THE ART OF THE SCALE

Weigh-in: 263.5 I am down 2.5 lbs. That is for a total of 5 lbs. HOORAY! Now, I don’t know how “true” this was, because I didn’t have my glasses on. When I can actually see, I step on the scale, and it kind of hovers around several numbers, usually within half a lb or two, and then LOCKS on whatever number is showing after 1 second, and that’s what it decides is “the” number.

This means that if you step off, and step back on again, you might get a different number. You have to stand very still and watch and see what is going on. With no glasses on, the LED on my scale is just an unreadable blur and I just had to hold very still, wait a few seconds, and then hop off and crouch down to see what it said.

It could have been hovering around 264, or even 264.5 and then blipped down for a second when I breathed in (or out) or some tiny shift of my balance affected the reading.. I don’t know. But I DO know that when I saw the number I was very pleased, and so I am TAKING it and not asking questions 🙂

Five pounds. This is great. I have to say, that the second week has been a lot easier than the first. The impulsive urges to just pick up that muffin near the register in the cafe were nearly OVERPOWERING the first week, and the second? What muffin? Where? Didn’t even see it. Weekends are definitely harder, but saving a lot of flex points for the weekend helps a good bit.

Here’s to week three!

SCHOOL’S OPEN HOUSE

Sunday afternoon was pleasantly filled with various activities. Ethan spends “naptime” nurturing the budding architect within by shunning his bed and building all varieties of creations out of his wooden train tracks or maybe his blocks. Jocelyn sometimes sleeps, but didn’t on Sunday. I heard her over the baby monitor singing and laughing and reading books, and finally, a loud THUMP! and then the loud, crying of a toddler who was not just crying to milk out every vestage of sympathy possible, but the loud insistent wailing of someone who is actually hurt. I nearly dropped my laptop on the floor in my flight up the stairs to her room, where sure enough, she was laying on the floor, apparently having fallen while trying to climb over her bed rail.

She wasn’t TOO hurt though (probably just more scared) because when I picked her up, she said through her tears, “I want to come downstairs Mommy!” (not, “ow” or “I have a boo-boo” or “I need a band-aid” or “I FELL!!” just “I want to come downstairs!”)

Since everyone was so SOLIDLY, DECIDEDLY awake, we decided to head over to the kids’ school’s annual open house.

Ethan’s teacher told us that Ethan is very smart, and has a very strong character. She added that he tries very hard, which was all EXACTLY the right things to say to us, and we were very proud of our boy. We spent some time playing with all his favorite toys, which SURPRISINGLY, all seemed to match the transportation or architect theme. Oh, or puzzles. The boy LOVES puzzles. I was especially excited, when we sat down at a table with paper and crayons, when Ethan decided to draw “our house!” by himself, with minimal involvement from me. “First draw a line up. Then over. Then down. Now the roof. Can you draw a door? How about a window?” Whenever Ethan decides he wants a picture of something, he normally hands one of us the paper and crayon and demands that we do it for him, no matter our arguments that “we’ll help, YOU can do it!”

My baby’s first drawing of a house. Next stop, college. Sniff.

Jocelyn was quick to show us the bin filled with My Little Ponies “Here’s the mommy, and here’s the baby!” and was sweeping busily in a corner when it was time for us to go. I mentioned to her teacher how we’ve been really cracking down on any whining, “I Waaaaaant a DRIIIIIIINK!” “Ask nicely.” “May I have a drink please?” “SURE!” and was excited (and stunned, actually) to hear that she doesn’t whine too much at school. However, she does say, “LEAVE ME ALONE!” which she says at home as well. I explained that unfortuately, she got that from her brother, who says that to her entirely too often, and instructed them to definitely not tolerate that sort of attitude because we certainly don’t.

Overall, the visit to the school went well, and then we were off to our next destination, Tamara and Andrew’s, where we dropped off a crib mattress and a pack and play. “You sure you won’t need it?” Tamara asked.

“Nope. Not unless something goes dramatically astray!” I replied.

STILL AFRAID OF ANY TOILET OTHER THAN HIS OWN

Since we were in the area, we called up Ann and Kurt to see if they wanted to risk life and limb and have dinner with us and the kids. I joked that eating with the whole family will be like an additional dose of birth control. Feel the need for babies? Oh just have dinner with us, and you can stave off that feeling for easily, another 2-3 years! I don’t know how it looked to them, but the kids actually did fairly well, with Jocelyn only trying to escape from the high chair a few dozen times at the end, and Ethan behaving remarkably well. The tale of How Dinner Went might have an ENTIRELY different perspective from their side of the table of which I am totally unaware! Hee hee!

But I digress.

We drove around a bit before heading to the restaurant so as not to get there too early, and Ethan started showing concern about what was going on.

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going to drive around a little bit and then go to the restaurant and have dinner with Kurt and Ann. Look a caboose!”

“Yeah. Sure. Caboose. Um, I don’t want to go to the restaurant. Let’s drive around and then drive HOME.”

“Well, then we will be hungry. We’re going to have dinner at the restaurant. Don’t you want some dinner? They might have PANCAKES!”

“I don’t want dinner. I’m not getting out of the car. So THERE. Humph.”

This went on the entire (short) drive.

When we got to the restaurant Ethan REALLY started acting up. He started to pitch a fit over nothing – he wanted MOMMY to get him out of the car and not Daddy, and he wasn’t going to get out unless MOMMY got him out.. James and I were starting to get pretty testy with him until I saw how he was crossing his legs.. I thought it was to prevent James from touching the buckle (because he wanted me to get him out, not James) but then I realized what it was.

The boy had to pee, and was afraid of being forced to go to the bathroom in the restaurant’s bathroom. I tried to make it as casual as possible, and at the same time alleviate this fear, by saying, “Do you need to go potty? Maybe you could water the grass.” And sure enough, all of a sudden the attitude dropped and he and Daddy found a protected area and he did some business.

Ethan has a major phobia of strange toilets, as you can tell from all the photos I posted from vacation of Ethan’s bare buttocks while he “watered the grass”. Sometimes I try to help him push his comfort level a bit, but this time, I could tell that he was really really worried about it. Jocelyn and I went in and got a table, and when he and James arrived in the restaurant, the surly defiant attitude was gone.

I wonder how much longer before foriegn bathrooms are acceptable. Because while peeing in the bushes is (kind of) OK for a 4 year old, I think the clock is ticking on that one.

– amy conquers strange toilets with ease, is conquered by strongly scented bathrooms, alas!

ps – I’ve not forgotten about Saturday, but damn, I can only write so much (and so often) and expect you to listen, so later it will have to be.