This morning the weather threatened rain so Walker donned his Batman rain gear that Gigi gave him for Christmas. He arrived at the same time as Madeline and while Mommy missed the loving good morning hugs and kisses, I was fast enough with the camera to capture the sweet little lovebird dance.
This morning was not unlike other mornings in that Walker doesn’t like to put on his clothes — even tho he does have the cutest outfits. Larry and I have been able to cultivate a learned response to facilitate getting the little guy to snap to attention and begin doing what we’ve requested. It all started when he refused to get out of the bath once the water drained away. He’d sit in the cold bathroom, covered in bubbles and ignore me as I would implore him to stand up and get out. One day, based on a conversation I had with Malcolm’s mom, I decided I would tell him that I would count to three and if he didn’t get out of the bath, I’d take him out — which of course, involves picking him up like a little boy. He played through 1 — 2 — 2 and a half — three! He was not happy about being treated like a little boy and I gave him the opportunity to climb out himself. The next day, we had the same problem. Again I picked him up and again, he was very upset. The third day, he was playing in the bubbles and I started to count. I didn’t get past 2 before he stood up straight and climbed out saying, “Mommy, I do it my big boy self.” (This is a very common refrain in the house. Everything needs to be done Walker’s big boy self and there is hell to pay if we don’t give him the chance to try something on his own.) We have expanded the counting to all activities in which Walker demonstrates a reticence to comply. It’s developed into kind of a game with him giggling as we get closer to three. Only on very rare occasions do we ever have to treat him like a little Walker and hey, he’s starting to learn about fractions!
Today Walker and I went for a hike while Daddy helped Pop Pop rearrange some furniture at the house. We came across a trail marker and Walker read the pictures to me: red circle, arrow, cowboy and Mommy. Cowboy = horse riding, Mommy = hiking, Arrow = direction and Red Circle = No Smoking. When confronted with a “no smoking” sign, I was thankful that Walker has grown up in a world where he has never seen a cigarette and would have no concept of smoking. I have hope for his generation.
I realized recently that many of the things I take for granted, I must explain to the little human in my charge. In mid-December, it occurred to me that the legend of Santa was not part of our race memory and I must fill his little head with the story to maximize Christmas fun. I seemed to be successful because Sofiya asked Larry to be Santa’s helper and Walker was terribly excited to see Santa visit the school. Not one child, including Walker, noticed Santa appeared only after Larry excused himself to go to the loo!
Santa has Daddy's eyes
Walker continues to amaze us with his memory. A few weeks ago, he saw photos from our Maine trip and he talked to me about playing “Scary Monster”. Today he started singing the theme from “Bob the Builder” but we haven’t seen the show in months. He tells me about stories we haven’t read for a very long time. It’s both exciting and intimidating to watch Walker’s little synapses knit together and to know that everything, (yes everything, even when you think he’s not paying attention) is getting uploaded into his wetware.
It continues to amaze me how much Walker’s speech improves. His mind goes so quickly and he wasn’t able to keep up for awhile, resulting in a little stutter. However, one night, something must have clicked in his head and the stutter all but disappeared and his vocabulary and verbal confidence exploded. “Cool,” “awesome,” and “‘bunga dude” (that being “cowabunga dude” which was introduced by Uncle Thayer), have made their way into Walker’s lexicon. At least “sure! yah” has changed to the more formal “yes.” He’s trying out calling Daddy by his given name of “Yarry” (he finds it hard to pronounce “L”) and is mimicking everything we say. On the off chance we don’t understand what he’s saying, is patient and gracious when his idiot parents ask him to repeat himself a multitude of times or ask him questions. Today he asked for “mayon” which sounds a lot like how he refers to Madeline. As it is Sunday, I figured he couldn’t be speaking of his girlfriend but I inquired whether he was referring to food or a person. “FOOD!” he said loudly. Moments later and a few more times hearing the word, it dawned on me that he wanted MELON but I never would have known had I not known he enjoyed a sweet juicy cantaloupe with his Pop Pop on Saturday.
On the social front, Walker has another female competing for his affections. Violette came to Sofiya’s this Fall and is a month or two younger than Walker. She was immediately smitten. She started following him around all day and that behavior seemed to tip off Madeline that a rival was at hand. One day, Madeline grabbed Walker and gave him a big, huge passionate kiss on the lips. This was witnessed by all the kids as well as Madeline’s mother who was a bit horrified at her daughter’s gumption. The following day, when Madeline sauntered near Walker for some canoodling, Violette, not wanting a repeat of the amorous activities, hauled off and clocked Madeline. The confrontation thankfully ended there (I can’t imagine what form a Toddler Cat Fight might take) and there have been no further incidents but Larry and I are amazed at the effect Walker has on the chicks. (It is worth mentioning that today the nice woman at the Jenner Deli/Gas Station refused payment for his hot dog because she was overwhelmed at Walker’s adorableness. This just proves his charm is not limited to the Toddler cohort.)
Walker and Madeline share a dance at the Christmas party
Larry and I have never been big partiers, and New Year’s Eve has been no exception. Generally we would see the New Year in with a bottle of wine on the beach but the pitch dark, cold beach in the middle of the night would be a bit scary for little Walker. However, I did feel that we needed to mark the occasion in some way with Walker so we conceived of a birthday party for 2010. We made a cake and frosted it with black frosting on the bottom (for the old 2009) and white on the top (for the new 2010) and dumped some sprinkles on top. We made a birthday hat and ordered the traditional birthday / New Year pepperoni pizza. Uncle Thayer came over and joined in the festivities.
Happy Birthday 2010. Walker wishes you a happy New Year (with lots of presents).
We’ve been talking about Thanksgiving and discussing what we’re thankful for. I’m not sure if Walker gets the concept but I’m certainly satisfied with his response. We love Uncle Thayer and appreciate his knack for keeping things silly.
Daddy gave Walker a very special present — his very own gallery. Walker was so terribly excited to see all his creations hanging in his favorite part of the house (he learned to walk, throw, kick a ball, and jump in the hallway). Come on by and Walker will give you a tour of his most recent creations.
Thanksgiving week was terribly hectic. It wasn’t just that we were making soup for dinner or preparing for an extended visit to Pop-Pop’s. We also did a major upgrade to the electrical service to the house so we were without power on Monday until after 10pm (and then only a few rooms had power). We had a lot of fun having a picnic dinner on the floor of the kitchen with candles and reading Walker’s bedtime stories by flashlight. The upgrade was much more complicated than they anticipated given they had to essentially rewire all the connections and we’re terribly pleased they are perfectionists and triple-checked each connection, circuit and switch. Of course they found some old knob and tubing we’ll want to replace and there are some outlets with “reverse polarity and no grounding” which sounds like me after a particularly trying day at work…
Feeling good about the safer electrical situation in the house, we went up to Sea Ranch. Walker loves his family and was extremely excited to play with Pop-Pop and Uncle Thayer. On Thursday morning we got a picnic breakfast and went to Point Arena to watch Uncle Thayer surf. It turned out we watched him contemplate the “junky” waves and whether they were worth the pain and suffering of putting on a cold, damp wetsuit. (The answer was that yes, it was eventually worth it.) Walker was eating a muffin that I had thought was a blueberry bran but after a taste, I think it was closer to a chocolate chip mocha muffin — and may have contributed to the refusal to nap later that afternoon. No nap + holiday excitement = Sleepy Walker eating a popsicle at Dinner.
I’m thankful for all my boys, young and old. I’m thankful for a wonderful home and a good job. And I’m thankful for giggles, bubbles, balloons, tricycle rides, swings, kisses, smiles, and morning snuggles.
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I’m about to run out the door to see my wonderful men but I had a very satisfying web experience today that I thought I should share.
I’ve been in the process getting life insurance, because, well, it’s an adult thing to do. I went through my financial adviser and the process was extremely long and a bit absurd. I spent over 30 minutes on the phone with a rep who asked me questions like, “When you were hospitalized for childbirth, what was the cause of the condition.” I chuckled and I replied something like, “I got knocked up.” After weeks of waiting, I got a quote that seemed like quite a lot.
After speaking to my rock star brother-in-law who is the Chief Underwriter at an insurance company, he directed me to intelliquote.com. This morning I went to the site and answered a few short questions and used a very intuitive and helpful tool for assessing my “risk” category as I’ve got a chronic condition that knocks me out of the “No Way You’ll Die Unless a Piano Falls On You” category. I got quotes from four highly rated institutions and requested an application from one of them. Within three minutes (yes, three minutes), I get a call from a rep following up on the application. A few hours later I got a confirmation of the appointment for the lab tech to come to my office and get my vitals for the underwriting process. It was truly a pleasure planning for my untimely demise and should anyone need to do the same, I suggest they check out www.intelliquote.com. Tell them I sent you.
In other news, my cell phone has mysteriously disappeared and my opinion of human nature is not high at this moment. So if I don’t answer, I’m only ignoring you until I get a replacement phone in the next few days. I’ll be experiencing digital detox in the meantime.
But I can’t post without a bit of Walker news. He dressed himself yesterday. What you can’t see is my attempt at providing a bit of class to outfit with the yellow Ralph Lauren sweater.
I just logged into my Amazon account and saw the following letter from the CEO. I think we can all agree that manufacturers have gone overboard on their packaging — making it impossible to get at the items you purchased as well as disregarding any kind of sustainable packaging. I feel it’s even more of an issue for all those wonderful kids toys we purchase Walker (and the eco-friendly inner hippie in me feels bad enough we’re propagating additional plastic toys for their inevitable extended stay in the city landfill).
So, I applaud Amazon for being customer-focused. (And no, I’m not so naive that I don’t recognize this is a good marketing tactic that differentiates them from their competition but hey, it’s a win/win program.) They could continue to ship products with impossible packaging but they’ve taken their leadership and focused it on something that not only helps the consumer but hopefully will change the way manufacturers present their products. I often feel exhausted just contemplating the work involved in solving some of the bigger problems at work, in society, or across the world. But I’m energized by Amazon’s stand.
Walker has started showing interest in some of the things we do. This morning he decided he wanted to have some coffee with his banana. Of course, we didn’t pump him full of caffeine but we did provide him with a coffee mug full of high-octane (full strength) cranberry juice. He very much enjoyed the morning ritual and it may possibly become part of his daily routine. There were many toasts with Mommy and Daddy accompanied by a jovial “clink” setting Walker up for a wonderful day of frequent peeing.
Walker is terribly interested in decorations — specifically Christmas decorations. Immediately after Halloween he started talking about them. We have no idea how it started but apparently he’s also been pestering Sofiya about Christmas decorations. We’ve been teaching him about holidays and explaining that Thanksgiving comes first. (Sometimes we tell him Turkey comes first.) So he’s now aware that in two weeks it’s “Firstgiving” and then comes “Christmas decorations.” Pop Pop has the Halloween pumpkins, cats and ghosts we made for him on his windows still and Walker made him a turkey to add to the windows. When we go up for “Firstgiving” we’ll be bringing some stuff to make some more seasonally appropriate holiday decorations — perhaps even making a dreidel or two. We may even expand his horizons to make some Hanukkah decorations.
It seems that Walker is starting to identify his emotions. Nick Jr. has little shorts between shows which teach kids about different themes and this month is all about giving thanks. Today Walker was watching the short and turns to Raow sitting next to me, points to him and says, “I’m thankful for you, Raow.” The cat sort of looked at him quizzically and sniffed his yogurt and peanut butter covered finger. I don’t believe Raow understood but I’m sure he hopes Walker would be thankful enough that he might abstain from jumping on him or chasing him around the house with clanging cymbals or bouncing balls.
Earlier this week, Adobe had layoffs and my team was impacted. It was a very difficult day for everyone. I came home and Daddy had a nice glass of red wine waiting for me and Walker had drawn me a very beautiful card. It was so very thoughtful. The next morning, we all started getting ready for work but at one point, Walker came over to me and very seriously looked me in the eye and declared, “Mommy, I so happy.” You know what? I so happy too.
Today is Halloween and as Walker was going to bed he told us that he had a “happy day.” Thank goodness. We’ve been preparing him for Halloween over the last few weeks. We read him stories about the holiday, talked to him about Trick or Treats and put his Batman costume on a few times. (You will note that he is not wearing the Batman costume. He put it on twice for no more than 30 seconds each time — not even long enough for us to get more than a Walker sized Batman smear across the digital photos — despite the fact he talked about being Batman for Halloween.)
Walker has decided the holiday has some scary parts to it. He has us change the channel when the “I don’t like Candy Corn” song comes on TV on Noggin. He gets nervous when it’s dark and talks about monsters (and he talks about the monsters in the back yard during daylight too…) And as mentioned before, he’s not terribly receptive to wearing a costume. So, we’ve taken to making costumes out of things he’s familiar with. Last weekend he went to Boo at the Zoo as a Zookeeper and wore his “Junior Zookeeper” vest (which he wears every time we go to the zoo) but we embellished it with his safari hat and a few Beanie Babies
Today we decided we’d whip up a Construction Worker costume. As I was trying to get him dressed, again trying to convince Walker that wearing underwear and pants is required before venturing outside, he brings in the Batman costume and says, “let’s go Halloween.” Well, OK. That was unexpected. I pick up the costume and he says, “NO! NO!” and then won’t let us remove his Captain Spooky shirt or put anything on over it. So, Walker created his own Pirate Construction Worker and he owned it as he knocked on doors.
For knocking on only a few doors, Walker came home with quite a significant candy stash. We’ve decided to borrow a wonderful tradition a good friend established with his kids — the Switch Witch. She comes on Halloween and takes kids’ candy but leaves a present in return. We sat Walker down and told him all about the history of the Witch and how she would bring him something really nice in exchange for the candy. He was fine with taking out all his candy and choosing the two pieces he could keep (he chose his favorite — lollipops) but when we went out on the deck to leave the bucket, he got very scared and asked to go to bed. (Larry and I told the Switch Witch that Walker would very much like a Thomas the Tank Engine Lego set. We’re hoping that’s what Walker will find under his empty Thomas the Tank Engine candy bucket.)
Despite going to a truly fantastic pumpkin patch last weekend — it had a small choo choo train, pony rides, an amphitheater made of hay with sword-fights and magic shows, and an enormous hay maze with a Minotaur who gives out golden gourds (Walker calls it a “Minotorn”) — we didn’t have a pumpkin. So we bought one at the very last minute and whipped up a bat in five minutes with some black construction paper and toothpicks. Walker loved it.
He had a happy day.
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Cold and Flu
About two weeks ago, I wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t have the flu but when I awoke, I was not eager to jump out of bed. Walker was up and running around and I absentmindely mentioned I was cold. I hear Larry say to Walker, “Yeah, that’s the one.” The next thing I know, I see my small boy walk into his room wrestling a very large red sweatshirt. He’s trying to hold it up as the arms are falling down and threatening to trip him at any moment. He sheepishly walks over and hands me the sweatshirt and I was so surprised. I didn’t recall saying I was cold and I was convinced he was a mind reader. I embarrassed him by how much I was proud of his thoughtfulness. I gave him lots of hugs. The next day he woke up and immediately brought me my sweatshirt.
Barricades and stairs
As mentioned before, Walker has definite opinions about many things. He continues to demand that I wear my hair in a ponytail — even voicing concern that it’s not up from the moment I step out of the shower. He’s also taken to telling Larry and me where we should stand when we play. One day, he wanted us to play in his room but I had to go out and make his breakfast. As I walked toward the door, he quickly shut it and stood in front of it. That was the first of many human barricades he’s taken to creating in order to get his point across.
It’s not just the human barricades we have to maneuver. Walker has two wooden step stools he’s been moving around the house in order to reach the light switches — he must turn on all the lights in the morning because he’s afraid of the dark — or to get on the bed or wash his hands and brush his teeth. The stools are large and heavy and he must move both in tandem which generally means he has one and either Larry or I must move the other and place it on the floor to his exact specifications. While he can step up on both — one is tall and square, the other is short and long — he likes to have them next to each other so he can step up on one to the other. He also likes to stand on them and play ball in the hall. Suffice it to say, Larry and I must do some reconnaissance before turning in at night to ensure we don’t stub toes or trip and break an important bone or two.
Walker is a lucky boy but he’s not the only one who gets to enjoy fun things to eat. I saw a recipe for banana/chocolate cupcakes frosted and decorated to look like monkeys in the November PARENTS magazine. They are so adorable and relatively easy to make. However, I don’t like giving Walker full-size baked goods, especially those loaded with cookies and M&Ms on top (I can’t fathom the mess he’d make eating the treat or the chaos he’d cause hyped up on all that sugar) so I wasn’t sure when I’d have an opportunity to try them out. I didn’t have to wait long. I was reminded that there are number of good friends at work with October birthdays so I jumped at the opportunity to stay up late and bake away. (Is it bad that I went to shopping for refined sugar products rather than go to the gym?) And, they’re not only adorable, they’re tasty too!
Walker is very excited about Daddy’s birthday because Daddy asked me to make him an Elmo cake so we’re going to see how a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting fares when decorated as Elmo. Daddy also indicated to Walker that he will share his birthday (and we’re going to determine what that actually means as we go).
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As I haven’t posted in a few weeks, I’m going to relate a few notable stories and life snippets.
Walker and I went to visit Gigi in Cincinnati. We loved seeing her and Walker was quite a little gentleman as he met all her friends (we’re wondering if he now thinks all eighty year old ladies come with gifts) but of course, the highlight was the two trips to Graeter’s for the BEST ICE CREAM EVER!
Walker was talking a lot about wanting to see a Winnie the Pooh DVD so Gigi took him to the bookstore on Sunday night. The store was closing but they were gracious enough to let us see what they had. As we ran from one end of the store to the other, Walker sprinted by Gigi saying, “Stay right there. I be right back!” Gigi remained still where she stood, shocked by the little guy shouting orders in the dark store. While we weren’t successful finding the right disc that trip, we did end up getting a Winnie the Pooh DVD a few days later. He loved watching his movies on the portable DVD player and given we were on vacation, I will admit he watched a bit more TV than I normally allow. I’m ashamed to admit that he even watched Barney during a bath time or two (we put the DVD player next to the bathtub). He’s quite technically savvy as well. He knows how to change the DVDs both in the portable and regular player as well as how to navigate my iPhone. He’s even successfully bypassed the password screen once. I anticipate we’re in for a lifetime of supplying expensive gadgets.
I also must say that Walker loves to take photos. He takes them with the real camera and the iPhone and he gets so excited when he sees a photo he’s taken. “My JUICE!” or “Look! BARNEY!” And he’s getting much better framing the photos and choosing his subjects. Below are some of his best photos. I find it fascinating to see how he views the world…
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While in Cincinnati, Walker used a small plastic step stool to get into and out of bed, reach the sink to brush his teeth and to simply stand on. Now that we’re back, he’s taken to carrying around his big heavy wooden step stools around to turn off the lights, reach high shelves and help me cook. I love hearing him say, “I need to get my ‘tep (pause) ‘tool.”
We very much enjoyed going to the Cincinnati Zoo, one of the best in the country. Walker was very considerate with helping Gigi get in and out of the tram that took us to different sections of the enormous zoo. However, he did get a bit cranky when I wouldn’t let him sit on a bench by a swarm of bees (one has already buzzed in his ear) so he decided to pout — a little something he’s picked up since being two. My favorite pose is when he turns his back, drops his head, pushes out his bottom lip and crosses his arms across his chest. I couldn’t get that pose on film but you can see the dramatic pouting in the photo above.
Little Mr. Pie has some very strongly held opinions. One of the most notable is his preference about how I wear my hair. A few weeks ago, I was wearing a pony tail and it has started to come loose. I absentmindedly liberated my hair from the band and Walker starts to yell, “No! No! No Mommy!” Coming to full attention, I turn to him and re-coif my hair into the pony tail. Walker applauds, “Yeah Mommy!” He’s also realized his name is longer than just “Walker.” The day I returned from Vegas, he surprised me when I asked him, “What kind of Walker are you?” by replying, “Walker YOUNG!” While he knows that’s his name, he prefers to be called “Walkerpie” (I think it’s because that’s what his girlfriend calls him.) And I must say, I do believe he truly loves Madeline. He often gets on his little fire truck, dons his fire hat and declares, “I re’cue Madeline.” When he’s not rescuing the damsel in distress, he places his treasures under the fire truck seat. This week his special toys are his Bunny (of course); his “guys” (while all the little people he plays with are all called “guys,” what he really wants when he asks “Where are my guys?” he’s inquiring specifically for a tiny police man, robber, and dog from a British-made police car set — it took me a few times to realize there are “guys” and “GUYS”); his flashlight; and his Bouncy Ball (a small yellow ball with a happy face I got him more than a year ago). His Bouncy Ball is the newest favorite toy and I love hearing him ask for it in his adorable sing song-y voice (”Mommy, where is my Bouncy Ball?”) before he goes to bed. Yes, he sleeps with it and he will ask for it in the middle of the night and despite being only half awake, he won’t go back to sleep until he gets it.
Oh. That reminds me, I have to go searching for Bouncy Ball as I promised I’d find it and bring it to him after he fell asleep. He really didn’t want to fall asleep tonight — singing a full rendition of Patty Cake with Bunny on his head after his nightly pre-bed muffin, juice and cheese stick. As he’s got a very good memory these days, I must hold up my end of the bargain. So, given it’s after midnight, I’m I’ll finish these odds and ends at a later time. G’nite.
