The Small Family     

Well, I had to title this blog “Great!” because that’s Theo’s new favorite saying, and it cracks me up! And he says it in such a positive, encouraging tone: If I sing to him, he claps at the end and says, “Great!” After I read him a book, he happily says, “Great!” And whenever he accomplishes something, he announces, “Great!” I’m very glad that life is so great for the little guy right now!

Compared to last week’s blog posts, full of tales of our trip, I’m afraid this week’s will be rather dull. But I shall blog anyway….

Perhaps the biggest news of the week is that on Thursday, Theo went WILLINGLY to Miss Monica for the first time ever! Normally he bellows and squalls as I hand him over for his float lesson, even on days when he actually doesn’t end up fussing much in the pool. He loves Miss Monica…but usually not in the water. Once he’s out of the water, he’s all charm and smiles to her, but when he gets in the water with her, it’s crabby tears.

But not on Thursday! I got to the pool a bit early, and I was sitting on a lounge chair with Theo on my lap, trying to tell him all about how wonderfully Chloe was floating, and how I was sure he could do the same. (Chloe is almost two years old. She never graduated last year, but this year she started out the season fighting it and is now floating like a little cork. On Thursday, she floated for ten straight minutes with no assistance after righting herself from a “fall” into the pool! I’m hoping Theo takes a cue from her and does the same.) And he was listening and watching, and then Monica finished with Chloe and came to the side of the pool to get Theo. And he actually climbed off my lap of his own accord and went to her!  I can’t say he suddenly had a major floating breakthrough, but his lesson did go well, with very little fussing, and he earned many stickers for his good lesson. Fingers crossed that the breakthrough comes soon. In the meantime, he nearly drove us nuts Sunday morning, asking for “Mah-ka! Mah-ka!” over and over and over, and then crying when I told him he would see her tomorrow, not today. Hmm, does the boy have a little crush on Miss Monica?! It may be mutual: One day she confided to me, “I just can’t help myself--I love him! Even though he can be such a stinker in the pool, I just can’t help but love him!” I think it’s a personality match; Monica apparently was an extremely stubborn, feisty, strong-willed child, according to her mother (Miss Deborah). Perhaps she and Theo see in each other kindred souls….

As long as we’re talking about pools and such, I’ll also mention that the six-month gym membership Chris won for us has been a godsend, for a couple reasons. I’ve used it five times this week, and Chris and Theo came with me three of those five times. The dreaded heat has reached Sacramento (triple-digit heat this weekend), so exercising outside is not a fun prospect. And this gym time gives Chris and me a half-hour break where we can do something together that doesn’t involve parenting. And perhaps best of all, Theo loves their play-care area. It’s great knowing that he’s enjoying himself while we’re off exercising (and enjoying ourselves) for half an hour or so. The first day we were a little nervous: It was Monday afternoon and somewhat chaotic in the play-care area. There were only about five kids there, with two adults supervising, but two of the five toddlers were crying, and one was having a gnarly nose issue. My first instinct was, “Um, I’ll pass.” But I try very, very hard not to be an overprotective parent, as I really don’t want Theo to pick up on anxieties from Chris and me. And so I looked objectively at it and thought, “Okay. The room is clean and a kid’s dream. The three toddlers who aren’t crying look happy enough to be there. The staff, although a bit frazzled, seems to have it generally under control. And this is a well-established, well-known gym that has been providing childcare for years, so they likely do a decent job of it.” And so, we signed Theo in, the staff promised to come get us if he cried for more than five minutes or so (he didn't cry at all, actually!), and off we went upstairs to do our workout. When we returned half an hour later, Theo was meandering around looking calm, and the staff said, “Oh my gosh, he was so good! No fussing at all, and he was so sociable--he said ‘hi’ to everyone who came in!” Okay, cool--we’ll try this again, then….

And so we’ve taken him back two more times, for half an hour each time, and when we’ve gone in to pick him up, he’s taken one look at us and turned around and headed the other way to go play more. One time he actually cried when we left because he wanted to stay and play! And the second and third times, there were no crying kids--they were all playing happily. So I think perhaps the woman was telling me the truth on our Monday visit, when she said, “The kids always seem to be out of sorts on Mondays.” I guess it stands to reason--Mom and Dad go back to work on Mondays, so the kiddos have to make that shift from weekend family to weekday family. It’s enough to make any toddler a little edgy, I suppose.

Anyway, now Theo repeatedly asks to go to the gym, so we’ll definitely be keeping up with that. The other beautiful thing about is it that it’s free, which fits well into our current plan of “save, save, save” before our trip back east. We’re trying to eat most of our meals at home and avoid any unnecessary spending for the next couple months, so having a fun place we can go that’s free is pretty awesome! That’s actually what we did with our Sunday, in fact--spent extra time at the gym by visiting the pool after our workout. They have three huge pools (one specifically for tots) and a sprinkler/fountain play area for kids, so we beat the triple-digit heat by playing in the pool and sprinkler area. Theo was a little unsure at first, but he quickly decided it was a great deal of fun. And when we got home, he slept for 2 1/2 hours before waking up and asking, “Gym? Gym?” Ha--I think once in a day is enough, buddy! We're really glad he likes it, though.

Our biggest event this week was a grandparents visit on Saturday. Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kathy drove up with Great-Grandma Norma in tow for a Saturday visit. (Amusingly, Theo calls Great-Grandma Norma “Grandma…great!”) And Grandma Diane joined us for a yummy dinner of BBQ salmon and halibut, red beans and rice, salad, and broccoli (all made by Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kathy), followed by a dessert of homemade vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries (made by yours truly). Grandpa Tom has threatened to shoot me for this, but I feel I must mention that the fish was actually more flambéed than barbecued, thanks to Grandpa Tom setting the cedar planks on the BBQ on fire! (There’s a picture in this week’s album, but you can’t get the full effect, since I was shooting through a closed sliding door at a weird angle.)

We’re a little short on pictures this week, since we didn’t do much particularly eventful, but as a consolation prize, I have included a very, very short video clip on the Videos page of Theo discovering the joy of making “farty” noises in a kitchen glass. Turn up the volume to hear his noises…but mostly, it’s just fun to hear his infectious little giggle!