The Small Family     

Hi all! I title this week’s blog in honor of our new houseguest: Blue the Mouse! Yep, we have our first mouse. I spotted him in the garage, where I suspect he was attracted by the (sealed) container of dog food. Must find a place in the house for that….

Blue earned his name from Theo. Interesting that our resident mouse gets the same name as our unborn baby--but both the Christmas tree and the baby “in Feo’s tummy” are named Green. I sense a theme here…. (Theo’s baby, by the way, is apparently a girl, though Mama is carrying “a baby brudder.”)

Alas, we will be getting a mousetrap for Blue, as we don’t wish to become overrun with mice if he decides to invite his little friends to the party. But at the moment, I’m rather charmed by him. In Sacramento, the pest problem was black widows--I’ll take a little mouse over a black widow any day!

So this has been a busy week, as you might imagine. Theo’s preschool was closed for the week, so he and I got to spend all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday together--which was fun 66.6% of the time. Where does the percentage come from, you ask? Well, Monday and Wednesday were lovely, fun days for us. Tuesday, my sweet little boy was replaced by a turkey of the non-poultry variety, and I was ready to string him up by his toes by the time Chris got home from work around 6! No particular reason for the bad day--I think he just woke up on the wrong side of the crib or something. But Monday and Wednesday were nice days, so that made up for it.

Monday morning was a beautiful fall morning, so we walked to downtown Clayton, where I got some coffee and mailed something at the post office, and then we went to the downtown park for some playtime. While there, we met a mother with two young boys (ages 5 and 6) who were getting their teeth cleaned at the dentist across the street. The dentist apparently told the mother, “Just take the boys over to the park to play--we’ll come over and get each one as it’s his turn.” Sheesh--where do you get that kind of service nowadays?! I may learn to really like this semi-small-town living!

Actually, I’ve found people here to be super nice. I wondered if there might be a bit of snobbery, since Walnut Creek (right next to Clayton) is the beginning of a string of some pretty upscale East Bay cities. But no--so far, people have been extremely friendly. I’d say actually more friendly than Roseville, which I didn’t consider to be an un-friendly place--they’re just more apt to stop and talk to you and welcome you to the town here, it seems. The mother of the two boys gave me a lot of good info on local schools, doctors, etc., and Theo had a lot of fun playing chase with her boys in the park. And I’ve set on a mission to befriend the owner of the local coffeehouse. He’s very unfriendly, but I think it may be a cultural difference, because he’s actually quite courteous--just not outright friendly. He barely speaks to me when I order, but both times I’ve been in, he has made sure that he or someone else opens the door for me when I leave, since I have my hands full of coffee and Theo. (I’m not sure what his background is--perhaps somewhere in the Middle East. And so I wonder if the lack of outright friendliness is just a cultural difference, as he does seem to be a very thoughtful guy under the silent exterior. Regardless, he makes a mean chai latte and some pretty good coffee, too. And I like supporting a local small business when I can….)

We tried to stop at the library to get library cards on our walk back home, but alas it was closed. Which leads me to a funny story about Theo logic. Both Chris and my Mom will tell you that one of the more annoying things about me is that I’m logical to a fault--and I think Theo has inherited my sense of logic, as he has a logical answer for everything! Anyway, the library was closed, and Theo was really upset, as he wanted to go in. I told him we’d come back another day when it was open, and after fussing for a minute or two, he perked up and said, “Mama will take down the ‘Closed’ sign--then it will be open!” I laughed and explained that even if we took down the Closed sign, the door would still be locked. After pondering this for a moment, he said, “If you call the Handy Helper [from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse], you can get a key. You have to buy the key, but then you will have the key and you can open the library! Then it will be open!” Ha! If only it were so easy….

In another instance of Theo logic, he is determined to drive the car. This is mostly because when he drops something in the back seat and wants it right now, I inevitably reply, “You’ll have to wait until we get home. I can’t get it while I’m driving.” His immediate response is always, “Feo want to drive!” So then we get into the discussion that he’s only 3 years old, and he needs to be 16 years old to drive. So on Wednesday, on the way to get his hair cut, we had this usual discussion. And he thought for a moment and said, “When the clock says 16, then I can drive!” I tried to explain that years are different than minutes on the clock, and he finally gave up…or so I thought. When we got to the haircut place, we had to wait a while, so Theo sat down to play with the toys there. One was a cash register where you could punch in numbers. He promptly punched in the number 16, brought it up to me and said, “Yook, Mama! Feo made 16! Now Feo can drive!” Ha ha, if only…

The other thing we did with our Monday through Wednesday was cook! Theo was a super helper in the kitchen, assisting with all kinds of cooking tasks. He helped make the “sweet pee-tatoes,” as he calls them, as well as the pretzel Jell-o and a few other odds and ends. I think the pretzel Jell-o was his favorite task, as he got to help smash the pretzels for the crust. Give a three-year-old carte blanche to smash something, and he’s a happy camper!

We took several days to cook and prepare all of our Thanksgiving dinner, as I knew slow and steady was the way to do it with my almost-seven-months-pregnant lumbering self. And it turned out to be very easy, given that we just attempted small bits each day. In the end, we had turkey (prepared by Chris and delicious as always), sweet pee-tatoes, cheesy potatoes, homemade dressing, sautéed Brussels sprouts (prepared by Chris and delicious as always, too), homemade cranberry sauce with dried apricots, rolls (not homemade, as I inevitably burn homemade rolls), pretzel Jell-o (delicious recipe stolen from my Aunt Laurel and always a favorite), warm apple cider, and pies (pumpkin cream cheese and apple custard). Chris’s parents brought shrimp and hummus for appetizers, too, as well as a fun cranberry cocktail (mine was nonalcoholic, of course).

We hosted Chris’s parents, my sister and part of her family (the older three kids, Sam, Tyler, and Noelle, were with their dad that day, so we had Lynnie, Charles, Stevie, and Andrew--Sam’s former boyfriend, who is still close with the family and had nowhere to go on Thanksgiving), and my Mom. Theo was in his glory with all manner of people around to be a captive audience for his CD playing. (He’s really into music lately, and he spends much time every day playing his favorite CDs and telling you all about what’s on them and what instruments he hears.) It was a nice day, and we were glad everyone was able to come see the house--though it was too bad my older two nieces and nephew weren’t able to join us!

On Black Friday, we avoided all retail establishments. In my younger days, I might’ve been more brave--but no more! So instead, we took Theo down to San Jose to play at the Children’s Discovery Museum, which I have long wanted to visit. He really enjoyed it--so much so that we got a membership. Now that we only live an hour away from it, I expect we’ll probably go a few times a year--and the membership has reciprocal benefits to a couple of other children’s museums we like, too. Theo’s favorite part was probably the make-your-own-pizza area. They had pretend pizza crusts and toppings, along with a pretend pizza oven, so kids could build their own pizza and pretend to bake it. Master Chef Theo had quite a good time doing this, and his pizza ended up being the healthiest, craziest pizza I’ve ever seen: Toppings included broccoli, bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, plums, pineapple, etc.

After a couple of hours at the museum, we got some lunch and then stopped by to see Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kathy for an hour. We then headed over to Aunt Tanya and Uncle Steve’s house to let Theo and Nik play for an hour or so. The boys had a good time wreaking havoc in the backyard--too bad I didn’t have my camera on hand!

Saturday we decided to try going to the movies: The Muppets. Okay, laugh if you want, but I have a soft spot for the Muppets. I enjoyed them when I was young, and I had heard good things about the movie, so I wanted to see it. And I was not disappointed--it was a great, feel-good movie! Yes, I teared up a little bit--and I laughed a lot! Theo actually only lasted about 20 minutes, so he and Chris left the theater and went to get some lunch while I watched the rest. We knew it was hit or miss with Theo--the Muppets aren’t animated, so we weren’t sure whether they’d hold his attention. They didn’t, but at least we went into it with low expectations--and I enjoyed the movie a lot!

Saturday evening we decided to get our Christmas tree--a real one this year, now that we have space for it! It’s a modest one--just about 5 ½ feet tall--but it smells wonderful! And Theo had a ball running around the tree lot and looking at trees. He has named our Christmas tree “Green”--very appropriate. Only problem with getting a tree this soon is that Theo is quite sure that Santa is going to arrive right now--and explaining to him that Christmas isn’t for a few weeks has been a bit of a challenge. I need to get him a countdown calendar for it….

We took it easy Sunday and just went to downtown Walnut Creek for some walking and lunch. Discovered that the farmers’ market runs on Saturdays and Sundays down there, so we got our weekly produce while down there. And we found a yummy place for lunch, right around the corner from Kara’s Cupcakes, which I can never resist!

I have to laugh at another cute interest of Theo’s lately. Grandma Kathy brought him a purse on Thanksgiving, as she knows he enjoys carrying stuff around in purses. She filled it with some little things he might like to play with--an old expired credit card, a string of beads, a picture, etc. Well, he quite likes this purse and wants to take it everywhere with him--only he has refilled it with all of his personal favorite things. He now loads it with all of his CDs and their cases, an old cordless telephone, and a pair of surgical gloves. So when he’s in the car, he goes into his purse, dons his surgical gloves, makes some calls on his phone, and then sorts through all of his CDs to tell you what’s on each of them. Cracks me up--it’s such a strange assortment of favorite treasures, but he loves them all! (He also dons the surgical gloves every time he cooks in his play kitchen. Don’t ask me why--neither of us wears gloves in the kitchen, but apparently Theo does!)

To file under the heading of “If it’s not one thing, it’s another…,” let me tell you about our son’s apparent death wish. I swear, if there is danger, that child actively seeks it out and finds it. On Tuesday (the day I wished to string him up by his toes), part of his day was spent attempting to plug things into electrical sockets and attempting to stick a toy screwdriver into the air-conditioning unit in the backyard. Further, the front door has been our nemesis since moving in. It has a deadbolt, a long-handled doorknob (as opposed to a traditional round knob), and a safety latch near the top. Now, Theo has been able to do deadbolts since the minute he was tall enough to reach them…but, until this week, he couldn’t remove doorknob covers. (Now he can--though this is a moot point on the front door anyway, since it doesn’t have a round knob.) The safety latch at the top of the door is a foolproof way to keep him inside--but only if we remember to latch it. We do remember most of the time, but the fact is that Chris can’t latch it when he leaves for work at 6am (as it must be latched from the inside), and Theo will soon be transitioning to a big-boy bed. Our fear was that he’d get out of bed in the morning, wander downstairs, and walk out the unlatched front door unattended--because he has several times since we moved in wandered outside unattended when we've forgotten to do the safety latch. Luckily I was awake and aware every time and grabbed him--but what if I slept beyond 6am sometime, and he wandered out after Chris left? Not a good option.

So, clearly, we need another way to secure the front door, since Houdini thinks it’s funny to just wander out it unattended, no matter how much we’ve talked to him or scolded him about it. Luckily, I found a safety device at Babies R Us specifically designed for long-handled doorknobs, so I bought it and Chris installed it. We didn’t say a word to Theo, figuring he’d get the message the next time he tried to escape, only to find that he had now been thwarted.

Um, no. It’s us who were thwarted. This device actually takes some dexterity to use--you have to push in a latch and simultaneously slide it to the left, releasing the doorknob. We figured if nothing else, it would take him a while to figure it out. No such luck. Within 18 hours, I took a shower and came downstairs to find that the new device had been disabled, the deadbolt had been undone, and Theo had tried to open the front door. Luckily, I had remembered to use the safety latch at the top of the door when Theo got up that morning (after Chris left), so he wasn’t able to escape--but if I hadn’t remembered to latch it, he would’ve been long gone, or at the very least wandering outside the house without me.

And I can’t keep him with me when I shower, because he can remove the doorknob covers off all of our standard doors now, too, so there’s no effective way to “lock” him in the bathroom with me. Sigh. And yeah, obviously I need to shower….

Luckily, our landlord is great, and Chris talked to him and asked whether we can install a new deadbolt--one that requires a key to open from the inside as well as the outside. And he readily agreed. So that’s Chris’s job for Sunday--in fact, he’s installing it as I type. It’s kind of a pain, because it means we have to lock the door from inside the house with a key every time--no just walking by and turning the deadbolt. But at least the kiddo is safe--as long as he doesn’t find the key to the deadbolt, he’s now unable to get out of the house, even if  the safety latch isn’t on.

Problem solved, right? Not entirely. He also wandered over and opened up Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kathy’s front door when we were there, prepared to wander outside unattended. Apparently he’s trying to give me gray hair. Their house is on a busier street than ours, and I dread the thought of him managing to get outside. Sigh…

And of course, he had to throw us another curveball. We moved his car seat to one side of the car, instead of the center, where we’d had it. (This was just to fit the Christmas tree in the car--but it’ll have to be permanently moved over when the baby arrives anyway, as it’s the only way to fit two car seats in the back of our car.) And naturally, the little turkey decided that it’s really fun to try to open the car door while the car is moving. He can undo the lock and pull the lever to open the door from his car seat. The only thing that saved us was that the car has child-safety locks on the back doors, which I had turned on when we moved the car seat. Good grief, though--the child is bound and determined to test fate!

You know, overall, I am very glad I have a fearless child. I had a lot of fears as a kid, and that isn’t something I’ve ever wanted my child to face. And boy, he sure doesn’t--he has no natural fear, no matter how much we tell him certain things can hurt him (such as knives, electrical sockets, wandering outside alone, etc.). But I’ll tell you what: I wouldn’t mind if he had just a dash of fear in him sometimes! He’s probably going to grow up and be some extreme-sports fanatic or Evel Knievel or something….

Nah, if I were to guess at this point, I’d say he’ll grow up to be a musician of some sort. He’s in love with all things music! I’ve been talking to one of my authors, who happens to be a professional cellist living in the East Bay, and he recommended, based on my description of Theo’s musical interest, a Suzuki-method strings class. Apparently it requires some parent participation, which I think I’d enjoy doing with him. Only catch is the usual one: It’s difficult to find a class for a child as young as Theo. But I may have found one in Livermore (about 45 minutes away), so I need to look further into it. The classes are only once a week, so driving out there once a week wouldn’t be so bad. Might be an interesting challenge to participate when the baby arrives, but I do think it’d be a fun thing for Theo and I to do together. And he loves stringed instruments. He really loves all instruments, but his favorites seem to be brass and strings--he’s not quite as interested in piano as he is in guitars, horns, etc. So we shall see--I’ll look into it.

Before I wrap up for the week, a Garbanzo update: I am now entering my third trimester! He’s about 16 inches long and weighs about 2 ½ pounds. He can now blink, cough, and breathe in the womb. And according to my weekly pregnancy updates that I get via email, if he is born at any point from now forward, he has a very good chance of survival outside the womb. Of course, it’d be best if he stays put for another 9 weeks or more, but still--we’re getting there!

Probably a good thing, really. I do notice more contractions with this one than I did with Theo. In fact, I don’t remember ever noticing a contraction with Theo (not even Braxton-Hicks “practice” contractions), and I do get them with this one. Which is totally normal--most women do. I just never noticed them with Theo, and I do with this one. Chris and I both figure he won’t stay in for the full 40 weeks, but we’ll see. Theo was born at 38 ½ weeks, so I’ve got this one guessed around the same. He’s due 2/22, but it’d be neat if he came two weeks early--he’d be born on my Dad’s birthday, but he’d still be considered completely full term!

The good news is, I found a doctor in Walnut Creek, so I’m set to finish my pregnancy here instead of having to drive back up to Roseville for my appointments. I’m very finicky about obstetricians, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find one I liked. But in talking with this doctor via email, I think it’s going to work out just fine.

And on that note, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving--and happy kick-off to the Christmas season!