In a nutshell

It's been a busy Fall-apalooza around here. I'll run you through the last week. Last Saturday - Bella's Bellaween birthday party and then leave the kids at Grandma's to go out for an anniversary date at Arielle's. Sunday - bachelorette brunch for my Mom at the William Penn Inn. Monday - school. Tuesday - Library story time. Wednesday - Smith Playhouse. Thursday - School. Friday - Please Touch Museum. Saturday - furniture pricing in Jersey. Sunday - Fall Festival at Liberty Lands Park.
And we've got a busy week ahead of us with Halloween and Noah's Bday on Sunday.

Milestones

On Sunday Ray turned three months old and giggled for the first time. The trigger oddly enough was me using a cloth to wipe some of the drool out of the folds of his many chins. And of course since then Mark and I are endlessly trying to make him laugh. I concentrate on repeating the chin maneuver while he changes it up quite a bit – ever the showman aiming for the big laugh. But GOD – those first giggles are one of the best sounds in the whole world. It’s a moment I’d love to freeze forever and have access to in sad and bored times.

The other big milestone is that today is my fifth wedding anniversary. I always feel kind of cheated by anniversaries because the number does not seem near big enough. Mark and I have been together for ten years – so FIVE, well that’s nothing. I’d love to say I’m the easiest person in the world to be married to or that every moment is romantic and spark-filled. But hey – marriage just isn’t like it. Occasionally things are so lovey and over the moon that rainbows shoot out of your ass – but mostly it’s just real nice and comfortable with the occasional over-tired parent snapping at each other because you can’t yell at the kids. I’m married to my best friend and not only do I love him, I like him a whole bunch and we’ve always wanted the same things out of life. So thank you, Mark, for loving the city nightlife, music, eating out, travel, movies and reading – but for also being grateful to be able to put all those things on the back burner in order to raise a family who over time we can share all of these things with. You rock. Even when you are annoying and I’m a being bitch.

As for Noah’s milestone – well school is going well and not so well. He doesn’t cry and he does seem eager to go - loves the teachers and the story time but still isn’t really playing with other children. He seems to have social anxiety in groups of unfamiliar people. It makes me feel sad for him, but Mark feels even more distraught and worried about it since he inherited it from him. Last week in one of many conversations with Noah about playing with the other kids he told me “I can’t play with them. I don’t know them names.” So on Monday I asked his favorite teacher if she could be sure to introduce him to other children and she agreed. But what concerns me is that he isn’t even playing with the girls he knows and sees outside of school. He said “Lily and Maia were playing. I went by them but they didn’t say anything.” To which I asked “Did you say anything to them?” And of course I got a “No.” On Monday his teacher told me he spent awhile just laying on the story carpet – she asked if he had been tired or sick. And he hadn’t. Noah said he was tired but he had gotten a fine amount of sleep the night before. Plus he has NEVER just been so tired that he lay down on the floor at home. NEVER. After much prodding he said “Maybe I missed my Mama.” And today just before I dropped him off at school he told me he was feeling sleepy (actually so am I since he’s had nightmares and kept us up the last three nights) and maybe he was going to lay down again. I told him he could do what he wanted but that I wanted him to have fun at school and if he was tired and always laying down in school that he was going to have to come home and take a nap. I saw a horrified look in his eyes since it’s been almost six months since he’s had a naptime. And now it’s time to pick him up so I will see how it went.

Oh – and any nightmare tips?

Punkind

Finally some Fall-like weather. And to celebrate we went to Linvilla orchards. It was certainly the most noteworthy thing that happened this week, that is after the funeral and Noah vomiting in the night because he ate too much butter. Oh, and I booked flights for my sister Elisha, her husband Christopher and her son Hunter to come visit at the end of November. I can't wait.

It's hard work

Did Dorney

Noah had a great time at Dorney Park with his soon to be step-cousins. Only one more month until my Mom's wedding. I still have to buy a dress, or shall I say "circus tent."

Oh and my boy went on not one, but THREE mini-coasters. On the one I rode with him I clutched him tight, my stomach churning, and he said "I don't like this." I wanted to stop the ride immediately. Of course when we got off and my Mom asked if he liked it he said "Yes." And then "I want to go on another one."

Laima

EGGERTS Laima M. Eggerts Social worker, former Montclair resident, 97 Laima M. Eggerts, 97, a resident of The Villages in Howell Township, died on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007, at CentraState Medical Center in Freehold Township. Visiting will be on Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Clayton & McGirr Funeral Home, 100 EltonAdelphia Rd. (Rt. 524), Freehold Township. Friends and relatives are invited to attend her funeral service on Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Hope Lutheran Church, 211 Elton-Adelphia Rd., Freehold Township. Interment will follow in Adelphia Cemetery, Adelphia. Born in Latvia, Mrs. Eggerts, a doctor of dental diseases, graduated from the State University in Riga. She practiced dentistry in her native country and later in Germany. She came to the U.S. in 1959, and subsequently obtained an M.A. in social work at the University of Tennessee in Nashville. She lived in Montclair before moving to The Villages in 1977. Mrs. Eggerts worked as a social worker at the Essex County Medical Center, Cedar Grove, and later for the Lutheran Homes of New Jersey. After retirement, she worked part-time as a social worker at the Jersey Shore Medical Center, Neptune Township. Mrs. Eggerts was an accomplished equestrian in her youth, riding horses that she raised and trained herself. She won many trophies in international events all over Europe before World War II.. She also was an avid gardener, cultivating much-admired flower gardens wherever she lived. She was predeceased by her husband, Dr. Arthur Eggerts, in 1989. Surviving are her son and daughter-in-law, Ragnars Martin and Sylvia Eggerts, of Old Bridge; a sister, Aina Pamovskis of Tigard, Ore.; a grandson, Mark and his wife, Nicole, of Philadelphia, and her great-grandsons, Noah and Ray.

Puzzled

I have no earthly idea what you are talking about.

Band on the run

I’m really slacking in reporting the run of the mill details of daily life around here – so I’ll try and catch you up. Being home with the boys is going pretty well. I was worry that with the two of them I’d feel confined to the home, but just the opposite has happened. I find it easier to be out of the house and therefore more compelled to do SOMETHING every day. The reason behind this is that if I’m at home I have to entertain Noah and bounce the baby around the house but if we’re out Noah is entertained by his surroundings and I’m bouncing the baby around because we’re doing something and not just because I’m walking in circles.

Ray is ginormous. At his 2 month checkup he weighed 13.5 pounds and was in the 90 percentile for weight. He’s a pudgy, wudgy. I love squeezing his soft, fat arms. It’s funny, Noah was always in the 20 percentile for weight, so long and thin. Already they are so different – with Noah’s body type more like Mark and Ray more like mine. I hope his boobs don’t get this big. Ray does seem to be an early bloomer – he’s teething at 2.5 months old. Covered in drool and chomping away at my hands. This teething crap isn’t supposed to start until 6 months!

Noah’s third day of school on Monday went okay. He cried a bit when I said goodbye to him but apparently stopped as soon as he entered the classroom. Once again he had fun playing with the toys and talking to the teachers but hasn’t yet played with any other kids. At least so says Noah. The teachers just tell me how well he’s doing but I think they just mean he isn’t having any behavioral issues, which isn’t surprising. He saves his occasional uprisings for home. Still eating too slow and having the occasional over-tired refusing to transition meltdown. But he’s still incredibly sweet. And smart. That kid boggles my mind. He just soaks up information like a sponge. Yesterday when he was looking at Mark’s feet he remarked on “some serious lint.” And today out of nowhere he said “Mama, a car has a trunk. And an elephant has a trunk.” Very astute observation young man, especially since we were not discussing trunks, elephants or cars at the time. He’s very interested in letters in the moment – asking me to write words, tell him what words start with what letters, and saying things like “W-H-G-G-T. That means party!” And I’ve started working on number recognition with him since he can nearly count to twenty.

TV. I have to admit he is watching a bit more. Still at the same times of day – morning after breakfast as I prepare for our day, and afternoon as I wind down from our day and make dinner. But sometimes it’s for longer than I’d like. But I am still completely controlling what he watches. Nothing with commercials and mostly stuff on On Demand or DVR. I can’t believe it’s taken me a whole month to get around to whining to you about how PBS stopped broadcasting “Mr. Roger’s” in our area. I wanted to start a letter writing campaign, but, um… haven’t written one letter. Ha. But it really is a sin. That show was bar none still the best kids show on TV. And it was Noah’s favorite. Luckily I have a handful of episodes DVR’d and we’ve been watching them over. He does however have two new favorites. He digs the new PBS show “SuperWhy” – which is sort of annoying but very letter and reading centric and definitely educational so it’s on my short list of allowed programming. And he LOVES “Charlie & Lola” on Disney. I started recording it because we got a “Charlie & Lola” book about starting school and we both really liked it. (In fact when Noah didn’t want me to leave him at school on Monday he kept telling me he was too busy at home to go to school, which is a direct line from that book. It was funny and cute but he was being so honest and earnest about saying it I nearly cried.) Anyway, the show is so beautifully designed and written that I absolutely look forward to watching it everyday. And the British accidents definitely help.

TV for me? I’ve DVR’d Chuck, Reaper and Pushing Daisies and enjoyed them all. Any other suggestions?

And what have we been up to? The usual. Keeping busy with lots of playdates and spending time with family. Like I mentioned planning a field trip every day – like to meet Mark for lunch and then to watch trains at 30th Street Station, going to Camden Children’s Garden, Smith Playhouse, Liberty Lands Park, the library etc. A friend suggested creating an Arts playgroup that would meet every other Wednesday at different folks houses so we’re looking forward to that. And with Noah’s school on Mondays and Thursdays it leaves a couple of other weekdays for trips. We’re hoping to visit Janette in Reading next week for a doll house tea party (and yes, we both have boys) and to go to Linvilla Orchards to pick apples on Friday. This weekend we visit with my Dad on his birthday on Saturday and then go to Dorney Park on Sunday – we got free tickets because it’s my Mom’s fiance’s company picnic. I predict Noah will explode with ride excitement since he’s still talking about the rides he went on at the beach in mid-June. And then the extravaganza that is Halloween is just around the corner. Boo! Fall is busy, and I love it.

On a more somber note it has been confirmed that Laima will not recover from her stroke and they anticipate her passing in the next two weeks. As I’ve said, it’s far more sad for us than her. I just wish the process wasn’t so long for her, but hopefully she isn’t in any pain. I haven’t been to visit because I don’t think she’s still “in there” and because I don’t want to remember her in that hospital bed. But I have to admit I do feel sort of guilty for not going.

Well this is long, meandering and a mess but I haven’t time to fine tune. I am exhausted.