Fall Stuff

The Internet and I are no longer in a committed relationship. We're not exactly officially separated (we still hook up now and then), but we are free to see other ways to spend our free time. And I've been taking advantage of this.

I used to be able to crank out some blog posts, get on facebook, and respond to e-mails in a timely manner by doing these things while the kids were napping. But Henry doesn't nap anymore, and when Dean naps, I try to deal with the gazillion other things I need to do, like fill out Henry's school applications, help him with his homework, take care of laundry, cleaning the kitchen, writing thank you notes, scheduling appointments, etcetera, etcetera. Until I can hire a personal assistant (not likely), it seems posting to this blog and keeping up with the nuances of everyone's daily lives on facebook is going to continue to be low on the priority list.

But we have been doing some cool things lately. Dean is developing by leaps and bounds. He's becoming much more communicative -- he signs "more" when eating and can do other cool tricks like raise his hands when we say "How big is Dean-bean?" and clap when asked. He also turns the pages of books when I am reading to him (he loves books as much as Henry did). And when these nice claps and signs don't get him what he wants, he is perfectly content to scream at anyone passing by at the top of his lungs. Which of course inspires Henry to scream, too. It's really loud in our house most days.

Dean still refuses to crawl, however. Given that this is my second baby who seems more interested in standing than crawling (despite the fact that, unlike Henry, Dean loves to sleep on his belly), I am starting to think this is more a genetic predisposition rather than a failure of encouragement on my part. Nevertheless, I continue to torture him by plopping him down inches away from a desired toy (or, more often, a coveted pacifier). No effect.

Henry is doing great with his swim lessons at Love Swimming. He jumps into the water and can propel himself (it's not exactly stroke swimming but it gets him from point A to B) with his head underwater. He loves going, and I actually love taking him. This is one of the things about parenthood that surprises me the most - I always thought I would dread the driving-to and sitting-at parts of having kids, but I really enjoy those car trips and I even find the time spent sitting during the activity kind of nice. Henry talks more when he's in the car with me - I find out all kinds of interesting things about the kids he likes and doesn't like at school, which teachers are "bossy" (he's very opposed to bossiness these days) and which he can fool into thinking he's paying attention when he's really not, what subjects he likes and which games he doesn't like. I really think some tangible good has come out of these conversations -- he was getting into trouble a lot because he would talk to one of his friends when they were supposed to be sitting silently (Henry voluntarily identifed this kid as one of the "bad kids"). I told him how I got into trouble a lot for that when I was little, even when I wasn't the one starting the talking, I was just trying to tell my friend to stop. We practiced how to look at his friend to tell him 'I want to talk but we have to be quiet right now' and I am guessing it may be working because Henry says he and his friend are both "good kids" now and there have been no time outs for weeks since we had that conversation.

He's finally reading on his own now, too. His reticence with this really baffled me and Matthew. Henry loves books, loves being read to, and even loves just sitting alone and paging through them. But he would refuse to actually read them by himself, even though we knew he was capable of it. Homework was also a battle of wills -- even though his homework was straightforward and he could easily finish it in five minutes, he would take more than a half hour just because he was whining and letting himself get distracted and literally dragging his feet. I was able to cajole him a little and threats and timers also helped, but ultimately he just decided on his own about a week ago that he likes doing homework and now he often finishes before I get back from doing the laundry to check on him. Plus he's picking up books and reading them on his own, without prompting. He especially loves Dr. Seuss, but I went ahead and ordered him some of the paperback "first readers" featuring Spiderman and Transformers, anyway.

Speaking of Spiderman, he should be making an appearance in our house on October 31st. Henry decided that was what he wanted to be this Halloween. We're totally ready for the big day -- the front of our house is draped in fake cobwebs embedded with black and orange spider rings, plus there's a skull hanging on our front door, pumpkins and bat decals on the front window, a giant (like, two feet wide) black spider crawling on our front porch rocker, and bats hanging from our dining room chandelier. I love Halloween and I love that Henry is old enough to really get into it now.

Tomorrow I am taking Henry and Dean and Foster to a pumpkin farm on the Northshore. Matthew has a wedding so we'll stay the night in Mandeville at Paw and Dellie's. I used to be really hesitant to go any significant distances without Matthew or my Mom to accompany me, mostly because I was having so many headaches and didn't want to be stranded somewhere, unable to drive because of the medication. But the headaches have gotten much better recently. I've been taking Zyrtec and that seems to be helping some, plus I've been sleeping better now that Dean consistently sleeps through the night. I guess everything is starting to feel more settled, so I'm a little less stressed. And I've gotten better at recognizing the signs of a migraine and taking medication much earlier -- half the time, I can get away with just two tylenol and a 12 ounce Coke. So, although I still prefer traveling with Matthew (not just for the convenience of a second parent but I am also pretty fond of the guy), I've recently taken the boys overnight to Baton Rouge and figure this trip to the Northshore won't be much different. Plus, we finally (finally!) have a blast of cool air down here, so we can experience a tiny smidgen of the autumn sights, sounds, and cold weather attire that the rest of the country gets to have for months. Then, armed with four pumpkins this year, we'll truly be ready for Halloween.