After School

I love this picture my friend snapped of our sons playing after school a couple days ago. The joy in their eyes, the toothless grins, all of it.

Tree Pics

We'll be done putting our tree together one of these days. We put it up Monday night, after Malcolm was in bed. Gareth helped with setting the branches free.

Then we did his advent present and sent him to bed while I did the lights. I finally purchased some multi-colored lights this year, because I knew Gareth really, really wanted them. I loved the colored ones as a kid to, so I guess this is the route we'll be going for a few years. I'd purchased 500 lights, but didn't have enough, so ran out and bought a couple more boxes in order to get it all done Monday night.

Malcolm had missed the whole setup, so he was in awe when he came out to the living room in the morning. It took him quite a while to get brave enough to try and touch the lights or tree, but now he's past his awe/fear/wonder and every time he's in the living room will try to touch the tree. So we get to spend the next couple of weeks keeping him away I guess. At least he's being fairly gentle still. I'm interested to see what happens when the ornaments go on. It'll be a bit top-heavy on the ornaments this year as we'll try to keep most of them out of his reach.

Gareth really wanted to do the ornaments Tuesday night, but I'd decided I should spend a little time studying for my Chem final the next day. And I had rehearsal Wednesday night, Ryan goes to the gym Thursday night and we have a work party for Ryan and a friend's party for the rest of us Friday night. Saturday it is, I guess. I'm rather enjoying a few days of just the tree and lights though, and a bit of anticipation won't kill Gareth.

Tree Farm

Last year we went to Carnation Tree Farm for our tree, which was a very nice tree that we enjoyed. We had a Grand Fir because that was the only kind of tree they had a decent selection of. I decided we'd go ahead and go there again, because it was familiar and the tree was a nice tree.

Well, we finally rolled ourselves out of bed this morning (Ryan and I were out late last night) and got everyone ready and tried (unsuccessfully) to have Malcolm nap before we left. Luckily I took another look at the farm's website before we left because it turns out their Grand Fir field isn't open at all this year and they were only selling a select few of all their others. It was really quite ridiculous. Thankfully a fellow clarinetist had told me last year which farm her family always goes to, so I called them up to make sure they were open and had trees left.

It's a bit of a drive out to Reade's Christmas Tree Ranch, about an hour, but it was worth it. This place was larger than Carnation Tree Farm, with much better selection of every kind of tree they sell. The family that owns it was very friendly and helpful. It reminded me of where we went when I was a kid much more than the Carnation farm.

Malcolm fell asleep on the way there, waking up just a we parked. He got to ride in the Ergo, which he wasn't always so thrilled about. We headed over to the Grand Firs, but couldn't help but be drawn to the Noble Firs, despite the fact that they're more expensive. The Nobles look like their branches are sturdier than the Grand Firs and the Grand Firs often have really long needles - we'd just managed to find one last year that didn't have crazy long needles. In the end we went with the Noble since that's what we all seemed to like. As the kids get older I think I'd like to look at more of the varieties though, just to see if there's anything else we might like as well that we're just not familiar with right now. But at the moment the kids, especially Malcolm, just don't have the patience for that.

It's been unusually cold here (below freezing for a whole week now, which almost never happens here), so we're letting our tree hang out in some water in the garage overnight so it doesn't die of shock when it comes into our warm house. Pictures will come tomorrow after we get it set up (hopefully that happens tomorrow). I'm a little worried about Malcolm trying to pull the tree over, but he did get annoyed by the needles scratching him while I helped Ryan carry the tree, so here's hoping that was enough to make him decide to stay far, far away from the tree this year.

Another Quarter Down

Today was my last day of class for the quarter. I have one final next week, so I do have some studying to do over the next few days, but am starting to be able to relax a bit and spend more time thinking about the holidays without feeling guilty because I should be working. End-of-quarter apathy started to set in about three weeks ago, so it's a good thing we've reached the end.

My Developmental Psychology instructor did everything in his power to make the class as easy as imaginably possible. We didn't even have to read the text, had no projects (aside from raising a virtual child and living our own life virtually) and all exams were multiple choice, and very easy multiple choice at that. Yet some students still tried to argue points and whatnot, which is especially ridiculous considering he made it very clear at the beginning of the quarter that he wasn't willing to argue points on the exams. I'm not sure how useful this class will be for me in the long run, so I was rather glad it was extra easy. But it also made it somewhat less interesting to have it be so incredibly easy. Or maybe it was that it was only an hour class and I've become accustomed to two hour classes where you can have much more in-depth conversation about the material. I can't quite put my finger on what left me feeling dissatisfied with the course. I mean, the instructor has been teaching there for ages and is a nice guy and seems to really know his stuff and did a good job of making sure we were all understanding the material. But it all just felt lacking somehow. At least I made a friend in the class. We've talked about getting our kids together at some point - we'll see if it happens or not.

General Chemistry was more intense. Four days per week, two hours each day. New instructor, so some things about the course were a bit unrefined as he was figuring out how everything works at the college. I made some friends in this class as well, which is particularly nice since we'll all be moving on to the second part of General Chem together. The first couple chapters we covered here were things I covered in high school. Not that I actually remembered them or learned them well then (I had two years of inexperienced/horrible chemistry teachers in high school). But at least the concepts weren't entirely foreign. And while some of the other chapters had a lot of information, when you got right down to it none of them were terribly difficult. 

I had to wonder if most of the class was bothering to read the text or not. I have a feeling they weren't, because many of them seemed to have difficulty grasping even the simplest of concepts. Concepts that were explained quite clearly in the text (or so I thought). And then explained and re-explained multiple times by our kind teacher, who really seemed to want everyone to understand. Which I appreciated, except that it meant we got behind schedule and didn't finish all the material we should have this quarter. We did make it halfway through the last chapter to be covered, but now I get to teach myself the last half of that chapter and hope it's not too terribly important as we move on through chemistry (molecular orbital theory and stuff about bonding in solids). I try to keep in mind that at some point I might be the horribly confused person who just doesn't get what everyone else thinks is so simple. Hopefully those who were struggling so much don't have to take much more chemistry for what they want to do.

One good thing this quarter was having early classes. Chem was at 8am, so I'd drop the boys off at our friend's place at 7:30 where they'd eat breakfast and play and then Gareth and his daughter would go to school (they're in the same class) and I'd pick up Malcolm after I finished at 11. Or on my short days Ryan would get the boys ready and Gareth to school before I got home just after 10. Since Malcolm's mostly given up morning naps (occasionally he'll take one at Colin's house for about 30 minutes), this schedule worked nicely because I could get a bit done with him after coming home, feed him lunch, put him down for a nap, and then have 2-3 hours to practice or do schoolwork or whatnot around the house. He usually wakes up just in time for us to pick up Gareth from school. Malcolm struggled going to Colin's house last quarter, but he adores Colin now. He even gets to ride on Colin's bike sometimes and really loves that. And Gareth and Colin's daughter enjoy playing together before school. Unfortunately, my schedule will be one hour later next quarter - Nutrition at 9, followed by two hours of Chem at 10. At least I won't have to feel badly about waking the boys up at 7am anymore, but they won't have as much playtime at Colin's before school and I think they'll miss that.

First Haircut

A couple weeks ago we finally succumbed to the nastiness that was Malcolm's hair after he had a cold, gave his hair a good washing and cut the bangs. I don't dare touch the rest. He was wiggly enough for the front that there was no way it was ending up even. Since his hair is wavy the unevenness isn't too noticeable and at least now it's out of his face.

Thanksgiving 2013

No big trips or plans for us this year, we enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving at home. Our oven has a bad track record where whole birds are concerned, so I attempted just the turkey breast this year. That went so much better than my previous whole bird attempts. Ryan just noticed it was much smaller than the turkeys he's used to seeing, so assumed I'd made chicken. Our meal was almost over before he realized it actually was turkey. Ryan and I don't usually eat much of the dark meat anyway, so just doing up a breast makes so much more sense for us, and it still made sufficient leftovers for a few days. I wasn't sure how much it'd make, so I bought two breasts and cooked the second one today. So now we've got a bit of turkey meat in the freezer for later use.

I'd made pumpkin pie the night before and had purchased rolls. Mashed potatoes and stuffing are super-easy to make while the turkey is cooking, so it really was a relaxing day. I even got some post-labs done and practicing in. Gareth was excited because I'd promised him months ago that he could use a wine glass on Thanksgiving and Christmas. We purchased a special drink for him - sparkling pear juice. I remember how cool I thought it was the first time my mom trusted us to use her crystal and I'm guessing Gareth felt much the same, though obviously breaking a wine glass wouldn't be nearly as costly as breaking a crystal glass. But he doesn't know that.

Malcolm didn't enjoy the meal much - he happily ate about 3 bites of turkey, 2 bites of stuffing, and 1 bite of potato before deciding it was all disgusting and spitting out every bite thereafter. He was much happier spending some quiet time in his crib while the rest of us ate. Maybe in a few years he'll grow to enjoy the Thanksgiving meal more.

We don't have any Thanksgiving traditions yet, so the meal was it for us. But I've appreciated the small break before I head into the last week of the quarter and the busy holiday season starting Sunday.

Language

Malcolm's hit the stage where he doesn't have very many words he can say but has very definite ideas about what he does and does not want and it's becoming frustrating to him (and me!) that he can't express those ideas. I hadn't been sure how much to worry about his lack of words when he clearly wasn't meeting the "expected" marks at the past couple doctor's visits (except that the doctor herself didn't seem too worried about that and I swear they're asking all the same questions I got asked with Gareth except they ask them one visit earlier, which at this point amounts to 3-6 months earlier). He had a whole slew of sound effects that he'd learned from Gareth - he'd even started saying some things like "ai-uken!" after Gareth ran around one night pretending he was playing Streetfighter IV and shouting "shaiuken" or whatever it is they say over and over and over - but not much where actual words were concerned.

Anyway, up until the last couple days he's pretty solidly stuck with just a couple regular words and a few others that you might eek out of him once every month or so. "uh-oh" and "peek-a-boo" were the regulars, along with "daddy" (though this is often used for random things that are definitely not daddy). "Shoes" joined the regulars a couple weeks ago. "Ball", "hi", "nose", and what I assumed was "baby" had come and then gone again and now "ball" seems to have come back.

In the last week he seems to be blossoming in the language area. We've added "woof", first to refer to a specific toy and now he'll say it almost every time he sees a dog. He'll say "hoo, hoo" when playing with a toy owl. I've had a couple times where he's said "boopy" to mean "poopy" and walked me to his room so I can change his diaper (dare I hope this is a good indicator for our potty-training future?). "Ow" has become his generic "I am displeased with what is happening" word and yesterday he even said "bye" to Ryan. "Daddy" also refers to me and whenever I'm chasing him down he'll try to imitate me saying "I got you". Today at lunch he even managed a successful "apple", so that will likely join the regular vocab here pretty soon. He was starting to throw quite a few tantrums, so I'm hopeful that the new language development will help to stem some of that as he discovers that he can use more than just fire truck/car/monster/explosion sounds to express himself!