Curious George visits the Toy Store

I took Graham to the toy store today to meet Curious George. Graham was very excited to go, but when we got there he reacted the same way as he did when he saw "Sharky" at Underwater World: he panicked. But while Sharky never did grow on Graham (the huge teeth, maybe?) we decided to just hang out on our small plot of carpet near George's feet, while about a hundred small bodies wormed around next to us, some screaming with pleasure and some just plain screaming. It was a real scene. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore, so we went off into another part of the store and decorated a monkey mask. We tried to sit down for a storytime, but there was too much commotion going on. And Graham finally said, "Hi Monkey?" so I took it as a sign that he was ready to Meet George, which you have already seen. He did learn a new word today: Lap. "Hi Monkey lap, hi monkey lap." It was a big hit afterall. And the boy will be getting a Curious George Treasury for Easter, but don't tell him that.
Other new efforts include calling Daddy "Nick," and just today he is saying my name "Nessa" and he is "Gam." I am seeing every day how important the people we know are to him. He has a little song that he sings, where he runs down a list of friends we've seen lately, and it's so pure-hearted and exhuberant it's just heartbreaking.

Ballet and Buns

Last night, Anneva and I went to see the Eifman Ballet of Saint Petersburg's production of Anna Karenina. We were both really floored by it. It mixed Tchaikovsky's music with really dissonent, electronic pieces and the dancers were apparently like totally double jointed. At one point, Anna seemed to balance on the post of a brass bed, in toe shoes. Anneva and I turned to each other like What?! The love scenes were really amazing; it's so incredible what emotions can be communicated through movement and gesture. And then the end: we seriously couldn't breathe. I have never ever ever in my life seen anything on stage as wild and white-knuckle and heart freezing as the way the corps set themselves into the form of a train for Anna to throw herself in front of. There were oh, like eight curtain calls. People were freaking out.

And then we went into the lobby, even though we both wanted to just sit with it for a minute, and there were brownies.
Free brownies.

Yup.

Graham has had a really fun day today: he went to "school" with my mom, and then we all went to the bakery for hot cross buns and the cashier gave Graham a cookie. It's so cute when he says "bun" I can't stand it. He can eat hot cross buns every day for all I care, as long as he says Bun (pause) peeeas.... Then we saw a train, which was a very big deal, and after naptime we got groceries. It was Babyfest at the grocrey store. He had to point and waive at every one he saw. And after dinner he got a bath, during which he said "monkey hat" (Curious George) and "bubble bath." We managed to avoid a bathtime poo, but it seems inevitable at this point. I am ready with small fish net.

Oh, and the job. Totally couldn't tell if I'll be called in for round 2 interviews. Could. Not. Tell. We'll see. Cool place though.

ABCs, Whose are These? What's this color? Thank you, Please!

I blinked and Graham is a toddler, learning at a lighting quick pace. He can (somewhat) accurately fill in my pauses during the ABC song, and sings the tune and rhythm of it on his own - minus the understandable parts. When asked "How many are there?" of anything, there are always TEEEEEE! (Three, for those of you who just don't get it.) He is really interested in ownership of things; he loves telling me "Dada shoes" or "Mama hat" and is dipping his toes into the dreaded "Mine!" He has yet to do it in a Hey You, Back Off! sort of way. It's just like Hey whaddyaknow! I know this, this is mine. While out for a Saint Patty's Day beer with Amy, (Graham prefers Pale Ales, by the way) Mr. Manners offered me a bite of bruchetta. I guess I didn't say thank you quickly enough, and he jumped all over me signing "Thank You!" I swear there was an eye roll in there. We were visiting Nick at work, which we hadn't done since he's changed jobs. We have determined that it is just not a good idea to be around Daddy when he can't play. Graham was quite upset by it, and I had to quickly turn it into a peek-a-boo game of Where's Daddy Now?

Graham is also having some success with naming colors, although his go-to answer if he's not sure is "Geen?" which is freaking adorable. And he's great with his Pleases. Half the time I don't even have to ask for them.

As for me, well. I think I am going to lose my mind today, which is why I decided that I should just ignore the bazillion things I have to do and won't be able to finish, and spend 10 minutes blogging and decompressing. I have a job interview on Wednesday, and if I didn't have a child I'd be excited about the possibility of getting the job. It looks like a great place and definitely the type of environment I'd like to work in. But I do have a child, and the thought of leaving him, and the thought of working 40 hours a week on top of doing all the stuff I already do makes me feel like I'd like to schedule a lobotomy for early next week. Then there's the realization of what we'd actually net, after paying for daycare and taxes, and the loss of me as a deduction on Nick's taxes. So then I'm like, ok do I really want him to spend his weekdays with somebody else for that amount? I'm freaking out. It feels really rotten. Things are feeling sort of impossible today. It's one of those days. And I'm having a hard time lining up somebody to take care of Graham during the interview. And he's going to miss ECFE class again, because last week we were sick.

I don't know how working moms do it, let alone working single moms. Seriously. I just don't get it.

One thing at a time today. On to a clean fridge.

The Car Show

So my dad and I took Graham to the car show today. We told him we were going to see some cars, and he kept asking "Cars? Cars?" the whole way there, the whole time we were there, and the whole way home. He especially liked climbing into the driver's seat and messing with the various knobs and buttons on the dash. I will say it's probably for the best that the horns are disabled. I checked out different kinds of hybrids; I think we will be getting a second car later this year. It was interesting to see GM's huge Live Green, Go Yellow
campaign present, since I sort of have the impression that developing ethanol technology is akin to investing and researching a better kind of magnetic tape for your 8-track. I think we can do so much better. WCCO ran a fascinating Project Energy segment several months ago, which suggested that we in no way, shape, or form have the amount of land necessary to plant corn sufficient to meet our current fuel demands. And then there's the issue of non-native mono-crops as a whole, and the amount of chemicals leeched into soil and groundwater. Large areas of a single crop stand out like a sore thumb to insects that would destroy them, generally requiring lots of pesticides. I don't mean to disparage the attempt at making things better. I'm glad ethanol is around. I just think it's strange to see such a huge push behind a form of fuel that at best will only be a portion of what's needed.

In other news, after his bath tonight Graham discovered his nipples. It was hilarious! He kept poking at them, signing "milk." Then he got the great idea to try nursing himself. With his mouth as wide as it would go, he tucked his chin into his chest as hard as he could. Then he started slowly bending his knees to inch just a little... lower... almost... there... Until suddenly, he was on the floor and shockingly enough, his mouth was nowhere near where he aimed to go. He was quite confused, and I'm sure my laughter wasn't helping.

safety first

We had an accident yesterday. Cliche as it is, you turn your back for a second and, well, you know. I heard an "Uh-oh!" and and long bumbling thud. That is how Graham wound up face down at the bottom of the stairs. We had been making such progress walking up and down unassisted, always with a spotter. And so Mr. Advanced Climber thought he could do (I assume) some sort of fancypants maneuver midway up. It didn't go so well. He's fine, but there was lots of crying on his part and lots of Are you ok's? and poking and prodding on my part. Nick said it's hard for kids to break their bones because they're still "green." I think that sounds really gross and unpleasant. I don't like to imagine Graham's arm as some sort of willow branch, going whichever way. Yuck. But neither would I have him in a cast right now. I think the huge impression it left will come in handy here, until he really masters his ups and downs. We are getting back on the bike as it were, but it's taking some coaxing, which is fine by me.

It seems like the warmer weather is maybe triggering rambunction. Nick's almost-4-year-old niece jumped from the couch onto a glass coffee table last week and apparently is in tough shape. A mom on EM has a 14-month-old who was restrained and bashed in the face with a toy by 2 older visiting kids, after another one peed on her carpet and another one threw a cup of juice at her wall. When she took him into urgent care, she had to stand down accusations of child abuse. It's a terrible story.

It's such a challenge sometimes, just trying to keep them safe, and then balancing that with helping them achieve some sense of independence.

rapid speech acquisition

So this talking thing is really happening. It's a real shocker to hear more complicated things coming from Graham. Samples from the last few days include "hat go out" "pretty house" "go nana (Anneva) house" "up please" "more please" "dada shoes" and "ball go." Today while reading before his nap, Graham finished my sentences from Goodnight Moon. Clear as a bell: Goodnight little "house" and goodnight "mouse."

In other news, we thought we had passed through Vaccum Terror, but we have not. The canister vac is no problem, but the old upright that we use to occasionally deep sweep the carpeted areas provoked intense shaking and tears yesterday. It's all he's been thinking about I think. He keeps signing "vaccum loud scared" over and over. Not sure how we're going to get past that one. It's really endearing, but pretty awful at the same time.

We have had three sucessful Graham-initiated pees in the potty, but when he tells me he needs to poo he gets stage fright and wants me to hold him while he sits on the potty. For all his rough and tumble, he's still such a little guy. It just melts me, his little arms around me while he tries his best to poop. I love him.

Wah wah wahhhhhh... No more .mac for me.

So we are trimming down. And we don't like it, but we are trying our best to be Grown Up. And Responsible. That means no more .mac, which makes me so sad, because that was my favorite and it was Graham's baby book. But an expensive baby book it was, and so it's gone. Maybe down the road I'll look into restoring it with ads on it, to see if that would defray most of the cost. Really clueless about getting paid to do things like that though... Maybe somebody can educate me a bit...

At any rate, here we are, blogging it out with everyone else for now. We'll see what I can cobble together in this format. *sigh*