Preschool!!!

Happy 1st Day of  Preschool, Jackson-baby

I was just showing Jackson how to play Here Is the Church and Here Is the Steeple, Open the Doors and See All the People...




He said, "Uh, Mommy...Do they run away in cars?"

We had Jonah's 4 month appointment yesterday.  He measured 26.5 inches long and 18 pounds, 1 ounce.  That makes his 90% for weight and 86% for height, or in other words, the little one.  He's been sitting up more.  He can sit for a couple of minutes now, but you have to be nearby because he could tumble over at any moment.    He hadn't rolled over since his first month of life.  I guess he got too chunky and couldn't do it anymore.  Yesterday, he was playing super baby and did roll.  I think it was an accident, because he looked really surprised.  I think he'll get the idea and start rolling again very soon.

One Sunday

It's 9:15 on a Sunday.  Both boys are upstairs sleeping.  This is a small, but big feeling victory.  Evenings have been rough lately with 2 kids  and 1 parent, and poor Jackson hasn't been asleep before 11:00 in many nights.  I carried his blinky sleepy body upstairs and laid down with him for a few minutes to get him to sleep.  I was watching his sweet sleeping face and reflecting that today had been a pretty good day.  That's not what I'd thought at 11:30 this morning, or at 7 or 8 this evening, those times were a bit more stressful, but the day was also full of many perfect moments.  I guess that's why I chose this hectic life with the busy but fulfilling job, the longish commute to the country, and the 2 little boys that fill every waking moment with activity and make working opposite hours from my husband a necessity.  Mixed in with all the chaos is a little bit of perfection.

This morning, I got up with the boys and changed diapers, got dressed, and made breakfast.  Simple breakfast with chocolate milk and pb&j--the breakfast Jackson most requests, and the one he rarely eats the solid portion of.  Nothing special today.  Jackson didn't put enough chocolate in the milk, and when I told him to hurry and put the chocolate in, he thought I meant to put it away and returned it to the refrigerator.  Then he complained that I hadn't shaken his glass up, and I explained what had happened, so he brought out the chocolate and we tried again with more success.  After guzzling the milk, he took a tiny nibble of his sandwich.  Then he took too big a bite, and had to spit that out.  He took another tiny nibble, but that was it for the sandwich.

I decided to take the boys for a walk today since its finally cooled down enough to go outside.  After much fussing on poor over tired Jonah's part and much complaining about which shoes I told him to put on on Jackson's part, I managed to tuck Jonah into the ergo carrier and head out the door.  Once we were out, Jackson (who has been pretty obnoxious and attention seeking since Jonah arrived) calmed right down.  He held my hand almost the entire trip.  He told me he was glad we'd left the stroller home and he said, "Mom, I like having walks with you.".  Jonah fell asleep almost immediately (Cheers!  This is the first time he's really liked being in the ergo, being big enough to stick his legs out helps, I guess).  We only saw 1 biker on our walk today, the birds were out singing en mass, and we found some blackberries on the trail.

Back home an hour later, Jonah and I were hanging out on the futon.  I was lying on my back, and Jonah was sitting on my belly lying against my bent legs.  Jack came in with this pull along alligator xylophone we have.  He was making a terribly commotion on the xylo-gator, then turning around and using his plastic saw on the coffee table to make a rasping noise--back and forth between the two.  Every couple of minutes, he'd stop and with a giant grin ask me, "Was that good?"  I would tell him what a terrific musician he was.  First time, he said, "I'm not a musician, I'm a music player." So I explained how they were the same thing.  He'd ask about his performance, I'd praise him, we'd pound it.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Then it was 11:30, and Jonah got overtired (again), and I tried to get him asleep.  Jack kept coming in and turning on the lights and finding the noisiest toys he could get his hands on:  xylo-gator, click-clack crocodile, elephant sorter with extra crank noises.  Add the ringing phone.  It was my mom asking about my trip out next week.  The phone woke Jason, and I dumped the crying baby on his chest so I could talk to my mom. 
When I made it back to the bedroom, Jason had one boy giggling, and the other squeeling delightedly.  There's a picture of this and if I extract it from Jason's phone, I'll post it here.  Then Jason was getting Jonah to sleep.  He gave him a binky (Yay!  he takes one now) and was talking to him in a whisper.  I took noisy Jack down the hall. 

After Jonah was down, we went downstairs for lunch/breakfast.  Jason had cocoa puffs, I had an Amy's burrito with cheese and salsa, and Jack had crackers cheese and raisins.  It occurred to me that Jackson's lunch was a variation on a luchables theme, but the crackers were low salt and whole grain and cheese and raisins balanced out the meal--maybe lunchables aren't so bad.  After lunch, I was hit by a narcoleptic wave of fatigue.  Chose to sleep with my baby over pulling weeds.  Jonah and I slept until 4.  I woke to feed him, then had Jason take him away so I could sleep more, and would've if the phone hadn't rung and startled me awake. 

Jason left at 4:30 or 5, and the rest of us went into typical hectic evening mode.  Try to keep two boys happy, feed Jonah hourly, make dinner for myself and Jackson, feed dogs, get everyone tucked into bed and asleep.  I started some tortellini, put Jonah down, let Jackson wear his moonboots to visit the garden for fresh basil.  Made a quick pesto sauce.  Jackson had a few nibbles, then when I wasn't looking I guess he took too big a bite and spit it back into the bowl.  Had to scrape slobbery pesto off the top, Jonah started to fuss more fervently, drain pasta, mix with pesto, put food on coffee table and nurse a baby through dinner.  Jack complained that he just wanted pesto sauce, no noodles.  I tried to cut a noodle into pieces so he could take a little bite, and ended up dumping my plate over onto the floor where it shattered.  Clean up, fussy baby, attention seeking preschooler...Settled back in.  Got myself and the baby fed.  Sliced up some garlic bagette for Jack and spread it with new pesto (dried basil this time around).  We're out of milk, again. 

Took Jonah up to change him, tuck him into his sleep sack, and put him down.  Saw dog throwup on the floor and chose to leave it for 10 minutes to put Jonah down.  Jack stepped in it 5 minutes later, so I had to pull Jonah off the breast and leave him fussing, carry Jack to the tub where he refused to get in (I sprayed milk all over the place on the way), ran water in tub, cleaned up dog vomit, washed Jack's feet and hands and dried him off, came back to finish feeding Jonah and get him to sleep, Jackson went back downstairs to finish eating.  When I came back down, Jack said he was hungry and cold and I noticed his rapidly blinking sleepy eyes.  So I got him a glass of milk, carried him up to bed, and rolled him up into his fuzzy blanket.  I brought him his stool so he could put his 1/2 full and then empty milk glass on it.  Then I laid down with him and watched his eyes blink closed.

I'm having a little bit of "me time" now.  Quick blog post, load the dishwasher, put a couple of work hours in to make up for time I missed earlier in the week.  Today was a pretty good day.  Goodnight.

Glen Jackson Fox: Part 1

For those who haven't heard, my grandfather passed away last Wednesday, July 7th, 2010, after a lengthy illness. It's been a difficult time for all of the family, and I won't be able to attend the funeral he's requested us to forgo. I've decided to write a multi-part series about him and our relationship. It's mostly for myself and my family, but I imagine the experience between a young woman of my generation and an old man of his is much the same thing for other families, and perhaps everyone else will like the stories too.

Background facts as they were recorded in my 3rd grade genealogy workbook (my relatives are free to correct any errors or omissions): Glen Jackson Fox was born November 17, 1932 at his Aunt Rose's home. His parents were Owen Fox and Elva Jackson Fox. He learned to swim by being thrown in the Ogden River. He didn't complete his formal education, and was married to my grandmother, Arabella “Arabell” Campbell on August 28, 1950. They were married in Elko, Nevada, in what I have always assumed was an elopement. My grandfather worked for the Union Pacific Railroad from the time he was 17 until his retirement. He also had other jobs including working as a carpenter “He worked for Big D back when it was just me and Big D” he told me once. (Big D is a major construction presence in Utah.) My grandparents had four daughters and a son: Christine (my mom), Susan, Linda, Lori, and Frank. They purchased a home in a new development 3309 Adams Avenue in Ogden where my grandmother still lives. They divorced when my mother was 16 and Frank was 2. Shortly after that, he married Mildred “Mickey” and they lived in a condo at 4539 S 1800 W in Roy, Utah until his death.

My grandpa always lived life to the fullest. At some point when my mom was a teenager, he had a speedboat and would take them water skiing. He also took them snow skiing. He once had an airplane, which he crashed on his last flight after selling it. He traveled frequently, summering in Utah and wintering in Yuma, Arizona after his retirement. He took trips to visit family around the country including his sister, Jean in California, Frank in North Carolina, me in Connecticut, and also trips overseas to Paris and Ireland.

When I was very young, we visited my grandfather on Father's Day, his birthday, Christmas Eve, and a few times during the summer to swim. At these visits, the family hung out mostly in the basement family room. My grandfather sat in his chair smoking long brown cigarettes, and the kids paid little attention to him. There were great toys in the basement: a sit and spin, one of those wheels on a stick for doing stomach exercises (we used to hold onto it and wheel around the room like one of those flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz); carpeted stairs that we slid down in a game called "bumpity bump"; there was a nutcracker with a mallet and a big wooden box shaped like an almond that held decks of cards (solitaire, war, or go fish were played on every visit); and they had a ping pong table that was replaced with a pool table when I was around 10. After the arrival of the pool table, we spent more time shooting pool and less time playing cards. In the summer we would visit to use the pool at the condo. I don't remember whether my grandpa came to the pool with us or not. Sometimes Mickey came along and sometimes we would just stop at the house to get the key to the pool and go swimming with just my mom or my aunts and uncles. I usually wore water wings and mostly hung out in what might have been a hot tub, but I always considered it a kiddie pool because it was shallow with a step running along all four walls. It was also much warmer than the main pool. The summer before second grade, my uncle taught me to do backflips from the side of the pool. It was a great trick and I enjoyed it for a few months, until I learned fear. (I under rotated my flip one trip to Ben Lomond Pool with friends and hit my head on the edge of the pool. The one legged life guard pulled me out of the water, then hopped me all the way around the pool to the office where he put some bandages on my head. My mom took me to the hospital for stitches—I received 8 so the scar on my forehead would be minimal. The hospital staff gave me some balloons for being so brave and forbade me to swim for a week, a real drag since I left for vacation in California the next day.)

One Christmas Eve, my grandpa gave my brother and I electronic fireman hats, complete with sirens. These were one of the coolest toys I ever remember receiving. Someone, Grandpa I guess, asked Michael “Are you going to be a Lover or a Fireman when you grow up?”. We wore the hats on the drive home in the station wagon, and I never saw them again. (I can't really blame my parents for that, I want to disappear lots of Jackson's toys.)

At some point in my childhood, my grandfather gave up smoking. He said nothing about it, and my mom and aunts whispered that there must've been a medical reason but no one knew what it was. He seemed to just go cold turkey--smoking at his birthday, but not that Christmas Eve. Mickey told me much later that he had been to see either an accupuncturist or a hypnotist to stop. Around that time, there was also a fight between my father and grandfather at the Christmas Eve party. I don't know what they argued about, but we left in a big hurry. I remember loading up into the station wagon in the dark. I think we visited less often after that, but we still made it out for the 3 holidays.

My parents separated the summer after my 16th birthday. As we settled into our new routines, my mom told me that I needed to go and visit my grandpa. She said that if I visited him, he would take care of me. So I visited, he took care of me, and that's how we began to have more of a relationship. My grandpa who wasn't much for sharing his feelings said a few times something to the effect that he was making up for the kind of relationship I had with my father and the relationship he'd had with my mother when she was younger. After that, he started calling me “Daughter” more often than he called me “Granddaughter”.

Dinosaur State Park

I've been trying to take the boys on outings Saturday and Sunday mornings. It's good for all of us to get out, plus poor Jason has been working overnights on the weekends, and if we're gone, a.) he has half a chance to catch up on sleep and b.) I don't get annoyed trying to be quiet until 3 in the afternoon. A few weeks ago, we went to the Dinosaur Park in Rocky Hill, CT. This dino park is all about tracks, not bones. They were excavating to build some state building, and the backhoe driver lifted a layer of rocks to reveal the tracks. He knew what they were, notified the authorities, and within 6 months it was declared a state park.

I've been hearing friends say that they went there and had a good time. So far, no one has really described their visit. I'll try to do that here. We took the stroller, with attached Valco stroller board for Jackson to ride on. This was fortuitous. You enter through the gift shop, and the museum is arranged as a loop around the tracks, which are enclosed in a giant auditorium like building with a dino-statue and dino-mural behind. The lights are dim, and playing very loudly is a soundtrack to dino-noises. Jackson was notably frightened and had a death grip on the stroller handles. It's good that he was riding on the stroller board, because I don't believe his feet would've been able to carry him.

 

Shortly after we entered the museum, they started a claymation dino-cartoon. The cashier said it was geared toward little ones, so I brought Jackson to see it with him protesting the whole time (I think he was pretty anxious to get out of there!) I told Jackson we could leave if he hated the movie after it started. He refused to get off of the stroller board, but he had to turn and look over his shoulder to see the movie, and by the end, he had stepped off the board to turn around and sit on it. I'm not sure he ever broke contact with the stroller. The movie itself was unexpected. It was premised on the idea of a book report presentation at school, with some scenes written on a chalk board. Here are a couple of pictures from it, that I took as a visual aid to describe the surrealness of the whole adventure.

Seeing the movie broke the ice a little with Jackson, he didn't leave the stroller, but he was a little more excited to see the rest of the small museum. We did walk quickly along the last stretch—a bridge over the tracks that gets pretty close to the dino-statue.  You can see it in the picture (see the man in silhouette in front of the mural).

The park has extensive trails you can walk on. We didn't because the stroller isn't for offroading, and it was also a really hot day. You can make casts of some of the tracks if you bring your own 5 gallon bucket, ¼ cup of vegetable oil, and 10 pounds of plaster. (Apparently they can't sell a kit for this in the gift shop?!) Or you can buy a little bag of dirt with gemstone fragments and/or fossils and sluice for treasures. We went for this. Jackson would sluice all day if I let him. His technique is to load the trays up with mud, run it under the fountain, and then mound even more dirt on it for the next round. I rescued the arrow head and shiny rocks from the sluice, Jack couldn't care less about the treasure, he's all about the dirt and water.

Jonah slept through the whole trip.