1.  This made me roar with laughter and thereby almost wake the baby yesterday. Warning–it’s from the Colbert Report, so yes, it’s satire. There’s some political stuff in there, so if you don’t like Colbert/Jon Stewart, you probably won’t like this either. And neither of these guys is particularly reverent, though they’re both smart as smart gets.

And also frikkin’ hilarious.

2. Henry said ‘Cracker’ yesterday. Out of the blue. Which is cool, but also means he’s eating a lot of crackers (or the dog is) because he loves practicing his new word, which gets him SO MUCH ATTENTION from Mama.

3.  Naps continue to be easy, even while the middle-of-the-night wake ups continue.  Small blessings.  At least I know that when 11:15am rolls around, I’ll have a couple of hours of writing time to look forward to.

4.  My sourdough culture hasn’t gone wonky yet.  Smells like SF sourdough, times a zillion, but no nasty smells that would indicate contamination by a local yeast culture.  Woohoo!  Only a few more days of the feed/grow/dilute stage of activation of the dormant culture, and then I can start baking!

5.  Peppermint tea–as well as my new peppermint shampoo, actually.  Something about the smell of mint when it’s cold out just really does it for me.

1.  We are developing a kind of a routine for these 4:30am wakeups.  Oddly enough, it helps make them more bearable. I go in, make sure he’s not unexpectedly poopy or anything, then, instead of holding or rocking him, I just go to his twin bed–his eventual ‘big boy bed’ and I put him between me & the wall, and I tell him it’s time to go back to sleep.  Even if it takes him 20 minutes of flinging himself around, bouncing off me, bouncing off the walls & the pillows, he settles and then sleeps deeply, and when he’s been deeply asleep for 10 minutes or so, I can scoop him up and deposit him back in his crib and seek my own bed again.  Not ideal (because what, really, is ideal about waking up at 4:30?!!) but doable.  And that’s an improvement.

2.  Henry knows the letter ‘O’ when he sees it.  He was having a great time at the library this week, playing with refrigerator magnets.  And we went through the whole alphabet, examining the letters, and of course I told him each one and he tried to say each one with varying degrees of success.  So when I was at Walmart buying proofing box supplies I bought a set (which is missing a Z, much to my dismay.  Seriously, Walmart, how hard is it to get a complete alphabet in an alphabet set, eh? THIS is why I don’t shop there, normally!) and brought it home and Henry helped put it on the refrigerator. I was somewhat distracted, thinking of something else, and wasn’t telling him the letters as we worked.  But then he plucked off the ‘O’ as soon as I put it up, and handed it back to me saying–without any prompting–’O!’  He can also find the A & B, but O is apparently his favorite.  Wow. I realize he’s a way off from reading, but, damn, the kid can read and remember letters.  Woohoo!!!

3.  Brownies. Specifically brownies where all you do is add oil and egg and water. Couldn’t be easier, and awfully darned tasty.  Yum.

4.  The smell of sauteing onions is just the most wonderful smell. My grandmother tells the story that her mother, when she’d been out shopping or gallivanting all day, would hurry home and start a pan of onions frying, regardless of what was for dinner–it made the house smell like she’d been busy in the kitchen all day!  I’ve always loved that story, and I do understand. I wouldn’t mind if my house ALWAYS smelled of frying onions…

5.  Yesterday, I cleaned out the drain in my shower. Ok, I have long fine hair, and I use gloppy conditioner on it every day–which leads to clogged drains no matter how careful I am with drain strainers.   So my shower usually drains slowly.  Finally, mine got so bad that even I knew I had to deal with it. I expected it to be a major project involving drain snakes & tears, but it was pretty straightforward and easy.  Yay for an easy shower drain to clean out, and was it ever nice not standing in soapy water while I bathed this morning!  Woohoo for non-soap-scummy feet–I think I’ll never wait so long again to do the dreaded drain-clean!

1.  Henry (And I!) slept All. Night. Long.

2.  I put him down for his nap while he was still awake and he only cried for about 30 seconds.

3.  We went running around outside in the melty snow and there were no tears (kid’s developing quite a snow-phobia that I’m trying to ease by lots of mini “fun” expeditions into the slushy backyard.  Since going outside mandates the wearing of The Hat, he’s a happy boy up to the moment he falls and his hands land in cold wet stuff.  Now if I can only get him to understand that The Mittens are even more wonderful than The Hat, we’ll be all set.

4.  My handmade proofing box for sourdough is working beautifully & I have a deliciously sour smelling batch of starter bubbling away in it.  Another 24 hours or so and I’ll be ready to start trying bread recipes.  Sourdough is really one of the coolest things ever, and I’d never realized how different breads made from different starters can taste.  I went way out of my way to find & buy a San Francisco sourdough starter, because that  is the sourdough from my childhood.  My dad used to take business trips to SF when I was a kid, and he’d bring back baguettes of sourdough that rocked my bread-lovin’ world.  And all sourdough since then? Not. The. Same.  So, with the magical SF yeast burbling away in my dining room, I’m hoping to recreate that little bit of bready perfection here in New Hampshire.  We’ll see how close I can get!

5.  Planning a trip to see my folks, which is stressful because of all the shit that traveling entails (kennel, rental car, hotel, flights, etc.) but delightful because I’m so looking forward to seeing them & my brother’s family for a few days.  So excited!

1. Apparently sleep regressions at about this age are not uncommon. So at least I can stop racking my brain at 4am wondering what’s keeping him awake tonight.

2. Made a new recipe tonight, and while the boy and I both thought it could do with some perking up, the baby thought it was the most delicious thing ever. Guess that meal just made it into our monthly rotation.

3. I ordered the trees that my darling husband gave me for Christmas. Apples, peaches, cherries, apricots. They’ll be delivered the third week of April. Guess I’d better start digging some holes.

4. An absolutely gorgeous day today. Warm and sunny and last nights rain melted much of the snow. Hadn’t realized I was feeling oppressed by so much gloom and gray, but I guess I was.

5. My husband, who is always very careful of my feelings, but also tends not to say much in the way of “wow, you look smashing,” has commented that I look much the same now as I did before the baby. I’m actually much lighter, (though sadly reproportioned) and while I’ve noticed that I feel like I’m back to my old self, I didn’t think he’d noticed. Seems he did, which makes me quietly very happy.

1.  So good to be home.  Plus yesterday was an IKEA-assemble-fest, which I actually enjoy, so–new furniture, new draperies, new BPA-free plastic containers for storing leftovers.  New gardenia plant survived our absence with all its buds intact, (I love gardenias, but I tend to kill them,) and Henry slept well last night.  All’s right with my world.

2.  Tzatziki.  Fun to eat and fun to spell.

3.  There were actually other children at the library storytime this morning. Including a couple Henry’s met before.  The new kids’ librarian is brand new: she seems very nice, though nervous.  Sadly, despite her enthusiasm, she can’t carry a tune, which is rather a big job liability in the children’s librarian field.  Very few things are more disconcerting than trying to follow someone’s lead on a tune when it’s obvious she has no idea what note she should be singing.  Ah well.  It’s not like Henry was paying any attention to the songs–he just wanted to play with the play kitchen in the corner.

4.  The prospect of clean clothes.  I really appreciate my washing machine on days like this when I feel I should be productive somehow, but am just not up for much.  Doing all the wash will make me feel virtuous with very little effort on my part.

5. Henry has finally decided that hats are not, actually, the work of the devil.  He tolerated his hat all the way to the library (about 3 minutes) and left it on in the building until I deemed he’d warmed up enough. Then when I was putting his coat on to leave, he started looking for it and frantically saying, “Hat! Hat!”  Yay for fleece stocking hats with tigers on them, which are, I guess, the best only hats a boy will wear.

1. Since we opted not to drive 300miles in the snowstorm to get home, I’m glad we neither of us had anything pressing that needed to get done today. It’s boring sitting around and trying to entertain the baby in the basement, but it’s far from dire.

2. On that note, I got to sleep at eight-thirty last night, which came in handy when the baby woke up at four. It might have been during non-traditional hours, but I did get a full night’s sleep.

3. IKEA shopping trip was fun. Boring housewares, but couldn’t resist baby toys. An easel, pots & pans & the most adorable fake food. Sweet little plush mushrooms and tomatoes and grapes. Hen’s been cooking up a storm!

4. My mother-in-law lent us a mini fridge she’s not using. SO nice not having to keep an ice chest full of I’ve so the milk and yogurt won’t go sour. Feels like we’re living in the lap of luxury down here!

5. It’s been a blast taking Hen out for walks. Well, not this morning, because it was snowing hard, and he really dislikes snow. But he loves buses and street sweepers and garbage trucks and taxis and fire engines and yesterday was one of those days where it seemed like we couldn’t go outside without seeing all of those at once. The wee one was in heaven, and I had a lovely time just watching him point-point-POINT!!!! at every single one of ‘em.

Sixteen months, and I feel like I should say something about “my, how the time has flown,” but honestly, it’s hard to really honestly remember a time when you were not the center of everything–if not you you, the at least the idea of you. I will say that I still can’t believe how lucky I am that you’re in my world. Every day that I wake up and you’re there–even if I’m waking up at 3am with your stomach flu!–is the best day ever, the best day yet.

Any worries we once had about your slowness to speak have been assuaged and then some. You talk. You love to talk. And between the words you can say, the words you can sign, and your delight when we ask you questions you can answer with a nod or a head shake, you’re communicating quite nicely these days given how few sounds you’re actually enunciating clearly.

Da-da; Mama; Bampa (grandpa); Ahnna (you’re trying SO hard to say Alie!); Ne-Ne; dog; car; duck; truck; van; tow truck; on; off; roller; arrow; knee; arm; elbow; eyes; hat; bun (bunny); book; burrrrrr (burrito); bean; blue; green; brown; black; bum; dada dada (which you’ve decided means popcorn. Papa-corn?); hot; tea; beh buh (belly button); pen; baaaa (bath); clock; more; done; down; up; bow; Hen; pea; crayon.

I’m sure there are more and I’m just not thinking of them. Obviously you’re still not really doing S,L,W, or any long vowels at all (ooooh, ohhhh, eeeeee, iiiiiii) I’m assuming that once you figure out which combination of breath and tongue movements create the sounds you want that you will be unstoppable. In the meantime I’m enjoying your creativity. Clacking your tongue means “helicopter”, apparently, and your animal sounds are getting impressively realistic and loud.

And your receptive language skills are downright impressive. You know your colors and shapes and body parts and animals, you can follow quite complicated instructions, and you’re clever about signing to clarify things you don’t quite understand. Watching you process the world is incredibly fascinating. There are days when it feels like I’m watching lightbulbs go off over your head all day long.

And you’re developing quite the sense of humor. Besides thinking that ‘pukey’ is the funniest word in the English language, you’ve also learned that it can be fun to play the clown. When you inadvertently sat down on the floor instead of the stairstep you were aiming for and I–just as accidentally–laughed at the look of surprise on your face, you repeated the action five or six times, just to make me laugh.

If you had your way I would do everything with you, be your constant companion and accomplice in petty, grape-stealing crime. And it’s tempting to do just that, even as I know that you have to learn to do some things on your own (like fall asleep! Dear lord, you have to learn to fall asleep on your own!) But this time right now is so sweet, so precious, especially since I know it won’t last forever no matter what I do.

So I let you take my hand and lead me away from my coffee and my unread paper. You show me the place our Christmas tree was. You remind me that you love grapes and Bunny and Daddy and me. You hug me as hard as you can around my legs, trapping me in your embrace, unable to walk away, to get on with the cleaning or the writing or the cooking that I thought I really needed to do. And I realize that, actually, there’s nothing in the world I’d rather be doing, nothing that’s more important than this.

I love you more than Christmas trees, little boy. More than grapes and hot wheel cars. More than clocks that light up. More than cardboard tubes for rolling marbles. I love you more than Bunny. I love you more than anything.

1. Good driving weather for the trip down to NY, and at this time of year it’s a blessing I’m extra cautious of. Also, warmer in Brooklyn than NH–bonus!

2. Syrian food for dinner. Ah! NYC!

3. Big IKEA shopping trip planned for tomorrow. Hello, storage boxes for the matchbox cars that are threatening to take over my life!

4. It sounds like my moms new health insurance is going to kick in and get her the knee repair surgery she needs. Such a relief, as I can’t even imagine the pain she’s been in since the injury happened.

5. Seltzer water. I’m not a fizzy-soda drinker, but every so often I want something bubbly. Seltzer water hits the spot nicely.

1.  Second night of good sleep in a row.  Loving this. Promise not to take it for granted again, at least for, oh, say, two weeks.  Now I need to start weaning him off his bedtime bottle.  How does one do this? Transition to a cup or just cold-turkey the poor little guy?

2.  Thanks to Amazon’s ‘Kindle Deal of the Day’, I learned that the author of one of my favorite oddball books has written a ton of other books I hadn’t heard about.  My to-be-read pile grows ever higher and topple-ier…

3.  Car seat is dry and reassembled.  Yay for running errands this afternoon.  (Which, I know sounds like the least exciting thing in the world, but we both like getting out of the house, and I’m excited to see if I can get the parts I need for a sourdough proofing box so I can start baking.)

4.  Henry had such a good time with his big sister.  He’s still looking for her, wondering where she went.  In fact, her name has replaced ‘Nellie’ and ‘Grandpa’ in the line-up of important names for him.  Glad we get to see her again in a couple of days!

5.  Next week begins our 2-classes-a-week schedule in the great ‘socialize the baby’ project.  Can’t wait to see how many daycare bugs we pick up in the first month of this…

1. Remember me talking about my passionate love for the dishwasher? Would you believe that I had no sooner written that then it stopped draining? YouTube to the rescue! Found troubleshooting info online, pulled it apart and have a working dishwasher again. Yay!

2. The winter has finally arrived and it’s lovely!

3. 3-hour map today. I had a chance to work on some fiction. Wow.

4. We’ve been telling Hen that the sound of the furnace turning on is dragon-breath. He’s been paying close enough attention that he can detect the pre-heat part of the heating cycle before the fan turns on and now runs over to a heating grate so he can feel the hot air when it arrives. Kid’s learning “soon”, “be patient” & “wait”–surely that will balance out any damage from letting him believe we have a tame dragon heating our house?

5. All trace of the sick came out of his car seat cushion. I might have to replace my love for the inconstant dishwasher with my passion for the clothes washer. Modern life is good!