Leif has just fallen asleep after a busy day of playing with cousins. He didn’t have a nap today, so he fell asleep in my arms by 7pm –hugely early for him! Jason and I are taking the time to just be still for a quiet moment – a rarity in this house (or any house with kids, I reckon!)
I can’t believe it is Friday already. The week seems like it just started, and here it is, over already.
We dread the weekend like most people dread Monday mornings. It’s odd, really. Most people look forward to the weekend as a time to get away from work and relax a bit, but weekends are a bit different for us. On weekends, we cannot very well apply for jobs, since no one is working to take calls, applications, resumes, questions, etc. On weekends, we can’t expect to hear from employment prospects in regards to the resume we sent to them. So, while others bask in the loveliness of an easy weekend, we generally spend it in a quiet fret, hoping for the best come Monday and itching until it does. To add insult to impatience, the things that we indulge in during the week, like radio talk shows, blogs, etc. are all off for the weekend, and will not return until Monday. Even the bloggers and talk show hosts are out on weekends – everyone, it seems, but us. When I was a working lass, I never thought I could dread weekends the way I do now - I mean, who dreads weekends? But here I am, Friday night is upon me and I am wishing the next two days away. Monday will mean activity and movement toward our goals, but Saturday and Sunday are little more than practice for the big day.
We’ve been keeping busy of late, and not with any one thing, but with a myriad of things. My main thing this week has been baking. I’m not sure why…I’ve never been much of a baker. But this week, I’ve whipped up a Strawberry Cake (and I’ll make another this weekend), two different batches of Lemon Poppyseed Muffins with Lemon Glaze, and One loaf of Banana Nut Bread. That may not seem like much to some, but I made as much in one week as I might have in the whole of last year. I’ve also been cooking up a myriad of different dishes, including a new obsession, Noodle Bowls. Now, you could say I’ve always had a thing for Noodle Bowls, but this week, I’ve taken it to a different level. Noodle Bowls every day for lunch, and if I had it my way (I don’t) I’d have noodle bowls for breakfast and dinner, too. I made up my own recipe, if you can call it that, it is so simple. Every day, I change it up a bit, but keep the base elements the same: Different noodles, different veg, but always the same yummy broth. I, of course, prefer mine vegetarian, but I add chicken for Leif and Jason when we have it. I also whipped up some new recipes: Cheese Ravioli with Sundried Tomato Pesto on a bed of Spinach (101cooksbooks!), Poached Eggs and Hash Browns, Pork Dumplings, and oh…what else? I can’t remember now, but it has been a very cook-y week.
Jason has been out of the house a bunch lately, which, quite frankly, is good. Leif and I miss him (Leif cries up a storm until I distract him), but the more he gets out of the house, the easier of a transition it will be when he does (and he will!) finally get a job. Leif is very into Berenstain Bears Books right now – he has a couple and he just adores them. I did, too, as a kid, and I actually still like them, so it is fun to sit down and read them together. He’s also been building with blocks a lot lately, making little cities for his people to run in, and tracks for trains and trucks.
For the past month or so, he’s been getting very messy with his toys. Instead of playing with them, he’s been dumping them all together in the big block box (which is just for blocks), or putting them in the little baskets (which he calls traps). Eventually, they end up scattered all over the playroom and house, and it is a bit of a nightmare, cleaning up all of those pieces (dozens and dozens!). For a while, we made him clean up or help clean up the pieces, but when we got to doing that 4 – 5 times per day, it was taking up the whole day. So, one day, while he napped, I packed up the majority of his toys, put them in their little individual baskets, and locked them in to the guest room. I even took Rocky the Rocking Horse (he was pulling the yarn hairs out of Rocky’s mane and tail) and put him in there. They’ve been in there for over a week now, and Leif is actually playing with the few toys that are left out (like blocks!) instead of just dumping them from one container to another. I think, in part, the dumping was caused by boredom with his current toys, and too many toys to choose from (although I didn’t put all of them out and rotated them in and out).
So, I really narrowed it down to two or three toys that were good stimulation for him at his age, and the rest went in the guest room. In an even more concerted effort to reduce the number of his toys, I’ve passed on toys he doesn’t really use on to others that might like them. Same with books. Poor kid – I’m decluttering all of his toys away! In an odd twist, he actually seems happier and concentrates better on the toys he does have to play with, which I think is much better for him.
He’s been saying funny things lately, slightly cryptic things. The other day, while snuggling with him (ah, bliss!) he nonchalantly out of the blue said, “You’re not going to have another boy, Momma.” I was a bit taken aback by this random statement that was said in a long period of silence. I asked him what he meant, and he said, “A baby, Momma. You’re not going to have another boy.” I immediately assumed he meant that I was not going to have another boy child, but now I’m wondering if he meant he would always be my “one and only” – as in, my special little boy. I’m not pregnant, and I don’t think I’ve talked about that sort of thing in front of him, aside from asking if he’d like a baby brother or sister, so it was all very strange. No matter what he meant, it was an odd thing for a Two year old to say. Well, I guess he is almost Three – yikes!
Yup, he's wearing a trashbasket on his head.
A few months ago, when we took him to the pediatrician for a check-up, the Dr. asked if he was dressing himself. At the time, he was putting his undies on and off with varying degrees of success, and attempting t-shirts, but I thought she was a bit off her rocker to be asking if he was buttoning shirt buttons, etc. Well, I think he must have heard her, because no sooner do we get home from that appointment and he gets interested in dressing himself. He works hard on buttoning buttons, zipping his pants, putting on his shoes. I’m shocked to see it, because I was pretty sure that that sort of interest didn’t come until much later, like late 3s and 4s.
Well, I guess I was wrong – the Pediatrician wouldn’t have asked it if it were not the norm, and Leif wouldn’t be doing something like that at his age if it weren’t the rightish time to do it. So, in following the Montessorian principle of “follow the child” we encourage him to dress himself, and he can button his shirts with the tiny little buttons quite well. Here I was planning on getting him some dressing frames (wooden frames with big button and button holes to practice, zippered ones to practice zipping, etc) and he is already adept with little practice on the small ones. Just goes to show, whenever you think you know something, the little ones go and prove you quite wrong!
This week was a fun week for Leif because the tree men came and took down at least four trees in our neighbor’s yard, which immediately borders ours. The trees had suffered from an attack of Pine Bark Beetles, like several in our yard had last year. So, out they went. The men brought their trucks in through our yard (and left them there) and chopped down the trees so that they fell with dish-clattering BOOMS in to our yard. Leif spent a good part of the week practically glued to the window, watching them. The big trees crashed so big when they fell that the windows, walls, and even the china in the china cabinet clattered with each fall. It was deliciously exciting for a little guy. I was sad to see them go…I loved the shade and beauty of those pines, but it does open up our view tremendously, so that is nice, too.
So, that is our week in a long drawn-out nutshell. We’re hoping to hear this coming week about some job prospects, so keep your fingers crossed and say some prayers for us! Hope you have a great weekend!
