two minutes of fame

Rob and I have seen a number of Cirque du Soleil shows, both travelling (Varekai, Dralion) and permanent (Mystere, Ka).  Yesterday we saw our fifth, Kooza, in DC.  It was a big treat not only because it was a date night for us (thanks Mom and Dad!) but because Rob snagged center front-row seats.  If you have ever planned an event or trip with Rob, you’ll understand how he makes such things happen.  I just sit back and enjoy the benefits!  But even better than the view, this prize ticket also served as Rob’s pass to something quite unexpected: he was called on stage to participate in one of the clown acts. Two clowns led him to skip around the stage (playing with Ally was great practice for this part) and tried to teach him a dance.  We believe he was selected because he looks like a straight-laced sort of guy, and they took advantage of his reluctance and embarassment.  The audience loved him!  After a few minutes he returned to his seat, sweaty (he reports that the lights are quite hot) and buzzing with excitement. We had always wondered if audience participants were “plants,” and now we know that no, they are not.  After the show many approached us to ask if we knew ahead of time that Rob would be selected and we told them we were honestly surprised!

Today Rob chased Ally with our orange clown nose sourvenir.  She tried it on a bit, but didn’t like it much.  We wonder, when will we be able to share these experiences with her?  When does the entertainment she enjoys become entertainment we enjoy?

bounce!

This past Saturday we attended a birthday party at our local Extreme Bounce Zone, which was the site of a summer daycare field trip and is, most likely, Ally’s current image of heaven.  I was very excited to go because Rob did not go with us when I chaperoned the field trip in August, and I knew he would love to play on all the huge inflatable bouncy stuff with Ally.  No surprise: they both loved it, and Rob is now sporting some “bounce zone burn” on his elbows.  Think rug burn, but on your elbows. There were warnings on the equipment that said “no pregnant women” (along with a picture of a round-bellied women with a line through her), so I observed from the sidelines and took lots of pictures.

embracing my outer matryoshka

Many of the blogs I visit document pregnancy much more than I have chosen to do so here, with weekly photos and countdowns and updates on cravings and weight gain and such.  Perhaps one reason I haven’t mentioned it much here is the feeling of “been there, done that”– there’s not much novel about a second pregnancy, and in many ways this one has been much like my first.  For that reason I’m less excited about the pregnancy itself and much, much more excited about the baby we will meet soon.  I can’t wait to hold her, hear her, and see her personality. Then there is the fact that other parts of our lives seem more interesting right now than my growing belly.  And as I get bigger (you don’t get smaller as the weeks go by, or so they tell me) I am less and less inclined to document the way I no longer look or feel like myself.

I admire women who are comfortable with their bodies while pregnant, but acknowledge that I am not one of them.  I am extremely self-conscious and remind myself every day that I can’t expect to be pregnant without looking pregnant, but it gets harder and harder, and my doctor’s recommendation to not exercise due to back problems certainly contributes.  I feel achy, moody, and round, and sometimes I even waddle.  Concentrating on the positive, though: my hair has never been thicker; my nails are strong enough to serve as drill bits; and though I’m not thrilled with gaining weight, at least it is no more than I gained with my first pregnancy, which I did lose.  Eventually.

Nevertheless I am so grateful that the pregnancy has been uneventful, and that our baby is healthy, active, and growing.  We’ve reached the 30-week mark and, with the Christmas/New Year’s holidays so close to my due date, it appears that I have about seven weeks left commuting to my office before beginning to work from home full time as I wait to go into labor.  We have purchased a few things for the nursery, a few clothing items and a double stroller (yikes), but still have a good amount of preparation to do, including painting and decorating the nursery.  Ten weeks seems like a long time and a very, very short time.

a little more halloween

A couple more pictures from Halloween.

5 gallons later

For years Rob has dreamed of the day when we could try to brew our own beer.  Thus far, plans have been hindered by a general lack of equipment (which is rather costly), time constraints, and the foul odor that permeates your house while brewing.  Recently however Rob discovered an alternative: brew on premise, an option offered by some beer- and wine-making supply stores like the Flying Barrel in Frederick.  Brew on premise offers the use of the store’s equipment and expertise, so it is a great way to get your feet wet in the world of home brewing.  This past Saturday Rob went with his friend David to try it out.  Never one to prepare much for such things, Rob was only 2/3 of the way through his copy of Homebrewing for Dummies, but was still able to show off some newly acquired brewing trivia to his mentor Buck at the shop.

They decided to make a Belgian Ale of the 70 or so recipes offered.  Because brewing beer involves a lot of down time, he was able to talk to the many home brew folks who visit the store and sample some of their beer.  In 2-3 weeks the fermentation will be complete and they will return to bottle their 5 gallons of beer, and 4-6 weeks later it will be ready to drink.  He has promised to save a bottle for me to try in January– I hope it’s good, and our readers should, too, as given the quantity I imagine you will all be sampling it during the holidays!

98% corn syrup

This year’s Halloween was by far the most fun I’ve had on this holiday for many years. It was our first taste of how exciting a holiday can be when a child is really, really into it– and by into it I mean talking about the steps to trick or treat much of the day, and jumping up and down to the Monster Mash song, and thinking the skeleton tattoo on her hand is pretty much the coolest thing ever, because it is like a sticker, but it isn’t. Her favorite adjective right now is spooky. “Look at the spooky woods, Mommy! Look at the spooky scarecrow! Don’t be scared. It is a nice scarecrow.” We have watched Halloween themed videos, made pumpkin crafts, drawn Halloween pictures, and carved pumpkins. Halloween-o-rama!

The joy I saw on Ally’s face when she received her first piece of candy tonight was priceless. I can’t even imagine what Christmas morning is going to be like this year. Readers, avert your eyes while I get a little misty and sentimental about the precious joy on a child’s face or something similarly sappy. I know that she was joyful because she received candy and not for some greater purpose. But if you had seen it, you would be grinning stupidly too.

windy blustery day

You would think we didn’t know this kind of thing could happen. The table and chairs were about five years old and, to be honest, reaching their expiration date as none of the pieces were very well made. But…. ugh. What a mess. Looking on the bright side of things, I’ll never have to clean that table again! The next will definitely not have a glass top.

channeling our inner preschool

At no time in my adult life have I entertained even remotely the possibility of working with young children. And aside from watching my mother’s handful of years as a preschool teacher and the assignments of friends who were elementary education majors in college, I have been pretty clueless about how to fill creatively the day of an energetic youngster. Ally’s daycare by contrast seems to have a different activity each day. When I open her backpack I find a small present inside: a pumpkin mask, finger painting, an apple tree composed of a toilet paper roll and construction paper.

Last Monday I attempted a bit of preschool fun at home. First we made Halloween cookies. I pre-made the dough and icing, so Ally and I together rolled out the dough and used cookie cutters. After the cookies baked, we attempted decorating, which really meant that Ally ate a glob of icing while I quickly tried to frost the remaining cookies. Ally declared the cookies the best cookies ever, which was gratifying, but she didn’t have much patience for the cookie cutters or decorating. I’m glad I made a half batch as I completed the activity while she chased the cats.

Next I introduced one of the best (non-food, non-television) treats you can give Ally: an opportunity to cut with scissors. She loves scissors. We extracted from our new stack of construction paper sheets of brown paper and then cut the paper into “hay,” which we put into her wagon so she could give her animals a hay ride. The cutting activity was a big success. She worked on cutting her hay for nearly an hour, then we pushed her animals around. And then I pushed her, of course.

The kitchen at the conclusion of our two activities was a complete mess. I wish I could say that it was worth it; in the moment, it was great, and as we cut our construction paper hay I complimented myself on having a good Mom day. But after dinner Ally had one meltdown after another and the afternoon’s glow melted quickly. I felt exhausted and sore and disgruntled– where was my pat on the back? My thanks for working so hard that afternoon? Such is motherhood.  At least the cookies tasted really, really good.

dinner, interrupted

Despite our heel-dragging, potty training has begun, albeit slowly. Ally has shown interest in her potty seats for months, and has recently experienced her first potty successes after bath time. After bath, we sit her on the potty, and she (rather politely) says, “Mommy Daddy can you please leave me alone?” We wait outside the bathroom door for the hysterical laughter that signals potty success. Then we clap enthusiastically and try to encourage her to extract from its container a kandoo wipe (”big girl toilet paper”), which she insists with ferocity she cannot do. At other times during the day she asks to go, and we oblige, but rarely are these attempts successful… which brings us to dinner time recently, when Ally informed us that she needed to go potty immediately. Dinner, abandoned.

She was successful on that attempt, which was very much appreciated given the cold food and lasagne bits that transferred from her hands to the toilet. Afterwards, she gave her babies a potty lesson, instructing them expertly to not fall in and letting them know she would leave them alone until they were ready.

On an upcoming long weekend we plan to begin the real training, which I believe will mean “big girl underwear” at home during the day and, no doubt, more than a few accidents. It’s exciting to think that perhaps we can pull off not having two kids simultaneously in diapers, though part of me recognizes fully just how much more complicated it will soon become to leave the house. I imagine trying to nurse a newborn in the mall family room while a toddler squeals that she needs to GO RIGHT NOW and I think, would it hurt to wait?

boo

You know it’s almost Halloween when…

So far, we’ve managed to hide this particular box from Ally, but she is quite aware of the pantry full of Halloween candy. We bought the first bag a few weeks ago with the promise not to open it… ok, I swore I wouldn’t open it. Now it is about half gone, three more bags have appeared, and Ally has learned the joy of lollipops, about which she waxed poetic for a good 45 minutes last night before falling asleep. And to be fair, I have to take the blame… I bribed some Target shopping time from her by giving her a lollipop, and it was by far the best Target shopping trip ever, for both of us.  Remember those English class assignments involving essays on minutia, with the purpose perhaps of expanding your descriptive writing? I sense these will not be a problem in her future. I also predict high cell phone bills.

Mmm, blue milk. Just like real blueberries!