Another bedtime milestone

Last night, Kevin slept with a blanket. It wasn't just on the bed, it was on him!

A few seconds of real fear

On Sunday we went to Will & Beth's house for dinner. Their pool was open but cold so we dipped our feet in while I mulled over the idea of jumping in. Kirsten pulled into the driveway and we all turned to say, "Hi!" Kevin turned too but he kept walking and landed right in the pool. He went under and then popped back up to the surface but just laid there in a prone position not attempting to pick his head up or anything. He was only in for about 5 seconds before Andy negotiated how to get in the water quickly without pushing Kevin under or slipping on the step. Kevin came up coughing and crying but he was ok. A few minutes later in dry clothes he was back to normal and a short time after that he was walking right next to the pool again.

Considering that when we met him he freaked out at the sound of the shower or bath water running and wouldn't go near the fountain in the market, we're impressed that he bounced back rather quickly from falling in the water.

His version of the story the following day was that he was swimming - he had jumped in the water. I was sure to correct him that he FELL in the water and did NOT swim one bit! He told Andy the original story later in the day so I guess that's just the way it is. Perhaps he's better off thinking of it that way.

I, for one, will never ever forget the image of him lying facedown in the water, not moving.

Aerodynamics

I rode my bike this morning with Kevin in the trailer. It's a warm day and the sun is shining brightly so I left the plastic window up with just the screen down for him. Unfortunately, there is only screening at the front of the trailer. This means that while I'm trying to gain momentum on the downhills to get up the uphills easier, Kevin is riding in style in nothing short of a parachute. Parachutes are built to overcome aerodynamics.

Memorial Day

Don't be fooled by the car commercials, pool supply and grilling sales or flip flop producers. This weekend is Memorial Day weekend - not First Day Of Summer or Official Barbeque Day weekend. Monday is a day (and this weekend is the weekend) to remember those who have died for the sake of our freedom. Freedom comes with a price and a responsibility - the price of lives that are lost or irrevocably changed by combat and the responsibility to remember that freedom, while "guaranteed" and "right"ed by our country's founding documents, is not guaranteed or righted to us in the grander scheme of the world.

Thank you to all who have left this world for the sake of our country's (and others') freedoms. I pray for your families and for your causes.

The bird landed on my finger and I said, "It is good."

We went to the zoo this afternoon and had to kill some time before the launching of the members-only grand-opening of Parakeet Landing (it was like any old black tie, high heels and champagne deal but without the black ties, high heels and champagne - although they did have cookies and pink lemonade) so we visited the petting farm/zoo and took a walk through the Maryland Wilderness section. They have a set of lilypads for kids to walk on and Kevin missed the step up out of the last one and landed himself in the water up to his knee. Then I parked him in the stroller next to the cows' fence and one of them put its nose between the boards right in Kevin's face and let out the MOO to end all moos scaring the jeepers out of both Kevin and myself. From then on everything was scary - Kevin wouldn't let me walk him in any direction but 180 degrees from the strolling peacock and we had to give the donkey pen a berth of about 15 feet. I told Kevin they don't moo but he didn't buy it.

So we headed toward the "special birds" (I had to give some name for the reason we were visiting the zoo without seeing the Almighty Giraffes because hey, they're a mile away from anywhere we need to be and we just saw them on Monday - come on, kid, you just saw them on Monday.) Kevin kept saying, "No - no special birds!" and I decided, this once, to ignore him. We got in line and he stopped saying No because there were too many people in line with us to be scared about that he couldn't speak. We went inside with our $1 seed stick to bring the birds right to us because the lady at the gate couldn't believe it when I said I wasn't interested in taking one in this time - she manhandled me into buying one. So we went inside and people were holding their seed sticks in the air and birds were coming right down on them to eat! I asked Kevin if he wanted to put his arm in the air for the birds to come to it and he was already there holding his hand over my head. Hmm... he wasn't as scared as I'd hoped.

We couldn't get any birds to come to our stick so I meandered around pretending to look for congregating legions of hungry birds. Then a very nice, well-meaning man with a white parakeet (?) on his seed stick said, "Here, why don't you put your finger out for him to climb on and then he'll eat your seed." This is where I expected the Mommy Adrenaline to kick in. It didn't... it was more like Mommy Amitriptyline*. I was so calm about the whole thing I'm not sure what was going on.

All in all it was fun because Kevin really seemed to enjoy it and I didn't freak out. And we gave Andy about an hour at home after work by himself, which is always good (for all of us.)

*Note: I was on amitriptyline for about 6 weeks, I think, as preventive therapy for my migraines. It turned me into a zombie and I hardly remember anything except for feeling when I went off the medication that I had just woken up after a long dream. It was a good case study for the idea that people who aren't depressed shouldn't be put on anti-depressants.

So Proud Is He

Kevin picked out his own outfit of pajama shorts (which he won't wear for sleeping, ironically), a long-sleeved t-shirt and a sweatshirt for an 80+ degree day. And isn't that the face of pride. 

Do you think he learned his lesson? 

Zoo Trip #2 for this week

Tomorrow's adventure a la Kevin & Mama will be a trip to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. This won't be just any old zoo trip, though (we took any old zoo trip on Monday.) Tomorrow we're going to the members-only (thanks for our membership, Kirsten!) sneak preview of Parakeet Landing:

Step out of Maryland and into the tropics with our state-of-the-art summer exhibit featuring a 1500 square foot tropical bird aviary enclosing hundreds of free-flight zebra finches, grass parakeets, rosellas, and cockatiels! This is the 1st interactive experience of its kind at The Zoo.
Feed, touch and learn about these tropical treasures this summer ONLY!

I'm hoping that either Kevin will be too scared to go into the enclosure with the birds flying around or that my Mommy-Adrenaline will kick in so that I can willingly walk in and let birds touch me. I'm a wee bit scared of birds and the purpose of this exhibit is to allow visitors the chance to experience these birds in hand (or on shoulder or nesting in hair or whatever the case may be. They're wild animals, they can do whatever they please, you know.)

Help Wanted

Do you have a degree in Pattern Analysis? Perhaps a minor? Maybe you just find patterns intriguing? If so, contact me for a possible short-term contract position in our family's "Figure Out What Makes The Kid's Sleeping Schedule Work" division.

This is a new position. Previous work in this area was completed by Mom who just ran screaming from the building.

Don't wait! Try your hand at popping the floating balloon with a snub-nosed dart. I mean, try your hand at determining the appropriate parameters that keep Kevin in his bed from the time he lays down until no less than 10 hours later.

The hugs and bowing at your feet that you'll receive upon successful completion of the task will be worth it! (and worth more than the $5.00/hour we're willing to pay.)

Apply Now!

Miscellany

I'm so glad that Kevin's grandparents live within an hour of us. Andy's mom and sister watched Kevin so that I could work when our daycare provider was out of the country for two weeks. Yesterday my parents came over to play with Kevin while we went for a hike and did a few things on our own. I know lots of families who don't have local extended family and I think that would be really difficult.

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Kevin got his first fat lip with us today (no, we didn't cause it.) He fell and hit his mouth on a chair. He said that the grape popsicle helped it feel much better.

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Luke 19:17 "'Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.'"

It doesn't matter at the moment that when I tell Kevin he can't have another sip of soda he takes one anyway. But it does matter in the long run. If I can't trust him to obey and respect my commands with the small things, how can I trust him with big things later? I won't yet call it a phase that Kevin is entering (although I think it is) but he is beginning to consistently disobey me. I can see how it is a normal and good thing for him to test the boundaries (he must feel secure in our relationship that he doesn't have to obey us to make us love him and it's a normal toddler thing to push outward) but in the heat of screaming and crying it is a pain in the neck. At what age can I expect to be able to really explain this to him? When he's 35, you say? I'm not sure I can wait that long.

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It's been too long. I'm listening to The Best of Reggae Dancehall Music Volume 2. I know that part of my love for this music is the memories it brings to mind from my college years. It's more than that, though. Do you have a style of music that seems to resonate with your soul? Something that when you hear it, your heart joins the rhythm and beats to it? Reggae is that music for me.

What keeps our son up at night

Kevin has taken to coming out of his room a bunch of times when we put him to bed. Last night it was my turn to be the guard posted at his door telling him, "Get back in bed" every time he came out. The third time he opened the door he told me, "Buy milk."

That was the last time he came out. I assume he felt confident that he could stop worrying that we used up the last of the milk at dinner once he reminded me that we needed to buy more.

Photos

One of Andy's presents to me for Mother's Day was to get a roll of black & white film developed that I've had sitting around for about a year. It sat around because Snapfish wouldn't process it even though it was meant to be developed with color processing and I hadn't yet decided it was worth the $10 price tag to get it developed locally.

The film contained some pictures of Flash and he framed one for me. There were also some photos I took just for fun of a trio of Star Trek figures that Andy received as a Christmas present from one of his sisters.

I'm not a fan of Star Trek and I'm not usually such a nerd, but posing those guys and taking photos was pretty funny.

Flash basking in the sun. 

Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy and Spock ready for action. 

Unfinished pier in Cape May, NJ (2004?) 

I caught up to my wisdom

I used to hear, "You're wise beyond your years" on a fairly regular basis while growing up. I just realized that I haven't been told that in quite some time. I can't recall when the last time was so I'm not sure when I caught up with my wisdom. Here's hoping my age hasn't surpassed my wisdom at this point.

Lots of deer and first-known snake

Yesterday morning there were 6 deer "pinned" in our yard. Our east neighbor was running a chainsaw and our west neighbor was out getting ready to mow the lawn. The deer didn't know where to go as they usually travel along the sound barrier behind our houses. They eventually ran off and then returned with an extra member and the seven of them wandered around the yard for a bit longer before running off again (toward the west both times.)

Today we saw a snake in our yard for the first time (we've been here for 2.5 yrs.) We're sure we've had snakes before but we never saw any. We're hoping it sticks around to eat all of the moles that we have. Of course then we'll be even more overrun by Japanese beetles because nothing will be here to eat their grubs. Hmm...

The snake is currently warming itself under the plastic cover on top of our wood pile. Kevin got to see it and both opportunities (the deer and the snake) were excellent chances to teach him about how to behave around wild animals.

That's a nice red badge of "courage" you've got there, son

When I picked Kevin up from childcare at church today after a bible study meeting, he had a new lump on his forehead. He very often has a bump on his head so I wasn't concerned but I was curious. I asked him about it and he shared in the way only he can what happened, complete with the words, "Maria hit" and the action of him smacking his hand into his head to show me where he was hurt.

I later found out the story from an adult who saw it happen and it wasn't a punching match with Maria or even a case of tripping over something or falling off the jungle gym. Kevin got hurt HUGGING. Apparently Kevin and Maria were hugging each other most of the morning and one hug got out of control and they wouldn't let go of each other as they were losing their balance and they just fell over and smacked their heads together and then on the floor.

The Coup d'etat de Mere Has Begun

I knew it was coming and I knew I wouldn't like it but it had to be. A particular family member - who is very sweet, generous, kind and loving - has boundary issues when it comes to whose children belong to whom. So far we've sidestepped the issue and it hasn't been a problem until now when we've had to ask said generally wonderful family member to do us a favor which led directly to the first official steps of the coup.

It began before said favor was performed by said family member at the first possible chance after the favor was requested. And whether or not I knew it was coming, it's still hard to deal with.

I may not be the best mom, but I'm the best mom Kevin has. And it's going to stay that way whether said family member who never intends to make waves does make waves and makes me feel bad.

I apologize for this not making sense. It's hard to vent when no details should be divulged. Although it's not like most people won't understand the details from what I wrote anyway. I should probably just not post this, but I bet I will anyway.

Is being evil a "Sunday morning value?"

I think the "Big Idea" behind VeggieTales is that they're actually evil. They play those "silly songs" and get tunes stuck in your head for days (yes, days - not a few hours or an afternoon but DAYS.) It's enough to make someone think they're schizophrenic with all of the voices in their heads talking about cebus, pepinos, pirates, silk hats and cheeseburgers.