Many Things
Bedtime was an utter mess here - but the day itself was actually really good. Charlie ended up having two killer naps - 2-1/2 hours this morning, and another hour-long nap in the car after we ran lunchtime errands. Not exactly something he's done in a while - but he's had something of a cold the last couple of days, and a (small) fever on Sunday. Plus he woke up at 5am this morning in a terrible mood and couldn't get back down, and fussed and cried for a while.
Which no doubt messed up bedtime, because Andrew heard the crying and woke up early, and he's been getting bed late for the last week solid, and he was so overtired that he was already bursting into tears over silly things before dinner.
I tell you, parenthood is fun, and don't let anyone ever tell you different.
In other news:
1. Andrew and I went to Busch Gardens on Sunday, and he did his first real roller coaster. (Loch Ness Monster.) It was spitting rain when we got there - not heavy by any stretch, but cold and wet. I think that worked to our advantage (also the fact that it was Easter Sunday), because the park was fairly empty. We never waited longer than about 10 minutes for anything - and the longest we waited was that first ride on the roller coaster, which was also the first thing we did when we got there. I could tell Andrew was a bit nervous because he would not let go of my hand for anything, but he said he was okay and he wanted to go and I reminded him that it was okay to change his mind (at least until we got into the car) and if he got scared, to close his eyes. (And he knew what was coming - that we'd go upside-down and into a tunnel for about half a minute, so there were no surprises.) He did great. I could hear him yelling and afterwards he said he liked it, and then later - several hours later, sure - he said he wanted to go again, and this time, he wanted to be in the front car. Lucky for us, the wait was miniscule - we could have gone right away if we'd wanted any other car, and as it was, we only waited for two people ahead of us. And he loved it. I might have sprung for the official picture if he hadn't looked like he was getting whiplash in it.
I'm pretty sure he didn't get whiplash. And we went on the kiddie roller coaster about five times, and a few other things, and he really, really didn't want to leave, but it was near dinner and the fog was rolling in big time, so it was time to go home. And we have passes so we'll go again before we leave, anyway.
Front car, though. I have taught this kid well.
2. Charlie kind of sort of not really wants to walk. He's very good at walking while holding only one of my hands, and he's excellent at cruising around the furniture. He'll stand on his own, unsupported, for about a minute, and he'll even bob up and down without holding onto anything.
But take anything more than a single step when he doesn't have a set of parental arms to fall into? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA no.
He's about half a pound shy of being forward-facing in his carseat. I went ahead and switched his infant carrier to the convertible carseat, so he can get used to it (plus, I think he's a bit too big for the infant carrier to really be comfortable anymore). And I think he really wants to sit forward-facing because Andrew sits forward-facing, and anything Andrew does is preferable. (As is anything Momma eats, until I give him a piece, at which point he takes a bite, makes a face, and then demands that other thing Momma is eating, which is clearly better.)
3. AMAZON PAID ME YESTERDAY. Which is totally exciting, and elicited the following conversation:
Me: Amazon paid me!
Bill: That's great! What are you going to do with it?
Me: ...Go to Disneyland?
Andrew: No, Momma! Don't go to Disneyland! Go to CHICAGO.
I have no idea why he is still obsessed with Chicago, particularly to the point of prefering it over Disneyland. At any rate, there's not enough to actually pay for a trip to Disneyland - or Chicago, for that matter - so it's all moot.
There is, however, enough that I think I will buy myself a nice purse, because my current one is almost older than Andrew and is literally falling to pieces. I have a terrible time justifying spending more than about $30 on a purse, though, so this is going to be a serious test of will.
In the meantime, I've set a date for the next book (April 26), and set up a Goodreads page for it. It seems both far away, and way too soon, but I'm still trying to figure out a workable timeline for this sort of thing - I can't find anything online to recommend timelines for when things should happen that don't involve throwing yourself a launch party, and I am not throwing myself a launch party, because that just seems silly.
4. Next week is Andrew's spring break, so on Saturday afternoon, I am packing up both kids and leaping headfirst into insanity. Insanity defined as driving an hour to the nearest airport, then taking three seperate flights until we get to Arizona and my mom (and dad) on the other end. I have no idea what I was thinking when we made these plans in December. Maybe I was sleep deprived. Anyway, my mother has apparently purchased Charlie an entire wardrobe (20 shirts, 6 pairs of paints, 4 pairs of shorts, and a swimsuit - kid's on his own for pajamas, though) and Andrew has an entire itenerary of things he wants to do while we're there, which is pretty impressive since he hasn't been to Yuma in three years and he still remembers it.
Happily for me, Item 1 on Andrew's list is my favorite ever Mexican restaurant, so I'm going to try to finangle eating there every day. Except for the first day, which as it turns out is the last day of the county fair, which I haven't been to since high school. I'm hoping it's more or less the same as I remember, because Andrew is going to love it. Or some of it, anyway - Sunday is the day they auction off the 4-H and FFA animals, so I'm hoping we get there before most of them have been taken to their final reward.
We'll be there for a week... and then we get to board another set of three planes and come back.
It'll be fine. It'll be fine! It'll be totally fine.
(If I keep saying that, it will come true.)
And that is that for the night. I also woke up at 5am, and unlike Charlie, I didn't take two naps today. (I did have coffee this morning, though.) I'm going to bed, and maybe when I wake up in the morning, it will be Sunday and I'll be in Arizona already.
(Or at least it'll be morning, and Charlie will have slept through the night. That'd be good, too.)
Which no doubt messed up bedtime, because Andrew heard the crying and woke up early, and he's been getting bed late for the last week solid, and he was so overtired that he was already bursting into tears over silly things before dinner.
I tell you, parenthood is fun, and don't let anyone ever tell you different.
In other news:
1. Andrew and I went to Busch Gardens on Sunday, and he did his first real roller coaster. (Loch Ness Monster.) It was spitting rain when we got there - not heavy by any stretch, but cold and wet. I think that worked to our advantage (also the fact that it was Easter Sunday), because the park was fairly empty. We never waited longer than about 10 minutes for anything - and the longest we waited was that first ride on the roller coaster, which was also the first thing we did when we got there. I could tell Andrew was a bit nervous because he would not let go of my hand for anything, but he said he was okay and he wanted to go and I reminded him that it was okay to change his mind (at least until we got into the car) and if he got scared, to close his eyes. (And he knew what was coming - that we'd go upside-down and into a tunnel for about half a minute, so there were no surprises.) He did great. I could hear him yelling and afterwards he said he liked it, and then later - several hours later, sure - he said he wanted to go again, and this time, he wanted to be in the front car. Lucky for us, the wait was miniscule - we could have gone right away if we'd wanted any other car, and as it was, we only waited for two people ahead of us. And he loved it. I might have sprung for the official picture if he hadn't looked like he was getting whiplash in it.
I'm pretty sure he didn't get whiplash. And we went on the kiddie roller coaster about five times, and a few other things, and he really, really didn't want to leave, but it was near dinner and the fog was rolling in big time, so it was time to go home. And we have passes so we'll go again before we leave, anyway.
Front car, though. I have taught this kid well.
2. Charlie kind of sort of not really wants to walk. He's very good at walking while holding only one of my hands, and he's excellent at cruising around the furniture. He'll stand on his own, unsupported, for about a minute, and he'll even bob up and down without holding onto anything.
But take anything more than a single step when he doesn't have a set of parental arms to fall into? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA no.
He's about half a pound shy of being forward-facing in his carseat. I went ahead and switched his infant carrier to the convertible carseat, so he can get used to it (plus, I think he's a bit too big for the infant carrier to really be comfortable anymore). And I think he really wants to sit forward-facing because Andrew sits forward-facing, and anything Andrew does is preferable. (As is anything Momma eats, until I give him a piece, at which point he takes a bite, makes a face, and then demands that other thing Momma is eating, which is clearly better.)
3. AMAZON PAID ME YESTERDAY. Which is totally exciting, and elicited the following conversation:
Me: Amazon paid me!
Bill: That's great! What are you going to do with it?
Me: ...Go to Disneyland?
Andrew: No, Momma! Don't go to Disneyland! Go to CHICAGO.
I have no idea why he is still obsessed with Chicago, particularly to the point of prefering it over Disneyland. At any rate, there's not enough to actually pay for a trip to Disneyland - or Chicago, for that matter - so it's all moot.
There is, however, enough that I think I will buy myself a nice purse, because my current one is almost older than Andrew and is literally falling to pieces. I have a terrible time justifying spending more than about $30 on a purse, though, so this is going to be a serious test of will.
In the meantime, I've set a date for the next book (April 26), and set up a Goodreads page for it. It seems both far away, and way too soon, but I'm still trying to figure out a workable timeline for this sort of thing - I can't find anything online to recommend timelines for when things should happen that don't involve throwing yourself a launch party, and I am not throwing myself a launch party, because that just seems silly.
4. Next week is Andrew's spring break, so on Saturday afternoon, I am packing up both kids and leaping headfirst into insanity. Insanity defined as driving an hour to the nearest airport, then taking three seperate flights until we get to Arizona and my mom (and dad) on the other end. I have no idea what I was thinking when we made these plans in December. Maybe I was sleep deprived. Anyway, my mother has apparently purchased Charlie an entire wardrobe (20 shirts, 6 pairs of paints, 4 pairs of shorts, and a swimsuit - kid's on his own for pajamas, though) and Andrew has an entire itenerary of things he wants to do while we're there, which is pretty impressive since he hasn't been to Yuma in three years and he still remembers it.
Happily for me, Item 1 on Andrew's list is my favorite ever Mexican restaurant, so I'm going to try to finangle eating there every day. Except for the first day, which as it turns out is the last day of the county fair, which I haven't been to since high school. I'm hoping it's more or less the same as I remember, because Andrew is going to love it. Or some of it, anyway - Sunday is the day they auction off the 4-H and FFA animals, so I'm hoping we get there before most of them have been taken to their final reward.
We'll be there for a week... and then we get to board another set of three planes and come back.
It'll be fine. It'll be fine! It'll be totally fine.
(If I keep saying that, it will come true.)
And that is that for the night. I also woke up at 5am, and unlike Charlie, I didn't take two naps today. (I did have coffee this morning, though.) I'm going to bed, and maybe when I wake up in the morning, it will be Sunday and I'll be in Arizona already.
(Or at least it'll be morning, and Charlie will have slept through the night. That'd be good, too.)