Sugaring

The kids and I went sugaring today at the Ipswich Audobon Sanctuary in Topsfield. It was a pretty decent day, very sunny and about mid 40’s. This is a gorgeous place with fields and old trees and stonewalls. Samantha and Joshua came with puddle boots because I know my children. Any mud in a 100 feet radius, and they are in it. There was plenty to be had today, what with all the snow melt. Unfortunately I only brought pants for Josh, but I am getting ahead of myself. We saw some chickadees in the bushes, tasted sap which is 97 % water, and saw a tractor. Yes, a tractor! Joshua was so excited! There was a huge field with lots of bluebird houses in it and the most incredible birdsong, almost overwhelming in its intensity. The birdsong was a most welcome change to my everyday sounds of children yelling and cars. Sam was a volunteer tree. A rather strapping, handsome young man demonstrated how to decide if a tree is old enough to sap or not, how to drill a hole in which direction, how to set the tap and what to do with the bucket. Sam answered some pretty complicated questions, and I am rather proud to say that another guest there today told me I had a very bright and sweet daughter. I said “thank you.” :-) We got to taste fresh maple syrup. I love the smell of the woodsmoke and the steam from the sap. Ahh. Early spring is here.

About 2/3 of the way through, Samantha found a really muddy spot and a little puddle. The mud was so thick, I thought she was going to lose her rainboot. It did stick a bit, and down she went. I saw the docent’s face go bright in shock, then turn to me waiting for the explosion. When I laughed, she was very surprised. I guess most people get pretty upset about dirt. I know from experience that Samantha will wash and she will be happier for the experience. Go Samantha! I think the other parents were a tad annoyed, though, because all the other kids wanted to check out the puddles and their parents wouldn’t let them. Sorry.

I did have to stop at the Rugged Bear and get her some pants to wear. And to get some snow pants on sale. What did I leave with? Two dresses, a skirt, and two flame covered shirts, one for Sam and one for Josh. Josh tried on all of Sam’s dresses. At one point, he looks in the mirror and says, am I beautiful? I say Yes! And handsome too. He was very happy. He also rips off his diaper in the changing room, thankfully not messy. He wanted to try on clothes! He demanded bright pink crocs, and wore Samantha's pink and orange dress out of the store, sans diaper. Yes, I can live dangerously. He was great with it. He did let me put a coat on him, thankfully, since he just had on a sundress. I didn't take pictures. Samantha found a special tea dress to wear for her tea party she just decided she had to have, just like the American Girl Samantha's tea party. We had a grand day out and enjoyed every minute!

At some point while we weren't looking ...

Those of you who've been following this blog for a while will remember that Samantha, at around the age of 5, began to suffer severe pain in her left knee. The kind of pain that woke her up at night, every night, literally screaming. For months on end.

You might remember the postings about Tylenol and Motrin, about waking her up at 3 am to get another dose of medicine into her before the first dose wore off, about a year of sleep deprivation for all of us, and about Samantha becoming so consumed by the ever-present threat of pain in her knee that she became afraid to participate in her usual physical activities.

You might remember the visits to pediatricians and orthopedists and neurologists, the x-rays and CT scans and MRIs, none of which shed any light on the source of her pain. Then there were the accupressure treatments, the pain management counseling, the rounds of trial-and-error with different medications, and finally the decision back in August of 2007 to treat this as some sort of inflammatory problem and put her on a moderate dose of naproxen, which finally provided real and lasting relief from the pain and allowed Samantha to resume a normal life and normal activities. It was like the weight of the world had been lifted from all of us.

After 18 months on naproxen Samantha was getting awfully tired of taking the stuff. She hates the taste (it's a liquid suspension) and I think she just doesn't like being dependent on it. We'd titrated the dosage down over time from 5 ml twice a day down to just 4 ml once a day, and she seemed to be doing fine. Truthfully, there were also a few days here and there when Sam would fall asleep early or something else would be going on that would cause us to miss a dose, and Sam still seemed to be doing fine.

So we made a decision that since this was school vacation week, we'd try taking Samantha off naproxen entirely for a while and see how that went.

It's been 10 days now and Sam is fine. No medication and no pain. I've checked with the neurologist and any naproxen that Samanthan had in her system would have metabolized out long since, so her pain-free state really is pain-free without medication. I think we've finally seen the end of naproxen.

The orthopedist told us that although there was no conclusive cause for Samantha's pain, it was possible that she would eventually outgrow it. Damned if he wasn't right.

Love is (color) blind

This evening, being lazy and not much in the mood to cook, I took Joshua to the local burger joint for dinner. While we were sitting at the table waiting for our food to come out, Joshua took the ketchup bottle and started moving it in concentric circles around his carton of milk on the table.

The ketchup got closer and closer to the milk until finally the ketchup bottle was sitting right next to the milk carton. Joshua then looked up at me and with an expression of pure glee said to me -- in his adorable two-year-old voice -- "Look, it loves my milk!"

snowman photos

Samantha and Joshua did a wonderful job making this snowman. We used coal from our fireplace and a carrot, for the ultimate in traditional, but Samantha put her own unique stamp on it. The yellow shovel was placed so that we had an anatomically correct snowman. Okay, I laughed too. There must be a seven year old in me somewhere.

Big milestones

Have you read Put Me in the Zoo lately? We have. Me and Joshua. I point to the zoo sign and ask Josh, what does that say? "Z O O spells 'zoo,' mommy!" says Joshua. What a smartie! He also told Matt that the number was '2' yesterday.

Tonight, Joshua has been walking around without a diaper. He got up from the table to use the potty. He takes his pants down and up again all by himself. He has gone potty three times tonight on his own. Wow. He is really a big boy.

Zathras can't have anything nice

I mentioned the keyboard in previous posts. Still isn't fixed. Now we can add the VCR, that has an error code we can't decipher. Joshua put his favorite DVD, Dumptrucks, in the DVD player, and now the tray won't open. Tucker ate a hole through Sam's down comforter. And the coverlet - and the other coverlet. I still need to pick up the strawberry goo that Josh spilled on the Kilim carpet last night. Gotta love 'em, right?

Valentine's Day Love

Is there such a thing as being too loved? Samantha wishes me Happy Valentine's Day first thing this morning, which is as soon as her eyes open, since she is of course sleeping in the same bed with me. Joshua too. After much cajoling, she gets up and lets the dogs out while Josh and I stay in bed a moment longer. I thought it was just a moment. I hear a crash, and something cold running into my back. A very cold glass of milk was accidentally spilled over, all over, the bed and ran into me. I leap up screaming, Sam is yelling I'm sorry. Sam was bringing me breakfast in bed and brought the milk up first. I get the bed cleared off, come downstairs and there is Nutella all over Sam, Josh, and the table. She grins widely, face covered in brown goo and says, here's breakfast, Mommy! I ask her how much nutella she ate. She says "I didn't eat any, mommy!" She tells me she washed her hands so I wouldn't know she was eating it out of the jar with her hands. I couldn't help but laugh. She has it on her nose! I clean out the bathroom, since she got brown goo all over the walls in her quest to get clean hands. I sweep the floor, since Joshua discovered what it feels like to smoosh graham crackers with his toes. Whoopee! Thank you, Matt for giving me two such sweet pumpkins.

Happy Valentines Day to you in Seattle, love. Kisses from all of us. I wish you a cold glass of milk poured down your back while you are fast asleep, just so you can feel included in our special Valentine's Day. :-)

Trampoline?

Joshua is getting more into trying out this potty thing. He dragged his potty up onto the ottoman, I guess the principle being that higher is better? and used it there completely of his own volition. His latest favorite spot is the trampoline. You'd think that would be, well, a bit messy, but he waits to bounce later. THank goodness!

He kept himself busy today while Sam and I worked on her 100 words project. Sam has to put 100 words on something, so I suggested a windsock. Josh kept himself busy by putting scissors to paper, then ripping it by hand. He shows it to me and says, "Mommy, see my homework! I cut paper!" I tell him how wonderful, and he goes off to shred even more paper into even tinier pieces which end up on the floor. He must have thought it looked good, because he took all of Sam's school papers and threw those on the floor too. and the pencils. and the scissors. and the tape, the sticky, not on the roll tape. Oh, Joshua has a special folder I gave him for his 'homework.' He ran after daddy last night yelling, "daddy look at homework, this is my homework, daddy!" He is a very proud boy, as he should be. Not every 2 year old has his very own homework folder (full of shredded paper). Did I find a few other messes today thanks to Joshua? Oh, yes. I should preface this by saying that I am aware I am sounding testy. I have just cause. I got a new keypad put into my laptop yesterday because Josh ripped out ten of them and I couldn't put them all back. 10 hours later, my brand new keypad had three keys ripped out (just function keys, but still!). and I can't just pop the keys back into this new keypad. Oh no. This is progress! Dell wants to charge you for a whole new keypad when a toddler rips off keys! I did shut the laptop, but he must have figured out how to open it. So today, wander upstairs after crawling around on hands and knees on the dining room floor cleaning things up, and find the hallway outside his room covered with bits of legos and his sleeping bag and well, a few chocolate cake crumbs. We made chocolate cake this afternoon during the snowstorm, and the two little imps ate almost all of it and what they didn't eat, they turned into crumbs. It was like having Hansel and Gretel and my house was the forest! crumb trails everywhere and two wired children. Matt got them to clean up the hallway, what he didn't get to on his own. I am off to some well deserved rest.

Big Daddy

Matt won't tell you this, but I think this is one of the sweetest Dads around. He gets up every morning, no matter how late he worked the night before, and gets Sam up. This can be worth your life, some mornings, because she can be a wee bit cranky at being told what to do. But he braves the wind and wakes her. Then he asks her what she wants for breakfast, goes down, feeds the dogs, lets them out, makes the breakfast for Sam, gets her lunch made. He asks Sam what she wants for lunch. He makes them in little wraps, gives her exactly the right amount and kind of spread on the sandwich, and the right kind of snack that fits what is acceptable to the teacher and to her peer group. This is a tricky balancing act that he manages with apparent ease. He takes her to school and brings her into the cafeteria to drop her off every day, knowing what she is supposed to wear and what exactly she is doing that day. He is the modern dad! She has no idea that this is unique, and pretty much takes incredibly thoughtful parenting for granted, which is exactly the way Matt wants it. Alright, wait for it. Aaaahhh, so cute. :-)

Tempus Fugit

I can't quite believe it's been seven years since Samantha was born, but there it is. Seven years ago today (yesterday, I suppose, since it's after midnight when I'm writing this) we got up early and drove to the hospital. I never stopped to reflect on how unusual it is to know exactly what day and time your child is going to be born.

Seven years ago today (yesterday) this tiny little thing entered the world, and I experienced that moment that I think many parents go through, when you hold your kid for the first time and you literally cannot remember life before this person was part of it, even though life before this person was part of it was all of about 15 minutes ago. It's a very strange feeling, but when I've described it to other parents most of them say "Yeah, that moment. I had that too." And now this tiny person is already well on the way to having her own life. She has her own friends, her own interests, her own social circle that we're not part of and know relatively little about. But at the same time she's more attached to us than she'd be willing to let on unless she's exhausted or upset about something, when all she wants is to sleep in our bed.

Seven must be a hard age, caught between wanting to be with your parents and wanting to be anywhere but with your parents.

Since her birthday came on a Saturday this year we were able to have her party on her actual birthday, which doesn't usually happen. We rented out part of Sacco's Bowl Haven, a candlepin bowling alley in Somerville, for a couple of hours and brought in snacks and fruit, juice boxes, coffee, far too much pizza, birthday cake, ice cream, and whatnot. So the kids -- all 28 of them, plus parents -- bowled and snacked and bowled and ate pizza and bowled and had cake and bowled some more.

There's nothing quite like 28 screaming children hurling candlepin bowling balls down the lanes with as much force as they can muster (which isn't all that much) and absolutely no sense of aim. I'd be surprised if the whole bunch of them knocked down 50 pins between them in the two hours we were there. But that's not important. They all had a great time, Joshua enthralled several of the 6 and 7 year old girls who just love to pick him up and hug him and look after him (and he revels in the attention), and Samantha had a very good birthday.