Sleepytime

In news of Calvin's sleep habits (which I'm sure concern all of you greatly), he's FINALLY, for the first time in his life, gotten to a point where he actually likes being rocked to sleep. This is good because have you met my child? He doesn't cuddle. Any moments of cuddling are relished by his affection-starved mother, who gets apoplectic over a three-second hug or a minute of stillness on her lap. And he buries his head in my shoulder, pulls up a blanket, and falls asleep on me! GLORIOUS.

The downside is the drool.

Oh my God, so much drool. It's not even just damp, it's damp and slightly sticky because he brushes his teeth now with this fruit-flavored Thomas the Tank Engine toothpaste (OK, it's Orajel, but it has Thomas on it and it's called "Tooty Fruity" which always makes me think of the IHOP Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n Fruity breakfast, which I've never actually ordered, but has the worst name of any menu item I can think of off the top of my head at this second and I truly believe IHOP made it up just to give their waitstaff the pleasure of seeing who'll actually order it by name because it sounds so utterly ridiculous.) Anyway it makes his drool smell like fake fruit, and as you know spit is not water, so I have this SPOT on my shoulder where he rests his face.

Also, he's not actually asleep, he's in his crib going "Eeee! EEEE!" and I don't know why. He was totally asleep, and then just lying there when I set him down, and he seemed like he was going to go right back to sleep, and now he's...chatting. ("Nananananana.") Also adorable. I'm not biased.

Since Brandon is at D&D tonight I feel the need to be productive. I do this sometimes; get the urge to clean things or do something so I feel slightly more awesome. I'm actually going to. Really. As soon as I finish writing this. Maybe. I'm bad to say I'm going to do things and then forget to do them, or have an excuse, or just...not do them. BUT I WILL. I will unload and reload the dishwasher! I will clean off the kitchen table! I will clean up the living room! I will find the back to the remote control! And then I will come upstairs and get rid of all the trash! And pick up the toys! And take laundry downstairs to wash but probably not start a load because it will be late by then! I don't think I have time for all this ambition.

If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home

We went to Raleigh last week and it was AWESOME. I gained five pounds. We stayed with Kim and Jessee most of the week, and got to meet their adorable baby Owen, and apart from the first night Calvin slept really well. He's cut a second molar, which I think was paining him, but it's through now. He also got to know Adelaide, their Weimaraner, which was good because he's a little hesitant about dogs. It was only when she barked or knocked him over that he freaked out, and when she was outside barking he actually laughed. He also took to the dog bed quite well.

We spent some time at the State Fair, which was AMAZING. I love the fair so much. Here is a list of the crap I ate:

-chocolate covered banana with peanuts
-cupcake shaped like a hamburger
-part of a Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburger
-part of an elephant ear (the fried dough, not the animal part)
-cotton candy
-some of the chicken and fries I got for Calvin's dinner

I feel like there was more but maybe not. It was all so heavy. I wanted to get a Cheerwine slushy but I never did. Maybe next year. BECAUSE THIS IS HAPPENING NEXT YEAR TOO. We managed to find Calvin a HEALTHY snack! The guy at the chocolate covered strawberry and banana stand gave us a stick of strawberries sans chocolate, so Calvin had strawberries for a snack. He ate 4/5 of them, and threw one on the ground. BECAUSE HE IS A PUNK. And he believes that when you're done with food, you throw it on the ground.

My parents were there for the first couple of days. We took Calvin to Marbles Kids' Museum where they got to see firsthand how much he loves to splash and play in water. They babysat him for us one night and we went to see Moneyball, just the two of us. It was our first "date" in a LONG time. And it was really nice, just to go and sit in the movie theater, and not worry about the baby. We didn't even have to get him until the next morning. They kept him overnight. AWESOME.

But then we had to come back, and Brandon's back to work, and I'm back to trying to clean the house (which I consistently fail at, but it's looking better today than usual, although I am sucking at laundry). It's cold here, but the leaves are changing, and my child looks like a person instead of a baby, and we carved pumpkins on Sunday and I made one that looks like Elmo. So things keep moving along, like they do, toward some inevitable end.

Fall in Massachusetts

I know my last post was about North Carolina, but today I was in the mood to write about one of the few things I actually like about living in Massachusetts, which is fall. The weather cools off pretty quickly--although it's been warm for much longer than it seems it should have been, it's going to be in the low 60s all week--and there's apple and pumpkin picking, which you can't beat. I have a plan to go apple picking, get a good carving pumpkin, and eat cider doughnuts after we get back from Raleigh. There's a great farm in Northboro where we went strawberry picking back in May, and we'll probably head up that way just because I liked it a lot.

Fall is my favorite season. I have a tendency to get colds in fall rather than spring, but I don't even care! (Except when I give them to the baby. Which I have. I feel terrible about that.) It cools off, the leaves are GORGEOUS--and somehow, in New England the leaves seem so much more vibrant, and there are old farmhouses and cider mills and crazy rural stuff that go so well with the changing leaves--and I can start wearing sweaters again. I like wearing sweaters and jeans because I like how they cover up my flaws. I also like that in fall and winter, I'm only kind of pale, not ghastly. Pale in winter WORKS.

And I like buying winter clothes for Calvin. Fall is the time when winter clothes start appearing, so I get to go stock up on fleece pajamas and rain gear and long pants and sweatshirts and the like. He's got a rain jacket and a puffy winter coat now, and if I can find his damn tiger hat he'll be almost set. My only concern is snow boots. I haven't bought any yet, because I think they'll be $20 and I'm not sure how much use he'll get out of them. Of course, it's going to snow up here, but I'm still clinging to the hope that we'll be moving back to NC soon. I suppose it couldn't hurt. He can wear them even if it's not SNOWING, just cold, and it may snow some down south. It did last year.

There are a lot of things I don't like about living up here, mostly because it's so far away from home, but I like fall. I'm glad we're experiencing it again, at least one more time.