From the vault

two years ago

one year ago

So, I can't find the cord to download pictures from the camera right now. I thought these pictures were pretty cute though. They were both taken at our former neighborhood park. Man, I miss that place. It's also a bit disappointing that it has been colder and cloudier here over the past few weeks than back in old Champaign.

But ... weather is supposed to beautiful on Friday, my day off with the kiddo. I hope we can find a nice park or explore our own yard for the first time. They don't have parks on every corner here like they did in Champaign. Actually, they don't really even have corners out here. The streets sort of meander around with no real plan. I'm sure downtown is different, but we haven't gotten that far yet. I miss being able to walk to places; E's school, our Sunday morning bagel and coffee shop, our favorite bar with sidewalk seating, free concerts ...

On the bright side, every time I drive away I don't feel the need to plead with the house to still be standing when I return. It is nice to unload groceries from a garage. Nicer still to do laundry without the help of 1 million spiders (and the laundry is actually getting clean here!). The scenery is quite pretty, green, rolling mountains all around. It's quiet. Very quiet. No police sirens, no yelling students at wee hours of the morning.

E loves it here. He loves the house, his school, the stability. He actually just loves. Everything. He runs around the house singing, "I yuv you, I yuv you, I yuv you" over and over. "I yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuv dis" and "I yike dat" are two of his favorite phrases.

So, with little E as my example, I will learn to yuv it here too.

The last of its kind

 

This may be the last picture of E in jeans for awhile. He doesn't want to wear them anymore. He prefers sweatpants and he wants to pick them out himself. He is less picky about his tops but he was quite happy to find that he and his best buddy at school had on the same Thomas the Tank Engine t-shirt today. So, for anyone taking record of such things ... at 2.5 E became aware of what he's wearing. Until now he didn't care what he had on as long as he could just keep it on and not have to spend time changing clothes.

Also, if anyone ever gets cookies or something in the tin E is using for a hat in the picture -- I promise, I washed it.

Pizza night

We've let E coast on his good looks for the past 2.5 years but it's high time he earn his keep around here. I asked E to contribute to the menu for the week and he requested pizza. Pizza night came and E made us dinner. He spread the sauce, applied the toppings and even sprinkled on his special mix of herbs and spices. Delicious.

Of course, unless we want pizza for dinner every night, he's off the hook for a while.

Underwear modeling

Big boy bed!

Cheers!

Jungle explorer

Playing with his buddy

New legos!

House freezing

Normally, the first visitors would be considered a "house warming" but Knoxville decided to treat my parents to a taste of home with the biggest snow storm the area has seen in many years. We even lost power for about an hour (a long time, considering we have underground wires). Nevertheless, we had a very wonderful visit, even though we put Nana and Granddah to work the whole time. (Note, this is a catch-up post, as the visit was a few weeks ago).

"mommy. mommy. mommy. mommy."

quiet.

"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy"

So, though I'm trying to cut back on indulging his stall tactics at bedtime, I reluctantly went to E's room to see what the problem was.

"I hungry!"

How about some peas?

"OK!"

20 minutes later, he'd eaten all the left over peas (a good cup or more).

This was only about an hour or so after eating a very good dinner which included an entire scrambled egg, a whole tortilla, a nice helping of peas, a little bit of the pork, and a good sized bowl of applesauce to top it all off. Then, milk right before bed.

It's an amazing turn-around for a kid, who, a month ago, ate about 5 different foods and would sometimes eat next to nothing after lunch (no snack, very little dinner). During the chaos and confusion and travel and moving of December, probably 50% of his food intake was french fries.

So far this week, the boy has willingly eaten (or at least tried a few bites of)
broccoli,
carrots,
asparagus,
plum,
rice,
couscous,
crockpot pork in salsa, chili powder, and cocoa powder sauce
white beans,
and of course the usual stuff (spaghetti, bagels, mango, yogurt ...)

It is a miracle! Dinner time is pleasant again!

 

2.5

Little E is now 2 and a half officially; today is his half birthday. We celebrated by trying to get a car registered locally. Turns out, since both the Mav and I are listed on the previous registration, we both have to be there to register it here. I absolutely love dealing with local government nobodies. I am really looking forward to changing my license over.

So, actually we didn't really celebrate the occasion, unless you count letting E use the racecar shopping cart at the grocery store. But, E did get to have dessert tonight because he ....

ATE HIS DINNER!

Yes, that is right. He ate turkey, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots. Without any tears! He also ate applesauce at lunch for the first time in over a year. I think he's going through a growth spurt and his hunger is beating out his picky/control issues with food.

In other "big boy" news:

We are making some progress with potty training, at last. E so badly wanted his racecar underwear this morning (though he's not nearly ready for that), so I let him "look" at them after he went to the potty. He had a great time, putting on multiple pairs at at time (over his pullup) and showing off.

When I picked E up from school yesterday, he and a friend were quietly working on a puzzle together, just the two of them.

E takes very good care of his miniature pet dinosaur "Peanut" who goes everywhere with us. E makes sure Peanut has toys to play with. He lets me know when Peanut is tired. Sometimes, Peanut runs off and we have to look everywhere for him. He says to Peanut "don't worry" and "you kay Peanut?".

Sometimes Peanut is a small ball that was originally a cat toy. Other times, Peanut hangs out in E's tightly closed tiny fist.

E is starting to take naps again; 3 so far this week actually took place at nap time! So, he's getting adjusted to not being in a crib. Which is good, since we took the crib out of his room tonight. His bed frame is due in tomorrow.


Still working on it ...

The difference between throwing things FOR the cat vs AT the cat.

Listening.

Well, the whole potty thing has a long way to go.

Not using everything in the house as a climbing gym.

Calculus.

(Just kidding, haven't started on that one yet).