More of Gavin in Late March.

He is definitely feeling better!

New Gavin Pics - Late March

Discoveries

Claire and Gavin discovering their Easter Baskets.
Me discovering my hunch.

Easter Celebration

We had a nice Easter celebration on Saturday, following what has become a tradition over the past several years with friends Heidi, Dennis and Gibson.

After a nice brunch and dyeing some Easter eggs, Dennis went into their backyard and hid cascarones for the girls. After all of the confetti-filled eggs were found, we had a great time cracking them open and making a pretty mess of colored eggs and bits of confetti.



Bleu, the dog, is extremely patient throughout and even consents to have eggs broken on her head!


Gavin slept through the festivities.

In this video, Claire and her Gibson are beside themselves with anticipation of going to search for the eggs. They can barely contain themselves as they describe how the eggs got there and where they are hidden in the garden. I was being silly with them earlier doing an "Easter Bunny Hop" where we did several hops, several kicks, then "free-form" dancing. I didn't think they were paying much attention, but apparently they were!

My hero!

To my rescue from the desperate few weeks I have had is my mother! She is coming on Thursday. I am fairly sure she will be wearing her cape and other super-hero accessories! I need her and she is coming. That is what it is all about, even if I am 36!

In principle...

...I refuse to feel guilty for caring for my child who is feeling poorly.

Gavin was sent home from daycare today with a low-ish fever. His caregiver called me with updates throughout the late morning and early afternoon. For several hours he was right on the verge of the temperature that prompts the official "come get your kid" phone call , so I knew it was coming. Finally at about 3 I got the call. In truth, from the first call, I wanted to go get him because high enough fever or not, I knew he wasn't feeling himself and would be better off at home. Real truth: this morning he felt warm and I took his temperature before even taking him to school. He didn't have a fever at that time, but I know what he usually feels like, and he was warmer than that. I took him to daycare anyway, because despite my lofty principles, I do feel guilty.

• Guilty for letting Gavin down.
• Guilty for putting other kids at risk of getting whatever he has.
• Guilty for staying home on Friday because I felt so awful myself.
• Guilty for setting a bad example for the department I lead.
• Guilty for giving working women a bad reputation.
  
• Guilty for feeling I am only giving half-measures at home and at work.
  
• Guilty for feeling so damned guilty.

Millions of women face what I faced today, and my hats off to them for doing the best they can. I have it untold millions of times better than most, and my harshest critic is likely myself. And if there is a harsher critic out there, please keep your mouth shut. I feel terrible enough as it is!

Gavin' Egg "Hunt"

The first picture says it all. Gavin just didn't get it.

Claire's Egg Hunt

Claire had an Easter Egg Hunt at school. She wore the Easter dress her "Ft. Works" Granny sent her, and was quite proud of it. While I was out hiding the eggs on the playground, Shane sat on the mat for story time. He was soon inundated with kiddos. On his lap is Zoe and Faith, both of whom have been in Claire's class since she was in Infant 2. Nice girls. Faith ("Faith Poe" - Claire always calls her by her first and last name) is her particular friend and is a very cute little girl.
Claire is not competitive at all with finding eggs. She would spy one, pounce on it, examine it and show it to us with a brief description before putting in her basket. Meanwhile, some of the more quantity-savvy kids were piling up their baskets. As the eggs were all filled with candy, I much prefer Claire's approach!

Welcome Home!

Shane went to San Diego for a few days training. He was due back last Saturday afternoon, so Claire and I made him a welcome home sign. We had fun painting whirlpools, our hands etc. Her artistic sense is much different than mine, and involves painting over everything, including words and the googly eyes that we glued on to the stick people (also painted over, with orange, so it looks as though they are on fire!) and her big whirlpool. ( She is in to whirlpools right now) I maintained that if you painted over the googly eyes, you can't see them, so what's the point? Her response to my solid reasoning was to glue more googly eyes onto the already very eyeball-y whirlpool and paint over them. So there, mom. I have to admit, her painting over everything and mixing of the colors is what gives the sign its pizazz. I am right about the googly eyes though! Painting over them provides nice texture to the painting, but they lose their effectiveness as eyeballs.

The painting below is what sparked Claire's desire to paint whirlpools. (Painting by Hiroshige, featured on Little Einstein's)

Political Commentary

In case you can't quite understand, Claire is saying Curious George throughout. Her political savvy might be more developed than a lot of us grown up folk!

Cool kids!

Almost 3 Months

Gavin is almost 3 months old, and clearly he has had a lot of time to practice being so utterly cute. He's really got it down, don't you think?

Ready for the sun

A rose by any other name...

Words are just words...a rose could be a turnip and yes, it would smell as sweet, but clearly rose is the better word. Do you think we always use the best words? Sure, they are familiar to us and have been used for generations, but I have recent reason to suspect that some could be improved upon, with only slight variation. Examples, with context, follow:

Finkle. Early this morning, Claire was in bed with me and just as we were beginning to stir, she sat up and leaned right over, so her face was hovering mere inches above mine. "When I make a bad face, I have ONE finkle!" she proclaimed, and pointed at the wrinkling around her mouth as she screwed her face into its fiercest expression. "Look! A FINKLE!", continuing to point and mug. I mean, could there really be a more apt word for wrinkle than finkle? After all, wrinkles are a dirty trick, one that a fink of some sort would probably enjoy. Thus, "finkle" seems perfect! It sounds close enough and I knew exactly what she meant, so maybe a change wouldn't be too difficult to achieve. Please alert Webster.

I should know better, but I went ahead and asked whether I had any finkles. Claire (sweet girl) said no, until I raised my eyebrows and she excitedly declared that I had lots.

Slyclops. We read a bedtime story called I Love You Stinky Face. It's about a curiously gender-neutral child who imagines him/herself to be any number of hideous creatures in order to test his/her mother's love. (If I were a smelly skunk would you still love me...I love you Stinky Face etc) Anyway, one of the creatures is a cyclops. Claire calls it a "Slyclops". Once again, I think this word is an improvement on the real word. Those one-eyed mythical beings are surely sly, slinking about with their big, blinking one eye-ness.

So she covers one eye and asks if she looks like a slyclops. Seriously, at least 3 times a day. I always respond in the affirmative, which is great unless she was really trying to look like a pirate. Then I just disappoint.

Clearly, I think my child is a genius, but maybe other people won't when she is still using her admittedly made-up but MUCH BETTER words in 10 years because I encourage them rather than correct!

Claire went to the dentist for the first time yesterday. She was so good. She did as she was asked, remembered her manners and was friendly to the staff. They were really great with her too. They explained everything before they did any work, let her look at and touch the tools. They also let her pick her toothbrush and toothpaste flavor by having her choose a flavor from the painting on the wall of a strawberry, a watermelon, bubble-gum etc. Cute way for kids to choose, just point at the picture of the flavor you want. Claire chose her flavor: pink; she got bubble-gum, although she's never actually had gum...she just likes pink!

Sadly, she has a small cavity in one of her front teeth, right where her two top teeth cross slightly. I never had any cavities as a kid, so I was hoping that would be the case with her too. I was slightly mollified when they said that it's a very common place for cavities to form, as that is where all the food and drink hits. Still, we have to be better about brushing and make sure to floss. Good habits should start early, I guess. She will go back to have a filling in May. We get there an hour early and they give her a demerol cocktail to drink before doing the work. She will be loopedy-loo...bad habits starting early??

I was extremely proud of Claire during her first dentist visit. My sweet little big girl.

Sleepy Babu and baths