Tai Likes to Laugh

One Hot Tomato!

After years of missing out on all the fun, we finally made it to a nearby farm's annual tomato festival. The big draw, for us, is the chance to taste about 30 different types of tomatoes, including several heirloom varieties. Of course, the year we decide to join in the fun it happens to be 98 degrees out, with 75% humidity. Ugh.

Approximately 10 minutes after we arrived, Tai got hot and grumpy in the stroller. We let him take his sun hat off and we saw that he was rapidly breaking out in heat rash. But who's gonna let a little rash get in the way of tomato tasting? So we pressed on.

Half way through the tomato tasting tent, I noticed a bead of sweat running down Tai's nose. I'd never seen a baby sweat like that before! Now I started getting anxious about Tai's health. Surely, this was one of those days where people under 2 and over 80 are supposed to stay inside. I was worried enough to get pissed off at the folks in front of us who were taking far too long at each plate of tomatoes, but not worried enough to actually leave the tomato tent and get my baby home.

By the time we finished tasting all those delicious tomatoes, Tai's hair was so soaked with sweat that he looked like he had just taken a bath. We walked back through the barn to the front of the farm, where a nice breeze was blowing, and let Tai suck on some cantaloupe samples. That lifted his spirits just enough to make me stop worrying that he was about to die of heat stroke.

Dedicated parents that we are, we then headed home (after about 20 total minutes at the festival). Even though we longed to bring some striped germans or some sungolds home with us, we decided not to subject Tai to waiting the 30 minutes it would have taken us to wait in line to purchase tomatoes.

My brilliant husband suggested we let Tai ride home in just his diaper, and that's when we noticed that the heat rash was all over his chest and back too. Poor kid. Suffering in the name of tomatoes. But after a tepid bath and lots of time playing in the Central AC, he's now in a much better mood.

Potter Update

Half-way through #3 and still in the dark about any and all plot details of #7. Thanks to all who are restraining themselves for my benefit. I think the worst of the media storm is over now and I am in the clear.

The Saga Continues....

Minh ran into our Neighborhood Biologist yesterday and she had a funny little story to tell him about our friend the Gray Hot Tub Frog. She and her kids walked about 50 yards into the woods behind their house and let him go near a stream. The next day he was on the window of their house, looking in. Apparently, he is just starved for human companionship. So, they once again marched 50 yards into the woods and let him go by the same stream. And as of yesterday they had not seen him again.

That's because he was making his way back to our hot tub.

Yup, that's right. Early this morning Minh went to get in the tub and there sat our little friend, right on the edge of the tub. Now, I suppose it could just be another Gray Hot Tub Frog--they do all look alike. Maybe the word is out that we have a nice warm spot for froggies to hang out. But since we never saw one in all the time we've lived her until last week, I'm inclined to believe that it's the same little guy. Though I marvel at the fact that he made it all the way back here...having to cross at least one street to do it.

Now he's in a tupperware container on my bathroom vanity, waiting to be relocated once again. We may just have to drive him across state lines to be sure we're rid of him.

South Hadley Wildlife Refuge

Apparently our yard is a well known safe haven for amphibians. A couple weeks ago, Minh happened upon a toad living in the giant pile of mulch that had been sitting in our driveway for weeks. His first instinct, of course, was to run and get the camera. So we have a nice photo of the rare species....Toadius Mulchius.

Although Toadius Mulchius really enjoyed living deep inside the pile of mulch, he was easily relocated. He happily jumped out of the wheelbarrow and hopped off into our woods, never to be seen again.

The next little visitor, however, was not so keen on being evicted. Just a few days after our encounter with TM, we met our next little friend (pictured below).












Don't be fooled, he looks somewhat like a Gray Tree Frog, but this one is actually a Gray Hot Tub Frog. I found him just as I was about to climb into the tub. He had crawled up between the tub and the cover and was just hanging out on the edge of the tub--I nearly put my hand right on him as I prepared to climb in. Minh's first instinct? Get the camera. His second instinct? Use a yard stick to shoo the frog away so we could use the hot tub without fear of him hopping in to join us.

After shooing the frog away and using the tub, Minh diligently looked this little guy up on line and discovered that it's pretty common for hot tub owners to have "problems" with gray tree frogs. Apparently, they are drawn to the warmth. But if they actually hop into the water they die. Yuck.

The next day.....he was back. Minh shooed him off the tub and then the little guy jumped off the deck and down to the lawn again. The next day....he was back. We decided to try to catch him and then relocate him to the woods. Minh donned gardening gloves and grabbed his trusty yard stick. I was tasked with holding the tupperwear container while Minh encouraged the frog to jump in. No such luck....he was off the deck and in the lawn again.

The next day....he was back AGAIN. This time I was busy with the baby, but Minh managed to catch the frog all by himself. Determined to keep him away from our tub, Minh called the Neighborhood Biologist on the next street over and asked if she or her young kids would be interested is seeing the frog and then releasing him into their woods, far away from our hot tub. She was indeed interested.

Minh arrived at her house, gloves still on and tupperware lid firmly in place. He cautiously lifted the corner of the lid as he said to her, "Be careful, I hope he doesn't jump at you" just as she reached in bare-handed and scooped the little guy up. Like I said, she's a Biologist.

Hot Tub Frog is now living happily (we think) somewhere in the woods one block over from our house. If he manages to make it all the way back to our tub, we may just keep him.

EEK!

A while back, I noted that we were paying our dog walker a larger hourly wage than our child-care provider. Somehow that seemed a little...off. So we've rectified the situation. Not by slashing our oh-so-valued dog walker's wages, and not by giving our hard-working home-based child care provider a raise. No, no, those simple solutions were not for us. Instead, we opted to enroll Tai in the Extraordinarily Expensive Childcare Center (EECC for short....pronounced "EEK!").

We signed up for EECC's waiting list when I was about 4 months pregnant and were told at the time that they might have a spot, come Fall 2007. That seemed a thousand years away. But then time flies when you are raising a baby and suddenly it was June and they were calling to ask if we wanted a half-time spot that starts the week before Labor Day. Part of me wishes they had never called. Let me explain why:

It's fewer hours of care (20 instead of 27).
It's double the hourly rate.
***BUT***
It's on the way to work.
It's a much nicer, bigger playspace.
It's a center, not someone's living room...which is preferable to me in some intangible way.
The "teachers" are the sweetest women ever.
The incoming "cohort" of infants is very diverse, including several mixed-race children.

So, it was a very difficult decision. Mainly because we are unsure whether this place is worth the money. Yes, it's clearly better than our current situation, but does it really warrant twice the money for fewer hours? In the end, we went for it, trying not to burn any bridges behind us in case we have to go crawling back to our home daycare provider at some point.

Tai starts "school" on August 27th. It really does feel like school. The women who work in the infant room are referred to as "teachers". And I think I've even heard the word "curriculum" thrown around. For those of you who received Minh's holiday letter last December (in which he detailed my pregnancy from conception to third trimester gassiness) should note that EECC is indeed the very place he made fun for taking themselves too seriously. And here we are. Brainwashed again.

Once we enrolled and paid the deposit, EECC encouraged us to bring Tai in for visits over the summer so he could get to know the teachers and become familiar with the space. Last week had a chance to play there and sit on the lap of one of the teachers and watch another baby eat her snack. AND...the infant room "teachers" are even coming to our house on the 20th to get to know Tai better and see him in his home environment. Oh crap, that means I have to clean the house. And we should probably hide all the non-organic baby food and dress him in a hemp onesie.

For the record, our plan is to spend ridiculous amounts of money on EECC through pre-school and then enroll Tai in good old-fashioned (and free!) public school for kindergarten. Part of me worries, though, that by the time Tai is 5 The Crunchies will have complete control over my brain and I will be writing a big fat check to the Montessori School without knowing what I am doing. Someone please stop me from doing that. Thanks.

Masquerading as a Hippy

Of course you all know by now that I'm always trying to find a balance between my Inner Hippy and my Other Half, without swinging too far one way or the other. Especially when it comes to Tai. On one hand, there is the Pioneer Valley Crunchy way of life that dictates you do the "very best" for your child, even if it means only buying organic, grain-fed, free-range chicken at $20/lb. On the other hand we have the "TV is the ultimate baby-sitter and a little high fructose corn syrup never hurt anyone" mentality. I do believe I fall somewhere in the middle:

Diapers? Disposable.

Baby food? Store-bought.

High Fructose Corn Syrup? Hell no.

TV? Not yet.

Tai will, of course, eat whatever chicken they happen to sell at Costco.

Yes, we shop at Costco. And Stop & Shop, and Big Y. While The Crunchies are picking their own green beans at the local CSA farm, we are plucking our produce off the shelves of the local supermarket. I never even stop at local farm stands for corn or strawberries anymore. It's really terrible of me.

This week though, we were given a rare look into the inner sanctum of The Crunchies. Our very kind and generous neighbors (who read this blog so I have to say nice things about them) let us take one week of their farm share while they are on vacation. So this past Monday, Minh, Tai and I ventured to the farm for the very first time. What an experience--you could actually smell the Hippies. We felt completely out of our element; I've never felt less crunchy. Upon seeing the crowded room with folks running here and there gathering up their organic vegetables, Minh's brain completely shut down. He busied himself with pushing the stroller around and made it clear I was on my own with the produce. Luckily our wonderful neighbors (who really are very nice, I'm not just saying that) had given us some pointers ahead of time. So I was able to figure out what to do and not look like too much of a Newbie.

We made it home with our organic veggies and promptly began eating them. That night we had a very tasty salad made up of many different types of greens we'd never had before. But being an organic farm, they do not use any chemicals to keep the bugs off the veggies. Our greens had so many bug holes in them they looked like lace. Nothing like the beautiful, hole-free, chemical-laden greens I am so used to getting at Big Y. The salad was tasty and we don't think either of us ingested any bugs.

Now we just have to figure out what to do with Swiss Chard and Beets.

My Day at the Zoo

If you've ever held still long enough, I've probably told you the story of how my parents flew to San Diego when my nephew was born and left me behind. I was six. And yes I did get to spend the week with my grandmother which, as everyone knows, was delightful. Grandmothers do all sorts of things with kids that mothers don't allow or don't have the energy to do (like playing "hairdresser" for hours on end).

But that didn't stop me from being bitter. I wanted to go to sunny San Diego and go to the zoo. but my parents, in their infinite wisdom decided to make the trip sans child. And although they brought me back lots of presents, including a San Diego Zoo clipboard, lots of stickers, and a pair of Joe Cool scissors, I still would have rather gone on the trip.

Now my time has come.

My friend Charlie has been considerate enough to choose San Diego as the venue for his wedding (no doubt having my lifelong desire to see the zoo in mind when he made that decision). So this November Minh, Tai and I will be taking a family vacation to Southern California. We're stretching it into a pretty long vacation that will include visiting Minh's sister and grandmother. And we'll do some general sight seeing and I will finally get my day at the zoo. Oh, and I guess we'll go to the wedding while we're there.

Actually, we're in the wedding. Well, Minh and I are. Tai will still be a tad young for the role of ring bearer. But Minh and I are honored to have been asked to do a reading during the wedding ceremony. The title of the poem we've been asked to read is Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog. Presumably, Minh and I know a little something about love and a tad bit about owning a dog as well. Hopefully I won't mess up and swear on the altar like last time we were in a wedding....

Fuzzy Lunch

About once a year a couple co-workers and I drive to a local animal shelter during our lunch break to play with itty bitty kitties waiting to be adopted. Today was our annual trip and lemme tell you there is no better way to spend lunch hour than snuggling little fuzz balls.

I fell in love with a short-haired grey tabby named Chester. And I think he liked me too. At least, that's the impression I got when he licked my neck and then nibbled on my earring. I nearly melted.

Somehow I managed to keep my wallet in my purse and not adopt anyone. Chester was a member of a litter of five, three of whom were already spoken for. But Chester and his sister Ash were still in need of a loving home. And, the shelter is running a two kittens "fur" the price of one special this month....so I could have taken them both home! But I reminded myself that I already have a houseful. Too bad, as Tai would have squealed with delight at the sight of these two fluffy little ones.

Potter Blackout

So....the final Harry Potter book is out and I have not read it yet. In fact, I probably won't get to it for a month or so. I've decided to re-read the previous 6 first, so they are fresh in my mind. I'm a pretty slow reader to begin with and now that work, sleep, and Tai take up about 93% of my days, I have little time to devote to novels. So it may take me a while to get through those 2,000-ish pages.

But unlike those nine-year-olds who buy the book when it goes on sale at midnight and finish it by sunrise, I have no problem delaying my own gratification. The book will be just as good when I get around to reading it. The only problem is avoiding any *spoilers* between now and then. I would be horrified if I learned then ending before reading it myself.

Luckily my co-workers who are reading it know better than to say anything about it to me. So, if I can manage to stay away from Potter fan websites and loud-mouthed middle-schoolers for the next month or so, I should be OK. Wish me luck.

The Longest Day

We took Tai camping this past "weekend". Actually, we were only gone from the house for 25 hours. But it felt like a week.

Unfortunately, Tai did not enjoy himself as much as we thought he would. He was not exactly miserable and I wouldn't say that the trip was a disaster, but the jury is still out on whether we'll go on our 3-night Labor Day trip to the Berkshires. Tai was just a little crankier than usual and never quite pleased with his current situation (be it the ergo, his camp chair, or one of our laps, he always seemed to want to be elsewhere). It was difficult not to have his exersaucer for him to play in, or even a soft place for him to roll around on the ground.

And he was not terribly keen on sleeping between us on the air mattress, in 50-degree weather. I can't imagine why not. Actually, we think that Tai's fussiness during this trip might have been teething-related. His bottom chompers have arrived, so we assume the top ones are getting ready to make their appearance as well. So maybe that issue will have taken care of itself by early September and he'll be in a better mood for the next trip. I guess we'll see.

That said, the trip was indeed quite fun (albeit thoroughly exhausting). We took a lovely hike on Saturday morning, during which Tai got to sleep and Buttons got to run, sniff, and swim. Later that afternoon, while Minh and Buttons took a snooze in the tent Tai and I hit the beach and took a little dip. Tai enjoyed his first-ever cantaloupe and was a big fan of watching the campfire burn. Maybe we'll make a camper out of him yet! (click here for more pictures).

It was encouraging to see that nearly everyone at the campground had kids with them, though none as young as Tai. It seems like camping with a toddler must be lots of fun. The family at the site next to ours had a couple of young kids, one of whom was named Ty. All day and night we listened to the dad say his son's name and each time it made us flinch, like he was talking to our son. Of course, the ridiculous nickname that dad had for his son, "Ty-Guy" is nothing compared to the clever nickname we have for our baby ("Tai-Guy").

Where Have All The Thongs Gone?

The other day I was folding laundry on our bed, while Minh was laying on it watching TV (no judgement here, that's just how it went down). Anyway, I flung an item that was too small to fold onto the bed right near Minh and he picked it up with a sly little grin on his face and said something to the effect of "hey, hey, what's this?" (thinking it was a pair of red thong underwear).

Imagine his disappointment when, upon closer inspection, he realized that it was not a thong, but a red terry cloth bib with a giraffe and a penguin printed on it and the phrase "Let's be friends." Things sure have changed around here.

Roar!

Last night Minh and Tai and I attended a birthday party for a friend, at which we chatted with many friends of this friend. That's what you do at a party, right? Make small talk, eat some yummy food, and go home. Nothing terribly eventful.

But we have just now learned that one of the women we talked with is (was?) the basis for the Dawn the Dinosaur character in Dilbert. How this did not come up during our conversation last night is beyond me. If I were a cartoon dinosaur, I'd want the world to know. Roar.

Summer Stupidity

Last summer I was picking grass out of the herb garden, mistaking it for chives, and we blamed it on the pregnancy. Well, this summer I've done something equally stupid but have no fetus on which to blame it.

Our across-the-street neighbors have been away for months and were at first sub-letting their house. But now the sub-letters are gone and Minh and I have been tasked with merely keeping an eye on the place. They stopped their mail and they have no pets to feed or plants to water. So the job is an easy one...just make sure the place does not get robbed or burn down to the ground.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a package sitting on their doorstep, so I dutifully brought it inside, left it on the table, and locked the house back up. End of story, right? That's what I thought.

Meanwhile, Minh was anxiously checking the mailbox each day for his replacement cell phone (his was busted) and getting more and more pissed off each day that it did not arrive. (You already know where this is going, don't you?) After tracking the package online and seeing that it was marked as "delivered" he called up DHL to complain. DHL explained to him that they had indeed delivered it, and had left it outside the front door. When he told them that it was not there, they asked him to actually go outside and look around.

DHL said that they sometimes try to leave packages in inconspicuous places. So there he was, cordless phone to his ear, searching among the daylillies for his package when the light bulb went off over his head. His ditsy wife had locked his new cell phone in the neighbors house. He grabbed their house key, went inside and found that the package inside was clearly addressed to us, not them. Oops.

Of course, DHL had delivered it to the wrong house. But then I held it in my hands and didn't even notice my own name on the outside of the box. Something must happen to me in the summer. Let's blame the humidity for making my brain sweat. If only we lived in the Southwest where it's a dry heat....

Mix-n-Match, and a Little Flash

Bathing suit shopping is never fun. Anyone who says differently is lying. But I figured today was the perfect day for me to run out and get a new one for two very good reasons:

(1) It's after July 4th, so Old Navy should be selling swimsuits for next to nothing, to make room for corduroys and sweaters.
(2) Tai and I have a mamas-n-babies playdate at a local swimming hole on Monday, during which other people will actually have to see me in my bathing suit. This is a problem because my current bathing suit was purchased for my pre-pregnancy body. That body is gone. The pregnancy weight is off, but things are all shifted around and now my boobs are too big for the top and my ass cheeks hang out the back.

So today after work, I decided to run a bunch of errands. After I popped into one store unsuccessfully seeking waterproofing spray for our new tent, I decided to quickly run into Old Navy for a new bathing suit. But in today's mix-n-match society that proved impossible. They don't actually sell two-piece swimsuits anymore....they sell separate tops and bottoms to be mixed and matched. And that's great because you can get two different sizes for top and bottom. But it's not so great this time of year when the suits have been all picked over. Not only were the prices not marked down, but almost none of the tops and bottoms matched each other...and certainly none that did match were available in my sizes. All I could seem to find were small and extra small tops and XL bottoms, none of which was going to work for me. (So...are there lots of women running around out there with big boobs and small bottoms? I thought I was the only one....)

During the 15 minutes I spent pawing through the racks, I found a few very cute tops, in my size....and then matching bottoms in XL. The one or two bottoms I found that looked like they might fit had no matching tops left anywhere in sight. And I don't even mean strictly "matching"--I would have gladly paired a plain purple top with the multicolor-striped bottoms. But no, even that was not meant to be. I started out being selective, looking at the sizes only on the cute suits. But soon I grew desperate, nearly talking myself into trying on the ones with macrame straps or faux wood beads. I stopped just short of even looking at the sizes on the shiny silver suits that looked like they were made of tinfoil. I never even made it into the dressing room.

Leaving Old Navy, I felt defeated and started to wonder whether I am too old and mom-ish to even be shopping there...and for a skimpy two-piece bathing suit, no less. Wondering whether I could even pull a suit like that off, I decided to check out my profile in the window as I walked by. Looking pretty good in a shirt that artfully hides my squishy tummy and sporting my Skinny Jeans, I started to think, "Yeah, I may be a mom, but I still look good. I'm not an old fart one-piece-swimsuit-with-the-attached-skirt mom yet." Feeling better, I turned to head into EMS (still in search of the waterproofing spray) and looked at myself head-on in that window. That's when I noticed that the button on my shirt right between my boobs was undone...no doubt from my last pumping session at work. Oh, how very not cool. Oh, how not young and sexy and with-it at all. Oh, how very fuddy-duddy-scatterbrained-mom-ish.

So here I am, no new bathing suit. Just a word of warning....if you find yourself at Puffers Pond this coming Monday you may catch sight of far too much side-boob and ass cheek as I emerge from the water. Oh well, one good thing about mommy-hood is that I'm just to tired to care....much.

XXX

Vitamin Water has a new flavor out called XXX. I don't know what's in it and I don't care. It tastes like liquid Swedish Fish (and that's a good thing!)

SPLISH SPLASH!

The Boob Tube

No, not another breastfeeding entry. This time I'm talking about the television. Tai freakin' loves the TV. It must be pre-programmed in at birth, because we never plonk him down in front of the TV and we've never even shown him any of those Baby Einstein videos or anything. But somehow he just knows that TV is a source of mind-numbing entertainment. Anytime I walk into a room with him and the TV is on, he immediately starts "watching" it. It doesn't matter what's on either...C-SPAN, cartoons, or that Poltergeist Fuzz. It's all the same to him. He does some really amazing acrobatics that involve alot of neck-craning in order to get a glimpse of the tube (incidentally, it's an excellent way to catch sight of that elusive neck).

We do not anticipate being one of those families that never lets their child watch TV -- we will indeed one day pacify him with Dora or Peep or The Wiggles. But at this point, Tai is not allowed to watch TV. Anytime he's in the room, the TV gets turned off. Our TVs actually pretty much stay off until after he's in bed for the night.

Somehow I didn't really think about my son's love of the television when I decided to take him to a movie last week. The Amherst Cinema has just started offering baby-friendly matinees once a week. So a bunch of my mommy friends and I went to see The Namesake (very good by the way, I recommend it).

As some of you may recall, I actually took Tai to the movies once before. But he was only about 6 weeks old at that point, so his movie-going experience consisted of sleeping, nursing, a little more sleeping, and then nursing some more.


But this time he wanted to watch the movie! After watching him nearly broke his neck trying to see the screen, which was direclty behind him, I gave in and turned him around 180 degrees. He sat contentedly on my lap and stared up at that big screen (the world's largest television, he must have been thinking) for about 45 solid minutes. Then it was time to nurse and go to sleep, just like old times. Yes, it briefly occurred to me that I should not "let" him watch the movie....but that proved downright impossible. And, letting him watch the movie kept him so damn quiet and happy that I couldn't resist (now I see why some parents sit their kids in front of the tube all afternoon).*

Incidentally, not everyone in the theater had a baby with them. Because they just started having these baby matinees, the general public was unaware that this particular showing of The Namesake would be interrupted by crying, delightful squealing, audible pooping, and the slurping-smacking sounds of nursing. Unfortunately, my friend actually ended up leaving 15 minutes into the movie because her baby was crying and the old couple (who else goes to the movies in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon but retirees?) seated in front of her gave her dirty looks.

What's most ridiculous about the Dirty Look Givers is that they ended up being some of the loudest people in the theater. Mr. Giver must have been hard of hearing because Mrs. Giver kept having the explain to him what was going on on screen.




* In fact, a friend of ours has already discovered this secret weapon. When baby sitting yesterday, she dosed him with Cartoon Network to calm down a fussy spell. Really, she just did it because she's trying to secure her spot as Favorite "Auntie".

To Minh

How many times have I heard you tell Tai that you love him?

At least a thousand,

Perhaps even more.

Peeking around the doorway at your son and making him laugh--

You clearly enjoy fatherhood.

Five and a half months ago, you became a daddy

And never looked back.

The days of sleeping late were gone in an instant, but you've never been

Happier to wake up at 6am than you are when Tai is giggling in our bed.

Even in the early days, when life was overwhelming, you were always

Ready to change a diaper, swaddle a blanket, pat out a burp, and then change another diaper--

Smiling through the exhaustion.

Days have turned into months; the time is flying by.

And soon those months will turn into years--

Years that I look forward to spending with you by my side.

Happy FIRST Father's Day. I love you.

Be Careful With Whom You Make Friends....

...Especially if they happen to be a Lactation Consultant. Because you might just get talked into doing something like this:


http://breastfeeding.blog.motherwear.com/2007/06/the_carnival_of_1.html


Yes, that's my husband, lending his quirky sense of humor and unique writing style to what can be a pretty sappy (milky?) subject.