home renovation

Today you are twenty months and six days old.  Not what one might call a traditional milestone birthday.  There is no special doctor's visit today, we aren't having a party, and there is no lit candle eagerly waiting for you to blow it out.  Today was one of those days when I stop and stare at you, in awe that you are getting so grown up, changing so much every day.   

We went to the library today for story time, only as soon as we rushed into the library (five minutes late because I had to convince you to leave Cougar-your giant pillow pet-in the car), I noticed the quiet.  The library, even though it is always meant to be a place of quiet, is not quiet during toddler time.  And then I realized today is Tuesday and story time moved to Wednesdays now that it is Spring.  You ran up and down the stairs in the story time room, completely unfazed by my mistake, while I scooped up a pile of books.  You climbed into one of the little chairs at one of the little tables, and I thought we were going to share a delightful story time of our own.  Only then you threw a massive temper tantrum, for a reason that is still unclear to me.  So our pile of books stayed on the table, and you were carried back to the car, the sentiment, "NO!  Books!!!" reverberating through the otherwise still library, while I told you there would be no new books to bring home today, because you had chosen to behave badly. 

In the car, you said sorry, and we struck a deal.  If you could behave nicely at the post office, then you could still go to the park on the way home, the one with the shoot ball and the dinosaur slide.  When I asked if you could behave at the post office you said, "Yes!" and so to the post office we went.  While we were there, you drank an entire sippy cup of apple juice and pretended to be bashful, burying your face in my shoulder while the lady behind the counter helped me send peanut butter to Brazil.  It's a tricky thing, mailing peanut butter to South America, but you were a dream child the entire time.  And so, since you kept up your end of the bargain, I kept mine.

The park was almost empty when we got there, except for two rambunctious boys.  You stared at them with wonder, while they slid down the slide head first and jumped from the top of the jungle gym.  You explored and climbed and went down the biggest slide in my lap, like you always do, and suddenly you were climbing to the big slide on your own, a very adamant, "No! No! NO!" being the answer when I asked if you wanted me to come, too.  And then, there you were, standing at the top of a slide that suddenly looked as tall as a skyscraper, with me at the bottom fighting the urge to climb up and stop you.  And then, just as suddenly, there you were, sitting at the top of the slide and counting, "Two! Two! Two!" (because, even though I always count, "One, two, three!" before you slide, two is the only number you say).  And then, there you were, laughing at the bottom of the slide, your little blond head thrown back in a huge chuckle, because you had done something great all by yourself.

Today, when you are only twenty months and six days old, I realize that motherhood is full of tiny goodbyes.  As you have grown older I've said goodbye to so many things already:  the tiny clothes you wore home from the hospital, nursing you in the middle of the night, that fat roll on your wrist that I cried over when I realized it was no longer there.  I love watching you grow, Kaden Cub.  Even though goodbyes are hard, I am so thankful I get to be there for every hello, too.  Today, you said, "Hello, Big Slide, I am big enough and brave enough to play with you."  Who knows what hello I will get to witness tomorrow.

I love you.

Love,
Mommy         

Kaden:  "No, no!"

He then hands me a single strand of coconut from the top of his muffin.

A couple of bites later.

Kaden:  "No, no!"

Another strand of coconut is banned from the sight of Master Reese.


Me:  "I hate to break it to you, kid, but there was a lot of coconut INSIDE that muffin that you ate unknowingly . . . just sayin'."


Would any of you like to come over and help me eat the 2 dozen muffins still cooling on the counter?

Too far away?

Try the recipe here.

This is what Kaden has woken up saying the last few mornings, and I've got to say, I couldn't agree with his sentiment more.  Of course, when he says this, it sounds more like, "I neeee books!"  Just like when he says "I read books," it sounds more like, "I reeeeee books!"  It does my English-teacher heart proud to hear him say this; I'm not going to lie. 

I need books, too.  It's just part of who I am.  When I have nothing to read, I feel this sense of anxiety, like something is terribly wrong.  Something is missing.

I just finished reading Sarah's Key.  Today.  While Kaden was napping.  When I should have been doing laundry.  Don't judge me

Did you know they made a movie based on this book?  I had no idea.  Where have I been?

I don't know if I will ever see it.  The book was so tragically sad, that I don't know if I can handle two hours of reliving it on film.

My journey through The Thirteenth Tale, which was my most recent read before embarking on the guilt-fest The Science of Parenting (do NOT read this book if you have ever let your child cry), reminded me a lot of my experience with Sarah's Key.  I got swept up in both stories and couldn't put them down, but was kind of left voicing an anti-climactic, "Huh" at the end of each. 

I'm looking for a new book.  Something that won't make me feel like a terrible mother. (Although when I got to the chapter in the aforementioned book that said you should disregard the commonly accepted advice not to sleep with your infant, because even a newborn baby would not let itself be suffocated, I stopped reading and felt a heck of a lot better about myself.  Suddenly, the text had lost some serious credibility with me.  My favorite part of this chapter was when they said to make sure you were in a well-rested alert state when sleeping with an infant.  HA!  Who is well-rested and alert while caring for a newborn in the middle of the night?  The times I did fall asleep while rocking Kaden, I was a sleep-deprived MESS!)

Anyway, back to the book search.  Any suggestions?

I went to the midnight showing of The Hunger Games in Smithfield last night with some of my former students.  It was the last book we read together in my Honors English III class.  So fun to see them and to savor the movie together, but I was exhausted after my 3 1/2 hours of sleep last night.  As a result, we started the morning in a way we rarely do:  with a movie.  Here is Kaden in all of his Toy Story Sheriff Woody pajamas glory, watching Ratatouille, and eating an Aldi-brand cereal bar.  He was in heaven.

After breakfast, we got dressed and headed outside for a little "shoot ball."


 Kaden was more interested in his football and kick ball today, so I don't have a single shot of a basketball.  One was there, though.  We also had a soccer ball.  It's amazing how many balls you can fit in a stroller basket.



 Here's Kaden, upset, because I had misunderstood and shot the basketball, when he wanted me to shoot the football:

 Here he is, fully recovered:

 Here he is, after I told him he couldn't eat the football and made him take the big chunk of orange foam out of his mouth:
 Oh, the anguish.
 When standing didn't get the results he wanted, Kaden resorted to sitting:

 Here is Kaden distracted by mulch next to the basketball court.
Another meltdown was induced when Master Reese found out he wasn't allowed to pick up handfuls of mulch and dump them in the grass.  At this point, I realized we were probably overdue for a nap.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture footage of the event, as I was struggling to strap him into his stroller, whilst he arched his back and screamed bloody murder. 

We came home and read this:

We got this book at the library last time we went to stock up on new stories.  I remember my Grandma Jensen reading me this book when I was little.  If I try really hard, I can remember how it felt to be snuggled in her lap, my head nestled up against her, listening to her read this story.  It's an oldie, but a goodie.

Then we read about a zillion other books, and Kaden went to sleep with a handful of bibis (what he calls his pacifiers).

That was our morning.  How did you spend yours?

Isn't it funny how when you are selling your house, you hope everyone is so in love with it they'll want to buy it, but when you're looking to buy a house, you hope you're the only one that loves it until you buy it?  Right now we are in the process of selling our house, with what looks like a very rapidly approaching closing date (YAY!), and so we are also looking at homes.  Last night, we found THE house.  The one that filled my heart with palpitations and kept me up all night dreaming about paint colors.  The one we can actually afford and not have to do three years of repairs to.  I hope no one else likes it as much as we do, at least until we can offer to buy it.

Lately, I have been in a cooking rut.  Seriously.  A lot of this has to do with the fact that we are living on a very limited grocery budget right now, so most of my culinary creations consist of looking at what I have in my fridge/cupboards and trying to invent something that sounds divine without going to the grocery store.  Not a great deal of masterpieces have been created lately.  I have rekindled my relationship with eggs.  Eggs are my friend.  Breakfast for dinner?  My BFF.  Today, I really wanted to cook something good.  This woman saved me.  She has such a delightful, friendly cooking blog.  What I love best about it is that she cooks with pretty normal ingredients.  So, thanks to her, tonight we are having glazed carrots with rosemary and butter cream chicken.  We are also having garlic mashed potatoes, but I didn't have to find a recipe for that.  There will be potatoes, there will be butter, there will be sour cream, and there will be LOTS of garlic.  If you don't know how to make mashed potatoes without a recipe, come over to my house, so we can remedy this tragedy.  Oh, potatoes drowned in garlic, how I love thee!  We are also having homemade bread, because Bernice and I bonded and kneaded up two loaves together.  Not a bad meal for an assembly of what we had on hand. 

My Garden Heights gym instruction is all coming back to me now.  I have shot more basketballs in the last week than I have . . . well, probably ever.  Kaden loves some "shoot ball."  Even though I'm no Jimmer, how can I say no when he looks at me with his big brown eyes and says, "I wan Mama shoot!"  Luckily, he thinks it's just as awesome when I air ball or hit the backboard as when I actually make a basket. 

I wonder how long Kaden's favorite word will be "no".  And how long his favorite phrase will be "no, no, no!"  Seriously, I'm starting to worry that if someone offers him a full ride scholarship to Harvard when he's 18, he'll say, "No, no, no!" just because it wasn't his idea.  Playing mental games with a toddler is exhausting, I tell you.  Whoever named the terrible twos obviously didn't raise Kaden as a 19 month old.  We've been in full-swing tantrum-dum for over a month now. 

When did Kaden get so good at giving hugs?  One, unannounced squeeze around the neck and I can forget all about his last meltdown. 

I wonder how long Kaden will be good at just nicely coloring on the paper/being content to take the crayons out of the container and put them back in before he discovers he can also color on furniture, walls, and floors . . . It's probably time for this blog post to end!

One of Kaden and Kenzie's favorite things to do was take baths together at Gigi's house.  They had so much fun splashing!  Here they are, "helping" Gigi get the tub ready:
 Here they are splashing away: