Notes from the crib

Last night DH went to church to fix the computer (clearly a good man, unlike his bitter wife). While there he encountered a security guard demanding to know who he was and what he was doing. He said that there were some movie props being moved in, and the rent-a-cop was protecting the set. DH told the security dude that he was there to fix the computer, that he'd been called by the secretary, and that the dude could call the pastor if he wanted, but that DH wasn't going to be responsible for waking up the pastor (it was after 10PM at that point). DH was allowed to go on his merry way and he diagnosed the computer problem and came home.

Meanwhile, I decided I could either mope about not being in the movie, or do something about it. So today George and I took a drive to see how closely we could get to the church. It turns out we could get really close. Only one road directly behind the church was shut down, with sheriff's deputies posted at both ends. George and I made a wide circle on the roads around the church, pulling off a few times to take pictures of the church surrounded by movie equipment (trailers, catering tents, bright lights, etc.). George fell asleep during this excursion, so I headed home and put him to bed for a nap. I then decided to call the people that live across the street from the church and ask them if I could come park on their property and watch the movie filming. The lady called me back a little bit later and gave me permission. She is a church member and on the church council, and I was able to share with her my disappointment in not being part of the information circle at church and feeling left out. I suggested maybe we work on better communication (this is not the only thing that I've felt left out of as far as church goes, it was just the latest and most "important" one to me). We ended up having a good conversation and I feel much more at peace with what happened, and that we may be able to use this as a way to increase the communication channel at church. I think if the church wants to grow and add new members, better communication will go a long way in supporting that.

After George woke from his nap, we had lunch, and then headed over to the church neighbor's property. They were not home, so I sat in the car for awhile before I got up the nerve to get out (I'm shy!) George and I first walked around the property and then I got up the nerve to go back to the car and get the camera. I started taking pictures of George and occasionally would take a few pictures of the movie shoot. Primarily, I used my camera's zoom lens as binoculars to see what was going on at the shoot. My eye sight is not that great, and we were a distance away, what with the church being in the middle of farmland. I am not even 100% of the actors that were there, although I think I saw Brad Pitt and the fairly-unknown actress playing his wife.

George and I played and snapped pictures for an hour and a half. He started getting a little too close to the road, which bothered me since I didn't want to be really obvious (although I wasn't hiding myself at all), and I didn't want him to get run over as the movie cars were driving back and forth. (The scene they were shooting involved actors getting into cars, and they shot it over and over and over again - so it went something like this: actors approach cars, open doors, close doors, car drives away, car circles parking lot and gets back in place, scene repeats.) George started to fuss when I took him away from the road, so I marched us back to the car - there was no way I was going to interrupt a movie shoot with a crying baby.

We get situated in the car, and I start it up. Then I notice a young lady walking down the driveway towards us. If I hadn't known better, I'd have thought she belonged to the household whose property I was on, but I knew she didn't so I waited to see if she was coming to get me. She was. She introduced herself as someone from the locations crew and said that "Someone has seen you taking pictures". I agreed that yes, I was taking pictures but that most of them were of my son (they were). She said that the set was closed and that I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures, and that the director was mad and the actors get upset with people taking pictures. She again said "Someone saw you taking pictures." I'm not sure what response she was wanting from me. I didn't give much of one and she walked away. I know that I wasn't doing anything wrong, I wasn't on the church property, but I still feel bad. I hate getting "in trouble".

Then as I leave the driveway to head home, the girl comes running back. Apparently they are now filming right where I am wanting to turn. So she asks me to stop and turn off my engine. I comply and leave the windows rolled down. But then George starts to cry, since we aren't moving anymore and he hates the car if we aren't moving. I turn on the car enough to roll up the windows and sit there wondering how I'm supposed to know when it's safe for me to drive away. I try to look for the girl, but she's walked all the way across the church grounds and isn't paying any attention to me anymore. I stay still until it gets uncomfortable in the car and decide that I'm getting out of there. So I turn the car back on, back up, and head out the other direction. I hope that I didn't ruin a scene. I don't think I did, as other cars starting crossing the scene in the direction I had originally wanted to go. Gosh, if they didn't want cars and people around, why didn't they close off more roads?

Tonight I'm feeling bad, like I did something wrong. DH thinks the girl was trying to intimidate me with her "Someone saw you taking pictures", but I wonder if she just was told to come over, so she did, but she really didn't care? She didn't ask for my camera or ask me to delete my pictures. And legally, I wasn't doing anything wrong. But I'm such a goody-two-shoes that I feel like I broke some rule. It's not like I'm going to sell the pictures to the Enquirer or divulge secret plot points of the movie. I just wanted to document something fun that George and I did, and maybe make a scrapbook page for him to look at someday.

Anyway, my favorite pictures of the day were of George in the yard. Here's a few...

As you can tell, he's not that impressed with the movie shoot going on right behind him. What's a movie star when you've got rocks and old corn cobs?

Sunday's morning started out with attending church. I usually enjoy going to church, but I left upset and hurt. We haven't been in a couple of weeks because DH was sick, George was ill, and then last week we had the fun Easter morning ER visit. We did call people to let them know we weren't going to be there the times we missed (except Easter since that was so sudden), especially since one week I was supposed to be the greeter and I've been on alter guild all month. To me, it seems only right to let them know I wasn't going to be there, and stay in contact. Anyway, it was nice to see everyone again and reconnect. At the end of service, the pastor announced that the church will be used in the filming of a major motion picture this week, and he then went through the details of when the congregation "extras" should show up for filming. Apparently after one of the services that we missed, they passed around a sign-up sheet and everyone who was there got to go to a casting call for the movie. I feel so upset that no one told us about this.

We are a small church with less than 100 members, and only about 50 active members. DH, George, and I are regulars and actively involved. We even host and maintain the web site for the church. I think when the church council agrees to something big like allowing a major motion picture starring *BRAD PITT* to film in our church and the church has to come up with 80 extras as part of the deal, for heaven's sake, they should have included us. I felt so hurt when we went to church only to find out that almost everyone there is going to be in the movie, doubly hurt when I discovered that the little girl closest in age to George is going to be in it, and my son didn't even get a chance to go to the casting. Yes, we missed church the day that this was announced, but I have a good excuse - I was in the ER! We're in charge of the church web site, shouldn't they remember to keep us in the loop on newsworthy things like this?

If I step back away from the situation a little bit, I realize that it's highly unlikely we would have been chosen as extras for the movie. DH wasn't that interested (especially if he had to miss work to attend), I don't really have that "timeless" movie look they were going for, and George can't even sit still for a 50 minute church service. How in the world would he be calm for a movie shoot? But still, it hurts that we weren't even give the chance.

I'm trying to tame the green-eyed jealousy monster ("They all get to play, why can't I?") but it's tough. It really doesn't help my bitterness when the church secretary called tonight to say that the church computer wasn't acting right and could DH please go take a look at it. Hmmm, they have our phone number when they want something from us, but they can't call to let us know of a movie role opportunity? I feel used.

George and I were running around the house barefoot this morning as we got ready for our day. I mentioned a few times to him that we needed to get our shoes. George toddled off down the hallway and got very quiet. I found him in the corner, standing in my shoes.

I became really ill in the middle of the night and ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor. I knew I was really sick, but waited until George woke up to have DH take me to the hospital (since no doctor's office was going to be open on Easter Sunday). I received two liters of fluids for dehydration and a couple different IV meds and was sent home. I spent most of the day passed out on the couch. George would randomly come over and attack me. At one point he pushed his riding train over to the couch, climbed on top of it, and then jumped from the train onto me. The train finally had to go into time out.

We didn't make it to church or to our Easter luncheon with friends, which disappoints me. I had so been looking forward to the holiday this year. We now have about eighty toy-filled Easter eggs that we didn't get to take to our Easter events. So we'll either have to have Easter celebrations some other time, or save them for next year.

I also ended up throwing out all the cupcakes I had made, since I'd rather err on the side of caution as I must have had the bug while making them. So sad to get rid of them, though.

George is still a little ill, but he's got a much less version of the bug. I'm glad for that!

Last night we were giving George his dose of Tamiflu and he let me know that he did not want to take it. First he turned his head away, then he cried, and then when I still wouldn't listen, he projectile vomited all over me as soon as I'd finished giving him his dose of meds. Since we were on day seven of ten and it is getting progressively more difficult to get him to take the meds (and they were preventative anyway) we are giving up on finishing the series. The doctor agrees - no more Tamiflu.

After getting George a bath (and cleaning myself up as well), we had some playtime and then George went to bed without further incidence. He woke up this morning unhappy and cuddled in bed with DH and I watching cartoons. George never does that - usually he's jumping off the bed or trying to climb onto the nightstand if we bring him into our room. By 10:30 he was crying and ready for a nap again. He slept on and off until almost 2:00. At that point he woke just inconsolable. He didn't have a fever, but he clearly didn't feel well. He was lethargic, wanted to be held, and just wouldn't stop crying. I finally called the doctor's office just to make sure there wasn't anything else we should be doing for him. Since George didn't have a fever, hadn't thrown up since last night, had eaten a big breakfast, and downed three sippy cups of water, the doctor thought there wasn't anything to worry about. The doctor recommended stopping the Tamiflu (after the vomiting episode I'd already decided I wasn't going to be administering that anymore, but good to get the doctor's view, too) and just making sure that George kept hydrated.

I spent some time walking around the house with George and then we went outside to look around. George spied his bubble mower and immediately wanted down. He went over to the mower and tried to pull it into the house to play with.

When I told George the mower was an outside toy, he started to "argue" with me (his first talking of the day - another sign that he didn't feel good since he's usually quite talkative), and then settled down and was content to play outside.

He also felt good enough to sneak over to the side of the house and try to play in the flower pots on the windowsill (he loves to play in the dirt).

He ate some lunch and then we ran errands. By the time we got home, he was his usual happy, playful self again. Hopefully whatever was bothering him is gone now.

I spent this evening finishing up cupcakes for Easter. We were going to take them to a friend's house today, but that event was canceled because her little girl came down with a fever today. We most likely wouldn't have been able to attend anyway, since George wasn't feeling well, but I didn't know that at the time I was baking the cupcakes. I guess I'll take them to church tomorrow. I'm sure the little kids will enjoy them there.

Today we had George's second egg hunt of the season. We met up with some friends at a new area park to enjoy their toddler playscapes and then held our own private Easter egg hunt. We all brought along eggs and probably went a little overboard for the four kids in attendance. I think everybody went home with at least a dozen treats.

George picked up a few eggs, but had the most fun either throwing the eggs back on the ground, or just ignoring them totally and heading off to explore the other areas of the park. I'm sure next year he'll be all about collecting as many as he can get.

Sharing is a difficult concept. George is not having fun learning how to share, despite how many times I say "Sharing is fun! Isn't it nice to share?"

Last week at the park we had a major meltdown over a large Tonka truck. One of our friends had brought the Tonka truck. It is a large scale, plastic model, that you can walk behind and push. It is a very cool truck. All of the kids at the park wanted to play with it, boy and girl alike. But I think George loved it most of all. At least, that's what I think he was trying to tell me when he would fling himself onto the ground kicking and screaming whenever anyone else wanted to play with the truck. Even the truck's owner just dropped open his mouth and stared at this older boy throwing such a tantrum. During the hour time period that we played with the truck, George must have thrown at least a dozen tantrums whenever I made him share the truck with the other children. He'd cry and scream and thrash and generally make a big scene. I'd just pick him up and carry him to less populous place in the park, cuddle and comfort him, and help him to calm down. I really didn't put much stock into the genuineness of his theatrics though especially when he stopped mid-tantrum to tell me about a dog that was walking past. It went something like this:

George cries, "Whaaa----whaaaa---whaaa!" He throws his head back in protest.

George looks around and sees a dog in the parking lot. He stops crying and instantaneously starts saying "Woof! Woof!"

I say "Yes, that is a doggie." He remembers that he's mad at me and supposed to be crying, so he starts wailing again. "Whaa! Whaa! Whaa!"

I was finally able to get George interested in something else (the drinking fountain) and we ended up having a peaceful ending to our park playdate. The next day one of my friends shared a funny story that happened in her household the previous night.

Little Girl: "We went to the park today."

Daddy: "Who was at the park?"

Little Girl: "George."

Mommy: "What did George do at the park?"

Little Girl: "George cried!"

This morning I took George to a city sponsored Easter Egg Hunt for kids aged 1-5. It cost us $1 to get in, which I happily paid. We got there about 45 minutes before the hunt began and waited in a gymnasium area. George climbed on tumbling mats for awhile, but really spent most of his time either trying to touch the industrial fans on either side of the gym, or putting his fingers in holes in the gym floor. There were a few coloring stations and an egg/spoon race area, but George was not in to either of those what with all the holes in the floor to explore. George was fairly shy during this wait and a little intimidated by all the other children, so he held onto my fingers and pulled me around the room after him. The Easter Bunny showed up about five minutes before the hunt, and George was mesmerized. He let go of my hand and pushed his way to the very front of the pack of kids. He cocked his head back and just stared at the bunny. It was too wild to get any good pictures, but I tried my best.

Looking at the bunny

In the bunny moshpit right before the bunny led the kids in a rowsing round of "Chicken Dance"

The actual egg hunt only took about two minutes. I had to pick up George and get him near some eggs before they all disappeared. DH had difficulty this morning finding George's Easter basket to bring, so instead George hunted eggs with the bucket used by the Flower Boy in our wedding! During the hunt, I put George down in a spot near a tree with three eggs and I kind of cornered off the space to keep the other kids away so George could have time to pick up all three of the eggs. (It was a melee of wild children!). George seemed to understand that he was supposed to pick up the eggs and put them in the bucket, although the basketball shaped egg in his right hand in the picture was much too fascinating to let go of. We opened up the eggs and to our surprise, one of them was a prize egg. We took our prize slip back inside and George had won a little soft bunny Easter basket filled to the brim with Dots and Tootsie Rolls. What a lucky little guy - there were hundreds of eggs there and only ten prize eggs. Not bad for only being able to "hunt" three of the eggs.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from our little leprechaun!

DH has been sick all week with what we think was the flu. He stayed home from work every day except Friday, which is unheard of for him. I kept George out of the house most days so that DH could rest in peace. I even moved to the couch so that I wouldn't catch any germs. DH thought he was feeling better on Thursday night, so I went ahead and moved back to the bedroom. Sure enough, I woke up sick on Friday. I tried to get in to my doctor, but they wouldn't work me in, nor would they call in a prescription. So I paid $70 and went to the clinic at our local grocery store. That was a really pleasant experience. They got me in right away, I was seen by a nurse practitioner who was very thorough, and they were so nice to George (who really didn't want to be there). They weren't sure if I had the flu or not and didn't think it worth the additional $20 to give me a flu test (did you know they have a test now?). But they did give me a prescription for Tamiflu and said I could fill it if I felt worse. I feel awful today. So I filled it. We also called the pediatrician's office and described what DH's and my symptoms have been and asked if we should do anything preventative for George. Since DH had a 105 fever one day and mine was 103 this afternoon, we are really afraid of George getting sick. The pediatrician called in a prescription for Tamiflu for George so I filled that one, too. You can use it as preventative medicine for people who don't have the flu yet but who have been in close proximity to others who have had it - and George fits that case. I paid $3 extra and had George's medicine flavored with a grape flavoring and he took it with no problems.

I'm rather annoyed that I caught this bug, since I already had it about six to eight weeks ago. Unfortunately, there's a couple strains of it going around (none of which were covered by the flu shot), so I must have just caught two versions of it. I hope this is the end of our sicknesses for awhile.

In other news, George is getting four teeth in, two on top and two on the bottom. He's been a little Mr. Cranky Pants. He's also all messed up with the time change and refuses to nap for the day until around 5PM, if at all. Needless to say, there's been lots of crying in our household lately.

I bought George some bowls at Ikea the last time we were there, and he loves to eat things from them. His favorite is cut up grapes - he'll hold the bowl in his lap and then pick out the grapes with his fingers.

He's also working on mastering the spoon scooping and stabbing food with forks.

We spent some time at the park today. Full story to come later - too tired tonight to write it up. DH is sick with the flu and I've been on full child care duty. Combine that with the time change and a toddler that's refusing naps and you've got one tired mama.

One of the highlights for George at the park was discovering the drinking fountain. He would run over to it and put his hands up for me to pick him up. I'd press the button and he'd put his face in the water. I have no idea if he actually drank any of the water stream, but he sure liked the experience. He ran over to the fountain eight or ten times during our park visit.

DH spent the afternoon playing Guitar Hero at his brother's place, so George and I headed off to the grocery store after nap time. This was no ordinary shopping trip, we went to the specialty market to purchase some of the freshest fruits and vegetables in town. As a bonus, this particular store has a cafe and playscape attached to it, so we were able to enjoy the nice weather outside as well. George was unsure of the playscape but eventually did crawl on all of it.

He spent more time wandering off around the playscape than he did playing with it. The most entertaining thing there, you ask? Why, the cafe chairs, of course.

We made a grocery store stop today to get a few supplies for a cake I was making. George was well behaved during the trip so he got a balloon and a ride on the carousel. He played with the balloon all afternoon, what a great free toy!

Here's the cake I made - a baptism cake for my friend's son.

The past few weeks George has learned how to identify some of his body parts. He knows "nooo-s", "eeeeyears" and can find his belly button. When asked, "Where's your belly button?" first he likes to run over and lift up my shirt to find my belly button and giggle, then he'll find his and giggle some more.

"Quit asking me to find my belly button, Mom. It's right here where I left it."

"What's that? I can't hear you. I'm finding my ears."

We went to Ikea today after work and a moose followed us home. (Can you tell that I finally received a paycheck from all my transcribing work?) I assembled it with tools while George supervised.

To celebrate George's 17 month birthday he got a haircut and a bubble mower. He was so good getting his hair cut and didn't fuss a bit. It helps that I take him to the kiddie place with cars to drive, movies to watch, and toys with which to play. At one point he had a toy mirror in his hands and I asked him "George, who's in the mirror?" He looked and said, "Bay-bee!" So very precious!

After the haircut we ran into Toys 'R Us to get George's seventeen month birthday present - a bubble mower. I put it together during nap time and then after he woke and had a snack we headed out to explore the backyard. With the abundance of fire ants, snakes, poisonous spiders, and too close spying neighbors in our vicinity, I have to admit I don't spend much time in the backyard. But George and I had a great time out there today. He explored the entire yard while "mowing", and even though he couldn't quite figure out how to get the mower to make bubbles (it requires more force than he was applying) he still liked it.

I also pulled out a giant container of bubbles to blow, which fascinated him. He's in to dipping things, so of course he had to have a bubble wand all to himself. He even started to blow at the wand instead of trying to eat it. Progress!

George created his own game of Hot Lava the other day. He pulled out a Rubbermaid lid, laid it just so on the carpet near his train table and then climbed on top of it. After positioning himself on the lid, he refused to step back on the carpet, as if it were hot lava that would scald him upon contact. He used all his toys around him as balancing tools, so that he could still lean over and play with his train table while making sure his feet were safe on the blue lid.

This morning after I changed George's diaper, I set him on the floor and opened his closet door to pick out clothes for the day. When I shut the closet door, I discovered George had grabbed a book and climbed into the rocking chair in his room to relax. He was initially laying crosswise across the chair with his legs kicked up on the armrest and the book held above his head. By the time I got back to the room with the camera he had changed into a more traditional book reading pose.

George had his first experience with the dreaded fire ants today. I'm not exactly sure when he was bitten, as he never let out any indication that he was under attack. He did a lot of playing in the park, digging in dirt and sand piles, picking up leaves and sorting through sticks and at some point he must have encountered some of those fearsome bugs. I feel so badly that he was bitten. I had tried very hard to keep him from attack, since I am so sensitive to them. Luckily, it looks like he inherited DH's immune system instead of mine. He never let out a peep when he was bitten and doesn't even seem to notice the five bites on his hand. The swelling is minimal and he is playing just fine. If he'd have inherited my sensitivities, his hand would be two to three times its normal size by now.

With the exception of the ant bites, we had a great day yesterday. We went to toddler class and then met with friends at the park. George is starting to be able to play with other kids instead of just parallel playing. The park had a small rock wall surrounding the perimeter of the playground and the kids had great fun playing "train", balancing while walking on the rock wall "track" and occasionally losing balance and having "'derailments". George is very good with his balance and being able to walk on narrow surfaces.