Bagels, Basketball, Birth Control & Breakfast For Dinner

I'm beginning to realize that staying home with your kid is one of the coolest jobs around. I'm bummed that it will be short lived, but trying to live in the moment of grunts, laughs, and slobber. There are some rough spots. Let's say you really have to go to the bathroom...I mean really have to go. Seems easy: Bring the kid up to the bathroom with you and do your thing. Not so simple. If you're upstairs, you need to close the baby gate to the stairs. If you're downstairs, you have to close the baby to the stairs. We only have an upstairs option. Anyway, now he has a choice of rooms to play in. Of course, I can only hope he goes into Zoe's room where I can see him. Things get a little murky in our room, but he should still be safe. Unfortunately, what Eli has decided is that he wants to get into everything and anything possible in the bathroom. Not only that, it involves the garbage can, things that lurk behind the toilet, and any of those strange corners you just don't want your baby getting into. As I'm trying to negotiate Eli's safety, you have to remember that I'm still sitting on the toilet. Awkward, right? Remember back when I mentioned that Eli really likes bagels. The other day, he happened to be upstairs with his bagel while I needed some time in the bathroom. As he ventured into the bathroom with his bagel to cause havoc, I had the great idea of tossing his bagel into Zoe's room to buy some extra time. I was hoping he would actually crawl into Zoe's room to fetch the bagel. Eureka! It worked. Not only that, he decided to camp out in Zoe's room for a few more minutes to play with a doll house while munching on his bagel. Mission accomplished.

Eli with quite possibly the very bagel played on our first ever bagel 

fetch.

It seems like Zoe has week after week of non-stop activities which keep us on the move. We just finished up a very busy week including an orchestra concert and a basketball game, plus some great skiing yesterday. The concert took a lot of energy from parents and students, for a mere two minutes in the spotlight. These concerts get a little more serious once kids are in sixth grade. This gives them some practice in the spotlight, albeit, for only a few minutes. I guess that's the purpose of them. Zoe is the one on the left playing the violin.

Zoe's basketball game this weekend was exciting. The kids played really well. Zoe went from having stage fright in her first game to really getting out there and playing during this game. Most importantly, she was having lots of fun. Here, Zoe got the ball. She ended up fowling because she traveled, but it was great to see her get in the game!

 

Eli has been doing a lot of standing. He loves to stand while holding onto something, and then raise his arms in the air. A few days ago, he decided to take a step. It was very exciting.

I'm really getting into a groove of taking care of Eli. I don't try to get too much accomplished since I'm home for Eli. I normally enjoy cooking. The other day, Eli napped soundly enough that I thought I'd prep and make dinner. I picked an easy dinner from a Moosewood book. I have a reputation in my family of being able to eat pretty much anything. I don't like to waste food. Sometimes, things that could be compost, I will eat. I could not eat this dinner I made. Laurie was a trooper. She is usually the picky eater along with Zoe. She managed to get most of her dinner down. I couldn't eat another bite for fear of some awful repercussion. It ended up being a cereal night. I actually wrote in the cookbook that this recipe is "terrible" and "do not make". I was so proud of myself for managing a child and making dinner. But, I tried and failed that day. Parents who do this all the time...you rule.

Bad, bad, bad!

Definitely a cereal night

Root Veggie Curry - Do not attempt at home

I recently took a nice, long walk up through Cornell Campus. It was entertaining to walk past the young people while I pushed a stroller. When you walk downtown with a sleeping child, people give a lot of oohs and ahs, and "look at the baby, isn't he precious" especially when the child is sleeping. I don't seek it, but it just happens. Walking through campus, I got looks of fear. Eyes shifted down and away, young men looked panicked as they walked with their special lady friends. Girls had the "I better run out and buy an ept just to make sure" kind of look. I may have been reading into things, but maybe not.
I happened across a bumper sticker that I had to take a picture of, down on Stewart Ave. One, because it was funny, and two, because if this bbq place exists here in Ithaca, I want to try it, so I needed a pic to remember the name:

On that note...