Austin Zoo

Henry Sings

Friday was Grandparents and Special Friends Day at Henry's school. This picture melts my heart.

Cars...guys...bugs

I don't think I've ever really documented what Eleanor likes to play with most.

She loves to dump out Henry's bucket of matchbox cars and sift her hands through them. She likes to put the cars back in the bucket one by one. She likes to crawl across the floor while driving a car, and make vroom sounds.

She loves to play with Justin's (and now Henry's) case of Star Wars and GI Joe guys. She again likes to dump them out and put them back and hold bunches of them in her hands and make sounds while holding them up in the air.

She really loves to dump out Henry's box of rubber and plastic bugs (it's mostly butterflies). There's also some plastic snakes in there too (she says sssssssssssssssssss) and some other animals like rubber cows, pigs and sheep. Her sounds are pretty great. She's got the cow-moooooo down pretty well. Still working on horse.

Eleanor loves to hand me tubes of playdoh to remove the lids from. Then she grabs the doh and plays with it for as long as she possibly can until the temptation to shove it in her mouth becomes too much and we have to stop.

She likes to play at Henry's train table and move trains back and forth and throw them on the floor. She really loves to dismantle the tracks.

She likes to choose play fruits and vegetables out of the basket and throw them across the room. She learned this from Henry. Sometimes they are both in the front room for 20 min just doing this.

She likes to open and close the doors on the play Kitchen, and put veggies down the sink-hole. She likes to put toys in the toy kitchen and close the door behind them.

She LOVES to pet Kitty and put her head down on him.

She loves to "jump" on the bed with Henry. She bounces up and down while sitting but more recently she has begun standing and bounces up and down, trying to jump. Henry is pretty good at knocking her down.

She loves to rip up paper.

She loves to pull the magnets off the fridge.

She loves to take all the towels out of the rag-drawer.

She loves this musical toy that has a microphone and plays nursery rhymes. She gets so into it she stands up and claps while shaking her booty. Then she'll shout into the microphone some baby garble.

The ball popper.

All her push toys--whose days are numbered now that she's walking.

Her daddy. Who is so useless against her baby-girl-powers. She calls him at 3AM to come hang out with her and he goes and he stays and he is happy to be there (unlike me at that hour).

Vet came by today...

And Kitty put on a really good show. The Vet was too scared to pick Kitty up and did not even touch him. Kitty was practically rabid, he was hissing and growling so much. Ten minutes and $110 later, the vet called in a prescription for a whopping dose of Prozac. I say whopping because it turns out Kitty is 17 lbs (he's lost a significant amt. of weight) and the dose is 10mg. People who weigh 160 can be prescribed that dose.

I think this is going to turn him into a stuffed animal. Oh ethics. How you nag me so.

In other news, Eleanor is taking lots and lots of steps. I'm not sure who's more proud. Her or us. Henry is equally ecstatic. He says the most heart warming things. "Good job sweetie", etc. They've been paling around a lot lately. Giggling and copying one another. I definitely feel the scales have tipped lately and the work required to take care of two children is less then the amount of fun and joy they provide. Here here.

Get well soon, Aunt Sandra

That's what the sign would say if you could actually read it.

Any takers?

Grandparents and Special Friends Day - Friday, February 18th at 9:30am - Followed by Early Dismissal at 11:30am
Please let your child's teachers know how many guests he or she will be expecting next Friday morning for Grandparents and Special Friends Day. The children will be making special gifts for their guests. We will have a special chapel service followed by a breakfast reception in Kleberg Hall.

Day in the life...

I was cleaning out one of my bags this morning and came across a piece of paper with a list on it. It must have been from the early Fall or late summer. I vaguely remember writing it but it's a list of everything I had done that day. I wanted to write it all down so that I would remember what daily life was like (for me) with a 3 year old and an infant.

6:15 AM
Wake up to Henry crying. He wet his bed.
Change Henry into dry clothes.
Make Henry's breakfast.
Nurse Eleanor.
Give Eleanor a bath in the sink.
Diaper and dress E.
Empty dishwasher while handing E toys.
Give Henry a bath while feeding Eleanor in his room.
Dress Henry.
Reload and run dishwasher.
Put on records and dance with the kids.
Put Henry and Eleanor's clothes in the wash.
Strip both kids beds.
Read kids books.
Pack Henry's lunch for school.
Put kids in car and drive H to school.
Push Eleanor in her swing.
Put E in her jumpy while cleaning up the toys in the yard.
Feed Eleanor yogurt.
Change E's diaper.
Nurse E and put her down for nap.
Put clothes in dryer and sheets in the wash.
Pump milk for tomorrow.
Take out the trash.
10:30 AM
Put the toys away in the front room and sweep floor.
Take clothes out of the dryer and sort/fold.
Play toys with E
Put clothes away.
Empty dishwasher.
Drive to computer place and pick up computer.
Get tacos.
Eat lunch with family (Justin p/u Henry)
Play toys with H and E.
Put both kids down for nap (nurse E).
Mom naps.
2:00PM
Have snack with kids.
Sweep kitchen floor after E's mess.
Take kids to Central Market (grocery store)
Sit at table and eat gelato with them.
Play on playground at CM.
Grocery shop.
Come home, put groceries away while handing E toys.
5:00
Take Henry to dance class.
6:15 PM
Put Eleanor to bed.
Make lunches for tomorrow.
Tuck in Henry.
Pump.
Have tea.
Shower.
9:30
Read
Go to bed.

He's still with us...

Yesterday, Justin and I made the incredibly difficult decision to have Kitty put down. The appointment was for today at 12:30. I was going to take him because as we all know, it's the women who do the heavy lifting in this world. That, and because Justin is 50 million times closer to the cat than I am.

The problem with Kitty is he's crazy. He spends a good part of his day chasing his tail; growling and hissing at it. It sounds like a vicious cat fight, only it's just him. It used to be annoying and kind of funny but now he's doing it several times a day and throughout the night. I can not tell you how many times we've been awoken at 1 AM (and 3AM and 5 AM) to shrieking on our bed. It's terrible to wake up that way. At first your mind goes to very ugly places and then you realize it's your dumb cat attacking himself again. Eleanor does a spot-on impression. If she sees a picture of a cat she'll go "rrrrrrrrrrr, hsssssssssssssssss". Henry has learned to just open the door and push him out. He'll also say very condescendingly, "Kitty, it's just your tail. Stop that." Other Henryisms are "Kitty's a jerk." and "Kitty's crazy".

E is very fond of him too, of course. He likes to nap on her changing table pad while she is napping. "Kitty" was one of her first words. She gets a HUGE smile when he comes near her and she pets him very gently. Then she tries to stick her finger in his mouth.

I told my boss yesterday what was going on and she recommended a second opinion (actually, it's a 3rd opinion since Amira's dad is a vet and told us the diagnosis and treatment in the first place). The reason why Kitty is still alive right now is my boss told me her vet makes house calls. The downside of getting Kitty on Prozac is we'd have to bring him in for an examination and that's an absolute nightmare. Everything about that would be hell for Kitty (and me). The car ride, going in the carrier, being held down, etc. He's an incredibly neurotic cat. So I called the guy, he said he would just come over, weigh Kitty so he could get the dose right, and then call us in the script. He said there's no reason to do an exam because if it doesn't work we'll know in six weeks and we'll go with plan A which is put the cat out of his misery.

We were pretty set on not doing Prozac b/c of the exam (this was before knowing this vet would hook us up w/o blood-work) so we've been telling Henry that Kitty is sick and that he will die soon. Everything I've read and studied about grief and especially grief in children says that we should not lie. We should talk about death as if it is a totally normal part of life (b/c it is) and that it's our culture of obscuring death that causes people such complicated reactions to grief. I wanted to lie though. I really really wanted to tell him Kitty was going to live on a farm. He LOVES Kitty. He snuggles with him. He loves to pet him and kiss him. He always includes Kitty in conversations about our family. I knew this was going to be hard. Justin and I told him a few days ago and his immediate reaction was to fall to the floor, like a sack of potatoes. He had a very sad face. He asked some questions that I don't remember and then he asked to go in the back and watch TV. Then he seemed to forget about it and hasn't brought it up since.

Today when I went to pick him up I saw they had a bulletin board up for Valentines Day. It had all of the kids names and then listed the thing that they love. I think I would have fallen to pieces right there in the hall way had we gone though with our 12:30 plan today.

Friday and Saturday...

[slideshow]

Ch ch ch changes....

On Thursday, Eleanor took her first step. It was just one step and then she sat down. Yesterday, we were at Mae and Jane's house and Eleanor stood up in their kitchen, by herself. She's been standing on her own for several weeks, but getting from a sitting to a standing position without support is new. When we came home, we put Mungo Jerry on for her inspiration. She stood up and swayed and bounced and giggled, but she did not take steps. It's so close though. Very exciting.

Eleanor has moved from the baby room at school, to the transitional room. It's just 3 other kids. They nap around 11 and they have activities focused on mobility and practicing with utensils, etc. The toddler room is all potty training, so that's why there's this transitional room (and they nap earlier). All the babes are between 12 mos and 20 mos. Her teacher is Jackie. But the toddler area has four teachers and while Jackie is Eleanor's, they mingle at meal time and during some of the free-play time. E seems very happy. When I dropped her off on Wednesday the toddler teachers separately asked me if E is always so happy. Justin said the same thing regarding pick up. They comment on her constant state of joy. She's just very easy to please. I think it's because she doesn't get out much. Not like the early days Henry had, of two outings per day. When I'm home solo with Eleanor on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we rarely leave the house, except to drop off and pick up Henry and maybe go to the grocery store. She's just so content at home, and Henry really wasn't. He liked to always be out and doing things or he would be fussy at home. I used to take Henry to two library story times a week and I've never taken E.

Note about Henry (and maybe all kids). If he can't be GREAT or THE BEST at something, he gets so frustrated. And sometimes he suffers through it till there's success and sometimes he walks away. This is going on right now about drawing. He is pretty good at writing letters but he won't really draw a picture. Justin is a really good artist and used to draw pictures for Henry or with Henry (while H would scribble) and now he is just raving mad that he can't draw pictures as good as daddy, so he just won't draw them. And come to think of it, he's never been all that interested in art. When we did that art class he never wanted to participate, because they had a sandbox. I paid $150 for Henry to play in a sandbox. He does the bare minimum at school with his craft stuff and he rarely wants to do those things with me. He'll use a pen and paper to draw lines or write letters, but not depict anything with crayons or markers. But that's okay. We figure these things out about our kids and we don't push it. This is who he is or where he is right now. When he draws something we'll post it here. I can't wait to see what it will be.

It's 66 degrees today. Yesterday we made a snowman.

A Day of Discovery

Not only did Eleanor see snow for the first time (she's not all that impressed), but she also discovered the joy of putting cars into Play 'n Ride trains.

Snow