Psychotomy

So DK’s nonnie was up recently. Well, sortof.

She came up and stayed with Drummer to get him stuff for his new place, and we were meeting them for dinner downtown Saturday evening. They called us and said they were just going to drive up to where we live (They live in NoVA, so we’d been figuring on central location) so pick something up here. So I figured we’d go to Duclaw’s, since when we took Drummer a couple months ago when he was interviewing he liked it. Problem was they didn’t do reservations after 6 on the weekends :/ And 7 people’s gonna be a wait. Dealt with that by we went up early to put our name on the wait list. Then got seated. And then kept waiting because where we’d picked was “soooo far away!” … Except it’s 10 minutes from our house. Not our fault that they’re coming another 45 minutes up TO our place. I mean, given the difference in roads etc, it was maybe 5 minutes further than driving to our house. Which is how much further it’d've been to come to our house then turn around to go to a restaurant.

I should have gone with IHOP in College Park. I like french toast. DK likes pancakes. The rest of you can choke on it and make your own decisions next time! :p

Anyway, Nonnie came home with us Saturday evening. Dinner was almost at bedtime, so by the time we got home it was PAST bedtime. Sunday morning Nonnie was busy cooking so we could all go down to Drummer’s for “Brunch”. DK ran around some there, played with their dogs and cats (he was surprisingly gentle with the cats since I don’t know that he’s seen cats other than at Drummer’s graduation) and had fun. Then we came home and Kiir and Nonnie went shopping and I took DK for an ice cream cone. OMG! The “kid’s cone” (which is the same sugar cone, just a smaller scoop) had like 2 scoops of icecream, it was HUGE! Bigger than what kiir gets when she gets the regular cone !!! And the boy? He ate 2/3′s of it! OI!

Anyway, he got to spend a … uh … hrrm. After shopping we went to get nonnie’s rental, then dinner where DK and I sat around for a while and he had his dinner on the table before kiir and nonnie got there (rental issues). Then I brought him home for a bath and kiir and Nonnie went shopping at target …

So Nonnie spent ~1hr with him saturday evening and another 1hr sunday evening, plus dinners and playing with him in the car. Brunch she was talking to Drummer and others, shopping DK didn’t really go with them, etc.

K really misses his walks with nonnie. And even DK didn’t get one this time because “walk time” was replaced with “brunch time.” :/

(ed note: I’m told it’s nonnie not nani, so i think i’ve fixed them all now)

Posted in: DK by attriel /
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A few weeks ago (2+?), kiir was exhausted one friday morning, so I took DK down to my parents for the day. That has now spiraled into a once a week outing for him, giving kiir a day of rest each week. plus the weekend when I try to take him for the most part.

The following week she decided she had a cold and was generally feeling meh. Last week DK developed a runny nose and spent a few days being a little ennervated. Not as energetic and kinetic as usual.

Sunday I apparently finally caught the cold from DK. This morning I got an email, it seems my mother caught his cold when he visited on Friday last week.

K ALSO has this cold. I swear, it feels like a flu or something, but it spreads like the freakin’ plague!

Posted in: DK, general by attriel /
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So, Sunday we went to Drummer’s place for brunch (kiir’s brother ; I dub thee drummer!)

Of course, they don’t have kids (they just graduated college and probably not getting married for a year or two, he just found a job a couple weeks ago finally, hard times for his major). So their house is proofed more against their dogs and cats than against kids. Like ours used to be, honestly.

As DK kept running around and picking things up, I’d take them from him and move them up to higher shelves, or steer him away from the bookshelf, etc. He was playing with their Xbox controller, trying to get his games or shows or SOMETHING to come on. He was trying various remotes to change the channel on the laptop which was at eye level (so, lower than a computer is, but not too much lower than the tv at home ; and no one was typing, it must be the tv). Drummer was just laughing whenever DK got into something, and helping me move things up. At one point, they have a wireless mouse with the receiver strung down the bookshelf and taped there. DK kept playing with it and Kiir moved it up, stuck it back on. It fell down, and … uh … I dub thee Kate, because Drummer and Kate sounds good?, anyway she was trying to fix up the tape to put it back up and Drummer took it and cleaned it up and stuck it back down where they kept it. I pointed out that it was up for a reason, and he just said “oh, DK is trying to pull it down?” and moved it to the top of the shelf.

Contrast to some friends of ours, whose house is almost child UNproofed. Small beads and marbles and stones everywhere, candles on every LOW table. Etc. Now , they don’t have kids, so it’s not really surprising that they’re not child-proofed. But whenever we’re over there, they make no effort to move anything, and basiclaly get pissy whenever he plays with something. Oi. We’ve actually started not going to visit them as much, just because instead of hanging out we spend most of our time chasing after DK. And if I’m going to do that, I’d rather it was somewhere that I’m just following him to know where he is and in case he finds something, rather than continually grabbing things from him because he can’t HELP BUT find something.

It’s amazing the dichotomy between the two. I’ve noticed it before, but it just really hit me when we visited drummer’s place this weekend that maybe our other friends really are just that off the track. It’s a wonder no one else’s kids have ever choked there :o

Posted in: DK, general by attriel /
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A week or so ago, DK went to bed, slept for an hour, then woke up screaming his head off with nightmares :( We soothed him, gave him some tylenol in case it was teething pains or growth pains or something, and let him watch some muppets before going back to bed.

Friday night it happened again. About an hour after going to sleep, he woke up screaming and inconsolable. he’d cling to one of us for a while, settle a bit, then start up again and change people. Eventually we got him to calm enough that I took him back to bed.

During the night, he woke up 3 more times screaming briefly. But since I was right there now, he just clutched at me, buried his head in my sternum for few moments and fell back asleep. I on the other hand ended up spending the entire night in a somewhat awkward and uncomfortable position and paid for it all weekend. But I wasn’t going to move him.

Posted in: DK by attriel /
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So

A few weeks ago, our Gymboree Play & Fun (or whatever) location moved. New bigger space, a little more “on the beaten path” (but they might want to put up a sign that people can see when they’re not already in the parking lot, for that part), etc.

But. The old location had kitchen-style cabinets. Upper and lower. It had latches and locks and catches on everything below the counter. Stuff over the counter was unfettered, but if the kids get to that point, it’s all over anyway.

The new place? Not so much with the prepared. I don’t really blame the staff, because from what I understand some of hte issue is due to them having to rely on the building management. But, for instance:

1. The Old location had a small (~2′ wide? less?) openening, and a gate that swung out, and door-stopped and latched. The new location? The opening is 3-4′ wide. And ungated. They’ve been using gym mats. Except that has problems. First of all, none of them are quite big enough to properly block the entrance and support themselves well. Second? Yeah, DK can just walk up and either push or pull them out of his way. Point, DK.
2. Tonight when we went for freeplay, they had the new gate! Except it’s a saloon-style two part swinging door. Double hinged. So it swings out and in. Easily. Apparently it swung back earlier today and whacked a kid in the head (not hard, but I think that was more an issue of how far out the kid was). Doesn’t latch either. Which meant DK could just run at it and through and play in the lobby area. And that swingback? That’s got some force on it. It has a very low oscillation, so it dampens out pretty fast. But that first swing back? Comes back at least as far as you pushed, possibly more. Yeah … Not what I had in mind. Point, DK.
3. The closet where they keep a lot of the toys is a standard dual fan closet door. Actually, DK hasn’t (quite) figured out the secret on those yet. Mostly because the handles are high enough that he has to stand too close to get good leverage. Oh, but the other door? Sliding door. Unlatched. (WTF? What is it with this building and not latching anything?) First day at the new place, DK followed one of the instructors, and learned how to open that door. I have to keep him away from it because it is NO trouble for him . Well oiled track I s’pose. Less oil, more latch!!! Point. DK.
4. The small cabinet they put in themselves, to hold some of the more common toys, and to prop up their CD player. Actually, the first week, DK was changing their CDs for them and switching tracks. They pushed the player to the very back of the top shelf and now it’s at least hard for him to play with it, so no point (because if I give them one for moving it, I have to give him the one for getting to it first anyway).
5. The small cabinet has little magnetic catches. Weak ones. DK was popping that door the first week too. They keep tamborines in there. It only took them maybe two weeks to get one of those standard kitchen latch kidsafe things. The trombone ones. That go through close loop exposed handles. Except the cabinet has low profile knobs. The block on the lock makes it press out from the cabinet so badly that last week the whole thing popped. I put it back together (because my son is the one who likes playing in there, so it’s for my own benefit), except I’ve also noticed two instructors who just pry it off rather than unlatching it. No wonder it popped. I have one of our spares, that will work well on that door, in the car. Point, DK
6. They got a new instructor on Tuesday. And she was, understandably, not quite as pre-prepped as other (old hands) are. So she kept opening the cabinets throughout class. The bifold closet 4 times. The sliding door 3. And DK was watching her. He wants to learn the secrets on that bifold door because (a) they have toys in there, and (b) daddy hasn’t latched all the closets at home yet! Of course, she also would take the toys out and then leave the door open …. OK, she’s putting these toys down, then going back for more or going back to close it when her hands aren’t full or … no, she’s just leaving it. CRAP! DK is running across to play with the stuff! … I kept closing the doors. I hope she gets better, because right now? she’s more of a menace, IMO. Because bifold doors? While he can’t open them (leverage), he can close them (gravity). And he can close them while his hand is in the fold. And that will lead to screaming. And that I do not need. Point. DK.

You’d think that an organization oriented towards 0-5 kids … would know that 0-5 get into things and need locks dammit!

Posted in: DK, general by attriel /
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So. Missed posting yesterday. But I have a good reason:

I fell asleep with DK at 8:30-9pm and apparently wouldn’t wake when kiir tried to prompt me up. bolted upright out of the bed ~11ish because I had a dream where DK was falling down the steps (again ; actually, seriously? you’d think that wouldn’t be a race for the baby situation after the third or fourth time, yaknow?) (but it is)

Decided that I didn’t really feel like getting up and doing anything. Because, lets face it, 11-12 is when I usually go to bed anyway. and if I fully got up, I wasn’t going back down until 3 or something ridiculous like that.

This morning I was almost to the train when kiir called me feeling nauseous, so I turned around and watched DK for the day. Did work while he watched tigger & pooh and word world. In the morning I took him out for a walk with K before gymboree. DK and I were all set and ready for gym, so I figured no worries about taking K for his morning walk. Except when we got to the lake (10 minutes) it started POURING DOWN RAIN. So I ended up running back from the lake. OMG! I’m not really “in shape”, per se, jaknow? ow! Of course, then I had to change everything but his diaper before we could go back out for gymboree (by which time the rain had totally stopped again ; go figure)

Rained for most of the day while I did work, though, so at least I wasn’t out in it again :o

Posted in: DK, fitness, general by attriel /
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So, this morning Kiir wasn’t feeling well (exhausted, tired, etc), so I had a brilliant plan to let her have a day of rest — I called my parents and took DK down to their place for the day ;)

So, after gathering together basically all of his diapers that I could find (because half a dozen that I found easily just didn’t seem like nearly enough), I drove him down and dropped him off before walking over to the Metro station by their house and mass transiting my way to work a smidgin on the late side.

But when I took him in I did some of those things that I had told myself I wouldn’t do. Those things that parents always do and everyone always silently (and usually inwardly) rolls their eyes at? Yeah, those. I had two of those reusable grocery bags filled with stuff. In my defense, one was almost completely full of diapers, the other was diapers and spare clothes for the boy.

I took over a few of the videos he enjoys. Word World and Signing Time. Even though (a) my parents almost never use their DVD player; (b) I use the vids largely to distract him when I’m making dinner or something where I just don’t need him offering his assistance; (c) Yeah, like my parents were gonna waste time letting him watch tv :o But I took them over, “just in case”.

Before I left, I was running through what was in the bags. And I made a comment about how they had bathing suits if they decided to set up his pool. Then I realized. This was THE thing. That part of a movie where the worried parents are going through the whole huge list of every little thing. All I needed to do now was to start saying things like “And remember, he likes his blue blanky when he takes a nap, unless he’s in the car, then he wants the yellow blanky.” or something equally inane and stupid. Because you know what? THEY HAD KID(S)! They can probably muddle through a day, and he can probabl survive without everything being JUST the way he likes it! (not that he has that many particular things) I tried to gracefully cover up by saying “and you had a kid, so you can probably figure anything else out,” Except I mumbled, so I had to repeat it.

At which point they made sarcastic comments about how it had been a few years, and they hoped none of the parts had moved. the feet were still on the bottom of the legs, right? *sigh* I really never wanted to be that guy :/

Posted in: DK by attriel /
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So

In a few weeks we’re going to India to visit family. My family, specifically. And DK, in particular. Because if we (somehow) left DK with someone here, we’re not sure my dads siblings would let us in their front doors. “attriel? Who? never heard of you!”

I’ve been 4 times in my life. Once when I was a little older than DK will be. Once when I was 8 and again at 12? and then after kiir and I got married, we went to “show off the new bride” to the famly. My dad made a point of the fact that that trip was the last one he was obligated to obligate us to. Now it’s my family, and it’s up to me to go.

Then he decided he wanted to take DK :o Which is fine, because tickets to India are like 1500 or 2000 apiece, with the various sundries associated. And with 3 seats, thats a lot of scratch. while I love my dad’s family, there are honestly better things I could do with 6k. But my dad is paying, so we’re only having to come up with the money for the various bits we need for the trip (diapers for DK, some fixed wardrobes, etc), things we’ll need to pay for associated with the trip (over two weeks in kennel for K, at 30$ a night, plus another 10-20$ or so if we want him to get any exercise), and then money we need IN India (souveniers, money for my “sisters” (I’m supposed to protect them, but because I’m not there, I’m sortof giving them money to hire protection. but there’s no actual protection involved anymore ; so really I’m giving them money because I can’t symbolically protect them any longer … yeah, I’m not sure I understand it either), etc). That’s all adding up :o

We decied we needed new diapers for DK because we just werent’ quite sure about starting with stained diapers there. We don’t really have any issues with them, but we’re not sure about the reaction we’d get from family. OTOH, my parents have suggested that we could just use disposables over there, since they sell them in the shops it’s not like we’d have to pack two weeks worth of diaps. But we just can’t really see our way clear to using disposables in the third world country where trash it tossed in the street to be collected later. Especially since we don’t use them at home. Sure, if we were using them daily already, we wouldn’t switch for the trip and we’d accept that it’s not that unusual there (I imagine a lot of the middle class and up use disposables, since that kind of thing is generally a trapping of “wealth”, in a way, because you can afford to THROW IT AWAY). But starting with cloth, and using disposables JUST for the trip just feels wrong :o

We’re still not sure what all we’re going to do where, but it’s probably going to involve lots of running around visiting family! My dad had seven siblings. Even if we just visit each of their houses for an afternoon, that’s one week spent on that. We’ll probably spend a night or two here and there, so it won’t be constant travelling. Quite.

And won’t it be fun to see how DK reacts to the environment and all those people around? Four seems to be about his limit for people he’s not familiar with, six with mommy and daddy. With my parents there, that only leaves two strangers. And that? That is NEVER going to be happening during this trip. Which means that this could get VERY exhausting. Very fast.

Posted in: DK, hindi, trips by attriel /
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Last night, I took DK out to the park after dinner, so he could play on the slide and the sandbox and the swing etc. Apparently someone broke one of the kid-swings :/ So that’s gonna have a line for weeks I bet.

Anyway, after playing on the equipment for nearly an hour, he wanted to walk down to the lake. So we went down the path, since the playground is right by the lake (I walk through the playground when we go on K’s walks to the lake). He went down on the floating dock to look at the water, although I drew the line when he tried to climb in :o Then we went back up, I carried him past the dock so he’d quit trying to peer over the edges, and he went raring off down the path. Sure, part of the after dinner playtime is to let him run down before bed, so this works. More interesting than looking at hte playground equipment, for a change of pace, too.

He did that for a while, then wanted to be carried. But threw an absolute HISSY when I tried to carry him BACK, so I carried him forward some, then he wanted down and walked the rest of the way to the dam. It’s like half a mile, and he walked more than half of that. So I was downright impressed.

Down by the dam, the path comes back up towards the road, and he kept trying to run up to it. So I figured he was ready to go home. Because he was no longer interested in further forward motion around the lake. But he wasn’t interested in turning around either. So I ended up carrying him home. Oh. My. God. I’m not in the best of shape, but I’ve gotten pretty decent with carrying him around. By the time we got home, I was wishing I HAD called kiir to come pick us up down by the dam. There’s a parking lot there after all. WHY DIDNT I CALL???

OTOH, DK came home, had a quick QUICK snack, and went up and passed out on the bed in like 5 mintues. So apparently it worked.

Tonight I wasn’t willing to carry him past the docks to start that little escapade. My arms, and especially my back, still hurt from yesterday kid!

Posted in: DK by attriel /
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So, we had the annual labor day cookout at my parents today. I called a few of my friends from high school that I’ve kept in touch with and invited them over (my parents know them too), it was a pretty good afternoon.

When I found out the first was coming, late this morning?, I called my parents to let them know that another person was attending, just so they knew. As they’re answering machine picked up, DK climbed onto a box in the kitchen and was trying to grab things (empty soda cans mostly) off the edge of the kitchen counter. So the first thing in the message was “DK! Get off the counter!” … Instant classic :o

Also, my parents always comment on how he seems to be constantly wet. Since i just tossed his diapers into the bag at the house, I counted them at the same time. We were there from ~3 until ~8, so around 5 hours. He had 9 diaper changes. 3 poopsie (which he was wet usually too), and one pool-related. So that’s an average of a fresh diaper every … 30-45 minutes? Yeah, no wonder! The pool one was because he went out with my dad to the grill, and then suddenly turned left and climbed into the kiddie pool they have in the yard when he comes over … With his diaper and wool shorties on and everything. *sigh*

Actually, later it turned out that my dad saw him and could have stopped him, but didn’t. I wish he’d've at least taken off the pants, yaknow? :o

Posted in: DK by attriel /
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