Bedtime Bargaining

Helen has decided that rather than being left to fall to sleep on her own these days, she would prefer someone lay down on the floor beside her. (In the bed is not an option since she sleeps in a toddler bed.) In theory, this is not a big deal, because it probably wouldn't take long. In practice, it's a huge deal to me because the request takes place during the time of day when I am trying to turn my last gasp of energy for the day into a project around the house. And of course, sometimes the act of lying there just encourages her to stay awake longer so she can keep checking on whether I am there or not.

She's lately added this little line to her "please lie down next to me".

"You can have the pink baby if you sleep with me."

This represents a true sacrifice, since she sleeps with pink baby every night. And actually, if I took her up on the bargain, she definitely wouldn't fall asleep because she'd be so anxious waiting to see if I would give beloved pink baby back.

Elaine

The Underview: thought for the day

I like my friend's framing of the support issue, so I reprint his post in its entirety. And can I just add, oh the apologies I'll be giving to my children when they inherit a system even more broken than the one I inherited from generations before me.

Relief from poverty, financial support, debt forgiveness, microloans, work programs, and the like are not "charity" or "handouts." Those terms connote that nothing was earned in exchange. Government-mediated material support is a return on the surplus value generated from generations of work --paid and unpaid-- from American workers: laborers, immigrants, the indentured, low-wage workers yesterday and today, all of whose labor generated trillions of dollars in uncompensated value to the success stories used as advertising for the American Dream. That's why we all deserve health coverage. It's why we deserve decent shelter, and a chance to keep houses we may be in danger of losing. It's why food, health care, shelter and education are human rights rather than crumbs of privilege. Ultimately, it will be our right to demand those social goods and acquire them by all available and ethical means. Because we're not talking about stealing or getting something for nothing. We're talking about getting what's rightfully ours.

The two year photos are in

Helen's two year photos, taken by local photographer Liz Vance are in. Click here to see them.

Not sick, but awfully cute!

I would enroll Helen in acting school, but it might only serve to diminish her natural talent. Lucky for Helen, she's cute. And cuteness counts at 11:30 PM when a little person glares at me and claims my pillow as her own.

The Verdict Is Out

Helen might have gotten her first ear infection - or she might be putting on the best performance a 2 year old has ever given. Last night, at about 11:00, she was whimpering a little bit in bed, so I went upstairs to check on her. In response to the question "does something hurt?" she responded "my ear" and she tugged at it a little bit. She then nursed for a while but didn't seem to want to get back in her bed (bad dream, maybe?), so I told her I would take her downstairs for some Tylenol and she could sleep in my bed. The sleeping in my bed part excited her. The taking Tylenol part did not. Strangely, after Helen took quite a lot of medicine fairly willingly through the reflux days, she hates taking medicine now. Ed and I gave her the Tylenol, and she slept on Ed's chest.

I finished taking care of a few things and went to bed myself at 11:30. Helen woke up when I came to bed and she sat up and happily exclaimed "My ear doesn't hurt" and then she dropped onto my pillow, glared at me and said "this MY pillow". I wasn't about to get in an argument about the fact that she was in my bed so it was most certainly not her pillow, though I did reach to the floor to pick up another pillow I could use. Perhaps sensing she might be treading on thin ice, she patted the pillow telling me "but we can share". She slept the entire night with barely a wiggle.

This morning, she volunteered that her ear did not hurt and noted that she did NOT need medicine. I then told her that we could go see Dr. Barakat if her ear hurt and he could give her different medicine. At this, she perked up a little and then said "I need to go see Dr. Bear-Cat and get a bouncy ball. My ear hurts again." Dr. Barakat's office contains a bouncy ball dispenser that Helen and Connor both adore.

So now I'm left wondering - does the ear hurt or not? Is she telling the truth when she says it doesn't hurt, or is she merely trying to avoid medicine? Or, is she telling the truth when she says it does hurt and she needs to get a bouncy ball?

If someone has the Helen instruction manual, please send it my way.

Elaine

Puerto Rico Wrap-Up

Puerto Rico was, in a word, easy. We took a direct flight from Washington to Puerto Rico, no passports were needed (avoiding the whole issue of needing to get Helen's Social Security card fixed), and it was more of a "sit around" vacation than a "pack everything in" vacation. It provided a great first non-ski, non-summer vacation for the kids, and will hopefully be the first of many such vacations. No, I'm not ready to take them on my dream vacation to Peru, but I just might start pricing a trip down the Rhine to be taken a couple of years from now.

When we went to sleep at night, we could hear the ocean lapping at the shore in the background, and when we woke to the same shythmic beat. The waves were easily manageable, and we could walk out pretty far without getting in very deep.

The View From Our Condo

And while I could've sat and stared at the beach all week long, Connor busied himself with finding fallen coconuts and then burying them in hopes that we could find them next time we came to visit. The funny thing? When I talked to a parent from Connor's school who had won the Puerto Rico trip in the school's silent auction the year before, he told me his daughters performed the same coconut exercise when they visited the island. The hunting and gathering instincts run deep, I guess.

The bioluminscent bays in Fajardo made for interesting sightseeing - and though I was unable to capture the glowing water on film (needed to make sure no passengers were making their escape), I did snap this photo of the mangrove trees. Mind you, the only light around us was the light the boat turned on to navigate the waters, so it was very dark. Roots from mangrove trees surrounded us until we made it to the open waters on the other side of the passageway. This would make a great place for daytime exploration - if we were allowed to tramp through it. In years past, swimming was allowed, but not so for our group.

The Mangrove Trees

When we set out on our Puerto Rican adventure, Connor and Helen wanted to catch lizards. They even told me many times that they were going to catch lizards with Grandma, though my mother informed me that if this came up, she would tell Helen that lizard hunting was for boys! As it turns out, we spotted many lizards - but those critters are fast!

That lizard was so close to toast!

The lizards even provided a great reminder that Connor and Helen absort a tremendous amount of language passively. I remarked about a funky blue lizard we saw, and from then on, whenever Connor mentioned the blue lizard, it was the "funky blue lizard".

If you're looking for a nice beach destination for children - I recommend Puerto Rico!

Elaine

Cinnamon Roll Day, Saved!

In our house, we bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast every Thursday. Helen often gobbles up a scrambled egg with hers. A week before we left for Puerto Rico, our oven broke. The broiler worked fine, but the regular igniter thingy no longer did its thing. Ed tried to salvage Cinnamon Roll Day that week by turning the broiler on, moving one shelf of the oven to its very lowest setting (where he would place the pan of rolls), and putting the pizza stone on the top shelf of the oven to try and diffuse the heat being let off by the broiler. Clever, eh?

The results? Not so inspiring.

The next day, the part Ed needed to fix the oven arrived, but it was a little complicated to install, so it had to wait until we returned from vacation. We hobbled through dinners at the beginning of the week with no oven, but on Wednesday night, Ed and Helen decided it was time to get down to business, lest the fiasco of two weeks ago repeat itself.

They worked diligently for a few minutes until Helen gave up and decided to join Connor and me upstairs for some pre-bedtime books. Ed kept working, breaking only to join us for nighttime verse. After nursing Helen to sleep, I came downstairs and Ed admitted the superiority of my tiny fingers and begged me asked for assistance. I used my freakishly small superior fingers to get the final screws in the new piece and voila!



Yesterday morning we had cinnamon rolls - or swimmin' rolls as Helen refers to them!

I hate pigeons

Seriously. But like many things I hate (swamp crickets, snakes, and other creepy outdoor things), my kids love them. And while I often regret being the official event photographer of our family because it means that my children could well grow up wondering if I ever enjoyed fun times with them, sometimes I greatly appreciate the excuse to not touch some vile object that fascinates Connor or Helen.

While in Old San Juan, we came upon a square full of pigeons. Connor and Helen got right in on the business of admiring them, and we tried to give them a few goldfish crackers that I had in my bag.



But it turns out, these pigeons like ground up corn, and there was some young Puerto Rican boys who had this prized food, and they generously shared with both Connor and Helen so that the two of them could have the good fortune of having the birds come right up to them.

Helen v. Luna

My dad snapped this photo of Helen as she protested something egregious like, being told to follow me. Or being asked to walk a few feet without being carried. Or, maybe even finding out that we weren't going to do exactly what she wanted the way she wanted to do it. I just can't recall the crime right now, or perhaps I don't want to record it here in case Social Services ever starts an investigation.

When my dad snapped the photo, he thought he captured a unique moment in her life, rather than merely recording something I see daily. When Ed asked to see the photo, I quipped "I assure you, you have seen it a thousand times".

All I'll say now is "I told you she was stubborn!". The best part is, when Helen assumes this pose, she will occasionally give a sideways glance to make certain she still has an appropriate audience. Sometimes, she accompanies the arm fold with a little pivot on her heel so her back squares with my front - but that makes the audience peek a little more awkward.



For those who know Miss Lunalicious, you decide who you'd rather tango with!

Elaine

Eggheads

For a long time, we've known Connor was a bit of a dork. What, with his love of reading, the way he practically memorizes every road we go on, remembers stores he's only been into once, etc. We thought though, that Helen would be different. Not so. She sleeps with a bazillion things each night - and what do I find her clutching regularly when I tuck her in before I go to bed?

A book.