Never Too Many Kisses!

Miss Moo did the cutest thing today. She and her daddy were sitting on the kitchen floor and she leaned in for a kiss. All of a sudden, if you prompt Mary for a kiss, she will close her eyes, put her face forward, keep her lips straight, and do her best to have her lips touch yours. We all took turns getting kisses from Mary. Garrett was especially forceful with his. He didn't want to wait for Mary to reach him, he just barged in on her. Mary is truly the sweetest baby. I love how she can be both affectionate and assertive. At 15 months, she can really work a room! I can't wait to get more kisses tomorrow!

Mary Has a New Pair of Shoes

Recently Mary has become the recipient of some very fine shoes. She got Mary Jane style tennies from Paul. She got Pink leather shoes and brown leather shoes from Cristina, and she got some butterfly Robbies from Elaina. Mary likes to pull her shoes off in the car. Sometimes she pulls them off at home too. Today she pulled them off and took off with her cute little waddle walk. After a few trips between the dining room and the foyer, she paused to consider her situation: it is 20 degrees outside. We have wood floors and drafty windows. Her toes were cold. She picked up a previously tossed brown shoe and handed it to me and made her "I want" sound. I put on the one shoe and she tried going about her business with just one shoe. Then she returned with a demanding look on her face. She said, "Sock, sock, sock." She wanted the other shoe. Since I couldn't find the other brown shoe, I had to give her a pink one. She seemed satisfied with this and spend the rest of the day wearing two different shoes. The funny thing is that she never tried to take them off, despite her habit of doing so. I think she likes her new style.

Puff the Lying Dragon

Poor Garrett. Today he learned that he cannot fly. He found two plastic butterfly wings among his toys, which are normally used to make a butterfly with playdough. He said, "Mommy, I want these on my shirt right here." I got some tape and affixed the tiny wings to his shirt. When he was satisfied that they were stuck on, he immediately began to flap and hop, as if trying to take off! When nothing happened, he was quite disappointed. He said, "Mommy, I want to fly! Up there!" I had to laugh. I said, "Garrett, little boys can't fly. People can't fly. Birds can fly." He said, "I want to be a bird. Up there!" He pointed to the sky. He tried the flapping and hopping strategy a few more times. Finally, he just sighed. I said, "Here, I'll help you fly a little bit." I put him in a Superman position and flew him around the room. My mom says that I'm going to throw my back out and I won't be able to lift anything at all, including my own person off of the floor. But, I'm willing to risk it. If you saw Garrett trying to fly, you'd risk your own back too! It occurred to me that Garrett may be trying to fly because we've been watching a Puff the Magic Dragon cartoon. Puff flies Jackie Paper up into the clouds. Together they save a star. Puff tells Jackie that he can do all sorts of things if only he uses his imagination and tries. Garrett will probably question Puffs credibility after today.

Hehwoah. My name a Garrett. I 4 years old.

Happy Birthday to Garrett! This morning Chris taught Garrett to say that he is 4 years old. For a while he insisted that he was 3, but after some coaxing, he agreed that he could be four. When I took him to school he said, "Hi guys. I 4 years old. It a birtday and I hab cake today." Garrett brought cupcakes with him to school and shared them with his class during snack time. While he was at school, I went to the party store and got him a bunch of balloons and some Curious George party decorations. Then I went to the grocery store and got him a cake. (I don't bake.) On the way home from school Garrett got angry when I told him that he was 4. He said, "No! I not. I tree years old. My name a Garrett. I tree." Later he announced that he was indeed 4. He discussed having his cake all day long. We finally had cake after dinner and Garrett was thrilled. He was also thrilled with his Curious George party hat. Mary liked wearing her party hat too. Several times I caught Garrett talking to his reflection in the oven door. He said, "Hi. You have a hat. It has Curious George. Okay?" Garrett seemed very intrigued that the hat had a point and it could possibly be used as a spear. He tried to spear me and Mary with his hat.This weekend we will have a real party and we'll give Garrett his birthday presents. Until then, please enjoy this picture of Garrett discussing his hat with himself.

The Eagle Has Landed

I am happy to report that we had two very successful plane trips. We did not leave on Monday, January 15 as planned because of the ice storms occuring through the middle of the country at that time. In fact, I had the kids, up, dressed, and at the check-in counter at 6 am before I knew that my second flight had been cancelled. Thankfully, I was able to change my plans for Tuesday, which was a much better travel day for airports around the country. We arrived with no major problems. Garrett and Mary slept for the first flight and were mostly cooperative on the second flight.

I do have one story to relate that mothers everywhere will sympathize with. I sat on the isle with Mary in my lap. Garrett sat in the middle seat next to us. A man who raised four children sat at the window. This man should have been the only person with whom I needed to concern myself, except for the person in the middle seat ahead of Garrett who suffered some minor seat kicking and tray table abuse. But, I failed to consider that I should psychologically profile the woman on the isle opposite me. We have all met a woman like this: the world's grandmother. She has 4 kids of her own and they each have 2-5 kids of their own and she is the matriarch of them all. She has a wallet full of pictures, a pendant that holds the birthstone of everyone in her bloodline, and she knows EVERYTHING about babies. ALL babies love her. She is the baby whisperer and we should all be thrilled to pass her our babies to get a little sugar and a daily dose of grandmamma elixer. After sitting on the plane for five minutes, I realized I had made a grave error in putting Garrett in the middle and allowing Mary to be in reach of the talons of this woman. She would say, "Oh, honey, what a beautiful baby. I know I have 10 grandbabies. They are all wonderful and love their grandmamma. You want a break? you give that baby to me. She'll be happy." "Oh, thanks," I'd say politely. "Uhm. She's actually a good traveler. I think she'll be fine." She'd insist: "Honey, it's okay. Really. I know about babies, and I know about mommies, too, huh. I know the mommy needs to rest. That baby will be happy over here. " I'm thinking to myself: how can I get this woman to back off without offending her? I swear to you, there were at least 3 occasions on this plane where you could see Mary stradled in the isle with Super Grandmama holding on to one arm, and me desperately clinging to the other. Fortunately for me, Mary is good at looking distressed and gave this lady the sidelong glance long enough to assure her that Mommy's lap is the only one for her. At one point Garrett said he had to go potty and I had to think quickly about my strategy of keeping Mary in my arms. Super Grandmama had her radar up because she immediately said, "Oh, you leave that baby with me and take the boy to the bathroom." I said, "Oh, gee, thanks for the offer, but she needs her diaper changed as well." Phew, that ought to do it. Nope. Grandmama said, "You know what? We do it right here! You and I. We can do it." I tried to imagine Mary spread eagle across the isle while this lady assisted me with a diaper change. I said, "Oh, really, you don't want to have to deal with that! They have a tray table in the bathroom. We'll be fine. Garrett, get up! Let's go." The third and final attempt that Super Grandmama made to show me what a warrior grandma she is will probably make her think twice about touching someone's baby uninvited again. She wanted to rub Mary's belly and give her a little back scratch. Now, if she had warned me that Mary was in for a body search, I would have warned her that Mary is being treated for ring worm. Before I can say, "You really shouldn't..., " Super Grandmama reaches under the back of Mary's shirt to scratch her back. She said, "Oh, you like that, don't you sweetheart. Yes, I know how to make the babies feel good.... what's this?" As annoyed as I was with this woman, I didn't have the heart to tell her that she had just scrapped fungus under her fingernails. I said, "Oh, just an allergic reaction to the tag in her shirt. She's so sensitive." She gave me a half smile, and said, "I'm not so sure... okay well, you feel better now huh, sweetheart?" After that I didn't have any more trouble with her.

We finally got to Oakland and, as Elaina related, we had a terrible time getting Garrett to use the bathroom. Elaina wasn't there for my first attempt at getting Garrett to use an automatic flushing toilet. The handicapped stall was not available, so I had to position my double stroller (with Mary in it) outside of a small stall and coach Garrett through the potty session with the door open! Naturally, he wanted me to go first to prove to him (and in this case the rest of the bathroom goers) that the toilet wouldn't swallow us whole. I have to draw the line somewhere. I refused to demonstrate with the door open. I told him, Mommy doesn't have to go. It's Garrett's turn. You'll be fine. Let's just go standing up! He wouldn't even do that. I begged, pleaded, assured, and promised chocolate shakes. He wouldn't do it. So we proceed over to baggage claim and looked for Elaina. Garrett waddled next to me and Mary because he was trying not to pee. Elaina took him on her own while I waited for the bags and he STILL wouldn't go. Then we all went to the bathroom. I want you to picture Me, Elaina, a double stroller, and one of those rent-a-carts piled high with luggage, all filing into the bathroom. We took up most of the bathroom! Then I had to go into a small stall with Garrett, show him how it's done, let him annouce to the bathroom guests that "Mommy did it!!", beg him to try again, and then cheer wildly as he finally peed!

The trip back was much less eventful. We sat in the bulkhead. We had the whole row to ourselves. We sat across from a sleeping student with an IPOD. Mary was cheerful and said, Hi!" to everyone. We got leftover fresh baked cookies from First Class. The Gods were smiling on me. I thanked them over and over.

Tomorrow I'll write about some of our California experiences, featuring Garrett's trip to "Target" and Mary's trips around the "world."

Ready. Set. Fly.

On Monday Garrett, Mary, and I leave for California. We will be there for two weeks. This weekend we are laying low because we need to prepare for our trip and there are big ice storms moving through the Midwest. In fact, the ice storms are moving directly through my travel path. We fly from Champaign to Dallas on an itty bitty plane, and then from Dallas to Oakland on a bigger plane. I have been unusually calm about the idea that I will be managing Moo and Mo on my own on the plane, despite the fact that I know Mary won't sit still (insisting that the tray table, call button, and seat belts are her personal play things) and Garrett will have to go potty 3 times and will be afraid of the weird looking toilet on the plane. He will want me to go first to prove that the potty does not, in fact, swallow you whole when you use it. The potty dilemma means several terrible things are possible: a) a kind stranger will have to hold Mary while I inspire Garrett to make contact with the potty, b) it will take an unbearably long time to complete the potty process and Mary will have ample opportunity to rip the ear drums out of the poor soul who is holding her, and c) Garrett will wet his clothes. I know this will happen, and yet, I do not fear. I have been through worse. What I do fear are flight delays. My ability to handle the stress of flying is contingent on knowing the precise moment at which the torture will end. With flight delays, I will not know. We may be stuck on the tarmak as the plane is de-iced. We may not have a gate to occupy when we finally get to Dallas because of the flight backup. We might have to reschedule our flight into Oakland, or be re-routed to SFO. Then, we will sit in 3 hours of traffic as the hard working CalTrans people retrofit the bridge (or something like that). I'll have to go out tomorrow and obtain dehydrated space food in the event that we are forced to survive on 6 peanuts in twice as many hours. In times like these, I thank God for three very important things: Benedryl, hand-held video games, and the mantras passed down to me from my father. The first mantra is "Remember the 3 Cs: Calm, Cool, and Collected." That's me. Calm. Cool. Collected. The second mantra is, "Pins and needles, needles and pins, a happy girl is a girl who grins." There I will be, on the plane, amid the ice, peed on, hungry, and grinning (as visions of California cuisine dance in my head). The people around me might not be grinning, but what can I do about that?

Anyway, I may not have the opportunity to make a blog entry for a week or so. Until then, you will all have to wonder how we fared on the plane.

Hooray for Miss Moo!

This evening, out of nowhere, Mary stood up off of the bottom stair and started walking. Not one step, then a fall. Not two steps, then a fall. Not three steps, then a fall. Mary stood up and crossed the room! She was saying, "Eeeeee" the whole time. She was so pleased with herself. Garrett and I were clapping wildly and cheering her on, which she loved. Then her daddy got home and she crawled over to him as quickly as possible for her hugs and kisses. After she had her fill of hugs and kisses, Chris set her down and she took off walking again. She put on quite a show for her daddy. I think tonight Mary will be running through fields of digital equipment in her dreams. Congratulations on your big achievement, Miss Moo!