1.  I found a source for palm sugar (jaggery) to use in cooking and to sweeten my morning chai.  I’m tempted to just slather the stuff on everything from toast to pork chops, because I love it so, but (so far) I am holding firm against temptation. I also found a source for canned tomatillos, but I’ve had no desire to eat those out of the can on a spoon. (thank goodness! That would be kind of gross!)

2.  The Boy had the baby pretty much all day yesterday.  He took him to Gymboree, then after his nap, they went to a track meet at the Boy’s high school–I had HOURS yesterday that were baby-free, and while I did get a shitload of projects completed, I have to admit that I missed my boys so much that it might be a while before I take another voluntary day off.

3.  Turkey soup for dinner tonight and I’m not making it!  WOOHOO for a husband who cooks!

4.  My asparagus plants are putting up wee little asparagus shoots.  Very adorable, and I can’t wait for next year (or the year after! Ack! How will I wait so long!) until I can start harvesting!

5.  I rode the stationary bike today while the Boy took Hen to the grocery store to buy fixings for his soup.  Wow–I feel really good, and like I need to make time for actual physical exercise more often…

1.  Another rough night.  Can we please be done with the head-cold that scares the baby so much? Please? I just. want. to sleep. in my own bed…

I know, “Quit yer whining, Sprogblogger! It was worse when he was a newborn! You’ll be sleepless when he’s 16 and driving the car, for a much scarier reason!”  Yeah, whatevs.  I’m tired, I’m operating on a way-too-large sleep deficit, and I’m ready for things to get back to normal now.  Right now.

2.  Towards that end, I have replaced the blackout curtains that we’d removed, hoping to wean him away from “everything must be pitch black dark in order to sleep”.  Screw it.  Pitch black dark is easy.

3.  Moved a file cabinet down one set of stairs & across the house & up another set of stairs into my office in the library.  My office that’s been awash in papers-to-be-filed since we moved in here last May.  Quite the relief having that chore done.  I even had time to file all the (well, ok, most of the) papers.  Wow, what a pretty office I have!

4.  Planning a trip down to the city for next week and am already really looking forward to it–stepdaughters, parents-in-law, sisters-in-law, etc.  Our schedule is filling up already with much eating at good restaurants and buying staples at Brooklyn stores (canned tomatillos, NH-people! Why can’t anyone sell canned tomatillos here? Or good ravioli!)

5.  It’s been almost 2 hours and the cranky-boy is still asleep.  Small favors.  Yawn.  Going to go take a nap.

1. Spent the night in Hen’s room, and although I didn’t get as much sleep as I might have in my own room, I think it made a difference for him–not only does his cough sound better, but from the moment he woke up (at 5:30am, mind you!) and saw me there, he was in a great mood today, which made the whole crummy sleep thing easier.

2. Crazy owl sounds right outside my window–like if an owl mated with a hyena, this would be the preferred lullaby of their offspring. I’ve heard it a few nights now and really must learn what bird this is…

3. Henry’s branching out and attempting multisyllabic words. Like ‘strawberry’ (tawbaw) and ‘vegetable’ (tehbuh). Granted, you’d have to know what he’s saying in order to, um, know what he’s saying, but he’s making the effort ( and is so very proud of himself! )

4. Naps in the middle of a very tired day. Yay for naps.

And for homemade chicken soup for dinner. I do not like yer basic chicken noodle. Never have. But a chicken soup made with carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, parsley, onion, garlic, wine, and potatoes? Yeah that works.

5. Thank you, Michelle, for the Potty Time recommendation! Henry’s been rather interested in all things potty-related for a few weeks now and has gotten quite good at telling us when he’s about to go, and just after he’s gone; although he’s less-than-excited about just hanging out on the potty. We’ve been letting him do whatever he wants–he’s a bit young for toilet training just yet, though I certainly wouldn’t object if he decided to be as early with housebreaking as he was with teething. But the patience to sit on the pot has been the missing ingredient, which-I get. He’s a busy kid–far too busy to sit around waiting for something that might or might not happen-right?

Well Miss Rachel is changing THAT attitude, let me tell you. He spent a good 5 minutes sitting (unproductively, but still…) on his potty this afternoon. And when we’re out, he’s always been very happy to tell me he wants to go home and eat, or home and play. But now he tells me very seriously that he wants to go home because home is where we make poopoo. Also, it’s where Mama cleans (him up afterwards). Both things that are good to know, though I dare say the other patrons at Target could have done without those bits of insight into how we spend our days.

(And, BTW, when did I become that mother?. You know, the one who thinks her kid’s excrement is cute? Sigh. I used to be interesting. Sorry. )

1.  I just got the baby back down for a nap.  It’s been a rough 24 hours at Chez Sprogblogger, with snotty noses generally mucking up our best attempts at sleep (not to mention the sheets we’re trying to sleep upon.)  And since I’m incapable of not going in to Hen when he awakens scared because he had to snuffle a breath through a noseful of snot, I–though snot-free, myself–feel like I’m the sickest of us all.  Oh yawn, I’m tired.

But, I was able to go up and soothe Hen back to sleep after he woke up at an hour & a half into his nap–which means he really needs the sleep.  On a normal day, he’d've woken up for good.  But there is something very wonderful about being able to soothe him just by being there with him.  I had to shift him off my shoulder into the crook of my arm, and he cracked open his eyes, saw me looking at him and fell back to sleep, mid-smile.  My heart, it melts.

2.  Planted strawberries that were on a half-price sale at Home Depot.  Life is good, and will -  in another 2 months – be filled with strawberries.

3.  Made a beef kofta (meatball) curry last night that was pretty darned good.  Since this was the third recipe from a lovely cookbook The Boy gave me for Christmas called, 500 Curries.  If it hadn’t been good, the book was destined to be removed from my kitchen.  But it was yummy, so now I have 496 more recipes to try.  Yay.

4.  Llama Llama Red Pajama is an absolutely adorable book.  Been reading it to Hen pretty much non-stop since we took it out from the library.  No more llama-drama!

5.  Henry dearly loves being tickled, so much so that when I’ve done tickling him, he almost always requests ‘Moh’.  This morning, I grabbed him from behind and tickled him, much to his surprised delight.  When his spoken request for more tickling didn’t get him anywhere, he stood up, and walked backwards until he bumped into my hands.  And then said “Tick.  Hohoho!” just in case I wasn’t understanding what he was trying to communicate.

Yeah, with clear instructions like that, I agreed to tickle him til he stopped asking for more.  Pretty darned cute, little guy.  Pretty darned cute.

1.  A good URL friend just got a positive HPT after thinking her last-chance cycle was a bust.  Go on over and wish her the best of luck while you’re there, ok?

2.  Despite last night’s going-to-bed sadness, Henry slept through the night and into the morning.  Later, in fact, than he has been, so I crept in to check on him only to find him playing happily in bed.  I’d like to think next time he sleeps in, I will too, but probably not.  Still–happy he got some sleep, and happy I did, too.

3.  The era of re-reading books ad nauseum has begun.  I think I read the same book 17 times in a row yesterday before he was ready to move on to another one.  Of course, he was preoccupied with making sure bunny got enough to drink, eat, and equal time on the phone.  So it’s possible he didn’t actually hear it the first 16 times it was read.  Oi.

4.  Still drizzly out there, which is a good thing, even if it does make for a boring inside day.  We got our shopping done in record time–mostly because we didn’t have to start & end the trip with a visit to the back 40…

5.  Drinking tea and I’m going to try to get some writing done while he’s down for his nap.  Life is good.

1. We’re getting our first significant rainfall since mud-January. This is a good thing! (the rain, not the long time SINCE the rain). It made a nice change, not watering trees, veggies, or flowers. (but I’m kind of hoping it starts to clear tomorrow so I can go check on everything without getting wet.)

2. I’ve been meaning to make one of my favorite meals- chicken pot pie -for weeks but it’s been too hot and I don’t feel like such a heavy meal andandand the mushrooms I bought two weeks ago were starting to look rather icky.

See above for the reason pot pie was delicious tonight, and the mushrooms were just fine, saving me a trip to the store in the rain. Yay!

3. I’m not sure what exactly is going on with Hen. Upset tummy brought on by the resumed eating of tomatoes? Split pea soup for lunch not agreeing with him? Yesterday’s napping fiasco? Random, unconnected crankiness? I dunno, but it was a rough day, interspersed with moments of wonderful. Been checking on him this evening and he’s sleeping like an angel. Poor little fellow–whatever it is ( and I do hope I can figure it out and help make it better) I hope he gets over it soon!

4. It was a day of puttering in the house. Cleaning out a closet. Taking things up to the attic (and is anyone else freaked out by attics? Basements have always spooked me–I’m from the desert where people build on top of the ground–but I always imagined I’d like having an attic.

Nope. I do not like it one little bit.

5. I’m really enjoying Seanan McGuire’s October Daye books. If you like paranormal series without too much romance/sex, this is a good one–she’s got some truly exquisite bits of writing tucked away in these detective stories!

1. Took a lovely walk with friends today– Henry rode in his stroller and then napped, so he was happy–or at least, he was as happy as a baby who put off taking a nap for far too long, who then slept hard in a too-small stroller could be. We had to cut short our evening a bit, but it was still a wonderful day.

2. Our neighbor, an older lady who’s always out taking care of her yard–seriously, she rocks that riding lawnmower!– told me today how pleased she is that we’ve moved in. She loves seeing this place get used and appreciated, I think. Which was rather nice to hear.

3. I planted peas today. And put together another raised bed and filled two previously assembled beds with soil. And now I am tired and would like to sleep all night through, please.

4. Cool breeze coming in through the open window, and I can hear an owl out there. Saw a woodpecker today, and Henry was transfixed by a vulture hat kept circling overhead. So nice to be in a place where rats and pigeons aren’t the only wildlife…

5. So tired tonight. Which is a nice feeling since I’m already in bed. Zzzzzzzzzz….

1. Today was a day of small joys and small sorrows. Wind gusting damp and playful throughout the day; a new crop of tomato seedlings breaking ground; an then an anniversary from a previous life adding a bit of wistful, rueful depth to an otherwise everyday-day.

2. Fresh sheets are always my favorite night of the week.

3. I think I love the crazed, headlong-rush kisses the best–the ones where he’s hurled himself at me, trusting me to catch him and kiss him back. When I get to witness his happiness, when I’m made to realize how important a part of it i am, it’s all I can do not to beg time to stop right here, because this? This is it : its the place I’ve been trying to get to my whole life. Honestly, people, I’m not sure how parenthood could ever get any nicer than this.

4. We drank a really lovely white wine tonight, a gift from The Boy’s parents, and I suddenly understand why some people get all insane about wine. Not that I’m in any danger of that. Ahem. Since I can’t even remember the name of the really lovely wine..

5. I found the perfect napkins today–I’ve been looking for plain, undyed linen napkins for a while (we’re cloth napkin folks by choice) and have had oddly little success in finding such a thing. But I found them and I’m quite pleased with them and with myself. Yay for the tiny triumphs!

1.  The Boy holds certain biases which I believe are common to all New Yorkers.  The most telling of these is his unwillingness to believe that anyone has ever made a slice of edible pizza outside the 5 boroughs.  Ok, folks, we’re talking bread, tomato sauce and cheese–not rocket science.  But he refuses to even try any of the local pizza joints besides Bertucci’s (Which is good, but almost 40 minutes away. Please. The whole POINT of take out pizza is that it’s convenient.) So I made pizza tonight and although he was not delighted, he conceded that my pizza was quite edible enough to eat again – and then he finished his pizza, convincing me that he really meant it and wasn’t just trying to be nice.  Love it when a meal exceeds expectations! (And it was some darned good pizza, even if I brag on it myself!)

2.  I think all my trees are going to survive transplant.  Whew.  And I found teeny tiny asparagus spear coming up where there should be teeny tiny asparagus spears.  And the rhubarb came back from being viciously mowed over last summer.  And I think tomorrow I’m going to go buy strawberries and put in a bed of berries.  Sadly, however, it looks like my old seeds (2009? 2010?) did not retain really any viability at all, and so my tomato crop might be heavier on the SunGold cherries (new seeds) than any of the ones I REALLY wanted.  (Oh, azoychkas, I am sorry you never got a chance to grow!)  I’ll give them another 5 days before I call them, but it’s not looking good.

3.  We had a fire last night, in the library, and it was really quite lovely.  Yay for a woodstove.

4.  Cardinal outside the window, scolding the chipmunks if I’m not mistaken.  Pretty little birdies.

5.  Henry likes my pizza, too and went to bed with a very full tummy.  This makes me very happy indeed.

You’re sitting next to me on the couch while your beloved Rachel serenades us on Signing Time. Sharing a bowl of pretzels, you lean into my side and now I’m typing this one-handed.

Which is just fine. Hugging you is one of my favorite things these days, whether it’s prompted by a plaintive plea: “Hold?” or a running leap into my arms when you’re dizzy with joy. As much as I hope (& try to make sure) you feel loved, you are such an affectionate little boy that even my greedy little heart feels replete with love in your presence.

This is not necessarily to say that it’s been an easy month. We went to see your Mutti and Granddaddy which was fun but stressful–it took you a while to settle back into our routines and you’re still a bit uneasy when we’ve been away from the house too long. “Home?” you’ll ask. “Car? Home?” Yes, sweetie. We’ll go home soon. “Hen home?” Yes. Hen’s home.

Drawing with pens is a new favorite–so much more dangerous than washable crayons, I suppose. And hats–anyone’s hat, but especially a hat you can try on and then look at yourself wearing in the mirror? Best. Thing. Ever. Your Mutti gave you a fisherman’s cap from a visit she made to Greece when I was a little girl and you love it passionately. You do look mighty fine in hats, kiddo–as you well know.

You’re going up and down steps with much more confidence these days, though you’d still prefer to be carried up and down stairs if I’d let you get away with it.

You give Bunny (and bunnies 2 & 3, and Soft Bunny) sips and nibbles of everything you drink and eat, and lately you’ve been extending your solicitous ways to include feeding me pretzels or porridge, but only once you’ve had enough.

You solemnly read books, garden at my side by digging with my trowel, and help clean the house. You’re talking more easily–’backyard’ popped out of your mouth yesterday and I think you were as startled as I was.

“You are my angel, my darling, my star”. That kind of sums it up, little boy. I don’t know much, but what I do know is this: you and your daddy are the best things to ever happen to me, and despite the tantrums and the daily griefs of your frustration and mine too, having you in my life just keeps getting better and better. I am the luckiest woman in the world.