The Small Family     

Before anything else, let me say that I can’t believe it’s been 21 years today since the Loma Prieta earthquake! Most of you probably know that both Chris and I lived in the Bay Area when the quake hit. Chris says his house didn’t have a whole lot of damage, but the quake still made quite an impression. Our house had a lot of damage inside, but thankfully no structural damage. Our pool did create a giant tidal wave that washed over the top of the house, though. It was weird to go out in the front yard post-quake and wonder how the driveway had gotten all wet…only to realize that the pool in the backyard had lost a third of its water and had obviously sloshed right over the top of our one-story house! (It also took out a section of fence, as I recall.) My Dad was in Germany when the quake hit, so my Mom and I spent a couple days after the quake filling two giant barrels with broken glass. And the funny moment of the whole thing was when my Dad came home from Germany with the message the hotel staff had given him after my Mom was finally able to get through on the phone lines: “Wife called. Stanlar okay.” After much puzzling, my Dad finally decided that my Mom must’ve called to let him know that something had happened to his cousin Stanley, but that all was well. It was a day or two later when a colleague of his said, “Hey, they had an earthquake out where you live.” My Dad initially brushed him off, saying, “We have those all the time.” When the guy insisted that it was no ordinary quake, my Dad finally realize that “Stanlar” was actually “family”--not cousin Stanley! (For the record, I have no idea who cousin Stanley even is. Or maybe it was an uncle. At any rate, a distant relative….)

But here we are back in Sacramento, where we have no major fault lines and no such excitement…much to my delight. We do have other excitement, though. As you know, we were in Seattle last weekend for Auntie Lisa and Uncle Chris’s baby shower, and what fun we had! We flew out Saturday morning, and Theo was delighted in his great airport adventure. Our original plan was to meet Lisa and Chris for lunch, since they were being banished from their house so Lisa’s parents and aunt and uncle could set up for the shower. Only they had some drama and got in a car accident on the way to lunch. Luckily it was a very minor fender-bender, but naturally they had to get B-Du checked out and make sure he was fine, so they headed for the hospital for an ultrasound and monitoring. Seriously…WHAT are the odds of getting in a car accident on the day of your baby shower?? I told Lisa she is not allowed to have any more drama until after the baby comes. ;-)

So Chris, Theo, and I puttered around Seattle and then headed over to their house and visited with Lisa’s parents and aunt and uncle until Lisa and Chris got home. (B-Du was just fine--Lisa had been wearing her seatbelt in the correct position, so he was safe.) Theo had fun playing with Ava (their dog), and Lisa’s parents got him a couple new books that he enjoyed. One of them was a jungle edition of If You’re Happy and You Know It, which was a perfect gift because that’s one of his very favorite songs. I think I read him that book at least 10 times over the next several days….

The baby shower got a bit of a late start due to Lisa and Chris’s impromptu hospital visit, but soon everyone arrived and we got to enjoy good food and good company. And then…it happened. Oh yes--the event that sparked the title to this week’s blog. You see, I’ve been thinking lately that Theo has been such a pleasant, sweet, affable little guy with so little drama as of late--really, just an awesome 2-1/2-year-old. But whenever that happens, it’s a sure sign that the next challenging toddler phase is imminent. That’s right--our pleasant, mellow days were soon to be foiled by…cursing. Oh yes, cursing.

As Lisa and Chris were opening presents, Theo suddenly announced, “Shit!” Their friend Abby turned around, looked at me, and said, “Did he just drop the S-bomb? Oh my god!” and burst out laughing. And so, of course, the little monkey decided to yell it again. And then everyone started laughing. Me included. And yes, I know this is absolutely the wrong thing to do when your child is misbehaving, but come on…a tiny, angelic-looking toddler suddenly yelling, “Shit!” in the middle of a baby shower for no reason is so absurd and embarrassing that it’s hard not to laugh!

By that point overtired and silly, Theo kept yelling his fun new word, so Chris took him in the bedroom to calm him down. Alas, he proceeded to have a giant screaming tantrum, punctuated by “SHIT!” and hilarious giggling from the little perpetrator--all of which we could hear as the present-opening continued. Oh dear.

So since that incident, we’ve tried everything to keep him from saying that word (and “crap” and “dammit,” which he also apparently finds quite fun), but no luck. Ignoring him doesn’t work--he keeps repeating said word louder and louder until you acknowledge him. So don’t acknowledge him, right? Well, try to follow that rule when you’re in the middle of Target, and your child is yelling, “SHIT!” at the top of his lungs while other parents are staring at you and hoping their kids don’t pick it up. Take away his privileges? Done. He doesn’t care. Put him on time out? Tried it. He doesn’t care. (Time outs are seriously the most ineffective parenting strategy, I swear!) Give him a new word to use instead? Tried it: Balderdash! Now he just says, “Balderdash! SHIT!” Send him to bed early? Tried it. He woke up the next morning, and the first words out of his mouth were, “Shit! Crap!” Leave him strapped into his high chair while we leave the room and tell him we’ll come back when he can use nice words? Did it. He started sing-songing, “Shit! Craaaaaaap! Shiiiiiiiit!” at the top of his lungs, determined to have the last word.

I kid you not, on Friday he swore at least fifty times. I’m not joking. I’m pretty sure he may be the most stubborn/persistent little boy around. I remember my nieces/nephews experimenting with bad words, but I swear (ha--no pun intended!) they weren't this persistent with it. They might say it a couple times, but they'd stop as soon as they were punished in whatever manner. So, as with all toddler phases, we will get past this. But until then, if my son curses at you, you have my sincerest apologies. I’d try washing his mouth out with soap if I wasn’t so certain the little turkey would like the taste of soap! ;-) (This is the kid who, when asked, “Do you want a time out?” says happily, “YES!”)

Yes, I know the question at the front of everyone’s mind is, “Where did he learn that?” Well, probably from both of us, although I’ll take credit for “shit,” since he heard me say it when I rammed my toe into the table, and he’s been repeating it ever since. Neither Chris nor I swear that much, but we have been known to utter a curse or two at times. And of course, the kiddo picked up on it.

But okay, back to happier topics. Seattle! On Sunday morning, I went to tea/breakfast with Lisa, her mom, and her aunt, while Theo and Chris went to breakfast with Chris (D.), Lisa’s dad, and her uncle. I’m told Theo cursed a few times at breakfast, too--sigh…. And later that day, after Lisa’s relatives had left for the airport, the five of us (six if you count B-Du!) went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. It was getting close to Theo’s naptime, so he only made it through about half the zoo, but we had a good time. They have a neat penguin exhibit, and the meerkats were a lot of fun. Oh, and you could get really close to the elephants, which was very cool!

Theo decided not to take a nap after the zoo, so by the time we went to dinner that night, he was pretty tired. But wow, did that ever work out well! He fell asleep literally about two minutes from the restaurant--and amazingly, he stayed asleep as I got him out of the car and we went into the restaurant. He then slept on my shoulder for a full hour, waking up just as the meal finally arrived. What great timing! We got to enjoy an hour of grown-up conversation while he slept, and I got to enjoy him snuggling on my shoulder, which he never does. Upon waking, he devoured a plate of veggies and some pizza crust, and all was well.

Monday was a girls’ day for Lisa and me. Chris took Theo to a children’s museum and the Experience Music Project (an interactive music museum), while Lisa and I went to a park, then had lunch and walked around a few baby shops. (I gave her a breakdown of cloth-diapering options, as she and Chris are going to give it a try with B-Du. I know nothing if not baby-poop options!) Chris said Theo really enjoyed the children’s museum, and he really enjoyed EMP--Theo was getting a little tired by then and couldn’t really reach the instruments, so we’ll have to try that one again when he’s a bit older. And Lisa and I had a great time talking about anything and everything--we figured we should get some talking time in before there are two babies/toddlers around!

Monday evening, after Chris (D.) got home from work, we all went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Alas, it was not quite the relaxing experience of the previous night, thanks to one antsy toddler who didn’t really want to be confined to his high chair, but we still enjoyed it, and we had fantastic fajitas!!

Our flight home was pretty uneventful, and then it was back to work as usual.  But we had a fun weekend--Saturday was our annual Pug-o-Ween meetup, and Theo enjoyed seeing all the puggies in costume and exploring the giant backyard where the meetup was held. Chris isn’t the biggest pug meetup fan, but he gamely went along. :-) Luna had a good time with her pug pals, and Zoe hid in the bushes and barked her tiny bark at anyone and everyone. (She’s still settling in and a bit skittish.) And my homemade brownies were well received. For our homemade new item of the week (we’re getting back into that now that we’re settled after our trips), I made brownies from scratch, from a recipe my cousin sent me that starts with an entire pound of butter. Fattening, but sinful!

Originally we had planned to go to Apple Hill on Sunday, but then I got the idea to go to Bishop’s Pumpkin Patch in Wheatland (rural town about 25 miles north of us) instead. I’ve heard about Bishop’s for years, but we’ve never gone. What fun we’ve been missing! It is a pumpkin patch, of course, but it also has animals, a petting zoo, several playground areas, a corn maze, a sunflower garden, train rides, hay rides, pony rides, shows…all manner of fun! We skipped the rides due to rather long lines, but there was plenty to see and do even without those. Theo liked the petting zoo, but I think he liked the pumpkin patch even more--he kept saying, “GIANT pumpkins!!” He also enjoyed the vintage train car that you could go through, as well as the story/song lady who told stories and sang children’s songs in the picnic area. Much to my surprise, Theo voluntarily got up on the concrete stage with the other kids (all older than him) and danced and listened to the stories and songs. Very cute to see!

And as if all that wasn’t enough, we had yummy food, too. We were a little early for lunch, so we just headed straight for baked goods instead! Theo had a still-warm-from-the-oven apple-pumpkin muffin, while Chris had pumpkin-walnut pie and I had lemon-walnut pie. We brought home a small loaf of pumpkin bread and shared a fresh apple cider, too. (We didn’t want Theo to have any of the cider, as it’s unpasteurized, so Chris got the bright idea to tell him it was coffee, which he knows he can’t have. I sputtered a bit at the thought of how gross apple coffee would be!) Anyway, Bishop’s grows the pumpkins (obviously!) and the walnuts onsite and then bakes the pastries fresh daily, so it was a really tasty treat.

Before I close this post, I have some more random, fun bits to share. First of all, we’ve noticed that Theo is now “reading” his books, which is really fun to watch. He’ll pick up a book, turn the pages slowly, and narrate what’s going on. One of his favorites is a Handy Manny book. He hasn’t seen the TV show Handy Manny, but he likes the book (probably because it has lots of neat tools in it). So he’ll flip through the Handy Manny book and narrate how the oven is broken, so they can’t make cookies, and they have to fix the oven. My personal favorite part is when Fluffy the cat escapes into the backyard. Theo narrates this with great passion as, “Uh oh Fuffy! Back…yard! Get out!” For some reason, “Fuffy” just cracks me up.

Another thing we’ve noticed is that Theo can now count backwards from 10 to 1. We can thank Mickey Mouse for that (well, the Disney Corporation), as I’m pretty sure he learned it on one of his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoons that he likes to watch. Anyway, the interesting thing about this is that when he counts from 1 to 10, for the past several weeks he has been skipping the number 6 every time (although he used to include it). But when he counts backwards, he includes all the numbers. No idea why, but I just thought it was interesting.

A weekly bit of fun around here has been Thursday nights, when Chris has his accounting class. Theo and I usually go to the gym, then we go for frozen yogurt afterward. Theo will ask, “Go ice cream store? Pwease?” and so we go. (Well, he asks this almost daily, even upon first waking in the morning, but we only go on Thursdays.) The funny thing about this is that he doesn’t get any ice cream or frozen yogurt. They do have a non-dairy flavor each week, but he doesn’t seem to much like it. Rather, he just likes to get a cup of fruit. He’s a fiend for blueberries. It’s a serve-yourself fro-yo store, so I get a cup and fill it with fresh strawberries and blueberries (sometimes blackberries too), and then I usually throw in a few bits of pound cake, a few bits of sugary cereal, and maybe a couple butterscotch chips. I figured a once-a-week treat of some sugary bits would be a neat treat for him, but the funny part is that I think he could actually do without everything but the fruit. He dives in and picks out all the blueberries first, then the strawberries. And if he’s still hungry, then he’ll pick at the cereal and pound cake. This week, he decided that I could have his butterscotch chips. So I guess I shall just embrace the fact that it seems as if he couldn’t care less for the sugary bits, and next time I’ll just get him the fruit. Heck, it’s better for him, and it seems to be his favorite part anyway. He must have his Chris’s sweet tooth, not mine. My fro-yo every week has tasty peanut butter sauce, a bit of marshmallow sauce, nuts, and chocolate chips. You can see which one of us is the healthier eater, eh?!

And with that, I wish you all a good week!