Sentimental Seadragon

An Unexpected Day

Last night I went to bed way too late after furiously packing absolutely everything so that in the morning we could leave for our flight to Florida without having to do anything more than shower and leave.

• I went to bed by myself because J had fallen asleep putting Squeakles to bed and was still in his room.  But before I could even get under the covers, I discovered I had a bloody nose, so I had to spend an additional ten minutes sitting up and waiting for it to stop.
• Then, of course, I couldn't get to sleep because I was worrying about getting up the next morning on time.  My alarm was set for 6:45 am, which was only going to give me a few hours of sleep.
• Once I did get to sleep I had to get back up to go to the bathroom.  I hate that.  And I was having a strange anxiety dream that fortunately I don't remember now, but it was annoying enough that I had to try to push it out of my mind before falling asleep.
• About half an hour later, J came to bed - a welcome addition, but it woke me up again.
• At 6 am, J's phone rang.  It was a recording from US Airways, telling us that our flight to Florida was canceled, thank you very much, click.
• J called right back and spoke with a representative from the airline who told him that the flight was canceled due to "maintenance".  And maybe also a little bit the storm, though she said this kind of as an add-on, not as the official reason for canceling the flight.  She looked for the next available flight to put us on, at first offering us some really terrible 12-hr journeys on Tuesday that involved two changes of planes and long layovers (three hours for one of them).  When we said no thanks to those, she found us a direct flight on Wednesday flying in first class, so naturally we jumped at the opportunity.  We also switched our return flight to two days later, so we'll be gone for the same amount of time.  If anything, our trip now coincides better with the days that J's family will be off from work.
• Of course, we had already told our babysitter that we didn't need her for today and tomorrow.  I sent her an email to see if she was available, but told her not to worry if she'd already made plans and indeed I haven't heard back from her.
• Because J had lab meeting today, he went into work today while I stayed home with Squeakles.  It was clear that Squeakles was tired this morning, so we started off by cuddling in an arm chair and watching Thomas the Tank Engine.  I was actually hoping it would last a while, but after about 10 minutes he was bored and ready to play for real.
• With no food in the house for lunch or dinner for two days, I needed to go grocery shopping.  I made a plan to go out for lunch with Squeakles (to Cafe Lutecia just down the street), then do some quick grocery shopping, and then play in the snow for a bit.  I hoped that after that he'd be readier than ready for a nap.
• It turns out he was tired all morning and when I put him in the stroller all bundled up, he got very drowsy.
• Parts of the sidewalks in my neighborhood have been shoveled and maybe even salted, but there are just as many parts that have snow that has only been compressed by people walking on it.  Our stroller did an amazing job of bumping up and over mounds of snow and pushing through areas of 8 inch snow drifts.
• It was sort of interesting to note people's reactions to my pushing a stroller on the snowy sidewalks.  Some of them would just look at Squeakles and comment on how nice and cozy he looked.  Other people would make big offers to help me, though I always refused because for the most part I was managing fine.  And others just passed by, never seeming to think of offering to help, including one guy who even made eye contact as he went around me to get by as I'd hit a particularly deep/slushy spot and was pulling the stroller from the front.
• Cafe Lutecia was closed, so I decided to go to Ants Pants Cafe, where we sat up at the stools by the front window.
• There were three stools up front and Squeakles and I took up two of them.  As we were settling in, a young (well, my age) guy came and sat next to us.  Squeakles kept smiling at him and reaching over to the tiles on the countertop in front of him, and even though I apologized, I think the guy liked the attention.  Overall, we mostly kept to ourselves though and I hoped we didn't bother the guy too much.  Well, he must have been enamored with Squeakles because when I went to pay, I found out the guy had already paid for us!  (He had since left and been replaced by someone else who Squeakles tried to win over, but with less success.  Squeakles said "Hi Squeakles!" (except, obviously using his own real name) multiple times, and the guy just awkwardly said hi back and that was it.)  I thought that was such a nice gesture for a stranger to pay for our meal, but it was strange too because there was no way I could thank him!  So I left a greater than 50% tip and hoped that the guy who treated us would have wanted me to pay it forward.
• Squeakles and I made our way across the mounds of snow across the street to the grocery store, where he fell soundly asleep in the stroller and hasn't woken up since.  (He's now napping cozy in his bed.)
• I have to confess that I didn't really feel like staying out in the cold today so I wasn't too disappointed that we didn't get to play in the snow.

Squeakles' Bedroom

I'm making an actual effort to not only clean, but organize our apartment. By "actual effort", I mean that I am trying to do things like get rid of things we don't need and find permanent away places for things we do need, rather than just shuffling things around, making one room look presentable by moving all the excess stuff to another room. It's possible that this is an impossible task because we only have three rooms (four if you count the bathroom) and we've got a lot of furniture, and this problem has only compounded since we started acquiring baby stuff. But I'm determined to do what I can.

I started with Squeakles' room the other day. I actually didn't intend to embark on a major project but he was happily reading books in his crib, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to hang up a couple of pictures I've been meaning to put up for weeks now. First, the pictures weren't framed, so I had to do that. (I'd also bought the frames several weeks ago.) Then I needed a place on the wall to put them, which led me to rearrange the furniture just a little bit and clean and vacuum while I was at it. Squeakles was either reading in his crib while I did all this (I came across a book with pictures of cars, trains, etc. that he hadn't ever seen before, so he was very happy) or commenting on everything I was doing.

I moved the folding table out of his room and into the living room in a place that hopefully isn't too obtrusive and will allow us to whip out the table whenever we have guests and pretend that we normally eat at a table and not at our desks in the living room or off of plates perched on our laps while we sit in a chair. I moved my pink Victorian chair out into the living room and I have plans to put it out on the sidewalk on Saturday and post a freecycle alert so that maybe someone will pick it up. I moved our two dining room table chairs out into the hallway and I'm currently a little stymied about what to do with them. They will be useful whenever our table is open because of course we need to sit on something, but when the table is folded away, it would be nice for the chairs to be away too. (Anyone got an extra closet??) And I moved the infant car seat into a closet and the toddler car seat into our bedroom. I really wish we had a car and could just leave the car seat in it. I mean, the box the toddler car seat it in is the size of a small dresser. So that's got to go somewhere too - maybe this imaginary closet?!

So here I present to you Squeakles' room, kinda in 360.

First, here is his dresser and changing table. The balloon lamp on the dresser is the one I had growing up and Squeakles loves to look at it. He likes to call out from his crib, "I see geen one! I see red one! I see other red one!"

Second, here is the futon mattress on the floor where Squeakles usually goes to sleep. We lie down with him and sing songs or talk a little bit until he falls asleep, and then if we haven't passed out too, we then move him to his crib. We have thoughts of getting him to start going to sleep in his crib, but not until after our upcoming trip to Florida. (No point in starting now and then disrupting things for a week.)

You can also see the new pictures I hung on the wall. The photo of the turtle was taken by Amber, and the photo of the bird was taken by Amelie. Squeakles loves both pictures and begs me to pick him up so he can "look at it?!" He points to the bird and says "birdie!! teet teet!", and he points to the turtle and says "turtle! what does turtle say?" and then "Hi Squeakles!" because that's what I told him the turtle says.

(And the quilt is handmade by my grandmother and given to us as a wedding gift.)

Next, here is my lovely rocking chair, which Squeakles doesn't especially care for, at least not when he was an infant. He could never fall asleep if I was happily rocking in it, no, I had to sit perfectly still to get him to fall asleep.

(I'm also planning to get rid of the coffee table you see in the picture below and replace it with a bookcase.)

And finally, here is his crib, where he actually sleeps a lot of the time now.

So as you can see, it's not really a cohesive decorating scheme. But you should have seen the room before I reorganized and cleaned. At least there's room to move around now and everything in there is actually functional.

Time for Sleep

For the past 21 months, I have been the sole nap and bedtime person whenever I'm at home or whenever we're traveling. J has only put Squeakles to bed when I've been away at a conference, or one other time when I was on the phone with a friend who'd just had a baby. That's it.

The reason for this is that I used to put Squeakles to sleep by nursing him and after 15 months that turned into just lying down with him. (I have to say, it was a very easy transition, and I also have to say, a welcome one.) But at the same time, it can be a very time consuming thing to spend 1/2 hour or more in his room getting him to sleep every night. (During the day, the babysitters do this as well. Or at least, they do it when he hasn't fallen asleep in the stroller first and can then be transferred directly (sleeping) to the crib.) Then again, how much time is "normal"? I mean, most bedtime routines that involve reading a book, a drink of water, etc. probably still take time, right?

Well, anyway, I'm enjoying a new normal, which is that J and I are now splitting nap and bedtime duties. We already split up the day into time periods where one of us is primarily responsible for taking care of Squeakles while the other can do work. (The idea is that if you're also taking care of Squeakles then you should also be the one to do whatever housework you can manage, such as cooking dinner, cleaning dishes, sweeping, laundry, general cleaning up, etc. I am much more successful at this during full days with Squeakles, but I'm also getting better in the evenings. That said, it's still really, really hard!) But whenever it came time for bedtime, I would have to stop work and put him to bed, while J got a break and could do whatever he wanted! Not fair, huh? But this is the system we had.

So we started last week and guess what, it works! Bedtime doesn't go any faster for J than it does for me, but suddenly I am looking at a couple more hours of free time per week and that is really, really exciting.

Of course, this is how sleeping went yesterday.

Naptime. It's J's turn. He needs to run to the bathroom, so I take Squeakles and start changing his diaper. Squeakles' eyes are rolling back in his head on the changing table and all I have to do is place him directly in the crib. J has returned, so I turn to him and say, "you got this?" I leave the room, and three seconds later, J follows, commenting "that was easy." Sigh.

Bedtime. It's still J's turn, but Squeakles is clinging to me after dinner, rubbing my arm across his eyes and saying "hi sweetie", as if recreating a scene in which I'm holding and comforting him. I ask him if he wants to go to sleep and he continues to hold onto my arm and says "ga" (which is still what he says for "yes"). I tell J I will put Squeakles to bed because he clearly seems tired and it seems like he really wants Mommy-cuddles. J is more than happy to let me do it because he's been on Squeakles duty all day and has an online video game scheduled in an hour. So just after 9 I take Squeakles to his room, read three books with him, and then we lie down to go to sleep. He is in a very cuddly mood and doesn't resist being in bed, but it takes a full two hours for him to finally fall asleep. In the meantime, I have to run to the bathroom and I also suddenly feel the need to eat something, but I am trapped, while J is happily playing a video game in the living room. SIGH. When I finally go to bed, I can't sleep either and it takes at least an hour and a half for me to go to sleep. Just when I do, Squeakles starts getting fussy and keeps waking up, then finally poops, cries in my arms because he doesn't want to be awake, and eventually goes to sleep and I end up sleeping the rest of the night in his room. (I don't stay there the whole time on purpose, but I was really tired and that is where I fell asleep.)

A Month of Travel

A friend pointed out to me that it's been a month since I last updated! It seems there is always something to say, but no time to say it.

In the last month we've been out of town a lot. First I went to a conference in Boston and was gone for three nights. The following weekend I ended up having a really insane work week and weekend. I even slept overnight at my boss (mentor's) house one night because it was just easier than taking the train home, sleeping in my own bed, and getting up early to take the train back again. The weekend after that J had a conference to go to in Boston, so Squeakles and I tagged along. I was relieved not to be working though; we stayed with my sister who lives in Massachusetts. During the day Squeakles and I explored the area and one day we went to the Boston Children's Museum, which of course he absolutely loved. After that weekend it was almost Thanksgiving, so J dropped me and Squeakles off at my parents' house in New York while he came back home because he had a class to teach. I did some work from my parents' house while they played with Squeakles, and again, it was clear that he was having a fantastic time. (It was also clear that my parents were having a fantastic time.) And then it was Thanksgiving weekend and several of my relatives came to visit. I think we had something like 21 people for Thanksgiving dinner, and the other nights' dinners were just as elaborate and big. My mom spends weeks preparing food and freezing it and even so, it is like watching her run a restaurant (though an efficient one).

So it's been a really busy month, though for the most part, a fun one. We now have this weekend and the next couple of weeks travel-free, so "all" we have to worry about is end-of-the-semester stuff. And then we're headed to Florida to visit J's family.

I think I'll devote a later post to talking about what Squeakles is saying and doing lately. Instead, I leave you with this audio I recorded last night (using Voice Memo on my iPhone) as Squeakles was lying in bed. He is starting to sing now, with a little hint of melody in his voice, though as you'll see, he often needs some prompting.

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Squeakles "sings" ABC