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Two and a half! Let’s see, some free-association on themes in this stage of young Gordie’s life … terrific conversations, tyrant-like behavior, definite willpower, newfound skills, fantastic imagination, wide-ranging emotions, insistent independence, crippling dependence, boundless energy, his own point of view, endless contradictions … It’s been an interesting month.

Gordie survived his first night apart from his parents; or really, I should say that we survived our first night apart from him. He stayed with Gramma and Grampa J over the Saturday of Easter weekend, a sort of trial-run to the upcoming separation when I go into labor. Gordie did wonderfully, enjoyed his special time with the grandparents, didn’t have any more sleep struggles than he does at home (that 4am wake-up is fun, isn’t it, Mom and Dad?), ate great meals, and didn’t seem to be too affected by our departure or our return. It’s good to know that he does have a place to go if and when we need it. We had a nice little family Easter together too, complete with a very fun picture-clue easter egg hunt for Gordie. Just wait until Grampa sets up a game of follow-the-hose, Gordie, and then the real fun will begin!

We came home from the East Lansing weekend, celebrated Stewart’s 34th birthday, and promptly said goodbye to Stewart as he left for a 4-day conference in Minnesota. Lucky for me (and for Gordie too), Gramma J and then Aunt Baba came to stay and help out while Stewart was gone. Gordie had sweet phone conversations with Stewart every day, asking him “You still on your trip?” and then requesting that “Daddy come home!”

Another major milestone was marked this month, with much less resistance than I was anticipating: Gordie has moved into a big-boy bed! We received a family heirloom bed frame from Nonnna and Pop-Pop, originally belonging to Gordie’s Great-Great-Great-Aunt Molly. It’s an “antique twin” size, so not quite as big as a twin but still much roomier than his crib. While he was at my parents’ house, he slept by himself in a big bed without any trouble at all, so we decided to give the bed from Nonna and Pop-Pop a try. Gordie was immediately excited about it. We gave him the choice of crib or bed for the first few nights, but he almost always chose the bed. The catch is the falling asleep part … we’re not too confident of Gordie’s ability to stay in the bed and just fall asleep on his own yet, so one of us stays in the room with him (technically, in the bed with him) until he falls asleep. Of course, given Gordie’s current state of momma-clinginess, his preferred bedtime partner is Momma. And given my current state of extreme pregnancy combined with lower back pain, curling up with him in the antique-twin bed is just not a comfortable option. So, Daddy’s in the room with him for the falling-asleep portion of bedtime – sometimes this is met with brief initial resistance and then acceptance; other times Stewart has to grit his teeth through multiple incantations of “Daddy go away!” “Daddy cuddle me!” “Daddy don’t cuddle me!” etc … But once Gordie falls asleep, he sleeps so much better in the bed than he’d been sleeping in the crib. And the icing on the cake – he received a hand-me-down bedding set from his friend Bjorn featuring bright animal illustrations by Eric Carle. Gordie is crazy in love with this bedding. When we first put them on the bed, he climbed around shrieking about all of the animals. Who knew that animal prints could inspire such joy.

Thankfully, it finally stopped snowing and the sunshine returned this month. We’ve spent lots of time outside, getting some use out of the backyard again, visiting playgrounds, and the like. Gordie’s enjoyed taking walks around the neighborhood and riding his new bike(s), here in town and at Gramma and Grampa’s house. Of course, my outdoor play capacities these days are pretty much limited to lurching slowly after Gordie or watching him from a seated position - he’s trying to be patient with me. We’ve enjoyed the residual benefits of everyone getting more fresh air – namely, a way to combat the cabin fever and some marginal improvements in bedtime cooperation (playing outside all day does wear a kid out).

The tides started to turn this month on Gordie’s feelings about the new baby, too. For the longest time, he’d been a little bit excited and yet mostly nervous about maintaining his position in the family … He communicated this to us with commentary such as, “I’m a baby!” “I’m a tiny baby!” “I’m crying, I need my teether, etc.” Sometime this past month, though, Gordie started saying “I’m a big brother!” Imagine my relief … We still do a lot of cuddling and reassuring that Gordie will always be our baby, of course, but now we also do a good amount of pretending around how Gordie will be a big brother and help take care of the baby. In case you’re wondering, he plans to show the baby his room, his toys, feed the baby, cover up the baby, maybe change the baby’s diaper. He’s got a lot of plans, actually.

We’ve revisited a lot of old favorites in our storytime sessions this month, but there are a few new stories Gordie has really enjoyed. We found a copy of Russell Hoban’s A Bargain for Frances on the shelf, and although it’s a pretty long story, Gordie loves it. I do too – I’d forgotten how sweetly old-fashioned and clever that series is. We also found another Quentin Blake book on the shelf (as Gordie remarked, “We know Quentin Blake!” – not really, but we do love his books), and we’ve had fun with Mrs Armitage, Queen of the Road. Daddy brought home a new book from his library conference, and Gordie likes the short poems in Shel Silverstein’s Don’t Bump the Glump. From our library visits, Gordie prefers Audrey Wood’s Silly Sally and Who’s in the Bathroom by Jeanne Willis and Adrian Reynolds.

Gordie, we’re on the brink of some major changes in the family. It will be an exciting and exhausting time for all of us. In the long run, I think you’ll be happy with the outcome - siblings are so important. In the meantime, please remember that you will indeed always be my baby. The two and a half years we’ve had together have been some of the best days of my life, truly. I love you!

We spend a fantastic four-day weekend in Chicago right at the beginning of this month. Seriously, it was perfect. Gordie slept in the car when the opportunity arose, he was flexible with all of our various outings, social with our friends, happy to stay with Aunt Baba. We managed to cram in as many fun city outings as possible into our stay, seeing animals at the Aquarium and the Lincoln Park Zoo, playing around in the Field Museum (the new toddler area is top-notch), eating delicious food, visiting friends and relatives, and soaking up the big city. We got home feeling very proud of ourselves and pleased with this without-a-hitch family vacation (probably the last family-of-three vacation we’ll have).

Then, sadly, we walked into a house where things were falling apart a little. The furnace appeared to be on its last legs (luckily, we had one cold night and then it was an easy fix), as did our black cat Juno. After an overnight stay at the vet, Juno was diagnosed with kidney failure and we had her put to sleep. It’s clear now that two-year-olds aren’t quite ready to grasp the concept of death - Gordie kind of understands that Juno is gone, and sometimes he can even tell us (as we told him) that “Juno died,” but that doesn’t stop him from asking “Where’s Juno?” every now and again. It was hard to know how to have that discussion with Gordie - after deciding to put Juno to sleep, Stewart and I went out for tea and strategized at length as to the simplest, most honest way to break the news to Gordie. When we came home for the “big talk,” we told Gordie that Juno had been very sick and she died, and she wasn’t coming home; he thought about it for maybe a second or two and then asked for one of his toys. It’s still complicated for me, though - already I’d been worrying about how Gordie would respond to hospitals and doctors. While we were in Chicago, we visited Stewart’s grandma in the hospital, and we’ve been planning to take Gordie on a tour of the birthing unit at the hospital where we’ll have the new baby. Then along comes sick Juno, and we have to take her to the “kitty hospital” one evening, from which she never returns … How much attention are kids paying to all of this? How much of the emotional baggage connected to people being sick or hospitalized is inherent to witnessing or experiencing it, and how much do you unintentionally pass along to your kids through your comments and attitudes? How do you help your child accept the fact that people and animals do in fact get sick and die, but at the same time make the hospital birth of a new sibling a positive and non-threatening experience? Oh, such dilemmas. So far Gordie seems to be relatively unscathed by my internal dialogue on this subject.

Mostly for Gordie, this month has been one of extreme imaginative play. The month began with incessant declarations of “I’m a mouse! Eating nuts!” Over and over, I couldn’t tell you why. Sometimes the mouse would try to take a nap, or look for food, but mostly our mouse liked to eat nuts. Go figure. We then branched out a little, sometimes replaying important events (such as our dim sum outing in Chicago), sometimes pretending at the good old-fashioned ice cream parlor or hot dog stand (although you can tell we hammered the Chicago hot-spots into Gordie’s head - whenever he pretends to serve me hot dogs, he tells me that he’s Doug - of Hot Doug’s fame), and sometimes making up charades out of thin air, like the near-daily routine of tipping over the chairs in his room and turning them into “asphalt mixers.” The most bizarre and somewhat disturbing charade, by far, is the one where we pay for groceries. Sounds benign enough, right? Except he takes his two wooden chairs and pushes them together so the seats are touching, just barely enough room between them to slide a piece of paper through. Then he takes my “card” (currently a small photo), slides the card confidently between the chair seats, pushes a few “buttons” on the back of the chair, and hands the card back to me - “there you go, momma!” At some level, our son has already grasped the importance of these credit transactions, and that just creeps me out.

The beginning of March brought our annual Friedenswald retreat, this year complete with seven children ages four and under. Guitars were strummed, snacks were devoured, and nobody really got hurt. Stewart and I were too nervous about how Gordie would react to an overnight stay with all of that activity (especially just coming off of three nights away from home in Chicago), so we elected to just go in for the day on Saturday. Of course, after dinner, when we zipped Gordie into his jammies for the ride home and all the other kids were bundled into their jammies as well, Gordie announced that it was time to go to bed, and he wanted to go to bed “back there,” where he knew the rest of the babyfriends would be sleeping that night. Apparently he was much more prepared for this overnight than we thought - next year, kiddo. (And in case you were wondering, the sleep patterns in our house are almost as variable as last month. Most days Gordie does not take a nap, and he’s completely exhausted by bedtime. If he does decide a nap is worthwhile, you can usually find a minute-for-minute relationship between the length of said nap and the length of Gordie’s post-bedtime shenanigans. No one wins, really.)

For a glorious few days this month, the sun came out, it did not snow, and temperatures approached the balmy high 40’s. We celebrated with many walks outside, some explorations of the newly revealed backyard, and a trip to our local ice cream parlor. Of course, those days didn’t last, and they’re forecasting snow again by Friday. Someday spring will come to stay.

As for storytime this month, we saw the return of a couple of old favorites and appreciated some serialized children’s stories. Gordie loves The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, and I do too - I could read that every night. We checked out Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard from the library months ago, and loved it so much that we bought our own copy in Chicago. Everyone needs a good read-aloud about feeling grumpy. Lately Gordie’s enjoyed the illustrations in 123 by Alison Jay (she also has a great ABC book). And, we’ve continued to follow the adventures of Harold (and his purple crayon) and Harry (the dirty dog) in a few sequels from the library. Sadly, Gordie’s no-nap philosophy and total exhaustion by bedtime means that many nights he falls asleep before we even have a chance to read any stories … We do our best to squeeze storytime in during the day as much as possible too. And in very exciting book news for this month, Kalamazoo has celebrated the opening of a brand-new independent children’s bookstore! We’ve enjoyed visiting and browsing a few times already, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for their success. A town without a good bookstore (or five or six) is not quite worth living in.

Gordie, I know you’re ready for spring as much as I am. Here’s hoping I can whip up the strength to waddle after you in the backyard for a few more weeks before this new baby joins us. I’m looking forward to many more walks around the neighborhood with you before then, too. Come on, sunshine!

Although this winter has been interminably long (ridiculously so), this month with Gordie somehow seemed to fly by. I don’t know how, either, since we’ve pretty much been house-bound this entire time thanks to the constant blizzards, wind storms, and subzero wind chills. First, a few updates from the struggles of last month …

Daycare: Much improved. We’ve stayed consistent with our goodbye routine there each morning, and slowly but surely the clutching and tears have diminished. The drop-offs are much easier these days. Gordie loves his teachers and his friends at daycare - lots of new names are sprinkled into our conversations at home. He knows the words (and sometimes motions) to so many more songs now. He’s also becoming something of a climber - there’s of course lots of play equipment at the center, including slides, lofts, and climbing ladders, and Gordie has been bitten by the climbing bug. We don’t have so much play equipment like that at home, but so far that’s not phasing him. I took Gordie in for a bonus visit on Valentine’s Day (we don’t usually use daycare on Thursdays) so that we could participate in the kids’ “party” - not much more than decorating some heart-shaped cookies with sprinkles, but it was fun nonetheless.

Naptime: Still a struggle. He’s given up napping half the time at daycare (the teachers just love that). At home he continues to resist. We try to be nonchalant about it all, enforcing a version of “quiet time” in his room (sadly, quiet time doesn’t work so well when we leave the room, so one of us is in there with him) each afternoon and trying to swoop in if we get any nap-ready signals from Gordie … the trouble is, he’s wise to all of that, so naptime rarely ever happens at home. This makes for some pretty dramatic afternoons and evenings, when he just can’t hold himself together any longer.

Bedtime: A work in progress. We went ahead with our sleep training refresher right at the beginning of this month - that worked great, and it only took a couple of days to get him back on track. At some point, though, bedtime started to disintegrate again - maybe due to a nighttime cough that’s persisted for much of this month? - and we had another very rough stretch. We seem to be doing better again lately, but who knows how long this will last. We are noticing a bit of a pattern - for all of the pain and agony that the hours leading up to bedtime can bring on a day without a nap, Gordie is so exhausted by the end of the day that there’s just not enough fight left in him to struggle at bedtime. On the rare occasions that he does take a nap, there’s a pretty good chance that he will use some of that reserved energy to horse around at night. So much fun!

We’ve had good times with babyfriends this month. One family suggested that we start a collaborative “date night” of sorts, rounding up all of the kids and parents at someone’s house, one lucky couple sneaking away for a date, and the rest of us playing with the kids and sharing a meal. We hosted two of these gatherings at our house this month, and they’ve been a lot of fun. The parent-less kids have done very well with this large-group babysitting arrangement, barely noticing that their parents have left, and the rest of us have enjoyed each other’s company. Gordie loves to have friends come over to play, so he’s always game for a date night gathering. (It’s not really at night, either - we decided that adding bedtime to the mix would be too much of a challenge - people are heading home by 7 or 7:30.)

The combination of regular art projects at daycare and the opportunity to make valentines has really spiked Gordie’s interest in painting. We’ve done a lot of painting at the breakfast nook table this month, experimenting with brushes, sponges, and the always-reliable hands and fingers. Painting with Gordie has been a blast. He’s so proud of his creations, too - he brings home art projects from daycare, plus whatever he makes at home. We’ve started the ritual refrigerator art-hanging, and Gordie’s been decorating his room with the overflow.

I can tell that the wheels are turning in Gordie’s head as he thinks about just what exactly life will be like once the new baby moves in … We’ve heard a lot of “I’m a baby” from him these days. He dug out some old teethers and infant spoons from a kitchen drawer and likes to chomp on those. He also has developed his own approximation of an infant’s cry (never mind that Gordie really didn’t cry that much as a baby - we’ve tried to tell him this, and he doesn’t seem to believe it). The first born child suddenly feels the ground shifting a bit beneath his feet … I’m a little torn up with guilt these days, too, hoping that the adjustment period won’t be too hard on Gordie. At least he’s getting an early start with working through all of these feelings.

Favorites at storytime these days include the absolutely insufferable Richard Scarry travesties, Cars and Trucks and Things that Go and Busy, Busy Town. We read them several times a day. A few highlights from the library (thanks, Stewart!): Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson, A Hat for Minerva Louise by Janet Morgan Stoeke, Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup, and Tanka Tanka Skunk by Steve Webb. At home, Gordie’s renewed his love for Mercer Mayer’s A Boy, A Dog and A Frog series as well as most books illustrated by David Small. Best of all, though, he’s really loving Shel Silverstein poems. He pulled a book of poems off the shelf one night at bedtime, and they’ve been a favorite ever since.

Gordie, you are still my baby and always will be. I’m glad we still have a couple months of special time left together, but I also can’t wait to see how you grow into being a big brother. I think you will do just fine.

Oh, the trials of being pregnant while already being a parent, of a toddler no less. Most days, I feel like this pregnancy is happening without any major involvement on my part. My body is the baby factory, and I’m too busy with life on the outside to be very reflective about what’s happening inside. I’m trying to change this, to take a little time to daydream about this baby and be attentive to the pregnancy. Last time around, I kept an old-fashioned journal and did some major night-time writing. That was after a warm bath, some leisurely reading, the luxurious belly rub potion application, etc. This time around, kiddo, you’re lucky if I remember to avoid rolling onto my stomach and squashing you in my sleep. Some brief reflections, at this late date (I’m on the cusp of the third trimester, already!):

I love the baby swimming action. So far you tend to move the most at night and in the early morning. Lately, though, you are dancing on and off throughout the day. Also, you seem to enjoy kicking me in the crotch.

I’ve already developed the charming pregnant-lady pants-hitching maneuver (these elastic “waistbands” are such a joke). I’m waiting for the day when I start lowering myself into chairs while bracing my arms on the armrests, rather than just plopping right down.

It took a long time for Stewart to be able to feel your movements (maybe it felt that way because I started recognizing them so early this time around), but now he can feel you jabbing him, and you seem to respond to his voice sometimes.

You are getting a powerful dose of in-utero storytime since I spend so much time reading to your brother. You will know all the words before too long.

I swallowed my pride and filled the prescription for maternity compression stockings last month (three cheers for varicose veins!).

You seem to have given me a taste for potato chips. Or maybe I’m just using you as an excuse. But wow are they delicious. Some day you will agree.

We’ve decided to change midwivery practices, to try to get a more personal relationship with our health care provider before you are born. I hope it works. If we can swing the work schedule juggling and the childcare arrangements, we’re also hoping to take a little refresher course in natural birth.

Funny, I don’t feel as volatilely emotional this time around. I am, however, doing a fine motherly dance with guilt right now. Currently I’m feeling guilty about all of the changes that are in store for Gordie and his charmed little life. Soon, I’m sure, I’ll switch the guilt over to you and the charmed only-child years you’ll never have a chance to enjoy. Sigh.

Since it’s snowing like crazy right now and we’ve had recent subzero wind chills and other thrilling winter weather events, I’m thinking about the summer. I have a vision of you snuggled up in a babycarrier, snoozing through some form of u-pick outing (blueberries?) with Gordie and me. Will you hold me to that?

What a month! Big holidays, big changes, big mood swings, lots of snow …

Gordie very much enjoyed the Christmas holidays. We tried to keep things low-key: minimizing our traveling, attempting to keep the gift mountain as small and simple as possible. Of course, we heard this from Gordie several times over the week or two surrounding Christmas: “I need some more presents!” Don’t we all, kiddo. Gordie happily received several variations on the themes of dinosaurs, vehicles, books, and puzzles, as well as a little play kitchen and his very own record player. In addition to the presents, Gordie enjoyed all of the family time, Gramma J’s many snowglobes (or “snowbobes,” as Gordie tends to say), all of the delicious meals and treats, examining everyone’s Christmas trees, meeting Santa Claus for the very first time (at the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing - I highly recommend visiting Santa at the zoo), and lots of dancing. Gordie and I were on break from work and daycare over the holidays, so we spent a lot of quality time together at home, even joined by Daddy for several days. As for New Year’s, we hosted another New Year’s Eve family-friendly brunch. We had even more kids and parents in attendance than last year, we had a delicious potluck meal, and everyone had a great time - this is one of my favorite new traditions we’ve established since coming to Kalamazoo. We enjoyed a visit from friends Martin and Melissa, and the grown-ups rang in the New Year at home with a few extra friends, Aunt Meg, and several hands of poker. Gordie was fighting off a cold and cough for most of the winter break, so he timed a coughing fit just perfectly for the stroke of midnight - Stewart and I were upstairs soothing him to “ring in” the new year as a family. Happy 2008! Snow started falling that night and well into New Year’s Day, so we had a lovely snow-covered neighborhood to explore on the sled to start the new year.

And now, for the highly-anticipated (or not) daycare update! We spent a good portion of our winter break visiting one particular daycare center in town with Gordie, and we all felt pretty excited about the transition to his “new school.” They have a very prolonged introduction to the program - kids have to make three 1-hour visits before they enroll, first: with a parent, second: half with a parent and half on their own, and third: on their own. Gordie loved his visits and got to know some of the children, the teaching staff, and most importantly, scoped out all of the toys, games, and materials. Stewart and I liked the program for its generous adult-to-child ratio in the toddler room (at least 1:4, with 3 degreed teachers and a handful of part-time college student assistants), the range of activities and programming (art, gym, music, big outdoor playground, stories, large- and small-motor activities, etc), the on-site kitchen staff preparing homemade meals and snacks daily (the institutional food service aspect of daycare was something I really worried about - this place serves breakfast, lunch, and two good snacks, freshly prepared, and the food looks and smells like food I’d actually want to eat myself … no nuggets or tots of any kind!), help with potty training (!!), and the friendly, open feel of the place. Gordie is enrolled in their toddler room, with kids ages 1.5 - 2.5 years (approximately). Around age 2.5, he’ll move to a transitional preschool group, and he’ll join the regular preschool program around age 3. So, we arrived at Gordie’s “new school” on January 7th with a positive, hopeful attitude. Gordie had a great first week (he just goes on Mondays and Wednesdays), barely noticing my attempts to give him a goodbye hug - instead he was distracted by the kids and toys beckoning him (”oooh, look at this!”).

Of course, at some point, reality had to sink in.

We seem to be entering a new and improved phase of separation anxiety with Gordie around here, most dramatically observed during daycare drop-off. The effects include some pathetic whimpering of “I want to go back home” on the car ride there, big crocodile tears in the back seat, a little calming-down upon entry to the toddler room - quickly followed by demands to nurse, and ending in an escalating display of tears, snot, howling, and wiggling as I deposit him into the arms of a teacher and make my quick (if guilty and internally conflicted) exit. It’s been rough. We’re in week two of this Separation Anxiety Theater now, showing no signs of slowing down. Gordie doesn’t hold back at home, either. Since I’m usually there with him, he doesn’t have to ramp himself up to a full tantrum, but he does demand a lot more carrying and proximity. On his terms, of course - if I offer a snuggle, he will just as likely refuse it. But, watch me step away for 10 seconds to pick up the newspaper from the other room or (heaven forbid) try to prepare a meal with both hands free, and Gordie’s right there demanding my full emotional, mental, and physical attention.

I know this is normal, and I know (hope?), like everything else, it’s just a phase. But it’s taking a toll on all of us. I hate seeing Gordie so vulnerable and upset. In the moment, of course, I’m torn between tenderness and impatience. So send along some patience (and extra upper-body strength), if you’ve got any to spare. I know Gordie’s doing his best to work through all of this, in classic toddler form - he’s doing a lot of pretending. Almost every day, he likes to play at going to daycare. Sometimes he “drops me off” and says goodbye, then comes back to pick me up. Other times, he’s the one staying at daycare, and he tells me about his day when he “comes home.” It’s pretty adorable. I’m still waiting for all those dress rehearsals to take some of the intensity out of the real thing…

Exacerbating this whole transition to daycare and separation anxiety phase is Gordie’s continued resistance to his daily nap. He does nap at daycare, but we’re lucky to get one nap a week out of him at home. For the most part, he can get through the day, but he’s exhausted by dinnertime. If there’s any hint of emotional upset during those extra-tired last few hours of the day, the effects are profoundly amplified. To complicate things further, bedtime has become something of a struggle again - for a while in December, Gordie had stopped napping but was falling asleep practically before his head hit the pillow. For the last few weeks, though, we’ve been treated to a return of the bedtime shenanigans - endless requests to “rub my back,” “walk over there,” “get out,” “go downstairs,” “one more hug” - you name it. With such a tired boy in the house, we’re not willing to sacrifice any more of his sleep, so we’ve decided to put Gordie through a refresher sleep training course at bedtime. No more negotiating, no more backrubs, just the regular bedtime routine, hugs and kisses, covers in bed, and then Daddy sitting nearby soothing him until Gordie decides he is tired after all. I’ll let you know how it works out.

We’ve had a great time playing in the snow this month, with several snowfalls to keep our supply fresh. Gordie’s getting pretty good at art-directing snowman construction (he prefers to let us do the heavy rolling and lifting). We discovered that many sand toys are equally fun in the snow. This, of course, has reminded Gordie of all of the cool toys we had out in the yard over the summer and fall - every time we play outside, he’ll ask me about his water table or his wheelbarrow or whatever. I try to assure him that they are all safely stored away in the garage, waiting for spring.

Actually, waiting for spring is another major theme of late. We’re waiting for spring, when the new baby will arrive, and Gordie will realize his dreams of holding it, loving it, and nursing it (he’s a helper, my son). Our favorite neighborhood ice cream store is closed for the winter. When will it open? Spring, of course! Lots to look forward to.

Gordie loves singing songs, and he’s getting pretty good at it. He can’t enunciate all of the words all of the time, but he does his best to get the rhythm and timing right. He loves to be sung to, of course, and has for some time, but the really cool development of late is that he loves to sing to himself. I’m amazed at how quickly he can add a song to his repertoire - it seems like he only has to hear it once or twice before he starts trying to sing it himself. Some of Gordie’s favorites include the ABC’s, Row Row Row Your Boat, Ring Around the Rosie, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and the Kangaroo Song (My Father Slew a Kangaroo, for those of you familiar with camp songs).

We’ve been doing a lot of reading this month, too (part of the bedtime shenanigans involve adding more and more stories to the pile). Favorites include Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter series (the early books are much much better than the later ones, but Gordie doesn’t seem to mind either way), A Bear and His Boy by Sean Bryan, The Surprise by Sylvia van Ommen (lovely wordless knitting story), What Pete Ate by Maira Kalman (dogs, the alphabet, and lots of silliness), Once Upon a Potty by Alona Frankel (so very very irritating, but Gordie does love to talk and think about the potty these days), Pepito the Brave by Scott Beck, Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, Car Wash by Sandra and Susan Steen, and Clip Clop by Nicola Smee (again!).

So many transitions this month, little Gordie. I’m happy to do my best to shepherd you through them, but sometimes I do feel just about as confused and upset as you are by the whole situation. We’ll get through this together. At the end of the day, I’m just glad that you’re my sweet, sensitive little boy, and I love you very much.

I shuffled off this morning to do my civic duty and vote in our pathetic joke of a “primary election.” If you aren’t familiar with the exciting story of Michigan trying to take its voters’ issues to the national stage by breaking party rules and moving up the primary date, you can read all about it.

Today, we have a Democratic ballot consisting of Hillary Clinton (who did not campaign here), Chris Dodd (who has since dropped out of the race), Mike Gravel (who?), and Dennis Kucinich (I’m with you on the issues, buddy, but you and your UFO-sightings haven’t got a chance). Also, if you don’t like any of those four, you can fill in the oval next to “Uncommitted.” The newspapers keep saying that if at least 15% of voters vote “uncommitted,” then we’ll have some free-ranging delegates at the national convention. Oh, but wait, we won’t actually have any Michigan Democratic delegates seated at the convention. And in the latest development, those wayward Michigan delegates looking at the very least for a free party and an open bar won’t even have a hotel reservation. Yes, Michigan has indeed found its voice on the national stage. The Detroit Free Press thinks so - this morning’s front page headline was “All Eyes on Michigan.” If you say so, guys.

Sigh.

What a month! Themes included holidays, naptime struggles, and puke. We started with Thanksgiving week, gearing up for a train trip to Aunt Meg’s in Detroit for the holiday. Gordie couldn’t have been more excited. He was so excited, in fact, that he couldn’t stay asleep at naptime the day we were scheduled to leave. When he woke up crying ten minutes after he fell asleep, he got himself so worked up that he puked up his lunch. (This cry-so-hard-you-puke has happened before – not for a while, though.) That whole incident really disrupted naptime, and Gordie couldn’t get himself back to sleep. So we headed to the train station later that day with a very tired boy. He caught a second wind while waiting for the train – he kept himself busy by running up to the door and shouting “All Aboard!” at the top of his lungs, over and over. Pretty entertaining for all of the frazzled Thanksgiving travelers, I’m sure. We took a train ride in the dark to Aunt Meg’s house and then spent a long Thanksgiving weekend with her and the rest of the Jennings family. Gordie loved the family time, the Detroit Thanksgiving parade, the piano, the cats, and of course the best part about Aunt Meg’s house: Kevin. The only thing he didn’t love was napping – he refused to nap the whole time we were there, making for an increasingly pleasant personality as the weekend went on. Our train traveled home in the afternoon, and Gordie loved the views from the windows and the long walks up and down the train cars.

We had a rather uneventful week following Thanksgiving, until the end of daycare on Thursday, when little Maeve seemed out of sorts, needed some cuddling, and then had a spectacular puke. Maeve went home in a daze that afternoon, with a weekend of stomach flu ahead of her. Gordie started his puke brigade at around 9:30 that same night – our kid’s first experience with waking up in a puddle of his own vomit! – and his puking continued on and off for the rest of the weekend. I think we laundered every pair of Gordie’s pajamas, every towel and rag in the house, and several sets of sheets that weekend, and I lost count of how many times I was puked on. We also discovered that Gordie’s sensitive little stomach takes a very long time to recover from a bug like this. After a couple days of very bland food, Gordie would be starving and begging for real food. We’d try something more normal, and Gordie would promptly puke it up. Once we figured out that Gordie’s stomach clearly needed more time to heal (it took us perhaps longer to figure this out than necessary – we could have done without the dramatic puking at a downtown art hop reception), we geared up for a full week of bland yet nourishing meals. All in all, our active stomach flu and recovery time lasted over eleven days. Thankfully (and somewhat magically), neither Stewart nor I started puking. I sincerely hope that our prolonged ordeal has earned us a puke-free card to last for several more months, if not years.

When Gordie finally bounced back from the flu, he was (1) starving, and (2) filled with energy, energy that he decided to dedicate to the pursuit of avoiding naptime. A starving kid I can deal with (you’d like to eat an entire quarter-pound cheeseburger for lunch? Be my guest!); a sloppy puddle of exhausted no-nap toddler wailing on the floor at 5pm tends to try my patience a bit. He’s been on a kick of avoiding anywhere from two to four naps per week lately, exerting his little toddler will any way he can. Reasoning with Gordie at naptime doesn’t seem to work, nor does pointing out his exhaustion while he’s in the throes of a dinnertime tantrum. I’m trying to stay relaxed about the whole situation and hope that this little exercise in willpower will pass.

It hasn’t been all vomit and naptime resistance this month, of course. We’ve had a few nice snowfalls, and Gordie’s trusty orange sled has been ceremoniously removed from the garage and taken for several spins around the backyard and the block. Wintertime play can be so much fun. We decorated our Christmas tree, and Gordie loves to gently inspect the ornaments. Gordie and I embarked on our first cookie-making-and-decorating project. I made the gingerbread cookie dough beforehand, and Gordie proved to be a master of the cookie cutters and the decorating sprinkles. He had a ball, and he stayed very focused on the cutting and decorating tasks. That is, until he figured out that cookie dough is edible. At that point, he had a hard time understanding why we would fuss around with all of this cutting, decorating, and baking when we could just eat the “cookies” right out of the bowl. We delivered homemade xmas treats to our neighborhood friends, and we’re really looking forward to a calm and cozy winter break at home over the next couple of weeks.

A big development for Gordie this month has been a spike in his imaginative play. He often makes his toys have little conversations with each other – elephant and giraffe, dump truck and mail truck, one cookie cutter to another. My favorite pastime of late is to hang back in the shadows and eavesdrop on these conversations – it’s much more fun to see what Gordie comes up with on his own. When we play with him, of course we have to “talk” the pteranodon or the bear or the gingerbread man, and that tends to influence the play somewhat. My favorite overhead snippet to date: “I’m the elephant. Boo-hoo-hoo, I’m sad!”

We recently learned that our tidy daycare swap isn’t going to work out come January, so Stewart and I have spent some time researching other childcare options in the area. We think we’ve found a place that will fit for us – we’ll take Gordie there on a visit next week, and that’s when the real decider will have his say. It’s a more traditional childcare center, with a toddler group that eventually grows into their preschool program. Since we were planning on enrolling Gordie in preschool this coming fall, it seems like a good choice for us. Stay tuned for next month’s report on how the transition goes! (Sometimes I spend too much time worrying and hypothesizing about transitions and how kids will handle them … this will be an experiment in real time for us with Gordie.)

And, of course, Gordie’s preferred reading list from this past month: Hands-down, his favorite author/illustrator right now is Tomi Ungerer (let’s all pause for a moment and mourn the fact that many of his books are now out of print). Gordie’s favorites include The Three Robbers, The Hat, Crictor, and Moonman. We checked a stack of books out from the library before our train trip to Detroit, many on the themes of either dinosaurs or trains. Gordie’s favorite of that stack was this charming little book (again, out of print) called A Dinosaur is Too Big by Elizabeth Bram. Mouse’s Birthday by Jane Yolen is a sweet little rhyming story that Gordie loves. We’ve also gotten several kicks out of Jon Agee’s Milo’s Hat Trick. Gordie is also very partial to Quentin Blake – his books have been at the top of our stack for months. We continue to read Mr. Magnolia, ABC, and Zagazoo many many times over. Finally, Gordie spends lots of time poring over Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go – either checking out all the wacky vehicles or searching diligently for Goldbug.

Gordie, I’m ready for a cozy Christmas and winter break with you. We’re about to embark on a new year together, with lots of big changes in store. I think we can handle them all, though, and I’m so excited to see this year unfold!

Please excuse the Thanksgiving-induced delay to this post. We’ve been busy. And sniffly. And often tired.

The past month, though, has been pretty fun. A month with both a birthday party and Halloween can’t be all bad. Gordie’s birthday party was great, complete with several toddlers in costume, enough parents to keep the chaos contained, some art supplies, small pumpkins, tasty food and a much more presentable cake. It was a costume party - Gordie dressed as a giraffe, and there were many other animals in attendance. Then, just a few days later, Gordie got all dressed up in another costume for Halloween. This time, he was Yoda. Nevermind that he doesn’t really know who Yoda is - the kid looked cute. Our plan was to just dress him up and have fun handing out candy at home, enjoying all the other kids in costume. Of course, once the evening was underway and the Halloween magic began, Stewart couldn’t resist taking Gordie on a mini trick-or-treating run to a few of the neighbor’s houses. I don’t know if he understood it, but he definitely had a good time. He loved everything about Halloween this year, actually - the pumpkin carving, the decorations around our neighborhood. We took several walks to “see the decorations,” and he never got tired of it. Just wait until those Christmas lights go up, kiddo …

Daycare went fairly well this month. Although I know the kids aren’t there yet developmentally, we’ve been focusing on what little sharing we can accomplish, for everyone’s sanity. Some days it works better than others. Daycare naptime was our biggest challenge this month. Maybe I need to attend a seminar.

Gordie was re-introduced to a member of the family this month - Uncle Andy was in town and came for dinner. Wow, did Gordie have a great time playing with him. We’re looking forward to more time with Uncle Andy in the upcoming month or so, as he’ll be staying in Kalamazoo for a while before heading off to the Peace Corps. Gordie does enjoy the company of his uncles and aunts.

He’s also able to express his wishes quite clearly these days, and for weeks he asked to go to Gramma and Grampa’s house. Finally we found a free weekend, and in the days leading up to the trip, Gordie was beside himself with excitement. He talked about everything he would do once we got there: play with toys in the basement (I’ll spare you the details, but he really would name every toy he could think of), go for walks with the dog Leah, play with Gramma and Grampa, work in the garden, see Great-Gramma, cook with Gramma. It’s amazing how much he remembers and can re-tell. Needless to say, we had a great visit, and as we were driving home, Gordie asked to go to Gramma and Grampa’s house again.

We shared some big news with Gordie this month: there is a new baby growing in momma’s tummy. We have a cute little lift-the-flap book about “what’s inside” many things, include a pregnant woman’s belly. We talked with Gordie and then gave him the book. He seems to understand it all on his level. When we first told him, he tried to dig around under my clothes to find this mysterious “baby” - when we convinced him that it was indeed inside, and he couldn’t see it yet, he asked if he could “hold it.” In a while, kiddo. He seems to keep the information in the back of his mind, and he brings up the baby in momma’s tummy every now and again. The belly isn’t too big yet, but I’m really looking forward to a big-bellied winter with Gordie.

Songs and stories were important this month. Gordie’s started to memorize little sing-along songs, and he has a whole repertoire of requests - Ring Around the Rosie, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, etc. As for stories, he enjoyed several of his new birthday books. We got him a couple of the “Little Critter” series by Mercer Mayer: specifically, All by Myself and When I Get Bigger. I remember reading those with my sisters when we were young, and Gordie seems to love them as much as we did. There’s a new Llama Llama book - Lllama Llama Mad at Mama - that Gordie finds hilarious and true. We also got a lot of mileage out of a few library books, especially Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard and ABC Pop! by Rachel Isadora.

Gordie, we’re in the holiday stretch here, and I’m ready for some cozy times with you this winter. Thank you for your jokes, hugs, and kisses - they always seem to come at just the right time.

You may remember last year’s healthy birthday cake debacle. I am pleased to announce that I prepared a sweet, gooey birthday cake for my child this year. Chocolate-pumpkin cake, in both bundt and cupcake forms. No shockingly bright store-bought decorating icing was used. The bundt cake got a sprinkling of cacao nibs; the cupcakes were topped with miniature chocolate chips. Gordie ate every last crumb of his cupcake, so I think the cake was a success.

We served this cake at a rollicking toddler birthday party - 15 children were in attendance, mostly babies and toddlers, ages 4 months and up. No balloons were burst, no furniture was ruined. I even attempted a craft project and group photo! (In theory - in reality we had vague approximations of said craft project and group photo.) My family came early to help with set-up, decorating, and food prep, and overall it was a pretty stress-free occasion. Gordie had a ball, and we enjoyed the overwhelming cuteness of throngs of toddlers in Halloween costumes. This was probably the last birthday where Stewart and I could call all the party-planning shots … Now that Gordie really understands what birthdays are all about (and with the benefit of another year of language development), I’m sure we’ll have to negotiate every last detail of next year’s party with him. “I want pizza and hot dogs!” “Of course we should set up the wading pool!” “Why wouldn’t we offer pony rides at my third birthday party extravaganza?”