john's mom works

i'm not sure why, but i never grow tired of pictures of a naked child in big shoes. john obliges on a regular basis. three unrelated notes of recent adorable behavior. just little vignettes that color our lives everyday! dad's shoes sunday afternoon, we were getting ready to go to my cousin's baby shower. my husband and i were getting dressed, while john ran around still unclothed. he ran into our bedroom and put on his daddy's sandals and walked out into the living room. he looked at me, a big grin on his face, and said, "i wear dad's shoes!" it's the first time he's ever said "dad" instead of "daddy," and i instantly thought - when did you turn 15?!? hugs finally - FINALLY - john has gotten back into the school routine and doesn't cry when i drop him off at school. and this week he even started in a new class, with the other two year olds (so big!) and he's been doing great. it helps that he know...

this morning, as we waited for the daycare to open, i said to john, "i don't know why i'm so tired, boo. i got nothing." and i looked back at him and saw: and he said, "here, mommy," as he handed me a cheerio. "now mommy have cereal!"

playing with daddy before school this is such an age of change for john - for all two-year-olds, i suppose, but he's the one i know the best! next week he will be moved up to the two-year-old class at his daycare. that means no sippy cups at school - big kid cups instead! - and starting toward potty training with his peers. it means a new teacher, though john's been visiting with that class for a while and loves all the teachers at the daycare. it means more organized learning, which is awesome ... and crazy, since i still so clearly remember bringing my barely-six-pound infant to the baby room almost exactly two years ago when i started back to work after john was born. but there is an even larger shift afoot, which i knew was coming ...  since john was born, i've been assuring my husband, "a day is coming when mommy will be chopped liver and all john will want to do is follow daddy around. don't feel bad that he is so mommy-centered now ... the daddy s...

these sleepy blue eyes melt me so. i (barely) made it to the gym again this morning. i say this not to brag, but because it's the backdrop for this morning's sweetness.  i got up early (not early enough to be on time) and when i was all ready except for john, i went into his room singing the silly little morning song i use on the days i have to wake him up. he didn't stir. i turned on the lamp and went to his crib and started rubbing his back. a little movement, but not a peep. and heavy eyes that didn't open. finally i picked up his not-quite-24-lbs of dead weight and carried him to his changing table. i lay him down and began changing his diaper. he rubbed his eyes, looked at me, smiled, and said, "oh, hi!" as if he was surprised to see me there! he cooperatively got dressed, sat up and asked for his shoes. i asked if he wanted to give daddy hugs goodbye and he did, along with kisses and an i love you or three. as we walked out the door, he sa...

big boy eating goldfish. hey parents, john's mom could use some advice! john has recently been having some problems with sharing. i know, that's pretty universal two-year-old stuff. i'm not concerned, per se, but i am interested in how other people have helped coach their kids into being better sharers. here's how the problems show up:  seems to only be at daycare/sunday school. with cousins/friends/etc, he seems ok when another kiddo has something john wants, he will, of course try to take it. when a teacher or the child says no, he will throw himself to the floor for a massive fit. when he doesn't get his way, he will cool off quickly (a matter of minutes) and then be totally fine. if another kiddo comes to play with something john has (even if it is big enough to share, like the toy house or kitchen etc), john will "defend" his toy - he will say the child's name, say no, and sometimes even push the other child away. when a teacher co...

i'm banking on the fact that one day, john will be very mad at be for publishing this photo. but come on, naked baby doing somersaults. how could i pass it up? it was a pretty standard busy weekend. laundry, family time, a little bit of rest. my husband and i did get to go see "dark knight rises" together, which was an awesome date. (i have been a huge batman fan since i was about three. in fact, i was batman something like six halloweens in a row as a kid. not batgirl - batman. get it right.) but it was a lovely weekend. nothing earthshattering ... just nice. so here is the monday morning highlight reel. first row : left/middle - john works on his ball handling. right - "mommy, i ride a TIGER!" second row:  study of a boy and his dog. and no,  i didn't tell him to take  his clothes off. he's just a naked sort of kid.

i dare you resist that grin. hard to believe it was hysterical tears three minutes later. every since we got back from alaska, john's been struggling with me leaving him at daycare each morning. the first morning, he cried from the time we parked the car, through the walk in the door, to his classroom, and i had to put him straight into his teacher's arms because he wasn't staying there voluntarily. it's gotten somewhat better each day. one morning, instead of walking to his room, we danced to his room - hey, anything to keep the kiddo happy. by now, we talk about school on the way, and he seems ok with it. when we park, he gladly gets out of the car. he even seems excited to see his teachers, play with his friends, and eat breakfast (not necessarily in that order). he'll let me carry him - or sometimes walk - to his room, right up to the table where he normally eats. but then, then it all falls apart. he can't stand to let go of me, won't sit...

can you identify this bird? maybe a turkey vulture? but that's a guess. perhaps my favorite part of being john's mom is that even the most mundane happenings are an adventure for us. i have a new-found desire to appreciate the wonder and wildness of everyday life - to stop and look around me and to absorb everything. this morning, three doors down from our house on our way out of the neighborhood, i saw a big odd bird in a yard. two years ago, i probably would have glanced at it and kept driving. but with john in mind, i pulled to the side of the road and stopped the car. and we watched the bird in the yard for about two minutes. i asked john what color the bird was, what the bird was doing, if it was a big bird or a little bird. ("not BIG bird, mommy. big bird is yellow.") there's nothing SO remarkable about a turkey vulture hanging out in my neighbor's yard. what IS remarkable is everything. all the things we take for granted every single day,...

my little morning imp i think we are back to "normal" now, post-cruise - whatever passes for normal at our house, anyway. john's back to roughly his normal sleep schedule, buddy's new crate arrived and is successfully installed, and we've been back to work over a week now. but today i threw everything for a loop by deciding that it was the perfect morning to play susie homemaker ... while i got ready for work. so there i am, half-dressed and not made up, lunches not packed, john running around in a diaper, "boiling" eggs in the oven (seriously - check it out ) when i look at the clock and realize i'm supposed to leave in 25 minutes. and then a miracle occurred, because we left the house 24 minutes later. so ... normal is crazy ... but miraculous. does that about sum it up?

these are not ACTUALLY buddy's pills - he's on the generic! dollar sensible little fellow that he is. so, our family got a new dog when we got back from alaska. ok, not really - we still just have buddy. but the buddy we have now is a completely different beast altogether.  we were baffled at first. he seeks out affection - he'll actually come find you and ask to be petted. if he's laying down and you walk past him, he might lift his head - but he doesn't jump up, afraid. heck, he even let my husband refill his water bowl while he was eating food right there.  and the capper: last night we went on a family walk, and he was darn close to loose-leash walking the whole way. oh, he needed strong corrections, but nothing like the nonstop pull-fest it typically is. we had no idea what to make of this amazing transformation. did he really miss us that much? did he think we'd left him at the kennel for good? had he been abducted by aliens who rewired his ...

john's fashion choices rock. on saturday, i left the house early to visit a friend. daddy and john hung out, then went grocery shopping together. by the time i came home, john was ready to go down for a nap. as i kissed him and snuggled him to put him down, i couldn't help noticing that the clothes on the changing table were composed of the following: one (1) long sleeved grey thermal teeshirt one (1) pair of blue motorcycle swim trunks one (1) pair of blue "ernie" shoes one (1) pair of black socks now, i know moms joke about what happens when their husbands dress the kids, but my husband generally does just fine in that department. puzzled, i walked out to the living room as john fell asleep. "what's the deal with john's outfit?" i asked. "oh. that's what he wanted to wear. he picked it himself." as far as toddler-picked outfits go, it could have been far worse. but i still got a little giggle out of my lit...

post-cruise: anchorage, alaska after hubbard glacier, we cruised along for the rest of that day. and by early the next morning, it was time: the cruise was over. we deboarded from the lovely millennium and sadly waved farewell. but the good news was, the adventure wasn't over! we still had nearly two full days in anchorage. you see, my grandfather was stationed in anchorage in 1956. my mom actually lived there for about a year as a infant. of course mom has no memories of that time, but we were all pretty excited to see where they used to live, and explore the town that has changed so much since my grandfather's time there. the cruise ship had docked in seward, so we boarded a bus as a family and took the scenic drive to anchorage. you could make the trip in two hours if you hurried - but we didn't. we stopped at a little lodge for a delicious snack on the road, and then at a wildlife preserve for injured and sick wild animals. this is the bear that took t...

day 7: hubbard glacier, alaska so this wasn't technically an excursion - there is nowhere to get out at hubbard glacier. but the ship sails up a narrow channel for a couple of hours, and suddenly at the end is this monstrous beautiful blue glacier. how close a ship can get is different every day and dictated by the coast guard. this day, we got within a half-mile of it. and honestly ... that was plenty close. there are not words to capture the true scale of this crystalline beast. one of my few goals for the trip was achieved this day, too - my husband and i sat in a hot tub and watched the glacier outside. the air was cold (though not arctic) even in the aquadome, the water was hot, and the glacier was truly breathtaking. we even got to watch it calve several times, including one that was so big, the wave it created rocked the entire ship. it's hard to get the scale on these, but they're each at least about 5-8 feet tall, just floating in the sea around the ship. ...

day 6: skagway, alaska we spent the fourth of july in sleepy skagway, alaska, population approximately 800 (not including summertime visitors or 10,000 people from cruise ships that day!). the town featured such festivities as a railroad spike driving contest, a slow bike race, etc. quite the exiting time for a small town!  my husband and i chose to do a bike trip through nearby dyea, a beautiful temperate rain forest opening up on some tidal mud flats between the mountains. dyea used to be a mining town, but when the railroad was built in skagway around 1900, everyone moved from dyea to skagway and left next to nothing but a few relics behind. we didn't see any wildlife that day, but what breathtaking scenery again - are you tired of hearing that??? the mudflats and mountains and stream and ... gosh. can i go back? while my husband and i biked, grammie took john on the adventure of HIS lifetime - a dog-sledding excursion. they rode a summer training sled pulle...

day 5: juneau, alaska so eleven 30-ton humpback whales synchronized swimming is a pretty tough thing to top, but we figured out how to do it: our five-glacier flightseeing tour on a seaplane, culminating in an incredible wild-caught fresh local salmon feast at the taku lodge. amazing scenery, incredible food, topped up with a close-up black bear sighting ... how could this possibly be my life???  i don't even like salmon, but the stuff we had at taku lodge was delicious. if that's what salmon tasted like in "real life," i'd eat it every day. grammie and my husband and i ate like pigs and soaked it all in. the trusty seaplane that carried us over the amazing scenery dorky johnsmom on a seaplane mountains below one of five glaciers we saw (on the left) the amazingly gorgeous braided taku river our lunchtime view from taku lodge - the aptly named taku glacier moosehead overlooking our lunch seats enjoying some russian tea ...

day 4: icy strait point, alaska icy strait point is a completely fictional town. it is not too far from hoonah, an actual small town, but it is in fact an old cannery that the cruise line purchased to use as a docking station for this particular stop.  icy strait point! looks like ... a ... cannery. there's no population at icy strait point. there IS the "world's tallest zip line," but i didn't partake of that. instead, we elected to go whale watching.  when i was a kid, my grandparents used to take our family whale watching off of cape cod, so that is something near and dear to my heart. i was really hoping the whales would put on a good show, especially since john was with us for this excursion. we got on our little whale-watching boat and set out. john and grammie exploring the boat. within literally moments (maybe 5 minutes? maybe less?) we saw a whale off near the shore, splashing and playing. he wasn't super close, but we checke...