Demanding.
Elizabeth likes interactive coloring. She’ll color for a while, then push the pen at you and demand “you color kitty!” or “Elmo!” Those are the usual suspects, and I’ve gotten pretty good at them. So naturally, she seems to have decided I need to be challenged. Yesterday it was “Trashcan! With Oscar!” Yeah, turns out I have (had, that is, I’ve studied up since then) no real clue about the specific layout of Oscar’s face.
Today it was “Kangaroo!” Um, okay. When I asked Chris “hey, just what kind of ears do kangaroos have, anyway?”, Elizabeth helpfully replied “two.”
Even so, I thought I did okay, but she insists I drew a rabbit. She even made me do it again, and still said it was a rabbit. Hmmph. Everybody’s a critic.
Holiday Photo Round-up.
I just wanted to share a few more holiday pictures, before the official end of 2008. Elizabeth (and we) had a great Christmas in Atlanta. I think having all that attention from everyone was really great for her (and for us, for that matter).
Recent developments include: Lego tower expertise, a love for jingle-bell hair bobblies, a detailed knowledge of airplanes (telling her Daddy all about how the choo-choo train has bags on it - lots of bags - and they are going into the airplane — a week after that was explained to her), and a love of candy canes (Granny let her have one; when next they met, days later, Elizabeth’s greeting was, and I quote, “Where my candy cane go?”).
Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays of all sorts.
Miss Elizabeth is having a grand time in Atlanta, if somewhat overwhelmed by people and presents. As long as she has her jingle bells in her hair, though, all is well with the world.
Ah, holidays. We like them.
I finally finished my first semester of teaching today. Actually, the kids were done yesterday, but we had to go in and check over the computer records of our grades, etc. Anyway, that basically means it’s officially time for the holidays to start around our house. I finished my shopping this afternoon (except for Elizabeth), and got everything shipped off to various destinations, hopefully in time.
Last night Chris stayed with Elizabeth while I went and hung out with my book club friends. Tonight we got a sitter, for Chris’ holiday party. And later tonight, our friend Jyotika is arriving for a visit (finally). So we’ve scheduled a sitter for tomorrow night too. Something tells me I’m going to pay for all this at some point. Like oh say, Sunday night, at about toddler bedtime.
Monday night, we’ll be driving down to San Antonio and spending the night there before flying to Atlanta the next morning. This year, Elizabeth definitely understands the concept of presents, and opening them. So that’ll be fun. Although the other day she wanted a present (I had one wrapped and was taking it to work with me), so I quickly wrapped a sheet of Christmas paper around a toy she already owned, and gave that to her. She didn’t mind at all; she got to open a present!
We put up a small (artificial) tree. She is very proud, since she helped decorate it.
We also had a music play-date the other day, and she got to learn some new songs, both Christmas and Hannukah, which was very cool.
Under the weather.
Chris went out of town Saturday afternoon. So naturally, Elizabeth started coughing and snuffling Saturday night. She had a low-grade temperature all day yesterday (99-101) even with Tylenol, and seemed to have a cough and breathing issues even with asthma meds, so we both took today off of school.
She was doing better this morning, but I took her to see Dr. P, knowing that she would most likely have at least one ear infection. Yup! Both ears. I asked her specifically last night if her ears hurt, and she said no. When Dr. P asked her today, she said yes. Then again, she also said yes to “does your eyelash hurt?” so she may have been faking it a bit.
Being a big girl has advantages. Temperature was taken on her forehead, and weight was measured with her standing on the scale. With age comes dignity, apparently.
Since I couldn’t go to school, we ran some errands and got some Christmas stuff done, so that’s all good. We got home by 2:30, and she crashed hard in a 2 1/2 hour long nap. Then dinner, more meds, and back to sleep. Poor girl. But I think tomorrow she can go to day care.
Better than shopping on Black Friday …
… go milk a cow!
We spent a lovely afternoon at The Jersey Barnyard in nearby La Grange, Texas. It started off sort of annoying, with sand spurs and fire ants in the parking lot (the ants only got me, though, not Elizabeth), but after that it was a lot of fun.
Since it was kind of overcast and threatening (and the day after Thanksgiving), we got the tour all to ourselves. Elizabeth fed and/or petted all the animals, from cows to Cisco the donkey to bunnies, ducks, goats, and more cows, including Blue Bell ice cream’s star, Belle, and a couple calves only a few weeks old. Then a quick meander through the hay maze, and a hayride up to see Ethel the ginormous pig and her friends Lucy and Ricky, and finally on up to the dairy.
We got up to the dairy just before milking time, and Elizabeth helped me milk the world’s most patient Jersey cow. Then, hayride back, and we stopped to sample some of the Blue Bell ice cream. Elizabeth says she likes “the brown” (chocolate) better than “the white” (vanilla). Smart girl.
We stopped for dinner before driving back (after spoiling dinner with ice cream — don’t judge us), so we’re just now home and winding down with nebulizer and Elmo.
Video to follow when we get around to it.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving at home. We watched the parade this morning. (Elizabeth’s favorites: all the dogs, Snoopy, Bolt, and Beethoven, the Sesame Street float and Abby balloon, and the Hello Kitty balloon. The musical numbers left her a little cold.) Then it was off to the park to chase her bouncy purple ball around for a while, then a nap.
When she got up, it was time for dinner. She mostly ignored the turkey, but really loved the broccoli and the mashed potatoes. Cranberry relish was approved at first, until she got a nice big tart mouthful.
Then, a nice stroll around the neighborhood, visiting with neighbors and their dogs similarly trying to walk off some turkey. Now, we’ve just finished our pie and are watching Miracle on 34th Street while Miss Elizabeth harasses Suzie and pulls her tail.
“I do it myself!”
Life continues to be hectic, though less like life in a glorified storage unit each day, at least.
I’m afraid Elizabeth is being rather unfaithful to her first love, Elmo. Lately she’s been monkeying around with this other guy, George. Actually, George’s adventures are great; each episode is just 30 minutes, divided into two 15 minute stories, and they seem pretty educational. We also got her a couple George stories the other day at Borders. And remember her monkey backpack / toddler leash? We haven’t been able to convince her to actually wear it, but it goes everywhere with us now. Guess what its name is.
We have a very nice little park close to home now, with a great playscape, some old and some new, and a lot of stuff for the little ones. There’s also a wading pool (9 inches to 2 feet in depth), though it’s closed for the season. We had a picnic lunch there today, and learned that the fattest (seriously, spherical) and boldest squirrels in all the world live there. One actually came on the table to try to swipe a french fry from Elizabeth. We took turns kicking the trash can loudly to scare them a few feet back up the tree; they always came back. So maybe not the best picnic spot ever. But it’s still a great park.
We’ve had other adventures (Like hey, the water main broke right in front of our place yesterday, the second break on this block this week. That was fun.), but mostly we’ve just been settling in. Elizabeth refused to nap today, so I’m afraid we stuck her in front of Elmo and George for a little while, so we could put up some shelves in the utility room and start getting things out of the dining room. By Wednesday night, there will be a dining room table assembled and useable in this place.
Other Elizabeth stuff? She’s loving spinning in her tutu lately. She could spin for hours, I think. Somewhere she got the idea that spinning was better done in her bare feet, too. “I spin in my tutu in my feet, Mommy.” This weekend, she started calling her Daddy and I “guys,” as in “Wait, guys!” or “Stop it, guys!” I’m not at all sure I like that development. She is of course still bossy. Earlier, she told me quite seriously and repeatedly to “Wait a minute, Mommy.” I waited and waited, but she totally left me hanging. And finally, we are in the period of “I do it myself!” On EVERYthing, from peeling her banana to climbing in the car-seat to working the TV remote.
Life since the move, in Q&A format.
Q. So have you dug out yet?
A. Nope, not yet. The house (I call it a house but it’s half of a duplex) still resembles nothing so much as a storage unit, though we have managed to carve out some living space downstairs. Basically enough room for the couch, Elizabeth’s drawing table and high chair, and the TV. The kitchen is still pretty much in boxes. I used a plastic knife to slice up some smoked sausage last night.
We do finally have our own internet and TV hookup. I unearthed one of the Tivos on Wednesday and we’ve been able to record Sesame Street, so that much has returned to normal. It was getting ugly there, watching the same Sesame Street Dinosaurs DVD over and over again.
At this point Christina and I are just searching for some time when we’re not both exhausted or engaged in work activities. Christina has been up to all hours grading papers and whatnot, but I think she’s finally setting some boundaries between her job and home lives. Of course she still has teaching certification class on Saturdays and some evenings so it may be Christmas before this place is really in shape. I’m hopeful that it will be more like a real home in time for Thanksgiving, but if we’re eating turkey off of tray tables it won’t be much of a shock.
Moving out of the old apartment was hellacious and took forever but I finally got it done. We hired a cleaning service to do a move-out clean and I have to say they did an amazing job. There was nothing they could do to save the carpet that Otis systematically destroyed over the course of the last eighteen months, but other than that and the holes in the wall (we put up a lot of shelves in that place) you could probably have shown the apartment to potential tenants the next day.
Q. So what have you been doing?
A. Keeping to the routine for the most part. Days start early with Elizabeth’s breakfast and rushing out the door to get to school before nine. By the time we get home, do dinner, and get E’s bedtime routine done it’s usually 8:30 or so and there’s not a lot of time or energy left for anything else. Not that we don’t love doing all that domestic stuff but it really claims a lot of your attention and stamina.
On Tuesday I spent the day at the Travis County Democratic Coordinated Campaign voter call center, where people dialed up to find out where they were registered and how to get to their polling places. It was really nice to have something to do other than sit on my hands and wait for the exit polls to roll in.
Christina, as I mentioned, is figuring out how to be a teacher without giving away every waking minute, and I look forward to the day when our lives are a little more balanced. The move to a more central location has already paid off in time and gasoline costs.
Q. What happened to the Sesame Street update?
A. For those of you following along on Twitter or Facebook, the Sesame Street updates will resume presently. See the comments above re: watching the same DVD over and over again.
Q. Where are the pictures of Elizabeth in her Halloween costume?
A. They’re on my hard drive at work. I’ll spend some time editing and posting them soon, I promise. In the meantime I offer the jack-o-lantern pic above.
Q. I heard you wrote another book?
A. Yes. It’s called Film Festival Secrets, and you can buy it from Amazon for the filmmaker in your life.
Q. Anything else we should know about?
A. No.
Digging out.
Just in case anyone was wondering, moving is … not fun.
Sorry for the posting hiatus. We’re sitting around amid piles of boxes and bins, surfing the neighbor’s wireless (with permission) until Time Warner can hook us up tomorrow.
Elizabeth took to the move very well. She calls the new place “MY house!” which I’m sure is news to our landlord. It’s all a big adventure to her. I’m glad that, while we were woefully unprepared in terms of packing and such, we did take the time to prepare her for the change. The cats? Are less convinced.
Special thanks to Tonyia and Evan for watching Elizabeth for a few hours last weekend so we could go pack up more stuff at the old place, to Papi and G (see below), and to Steph for help and truck.
Papi and G came for a short visit. I was sick as a dog, so they really stepped up to the plate and helped Christopher get us the rest of the way moved out of the old place. Papi also carved a pumpkin for Elizabeth, her first.
Friday night we went trick-or-treating over in Chris and Lize’s neighborhood, which was as promised a great safe place for the kids. Elizabeth wore her sparkly pink cowgirl costume and was the queen of all she surveyed, as usual. She was shy at first but soon figured out the whole thing: (a) walk up and whisper “trak or treeet”, (b) people ooh and ah over how cute you are, and (c) they give you brightly colored things they call “candy.” It’s a perfect holiday.
After we made the rounds, we sat and watched the older kids for a while, and then Elizabeth helped me vote. If you see her, be sure to ask her who the next president will be.
Today we have a music class / playdate, which will be a lot of fun.
Pictures from all these adventures coming soon.