Thursday, October 30, 2008

LazerGirl...LazerGirl


This is me, dressed in costume for our annual Halloween party in our building. I dressed up as a character I called LazerGirl. I made it up, based on the concept of what will eventually become our college mascot. I don't name the college I work for in this blog not because I don't want you dear readers to know where I work, but I don't want the people at the college who stalk the internets looking for mentions of the college name to find this blog. I don't think I might get Dooced (i.e. fired for saying something negative on my blog about my place of employment), I just want this blog to be a personal blog, not read by my coworkers. The one time the director of admissions found out I had a blog, he wanted to link to it from the website. Uh, NO. Prospective students do not need to see pictures of Cooper as Bob the Builder.

Anyway, our college does not currently have a mascot. We have a design for one, and it is in the process of being turned into a costume. But the pictures look like a blue FTD guy. So I thought I would do the Target $15 version. Blue hair, blue face paint (I wanted dark blue face paint but couldn't find it) and a blue sweatsuit. It got some laughs. One of my coworkers dressed like Mr. Incredible. We made quite a crime fighting duo.

Tomorrow Cooper gets to wear his Bob the Builder stuff to school. He loves wearing costumes. Yesterday I arrived at school to pick him up to find he was wearing a bumble bee costume. Apparently he had worn it all day. On the play ground, during nap. He wouldn't take it off until it was time to go home. He may look like his dad, but he has my sensibilities when it comes to costumes, which is to say when you have the chance to wear one, DO IT.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Things that make you go aaaawwwww

Lately Cooper has been VERY enthusiastic in his greeting of either his father or me when we pick him up at school. Or when one of us arrives home. There is a shout of "Mammammammamamaaaa" or "Daddydaddydaddydaddy" and the person in question is the recipient of a hug worthy of Warren Sap (my favorite for winning Dancing with the Stars this season).

It is enormously gratifying. That is an insufficient word. It is make me melt in my boots, crumble to the ground, smile the biggest possible smile of my life gratifying. There is an exuberance and joy that comes with it that will be hard to match in later years when he becomes more self aware, self conscious. So it is a kind of bittersweet experience in a way.

One of the blogs I like to read, Baby Squared - see bloggy love for a link - talked recently about how she loved seeing one of her twin daughters be so free, so enthusiastic about things, in this time of her life where she doesn't have a sense of other people's opinions of her, isn't censoring herself because of concerns about how she will be perceived. She wondered at what point did she herself begin censoring herself, and stop being fearless or free without concern for what others think.

I understand what she means. At some point we all become self aware, and some of us keep on dancing like no one is looking, but others of us begin hiding parts of ourselves away. I remember one day going to find a teacher after school and walking into a room where one of the other teachers surprised me and said something along the lines of "Aren't you little Miss America". I had no idea what she meant by that. I felt supremely self conscious and had no idea if I was being mocked or complimented and in either case it didn't sound good, coming from her that way. I was probably in 4th grade, 9 years old. Just on the cusp of being REALLY self aware. I spent a good portion of my youth pretty much just wanting to fly under the radar, doing my best but not drawing a lot of attention to myself. It wasn't until I went to college that I began feeling the confidence to put myself out there in the theater and other venues. The irony here being I went to a very conservative college, so being bold and out there was not hard - don't go to church some Sunday morning and see what happened.

My point here is that I relish the abandon that being 2 years old comes with. You can scream out of sheer joy or throw a tantrum and not care a whit what anyone thinks. You can run around laughing your head off and making fish faces for an hour, no one is going to not hire you for a job. I wish that the rest of life could work this way, to a certain extent. And I guess it does for some. I look at some of the fashion students on campus who dye their hair pink and wear items of clothes that I would not have ever considered putting on and am glad they have that spirit. I am not afraid to wear a costume for our office Halloween party, but I do have to edit WHAT I wear. No naughty nurses or pregnant nuns here. Not that I would go that route anyway! But I do hope that Cooper hangs on to that joyful exuberance for as long as possible, being true to himself.

And after I just ran spell check on this I would personally like to say thank you to blogger for THAT feature. YIKES.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Detante


In the picture you can see, Cooper is on the couch with Gus. Gus is one of the schnauzers, and he is the dog which has had the hardest time adjusting to Cooper's arrival in our lives. Before Cooper could crawl, Gus was fine. He didn't really pay any attention to Cooper. Then the small creature started moving and all bets were off. My theory is that Gus saw Cooper like another puppy. Something that should be wrestled to the ground and made to submit. We spent a LOT of time keeping the dogs away from Cooper. Especially once Cooper began walking. That was too much for Gus to handle. He just bounced straight up in the air and barked and wanted to knock Cooper down and chew on him.

Recently Cooper has begun commanding the dogs. If they run into the room Cooper points his finger at them and says "BACK BACK". He has begun petting them more and laughing around them. He even says "Choncho" which is Cooper for Poncho. He has always been able to say "Gus" and called all dogs "Gus" for a long time.

Now we seem to have achieved some sort of detante. I was doing something else, and came into the room to find Cooper on the couch with both Gus and Poncho. Gus was quite happy to be just laying there. He doesn't charge Cooper when he runs into the room anymore, and gives him space.

This is comforting to me because Gus was my first born, the first dog I brought into my life and had before the Bob and I moved into together. He was my baby and I didn't want to think about what I would have to do if he was a risk to Cooper.

Now if we can just get Cooper to walk the dogs we will be all set.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

A great day for a parade






This afternoon our neighborhood, which has an association and organizes stuff like yard sales and picnics, held its annual Halloween parade for the kids. But who are we kidding. If the kid is younger than 3, he or she is not doing this because they say "Hey, mom, dad, I really want to dress like a princess or pumpkin and be in the parade". No, we make them dress that way and march them around.

Cooper was Bob the Builder. He LOVES the tool belt and tools and hat. The hat was a problem since it is very round and very slippery. The only way to keep it on his head was to put one of his other hats under it. So he looked a bit odd, but he was happy. I may figure out if I can glue some foam inside it later.

There are pictures of the parade, of some of the participants, there were easily 40 families involved. The guy who organizes most of the stuff is dressed as a candy corn. I stuck a jester hat that has blinking lights on my head, and he thought this was GRAND. He takes the parade seriously. He was carting a boom box around in a stroller, so we got to march around the neighborhood down to the park to disco music. Once at the park there were snacks and games and general mayhem to be had.

On our tour of the neighborhood, I did an inventory. There were 4 of those flat witches that look like they have flown into the tree/house, 5 scarecrows, two with real pumpkin heads and a variety of skeletons or ghosts. And two McCain/Palin signs, no Obama signs. As the Bob noted, any money spent by either campaign in this state is a waste. Massachusetts is a democratic stronghold. I was not surprised to find that one of the McCain signs was in the front yard of the butthead who walks his dogs off leash (which causes problems like his dog attacking my dog while we were walking one morning)and leaves their poop in whatever yard it is deposited.

That aside, it was a beautiful day and a great parade. Now if I can just get Cooper to go to school tomorrow WITHOUT the tool belt.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Oh my head...A call for some freaking common sense

Right. Where to begin...As I have mentioned before, I work at a college. Colleges are full of 18-22 year olds. 18-22 year olds have a lot going for them, like youth, energy, lack of cellulite. But they are severely lacking in a few things. Not all of them mind you, but many of them. Things like COMMON SENSE. Like being able to think something through four or five minutes beyond RIGHT NOW and see the consequences of their actions. Or inactions. There is a small gap in the cause and effect relationship concept for them.

What am I talking about, you may ask. I am talking about yet another bone headed website that students can now use to post things about their fellow students. ANONYMOUSLY. Check out www.juicycampus.com to see what I mean. Here, you can search on a college, and if the college has any postings, you can see what people have been saying about their fellow students. Things like "so and so is a slut" or Which guy is the best F*** on campus. And people can reply to these comments, anonymously.

First of all I find this to be a seriously passive-aggressive, cowardly concept. Secondly I find this horrifyingly hurtful. The things that are being said may be lies, they may be posted as a joke, but no one will know because it's all anonymous and like with any written material, the interpretation is in the hands of the reader.

I don't understand why students put anything hurtful, embarrassing or in some cases, disgusting up on any website. The things that end up on YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and now this site are ridiculous. Students don't seem to realize, or maybe they don't care, that administrators at colleges look at this not just to find out what our current students are doing, but what prospective students are up to. Employers use these sites to screen potential employees. And once it is up on a site, it can live on forever in cyberspace. Even if you pull it down, if someone grabbed it for their own use, or saved it in some way, it is forever out there.

I found out about this site because one of my work study students told me about it. One of her roommates was confronted this weekend by someone she does not know, who read on this site that she was a "slut". Roughly 8 people commented on her being such, one even saying that while they did not know her personally, believed it to be true. The student in question was devastated. According to my student, she is the nicest person, quiet and not trashy at all. I can only assume that if it is not true, that someone has reason to dislike her and is using this site to hurt her. But even if it were true, even if she is the biggest slut on campus, if you have a reason to dislike a person, deal with it face to face. Call the person on their behavior and hold them responsible. Don't take the coward's way out by posting anonymously on some lame site.

I am mindful of the young woman who committed suicide last year because some other girls decided to trash her on one of the other sites, MySpace or Facebook or such. She was so hurt and couldn't face her fellow students that she took her own life. Even if the things that were said about her were true, do you want to be the person who posts that truth and causes another person to take her own life?

As an employee at a college, I am responsible for not just my job, but to help build community. At a college where 95% of our students reside on campus, we need to be mindful of our actions and work at being not just a civil community, but a caring, nurturing community. This site goes a long way toward damaging a community, not nurturing it. I don't know that as administrators we can stop the use of the this site, but I think we need to take responsibility for educating the students on the ramifications of this kind of site. I would like to think that if there were enough of a backlash our students would just not use it.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Hair cuts, cancer and melt downs

Today was an interesting day. We went to Costco and spent an unbelievable amount of money on stuff we really needed - food, paper towels, soup, things like that, then Cooper took an early but lovely nap. After that, he ate lunch and we went off to get his hair cut. We went to my hairdresser, and he sat like a grown up big boy in the chair and let her cut his hair with no freak outs or anything. This is probably his 5th haircut, and he has always done really well. He is a massive flirt, and made Nikki the hairdresser melt.

After that we went to visit our old neighbors back where I used to live before Bob and I bought the house we are in now. The guys, Dave and Jim, are this great couple. They were living there when I moved there in 1998 with my now ex-husband. Dave grew up in the house they live in. While they are a couple of gay guys, they defy the stereotype - they are not fashionable, they are not hip and happening. They are practically two old women. Dave is in his 60s and Jim is in his late 50s I believe. They are made of gold. I love these guys like family, and Dave is fighting cancer. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and had been doing really well with the chemo, but recently he developed some bacterial infections, and he ended up in the hospital on and off for the last three weeks. I haven't been able to see him because he was off limits to anyone who might have some disease, and since I have a kid in daycare, who has a perpetual runny nose (Cooper, not me), I didn't want to be the person responsible for introducing some additional infection. But he has been home and is doing well, so we went to see him and Jim today. He seems to be doing very well, at least in spirit if not physically. As it turns out, the cancer has somehow found its way into his spinal fluid and brain. The treatments that he has been receiving won't touch that. It won't cross the blood/brain barrier. So he will need a separate treatment, and that sounds HORRIBLE. It goes in through the skull, into the brain directly. Ugh.

But as I said, his spirit is really strong, and he is handling this well. It was good to see them both and hang out for a bit. I hope and pray for the best for him.

After we got home, Cooper proceeded to melt down. He was interested in eating some dinner, but then caught site of his hammer, which had gotten hidden under some magazines on the table, and that was it. Not interested in dinner, only in hammering. Then we thought we would try eating at the dining room table, while he sat in his chair, eating like a family. Ha. Double HA. Total meltdown. Like I have never seen this kid do. Crying, gasping for air. Tears, gnashing of teeth, rolling of the eyes, showing of the claws...wait, that is Where the Wild Things Are. But it was close. I tried staring into his yellow eyes without blinking once, but that didn't work. He didn't make me king of all wild things, he just kept crying.

Eventually we managed to sit quietly in the living room, read through some books, discussing the page with the trucks in Busy Busy Town extensively. Then tubby time came, and bed. Now the mama is writing her blog and drinking a glass of wine. Phew.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Did I mention I love fall?


I DO love fall. I love the colors. I love the cool temperatures and the relative lack of humidity. I LOVE PUMPKINS. I took the picture of the yellow leaves while taking Cooper for a walk the other day. It just makes me HAPPY.

Halloween is approaching. I am a big fan. I know, SURPRISE. I began working at my current job 8 years ago, and suggested the first Halloween I was here, which was just a few months into my tenure, that we have a Halloween party. I work in a house that is now an office building, and the registrar, student accounts, financial aid, VP for academic affairs and the community service center are in our building. Admissions is next door. I assumed that we would make it just a "house" party, but my boss thinks bigger than I do, which is why she is the BOSS, and said "invite the campus". So we did. And people came. IN COSTUME. I was soooo happy. That year I was an M&M. I had the costume and it was short notice. In other years I have been the ghost of Lillie Rose Potter, the alum for whom our building is named, a bumble bee (I was pregnant, it worked), an aging beauty queen, in a red wig and blue 1975 polyester dress in which I looked disturbingly like one of the faculty, Cher to my associate director's Sunny, and a giant car air freshner shaped like a pine tree. I do not know what I will be this year yet, but I better get jiggy with it.

Because my child is too young to choose his own costume he is at the mercy of my whims. However, I am not a cruel Halloween mistress, I will dress him in something I think he will enjoy, can wear to school and get use out of after Halloween is over without looking like that kid who insists on wearing his Halloween costume half the year. This year he will be Bob the Builder. He already loves wearing the hat and using tools. There is a Halloween parade in our neighborhood, and we may be getting together to do pumpkin painting with some of the other kids that evening before everyone goes trick or treating. Since Cooper doesn't eat candy yet, I think we will limit his haul, or I will undo all my good efforts at weight loss!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Fabulous Fall Fun






I had today off, so Cooper and I went off to Drumlin Farm, which is part of the Mass Audobon association and is a working organic farm. The first time we went Cooper was decidedly UNHAPPY with the animals. He has warmed up to them over the last few visits and today he was VERY happy with them. His favorites are the owls and the pigs. We even took a hayride, which was a first for him. I swear the goat was smiling at us when we took her picture. He loved being in the chicken house, talking to them. The pictures I took of the owls did not work out so well, since they are not very active during the day.

Later in the afternoon, after his nap, we took a walk around the neighborhood and scored seeing not only two fire engines (we hope that there was not a major tragedy in our neighborhood) but a backhoe and small roller thing too. It was a VERY busy day and consequently it was an early bed time for Cooper. I am not far behind!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

23 Months and counting





Today Cooper is 23 months old. One more month and he will be 2 YEARS OLD. See how I did that complex math? It is just astounding to me, looking at him, to recall his arrival in this world, two months early and so very tiny. He is NOT tiny now. I weighed him the other day after heaving him on and off the changing table. He is 29.6lbs. I haven't managed to get his height, but he is well over 30 inches tall. He is a big grown up kid. The pictures I have here are from the other day and today. He is a bit of a ham when he wants to be, and other times he just does not want anything to do with getting his picture taken.

He is also developing faster than the speed of light. He is aquiring new words every day, he is interested in so much. Today Bob was telling him pet Buster on the head, and demonstrated by patting his own head, so Cooper imitated him, by patting his own head too. Bob said, no, pat Buster's head. And Cooper said "OH!" and went over to pat Buster's head. I am loving this time of his life. He is so funny and every day he makes me laugh.

Today was a perfect fall day in New England. I LOVE fall. I love the changing colors, the crisp air, the PUMPKINS. The picture of the leaves was taken from our deck. These trees are not technically ours, but the leaves think they are. They insist on falling in our yard. But the colors are just peaking and things are beautiful.

I am watching recordings of the Ellen DeGenerous show that I record during the week and just realized that Cooper needs a hair cut because he has the same hair cut as Ellen. But his hair has been doing this fun 1974 surfer dude thing. He has curls, of which I am VERY jealous, but his hair is definitely getting long. Next weekend!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Where, Why...

Uh oh. We might be entering THAT phase of toddlerhood - whywhywhywhy mommy, why. This morning I went in to get the Coop up for the morning, he was on a search of his crib for his 'chooch' aka his pacifier. It is the only time he still uses one, when he sleeps. If it means he goes to bed without any discussion and sleeps through the night he can have one til he goes away to college.

I digress. He couldn't find the chooch, and was requesting assistance by saying 'Chooch??' repeatedly. So I began moving his stuff around, saying 'where is it' and he is repeating 'where, where' and I am saying 'it's not there' and he is saying 'not there'. Finally, I couldn't find it, and said 'it must be gone'. At which point he looks at me and asks 'WHY?'

Why? Did you not only use the word why, but appropriately? You don't even turn 2 for another month. It is too early for the WHY stage. I am not ready for the WHY stage. I need to complile a list of clever responses to WHY so I don't get caught in the Because I Said So or Because I am the Mommy or JUST BECAUSE loop. Sometimes those answers are completely appropriate, but you can't overuse them, they will lose their power. They need to be reserved and said with a certain amount of doom and gloom in your voice, like Darth Vadar, or Doc Hudson from the movie Cars, with just the right dose of imposing threat in them.

I love that he is so interactive, and chatting up a storm. On most days it is still mostly babble. But it is purposeful babble, and he is very clear on what he is attempting to communicate. Heaven forfend you don't respond appropriately when his babble actually requires a response. Then the babble is repeated, with more force, with more obvious hand gestures and head nods and that look of 'Are you completely daft woman? I need more BANANA.'

Someday he will be asking for the keys to the hover craft (won't we have them as our standard mode of transportation by 2022?) and I will long for the days when questions were limited to 'why'. So for now I will try to appreciate these moments, and not sigh too often.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Random bits of flotsom

Have you ever been in your car, singing along at the top of your lungs to a song on the radio - yes, broadcast radio, not the iPod - and then looked at the guy driving through the intersection in front of you, and notice that he too, is singing along with the same exact song? Do you suddenly feel as if you are somehow cosmically linked with everyone who is listening to and singing along with that song? Or at least does it make you laugh and think "Wow, do I look that silly?"

That happened to me this morning. I totally don't remember what song it was, but I like to sing along with a song if I know it because it seems to totally entertain Cooper. And it did make me laugh to see the guy in the Jeep, singing totally at the top of his lungs with the same song.

Cooper has begun singing of his own volition Itsy Bitsy Spider, complete with hand movements, and some other song that seems to involve sounds like "bopbop" and hand movements along the lines of blowing kisses with your hand. I don't recognize it at all. But I am also not up on most of my little kid songs. I am behind!

We are going through a system conversion at work. It is entirely likely there will a small mushroom cloud over Newton MA on Tuesday when they push the button to activate the new system or someone tries to actually do any work. News at 11.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

90 years and still counting


Yesterday was my grandfather's 90th birthday. He and my grandmother live in Oregon, and are currently still in their home, although it sounds like that might be changing soon. My aunt, who lives close by, and lives on a considerable amount of land, build a small cottage on the property with the intention that my grandparents would eventually move into it.

Here is the thing. Or things. My grandfather, who was the first generation in his family to be born in this country, who was raised by some old school Italians in New York, who was the first to graduate from college, who became a successful business man, working for a large corporation for most of his career, well, he is just not really into the idea of beign dependent on other people. I can't blame him, but he is NINETY years old. And has Parkinson's. It is time to accept a little help.

The other factor is my aunt, his daughter, is kind of a nut. I mean that in the most loving way possible, smiley face smiley face. She has 8 children. There have been times in my life when we would visit them, and honestly, if I didn't know there were 8 kids in the house, I would NOT know there were 8 kids in the house. They have always been a bunch of quiet talkers.

My aunt provides daycare for two of her grandchildren at least part of the time, and takes on many many many more projects than she should. I think my grandparents feel like one of those projects. But mostly I think it is my grandfather's unwillingness to give up some of his freedom, and my grandmother's fear of giving up her freedom and her stuff.

Believe me, I know about stuff. I have always had a lot of stuff. I like to have it around, where I can see it, touch it and it reminds me of where I got it, what I was doing at that time in my life. Having Cooper has forced me to simplify my life to a certain extent, to choose my stuff more judiciously, to make it matter if I am going to hang onto it. When you have lived in a house as long as my grandparents have, you collect a lot of stuff. You get used to having it around. It is scary at any time to make a move, but especially when you are acknowledging that you are frail, you are incapable on a certain level of taking care of yourself any longer. It is an acknowledgement of your mortality, which at 90, is probably lurking in the next room, whispering sweet nothings to you in the night. It has to be a little unsettling!

I hope they do make the move, so that it doesn't have to happen in a moment of crisis. That they aren't forced to consider a more drastic measure instead, like a nursing home. That could still end up being a possibility, but this step would be more comfortable in the interim.

I hope it was a great day, Tony, and that you have at least a few more birthdays in you! We love you.

Monday, October 6, 2008

An introduction and an observation

First things first - an introduction. On my bloggy love roll, you should find a link to MAD Man, the blog just started by my brother. There are so many things I could say about that dude, mostly good too. He doesn't hear those things enough, so here goes: He is HANDSOME (and yes, it is totally okay for a sister to say that about her brother), incredibly smart (probably more than is actually good for him), very very very very very funny (so many hours staying up laughing, watching movies, or laughing at the dinner table to the point where mom couldn't breathe and dad would get pissed because he had NO idea what was going on), a great dad to his two teen aged kids, and talented in ways he is always finding out. He just painted his house, and in the process of repairing some of the siding, was asked by a neighbor how he knew how to do that. I quote "Don't mistake my willingness to do something with having a clue as to WHAT I am doing." And yet he does it.

On the flip side he is someone who, if these things can be said about people and believed to be true, was born under a really dark star. He has some crappy karma. He has multiple degrees, but no solid career, although that is not for the lack of trying! He manages to find the most psychotic people to have as a boss and then suffers for that. Sometimes his intelligence, his ability to think his way through a problem so quickly to a solid resolution, comes in direct conflict with his ever so slight lack of diplomacy. Yes, I said it - you need to work on your people skills, Dr. Phil. See, he wants to be a therapist. And he would be a good one. A great one. But every so often he gets caught by the machinery, the bureaucracy, and because stupidity is not something he suffers lightly, he rails at the system and the system kicks him in the ass.

But I do believe that he will prevail someday, and the world will be better for having him out there helping the crazy people. I have a bachelor's degree in psychology and realized I hated being in direct contact with all that insanity. They don't get better, most of them. Most of them manage, maintain. I am a results oriented gal, I need to see the problem, find a solution, implement the solution and MOVE ON.

Anyway, read his blog, give him some comment love.

Now for my observation. This could be an entry unto itself. I knew this would happen it happens to everyone who has a family. Now that my child is older, and we are spending more time indoors since the weather is returning, I am finding myself, well, NOT by myself much. There is no privacy in a marriage and family. When Cooper is awake, if I go into the bathroom, he is outside banging on the door. No matter what I am doing in the house, someone, the Bob, Cooper, a dog or three, is with me wanting to know what I am doing. While to me it might seem obvious I am washing dishes, the question is asked. If I am cooking there are dogs under foot all the time. If I am blogging, I am asked what I am blogging about. I LOVE YOU the Bob, I LOVE YOU COOPER, but sometimes I just want to do something without someone asking me what I am doing. I might want to do it, ALONE. We went shopping this weekend, with the intent of buying Cooper some winter stuff, and me some shoes. Cooper in a shoe store is a BAAAAD idea. So I went in alone, and they hung out in the car. Which was fine, but then I had this sense of "I better not take too long or there might be a nuclear explosion where our car used to be". As it was he had a meltdown in a Bob's Store and we left with one pair of shoes for him, one sweater for me and a very expensive miniature soccer ball that kept him mostly quiet.

This is the complete opposite from my first marriage. There were the two of us and two cats. No kids. The cats were probably the noisiest creatures in the house. The ex was a grumpy, solitary person, who spent most of his time skulking in the back room on the computer, avoiding human contact. This was not the recipe for a successful, happy marriage, and consequently, it ended. Not acrimoniously, but much like it existed, quietly without any hullaballoo. But it was the exact opposite of what I have now, which is a boisterous, noisy home full of people and animals. It isn't a BAD thing, it is a GREAT thing, but it is different. I am, according the Myers-Briggs personality inventory, an INFJ, although I have my moments of crossing into ENFJ. In either case, I need my own quiet time to recharge, to work through issues I might be having at work, whatever. So I may have to work out how that is going to happen. I may be walking the dogs a lot more over the winter, by myself.

And yes, I think the Bob is aware of most of this. We have had this conversation in the past, but we process differently, and sometimes those who process more quietly need to reiterate that they need that quiet. So I will do so in person later. But what the heck am I going to do all winter???

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Look at me, here I am...looooooooove me

That is my favorite line out of Cars, the movie that Cooper is currently obsessed with and we have watched, since Saturday, 546.7 times. Kill me. At least this gives us a break from Bob the Builder.

You would think that as the adults in the house we could say no, we are not going to watch "queen" as Cooper calls it because the main characters' name, Lightening McQueen, is too hard for him to say, and he says the word "car" as "guy" which does not result in the immediate realization by either of his parents that he is requesting to watch Cars. Again.

What was I saying...oh yeah, you would think we could say that and because we are theoretically in charge, that it would work. It does, if you don't mind listening to a tiny little sad voice dripping with tears say over and over and over and over "queen queen queen queen queen" while pointing at the TV, or at the DVD case that he insists on carrying around with him pathetically, with little tiny tears running down a pouty little face. Sometimes that makes me laugh. The whole sad pathetic face thing. Mostly I think "oh hell, who cares" and turn it on. It won't kill him for an hour while I finish dinner and the Bob walks the dogs. It might kill me to listen to him lose his mind if he can't watch it.

Next week it will be a different movie or show. And honestly, it is a great movie. It has a great story line, the animation is fabulous, and the voices are great. I am not a big fan of Larry the Cable Guy, but he is spot on as Mater. As in Tow Mater, without the Tow. And Luigi and Guido are my favorites. Tony Shaloub does Luigi, and Guido is listed as being voiced simply by Guido.

I hope in the future we will be better at enforcing certain boundaries, when it really matters, and when he has the cognitive capacity to understand that we are not actually denying him something critical to his very existence, like air or food or water, but that we are helping him be a balanced individual who doesn't do any one thing for 14 hours a day, by encouraging other activities like reading and playing outside. Which he does do. Since he is in school all day I feel like he gets quite a bit of the educational exposure and outdoor activity, weather permitting. But even at home he does sit and read through his books for longer and longer periods of time, which I find totally cool. He loves his books and I will stop almost anything I am doing to read with him.

So I am off to pick him up from school, and probably to watch another hour of Cars before the day ends for Cooper. It is nice out right now though, we may get in a walk while we still can!