favorites, but if those aren't dominant on her plate, she'll really eat anything. Broccoli, peas, green beans, spinach (if chopped and mixed with pasta and tomatoes). Last night, she gobbled down couscous, broccoli and broiled salmon. At a play group last week, I served pasta salad. Other moms served small platefuls to their children who quietly ate a little and then got up to play. Calla got a huge bowl-ful, and sitting at her tot-sized table and chair, started scarfing away. 10 minutes later, all the other kids were playing. Calla's still sitting there, with a firm grip on her bowl, eating away. Hardly blinking and not taking her hand off her bowl lest a rambunctious child or Chloe knock it over. Nope, not a picky eater.
Calla the Nurturer
Loves those babies. Three dolls now, four if we include the "night night" doll. They need to be blanketed, strollered, fed, night-nighted, and occasionally scolded. The other baby who is a continual focus of loving is cousin Baby Julia. See, we made the mistake months ago of showing Calla how we can look at pictures on the web, including those of Baby Julia. Now, that's a popular past-time for Calla. She no longer wants to look at pictures of anyone else (except for maybe cousin Josh) and now only videos suffice. Baby Julia eating applesauce is the absolute favorite. Unfortunately, the Gormans don't post new videos all that frequently. Why? You got me. I think it has to do with a lack of family loyalty. I mean, for the love of pete, please, please Carrie and Brian... just turn on that camera and stick Julia in front of it. Even Bob might do the trick. If it could go on for 3 or 4 or 12 minutes, I might be able to fold some laundry.
Calla the Talker
Too many words to count and it grows daily. New words include "sit" and "fall." Sit, because she loves to sit in chairs and will frequently request being positioned in places she can't climb. Fall, because if I forget to remind Calla to sit carefully and not fall, she will repeat "fall, fall, fall" until I remind her about gravity and its implications. Not entirely sure it helps, but it's important to her that I say it apparently.
That's the snapshot. 26 pounds, 33 3/4 inches tall. 11 teeth and still not really enough hair for barrettes. She's a hoot, a stinker, one smart cookie, and our beautiful girl. It keeps getting better and better!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Right here. Right now.
There are days when I think wistfully back to my full-time work life. How I went to meetings where people listened to me. How I traveled places and people wanted to hear me speak. How I made decisions every day, important ones, ones that made a difference. And how there were people in cubes next door with whom I shared a sarcastic comment or a coffee/diet coke break.
And there are days when all I can think about is the to-do list I created. Like yesterday, when my house was still reeling from the combination play group/book group launch (6 moms, 8 kids) on Thursday (thanks, Catrina, for the idea!). And breakfast dishes were still sitting out and laundry was piling up. And there was that pesky portion of my address book who never received our Christmas card, and I now have to figure out how to turn our Merry Christmas! picture into a Happy New Year! card. Not to mention a tantalizingly nearly finished cross-word puzzle if I could just remember whether the shorthand style is called "Cregg" or "Clegg" (FYI - Gregg).
But then Calla woke up just 50 minutes into her nap and clearly was still tired. Usually, I can get her to lie back down, but that wasn't working. So, my options are a) just get her up and deal with a cranky and tired child, or b) take her into our bed and lie down with her. I suspect that sleep experts would find a better third option, and say that my option B is only encouraging Calla to wake up from naps early, but she takes good naps at day care, and I haven't heard that Ms. Michelle curls up in Calla's cot for that to happen. The other downside to option B is that then I'm trapped, missing out on my precious naptime to-do list completion, since Calla's favorite nap-with-mama position is lying directly on top of me.
But that's what I did, fortunately with a good book close at hand. And as I lay there, with Calla's head nestled near my collarbone and one arm launched protectively across my neck, listening to her deep breathing and baby snores, I realized that for all the meetings I was missing, the trips I wasn't taking, the items not being checked off my to-do list, there just wasn't anywhere else that I wanted to be at that moment.
She woke up after about an hour. We played a rousing game of peek-a-boo, listened to bird songs, and went down for a snack of goldfish crackers, diluted orange juice and, because mom was in a benevolent mood, a few vanilla wafers.
Life at home isn't all warm fuzzy moments. I still miss working, and doing important things that can be measured and applauded. I miss coffee breaks, across-the-cube-jokes, and the sense of accomplishment after a good day. And after being ignored by dog, cat, and child, I'm not always in a vanilla wafer place. But yesterday, during our nap time, life was good and I was just where I was supposed to be.
And there are days when all I can think about is the to-do list I created. Like yesterday, when my house was still reeling from the combination play group/book group launch (6 moms, 8 kids) on Thursday (thanks, Catrina, for the idea!). And breakfast dishes were still sitting out and laundry was piling up. And there was that pesky portion of my address book who never received our Christmas card, and I now have to figure out how to turn our Merry Christmas! picture into a Happy New Year! card. Not to mention a tantalizingly nearly finished cross-word puzzle if I could just remember whether the shorthand style is called "Cregg" or "Clegg" (FYI - Gregg).
But then Calla woke up just 50 minutes into her nap and clearly was still tired. Usually, I can get her to lie back down, but that wasn't working. So, my options are a) just get her up and deal with a cranky and tired child, or b) take her into our bed and lie down with her. I suspect that sleep experts would find a better third option, and say that my option B is only encouraging Calla to wake up from naps early, but she takes good naps at day care, and I haven't heard that Ms. Michelle curls up in Calla's cot for that to happen. The other downside to option B is that then I'm trapped, missing out on my precious naptime to-do list completion, since Calla's favorite nap-with-mama position is lying directly on top of me.
But that's what I did, fortunately with a good book close at hand. And as I lay there, with Calla's head nestled near my collarbone and one arm launched protectively across my neck, listening to her deep breathing and baby snores, I realized that for all the meetings I was missing, the trips I wasn't taking, the items not being checked off my to-do list, there just wasn't anywhere else that I wanted to be at that moment.
She woke up after about an hour. We played a rousing game of peek-a-boo, listened to bird songs, and went down for a snack of goldfish crackers, diluted orange juice and, because mom was in a benevolent mood, a few vanilla wafers.
Life at home isn't all warm fuzzy moments. I still miss working, and doing important things that can be measured and applauded. I miss coffee breaks, across-the-cube-jokes, and the sense of accomplishment after a good day. And after being ignored by dog, cat, and child, I'm not always in a vanilla wafer place. But yesterday, during our nap time, life was good and I was just where I was supposed to be.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Not in the Owner's Manual
You'd think I'd know better. After hearing all the sleep horror stories of a few of Calla's toddler peers, I told one mom (with a hint of pride - what did the greeks say about hubris?) this morning that Calla takes one hour-and-a-half nap each day and then sleeps 11.5 to 12 hours at night.
And then naptime came. She alternated between shrieking and then playing quietly with her doll in her crib - the latter just long enough to lull me into thinking she was napping. And then - bam! There would start the shrieks again. On and off for two hours. Just when I was about to admit defeat, I peaked in, and she was sound asleep. No idea what this will do to our typical 7 pm bedtime schedule. And if she's not asleep by 7, I'll get no parenting help from Joe since the Florida-Oklahoma game is on tonight and I've already been warned where his focus will be.
So far, that's how I'd sum up the parenting adventure: Just when we think we've got it all figured out, Calla shows us who's really running the show.
And then naptime came. She alternated between shrieking and then playing quietly with her doll in her crib - the latter just long enough to lull me into thinking she was napping. And then - bam! There would start the shrieks again. On and off for two hours. Just when I was about to admit defeat, I peaked in, and she was sound asleep. No idea what this will do to our typical 7 pm bedtime schedule. And if she's not asleep by 7, I'll get no parenting help from Joe since the Florida-Oklahoma game is on tonight and I've already been warned where his focus will be.
So far, that's how I'd sum up the parenting adventure: Just when we think we've got it all figured out, Calla shows us who's really running the show.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Happy new year!
We rang in the new year in Lexington, with Joe's sister Jeri and Calla's beloved cousin Josh. My gauge these days for the success of a visit is based on Calla's sleep pattern - did she or didn't she? And, I'm pleased to say that the visit was indeed a good one. We sat around, played games, ate well, and yes, slept straight through the night (2 out of 3 isn't too bad). And enjoyed being family, which is the best part.
Calla's love for her babies and their accoutrement has not dimmed - and in fact grew, thanks to the addition of a play bottle and sippy cup given to her by Josh and Jeri. She wakes up in the morning and one of her first words to me (after she's made sure I know she has a wet diaper) is "Baby?" So much for going back to bed with mom.
Joe and I will experience a "first" tonight - a non-family evening baby sitter. We're actually going out to dinner somewhere without a child and diaper bag. It seems like an easy job for this eager teenager from church since Calla will already be in bed before we leave. Except that I told that to Carrie when we were in DC and then to Jeri during her last visit... and both times Calla woke up an hour after we left. She never does that when we're home, but she must sense we've left the ranch. So we'll see how it goes tonight. I'm hoping we make it all the way through our dinner before the phone call comes. Maybe we should start with dessert.
Here's wishing you all a happy and healthy start to the new year. We're excited to see what 2009 brings for our family - and hoping that it brings some of you to Carbondale this year!
Calla's love for her babies and their accoutrement has not dimmed - and in fact grew, thanks to the addition of a play bottle and sippy cup given to her by Josh and Jeri. She wakes up in the morning and one of her first words to me (after she's made sure I know she has a wet diaper) is "Baby?" So much for going back to bed with mom.
Joe and I will experience a "first" tonight - a non-family evening baby sitter. We're actually going out to dinner somewhere without a child and diaper bag. It seems like an easy job for this eager teenager from church since Calla will already be in bed before we leave. Except that I told that to Carrie when we were in DC and then to Jeri during her last visit... and both times Calla woke up an hour after we left. She never does that when we're home, but she must sense we've left the ranch. So we'll see how it goes tonight. I'm hoping we make it all the way through our dinner before the phone call comes. Maybe we should start with dessert.
Here's wishing you all a happy and healthy start to the new year. We're excited to see what 2009 brings for our family - and hoping that it brings some of you to Carbondale this year!
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