Life in the Boonies

We braved the Memorial day weekend traffic, and ventured down to Carmel. After ruling out Friday night, the decision came down to keep-him-awake, or drive while he naps. The in-car naps tend to be short, so we opted for the former and decided to set out first thing.

Sat morning (first thing! after waking up, playing, having breakfast, packing) we piled into the car and set off, to great grandmother’s house we go! Frank played with mom in the back. We sang, read books, looked at trucks and trees outside, bounce the ball, zoomed the firetruck, and ate Cheerios. We aimed to stop halfway and play in a rest stop, but none materialized past San Jose when we started looking. But not to worry- Frank did not fall asleep. Not even close. We arrived after 2 hours on the road, and wiggled down the front path to pound on the door. No great gramma? we found her around the corner at the back door. The bright-and-sunny Pittsburg weather left behind, it was cool in Carmel. And the first thing Frank learned as he entered Sunny Hours: watch out for the furnance… it is hot! Demonstrated with waves of hands indicateing heat whooshing up. With great grandma’s lesson understood, Frank steered clear of the furnace grate, waving at it everytime he passes. He walks carefully around it to get to the door. Frank was too cranky for lunch (tired, new place) so we sent him off to nap. He cried but when mom went in to pat him, he was on his tummy but still screaming. Left by himself he went to sleep in a few minutes. Pretty good for a new place. We ate and then chatted. A medicore nap lasting slightly over 1 hour was good enough for Saturday.

Post nap and lunch, we all went to the backyard. Frank wasted no time in finding the bird bath full of water to splash. Or to make soup: he used his trowel to scoop pine needles, dried leaves, and dirt into the bird bath. Soon it was a mud puddle. Dad refilled the water twice, before realizing it was a lost cause competing with Frank. Finally, after many pictures, he was soaking wet so he got new clothes and we all headed out to a park up the hill. And a quality park it was! It had a horsey with a spring and Frank played “this is the way the farmer rides.” He climbed up and down the structures and wobbled on the draw bridge. Another little boy 2 months older than Frank also played and they went back and forth on the draw bridge. At one point Frank sat in the middle and bricaded the passageway. The other boy came right at him and all the adults came to help. Frank didn’t much favor the slide except to go down it once with great grandma. He loved the swings, especially when daddy made it go very high both in the baby swing and sitting with dad in the big swing. After the playground we headed into town for some groceries. Frank sat quietly in his stroller until we entered the store and he saw all the yummy food. He loudly pointed at the bananas, avocados, tomatoes, and apples. Soon dad selected some bananas, and mom took him outside to wait while dad finished shopping. Back at home, we had a lovely stir-fry for dinner and Frank went right to sleep.

We haven’t slept in the same room for a long time… he wiggles/wrassles/squiggles/rustles. He slept without a peep, but with enough rustling around in the bed to wake mom and dad up several times. Everybody arose around 7, and had a nice relaxing morning inside. A mushroom/cheese omlette for breakfast, and a run around the backyard (we dumped out the birdbath to preserve dry clothes), and we were ready to start the day. So mom/dad/Frank set off to the beach, leaving Gr. Grandma for a little peace and quiet. It was cold and windy on the beach, BUT it was a sandbox unlike no other and we all had a grand time digging and flinging sand. We ran down the hill, crawled back up, rolled back down, and hiked up to collapse at the top. Some other folks were playing volleyball, which we watched with great interest. Finally, dad scooped us up (with much protest!) and we wandered home. Pouring out the sand on the front patio, we went back inside for lunch and a nap. For everybody! Dad rested on the sunporch, and mom read her story before nodding off on the couch. 3 hours later, Frank (and the rest of us) woke up. So by now it was 4, so we played in the backyard for a while before heading off to great gramma’s favorite restaurant, Stravaganza. Frank was on his best behavior, eating up vegetables and being a model child. After dinner, we strolled (Frank too!) along the mall before heading home to sleep.

Monday morning we all had cereal, and then headed off to the beach. Colder still, but still plenty of fun times playing bury-the-shovel and flinging sand. We hid behind the plants, to avoid the wind. Someone came along to string up volleyball nets, as well as a table for a bbq, but we left before they began to play. Mid-morning we set off home. Frank stayed away ’till Gilroy, where we stopped for lunch, and then slept the rest of the ride home. As we pulled in our driveway, he awoke with an exclamation. And promptly ran to the living room to throw books and toys all over the floor. A wonderful time for everyone!

Little Children
by Tom Perrotta

A much lighter read than Sharp Objects. The story starts with a bunch of moms at the playground. I thought it was funny cuz that’s what I do now. Go to the playground and meet with other moms, heehee. The story is mainly focused around a registered sex offender moving into this town to live with his mother after getting out of jail. The town is upset and reacts to this. But mainly one guy tries to drive him out of town with nasty acts. A stay home dad gets involved with a mom he meets at the playground and there is an affair. Lots of stuff about married life with children. I enjoyed the book. The ending was great. Somehow it all ends at the playground again but with such different circumstances.

I just been told this was made into a movie just last year. It had Oscar nominations too. I’ll probably put it on my list of movies to see, but after Shriek III and Pirates III of course, heehee.

Sharp Objects
by Gillian Flynn

This was a very disturbing book. I probably should have stopped reading it but the need to know who did it overcame. And the answer was even more disturbing. The plot is a little girl was killed and now a girl is missing. Soon that girl is also found dead and both had their teeth all pulled out. A reporter is sent to cover the story and she was from there and her mom still lives there. The title is partly due to the fact that this reporter is a cutter. She finds out more about herself and unravels the death of her sister many years ago as she stays in town after being away for so long. The way her mother is and you learn what her grandmother did to her mom as the kid…. The whole thing was terrible. Even more so now that I’m a mom. The stuff her 13 year old half sister does is also disturbing. The writing was good and the storytelling was good but I should have known better when Stephen King gave comments about how the ending really makes you think. I would not recommend it unless you like disturbing stuff about children.

It was all wonderful going down the stairs on the play structure but the first attempts at home was met with a booboo. The stairs at home was considerably taller than the ones at the park. He bends his knees but the other leg still can’t reach the step below. He must not have been holding on to anything since he landed on the carpet in the center of the staircase. He had a bruise on his left shoulder. The next morning he tried to go down at the top of the stairs. He wabbled his knees and stuck his foot out and slip down one step before catching himself. It gave mom a heart attack. She watched him and didn’t let him practice all day. Then dad got home and showed him how to hold on to the railing to come down slowly. He did it and was SO happy and excited at accomplishing it. He then did it three times in a row. Then he tried to do it at the top where there is no open railing. Mom told him to hold on to the wall. He tried it with one step and decided that wasn’t as good. So he slid down on his belly til he got to the open railing section at halfway point. Then he stops and gets there to hold it to step down one at a time. That was last night.

Today at the playground, Frank fell again cuz this structure had big steps and he didnt’ hold on to the post well enough. Just a one step fall and he wasn’t hurt at all. Just lied there surprised. When mom went to pick him up he was like” hi, how did i end up here?”

Here is a video of Frank going down the stairs with clips from Jan, Feb and May.

Another month has wized by and Frank is learning more everyday.

• Frank has his favorite corner in the backyard where the retaining wall trails off and there is a step he can climb on.  Then he tries to go up the hill.  One time he was found standing up there next to the bird of paradise patting the leaves.  Later he got himself down the hard way.  He was hanging on the wall and sliding down.  He never did it again so maybe he learned that was scary.
• Speaking of climbing, Frank managed to get to the top of the dinning room table.  He stepped on the sidebar of the chair and climbed up there first.  Then he stood up on the chair and climbed on the table.  When mom came by he was in crawling position with a pencil drawing on the clipboard.  He loves the keyboard and the rolley mouse.  That is often his motivation for getting on the chairs.  Dad gave him his own set on the coffee table but he still likes daddy’s that lives on the dinning table.  He has learned that only sitting is allowed so now he often climbs on the chair and sits there rolling the mouse and typing on the keyboard.
• New found love for soft animals.  Must be an extension of the soft pillow.  Every morning when Frank wakes up, he gets brought over to snuggle with mom and he will sit and point at Ralph, loveable bunny, gorrilla, seal, and turtle.  Then he would snuggle all of them in the big bed.
• Frank knows lots of things we are saying.  We say outside and he goes straight to the door or climbs into his stroller.  We say backyard and he got pounds on the back door.  Daddy was careful to say watering plants instead of backyard so Frank wouldn’t go there since we just bathed him.  But Frank knew exactly what that was too and out he went.  I guess all those “gentle with daddy’s plants” taught him that word.  Frank knows his head, nose, ear, and leg.  Teaching “toes” was funny cuz that sounds like head in chinese so he kept pointing to his head, heehee.  He knows sit and stop; shoes and hat; balls and balloons;  inside and outside;
• Frank started to wave and clap.  He is also doing some signs now.  He definitely did the all done sign after dinner.  He tries the cookie sign but it looks more like clap and twisting the palms together.
• We are pretty sure he said “nana” at dinner.  He was throwing a fit and not eating properly.  He kept pointing to the top of the fridge where he saw we put the newly purchased bananas.  No one knew what he wanted.  Finally he said “nana”.  It was clearly heard by mom, dad, grandma and grandpa.  We were all very surprised.  Then he got his banana for dinner and he was happy.  That was May 12.  Have not heard any repeats or any other noticable words.
• Frank sorts.  The beads always goes in one bucket and the blocks another shorter bucket.  Frankin can open the big twist caps by putting his palm on the top and just spinning it til it opens.  After dumping all of the them out Frank puts them back in the appropriate buckets and tries to close it back up.  He has not learned to twist the other way yet.
• May 9 - Frank shows an interest to comb his hair.  He carried the hair brush around and brought it to his head in a combing motion.  He got so mad when mom tried to take it away.  But he understood that it is to stay upstairs.  Eventually he was done and wanted to go play downstairs.  Then he put it back on the bathroom counter and slid down the stairs.
• May 10 - Mom thought Frank can only twist off big tops so she let him carry the bubble bottle around.  He liked shaking it.  She was wrong.  Mom found Frank with the opened bottle and all the solution spilled on the ground.
• May 11 - Frank tells mom he is ready to go to the park.  He brings his sippycup and places it in the cup holder.  Then he gets in and sits down and waits.
• May 11 - Frank gets very bossy.  He pushes mom out of the way.  He also likes to push her into horsy back position then tries to climb on.  If he doesn’t want to ride, he keeps pushing so mom will move around on her hands and knees.  When mom is sitting in a chair with her book while Frank plays in the backyard, he comes over to close her book and puts his hands along her leg up to her butt and tries to wedge her out of the chair.
• May 15 - We went to our playgroup and Frank walked down the stairs of the play structure.  He held on to the railing and took one step at a time all the way down.  He goes up again and did it several times.  Practicing!  Last week Grandpa held his hands to go down the stairs and now he is trying it on his own.

Secret History of the Pink Carnation
by Lauren Willig

This is the first book that goes before the Masque of the Black Tulip. It was a good read but I found it not as funny. Maybe I was not in the same delirious mood I was earlier when reading the other one. Much of the same style and the secret wasn’t a secret for me since I read the next book. That kind of ruined some of the anticipation.

So this one starts the historian student writing her thesis on spies during the Nepolean Wars. She writes to the decedents of some spies whose identity are known hoping that spies back then all knew each other. She wanted to uncover who the Pink Carnation was. That starts her trail and she finds out at the end. Lot of it is a love story though. Very much like your spiderman, superman type. The girl loves the masked hero and is also somehow attracted to this other man. He loves her but he needs to keep his identity secret. You get the drift.

Winter and Night
by S. J. Rozan

Another Bill Smith mystery. I really enjoy reading Rozan so whenever I’m waiting for books I requested I pick up one of hers. This one was about a small town that revolves around football. All the jocks get away with everything in this town. A boy runs away, a girl is murdered. The boy happens to be Bill’s nephew. Bill has be out of touch with his sister and we find out in this book more about his past and his family. He also stumbles on a rape and suicide that happened 20 years ago in this town. Great twists in this story.

5/3 - Thursday

Grandma and grandpa arrives in the middle of bath time. Frank splashed as usual. He was not shy or scared of new people in the house that wanted to play with him. He got a telephone toy that also doubles as a pulley. It has eyes that roll when being pulled around so Frank walked backwards pulling it so he can watch the eyes go up and down. Frank also got stacking rings and he likes to wear them on his arms like braclets rather then stack them on the pole. Such pretty colorful bangles. Sometimes he eats them like donuts. Yum.

5/4

We loaded everyone in two cars and headed out to tumbling class as soon as the morning got started. Frank watched Spencer do the rings but he was not interested himself in trying. He climbed up the incline with no problem. Just like the slide at the park but not as steep. Of course the trampoline is still the favorite. Frank kept trying to get on the big one before our turn. Not much success on the balance beam either but it was fun to walk through the tunnel. He got balloons to play with again and he really wanted to carry both balloons at the same time. He did with some success. Again the class was over too soon.

Another gym class in the afternoon. This one is a special program by the First Five of CA. We all packed into two cars again and arrive only 5 minutes late. Circle time with songs, hula hoops, balls, somersaults, and just plain running around. Everyone had a good time, especially Frank. We can’t wait til next Friday to do more.

While Frank was napping, Grandpa went and bought him a turtle shaped sand box. Frank spend the rest of the afternoon in the backyard flinging sand. We all kept saying no no no but it was just too much fun. When we show him how to scoop it into the bucket, he empties out the bucket and starts to fling again. He also gathered rocks from the yard to make his sand more coarse. We all spend the rest of the day there clearing out the hill.

5/5

Our local farmers’ market opens today so we headed out first thing in the morning again. There was big air pumped houses to jump in but Frank was not interested at all. He just wanted a balloon and Grandma somehow secured one for him even though they were not giving them out to children. Just alittle spoiled. We came home to lots of fruits and veggies and made sandwiches with the new tomatoes. For the afternoon, we ventured out to our local park and played tennis while Frank and some other children chased the balls around.

5/6

More of the same on Sunday. Fun the yard and sandbox. For dinner Grandpa took us all out to the Spaghetti Factory. Frank hasn’t been in a restaurant for a long time. Even last time he ate the baby food we packed. Tonight he gets whatever we get, which was bread, chicken marsala, meat lasagna. The waiter gave him crayons to play with but Frank didn’t want to sit in the highchair since his back was to everything. He sat nicely on mom’s lap and watched the scene at all the tables. He was also served milk in a cup with a straw. He didn’t know how it works so he just gnawed and gnawed and then suddenly a bunch of milk came out. He must have sucked on it but wasn’t prepared to keep it in his mouth so it all just spilled out.

5/7

Dad finally had to return to work after a nice long weekend with us. After the morning routines, we went to Ambrose Park without daddy. Frank climbed, sat with mom on the adult swing, and then climbed some more. Then grandpa showed him how to go down the stairs holding on to grandpa on one side and mom on the side. He started to bend his legs some and was dropping down the steps as we held his hands. Then again and again with Grandma. These were also flatter steps so it was easier for him to practice on. As Frank took his nap, Grandma and Grandpa left us for Carmel. We will see them again Friday.

We ventured out to the Pittsburg First Five Community Center to be apart of the story telling program.  This was one of the sponsors at the fair Saturday.  As it turns out, the storytime one was for ages 3 to 5.  But we met the coordinator and she promptly gave us the May calendar of events and got us registered for classes fit for Frank’s age.  All the programs they have are free for children 0-5 years old.  This month we signed up for two programs that runs Wed and Fri for the first 2 weeks of May.

Wonderful One’s
On Wed, we went to the Wonderful One’s program.  There were 3 other moms in this program so not crowded at all.  First we all sat around in a circle and sang songs.  Frank really liked the part where the children on the bus go up and down…  Then the instructor set up several areas each with a different toy.  There were peg puzzles, stacking rings, nesting cups, color sorting beads, and beads for threading.  We all took turns playing with different things.  Then the kids got apple juice and snacks and ran around the room.  As they continued to play, all the moms sat around and talked about parenting stuff.  Hard to concentrate with the kids all over the place.  Frank did really well and played with this other boy.  Frank followed him around some, each carrying a car.  Frank also kept going into other people’s bags to find more food.  Once you start to feed him, you can’t just stop.  Next week we’ll have to forfeit the snacks.  At the end Frank went up to the other mom and put out his arms to get picked up.  Mom was surprised since this is the first time we met these people.  The other mom’s son was also surprised at seeing her hold someone else.

Gymster
Friday was a busy day.  With grandma and grandpa here visiting, we all went to Frank’s tumbling class in the morning.  Then in the afternoon, we all went to the Gymster class.  There were alot more moms and children in this program.  Grandma sat with Frank and did all the activities.  Again everyone sat in a circle and sang songs to begin.  Then they did log rolls, which none of the kids liked.  Then somersaults.  Frank let the instructor hold him upside down and push his head inwards.  Then the instructor took out hula hoops and balls.  Frank had the best time with the hoops.  He grabs one in each hand and walks around with them.  He didn’t even pay that much attention to the balls.  Then everyone helped put all that away and sat to sing more songs.  One part was to get the kids to chase their parents one at a time.  Frank chased dad in a circle and got a hug.  Then everyone got juice and snacks and left.

We are looking forward to doing it again next week.