Chicken Soup

A mama's job is never done. As with most cliches it is very simply TRUE! This simple truth that my mama just so gracefully lives is the same one that I've been struggling to learn for 2 years now. Or more accurately, struggling not to learn. To me, it has been, hands down, the hardest lesson of parenthood.

Initially it took a few months for me to realize what it even meant. I just kept getting frustrated that Brad wasn't doing enough but then could never describe to him what enough even was. After many tears we finally figured out that I was simply unprepared for what it meant to be the mama. I'm not sure exactly how old Thomas was when we had the enlightening conversation, but he couldn't have been more than 3 months. I was upset with Brad for something and we got down to what it really was about - I'm IT. The buck stops here. If all else fails, go see mama. I'm not sure what I said but Brad looked at me quizzically and said "but you're the mama!" Like, what did you expect?? I remember this almost physical sensation of something pushing me down. It was like I'd been sucker punched. How could I not have known what this entailed?! The endlessness of my responsibility suddenly gained an aching clarity.

To be honest though, the daily reality of this truth isn't the hard part. Sure, I'm frequently exhausted and need alone time. What was hard was just the shock of it. The "getting it". I don't get to beg off because I'm not in the mood. I don't get sick days. Except for today!!

Which brings me back to the reason for this post. I've been sick as a dog (where did that saying come from anyway?) in bed all day. And who do you think took care of me and Thomas? My mama, of course! (Brad was out of town for work). She took the day off work and took Thomas downstairs so I could rest. I only saw him briefly other than nap and bedtime. Of course, he still needed to nurse whether I was sick or not, but after being able to rest all day and then being greeted by a cheerful toddler, that really wasn't a big deal, even feeling as I did. She even made me big pot of the tastiest chicken soup I've had in ages. Love, help and a bowl of soup - isn't that what mamas are for?

Get your walking shoes

Thanks to a friend of mine we've started going on a weekly hike with some fellow mamas and babes. Some are still wee ones in slings, but most are walkers. We alternate paths and there are different people on each trip, so it's always a different experience. On the first hike, Thomas was the poky one in the back. He just quietly looked at all the sights and stooped to check out hidden treasures. I just walked on ahead of him and looked back every few seconds to see him swinging his arms with a smile on his face. The second one he was still in the back, but by the third, he had discovered the joy of "finding" the path. "Thomas FOUND it!!" He now forges ahead, oblivious to the fact that everyone has stopped to check out a little "lake". We cross creeks, climb stone steps, explore caves, splash in shallow water and see all kinds of animals. He always has a blast. This last trip we saw peacocks and he talked about it for days - "see eecocks yeserday hike"

Enjoying the weather

As I type this he's busy watering the yard while naked. Some older (8?) boys rode by on bikes and laughed at him. There was no pointing or obvious rudeness, but it wasn't an "aw how cute" laugh. I'm glad he's too young to know what they were laughing at. I think one of the reasons I love him to be naked is precisely because of this innocence. There isn't the slightest hint of akwardness or shame. It's so refreshing to be around. Plus he just loves it so much. I'll never forget one time when he wanted to be naked and jump around the bed so we pulled his shirt off and he threw his hands in the air and declared "NAKED!!!!" and laughed out loud. He's now held the water in one place so long he's made his own puddle. He was remembering playing in a puddle last night after a rainstorm and wanting to do it again. The storm last night was really his first since he's started talking so much. He didn't care for the thunder. He finally went to sleep but was awoken an hour later by a really loud crack. He wanted daddy on one side and me on the other to keep him safe. He nursed back to sleep but every time he would hear thunder, he would open his eyes and look at me, scared, as if to say "am I safe mama?" He's done with the water now and requested a popsicle. I gave him a homemade blueberry one and while lounging in a chair enjoying it he tells me "blueberry popsil really nummy, not bad". Today we were driving home and Thomas said "Thomas found it!" "What did you find baby?" "a pee chee". I looked around and saw an HEB. I said "you found HEB?" and he said "yeah!" I wonder how long he's known what HEB looks like....

Trip to Nana & Grandpa's

Just a quick post about our trip to Houston to visit Nana and Grandpa. We all had a really nice time. Thomas especially. They just put in a new water feature in the backyard so Thomas just had to play in it. Throwing rocks, splashing the water, he definitely did not want to get out. We then took Thomas bowling for the first time. He enjoyed it. And of course he loved riding in the golf cart. Here are the pictures.

What Mama doin?

I love hearing what Thomas is thinking! It's so much fun to know what's going in in that little head. I've started jotting down a few things he's said recently that were unexpected or just really sweet. Here's a sampling:

Nice shoes -- said as he walked in a new pair of shoes for the first time. He wasn't talking to anyone in the room, just looking down at the shoes.
Mama sad? Nurse, feel better -- as he sat in my lap to nurse. After all, nursing makes *him* feel better.
Man gave sticker Thomas!!
Baby crying - kiss her!
Please mama nurse Thomas -- so sweet!
Thomas eat muffin River's house -- We were in the car listening to a song that he calls "river song" when he said this. Sure enough, the week before we had visited his friend River and had a muffin there.
Daddy said: Thomas, do you want to come help me? Thomas said: no, cut more plants -- we were trimming bushes.
Nice carpet! -- standing on an outdoor mat at a friend's house.
No, Daddy be home now -- daddy had come home from work but had to leave again. =(

And the kicker for me.....
What.....what mama doin? -- I was planting flowers and he was just quietly watching me for a while and then he wanted to know! Usually it's "Thomas do it". This was new...

More Outside Fun

The weather has been pretty nice lately so Thomas has been spending a lot of time outside. Sorcha, Thomas and I spent some time out in the front yard. Sorcha trimmed trees, Thomas played with his dump truck and I took pictures and some video. Click here for the pictures and enjoy the video below.

Thomas Loves the Outside

Just some quick pictures of Thomas playing outside today. Sorcha took some time this morning to go to her favorite place... Half Price Books, while Thomas and I played in the front yard of Gigi and Papa's. Click here to see all the pictures. I also took some short video below.

Watercolors

I never thought I'd say it. In fact, I've certainly been known to say the opposite, but today, food coloring was my best friend. Thomas would have stayed in the bathtub all day if I had let him. Later in the day I tried letting him play in the sink which somehow was easier for me to stomach (please just let me stay in my little fantasy world).

Attention to detail

So, after having been out all morning and been home for several hours, I look down at my feet this is what I see. Yeah. This is really just a more visible symbol of how I feel a lot of the time. If you all could see my car, you'd realize that this was trivial. There are an unbelievable amount of things to keep track of these days. And it seems that when faced with the decision of what to focus on, I inevitably choose to think about when the last time my child has peed versus where my phone is.

Slowing down

It appears that I'm strange. I actually didn't mind being stuck at home this week. In fact, I sort of enjoyed it. And not just because I saved a whole tank of gas, though that was nice. Sometimes in the rush to see all my friends and do fun things I feel like I can't catch my breath. We rarely spend an entire day at home and it seems that it's harder for me to just go with the flow of the day when we've been gone all morning. Maybe I need to have at least a couple days per week that I don't leave the house.

We did finally venture out today though, for the first time this week. We had to return a few things to Targette. Before we could leave we had to get the inch of ice off of my car. Funnily enough, that was my favorite part of the trip. Or maybe it was pushing the ice off the railing of the cart return area. Why is crunching ice so satisfying? Thomas couldn't have been happier when we gave him a hammerish thing to crunch the ice in the lawn. Although, silly mama shouldn't have given it to him before nap...

Blast From the Past

Really? Was he ever this tiny. Thomas at 2 weeks...

Chuy's Annual Christmas Parade

As I continue to catch up with some blog posting... Last November, Sorcha, Gigi, Thomas and I spent the morning downtown for the Annual Chuy's Christmas parade. It was Thomas' first "real" parade. He did attend a neighborhood July 4th parade last year, but I think the parade actually traveled a total of 100 yards. He loved the floats, the antique cars and the big huge balloons. He really loved the marching bands. The drumming was very exciting. Here's a link to all the pictures. I've also included a quick movie from the parade.

Arctic Blast 2007

It's snowing!! Well, not that much, but still... Every so often we get a little bit of snow and sleet here in Austin, so we have to make a really big deal out of it. Stores close, roads get shut down and everyone stays at home. Except for the pizza delivery guy, of course. Here are some pictures of Thomas playing outside in the cold. I've also included a quick movie of him playing as well. Enjoy.

Christmas 2006

Sorry it's taken a long time to post something about Christmas this year. It was a great one. It was the first Christmas that Thomas really knew what was going on. He "got" the whole present thing. He really loved opening the gifts and finding what was on the inside. His big present this year was a wooden train set. I think it has 130 something pieces in it. Needless to say he was a bit excited. All day, "Daddy choo choo, Daddy choo choo". Let's play with the trains Daddy! In fact, he hasn't stopped saying that. It's his favorite thing to do in the morning when we wake up. We had two nice dinners as well. Sorcha cooked my favorite for Christmas Eve... Roast beef and yorkshire pudding. If you don't know what yorkshire pudding is... here's a link from Wikipedia. Christmas day, Gigi and Papa cooked a turkey and a ham. Yum! Everything was great. Here's a link to some pictures from the holiday.

Growing up

WOW have I been slacking on the blog lately or what?

It's really strange how you forget what your baby used to be like. Whatever stage we're in is just who he "is" to me and the previous him just seems to fade away. I watched a video of when he was first learning to walk and it seemed like someone else's baby. The sounds he made brought Brad and I to tears because we were laughing so hard. I mean, I remember always thinking they were cute, but I guess in comparison to actual talking, they're hilarious.

So, it seems like he's all grown up. I know in a year (or a month) I'm going to laugh at that statment, but comparatively speaking, he IS! He's totally potty trained and has been for 3 months, he's basically a little parrot and is speaking in sentences. The other day he found a tool box on the bed, grabbed it, started getting off the bed and said "Ask daddy open this". Also, last week sometime I was reading to him and stopped and he got another book and said (slightly haltingly) "mama, read more please!" while he singed more and please. Too cute!! But perhaps the biggest step is that he's no longer Minus. He's Thomas now. =( Good thing we got that gem on video.

Also, for obvious reasons I'm much more excited about this than Brad, but daddy's been putting Thomas to bed! I'm pretty much reaching my limit with night-nursing, so we're going to be night-weaning very soon, so that's another huge change.

We've also discovered that he LOVES to draw and paint. He holds his crayon or marker or brush correctly too. I'll try to get a video of this tomorrow, but he knows circle, line and dot and will make all of them. And he loves for you to help him write his name.

The picture is of him sleeping with Bob.

Thomas at IKEA

We took a quick trip to Ikea today. Thomas decided he liked on of their chairs.

Minus

Ok... File this in the "Just when you thought your child could not get any cuter" department. For the longest time Thomas would say everyone else's name but his own. However, recently he has started to say "mine" when referring to things he thought were his... i.e. his plate, his truck, etc. Sorcha and I have been asking to say his name lately but he just didn't want to say it. Then... one day, continuing our quest for him to say Thomas... when asked he whispered "Minus". I'm assuming it's a combination of "mine" and "Thomas". He now always refers to himself as minus. "Minus walk", "Minus up", "Minus down"... It is the cutest thing in the world. Sorcha captured a short video with him saying it. See below...

Thomas at the Park

One thing Thomas loves is playing outside. Our goal for a while has been to find the best parks all over Austin and the surrounding areas. Well, we found a great one today. There is a new park in Round Rock over by Brushy Creek that has a great little toddler playscape. It's quite shaded and and has a lot of empty fields around it for lots of running around. Here are some pictures of our time at the park.

Making Cookies

Thomas absolutely loves to help around the house. The toys we have for him have pretty much become obsolete. He'd much rather help Sorcha cook, clean, whatever it is she's doing at the time. It's pretty funny. You say the words "help mama?" and he just lights up. So, Gigi came over the other day and they decided to make cookies. Of course, Thomas wanted to be right there in the thick of it. Sorcha was able to take some cute pictures of him helping. Here you go...

Potty Time

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I'll try to get some updates up soon. The biggest new thing around here is that we've officially started learning to use the potty. We're using the Montessori method which is essentially putting them in underwear and staying home for 3-6 weeks until they get it. Montessori believed that kids have a "sensitive" period, or a window of opportunity for learning the potty (and many other things) between 12 and 18 months. She said that if you miss it, it can be a long time before they're interested again.
Thomas is certainly interested. He was also showing all the signs of readiness, so even though he seems really young (just turned 16 months), we're doing it. I'm not going to push him, but if he's ready, he'll do it.

We're on day 6 right now and I am just astounded at his progress. The first day we went through 14 pairs of training pants. He would usually catch himself and not let a huge puddle out, but he also couldn't seem to relax on the potty and let it all out there either, so there was a TON of back and forth. After several days he started letting more and more go in the potty. So, here's the progression of how many pants we've gone through each day, starting on the first day:
14
9
6
5
3
and so far today he's gone through ZERO. We're still in our original pair from this morning. I also didn't clean up a single drop of pee off the floor yesterday! It's truly unbelievable. He naps in training pants and so far has only woken up wet (and then only slightly) once. We still use diapers at night b/c he still nurses, but once he stops nursing at night, we plan to try to wear underpants then too.

Don't get me wrong...we still have a ways to go, but he is getting there and making progress every day. We need to get to the point where he will just pee right when we sit on the potty instead of sitting there for 20 minutes. Sometimes he will go right away, but not every time. We also haven't had any poop in the potty yet. Thank goodness he only goes once a day!

So, overall, I'm SOOO glad we're doing this. I'm starting to go stir crazy at the house, but hopefully our seclusion will end soon.

p.s. the picture's not great b/c he jumps up every time he sees the camera b/c he wants to see the picture we just took.