The Small Family     

Well, I’m happy to report that good health has returned to the Small household! Theo was sick for a week, but it finally cleared up, and my bout with nausea lasted only a few days. But that was plenty--let me tell you! By the end of seven days of captivity, Theo was like a caged animal! He really only had about a day of slowing down at all--other than that, he had all his usual energy and spunk, but we couldn’t do much more than just go play in our court, as we had to stay pretty close to the bathroom!

One day, in desperation for something to keep him occupied for a bit, I pulled out a preschool-type activity I had bought for him at a consignment store a few months ago and stuck away for just such an occasion. Not only did he love it, but he was also quite good at it, much to my surprise. I thought it might be a bit beyond him, but he really got it. It’s a set of matching wooden “cards” that fit together in pairs, like puzzle pieces. One piece of the pair is a letter of the alphabet, and the other is a picture of an object. So the letter A matches with the picture of the apple, the letter B matches with the picture of the ball, and so on.

Spreading out all 52 pieces was overwhelming for a little guy, so instead, I’d hand him a letter, have him tell me what letter it was, and then point to three or four pieces with pictures on them, one of which was the correct match. “Which of these pictures is something that starts with the letter V?” I’d ask if he was holding the V, for example. And I’ll be darned if he didn’t get almost all of them right. He’d look at the three or four options and pick out the correct one almost all of the time! He got hung up on only a couple--one of them was a picture of nuts, but he thought they were all peanuts, so he was looking for a letter P instead of the matching N. On a couple, I prompted him with the letter sound when he seemed puzzled (ha ha, no pun intended!), so our exchange went something like this:

Me: “What letter is this?”

Theo: “J!”

Me: “Right! Which of these three pictures is something that starts with the letter J?”

Theo looks perplexed for a minute, so I jump back in: “What sound does J make?”

Theo: “Juh!”

Me: “Right! So which picture is something that starts with the Juh sound?”

Theo: “Jacket!”

He had SO much fun playing that game. He wanted to play it again with Chris when he got home. So neat! Now he asks to play his game every day, and although it doesn’t always hold his interest for more than a few minutes, it’s still fun to play it with him. And, it inspired me to pick up a birthday present for him, since his birthday is in just a few weeks: Candyland! I suspect he’ll just want to look at the cards more than anything, but I figured it’d make a good third-birthday present, and we can see whether he’s actually ready to play the game yet.

Another fun new development for the week was that Theo learned how to ride his tricycle! This is another item I picked up at a consignment store some time ago (maybe a year and a half ago?). I tried to teach him to ride it last year, but he didn’t get the concept of pedals, and he really wasn’t interested. But early this week, we had some nice weather, and Theo was going stir crazy in the house, so we went to play in the garage/courtyard area. Theo asked me to get his tricycle out, so I did--and what do you know? He was able to pedal it on his own! He doesn’t pedal strongly enough to go uphill yet, but he’s pretty darn good at going downhill. (Our neighborhood is basically flat, but there are parts that are more downhill than others.) He rode around the corner to the small park in our complex (it’s maybe an eighth of a mile, tops), but once we got to the park, he was worn out and announced, “Feo just want go home.” So, I lugged 27 pounds of toddler and a tricycle home, probably doing wonders for my recent chiropractic adjustment!

Another funny thing this week was Theo’s description of his illness. At first, when he’d get stomach cramps, he’d tell us, “Pinch tummy!” which was just sad. But later, when he was starting to feel a bit better but his stomach was still churning audibly, he’d tell us, “Feo have snoring in tummy.” I thought that was an awesome description of the horrid sounds your stomach makes when you’re sick--snoring!

He used this same term to try to outsmart Mama, too. On Monday, he had a fair bit of his spunk back, but he was still getting ill several times a day. So I called Little Gym to let them know he wouldn’t be coming, which made him very sad. I told him, “Honey, we can’t go to Little Gym while you’re sick!” and he replied very seriously, “Feo have no more snoring in tummy.” I laughed and said, “I can hear your tummy, buddy--it is still snoring!”

But it didn’t stop there. I think I mentioned in last week’s post that we had to put a mixture of A+D ointment and Maalox on his rear end because he got a nasty rash from being sick. Well, he apparently associated the A+D ointment with medicine, rather than just as a comfort measure. When I told him he had to be all better to go to Little Gym (or the gym, or Wacky Tacky, or the park, or any of the other numerous places he begged to go), he grabbed the A+D ointment tube, handed it to me, and said, “Feo need cream on bottom. Then all better, go Little Gym!” Ahhh, again, nice try, buddy!

From the last time he had a respiratory cold/flu, he knows that when the thermometer says he doesn’t have a fever, it means he’s getting better. So a few times when he wanted to go someplace and I told him we couldn’t, he’d insist, “Mama need take Feo’s temperature!” I’m quite sure he was thinking that if I took his temperature, I’d see that he was “all better!”

Funny thing is, he was finally well and able to go out again on Thursday, so I took him to his last class at Flip 2 It (a tumbling class). But after 20 minutes there, he announced, “Feo just want go home.” I think he was still worn out from a week of being sick--though he sure didn’t want to believe it!

Thankfully, we were all well again by Friday. Chris had a fantasy baseball draft in San Francisco on Friday evening, so he left around 1:00, and it was just Theo and me left to our own devices. My Mom came over to accompany us to the frozen-yogurt store, as I had promised Theo that once his tummy was all better, I’d take him for a treat. And while we were there, I got a call from the California State Auditor’s Office, offering me the editing contract that I applied for back in October and interviewed for last month. Hooray, hooray! My first contract goes through the end of June, I believe, and then after that point they reassess and determine what sort of follow-up contract to offer me. (Obviously, if I don’t meet their standards, there won’t be a follow-up contract! But there is also the opportunity to get a promotion/raise with the follow-up contract, so that would be nice.)

Chris came home late Friday night, and on Saturday morning we went to Scientopia in Napa, even though we were recently there, as they had an open-play day again. Theo loves that place, as do Chris and I--everything is in one room, so it’s very easy to let Theo wander and explore on his own while we keep an eye on him. It wasn’t very crowded, either, so he had his pick of activities. We wrapped up with lunch (panninis at the Oxbow Market--ventured away from our usual Peruvian food--and, of course, mini-cupcakes from Kara’s…mmmm!), and then drove home.

We stuck close to home on Sunday, visiting a new park I recently found and then getting lunch. I took some macro shots at the park, so you’ll see them in this week’s album. Let me say, though, that I am not at all skilled at macro photography yet. My friend Kim took a macro photography workshop at the local college a couple of years ago, and I recently mentioned that I wished they’d offer it again so I could take it. Kim had the great idea that we could do our own macro workshop, so now she, Janeane, Amber, and I are doing a little four-woman workshop. We’re shooting pictures on our own, then meeting for discussion/critique/food/drink late in March, then going out shooting as a group to see whether we can refine our pictures with each other’s help--and then, of course, another evening of food/drink/critique to wrap up!

I don’t have a macro lens for my camera, so I really wasn’t able to get anywhere near as close as I’d like to what I was shooting. But Kim has a macro gadget for regular lenses that she’s going to loan me, so I should be able to get some more interesting shots once she hooks me up with that.

Last but not least, I must tell you that there will be no blog post next weekend, as we’ll be at Disneyland! But the following weekend, be prepared for lots of stories and pictures from the land of Mickey, Goofy, and pals!

Have a wonderful two weeks, and wish us good weather/safe drive thoughts!