Boynton’s World

We introduced books to Eva at a young age, and she has continued to enjoy them. I’ve talked about some of her early favorites, and those have changed over time. Her bedtime book is Heads, and she must read it before bed. Gone are the one word a page books, they have been replaced by one or two line a page books. That, and any book that has the thick pages that are easier for her to turn.

One author has a giant foothold in this market of books. We have nine million of her books, and there are still another nine million that we haven’t yet read. Eva loves her books, so much that I’m starting to worry that one day Eva will begin to suspect that every book starts with [Title] by Sandra Boynton.

Eva is nearly 15 months old and these board books are a perfect fit for her hands. They are easy to carry to mom and dad, and she can grab the pages and turn them with minimal assistance. The pages are colorful, and most of the text is written in a comfortable pattern that can be turned into song (like mom has done with Fifteen Animals) or read like a poem.

Boynton has even invaded bath time with her soft cover book Barnyard Bath. On those pages, Eva can wash the animals (she’s not interested in that yet, just enjoys the pictures.)

My personal favorite is But Not the Hippopotamus. Eva doesn’t yet have a favorite one, but she does enjoy a whole lot of them including Happy Hippo, Angry Duck and Opposites.

Boynton books have brought us two different cute moments with Eva. In the classic “Are You a Cow?“, there is a page where Boynton asks “Are you a chicken upside down”, accompanied by a picture of an upside down chicken. Eva gets to this page, and flips the book around, because that chicken is upside down and needs to be right side up.

The book Moo, Baa, La La La teaches a little bit on the sounds that animals make. The second animal is a sheep, and now Eva knows what a sheep says(video).

Preparation Results

An update on some of the preparations we are making for number two.

Cable

Safe to say this is going better than getting off soda (fail). Anyway, even with some minor begging from Time Warner, we decided to cut the cord. No more DVR, no more HGTV, and no more ESPN. ESPN is a two sided coin, with one side being that it has the content I wanted (Hawkeye and Panther basketball, and 30 for 30 documentaries) and the other side being that most of their programming has become bottom feeding (First Take anyone?) and exploits a majority of cable subscribers (every subscriber pays at least $5 a month on just ESPN whether they watch it or not. No other station costs more that $1.50). We broke down and subscribed to Hulu Plus (7.99 a month) on top of our Netflix streaming (7.99 a month) and run them through our Apple TV ($99 one time)to supplement over the air local stations (free). With cable and Netflix we were spending $83 a month in entertainment, and now have that down to $16. It was worth it, and I’d never go back to cable if it weren’t for the live sports. So it still remains a possibility in the future.

Note : If you love CBS shows…hulu doesn’t carry most of them. CBS’s web streaming is terrible, so either watch it live or keep cable. C’mon CBS!

Living Arrangements

The boy’s room is set up, and so is Eva’s. Here’s Eva’s room:

 

 

Walk in closet for toy overflow

 

 

Pandas from China

I guess she has a couple of books

 

Here’s the boys room:

With bag packed to go…hey Eva this isn’t your room anymore!

I know, you’re thinking “Wow, why didn’t I think of a moose head for the nursery! ” Sorry, but the moose head is just covering up the name hanging on the wall.

 

Double Stroller

Double stroller is purchased and has made it’s initial run through the neighbor and was successful. Fits in the Honda like a charm, and we couldn’t be happier.

The View Down Here : Watch Out Below!

It’s been a while since I wrote, so I figured I should write before things get too busy around here. Apparently mom and dad think things aren’t crazy enough, so they decided to add another member to the family. This totally would have made sense six months ago when she wasn’t mobile, or even two months ago when she was down at my level. Now days I’m usually scrambling because she’s chasing me around. Wait, here she comes again!

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OK, I’m back. She’s off to bed, and after this is done I’ll be napping. Besides the chasing, the biggest change around here is the eating. My diet has completely changed. Sure, I still eat chow, when Eva isn’t covering it.

No, I get tons of new food now. During dinnertime, mom and dad put Eva is her rocket chair (if it doesn’t rocket into the sky, then why does it need belts and a locking tray?) There Eva will eat the meal of the day, and some of it will find it’s way down to me. Food comes to me when she’s done eating and just drops it down. This is the best way.

The other way is when she’s upset, or just wants attention. There is swinging of arms involved, and food flying everywhere. This should be awesome, but sometimes instead of tasty treat dropping my way, it’s her sippy cup. Let me tell you, a couple times of that flying at you and you get a little skiddish.

“Watch out below!”

Mom and dad are happy that I can help out with the food on the floor. This way they don’t have to pick up everything, I can do it for them. Really, I should get a treat for being such a good puppy.

Anyway, things are still going good here. I don’t know what things will be like in a few weeks, but Eva and I are two of a kind(video).

The Tornado

It’s amazing to watch Eva grow through the stages of her early childhood. In the past 14 months, she has gone through these stages:

Blob: Eat, sleep, poo, repeat

Sitting: No longer dependent on Mom and Dad for getting away from a kissing dog

Crawling: The biggest step in independence

Toddling: Or as most people call it, walking. Although if you’ve seen a toddler in their early stages, it is definitely toddling before it becomes a walk.

Eva is now working on the next stage of development. She is moving into the Tornado stage. From what I heard, Tornado stage starts earlier with girls, and can last for a while. Also known as terrible twos, it creates destruction where ever you look.

As with any tornado, sometimes you can see the storm brewing before it suddenly explodes. Sometimes it come out of nowhere.

Just like natural tornadoes the best course is preparation. Hide the valuables in a safe place, or they will be thrown and broken into a million little pieces. Have emergency rations available at all times (graham crackers work well). If you feel that the tornado is coming, get into a smaller room where less damage can be done. Remember, a tornado has no patience, so you’ll have to be fast on your feet. Otherwise, your home may look like this one.

 

Watch out! Tornado coming through!

Not Ready

Steph picks up her cellphone on a cold Monday afternoon. Her classroom lies underneath the ground and reception is poor at best. She checks her messages and there is one from our birthmother. A voice message is not unusual, as they often talk about schedules and other baby related things. This message was not one of those messages.

“Call me when you get this”

Have you ever noticed that there seems to be an inverse relationship between how many words you say and the importance of the message? If someone keeps rambling on and on in a story, it’s likely that you’ll feel it wasn’t worth the wait for the payoff. However, shortening it to three words, “I Love You”, means the world.

Had this message been less important, she would have said something like “Call me when you get this. I can’t remember if my appointment was at 1:15 or 1:45.” If it was more important, it would have just been, “Call me!” Regardless, a one sentence message signifies importance, so she calls back immediately. No response. She leave a message, “Text me when you’re free”. The text message comes about 20 minutes later.

Twenty minutes gives her enough time to call me to bring me up to speed, but also give her enough time to work through the 100 different scenarios that could have occurred. (Who am I kidding, it took her twenty seconds to come up with them and work right to the scenario that she was at the hospital baby in hand).

I can’t really go into all the details because we like to keep her privacy, but suffice to say we had a minor “oh man, the baby may be coming” scare. The boy has found that the most uncomfortable spots in mom’s tummy are the best places to rest and kick, and that day was exceptionally bad. That, along with the appearance of blood led to a doctor’s visit. No baby yet, but mom is starting to dilate. From what we’ve been told, some women dilate early and still go full term. So, maybe things haven’t changed, but if they have…

We’re not ready.

It’s not a home thing, or a clothes thing. Nor is it food related, or care related. We are not mentally there. For so long now, we’ve had in our head the end of March. It wasn’t even March yet. Eva went full term, so our vision of this birth is clouded by the ease of hers.

We understand that we’ll never be “ready” for child number two. Just like we were never ready for Eva. I guess I thought that I like it not to be shocking. It would be like waking up and being told that the IRS moved the filing date to today. We can handle our taxes, but we had planned to do them later, now we are left scrambling. (Well, technically this example doesn’t apply to us as we hurried our taxes in to Uncle Sam to sit and wait).

This was a big wake up call for us. While the nursery is ready, and the car seats are installed, we need to get ourselves into the right state of mind. And fast.

Prepping for Number Two: Car Seats

One benefit to having a child so close in age is that the car seat you purchased for your first is still not expired when the second comes. I know, I was as shocked as you when I found out that car seats are like food, use before they go bad. It’s not like a computer, where it’s obsolete after three years because of technology advances. No, it’s more like the milk in your fridge. It slowly goes bad, and it’s up to you how much past that expiration date you are willing to chance it.

See, car seats are padded with foam. This foam degrades over time leaving it less able to provide the cushion required to keep the baby safe in an accident. I don’t know firsthand how much it degrades, I don’t know if we should trust an industry that would love us to buy more car seats to accurately give us that range of safe dates, and I don’t know how long past the expirations I would be willing to go. I don’t have to worry about it though, luckily.

Eva has graduated to the bigger car seat. Still sitting back facing (until those legs get too long), she continues to be taxied around by mom and dad alone in the back. Alone, but not for very long.

Mom installed the boy’s car seats over the past week. In her car, they each occupy a side as the back seats are bucket seats.

The problem with rear facing car seats behind front seats is that you have to drive with your knees in your chest.

Luckily, in the CRV we have a bit more space and with a flat backseat can place the car seat in the middle. That way Eva can mess with the boy on the ride to the store (….wait, is this is good or bad idea?)

Name Puzzle

It’s time for the boy’s name puzzle. If you attempt to guess the name, you can win up to 100 credits! (See comments on the Peek A post for details on credits). I will list a series of clues below, and for each clue you make a guess. If you guess correctly, the first line in which you’ve guessed correctly is the number of credits you’ve earned. Credit accumulation uses the honor system, and is great for bragging. (So you cured cancer, your team won the Super Bowl and your child just became President and gave you all the credit for being a wonderful parent. Well I have 75 credits on God’s Child, Our Joy, so neener neener neener!) No peeking ahead. Your free clue is that the middle name will be Scott. (So, does that mean Scott can’t be the first name???)

 

Clue #1 (25 Credits): What is the name we told you it would be? ____________
(I toyed with -25 credits for guessing when you knew the answer, but decided to give 25 for being deprived of the opportunity to play this awesome game. Of course, maybe we lied to you and you still have a chance at 100 credits. Yay deception!)

 

 

Clue #2 (100 Credits): It’s a biblical name. _____________
(Whew, that really cuts it down)

 

 

Clue #3 (75 Credits): It can be shortened into a common three letter name. _____________
(Sco, yep Scott still works!)

 

 

Clue #4 (60 Credits) : There are two dots in the middle. _____________
(Kendotdotsington works here)

 

 

Clue #5 (50 Credits): The shortened name is made famous by an inventor and a football thrower. _____________
(But not the inventor of the football throw)

 

 

Clue #6 (25 Credits): It starts with an “E”. ______________
(Fine Scott isn’t right, but perhaps eScott…)

 

 

Clue #7 (10 Credits): The most famous actor with this name is most famous for his roles with hairy feet and a talking dog. _____________
(Famousness determined by whose name shows first in Google auto fill)