The Toof Fairy

Forget the week number, I’m going to go ahead and stop doing that. Will is 40+ weeks old, which means now, officially, he’s nine months old. He is cruising around on the furniture, babbling in real sounds, and is the fastest thing on four limbs. Well, at least he thinks he is. Now that we don’t have stairs, he chases Emily around, and comes tearing out of her room at full speed when she chases him. He’ll also stand for a few seconds like a surfer, arms straight out and legs spread apart. Then the takes a nosedive into crawling position and takes off. He says Da-da, and sort of whines something that sounds like ma-ma, when he’s cranky. If you ask him where Emily is, he’ll look around for her.

We love how he’s so involved in his surroundings, so interested in everything. Sure, most babies are I guess, but William is just so fascinated, it’s so much fun to watch. Tonight at dinner, Will shoveled beans and tamale into his face, disregarding whether it had actually made it into his mouth before grabbing the next fistful, which exemplifies how he lives life. He’s always reaching for the next thing, both literally and figuratively.

Emily is adjusting to her new school very well. I think she’s even a little ahead of this group of kids thanks to the schools in Pullman. I’m shocked at what she can read, and love reading what she has written. Emily recently lost a tooth, which flew out of her mouth while playing at Sara and Cameron’s house (or was swallowed, we’re really not sure). I told her that she could write the Tooth Fairy a note and the tooth fairy would leave her something even without the actual tooth in exchange. So Emily wrote this: “Der Toof fary, I lost mi toof, but I lost mi toof”. Seriously, stand up comedians couldn’t do any better.

And speaking of teeth, Will finally got one. I fear more are on the way, and it’s hard to believe this tiny little thing was the cause for all that pain. It’s just a little white spec on the bottom right, a little crooked, and barely cut through the gum, but it’s there. My big, big boy! I can’t believe he’ll never have that perfect baby grin again. But we’re all proud of him, especially Emily, who just saw his little tooth for the first time today in the bathtub while he was playing with her, standing on the edge, trying to topple headfirst into the tub with her. “I saw his tooth!” she shouted, then she went on and on to Will saying, “Is that your first tooth?! What a nice tooth!”. And he just kept grinning and grinning, showing it off.

On the other hand, Emily is beginning to realize that little brothers can also be a bit of a nuisance. We finally plugged our DVD player into the TV in the living room, and Emily was trying to watch something as will stood in front of the TV, batting it and screaming. It’s nice that she’s polite about it most of the time, saying, “Will, I can’t see, can you please move?” But she also gets frustrated. We were in the car yesterday listening to Jack Johnson on the Curious George soundtrack on the way back from the zoo. Will had had enough and was crying and screaming in the backseat, and Emily being uncharacteristically insensitive, said, “Will, can you be quiet? I can’t hear the music”. But I don’t think she thought she was being mean, I think she was just stating a fact. She’s such a caring person, I’m just so surprised when she says or does something even a little bit unkind.

Luckily times like that are rare, and more often than not, Emily is a very good friend to Will. I’m just glad two of my favorite people enjoy each other so much.

Week 37: Hush Little Baby

After a very hectic few weeks filled with packing and moving, I think things have finally settled down.  At least for us adults anyway.  Between Emily starting at a new school, being sick, and Will teething (for real this time, I can actually feel a tooth) and also being sick, it’s been a bit emotional around here.  After being so exhausted from unpacking and whatnot we passed out quickly in our bed, but all of a sudden it seems not quite right.  The sheets won’t stay tucked, the mattress didn’t get put on right, Will’s been waking up almost every half hour, and it’s getting a little, um, crowded.  Solutions?  Ian says he’s had to move the crib twice and not seen it used yet, so maybe it’s time.  And I don’t disagree, I just am not sure if I’m ready to start the bedtime battles after almost nine months of blissfully sleeping cuddled up together.  Plus there’s the whole trouble of not being able to marvel at how wonderful Will is, and how angelic he looks when he’s asleep if he’s passed out in another room.  And I’d hate to wake him up just to tell him how perfect he is.  Did you ever do that?  You spend what seems like hours getting the baby to sleep, but then finally, there they are, blissfully dreaming in your arms, with their little lips pursed together, still sucking away in their sleep, and as you stroke their little fingers and all but burst open with love, you almost, just for a second, want to wake the little babe up just to have one more minute of babyness before all of it slips through your fingers.    

So anyway, to get back on the subject of us not sleeping, we’re giving it a little more time, since the poor guy is teething, this waking up thing might be temporary.  But he is getting to be quite a large little person, so we’ll see what sleeping arrangements we can come up with.  I do feel a greater sense of calm than I did when Emily was this age and thought she would never learn to fall asleep on her own or sleep in her own bed at night.  It does happen, eventually they all do it.  

Emily and I have been reading the Little House series, and sometimes I wish we lived back when things were simpler and after the baby was done sleeping in the parents bed, they moved on to share beds with their siblings.  Maybe it seems weird in today’s world, but really, if you think about, most adults at least have a dog to cuddle up with at night, why to we expect children to be isolated all night long?   At times, other parts of those pioneer days seem appealing… such as the whole children being seen and not heard and not contradicting your parents, a novel concept indeed!  But even though even a day where I didn’t have to deal with whining about how long Emily got to play outside or whether the mittens are itchy and the shirt is too tight would be a vacation.  I think I’ll take all of that over having to deal with things like no running water.  And a baby with no running water… or disposable diapers (shudder).  On second thought, I’d take Emily’s constant monologue and even William’s high pitched scream over that any day.  
  

A Quick Note

Hi there, just wanted to update you all. We just got our internet hooked up today, so I'm quickly posting the blogs I had saved in Word. I've sort of lost track of the week number, so if it seems like I missed one, I probably did.

Thanks for reading!
Kate

Week 36: Homecoming

Moving is a lot like childbirth. You forget how much it sucks until it’s waaay too late, and there’s nothing to do but go through with it.

All that talk about how far along I was with packing was just that, talk. Sure a whole lot of boxes stacked in the dining room looks impressive, but when it comes down to it, if you have way more stuff than will fit in the dining room, and you pull up with a moving truck that you wrongly, but optimistically hope will fit all your stuff, and in the end your family, who is very kind to come help your moving-impaired self, ends up throwing coats, still on the hangers into plastic garbage bags and into the trailer which you had to rent in addition to the moving truck, which is double parked because we can’t back it into a parking spot, all that progress you thought you had made the week before really boils down to not a whole lot. Heh, so yeah to reiterate my first statement, moving sucks.

Thankfully, we are now in our new house, surrounded by lovely trees and wonderful friends and family, and maybe, in the future, moving will seem like it was worth it. Maybe.

I’m kidding of course, we’re ecstatic to be here. And like I said, just like childbirth, it’s horrible while you’re suffering through it, but the end result is absolutely worth it. Next time we move though, hopefully we’ll be able to afford movers, because after this last move, I can say, it’s well worth the price.

The kids seem to be adjusting well. Will is happy as long as he has his little spot in bed between us, so at least we’ve spared him from being afraid waking up in a strange room. Honestly, we were all so stressed just before the move that this feels like a vacation.

It’s wonderful to live so close to family and friends, have I mentioned that? Probably, but it is. Emily has been able to run around with Evan, who is about eight months older than Will, and I’m sure soon enough Will will be tagging along with the big kids.

In all, the move could have been better, but it could have been worse. We’re all here together, and as I drive around, it feels like after being away for four and a half years, I’ve come home.