Bubbles

As Harmon neared the 15-month mark, we slowly moved him from his baby bathtub into the regular bathtub. He wasn’t at all happy about it so I spent an afternoon at Target buying a bunch of stuff to make his bathing experience more pleasant. I bought some balls, of course, which really helped and I bought some bubbles. I didn’t think the bubbles would make a damn bit of difference but they have become his favorite part of bath time. When it nears time for his bath, he sits near the bathroom door and says “bubbles” many, many times – it’s very cute!

Bubbles also have permeated other parts of his daily goings on. I have a set of large plastic jelly beans that I bought to hang from our Japanese Maple tree, if it ever warms up around here, and he is obsessed with these things. They are bright and colorful so naturally he wants to play with them. I’ve had to hide them in the linen closet because he's nearly impaled himself on our baker’s rack a dozen times trying to get to them. Every time I open the closet to get a towel or washcloth, he sees them and makes a beeline for the door. If I manage to get the door closed before he gets there, he’ll just sit there and cry “bubbles, bubbles” for a few minutes. I shouldn’t laugh but it’s hilarious!

BREAKING NEWS: It was damn near 80 degrees today so we finally hung the jelly beans (or bubbles, as Harmon calls them) from the tree. Glad we got it done before Easter or that would have defeated the whole purpose!

Cry for you

Today when we dropped Harmon off at day care, he cried when we tried to leave. He’s been going to day care for well over a year now and this is the first time it’s happened. I’ve always dreaded this and it was just as bad as I imagined.

At our new day care, all of the kids start in one room and then break into their respective age groups at 9 a.m. The teacher has told us, after only a few weeks there, that Harmon is none too happy with this arrangement. We’re not sure if it’s too much commotion with all the coming and going of parents, kids and teachers or if it’s just that he’s still adjusting to the new place. It also could be the simple fact that there just aren’t any balls available in this room!

Anyway, this morning, we put him down and we thought all was well as he made his way to Mr. Potato Head. But, as we started to leave, he started crying and reaching for me. I hugged him and calmed him down and we tried again to leave but, this time, he started crying and reaching for Kevin. At this point, one of the teachers stepped in, picked him up and tried to distract him but it didn’t work. Once again, he started crying and practically jumping out of her arms to get to us. Since I’ve always read that you just have to leave, that’s what we did … and it was awful. I barely got to the door before I was in tears. It was the first time in his short life that he’s cried and reached out to me and I wasn’t able to console him and make things all better. It felt terrible. Of course, Kevin was the strong one and he kept telling me it was going to be OK – I’m so glad he was there when this happened.

I thought about his sad little face (like above) all day long and all the feelings of guilt I have for being a working Mom came rushing back along with all the doubts I have about being a good enough Mom for him. I’m sure he was fine five minutes after we left while I spent all day worrying about him but I guess that’s part of being a Mom.

I was able to pick him up early today and seeing him so excited to see me made me feel so much better. I know days like today are going to happen – I just hope ANOTHER year goes by before we have one again!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

If this and this keep up (we’re only in freakin' SPRING PRACTICE – what the hell is going to happen in the fall), we truly will be just like Ohio State! Well … minus the big-time wins, Big 10 championships, national championships, Heismans, etc.

So much for the "at least we run a good program with good kids" bit (what an OLD bit, by the way). We have thugs just like everyone else and, therefore, shouldn't claim to be some "paragon of integrity."

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

And, happy 48th birthday to Danny Ainge (I love you)!


ANYWAY, there was some luck of the Irish in Ann Arbor today as Tommy Amaker was fired as the U-M basketball coach. Although he did take the job under some really bad circumstances, cleaned up the program and brought it to some level of respectability, he wasn’t able to take it to the next level. And, thankfully, Bill Martin finally realized that and is making a change. Coaching searches at U-M are rare so the next few weeks should be interesting.

The last few days really have been fun as we’ve watched WAY TOO MUCH basketball. Even though U-M was not involved (AGAIN) in the NCAA tourney, it’s still such a fun time of year! Since Harmon didn’t even know he was alive for the 2006 tournament, he has gotten his first real taste of it this year. I used a vacation day on Thursday and I’m usually off on Fridays so I was able to watch a ton of games. Kevin was off too both days but that was because he was sick. But, being sick didn’t keep him from watching some hoops! One day, when Harmon is old enough to ask to skip school to stay home and watch the tournament, let me just say right now that the answer will be “yes!”

Don't mess with 'H'

Now on the other side of 16 months, there are a few things Harmon does not care much for. He used to hate when I called him 'Nator, he doesn't like waiting for his food, and you take your life, and your eardrums, in your hands when you pick him up to get him ready for bed. Even early on, he showed his dislike for losing to Ohio State (get used to it, kid). But, now that he is mostly walking and can get to us easier, he is taking a more hands-on approach to his most recent dislike. He does not like it much when Aimee and I hug. I am not sure if he is being protective of his Mama, because he thinks I might be hurting her, or that he just wants to be the one to say when it is time to dole out hugs. Whatever it is, he will physically try and pry us apart when we hug. Someday he will understand if it wasn't for hugs, he may not be here.

16 months old

Harmon is 16 months old today and is just rolling right along. He's walking, although not on a full-time basis. I assume one day he's just going to start running all over the place.

One of our favorite new things is when he stands at his bedroom door and says "read, read." He loves for us to sit with him and read, so much that we have to keep adding to his library. We read with him before bed and before naps and at other random times throughout the day and he loves it. Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come.

Over the weekend, we made the trek to Pottery Barn Kids at the fancypants Somerset Mall. We saw the toddler chairs on-line and wanted to see how Harmon reacted to one of them before we made the purchase. So, we took him out of his stroller and put him in the chair and he loved it! He also loved several other very expensive Pottery Barn Kids' items (yikes) but we decided on just the chair. After we got home and had dinner, we put the chair together and he crawled right into it. We had it in the living room on our area rug with the back to the hardwood floor – which was a bad decision. While sitting in the chair, he kept throwing his head back until the whole thing flipped backward. Of course, he bumped his little head on the floor and was crying so we had to collect him and console him. I know you're not supposed to laugh at your kids but, once we realized he was OK, Kevin and I looked at each and TOTALLY DIED! I don't know if it was the look on his face as the chair was falling backward or that all you could see from our angle was two feet in the air or the fact that he still was in a perfect sitting position when I picked him up to hug him but it was hilarious!

We thought maybe he might be a little averse to the chair after the incident but it doesn't seem to have registered with him. Today, before I came to work, he sat in it and I sat alongside him and we watch Blue Clues together. Kevin then called me in the afternoon and said he was sitting in it watching the Wonder Pets too. So, he must like it and I'm glad because it's part of his Easter present!

Here and there

Well, it looks like we made a good decision in switching Harmon's day care. We got a call last night from one of the teachers from KidZone saying they officially are closing. Kevin and I both breathed a sigh of relief from our end but also felt really bad for the great teachers who now are looking for new jobs. Sad!

Our last few days have been pretty uneventful. Kevin's Dad left to go back to Peoria Friday morning. He was here working hard on our basement for a week. The transformation is amazing! On Friday night, we went to Pizza House for dinner (for the first time since New Year's Eve). Harmon was perfectly behaved but completely uninterested in dining with me and Kevin. He was WAY more interested in the waitress, the hostess, the people at all the tables around us, etc. Good times!

On Saturday, I had a 9 a.m. dentist appointment (no cavities, woo hoo), followed by a 10:30 a.m. hair appointment for Kevin and finally a hair appointment for me at noon – all in Waterford near my parents' house. It was a very busy morning. After all the appointments, we dropped Harmon off with my parents – where he proudly displayed his new walking skeels – and went to see Zodiac, which was a great movie. Speaking of Zodiac, I thought about reading the book so I looked up some reviews on on amazon.com and many reviewers were saying it was the scariest book they've ever read … so I don't think I'll be reading it. Kevin thinks I'm annoying NOW about being left alone; imagine life after reading that book!

ANYWAY, while we were at the movies, Harmon developed a bit of a fever. He had a bit of a cold, which we're more than used to with day care as a part of his life, but had some new things going on too. He had really goopy eyes and a slowly-disappearing hives/rash thingy. I had called about the hives/rash the previous Friday and spoke with the nurse who assured me he wasn't going to die of scarlet fever but then he developed the eye thing and I felt bad for not taking him in. SO, the rest of the weekend was spent making sure he was happy and comfortable.

Of course, directly following Harmon's cold is some kind of ailment for Mommy. Again, it started with a sore throat last Thursday and then, on Saturday, I began losing my voice. Saturday night and Sunday night were awful as every time I would TRY to lie down, I would start coughing violently so I got almost no sleep – so damn frustrating. Because I was a zombie, I called in sick on Monday and Kevin and I took Harmon to the doctor's office Monday afternoon. Turns out he had a bit of an eye infection so she prescribed him some drops and, after taking a look in his ears, she saw some fluid. She said there was no ear infection YET but it probably was on the way (thus the fever) so she prescribed us some more antibiotics. As for the hives/rash issue, apparently Harmon is allergic to fish, as this was the only thing he ate recently that was out of the ordinary. So, no eggs or fish for him for a while. I'm actually glad about the fish – I hate fish!

Not much else is new. Harmon continues to walk just enough to tease us and then goes back to crawling. I'm sure he's just going to take off and run one day and then we'll be in for it!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

This morning, Kevin and I dropped Harmon off at his new day care center, Annie's Children's Center in Ann Arbor's Kerrytown District. It was hard but not quite as hard as it was his very first day in February 2006. We took him into the room where the toddlers were, put him down and he crawled over and got all involved in what the other kids were doing. We waved and told him goodbye and he was fine. I wasn't though as I cried when we left. It just feels weird getting used to new people taking care of the most important person in your life. I'm sure I'll get used to it quickly but the first couple of weeks will be hard. To console me, Kevin drove to Starbucks. When all else fails, a Venti Lite Mocha Frappuccino makes you feel a little better! I called Annie's at lunch and spoke with Harmon's new teacher, Abby, and she said he was having a great first day. He ate well during snack time and at lunch and he was playing well with the other toddlers. The only glitch in the day was some fussiness at nap time, probably because he was overtired. Abby did tell me that they have one toddler who is very touchy-feely and likes to hug everyone. Evidently, he was trying to hug Harmon, who was not having any of it. She said he was getting a little frustrated by this, which doesn't surprise me. He hugs when he wants to and, if he doesn't want to, he squirms and contorts his body until he can get away from the hugger! Anyway, I pick him up around 5:45 p.m. so we'll see how the afternoon went.

As for our old day care, when Kevin was there Tuesday for Harmon's last day, there still was no clear plan for them. It's a shame because it was a great place with great teachers. But, they've known about getting kicked out of the church since last April so it never should have come down to the wire like this. Hopefully, for the sake of the teachers and the kids who are left, they'll be able to pull something together.