The Small Family     

Hello all! This has been a random week, so I apologize for a slightly disjointed blog full of random stories (and a random title). Before I do anything else, though, let me introduce you to my new blog: “From the Peanut Gallery.” You’ll find it at smallpeanuts.blogspot.com. I will, of course, continue this blog as well--but lately, Theo is seriously funnier than a stand-up comedian with all the things he says. I post them on Facebook a lot of the time, but it occurred to me that I have many friends and family members not on Facebook who might also enjoy these little Theo gems. So I started a secondary blog for quick little stories about funny Theo-isms. No pictures or detailed write-ups on this one--just quick little tidbits. I’ve already posted several of them, so check it out if you’re so inclined! I plan to update it periodically during the week, whenever he does something that particularly amuses me. :-)

As for this blog, I don’t have too many pictures this week because Theo got sick on Friday, and I usually take most of my pictures over the weekend. But there’s not much photo-worthy about a sick little boy, so I don’t have a whole lot to show. However, his little brother did cooperate a bit more for his second (er, third!) 3D ultrasound, so I have a couple of pictures of the jowly little guy. More on him in a bit…

As for Theo, he finally succumbed to the crud that’s been going around. It seems everyone around here has been sick with a vile cold, and we had managed to avoid it. But no more--it has struck our household! Luckily, as of this writing Chris and I are still unscathed, but Theo had a bit of a rough weekend. He was a little quieter than normal Thursday afternoon, and I was suspicious. (That child is never quiet, so that’s always a red flag.) By Friday morning, he was still quiet and starting to cough just a bit. He didn’t seem really sick, but I was pretty sure he was starting to come down with something, so I kept him out of preschool, much to his chagrin. As a consolation prize, I offered him the chance to go see Chris’s office and have lunch with him, so we did that. And that was a lot of fun--Theo is all about Chris lately, so he was so excited to see “Daddy’s office!” (I think it may be due to the fact that he doesn’t see Chris much during the week anymore--only for two hours at night. So Chris is now an exciting novelty, whereas I’m the boring parent who is around all day.) In fact, he cried when we left, as he so wanted to stay and work in Daddy’s cubicle. (This is largely because Chris has a CD player in his cubicle, and Theo desperately wanted to play with it.) We got to meet a couple of Chris’s coworkers (including the woman we think was instrumental in getting him hired), so that was neat. And their cafeteria overlooks the San Francisco Bay and the planes taking off from San Francisco airport, so I was pretty much in heaven!

Side note: In a typical left-handed Chris compliment, he informed me this week that one woman he works with reminds him of me. I said, “Oh? How so?” and he replied, “Well, she’s very Type A and focused. I definitely wouldn’t want to get on her bad side!” Um, gee…thanks?! I see what he thinks of me…. He covered that one up by saying, “Honey, I love you! I just wouldn’t want to work for you, I don’t think!” He he he, maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have any employees other than myself.

But back to Friday: Theo fell asleep in the car on the way back from Chris’s office, and he was decidedly worse when he woke up. We had to stop and sign some papers for our new insurance policy, and he did perk up at the agent’s office. The agent is an older man with grandkids, and he got a huge thrill out of Theo. He spent 45 minutes telling Theo about everything in his office, and he and Theo had quite the lively conversation about fax machines, modems, routers, postage scales, radios, mailing supplies, a clock…um, you name it. Theo was just chattering up a storm, and after a few minutes Bill turned to me and said, “How old did you say he is? He’s really exceptional! I don’t envy you, though--a kid that smart is going to be a handful.” Ha ha, indeed!

But after about 45 minutes, Theo started to really crash and announced he wanted to go home and sleep. So we went home, and he just melted onto the couch in a sad heap. His temperature was about 102.5, so I gave him some Motrin and let him vegetate in front of the TV to rest. Fever kept rising and falling throughout Friday night and all day Saturday, but it was lower by Sunday morning, and by now (Sunday evening), he is much, much more his normal feisty self. Fingers crossed that he’s on the mend! His cough sounds rotten, but I think the fever has broken.

The bummer about Theo being sick (aside from just the obvious aspect that it stinks to be sick!) is that it meant Chris had to miss our 3D ultrasound. I did show him pictures, of course. Garbanzo wasn’t overly cooperative, but a bit more so than before. You’ll see that the kid has huge cheeks! He looks like a squirrel with his cheeks stuffed full of nuts! Or Richard Nixon. Take your pick! The ultrasound tech said, “Man, that kid’s got some cheeks on him!” Theo had pudgy cheeks by the time he was a few weeks old, but I think he was pretty average when he was born. I’m expecting this one to come out looking like a blowfish or something!

This is a ridiculously inexact science, but the u/s tech said she’s guessing he’ll be about 8 ½ pounds when born. Second babies are very often bigger than first babies (and Theo was 8 lbs 3 oz), but she doesn’t think this guy will reach 9 pounds. I hope she’s right--ouch! I was sort of hoping for a 7-pounder this time, although I know that’s unlikely.

At 31 weeks gestation, Garbanzo is now about 18 inches long and weighs more than 3 pounds. His brain is continuing to develop, and he can now perceive information from all five senses! As for me, I am finally definitely visibly pregnant. In fact, my belly has grown quite a bit--to the point that my belly button is rapidly disappearing! I’m mourning its loss. You know how some people are squeamish about eyeballs or ears or whatnot? Don’t ask me why, but for me it’s belly buttons. I hate them. I think they’re utterly gross. (Yes, umbilical stumps on babies are the stuff of nightmares for me. I was relieved when Theo’s fell off, and I did not save it for posterity, as some women do!) But as gross as I think belly buttons are, I think a lack of a belly button is even grosser! I never fully lost mine with Theo, but I think I may with this one. ACK! Sigh…I suppose I will survive, but it’s quite traumatizing….

I also can’t easily put my socks on anymore. Whenever Chris is home, he gets that fun task. And the baby kicks so hard that he knocks the wind out of me sometimes! One night, I was sitting there with what I thought was an empty bladder--and he kicked me so hard that I peed my pants. Chris found the whole thing quite funny and announced, “Ah, pregnancy--it’s a beautiful thing!” Indeed….

Actually, I am enjoying it, just because I really like feeling him move and I like growing a life inside of me. But am I enjoying peeing my pants every time I sneeze (and on other occasions), being too rotund to put on my socks, and having a lovely purple ankle full of spider veins that mysteriously appeared with this pregnancy? Um…well, no. Not really. But that’s okay--it’s all worth it in the end!

I will wrap up with what I think was the most amusing part of the week: Theo’s first music class. I allowed myself to be swayed into signing him up for a group music class (two, actually), as the music teacher at his preschool felt that his attention span may not yet be good enough for one-on-one lessons. I’m not sure I actually agree with her (she’s only met him once, so she doesn’t know him that well yet), but I decided to take her advice and try a group class, since I haven’t yet found anyone willing to do one-on-one lessons with him. And so, on Thursday morning we headed over to Oakland for a Music Together class.

The drive was somewhat grueling--it’s actually a beautiful drive over there, but so much traffic! It took us nearly an hour, and I was grumbling the whole way about the traffic. When we got to the class, Theo was not amused. He was expecting to get to play instruments (my fault--I thought that was a bigger part of the class than it was, so I had sold him on that), and it turned out to be more of a “let’s sit in a circle and sing songs and dance” type of class. Theo had very little interest in singing and dancing--he wanted instruments! So he was pretty bored. And he finally stood up in the middle of class and announced loudly, “It’s time to go! Want to just go sit in traffic instead!” I started laughing--when sitting in traffic trumps a music class, you know it’s a bust!

I will say that he came to life when they did bring out some instruments--he grabbed a xylophone, a couple of drumsticks, and a drum and set up his own one-man percussion section. But unfortunately, that part of the class only lasted about five minutes, and the other 45 minutes were spent on the singing and dancing that he found so tiresome. He repeatedly informed us that he’d prefer to go sit in traffic. Ha! So, needless to say, we won’t be returning to that class.

I was rather amused, though. The night before class, he had come to me to ask for crayons. Now, Theo usually loathes any sort of drawing activity--it’s just not his thing. He’ll make one or two marks on a paper and then get bored, and he certainly never asks to do it. But on this particular night, he asked me for crayons. So I got them for him and asked him what he was drawing. He replied, “I’m writing music notes.” He then proceeded to score three songs, entitled, “The Pink Song,” “The Neil Diamond Song,” and “The Other Neil Diamond Song.” And when he finished each one, he grabbed his drumsticks, used them as conductor batons, and conducted his songs for me. It was really quite cool! And the next morning (Thursday), when I told him we were going to try a music class, he immediately grabbed his paper with its crayon scribbles and said, “I need to bring my paper! We will conduct my songs in class!” I love it--3 ½ years old, and he already thinks he’s the bandleader. :-)

I was telling this story to one of my authors, who happens to be a professional cellist who lives about 30 miles from here, and he said, “That child is begging for more than a Music Together class. I’m going to cudgel my brains and find something for him. In the meantime, if you want to drive down here next week, I can show him my piano and cello and let him compose on my synthesizer--we can record it into the computer and play it back so he can hear what he’s done. And maybe I can round up some unusual instruments for him to try, too!” So, we have a date on Tuesday--if Theo isn’t still sick. Fingers crossed! I love this about my job--I get to work with some of the most interesting, generous people. It’s a really good thing….

To make up for the lack of photos, I've uploaded a couple of new videos to the More Videos page. Caution: They're a bit long and perhaps not terribly interesting to many. One is of Theo working a puzzle and one is of him composing his songs. Why would I record him working a puzzle, you ask? Because he actually sat down and independently did a task from beginning to end, and his commentary on it was pretty interesting (to me!). I thought my Mom would get a kick out of it, as would Chris, so I recorded it for them...and then decided I could add it to the blog, since I already had the footage. So watch if you like--just know that they're not the most dynamic kid videos ever! :-)

Anyway, Christmas is next Sunday, and assuming we are all well enough to go to my sister’s house as planned, I will post the blog on Monday instead of Sunday. But, if we’re sick and end up having to stay home alone, you can look for it Sunday. :-) Happy week before Christmas, all!