Week in Pictures

Here are some highlights of the past week:

We finally broke out the paints on his easel on Sunday. He started off very neat and precise. We made sure he didn't stay that way and got him good and messy.




Tuesday was Tommy's last day at Paula's house. The tears flowed, from Paula. She was so sad to see him go. We're sad to go too but I'm sure we'll be back next fall with the next kid.



Wednesday we took Tommy's first day off and went to the Oakland Zoo to visit Auntie Amy and her giraffes. Thankfully, Papa also had the day off and he came along as Mommy was not very able to chase Tommy around or hike up and down all the hills at the Oakland Zoo. This was Papa's first time feeding the giraffes, Tommy's third time but he was a little squeamish this time regarding Bengazi's long tongue!


Thursday was Thanksgiving, of course, and Tommy slept through most of dinner. This is his new thing. Refuse to take a nap all day and then crash out around 4pm. Great... In fairness he and I were totally sick with a cold, which Nana also turned up with!

Nana scored this adorable picture with Gemma (probably capturing the exact moment Tommy contaminated her with a cold... I've yet to hear) Today is Gemma's 16th birthday and Tommy was wishing her a Happy Birthday!

I'm sure the coming week will be just as busy for Tommy as he starts hanging out with Nana on a daily basis. I go back to the doctor on Monday, but last week she said she had a hunch the baby would be early, possibly the end of this coming week. So we'll see...

"I don't need a nap!"

Tommy, Nana and Aunt Barbara went to the playground last Sunday. I was meeting them at Nana's house about 1 pm and Barb and I were going to build the wagon while Tommy napped. My mom and Barb were attempting to tire Tommy out before nap time.

They got home from the playground and it was off to naptime. Tommy was not at all pleased with this turn of events. Nana got him up after at least 5 minutes of crying. Tommy had a peanut butter sandwich and it was time for the second attemt at a nap. Barb and I were trying not to laugh at the cries of "I don't need a nap". Nana took Tommy back to the Pak n Play and a few minutes later we heard my mom say "that's it!" Tommy had finally figured out how to bust out of the Pak n Play and would have for sure hit his head if Mom hadn't caught him.

So as a last resort, Nana and Tommy napped together in Nana's bed. Barb and I think it was a scheme all along for my Mom to get a power nap in. Tommy was giggling and having a great time "napping" with Nana. And five minutes later - he was asleep. Maybe he needed a nap after all? He was out for about 2 hours and didn't even stir when we were making noise putting the wagon together.

Adventures in Housewifery - Week 1

Well my first week at home is drawing to a close and here's what I've accomplished.

1. On Monday, I put all of our clothes away. We tend to live out of clean laundry baskets; I actually discovered there is a floor in our bedroom! Tommy came home that afternoon and came running into our room and immediately slipped and fell on the clean floor. As he sat there shocked, he looked at us and said, "I need clothes here." I guess he missed the padding on his fall. Sad... I also had a doctor's appointment, everything's fine, nothing's dilating yet.

2. On Tuesday, I did my DVR duty. Ok this isn't very impressive but I got through a lot of stuff that had been clogging up the DVR hard drive - or so I thought. It turns out someone has 30 episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise saved up. Definitely the lazy day.

3. Wednesday was my truly impressive day. I'd bought a small crock pot over the weekend - never used one before - and thought I'd give it a try. The result?
BEEF STEW! Ok so I can read a recipe, nothing fancy. And I did have to Google some terms as I have zero cooking experience or knowledge. How does one define the difference between diced, minced, and chopped? And most embarrassingly given my roots - how much garlic is a clove? Let's be glad I looked that one up before throwing the whole bulb in, huh? The look on Tom's face when he came in the house and it smelled good was priceless. I think he likes this setup so far. It was yummy.

While our dinner cooked, I also got out of the house and met Greg for lunch (all the while praying that the crock pot wasn't burning my house down while left unattended). I also pulled Tommy and his wagon up to the playground where I captured this video of him singing. Whenever we go to the playground by our house now he stands on the stone alligator buried in the bark and starts singing this song about a frog on a log. That's all I can decipher from the song. He says he learned it from "Barney" (shudder, only 2 more days of daycare and any exposure to Barney, who he's been quoting a lot lately!). I took this video with my phone so it's small and hard to hear but his choreography is once again stellar and his character development is rich.



4. On Thursday, my body was very sore. Perhaps standing in the kitchen chopping/dicing/mincing and then pulling a kid up a hill in a wagon is not what I should be doing on disability? Regardless, there was chili to make. This required much less prep and fewer ingredients so I tossed everything into the crock pot for Tom's chili by 10am and let it slow cook until 6pm. (How bad will my PG&E bill be this month?) Again, I didn't do much else the rest of the day since I was so sore. I did sit in the house with that (terrible, to me) chili smell all day but once again the look on Tom's face when he got home was worth it! The chili was apparently good, (Tommy and I had frozen pizza! ha!) I didn't take pictures - it looked a lot like the stew.

5. Which brings us to Friday and so far not much has been done. I do have to go to school today to pick up 60 term papers to grade (boo hoo) and sit and watch a dance rehearsal. Nana's cooking dinner tonight so the kitchen is cold and quiet today.

Regarding my week's accomplishments, please note: I had NO children home with me all week. Tommy still has 2 more days at daycare and #2 still has a few more weeks of baking. The reality of any of these activities being repeated after I have 2 kids at home will be a much greater feat, the same goes for all the blogging that I've been doing.

Next week will be grading papers and enjoying the last 2 days of daycare for the next 9 months!

Family Portrait

Here's a suggestion: Don't try to take a family portrait when your kid has a 102 degree fever, you've just taken him to the doctor's office where they wore masks, the church has decided to take the pictures in a 85 degree room with no air, and all family members ended up in long sleeves and/or winter sweaters.

The result: a sweaty family portrait

Hey, it was free and our family won't look like this for much longer!

Faster!

And here's the video of the inaugural wagon rides. If you listen carefully, you can hear the cries of "faster faster" and "excuse me" as they come back up the hill.

Sorry that it starts out sideways....

Christmas in November

Aunt Barbara is in town and she and Aunt Jen decided to give Tommy his Christmas present early so they could both see him enjoy it.

Here's Tommy and his Christmas gift, which he LOVES! Please note it seats 2, with 4 cupholders, and seatbelts! (Mommy likes it too - Do you think I can strap the infant carseat in there?)





Thanks Aunties!

Choosing Sides

Last weekend was the Bruce Mahoney football game. Expecting a chilly November day at Kezar Stadium I dutifully put Tommy in a green Irish tshirt knowing that his red SI sweatshirt would have to be worn on top. The sweatshirt never made it out of the backpack. The weather may have been on the side of the Irish, the score was not. But here are some cute pics from the day.





Back on common ground

Photography by Tommy

Even though he was given his own, age appropriate, camera for his birthday Tommy has become quite the photographer with our camera. A nice combination of portraits and still life, his work shows great promise. Please note that due to an agreement with his living subjects, all non-flattering pictures have been deleted.

Sunset at Funston and other updates

Well the times they are a changin', at least the clocks are, and the crunch to get home, get the dogs out, and get everybody home before sunset is getting harder and harder. Not for me of course, as I can't get the dogs out. But for poor Tom it was rough the week of my show. Tommy was a good sport, came along to the park, and Tom got some gorgeous photos.



On Halloween, he came home with this from day care. Why would she give them that? I think she's mad at us since he only has a couple more weeks at daycare! Fortunately, Tom successfully stalled Tommy from eating it that day and subsequent days and now he seems to have forgotten it existed. Nobody show him this picture... (Uncle "Lollipop" Tim, I'm looking at you)

And finally, indicative of the times in which we live, Tommy had a fever a month ago and I brought him into the pediatrician immediately. They wanted him to wear this in the office! So sad. Of course, he was burning up and fussy and there was no way he was wearing this then. Tom got him to play with it a couple of days later and snapped this picture. He was fine that weekend, probably just a regular old flu, but it was surreal being at the doctor's office and all the doctors and nurses were wearing masks around my kid!

In the required prenatal update here, I have 3 more days at work! This early leave was unexpected. I'm 35 weeks right now and doing fine, baby is great, etc. BUT physically I can't dance anymore so I'm a pretty useless dance teacher at the moment. My hips are in agony so my doctor suggested "your ligaments are telling you something" and cut me off at 36 weeks. One of my former students is coming into teach for the last month of the semester. So I'll be idle as of Monday and Tommy will still be at daycare through Thanksgiving. So I guess that "to do" list will get tackled, and the season of "Glee" I have saved up on DVR will finally get watched. Any other suggestions that don't require much physical activity? My students have suggested I get a Rascal scooter!