It wasn’t difficult to get put this morning. Ethan’s foot pretty much took care of this somewhere between midnight and 4am. At some point, he was sleeping between me and Diana and he had flipped himself upside down. Half-asleep, I figured that it was better than him being perpendicular to us forming the cross-bar of the letter “H.” However my half-asleep logic failed to put together the fact that him lining upside-down meant that he would kick me in the face.
Half-asleep, I whispered to Diana “the boy is upside down.” “Silly baby,” she replied as she attempted to rotate him. He grunted in annoyance, but eventually settled down. After cuddling with Diana for a little bit he rolled over, grabbed the shoulder strap of the tank top I was wearing to sleep and gripped it tightly as he settled back to sleep.
When Ollie was Ethan’s age he would suck him thumb and play with his own hair when he would go to sleep. Ethan also sucks his thumb but instead of playing with his own hair he reaches out for the collar of our shirts for comfort. It’s cute, as he literally hangs onto us for comfort, except when he misses and scratches the skin on our upper chest and neck.
I left work right after school to pick up Ollie. I’ve been doing far fewer pick-ups than I’ve been doing in past years, so when Diana asked me to get him, I eagerly agreed to. He had cooking class after school, so this meant I didn’t need to get him until 4pm. Ollie seems to enjoy cooking class and takes an interest in the process of creating food. This has not led him to be a more adventurous eater than most children his age, but it has helped him have a better relationship with food and bond with people through the act of cooking.
Ollie is also doing Taekwondo as and afterschool activity, and then there is swimming lessons, which isn’t technically run at his school (it’s at the local YWCA), but it’s an after-school thing. It took us a couple conversations to help Ollie understand that Taekwondo is Korean, which he is not, and that there is a different between Taekwondo, Karate, and Kung Fu. As an Asian-American, I’m glad he is connecting to this tradition, and it’s important that he learns the differences between Asian traditions. Also, Taekwondo happens to be the only martial art I ever learned.
I had a couple hours alone with the boys myself when we got home. Ollie was pretty well engaged with playing LEGOs. Once he completes a set, he doesn’t want to take it apart. So, we gave him a set that has three different things that he can make so he has to take it apart to build more things. There was some frustration with him trying to take apart a space shuttle to make a moon base, but he worked through it pretty well. Also, he’s not a fan of putting his LEGOs away. He likes things being out on display. I get this because so do I, and if we had a bigger house, I’d have books, CDs, and DVDs on shelves all over the house.
Ethan wanted a lot of cuddles. He spent a good chunk of the day with the nanny. We really like her. She genuinely likes Ethan, she’s great with transitions, and she understands our parenting philosophy and our needs. Even though he was well taken care of Ethan needed a lot of attention from me when I got home, which made cooking dinner a challenge. I would hold him and cuddle on the couch. Then after a couple minutes, he would walk away begin to be engaged with a toy, or an object like a tissue box. I would go to the kitchen and start peeling a carrot and before I knew it I had a little one hugging my leg crying to be picked up. Somewhere in this cycle of cuddling and small windows of time, I managed to cook Chicken Fricassee.
Dinner was on the table at 6:30, an hour later than my goal, but everyone got fed and eventually put to bed, later than planned, but done. One way I got Ethan settled down was by putting him in his high chair and feeding him. He had a dinner of four strawberries, a handful of animal crackers, half a chicken thigh, half a banana, some roast potatoes, and half a piece of leftover pizza. Ollie had two pieces of leftover pizza for dinner and moved some Chicken Fricassee around his plate.
Bedtime routine went fine. Baths, toothbrushing and stories. I fell asleep on the couch with Ethan, and transferred him his crib after I woke up. Probably no longer than a 15-minute nap. He’s getting the point that I can’t leave the television on as I cuddle him to bed. Ethan’s starting to become aware of the television.
Monday. Done.
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