uh oh

when something falls on the floor or goes under the sofa or he does something he knows he's not supposed to do like tip wolly's water bowl over, little tayloe is fond of saying 'uh oh.'
uh oh mama. uh oh dada. uh oh uh oh uh oh.
i'm sure he'd of said 'uh oh' yesterday if he had been at the doctor with big tayloe and i when we found out we for sure are having another baby in six months and that said baby is another boy.
two dirty little emery boys. uh oh.
i wonder if i can get my epidural now?

sweet potayloe

little tayloe, if you're reading this you should know there are a few things from the last few days that i'll probably hold against you for the rest of your life.
the first is you barfing craisins down my overalls on sunday night.
the second is the way you refused to eat all day monday and tuesday only to wake me up at 4 a.m. wednesday morning and demand 'yilk' and a 'nack.' oh, aren't you cute.
you did at least say please, which kinda makes me want to forgive you. at least by the time you're married.
i'm glad that you're feeling better, though, because i feel a lot less guilty putting you in time out. i know you think it's funny to grab dirt from my flower pots outside, cart it inside to spread around my rugs and then grab my hand and lead me to the vacuum cleaner, but it's not. it's so not.
this morning you and i went for a walk. you found a rock to carry around with you and as we toddled along you tried to stuff it into every opening you saw. we went nowhere fast, but i was happy to see the real you. for a while there you looked like a wilted piece of lettuce.
so look, sweet potayloe, let's stay away from the sickies for a while. we've got better things to do.

things that go barf in the night

last night i was thinking t2 wasn't his usual happy self and i thought about he hasn't been sick in a long long time and also how he'd never thrown up.
sometime around 10 he woke up whining and shivering. he had a little temperature so we gave him some medicine and snuggled down with him in our bed. around midnight, he woke up hacking. then he sat right up in bed and promptly barfed.
i had just changed the sheets.

prayers

at bedtime when i tell little tayloe it's time to say prayers, he puts his little hands together and closes his eyes and sits perfectly still as i ask god to bless our family and friends and thank him for whatever i can think of to be thankful for that day (the blue sky, that i found my swim cap, the eggo waffles that were on sale).
then i put him in bed and close his door and start to pick up the pieces of our day. sometimes i find cars stacked inside a box, largest on bottom, smallest on top. very frequently there's a sippy cup in the bathtub. one of our toothbrushes is always somewhere near the toilet. blocks are always in our shoes.
i check all of his favorite hiding places - under the rugs, behind the doors, the dog food bag, the trash.
i discover his masterpieces and unveil his treasures and realize this is what i'm thankful for.

doo doo crayola

this morning tayloe neatly arranged all of his crayons in his breakfast bowl and, while i wasn't watching, fed them one by one to wolly.
wolly, of course, ate them. he won't eat a tomato or a piece of lettuce coated in ranch dressing, but he'll eat crayons.
this should really brighten up our backyard. spring color, don't ya know.

swim update

this photo was captured just moments before tayloe rolled himself into a tidal pool (sorry starfish) and had to be stripped down to his diaper and lugged back to the car. brilliant idea. explore tidal pools with the puddle annihilator.

washer

today i went to add some dish towels to a load of laundry and found the laundry detergent bottle floating at the top, tangled in a shirt and covered in suds.
it was almost as good as the time i found our phone in the freezer.

the swimmiest swimmer

i haven't posted any video in a while and thought this capture of some recent park play was kinda cute.
last monday i was browsing through craigslist postings for some freelance work and saw that the ymca down the street was hiring a swim teacher for 36 month olds on down to infants. i'd been meaning to enroll little tayloe in the class for 1 1/2 year olds and just hadn't gotten around to it. that should surprise you.
it suddenly dawned on me that i could teach the classes, he could take the classes with me, we could get paid for it and i could get a free ymca membership all in one swoop. as an added bonus, we could both get some pretty kickin green hair.
and don't ya know that's what happened? after some observation and training on friday, t2 and i found ourselves in the pool and teaching 3 classes on saturday morning.
the first class was a disaster. it's been a while since i taught swimming and i had no idea the class would be so big or that i'd have to yell so loud. i also didn't realize how many kiddie songs i don't know. after the class, i had one of the nicer parents teach me a few favorites.
class 2 was smoother and i even had a mother tell me she liked my style. class 3 - infants 3 months to 12 months - was a breeze.
i didn't think t2 would object to pool time, even if it was for 2 hours, and i was right. he trooped right along, floating on his back, jumping off the side, happily hanging on my hip and helping me pick up toys.
but my god were we tired when it was over. so damn tired.
you know what happens when you do an ok job at something - you get asked to do it again. so now i'm the regular toddler/baby swim teacher at the santa monica ymca on monday, wednesday and saturday mornings. t2 can either come with me, swing it at ymca kidcare in the gym (for free!) or - on saturdays - stay with his dad.
for all you la mamas - a new session starts in march and they're adding a fourth class. sign up, won'tcha?

super dooper big fat tuesday

i voted in the ca primary today.
little t tugged at my pant leg and i punched my support for barack.
i love the guy and it's stupid to vote for a woman just because i'm a woman. i don't even like hillary. she uses too much hairspray.
sometimes obama speaks so beautifully i want to cry.
i mean imagine having that after eight years of verbal assaults from the decider. maybe someday soon i'll be able to watch the president speak on tv and not feel sick. that would be nice.
anyway, if you know nothing about bo (unfortunate initials), learn something - especially you folks over there in virginia and d.c. don't brush it off because it's a primary and then complain later that you don't like the final candidate, you slackers. (and i guess that goes for republicans too, so get out there on feb. 13. especially you, geoff)
your time's comin.

the deal

for the last two years, we've been here alone. no family to turn to when times got tough. no free baby sitters. no one to sit in on supper or drink our last coke.
and then last month, our cousin lawrence moved to santa monica. in fact, he moved right down the street from us.
if having him around has been fun for us, it's been a carnival for t2. he's totally in love with his cousin. for good reason - lawrence kicks soccer balls with him, plays outside with him, watches sesame street with him, lets him play with wolly and even (amazingly, cutely) hugs and kisses him. he knows our rules and has a really good sense of what's ok and what's not, all on his own.
and here's the best part - if we let lawrence do laundry here once a week, he in turn babysits little t once a week.
this week, our date will involve me redeeming my super bowl bet victory (go giants) and getting a much deserved double-double at in and out.
the video above is lawrence with t2 when he was just weeks old. seems like these two were just meant to be connected.
thanks, l-dog, for being such good family and for loving our kid so much. i'm assuming it's love because i can't think of any other reason you'd be so calm when t2's screaming in your face or pinching your nose or poking your eyes.
a word about that super bowl bet: just before the game started, i bet tayloe that the giants would win by 3. 'that's a silly bet' he said 'because if they win by 2 or 1 or 14 or any other number, you lose.' 'yeah well that's my bet' i said 'for a double double at in and out - you either take it or you don't.'
who's dumber now, eh?

the minutia

today while waiting for his lunch, t2 was playing the lovely new placemats my mother in law gave us for christmas. i was busy and he was busy so there was peace and that's good.
then we ate lunch and afterwards i plopped him down on the floor. as i was cleaning up i realized three of my six mats were missing.
so i inquired. tayloe, where'd you put my placemats?
he looked up from playing with cars.
i asked again. can you show me where you put my placemats?
he stood up, trotted into the kitchen and threw back the rug. there they were. he picked them up and handed them to me.
of course, i said. exactly where i'd keep them if we didn't have any drawers.