10.31.17 - October joy statuses

10.28.17 - The Pumpkin Farm!

A few weeks ago Beth suggested that we all go to a pumpkin patch the weekend before Halloween. I had already decided we weren't going to do trick-or-treating yet because (1) Clara is too young to really understand/care, (2) our neighborhood is not good for trick-or-treating, and (3) we would have to figure out the gluten issue with any candy she got. So the pumpkin patch sounded like a great gluten-free substitute for Halloween fun. And to make it even better, both Don & Merlene and Beth's mom Jean were in town this weekend too. 

Since we aren't going to have any costumes this year, we decided to wear Halloween shirts for the day. Clara's jack-o-lantern shirt from last year still fit. I wore a shirt that has a bunch of skulls and crossbones on it. Don had a candy corn shirt and Merlene had an orange shirt that said "This is my awesome Grandma costume" in purple letters with witch symbols. Jack had picked out a onesie for Jane that said "Cutest pumpkin in the patch." Jack himself didn't have a specifically Halloween themed shirt, so he wore his black Wolfman tshirt (a DJ from Colorado Springs) to contrast all the orange shirts everyone else had.

I was worried the place would be a zoo the weekend before Halloween, but their website explained that parking was free this weekend (compared to $5/car the weekends before) which made me hope that the busiest weekends are already behind us. They opened at 9am so we planned to all meet there at 9:30am.

Sure enough, there was space everywhere, and when we walked in there were only a couple dozen other people around. It was perfect. Plus it was still nice and cool out (not yet reaching the afternoon high of 85...in late October. Oh Sacramento).

First thing we walked over to the animal pens to check out goats, pigs, sheep, and chickens. This is the first time Clara has seen live animals (other than cats and dogs) since learning all her animal vocabulary, so it was pretty fun to watch her check them out. She has a youtube playlist of animal vocab that covers all these farm animals and more, so she's seen a lot of videos of them and now she got to see the real thing. She kept trying to get me to pick her up and put her down inside the pens. At one point she took my hand and pulled me over to the locked pen gate and said "Open!" Good trying, baby.

Check out King Goat in the upper right.

After the animals we moved on to (one of) the actual pumpkin patches, specifically the patch with relatively small pumpkins. Clara was very excited to see the pumpkins but she wasn't really ready to actually touch them. Hunter, on the other hand, waw happy to touch them and, if he'd been allowed, would have happily thrown them across the field, haha.

I crouched near Clara and touched the pumpkins in front of her, including balancing one on top of another, which she liked. She tried to do the same but wasn't fond of the dew on all of them. So instead she grabbed my hand and directed me to pick up and stack certain pumpkins.

We headed back from the patch and came across some stationary trailers filled with hay bales, so we put Hunter and Beth in them and let them explore a bit. 

While we were checking it out, a train ("train" - there are no tracks, it's just a car dressed up to look like a train with more trailers connected) full of parents and kids went around the patch. Clara got very excited and climbed down to chase after it, so Jack went with her. While they were chasing the train, Merlene went to buy us tickets for the next train ride, and I stayed back and got some great pics of Don with the littlest Jackson.

We all reconvened (including Beth, Hunter, and Jean) to get a train ride in. Clara was a little unsure at first of which car she wanted to get in. She seemed nervous. I thought she might like to sit with Hunter but she didn't like the closed in cars. I took her onto an open air car instead and we all piled in. She seemed happy to look at everything from there but I wasn't sure how she'd react once the train started moving. I was worried it would make her nervous. 

Happy to be wrong! As soon as it started moving she was grinning and looking at me to make sure I was watching. She was very excited to actually be on a train after watching so many trains (another youtube playlsit we have). For most of the ride she wanted to sit in my lap, which was pretty sweet, but eventually I got her to stand (with me holding her waist) to watch everything go by. We went past the pumpkins, corn stalks, some wild sunflowers. It was lovely.

We finished the outing by checking out tiny pumpkins in the bins near the exit. Clara picked out one -- the greenest one -- and we bought it and headed home.

Clara wanted me to "try" the various pumpkins and squash.

Like father like son.

10.25.17 - "I want elephant!"

The speech therapist suggested we practice sentences with Clara using "I want...," "I see....," and "I hear..." Really we have only been practicing "I want" (which comes up so much more often than the other two!) Jack practiced it with her a lot while I was in Colorado with Jane, but for the most part Clara still wasn't putting the words together except as repetition, one word at a time, after Jack (e.g. "I.." "I!" "Want.." "Want!" [whatever]) I'm sure part of the issue is that the third word always changes depending on context, and she hasn't really processed that yet. Most of the words and even the few phrases she's memorized so far are consistent across context. For example "Come here please!" is just a string of three words she says whenever she grabs my hand now. It never changes, and I don't think she knows it's a combination of concepts. It's just an utterance to get me to go with her. "I want" is more flexible and complicated.

That's why I was so pleased tonight when I could see the wheels turning as Clara started to understand. We have a set of 12 finger puppets in the miniature bath "toy box" in the bath tub. She knows the names of all the puppets (zebra, monkey, lion, tiger, giraffe, and elephant), so that's a good start. She took my hand, brought me into the bathroom, peeked through the closed shower curtain and said "Elephant!"

I responded "Say 'I'..." and she responded "I! Want!" but then she didn't know what to say. So I repeated "I want elephant!" and she repeated it back. That's the start.

But since there are 12 of these puppets and she could follow a pattern (She asks for a puppet, I hand it to her, she takes it into the living room to place carefully on the coffee table, and then she returns to ask for the next puppet) we got to repeat it over and over. It was nice when I prompted "Say 'I'..." and she responded with a full three word set on her own ("I want monkey!") It was even nicer when I prompted with only "What do you say?" and she succeeded. By the end of it I didn't have to prompt at all. I just stood behind her and she thought about it for a moment and then said, on her own, "I want tiger!"

I don't expect her to have it down 100% from now on, but it was measurable progress where I could tell she was figuring out how the third word changes but still fits with the first two. So sweet and so encouraging! (Also she was really proud of herself once she lined all the puppets up along the coffee table. She made sure Jack saw it too.)

Playing in her laundry basket.

Other quick notes:

I love when I am singing along to Clara's videos and she gets excited about it and keeps looking at the video, singing along, then turning to make sure I am still singing along too. And she just grins and grins.

I love when I'm driving her somewhere and I have my vanity mirror set up so I can see her in it, and I start singing along to something and can see her staring out the window, unaware that I'm watching her, and she hears me sing a song she likes and smiles, or even half-consciously mouths some of the words.

Getting in on the sitting-on-Dad action.

I love how Jane has started a specific grunty excited fussy noise when she knows she is about to nurse, like she just can't wait to chow down. I also love how when she's nursing she likes to lift her free arm up and touch my nose and grab my mouth and otherwise pat my face.

I love being their mama.

Snuggly muggle in the outfit Beth bought her.

10.19.17 - the Pack'n'Play

Jane has been sleeping so well since we've been in COS. I think it may be that the pack'n'play has soft sides (in contrast with the hard wood slabs of her crib at home), so when she rolls or scoots into a side it doesn't wake her up. Either way it's been great. She goes down almost immediately for naps (once she's started showing she's tired), and the last several nights she'll fall asleep with no fuss at all in the pack'n'play.

Once or twice during the night I will put her in the center of Sola's queen bed and feed her while lying down. I put a pillow on her other side but actually I'm not very concerned about her rolling off the bed. Sola's bed is so soft that Jane makes a little dent right in the center, so she'd basically have to roll uphill in either direction to move. Sometimes she falls asleep next to me and stays on her back the whole time, whereas in her crib she'd always roll to her stomach. Not long after that I usually put her back in the pack'n'play with no trouble.

One morning she woke up (fully awake this time) a bit too early for me. Nursing her didn't get her back to sleep, so I just lied next to her and drifted in and out of sleep myself for 45 mins - 1 hour while she cooed and sighed at the ceiling posters the whole time. It was adorable.

Last night she was almost fully awake after her middle-of-the-night feeding, but not at all fussy. I put her in the pack'n'play and she cooed to herself until who knows how long, because I fell back asleep before she did. She never fussed though--just cooed until she was asleep.

As I type this it's evening and she's been rubbing her eyes a lot. I put her in her adorable snuggly Winnie the Pooh footie pajamas and tried to feed her, but she wasn't interested. So I put her in the pack'n'play and now she's alternating between sucking on her arm, cooing, and rubbing her hands against the mesh of the pack'n'play sides. She's just having a good ol' time all by herself.

Sleep smile

10.8.17 - Julie's Sacramento visit

Julie and I don't get to see each other in person very often. Not only do we live in different states, but we both have children, limiting our travel schedules more than those of our other siblings. I see her perhaps two or (if we're lucky) three times a year. We also don't talk as often as I talk with at least Neil and Ellen, mostly because (I think) Julie just isn't online as much. That's the venue where I talk most with the other siblings.

So since she was within driving distance of us (since she and her kids came out for Fleet Week), the day after the Fleet Week party Julie rented a car and brought Zoey and Malcolm with her to visit Clara, Jane, and me (Jack had to study. Nursing school, psh.) As a side note it's a little surreal that any of the siblings is now making enough money that renting a car for a day is a casual affair. I'm glad we are starting to collectively eek into that life phase.

Anyway, they got here at like 11 a.m. or something, and Julie very thoughtfully asked if she should eat the lunch she packed (pizza = gluten) outside before coming in. I told her if she just ate it over the sink it's fine; I mostly just don't want crumbs in the carpet, but sweeping is easy. Clara had recently gone down for a nap but Jane was wide awake, and we all hung out in the living room area. Zoey and Malcolm were very happy to explore all the kids books and toys unfamiliar to them, and Julie was happy to be able to let her guard down a bit since were in a kid-friendly environment (meaning both that it's kid safe and that it has a lot for kids to do so she doesn't have to keep them distracted).

Julie and the kiddos a couple days prior, about to explore SF.

Both kiddos were very sweet with Jane, but Malcolm in particular seemed interested. Mom (JaMa) thinks it's because Jane makes him feel like a big guy. He kept offering her different objects and she'd bobble her head and stare at him curiously or even try to grab the objects. It was very sweet. Eventually she was ready for a nap in her swing, and he kept gently putting objects on top of her there too, even as she slept, ha.

Waiting to see Jane's reaction to the monkey.

Once Clara woke up she joined us in the living room. She didn't take long to warm to everyone. (I like to think it helps that she's seen them all many times over in her Youtube playlist of family members.) It was funny to me that Clara located and was immediately drawn to the few kids books Julie had brought: the only foreign toys in the room. At some point we all migrated into the nursery where there was even more to explore, and the kids played with the expandable tunnel for a while.

Reading everyone "Little Red Hen" in the nursery.

Julie and I of course visited throughout the whole thing, but for me the most enjoyable part was when we put on some of Clara's videos for everyone to watch, and while they were absorbed and Jane was sleeping, Julie and I were able to sit at the dining room table uninterrupted and sip Merlot and have more in depth conversations. That was so nice. I know a lot of people would prefer to plan outings or events when they get to spend time with loved ones they don't see often, but for me it's pretty hard to beat getting to have uninterrupted, engaging conversations (with wine). As is typical with Julie and me, we mostly talked about kids and husbands, and a bit about careers. But it's great to have a sibling I can talk to about those things who is in a similar life phase. (I also talk to my other siblings about those things and enjoy those talks, but it's still a difference in kind to talk to Julie about it, particularly about the kids.)

The kids watch Super Simple Songs while Julie and I visit.

They headed out in the early evening since they still had the ~2 hour drive to the bay area and then a flight the next day. I'm so glad Julie took the time to come visit and that we got to spend the whole day together.

10.7.17 - Fleet Week party

Jack and I dropped off the girls with Beth at the meet point at 8am and then we headed straight to San Francisco. I was worried traffic would be horrendous getting into the city but we took 101S and it was actually fine. I just love when you come around the bend and can first see the city spread before you and then the Golden Gate looms into view, and on this morning the bay looked very sparkly and the view was as beautiful as ever. Such a gorgeous city.

Julie's pic of Zoey playing in the bay the day before we came down.

Of course the Marina was packed, and it was clear right away that many other cards besides us were looking for parking. Dad told us to stop bothering and pay to park at the local school instead. We had no cash so we headed back toward the house to get money from Dad, and on the way there we saw a woman pulling out of a spot less than half a block form the house! It was a Fleet Week miracle.

Jack and I went with Dad to Safeway to get chips and ice. They were out of ice, but the walk was still nice. Both Bob R and Henry were heading toward us so they picked up ice at more distant grocery stores anyway. We took all the supplies to the roof and visited with the head tenant, Kenny, for a while. I like that guy. Easy to talk to, and a go-to guy.

Jill, Rocket, Julie, Zoey, and Malcolm joined us soon after. Julie left to use our double stroller to take Malcolm for a walk in the hopes he'd take a nap. Zoey stayed on the roof with us and played with the mega blocks/Duplos with Rocket. I kept an eye on her but I hardly needed to. She just played quietly in the shade of one of the roof tables and occasionally asked for water or something. At one point after the ice arrived I opened up the bags and she gleefully dumped them into the coolers. That was fun.

Eventually she was getting sunned out and overstimulated, so we went down to the living room and I found her a huge coloring book still on the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. There were no crayons but there was a highlighter, so she could still do connect-the-dots pages. I think it was somewhere around that time that Julie returned with Malcolm, and we all stayed in the living room for a bit. Malcolm was tired and fussy, and when Julie stepped out to use the restroom he started crying. So I picked him up and cuddled him like I cuddle Clara; it's nice to have a much better sense of what to do with kids now. I asked Zoey if they knew the song "Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun." She said their mom sings that to them, so I started singing it to Malcolm. The first verse is:

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Please shine down on me!
Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Hiding behind the tree!

These little children are asking you

to please come out so we can play with you

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Please shine down on me!

Then I made up a second verse fitting of how Fleet Week must feel to chlidren:

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Please go behind the clouds!
Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

The jets are way too loud!
Please help us to find some peace and quiet

before we have to start a riot.

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Please go behind the clouds!

When I started singing this verse Zoey looked at me so suspiciously, as if she wasn't sure I was tricking her or not, haha. Julie just laughed.

Not long after I made my way back to the roof to visit with my friends while Julie stayed with the kiddos downstairs. I basically spent hours on the roof not using enough sunscreen, sipping wine, eating turkey rolls, and talking with Kale about all things political while Henry and Genninlyn listened in and added a point or two here or there. I love talking to Kale about politics. We agree on very little but it's always amicable and we're both relatively ready to admit when we aren't sure about the facts. Kale is great about that. It also seems like he's usually interested in what the conservative view of an issue is, if only as a curiosity because he doesn't hear it much except as caricatures. So I enjoy trying to explain it (when I understand it).

A pause in conversation, watching the air show.

At one point we were talking about Trump, the Robert E Lee statue, and Nazis, when Dad interrupted to have me come talk to one of his clients about our CER videos and teach ins. When I returned I said "So what were we talking about?" Kale: "Uh you were telling us how you love Nazis." That made me laugh pretty hard. I like that he can joke about these things. We talked about NFL and kneeling protests and the Las Vegas shooting and gun rights generally and so on.

Oh yes, and Rachel came too. For some reason she didn't feel like talking about Nazis and guns though.

I did feel a little bad, though, because Julie is never in town and I was spending all my time talking to Kale about politics while she was hanging out with her kids. So Kale, Henry, and I decided to head over to the library playground to hang out with Julie, Jill, Rocket, Zoey, and Malcolm. But even on the walk there we kept talking politics and lingered outside the playground for a while to discuss transgenderism. Then we went inside and said hi to everyone and then watched the kids on the teeter totters while we talked about libertarians and taxes paying for roads. We just couldn't stop!

Finally we really put a halt to it and hung out with everyone at the playground. It was a pretty busy playground day but the kids still were able to run all over the place.

When we got back the party had largely moved downstairs to the living room for pool and lounging. Zoey and Malcolm were starting to seem overwhelmed with all the noise. Julie wanted to play some pool but couldn't get her phone to play videos for them for reasons I can't remember. So Jack, Kale, Henry, and I took the kids back to the sun room (where it was much much quieter) and Jack lent them his laptop to watch Cat in the Hat on Netflix. At first they were fussy when Julie wanted to leave, but I told her to go ahead and if they didn't calm down we could always come and get her. Sure enough, a few minutes after she was gone they settled and just watched Netflix and played with the chess set in the room. It was the second or maybe third time that day I was glad I have kids and have some idea of what I'm doing with kids so that I could be more helpful to Julie. It's hard traveling alone with kids and being the only person on point. Anyway so the rest of us hung out in the sun room and talked about kids and dating and relationships.

Finally it was time to get going. Jack and I packed up whatever gluten free food was leftover, plus a ton of Diet Cokes (the part I was really excited about), and then we drove straight to Folsom to get the girls. I slept part of the way. It's always so nice to see the girls after being away from them all day, and they (especially Clara) are so happy to see us.

10.3.17 - Life is not bad right now.

The last couple days Clara has been watching videos from the Youtube channel "Super Simple Songs." She really loves them, and she dances and sings along and it just melts my heart.

Jane goes through brief phases of cooing and making noises to herself for 10 minutes or so. As I type this she is laying in her crib in the dark just cooing and cooing. I'm hoping she goes straight from that to sleep and skips any crying in between, but we'll see.

I'm totally beat because I stayed up too late last night trying to help Dad finish a PowerPoint presentation for a teach-in he's doing tomorrow. We couldn't get it done but luckily we had more time today. I'm grateful for so many billable hours and I'm happy he seems to like my work. Compliments are pretty rare from him so when he gives them they mean more (and he thanked me more than once today), plus I spoke on the phone earlier with Jill and she mentioned he's been talking about what a good job I'm doing. So that's pretty encouraging.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Yesterday was Jack's birthday but I just worked all day and it was kind of sucky, but tomorrow we are actually going out. We've managed only about one date a month since Jane was born, so dates are more precious anyway, plus we are going to the movies! I love movie theaters, especially the one closest to us that has the big reclining seats. And I'm not calorie counting, so you better believe there will be buttery popcorn. Can't wait.

This is a great time of year in general. The weather is finally cooling down (i.e. highs in the low 80s. Oh, Sacramento.) People are starting to prep for Halloween. In fact Beth and I are planning a pumpkin patch outing for the kiddos, and both her parents and Don & Merlene will be in town to go with us, so that should be fun.

I'd like to write more but I'm too exhausted. Suffice to say life is not bad right now.