4 Pounds of Trouble: Life with Donovan

Busted!

2011-12-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was puttering around the house as much as my horrific cold would allow when the phone rang. It was about time for the husband to call at the end of his shift so it took my brain a moment when the voice at the other end introduced itself as Donovan's music teacher at school. Apparently, there have been some behavior problems and, with the Big Wintertime Show coming up on Tuesday, he thought the time had come for us to have a talk.

Ahem.

So all this ooohing and aaahing about how well Donny has been doing with his developmental milestones and all the while he's playing badass in music class! I had no idea. I promised the teacher I'd speak with him--and I have. I hope he'll behave long enough for everyone to get thru Frere Jacque on Tuesday. I've been having daily sit-downs with him about it since the call but I have this sinking feeling that all he's hearing is "BLAHblahblahblahblah."

Tuesday. Its coming up soon. Stay tuned.

Guided by Donovan

2011-12-17T16:18:00.000-08:00

Donovan has been writing "songs" lately. I use the quotations because alot of them are scales, which he has taught himself to play. I guess he figures he is the first person to discover scales and thus has naming privileges. At any rate, here is a short list of some of my favorite song titles:

* I read a book to myself
* A new friend: The Friend
* A bee tells its Mom and Dad that it wants supper.
* Your name isn't Frankenstein; its Captain

Is this how Robert Pollard got started?

Well Hello There!

2011-12-11T20:20:00.000-08:00

And the funny thing is? I thought leaving my full time job would give me MORE time! I'm being facetious--it has indeed freed up much time but I havent used it to keep this blog up to date, that's for damn sure. But part of that is thing have been so good and happening so fast...

So to get to it: Donovan is doing very well. Very well indeed. My last blog post was about how crazy his schedule was but since then he has tested out of work with two of his four therapists (NO MORE HOME VISITS!) and we meet with the other two tomorrow. The way one of them was speaking, she may pack up her worksheets and sign off with him too. Her quote was, "its like he's a totally different child!"

And he is and he is'nt. He's still silly and sweet and obsessed with his piano. But he also has friends at school that he plays with--can you hear my heart singing? Friends! And that has been, in my opinion, both the chicken and the egg of most of this. Is he more social because he's made friends or does he now have friends because he's more social?

I like it too because his friends are at his level--some of the kids in his class are older, if not in age in attitude and/or interests. There is, for example, this little subset of boys who play with these fighting tops--beyblades or something. Which is perfectly fine. Donny and his friends play a game they call "Go Down The Slide Without Using Your Bum." And they play it every day. And they hold hands and chase each other and just run, run, run just because they like to run. He seems so much happier. Not that he was sad but he's definitely happier.

I'm typing this as a break from completely tearing up the house (at 11pm on a Sunday) to prep the front room for the Christmas tree. I realized in talking to Donovan a week or so ago that he has no idea what Christmas was. Not in the biblical sense but in the Write a Letter to Santa sense. I asked him if there were any toys he wanted and he said, "Hmmmm....no." But he's super excited that we are getting a tree and he's pretty much memorized the Charlie Brown Christmas special. He also thinks we should get Grammy Shanley a bike. I suggested he draw her a picture of one instead.

More soon and with pictures! Now back to putting the glassware back in the liquor cabinet, which I moved from the front room to the dining room to make way for the couch.

I Need a Simplicity Coordinator...

2011-10-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how much I believe in astrology but I do feel very much like the Gemini I am. I've always felt like the Gemini poster child and part of that is that I seem to be a lightning rod for irony. Sometimes its big, scary irony but usually its just a constant stream of everyday little details that, when looked at thru the Gemini microscope, are ridiculous.

Take, for example, the fact that I'm signed up for a series of talks on Simplicity Parenting, but that those talks now conflict with Donovan's Suzuki piano group lessons. And speaking of Simplicity Parenting, we got a flyer for the Steel City Earth Scouts and I'm thinking of signing Donny up. Even tho his schedule would end up looking something like this:

MONDAY:
School, one hour session w/ Ms. Keely at home, practice piano

TUESDAY:
School, speech therapist visit at school, practice piano

WEDNESDAY:
School, hang out for an hour an a half with Mom before group piano lesson, Group Piano lesson.

THURSDAY:
School, visit with occupational therapist at school, one hour session w/ Ms. Keely at home, practice piano

FRIDAY:
School, private lesson w/ Ms. Kiki

SATURDAY:
Earth Scouts first Saturday of every month, the occasional playdate and/or visit to museum/library/etc., practice piano.

SUNDAY:
Only day off with both Mom AND Dad, Church, Earth Scouts every 3rd Sunday, occasional visits to Grammy and Grandpop in Squirrel Hill, practice piano.

Is this what simplicity is supposed to look like? The kid's not even 5 yet!

Drinking the Twinkle Kool Aid

2011-10-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

Donovan had his first group lesson for piano last night. He has been taking Suzuki lessons for about 5 weeks now and I will admit to it making me grumpy. First, it took well over a year to get him on their schedule and, when we did, we were relegated to a 3:15 lesson, which was rough because he gets out of school at 3:30. I felt the weekly newsletters left out valuable information (exactly when the parent meetings were and exactly how important they were considered), that sort of thing. It did not help that the parent meeting I went to was out in Carnegie and while the bus service there was good it was a rainy day and the bus stop was literally right on the road, right where there was a puddle the car tires would hit as they sped by. I ended up putting Donny in the corner and standing in front of him to keep him dry--I felt like there was a blue screen behind us and they would photoshop in a raging pterodactyl attack.

That's all changed now because I got to watch my son ENJOY HIMSELF COMPLETELY last night. There were 3 other kids in the class and they sat in the front row with their parents behind them. Donny was possibly the youngest kid and definitely the newest student--the other kids all had at least a year of lessons under their belts. The class started with each kid playing a piece, bowing to applause and sitting back down. This happened twice and the second time, Donovan sat down and played "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" all the way thru using both hands.

He had never done that before.

It was a major breakthrough that he played it all the way thru instead of stopping after each part but the two hand thing completely blew my mind: he saw the other boys do that and that was all he needed. It was also great to see the pure joy on his face whenever he would clap for his classmates or when he would take a bow.

I'd been holding off writing the check because 1) its a big chunk of cash and 2) I wasn't sure it would work out. Watch your mailbox, Pittsburgh Music Academy--the check is on its way!

Fly Away Home

2011-09-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

I went home to Ohio for four days, without benefit of the boy or the husband. My goal was to clean my Mom's house and clean I did. Of course the sidewalks get rolled up at night on a trip like that so one of the things I did to pass the time was go thru my phone's picture files. I found this stash of photos from our last trip to the toy lending library. Donovan insisted on wearing this ladybug costume even tho it was just small enough that it sort of acted like a neckbrace. We were there about 3 hours, if I'm remembering correctly, and he was a ladybug the whole time.

I love that kid.

Art Imitates Life

2011-09-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

This is NOT our car and NOT our house. It is, in fact, the house next door to us. And, believe it or not, the lady who was driving the truck apparently walked away. When we got home that evening, we got out of the car and thought, "Oh, the neighbors are up late working on their house." They were, of course, tarping over the damage and doing emergency work to keep everything standing.

Donny was impressed with the idea of a car crashing into a building and that scenario has been creeping into the stories he's been telling. Our friend, Kirsten, babysat him for a few hours today and she said that his building of complex houses with his architectural blocks has now been enlivened with reenactments of the car crash using any variety of cars from his toychest. "Imitative play!" was her assessment--and with all due respect to the neighbors and the driver, I'm ok with that!

Kirsten also said that Donovan was telling her about his brothers and sisters. I did'nt get a chance to ask if he included any info on his cats (Gwinty and Linto) or his babies (Lil' Baby MoMo Charnival Shanley or Maestro Faestro Shanley). Tonight he drew a picture of his baby, me when I was a baby, and himself. He was much bigger than either Lil' Baby or me and he had alot of hair. We were all smiling, which was a nice change. I'm hoping the Frown Period of his artistic career is over. I was starting to wonder if CYS was going to come ask why our child only drew sad and angry people.

*Photo by Zak Orszulak, who posted it on Facebook, but I stole it from here without asking anyone's permission. Let me know if I need to take it down and I will.

Try Not To Squeal...

2011-09-22T16:57:00.000-07:00

...but there are major developments here at Chez Donovan. We ordered a pizza tonight (too much rummage sale prep=me, make supper? You are insane...) and when it came Mike asked Donovan to wash his hands. Donny's response was, "I'll wash my hands after I go to the bathroom standing up." And he did. This is the FIRST TIME EVER he has voluntarily and of his own accord walked into our bathroom and peed in the toilet.

And here I sit up in the office, listening to my son practice his left hand work on the piano. Piano may turn out to be a dude thing--Mike can get him to practice and I have yet to figure out how to do that. Nevertheless: voluntary bathroom usage and piano practicing without tears.

If I had champagne in the house, I'd be tempted to break it out!

Training

2011-09-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

I don't want to jinx it or anything but...so far this week, Donovan used the bathroom at school on Monday and today. Today, apparently, he used it twice without any prompting or coercion from outside forces. We still have miles to go on this issue but this is a major development. And also a major relief!

We are gearing up for a huge yard sale this weekend. Its been years in the making but was not the type of thing we could ever tackle with both of us working full time. Not having a job has been great for finally getting this all together. There is still much work to be done but today was the first day that I could actually feel the arrangement of the house changing and opening up. And, frankly, it will be nice to have a little extra money. I thought that when I left my big adult job I would easily take the veil, so to speak, and become the type of frugal hausfrau who is so savvy with home economics that she actually saves as much money as she was making. Oooooh, that was a good one! This past month saw very little change in my spending--and, yes, the kid did outgrow the majority of his winter clothes, but still. I guess I've got a long way to go in my training as well.

Wherein The Apple Falls Right Next To the Tree

2011-09-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day volunteering at Donovan's school. His room already has a lovely and capable "room parent" so I offered my services in the school library (yes, I'm not a librarian, but some of my best friends are...). It was just a Get to Know The Place sort of session and I was done quickly. Mike and I had lunch together and when we got home there was a big box on the porch, a box addressed to Donovan sent from his uncle in Denver.

It was a record player.

When Mike's nephew, Jack, was born, lo, these 14 years ago, Mike found a "phonograph" for him and sent it to Denver along with some Herb Alpert records. So now the phonograph is back in Pittsburgh along with some Read Along records, Snoopy and the Royal Guardsmen and (inexplicably) the soundtrack to Easy Rider.

On the way home from picking up the kid, Mike wanted to stop at Paul's CDs in Bloomfield. All three of us went in.

Four of us if you count the monkey.

Donovan made himself at home by running laps around the huge island of CD bins. One of ploys to slow him down was to say, "Donny, LOOK--now that you have a record player, you could play ANY OF THESE RECORDS on it!" He liked that idea and immediately started handing me albums, "I think I would like this one. And this one. And this one..." Luckily, the nice guy who worked there pointed out the Bargain Box and we diverted Donny's attention there. He chose a Count Basie album and a 12 inch single of an instrumental on Motown. I forget what and who it is but all Donovan really cared about was that it said "Motown Sound" on the front. I think he liked saying that.

So the vinyl torch has been officially passed. Soon, once we get the skinny room cleaned out enough to stand in, I will make a sweeping gesture towards the shelfset that holds my and my husband's massive merged record collection and I will get to say those words every matriarch/patriarch dreams of saying: "Someday, son, this will all be yours."

Chocolate Pie and Birdseed Cakes

2011-09-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Donovan was a whiney little brat. Today he was a loving and enjoyable angelchild. So goes it in The Land of the 4 Year Olds. Today started off a little dicey as we went to church, which we havent done in a few weeks. If we can manage to go for a few weeks in a row, he's fine with Sunday school. If we miss a month or so, its back to clingy, weepy square one. I stayed with him until it looked like he was involved enough not to "need" me and I left. I don't think he cried in class but he was wearing the Pagliacci face when we went to get him.

Mike had to run off to work so it was just me and The Boy I'd Done Wrong. I apologized for making him sad and we had lunch. By then, everything was better. I'd thought we'd go to the fancy playground in Regent Square but Donny wanted to go home. So we did and we made a chocolate pie.

The chocolate pie is very specific: Donny is still obsessed with Down At The Zoo and one of the songs on it we all like is called, "We Are The Tigers." Its a song about how tigers like to sleep, roam around and eat chocolate pie. It was a rare moment that we had graham crackers in the house for the crust and damn, if we did'nt have all the ingredients! So we made a Chocolate Chiffon Pie in a Graham Cracker Crust.

That is the crust. I forgot to take photos of my child beating a bag full of graham crackers with a rolling pin

The recipes for both crust and pie filling were from The Fanny Farmer Cookbook. Its one of those cookbooks where you can find a basic recipe for basically anything. The filling had a custard base to which you add...

...6 TABLESPOONS OF COCOA! Notice the glee with which my son is anticipating making a mess. Actually, he did quite well with the spooning, which is good because cocoa is pretty easy to scatter.

After we got the filling into the crust, we cleaned up a bit and made some new birdseed cakes. This is a little craft Donny and I started doing over a year ago and its been a really great thing for us. For a boy who is pretty freaked out by animals, feeding the birds and watching them thru the window is a nice way to make a connection to animals. This is a recipe that is NOT in Fannie Farmer so I am providing it here. I stole it from somewhere off the internets but tweaked it a little bit so hopefully I won't get my ass sued:

Recipe for Basic Bird Seed Cakes

• 3/4 cup flour

• 1/2 cup water

• 3 tablespoons corn syrup

• 4 cups bird seed, any type

In large bowl mix all the ingredients together.

To mold, pack into small bowl and turn out onto parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Put in warm oven for a few hours—remember to turn heat off: you're not baking them, just helping them to dry out. Also, you should flip them after a couple of hours so the bottoms don't stay damp. Hang in plastic mesh bags (they type used to bag lemons etc.) so the birds have a place to hang from while they eat.

I asked Donovan what the birds would say when we put these out, and he said, "'Thank You! We needed that!'"

Mike got home, we had dinner et voila! We unveiled the chocolate pie! I will confess to thinking it would not work structurally. The crust was not easy to shape and it seemed like it needed one more binding ingredient: it did not. I should have known not to doubt Fannie Farmer. She's always right.

And, if I do say so myself, the pie was much better than I thought it would be. It was seriously good. Plus, it was a dream to cut and serve, which is not something you can say about alot of pies.

So it was a wonderful, sweet Sunday with the added bonus of pie. Now the kid is taking a bath to get all the pie off of him. Good end to a great day.

And So It Ends...

2011-09-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

...Summer, that is.

Today is Labor Day and here in the Burgh, its raining with no signs that it will stop. That's fine with me--I'm not a summer person by any stretch--but it does mean that I need to find one more day of stuff for Donovan to do here at home.

Mike's been out of town at a conference so its just been me and the boy since Friday. For the most part its been a good time but Saturday night I suddenly hit a mental brick wall. Part of that was the aftershock of getting stuck in Oakland for THREE HOURS, first because Pitt closed one of the streets in Oakland be did'nt bother to put up any signs at the bustop where our bus would'nt be stopping and, second, because it was so hot all the buses kept breaking down.

But today, all I have to get thru is today. And I'm trying to come up with good things for us to do, landlocked as we are. In case you find yourself in a similar situation, here is a list of Youtube videos that Donovan asks for on a regular basis:

The Little House, Walt Disney.
Anyone who knows me knows I am violently anti-Disney. This is one, however, for which I will make an exception.

The Water Babies, Walt Disney
Please see above. Also: early Disney humor is largely butt-based: Discuss.

Bring On the Dancing Horses, Echo and the Bunnymen
Good song, good video AND, if you know your history, you can play Hey, Is'nt That Sort Of Like All Those Dadaist/Surrealist Theories and Games? Yes, that's what I'm foisting onto my 4 year old.

I Spit Roses, Peter Murphy
Speaking of foisting... Donovan likes the octopus that changes color and he likes "The Bad Guy." The Bad Guy does not refer to Peter Murphy, who I am trying to get Donovan to refer to as, "Petey." So far, no luck.

Weapon of Choice, Fatboy Slim
No Donovan Top 5 List would be complete without, "The Guy." The Guy, of course, is Christopher Walken, and about a year ago Donovan would insist on watching this multiple times in a row. It was a good set up when I needed an extra 20 minutes to fold laundry but I have to wonder about the long term implications of letting Christopher Walken babysit my child.

Here's hoping this list will provide you and yours with some new things to look at and think about. Especially if you are held captive by Dora. We have thus far been able to escape the Napoleonic like Dora invasion but many of my closest friends have not been so lucky.

First Trip to the Zoo, or, They Can't All Be Winners

2011-08-31T05:56:00.000-07:00

Where did I go wrong as a mother? Why does my son not like animals? I loved, loved, LOVED animals when I was a kid--what connection are we not making?

We took Donovan to the Zoo for the first time on Monday. All weekend he was looking forward to it; "Are we going to the zoo today?" "MONDAY we are GOING to the ZOO!!!" Within 5 minutes of getting there: "I want to go home. I want to go home. Let's G-O." He said he was afraid of the animals, which I believe--I can't even get him to pet the neighbor's cat, but I thought just looking at the animals from a long way away would be alright: Nope.

It was a tough time--he was pushing all my particular buttons and I was not being the patient mother I strive to be. Part of it was that I was hot, part of it was all the walking, part of it was HOW FREAKIN' LOUD the zoo was (on that part, Donny and I agreed). Also, it was very expensive. Everything cost money. Everytime I reached for my wallet I thought, "Leopard Chow: you are paying for Leopard Chow."

I will say we made the rookie mistake of not starting at the Kids Kingdom. And if you don't start there, you sure as hell can't get there unless you walk the whole zoo. Or unless you pay to take the tram.

He did like the elephants. And the aquarium. And the Merry Go Round ($3 for 2) and the kiddie rides ($.50 and $.75, respectively) at the end.

We need to work on this animalphobia. If I think about it too much, it makes me incredibly sad.

I tried to get a good photo of him in the Aquarium. As long as the animals were encased in both glass and gallons of water, he was fine...

Pure Imagination

2011-08-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

In the past week or two, Donovan has started playing with his stuffed animals. We have a bunch of them in his toychest downstairs and a bunch in a basket next to his bed. As a kid, I was way too butch for dolls and my early world revolved around Ted the Bear, Simon the Kitten and a cast of supporting stuffed characters. I would gladly spend big bucks on stuffed animals for my child 1) if I had big bucks and 2) if he paid them any attention. A couple of years ago, despite the fine array of stuffed animals procured for him by his loving mother, Donovan's best friend was an empty yogurt container--when I moaned to Sheryl about it she suggested I draw a smiley face on the damn thing. It gets funnier the more you think about it.

Since it's summer, we've been letting Donovan wake himself up so the past few mornings when I've gone to check on him all the animals are on his bed having a birthday party. So far Giraffecow, RayRay and Puppy have had birthdays (Giraffecow does not like chocolate cake, apparently, but had a strawberry one instead). Donny has also been building elaborate houses out of his architectural building blocks and then taking his Flowers (the generic term for a set of wooden play figures he has that are based on flowers and trees) and placing them in the house: "Bluebell is talking to Acorn about food. Little Baby Mushroom is sleeping on the roof--that's where his bed is" and "Bluebell is their mama and Redbell is the sister and Buckeye is the sister and there are THREE BROTHERS!"

Love, love, love it. Imagination: I hope it never stops.

And Then, Kennywood...

2011-08-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we went to Kennywood. We were planning to go all summer but, suddenly, it was really the very last day we could go before their fall schedule and our fall schedules got all wonky. That seemed to be the case for everyone else as it was pretty busy for a Monday. Donovan, of course, was all keyed up about going--he's been doing this thing lately when he gets excited where he jumps up and down with this grimace on his face, going, "YEYEYEYEYE!" Its as if he's so excited he might explode. The first ride he went on was The Jackrabbit. He did so well on the Rollo Coaster at Idlewild, we thought it might work. It did'nt--but he was a big boy and did'nt cry or anything. Mike said, right before the double dip, Donny turned to him and said, "I'd like this to go a little slower, please." Poor kid.

We tried to rebalance him with a stop at the Merry Go Round. Kennywood is really marketing the fact that they are going to have events in December. That could be why the Merry Go Round was playing "Silver Bells." I took it very personally, in a good way, however, when they went into Bach's Toccata and Fugue and then into The Addams Family Theme.

From there it was onto Kiddieland. You'd think you could be in and out of Kiddieland in an hour or so. You'd be wrong.

Donny wanted to take full advantage of all the rides there, which is why we came. It was just crowded enough, tho, that it made for sloooow going. He was just fine with it all but Mom and Dad were a little irritable by the end.

Meet my son, the Lion Dentist.

From Kiddieland, we went over to Lost Kennywood, where the only ride Donny could really go on was The Whip. Luckily he loved it. It didnt hurt that he got to sit in a RED CAR that had a RED SEAT and also had HIS FAVORITE NUMBER ON IT. All the stars came together on that one.

Finally, as we were leaving, I caught a whiff of one of my favorite smells: burnt sugar. Turns out there was a little cart where someone was actually making FRESH cotton candy! I put FRESH in all caps because buying a bag of cotton candy is no problem at Kennywood but if its not fresh, why bother? I immediately got in the long line and took Donny with me. He was fairly crabby as he did not want to leave Kennywood--which is a completely normal response but still hard to deal with when its your kid and its time to go. When we got close enough, I held him up and showed him the gal making the cotton candy:

                     D: What's she doing?
                     Me: Making Cotton Candy.
                     D: But what is that?
                     Me: Clouds. She's putting sugar in the big pot and she's making clouds.
                     D: We're going to eat clouds?
                     Me: Yeah--pink ones!

That was all the kid needed. The magic was back. And, damn, fresh cotton candy: the first 5 minutes before the air calms it down; its like heaven. Sticky, sticky heaven.

While we ate our clouds, the All Marching Band And Float Parade started.

We watched a little bit but then we reallllly had to go. Donovan very much liked that the heart on the way out said, "Good Night."

Good Night, Kennywood. Thanks for the clouds and the good times. See yinz next year!

And We Had A Grand Time!

2011-08-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

Last week we took what will probably be our Big Family Vacation for the year--we went to Ligonier and stayed overnight at a Ramada so we could go to Idlewild Park two days in a row.

Sometimes I take the trouble to check who is looking at my blog and why--two entries tie for top honors: if there is anyone checking in from another country, chances are the entry I entitled "Define Baby" will be what brought them there. The other big hit is my entry from two years ago about Storybook Forest. Storybook Forest is part of Idlewild Park and I was very surprised two years ago to find out there wasnt a webpage for Storybook Forest. After this year's visit, I've decided that was less an oversight and more a component of an Idlewild Park plot to just ignore Storybook Forest until it goes away. I know times are tough for all businesses but the condition that part of the park is in was heartbreaking. Seriously, Idlewild employees, its an historic site. Get your act together, hire someone to write you some grants and do some restoration work! Also, your giftshop: maybe you'd want to, oh, I don't know, SELL SOME BOOKS. Product tie in and all. I would'nt be so pissed off if I did'nt love that place so much.

But enough of that and onto the photos. We spent the first, rainy and drizzly day in Storybook Forest and the next lovely, sunny day in Idlewild. Being a cemetery historian I know just enough about landscape architecture and the history thereof to be easily offended. Most historic amusement parks have long forgone their original designs of gardens and shade and flowers and trees because those things get in the way of the New In Your FACE rides they have feel they have to add every summer (I'm looking at you, Cedar Point...). Idlewild has not made that particular deal with the Devil and their grounds are green and lush and lovely. That original design really gives a nice placement for their rides. There is an actual Kiddieland but there is also a non-Kiddie specific area and Donovan was able to go on alot of those rides, including the Rollo Coaster. It was his first real roller coaster ride and, at the end of it, he was so excited and happy he was actually vibrating. He insisted on riding it about 6 more times, alternating between Mike and I as his partner.

It was a wonderful getaway and we all had a great time. We will probably do it again next year and now that we understand how Ligonier is laid out, we will have lunch at a nice little cafe and not drive all over nowhere to come back to the hotel for Chef Boyardee pizza.

And without further ado:

The rain drove us into the Jumpin' Jungle part of Idlewild and that is where Donovan discovered the Amazing Floating Balls. All of us could have stayed there and played with them All. Day.

This is the Entrance to Storybook Forest. You walk into a Huge Book and Mother Goose is waiting to greet you. I love the book and did'nt have the heart to take a full photo of it as it looks really shabby.

Not sure what nursery rhyme the anthropomorphic dog is from.

The Little Engine That Could was full of bees. They must be nesting all the way thru it.

Mike lifting Donny up to see the Papa, Mama and Baby Bear beds in the House of the Three Bears.

My Son, the Third and Most Wistful of the Piggies.

Completely crashed out the next morning after a night of jumping on the beds and dancing around the room.

The Idlewild Merry Go Round plays The Pennsylvania Polka (also known as The Steelers Fight Song), Alley Cat, and Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.

We ended our second day in Kiddieland. Adorable Kiddieland. Could'nt be any cuter.

Whistler's Mother, 2011

2011-08-17T07:16:00.001-07:00

"I'm going to draw a picture of you, Mama...I'm going to draw you with a mad face...you're wearing a dress. Its nice because you can touch it."

Completely Demoralized: Well, That Did'nt Take Long...

2011-08-15T01:53:00.000-07:00

It is 4:40 am. After [stops to count] 9 hours of having a weeping child hurl himself around the room gripping his genitalia, I went downstairs to the storage room and dug out a pack of "GoodNights" pull ups for "big kids" that we got in the mail about 3 months ago. Thank god I never throw out a sample.

Its no wonder the kid can't pee in a toilet--we spent all week last week counting down the days until he was Too Big For Pull Ups and it only took 9 hours for me to completely undermine our authority and mix that signal. I will only say two things in my defense: the kid had not peed since FRIDAY NIGHT so there were health risks to consider. Second, it was not until I said, "Donovan, if I found you a pull up, would you pee in it?" that he actually looked at me with something close to understanding/recognition. Up to that point he had been either inconsolable or completely feral.

Mike is currently asleep on the couch. I am typing this while Donovan (hopefully) is sleeping in his bed. He was in our bed to start with but after about 40 minutes of sleep, the flailing and wailing started again. Tomorrow we are slated to go to Storybook Forest. I have a nasty feeling that we will be packing Pull Ups.

Twice in those 9 hours of awfulness, I broke down and cried. Both times, Donny stopped his own crying and came over and hugged me. The first time, he even patted me on the head. My kid may never be potty trained but at least he's got a heart.

Postcard from Boot Camp

2011-08-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

Today is Day 2 of Potty Training Boot Camp Redux. Yesterday was the first day and it went very well: Donny was very excited about not wearing pull ups any more. He did'nt ask for one and was happy to wear big boys to bed.

Its all so easy. Once you decide you're never going to pee again.

That seems to be his strategy and its been over 24 hours. He's been very insistent that he will NOT sit on the toilet. So much so that Mike and I reverted to our old tactic of giving him a sucker just for sitting there. Sit there he did and nothing happened. Wasted a perfectly good Charms Sweet Orange sucker on that willful, willful child.

So now its almost bedtime. Last night was TERRIBLE and I'm fully assuming tonight will be the same, with the added bonus of an inevitable "accident" in the bed. Still, despite it not going the way I wanted it to, I do think progress is being made. We have three weeks until school starts, just me and the kid for most of it, so here's to Getting. Over. The. Damn. HUMP.

Today, You Are a Man.

2011-08-13T06:11:00.000-07:00

I totally stole the title of this entry from a flip comment Mike made on his way out the door to work. The comment refers to the fact that today will be Donovan's first day without pull-ups. This is also the first day of three weeks where he is in between Waldorf Day Camp and being back to school at Montessori. Thus, we have 3 weeks to work on the No Pull Up thing.

The thing about the No Pull Up thing is this: by the end of the school year, Donovan was not potty trained but he was also not having accidents at school. He was just "holding it" until it was time for bed, at which time we would change him into a pull up. The initial idea for the bedtime pull up was that asking a 4 year old to navigate 2 flights of stairs to the bathroom in the middle of the night was unrealistic. But what it resulted in was the I'll Hold It Because I Know I'll Be In A Pull Up Eventually mindframe.

Over the summer, Donny has worked with some really great counselors from The Barbour Center. Based on their advice and also on advice from the folks he works with from Early Intervention, we decided we would set a date on the calendar and he would cross off the days until No More Pull Ups Day. Which is today. I'm sure everything will be fine today--at least until around 7pm or so. Please light the appropriate candles for us starting at around 6pm EST.

And now that 3 weeks of summer break is stretched out before us, I'm realizing I did'nt do much planning. I should have done some planning.

Ooops.

So Much Catching Up...

2011-08-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

...to do here on the blog! Hard to believe its August already--harder to believe that this is Donny's last week at the Waldorf summer camp. As always, I must go on record as saying Waldorf is EX. PENS. IVE. Having said that, so is everything else kid related and it was a really great program for him. First, it was a small group of kids, alot of whom he already knew. Second, it was all about PLAYING. Not reading or writing or anything scholastic. Third, alot of the folks involved in the program were from The Zany Umbrella Circus, so the kid got to juggle, play with hula hoops and the like. Also, being Waldorf, there was lots of singing and Donovan has been singing the Blessing song and the Follow Me song constantly. Seriously: constantly.

So the next three weeks will be Donovan At Home With Me. And with Mike but mainly with me. I'm plotting and planning a wide variety of fun and games for us but it will also be Year 2 of Potty Training Boot Camp. We have been working with his therapists from Early Intervention and, with their help, we have him crossing off days on the calendar to this Saturday when there will be NO MORE PULL UPS. Thank God that Target opened up in East Liberty as we are going to need a buttload of prizes to encourage his participation. Stickers, please, yes, and light up glow stick bracelets! Dozens of them! Stay tuned for carefully edited progress reports.

Also, we make a long overdue trip to Ohio to see my family. I was hoping for a longer trip but that will have to come in the future. At least we got the boy home to see my Mom. That was worth the stay at the nasty ass hotel where we lost our reservation to someone in the Northern Ohio Eastern Star Convention (which I really can't argue--if I was working the desk and had to choose between me and about 200 lady Shriners dressed to the nines in white satin...).

Also, also: our porch is being worked on and I have hopes it will be done in time for an end of the summer Porch Warming.

We've taken a whole lot of photos this summer but, really, the best two are right here:

Random Selections

2011-07-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping a running list of things to add to this blog and while part of me thinks its because Donovan is going thru a "talking phase" right now, I'm starting to think part of it is that I'm going thru a "listening stage." Meaning, underemployed as I currently am, I have the time and attention span to listen to him and talk to him in ways that I havent really done before. Chalk that one up under Big Advantage/Major Blessing

The night before last Donny was fussing and crying and fussing and crying when he should have been asleep. Usually I wait for him to just go to sleep but he did'nt show any signs of slowing down. I went up to check on him and he was inconsolable. I asked him what was wrong and after much crying and snuffling he said, "I wrote D-A-D in my bed." "Why? Do you miss Daddy?" Mike was out with a friend from out of town that evening. I tucked Donny back into bed, went downstairs, and the fussing started back up. I was ready to let him work it out until he started saying, "Mama! Hold my hand, please!" So up I went again and the kid was out of his bed standing by the window. "Mama, hold my hand, please! I'm waiting for Daddy." Yep--kid was looking out the window towards Gooski's, waiting for his Dad to come home. At 11:30 at night.
Last night I was in the office working and could hear from Donny's room next door: Thump, "Almost!" Thump, "Almost!" I went in to check and the kid was laying on his bed with his stuffed animals strewn all around him. His comment is the punchline, "I can only juggle 3 balls at a time!"

There are others I can't quite conjure up now but he's been alot of fun as of late. Now I just need to figure out what he and I are going to do tonight when Mike works late. Probably something involving the sprinkler.

My Son Sybil

2011-07-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

Donovan told me a long story tonight about how it was Alex's birthday and there were cupcakes that said "Happy Grandson" and each one had a G on it and Donny was allowed to dance so he spun around and jumped and "kicked [his] heels together" and all the kids who did'nt dance before danced with him and it was Alex and Leo and Lily and they danced to the music and the music was churchbells.

That same angelbaby is now pitching a HUGE, We've Never Seen The Likes Of It With Him Before Tantrum because Mike filled the watering can half full instead of all the way full. I'm hoping the Terrible Twos Donovan chose not to cash in have not accrued interest.

Also, when he was being sweet tonight, he pointed to our lovely purple hydrangea and told me that those flowers were called "Dandipierogies."

Dandipierogies. I guess I won't give him away just yet.

Only Happy When It Rains

2011-07-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

The evening of the 4th of July, we went to Mike's folks place for a cookout. The weather held for a little while and then the skies opened and the rain poured down. Donny and I were sitting on the porch and at first he seemed sort of freaked out by the thunder. I don't know how I explained thunder to him but soon I had him High Fiving me everytime the thunder came. Its so good to know that, reasonably soon, we will have a porch with a roof and everytime it rains, Donny and I can sit out there, count Mississippis when the lightning comes and High Five on the thunder. Slowly, ever so slowly, I will impose my goth sensibilities on him. This one was especially sweet as my Dad and I always sat out on the porch back home for thunderstorms. And, might I say, Pennsylvania thunderstorms? Refreshing, pleasant even, but no match for the grandeur of Northern Ohio

Next on the Goth Syllabus? Maybe a cemetery picnic...

Postcard from The New Life

2011-07-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

In 4 days it will be a full month since I left my old job. Right now, we are basking in the illusion of financial balance--my last Big Time Career paycheck came in last week with a full month plus my leftover vacation days, so the checking account looks nice and fat. Also, the New Life I've been living is, so far, less expensive than my old one. I still havent had as many No Spending Days as I would like but there will be time for that--especially as reality sneaks up on our sweet little checking account and starts nibbling away at the edges.

This is a quick entry as I'm about to go get the kid from Waldorf. And, really, that's where the New Life part really kicks in--yesterday I had time to sneak Donny from his bed into ours and so we got to good around and roughhouse before he had to get ready for school. Today after Mike took him to school, I was able to do several buttloads of laundry, put away another few buttloads of clean clothes. I did the grocery shopping using my sweet little old lady cart, thus freeing up Mike's free time from that particular task. I mailed a holy card I found in an old book to the Historical Society of St. Cloud. I picked out two recipes for Donny and I to make when we get home. I also got some plotting and planning done on the CFA book.

Did I get everything done that was on my list? No. Is my/our life/lives just a little bit better because I've downshifted? Yes.

And now to get the boy. Which is good. 'Cause I miss him.

Amber Waves of Grain

2011-07-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

For July 4, Donny and I made vaugely patriotic suckers,

Then the three of us went to Schenley Park for a picnic. For some reason, the park was deserted so we had the Gazebo all to ourselves

Then we went Downtown to The Tomb of the Unknown Bowler, where there is a great fountain just made for running around. Donny was a little timid at first but then he really got into it.

He took a pretty nasty spill and hit his head so we slowed things down. They have three dinosaur sculptures in the same area so we went to visit them.

Next on the agenda; grilling out with Grammy and Grandpop.

Obscure Our Gang Reference

2011-07-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

I just heard Donovan downstairs yelling, "MAMA! COME HERE AND LOOK!" I told him to come up to the office and show me whatever it was. And it was a sign he had written:

Translation: "GO TO BED AND SNORE NOW"

That is a paraphrase of a line from the Our Gang short, Hook and Ladder. My kid is nothing if not Old School...

Tell Me Something I Don't Know...

2011-06-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

We signed Donovan up for "Summer Camp" at Waldorf from today thru the beginning of August. As one of his big To Do's is to socialize more, this seemed like a good opportunity for him to hang out and playplayplay with some kids he already knows at a place where he's comfortable. The teachers for the summer are all new but I was very happy when Mike told me, upon picking Donny up at the end of the day, Miss Abigail described him as "a great big ball of fun." The only drawback I can see so far is that the kids take an actual nap during the day, thus negating any benefits we the parents would glean from their full day of running around outside. The kid went to bed at 8 tonight but he sure as hell did'nt get to sleep until about 10:00. At least he was happy--we could hear him singing all the way downstairs, even without the monitor on.

"I Want It To Say 'Happy Father's Day, Pop, From Donovan'"

2011-06-20T03:28:00.000-07:00

What happened to all the N's? We had to jimmy some together out of our stash of 1's.

The End is Nigh

2011-06-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

When I went to pick up Donovan at school today I ran into one of the other mothers who warned me that Donny was sporting a cupcake icing moustache. What she did'nt warn me was that it was blue:

I can only imagine the recipe for the icing went something like this: 1cup butter, 4 cups confectioners sugar, 2 diesel truck loads of blue food coloring.

We went to kill some time at the playground and at first I did'nt think it was going to go well. Actual quote: "I don't want to play with any kids. I want to play with ZERO KIDS." I actually played hardball and told him he could'nt wear his Bad Guy ring (see photo above) if he was'nt going to be brave and play. That got him started and, luckily, there were some older kids there that took him under their wing and played a strange game of catch with two foam rubber dice. That was good to see.

I should mention that, when I asked Donovan what made the cartoon character on his ring a Bad Guy, he explained, "He's bad because he doesnt say anything. And he's naked." Well, alright then.

All in all it turned out to be a nice time at the playground. Tomorrow is the LAST DAY OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. Yikes!

School Picnic, 2011

2011-06-13T15:53:00.001-07:00

Somewhere To Sit

2011-06-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

Last year, during what Pittsburghers have come to refer to as Snowpocolypse, a huge, thick sheet of ice collapsed the metal awning above our front door and smashed thru the steps below it. I did a little surreptitious dance of joy because I'd always hated that lame excuse for a porch. It wasn't so much of a porch as a stoop and who the hell carpets an outdoor stoop? Imagine how happy I was when our insurance paid for the damage!

Now, after much life-circumstances-type delays, we are having a real porch built onto our house. It will extend from the original stubby stoop length to big enough to call a porch length. And it will be level. Which will make our porch premium realestate in Polish Hill, where you can't set a drink on the ground without it slowly sliding downhill.

Neither Mike nor I can take any credit for the construction, which is being done by Val's Boyfriend Dave. He just finished the actual decking portion of it and already I feel like its going to make our lives so much better.

Oh So Very...

2011-06-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

When Mike picked Donny up at school yesterday, Donny's teacher met him at the door and was very upset. Turns out one of the other kids, for no particular reason, scratched Donny on both sides of his face. His teacher explained that she would have to write up an accident report and that we would receive a copy. She also said that she washed his face off.

Once Mike got him in the car he asked Donny about it. Donny corroborated the story and added, "...and Ms. Meyer washed my face--it was very delightful."

SO: guess the kid wasn't traumatized after all! Whew! And, really, the scratches aren't that bad. It must have been a hard thing to see happen, tho--I'm sure I would have been freaked out as well.

Pee Story with Punchline

2011-06-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

The potty training has plateaued: we send Donovan to school in his “big boy” underwear and, 9 times out of 10, there are no accidents. 10 times out of 10, however, he just does not go to the bathroom. We bring him home, put him on the toilet and, again, no satisfaction. By the end of the night he is cranky and crying and running in circles. That is until we change him into pull-ups for bed, at which point the literal floodgates open.

I’m oversharing to set up a great story: the other night was just like I described. The kid had been a right brat, screaming and crying and refusing to pee in the toilet. After about half an hour of that, Mike took him upstairs to get him ready for bed. Donny got into his pull ups as fast as he could and Mike could hear that telltale sound of pee hitting paper-product. At which point Donovan turned to Mike and said, “Don’t. Say. A. WORD.”

Is that as funny to you as it is to me? I’ve tried to tell that story about three times now and I keep having a laughing fit right where the punchline should go.

BTW: please don’t consider this a “teachable moment” for us. We KNOW putting him in pull ups at night is part of this current problem. We are waiting it out until his new therapist starts with him next week to see if she has any specific words of wisdom and we will take it from there. No sense in starting a regimen that might get nixed by the professionals.

Summer in the City

2011-05-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday means a 2 hour wait for the bus. That gave us time for some watercoloring.

Then we took the bus to the Library to return our books. There is also enough space there to play with the balsa wood glider without wires, cars or other impediments.

It was officially hot today, so we packed the kid's bathing trunks and he (and I) splashed around in the Mary Schenley fountain.

After about an hour I could feel my face tightening and I remembered that I forgot sunscreen for both of us. So we dried off and went into the Frick Fine Arts building to cool down.

Back outside at the busstop, Donovan had to start climbing the base of the flagpole.

Then we came home and much piano playing ensued. And actual imaginative playing with toys!

"I'm taking apart your house, Bluebell--don't be scared!"

Better With Age

2011-05-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my 45th birthday. When I came into the kitchen that morning, Donovan handed me this envelope and said, "Here, Mama--this is for you."

Inside was a card:

Me: Look! Kitties!

Donovan: They're drinking booze!

Inside was written these sincere wishes:

It was a very nice birthday.

2nd Hand Story

2011-05-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

Last week, Mike went to Donny's School for Take your Father or Grandfather or Uncle or Other Important Father Figure To School Day. Donovan loved having his Dad there with him for the day and Mike appreciated getting a better idea of what the kid's life is like when we're not around.

The one detail Mike mentioned that I just loved is that the day started with an orientation for the menfolk that included a video message from Steelers' Coach, Mike Tomlin. Mike (my husband, not the coach) said Tomlin started his talk with, "Yo!" and then went on to talk about his family and how important fathers are to their kids.

Go Stillers!

Makes Perfect Sense to Me.

2011-05-14T18:12:00.000-07:00

I realize that I'm way behind as far as this blog is concerned. One thing to bring up, however, is that we have been continuing to work with a good number of kind and dedicated teachers and therapists where Donovan's developmental delays are concerned. We recently took him for an updated diagnosis--actually, I shouldn't say "we" as I had to work so Mike took him. The doctor there gave a diagnosis of Expressive Language Disorder, which does make sense. We are going back next week for a follow up to get the more formal diagnosis.

With that diagnosis in mind, among other things, I've been trying different ways to get Donny to have conversations with us. He is getting better at it. One of my favorite ones happened recently when we were riffing on something my Dad used to say to me all the time:

ME: Know what?
D: What?
ME: I love you!
D: I love you too.
ME: Thanks, Donny! When you say that it makes my heart happy.
D: It makes my heart happy too. [Pause] It makes my circle happy.
ME: Your circle?
D: You like hearts--I like circles.

Pittsburgh International Children's Festival OR Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine

2011-05-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

Donovan and I had a date with Leo, his Mom, his sister and her friend at the International Children's Festival today. I was super-geeked because part of the festival was huge "luminaria" that you could walk thru called Amococo. I was even more excited when we got there because it was HUGE. Massive, even. And of course, like all things I think my son will like, as soon as we walked in the crying started, "I don't like this place! I want to leave! I want to put my shoes back on!" I try not to feel too bad when he does this but sometimes I get this overwhelming feeling of defeat. Luckily I fought it because, after a friend of mine who was working there showed us some of the cooler parts, Donny started getting into it.

It helps that the kid's favorite color is red.

While we waited in line, one of the enthusiastic young ladies who was helping explained to us how it worked, saying, "Every room has a different color and so your clothes and skin and hair will turn that color." And I did not say to her, "Has anyone involved with this project ever read The Masque of the Red Death, because its not really a kid's book..."

After that, we went and walked around and sampled a bunch of the tents and booths that were set up. Leo's sister and her friend went to get their faces painted and I took the boys to get their first tattoos.

Directly after this, they had 4 more beers and ended up at the Navy Recruitment office.

Cause of Music and Tension

2011-05-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

It's all fun and games until someone plays the keys on the other person's side...

We Have Visitors!

2011-05-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

More details and photos later--now its time for the Moms to hang out...

Goin' Out Country

2011-04-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks to many good suggestions we went out to Round Hill Farm today. Riding out there from Pittsburgh I was a little worried at first--the route we took featured the highest concentration of used car lots that I have ever seen. Didn't seem like it would resolve itself into farmland anytime soon. I kept the faith, however, and we got there just as the weather decided that it wasn't going to rain after all.

Getting there a little bit later in the afternoon meant that 99% of the animals were not in their convenient stalls and barns but way out in the pasture where we could only see them from a distance. Which, actually, is probably good for Our Little City Boy, who is still scared of dogs. We got to see some horses, some sheep and some adorable lambs, right in time for Easter!

Oh yeah--and we fed some ducks.

An actual metal slide--remnant of a pre litigious world.

Musical Genius Update

2011-04-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, Donovan was obsessed with the piano. He would get up in the middle of dinner and run to the front room so he could play it. And it wasnt just noodling around--his grandfather taught him how to play a chord and damn if the kid did'nt figure out how to apply that one chord formula into playing every chord the piano has to offer. We took him to a Suzuki teacher for lessons. She admitted he had "a gift" (natch: duh) but said he was a little too young. We agreed with her and made a date to touch base a few months later.

Not that its a few months later, she doesnt have room for him in her local studio but may be moving to Bloomfield soon which is even better for us. And the really good news? Donny seems to have rediscovered the piano. Not only that but he's been asking Mike to teach him to play songs. So now he picks out "Lullabye and Goodnight" (which is what Mike plays every night before taking the kid up to bed) and today Mike taught him the "Mississippi Hot Dog" version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

What's really blowing my mind tho is that Donovan and I have this game we play where I sneak up on him and tickle him. And when I sneak up on him I sing this. Which he taught himself to play on the piano with no help from Dad.

I fully expect to wake up one morning to hear him playing Aladdin Sane or Tango Till They're Sore...

Polish Hill Easter Party, West Penn Rec Center

2011-04-16T18:00:00.001-07:00

And the Lights! And the Sound!

2011-04-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

I'm in the office and Mike is getting Donovan ready for bed in the next room. This is difficult because we went to the CMU Carnival tonight and Donny won a ball at the Duck Pond and he doesn't want to put it down.

I've always loved amusement parks and carnivals--the mix of lights and movement and noise and music are really pretty, especially when an entire city of games and rides pops up in the middle of a parking lot, if only for a day or two. The CMU carnival is just that sort of ephemeral, beautiful confusion and we had a great time there with Donny, Donny's friend Leo and Leo's family. It was extra fun watching Donny and Leo get all excited for the rides--running between the Merry Go Round and the Motorcycles, taking turns copying each other. It was a lovely evening.

What Not To Do

2011-04-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

Donovan likes throwing things. And I can’t say I blame him, but we try to discourage him from throwing things in the house. The day before yesterday we got a package I had ordered from a flashsale site: a new lunch box for him and a red kickball with yellow polka dots. He was super excited about the ball, which made us feel bad because it was raining out so he couldn’t go outside to play with it. We tried to get him to roll it thru the house but he could’nt resist the temptation to throw it. Thus the following exchange:

ME: Donovan! We don’t throw balls in the house! I keep having to tell you this--no throwing!
DVS: [very serious] Throwing balls in the house is bad.
ME: That’s right!
DVS: We don’t throw balls in the house.
ME: Correct.
DVS: And we don’t throw pianos.
ME: Uh, yes. No piano throwing inside.
DVS: And we don’t throw chairs and couches.
ME: Right…
DVS: And we don’t throw socks.
[and on and on…]

No piano throwing in the house, people--take that mess Out. Side!

Thus Starts the Kid's Curriculum Vita

2011-04-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

I wasn't too sure how today was going to go. Last night, Donny had a really bad cough and an even worse reaction to the All Natural Buckwheat Honey Based Cough Syrup that we gave him (it necessitated a load of late night laundry: I'll leave it at that.) And I was worried because today was the Masquerade Party and Children's Art Exhibit at Lili Coffee Shop.

Lili is a wonderful place and all three of us like going there. It was a godsend in the really bad weather when tempers were frayed and we were all feeling a little bit too Donner Party for our own good. This morning, with the art exhibit somewhat in mind, I gave in to Donovan's begging to put together a Bird Feeder Kit he got as a birthday gift. We worked on it together but I tried to let him do the majority of the work. He got to hammer in some nails and do most of the painting, which is the part he really wanted to get to. The feeder ended up with a red tray, one white wall, one blue wall and a yellow roof. It looked pretty stark so I suggested he paint some words on it. He decided the only word we needed was "HELLO," which, with a little help from me, he painted in red. We dropped it off a Lili this morning, came back home, had a major disagreement about napping (Me pro, him anti), and then we worked on his mask. He liked it but had to be bribed with some fruit snacks to actually wear it. That's not really true--I gave him the fruit snacks so he'd have something else to do with his hands and he'd leave the damn thing alone. Worked like a charm for about 45 minutes. When we got there, there were lots of people and lots of great art of all kinds on the walls. Donovan was geeked to see his birdfeeder in pride of place in the back room.

Here are my few and far between shots of the event. Hopefully there will be links from others I can post soon. Props to Lili for making my kid, and all the other Polish Hill kids, feel like the rock stars they are.

Quotes

2011-04-04T21:35:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder how well I'm communicating with Donovan, or even how well he's able to communicate in general. I suppose all parents of preschoolers have these questions, but I wouldn't really know. The past few days, tho, saw two very different breakthroughs:

1. Sunday being Donny's birthday, I made him a cake after he went to bed on Saturday and we served it up Sunday afternoon, complete with candles and "Happy Birthday To You." When we were putting him to bed that night, he said, "Thanks for making me the cake, Mama. I liked when you sang to me." Where did that come from? I actually got a little weepy, in a good way.

2. Tonight I was getting him ready for bed and he was being a real brat. He'd had one time out and was on his way to his second. I finally asked him what was wrong and he sat up and said, "You keep talking. I don't want you to talk!" Well. I said, "OK, I'll stop talking but I need you to put your head on the pillow and lie down." Which he did. Then I said, "Last thing I'll say--do you need covers or not?" "No covers!" Alright then. I laid down next to him and, just about instantaneously, he was asleep.

So, yeah: communication. Such a relief...

Birthday Swag

2011-04-03T06:55:00.000-07:00

Birthdays and Pathos

2011-04-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

Donny's friend, Leo, had a birthday party today. It was in the lovely room they use for a gym at Waldorf. The invitation asked for artwork or cards as presents so Donny and I made Leo a paperchain. We put it in a gift bag and halfway to the busstop, Donny asked where it was. It not only had fallen out of the bag (which was being held by Donny) but had managed to get blown up Herron Avenue. Herron Avenue on a Saturday? Busy! We managed to chase it down and it managed not to get run over or wound around an axle.

Donny was very happy all the way to the party and was all excited to hand Leo the bag and say, "Happy Birthday, Leo!" All that went well. And he had a great time running around playing with a red balloon.

And then the balloon popped.

O, Sweet Jesus: it was the end of the world.

The poor kid--his face just crumpled and he came running over to me from across the room. It took awhile but I finally got him calmed down. He had some cake and took a blue balloon with him when we left. And halfway to the bus stop he asked where it was. It had come off the ribbon and blown behind us under a parked truck. I told Donny to stay on the sidewalk and I got down on my hands and knees in the street to get it.

And then the balloon popped.

O, Sweet Jesus--the world ended AGAIN and THIS time he had someone to blame: Me. "You...you...you BROKE my ballOOOOOON! [sob, sob, sob]"

Mike is going out now to make a grocery store run. Of course in our grocery shopping we did'nt get any cocoa or confectioners sugar. Why would we? Its not like we're going to be making any birthday cakes or...Ohhhh... He's also going to, hopefully, pick up a nice sturdy Mylar balloon. One that won't pop quite so easily. I'm hoping he'll be a happy birthday boy tomorrow when he wakes up to see a shiny new balloon in his room.

Here are some pictures from the party. Despite the pathos, it was a very sweet party and, in between the angst, we had a very nice time.

Ohio Represent!

2011-04-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

Grammy and Aunt Karolin from Ohio sent a birthday package to Donovan. Below are the results:

Great Aunts Carolyn and Rose also checked in:

Clock Watching...

2011-04-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

Oh, Friday--you are moving way too sloooow! Tomorrow is Saturday! Chop, chop! Move it, already!

Tomorrow is a busy day with a birthday party for one of Donny's old Waldorf buddies. I'm looking forward to it and I hope he will, too. Then Sunday is his birthday: 4 years old! Yesterday when we got home he was very sleepy and wanted me to sit down on the couch so I could hold him on my lap. And he didn't fit. Those long legs of his couldn't find a place to go and I was left with the conundrum: kitten or second child. I'm sorry but I need a small thing to pet on a regular basis. I will hold him and squeeze him and call him George...

Well, Hello There...

2011-03-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

...And here we are at the end of March.

I certainly did'nt mean to leave this blog doubleparked like I did. The world just sort of fell apart for awhile. It started with me contracting pneumonia and then our computer dying. Both the PC and I have been resuscitated to varying degrees of functionality so lets try this again.

In the past two months, Donny has GROWN. And this is not just in the where did those long legs come from? department. Literally overnight, he went from just scribbling to actually trying to draw things. Also, he completely freaked me out when I gave him a pen and paper, left the room, came back in and found that he had written his entire name, "Donovan Victor Shanley." Craziness!

His 4th birthday is next week and he is not having an actual party, mainly because his Mom is a loser but also because I just can't figure out how to do it--invite some of the kids from his class? All of them? Have it here? If not, where? We did, however, have a "practice birthday" at his grandparents' house--Donny's Uncle, Aunt and Cousin were in from Denver and so a party was had. Below are photos--I told you he grew...

Uncle Pete is sharing space on the cake due to his recent birthday

Lincoln Logs! Note the dinosaur investing some sweat equity into his new home.

Uncle Tom watching Donovan draw a portrait of him. Note the uncanny resemblence.

Here We Go, Warhol, Here We Go [clap, clap]!

2011-01-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday was the BIG GAME, so we took Donovan to the Warhol.

The thing about going to the Warhol on a BIG GAME day is that the stadium is literally a block away from the museum. Its the oddest and most fitting Pittsburgh juxtaposition. The game was to start at 4 and we got the the North Side at about 10:30 am and we still got stuck in traffic. Luckily, the Warhol has a teeny tiny parking lot--I wanted to take photos of the 2 signs they had at the entrance to it: "WARHOL ONLY" and "NO FOOTBALL PARKING." Mike and I wondered how many times the guard at the entrance hears, "Awww, c'mon!" on a day like that. It was actually really fun to see everyone setting up to tailgate. As we were getting out of the car, I looked across to the parking lot across the street and a couple of guys were splitting wood for a fire.

I would also mention that taking Donny to the Warhol was pretty much akin to taking any all American kid to a department store to see Santa Claus. One of Donovan's favorite books is Uncle Andy's Cats and we told him we were taking him to Uncle Andy's Museum. The downside of this arrangement is having to stay in character with your kid and refer, in public in front of all variety of hipsters, to Andy Warhol as "Uncle Andy." I'm sure Warhol was a kind and loving Uncle to his nieces and nephews but I just know too many stories, not of bad behavior per se but behavior unbefitting someone you're teaching your kid to call "Uncle."

Anyhow, Uncle Andy's Museum was a huge hit. I don't have many photos because, as an ex docent, I gave up prime photo ops in order not to break any museum rules. Wisely, the Warhol lets you take photos in the silver cloud room. That, of course, was the hit of the day. To get Donovan to leave we pretty much had to carry him out sideways like he was some sort of battering ram capable of having a tantrum. We also got a couple shots of him in a room that was all televisions and headphones: that was also a big, big hit.

Quiz Will Follow

2011-01-10T10:02:00.001-08:00

Last night Donovan told me, "My favorite letter is G, my favorite number is 9, my favorite color is red and my favorite bus is the 54C!"

So now you know.

2011-01-07T12:34:00.001-08:00

I was reading Blow by Blow last night while Donovan was playing in the front room. This was our conversation:

D: Stop reading!
Me: Why?
D: That's my paper!
Me: No, its my book.
D: [looking at photo on cover] She's wearing a hat!
Me: It's a pretty hat, isn't it.
D: [thoughtfully] She's thinking about butter.

Wherein I Use My Lunch Hour for New Year's Pontification

2011-01-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

The snow outside is making everything look so crisp and new and the thought I am actively denying is “I should’nt be here.” Here being work. I’m thinking of my kitchen and how the snow must look outside the window. The backyard will be much improved, cosmetically speaking, by this snow. And would’nt it just be great to look up and see the snow as I take bread out of the oven or work on a huge batch of bean soup?

For the past 7 months or so, I catch myself shaking my head, wondering at my evolution into someone who thinks baking bread, mending clothes and mopping that damn kitchen floor would be more fulfilling than a career. But then again, my life has changed in many big ways in the 10 years since I started my current job and even before those changes it was never a comfortable fit.

In thinking of what I want to do with this next phase of my life, the metaphor I keep coming back to is that of a sprinkler. The beauty of a sprinkler is that it’s powered by what it does: its more or less the definition of itself. Is that too esoteric? Whatever—that’s what I’m thinking of as I stare down the barrel of my own 45 (ha! Nice! Good birthday double entendre, there!). “Let be be the finale of seem.”

Apparently, I yearn to be a Simple Machine.

So that is what I, in all my financial stupidity and infinite naiveté, am working towards. A life where I work but where my work is part of a bigger picture that includes the rest of my life. Why choose between a career and giving my son more attention so he can get over his developmental delays more quickly? Why choose between having health insurance but only getting to see my family in Ohio twice a year (my Dad died 2 years ago and I still have not seen his headstone)? Why work 8 hours a day to make enough money so we can buy bread, baked goods, soup, vegetables, and cleaning products that I could make/grow better and much more inexpensively if I didn’t have to work 8 hours a day?

I want to volunteer at my kid’s school and visit my friends who are now in their 80s and who probably could use some help getting around. I want to go home once a month to do chores for my Mom and her sisters. I want to be a good person, a good citizen.

It would also be nice not to stare at a computer screen for a good portion of the day

Why bring this all up here? Well, why not? The kid is obviously a big part of this thought process. I had no idea how much time having a kid would take—and that is not a complaint. The older I get, the more sense Home Economics makes. I grew up in the prime era of Women In The Workplace Feminism—my Mom the lunchlady was a union rep for her lunchlady union!—and I understand it, I do. Financial autonomy and equality are necessities in the modern world—denial of such is institutionalized oppression of the worst and most corrosive kind. But I keep thinking, “At what cost?” When do I get to decide what is of value to me?

I get to decide when I take responsibility for myself and, by extension, my family. Which sounds an awful lot like Feminism, if you ask me.

Alright then. I can do that.

And now, back to work.

Ring Out the Old, Ring In The New

2010-12-31T18:11:00.000-08:00

In a couple of hours it will no longer be 2010. That is perfectly fine with me--it was'nt a terrible year, personally, but it certainly was not without its heartaches and I am more than ready to GET ON WITH the rest of my life. I have many plots and plans and here's hoping I'm actually not insane and that at least some of them are viable.

While I harbor the suspicion I'm having a midlife crisis, none of my plans involve a trophy husband or a shiny red car.

ANYhow, you can't be looking at a blog about a 3 year old and not wondering how Christmas was. Christmas was nice and not too ridiculous. It was the year of the Gender Specific gifts--matchbox cars and plastic power tools--

but the hands down winner in the gift department was the Big Fold Out Cardboard House. I know its supposed to be for girls (there are flowers printed on the door) but I say f**k all that: my boy has loved the cardboard box houses I've made him and when this thing went on super sale I decided we needed to trade up:

I had it ready to go on Christmas morning and he spent most of the day in there with his stuffed elephant and his glockenspeil:

A couple days later, Mike says he caught Donny saying, "I love my new house, its so BEAUTIFUL!"

Mama must have been pretty good this year too.

We had a nice Elyria visit despite the fact that I have been, and continue to be, sick like the dog with a cough that will not let up.

The other big news is that I took the plunge and put up a facebook page for Polish Hill parents with preschoolers. We had a playdate on Thursday with some sweet kids and great parents: this just might work!

And now, to start on the wine. Happy New Year!

You Can Actually Go To Someone Else's Home Again

2010-12-11T12:59:00.000-08:00

I've been working very hard to simplify my life which, for an old school Gemini like me, is tough. Every since my last cemetery tour of the season I've been guarding my Saturdays like a growling dog. That being said, there are somethings I can't say no to and one of them is The Frick.

I used to work and the Frick and the joke I make about it the most often is that the Frick is like my first real boyfriend: I knew it would never last but [fake voice breaking into uncontrollable weeping] I still love him!!! Working there was one of those crazy stumbleintoit things that can define the rest of your life, for me, in a very good way. So when one of my favorite people from the Frick invited Donovan to attend a Pre-School event, I couldn't say no.

Even tho I woke up grumpy and with a sore throat.

Luckily it all worked out--it was a two bus trip and both were on time, we had to walk but the kid was a trooper. And even tho I forgot his bag at home another mother kindly and knowingly gave me one of her (adorable) son's pullups: WHEW.

The program itself was very sweet and when I complimented the folks who put it together today, all of them sort of rolled eyes heavenward and said "GOOD, 'cause we haven't done this before!" By "this" I'm guessing they mean preschool programs that include the house museum as a component. The program started with a story about how Spencer, the Frick's chef (Spencer! Lookin' good! I've missed you, dude!) would make gingerbread men for the Frick kids for Christmas and one got away so we had to go in the house to find him.

The gingerbread boy that got away left his shadow all over the house (shadow=felt cut out) and the kids went from room to room to find them. The kids really got into it--even Fauntleroy, The Lone Gunman--but they were all very good. After we found all the shadows, we went to decorate real gingerbread cookies. Donny needed a bit of nudging from me but he did a nice job of decorating his.

And also of eating them.

As for me, it was so nice to go back on a springlike sunny day. I even got to see some of my favorite folks. Plus Donny and I both got majorly fussed over. He seemed not to notice but, you know, I think I needed that!

Thanksgiving and The Weekend Before

2010-11-27T09:25:00.001-08:00

WOW, its been awhile and so much has happened! We went for a same day trip to Elyria to see the old folks. Mike and I had been waiting for us both to have 2 free days off in a row. When that did'nt happen for 7 MONTHS we decided the hell with it and left Saturday morning and came back Saturday night. This was the weekend before thanksgiving so luckily the traffic was on our side. We had a good visit, although Donovan started to break out in hives while at my Mom's house. I have a feeling it was less about the cat and more about the Glade airfreshener my sister was spraying around. We also got to see the Aunts. Photos below:

Then, of course, was thanksgiving. We spent that here with Mike's family. Aunt Claire and Aunt Heather made the trip from NYC and Donovan picked right up where he left off with them. After 10 minutes of fussing, that is. Sadly, no photos from that visit. We were all too fixated on the turkey.

Today is day #3 in the 4 day weekend. Mike has to work so its just Donny and me. So far today we have made the first paperchain of the season (Donny stopped it short. He doesnt understand his mother's obsession with making the Longest Paperchain In The World. But it was a good start.) We also had Baby's First Jiffy Pop, which I found at the Shur Save in Bloomfield. Shur Save is odd, first of all in the fact that you Shur Don't Save. Its not exactly inexpensive, which is strange because its kind of crappy. That being said, they had all sorts of stuff you can't find at Giant Eagle: penny matches, Jiffy Pop Popcorn, Fels Naptha Laundry Soap and Washing Soda. Just to name a few.

Now I'm typing this up while Donovan plays with his gears downstairs. Little does he know that a nap is coming his way. I hope he's enjoying his limited window of independent play...

Thankful at the End of Quite The Day

2010-11-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

WARNING: This post contains poop and pee references. Reader discretion is advised.

So many mornings when I bring Donny to our bed to wake him up, I joke with Mike, "I think we'll just stay here all day. Have fun at work." And usually, once the kid wakes up, he wriggles away from me and runs downstairs to have breakfast with Daddy. Today was my first Saturday in MONTHS when I had nothing planned and the kid could not get enough of me. I was getting climbed on, kissed, hugged, pulled away from the kitchen into the front room to sit on the couch with him, even followed into the bathroom. It was very sweet but even in the middle of that sweetness I was thinking, "Uh oh." No temperature, tho, and he seemed happy. Very odd.

Well, it all made sense when we got alllll the way to Phipps and the kid had a major bout of diarrhea. To the point where I thought, "Its warm. He can walk home in his underwear." And, "Maybe they sell kids pants in the giftshop--I mean, I know they sell tshirts..." I cleaned the poor kid up and did something I never do unless its desperate: I called Mike at work. He got the go-ahead to leave work, take us home, and got back to finish up. Perfect except the brakes went out on his car. On Negley Hill. Luckily he was able to put it in park and use the emergency break to avoid killing himself or anyone else. This being Pittsburgh, the guy who stopped to help him turned out to be friends with one of Mike's friends from a different band and he offered to drive to Phipps, get Donny and I, and then drive all of us home to Polish Hill. Mike had to go to the Pharaoh Sanders show for work and he ended up throwing himself upon the mercy of the busway to get downtown. Lord help us all.

Oddly, this is also the night I tried to teach Donovan how to pray. I ordered a couple books of prayers and blessings for children for him from the UU suggested reading list. The one I like the most, "A Prayer for a Child" has one lone Jesus reference thrown in at the end but the pictures are so good and its a simple exercise in being thankful. So tonight he blessed alot of people after he crawled into bed but before he laid down. I'm hoping the prayer thing will help him be a little less feral. Not so much feral in the ripping squirrels apart with his teeth sense, but less feral in that he can use other parts of his brain, so he can access thankfulness and empathy. I know its in there but its not very spontaneous.

And in case the whole praying thing freaks you out, you might like to know that Donny and I spent about an hour in the front room listening to my classic rock mix and spaz dancing. He really got into "Under Over Sideways Down" and Zeppelin's version of "Walking the Floor." He was'nt too sure about Mott the Hoople but he really liked saying "All The Way to Memphis."

Amen.

Monk

2010-10-26T18:53:00.000-07:00

About three days ago, Donny started asking, "When do we get OUR pumpkins?" He had seen some around the neighborhood and we told him we would be carving some too. Tonight was the night so, of course, we had to have cider and donuts to get into the mood:

Donovan had very specific ideas about what he wanted his pumpkin to look like, so I did the carving via his dictation: round eyes, triangle nose and a smile with no teeth. Et voila!

He was very excited about his pumpkin. He named it Monk.

Pictureheavy Update

2010-10-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

Its been a busy couple of weeks--forgive the lack of action here at Donnycentral.

Below is a compendium of Donny photos with brief commentary. The only thing it doesnt really cover is Donovan's time at his new school. He's still getting used to things but so far, so good. I had to pick him up early last week and all the kids in class got up to give him hugs goodbye. I could tell part of it was an excuse for all the kids to jump up out of the reading circle and move around but alot of them seemed to genuinely like the kid--it did my old heart good.

So the photos. Here are a few of Donny drinking hot chocolate out of a little cup while wearing his Dad's big robe:

We've made a couple of trips to the Carnegie Musuem this month. Here is the kid looking thru the Henry Moore (?) in front of the Art Museum. There are more of these, if anyone needs 8 versions of Donovan sticking his tounge out:

Not having a daughter I thought I'd be spared this particular humiliation but I'm realizing my son will always look better in my hats than I will:

Posing at the well intentioned but disturbing pink fountain in front of the funeral home:

As you can see, Fall is getting off to a good start.

Surrender Donovan!

2010-10-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

Donovan's last day at Waldorf was this past Friday. When I left the house that morning I thought, "I should take the camera" and then immediately thought, "Nah. No need." Which of course means there were photo ops galore. I was able to capture a few on my phone, including the inexplicable skywriting that happened while we were at the bus stop. It ended up saying "ALL SALES FINAL" and, try as I might, I could not get that once in a lifetime shot of my kid framed against the word FINAL in the sky. You'll see that I came close--does "fina" translate to anything?

The first day or two at Montessori were a rough transition for the boy but I did'nt get any calls from his teacher yesterday or today and that is a very good sign--his first day there she called to ask if he always cries that much...

Fall is officially here and with it came the realization that Donny doesnt really have enough longsleeved shirts or socks. Its been a mailorder bonanza at home but I also found some damn goofy polarfleece pants on a sale table at Whole Foods. They are now Donny's favorite piece of clothing as they are both soft and purple. And, truely, do you know how hard it is to find purple clothes for 3 year old boys? I feel like the Toddler Gods smiled upon us when I bought these. Of couse I had to put two darts in the waistband. The first day he wore them he'd turn to me about every 5 minutes and say, "Mama, wanna pull my pants up?" Not good when you are jumping off the big rocks:

It's only been a few days at Montessori and I could be reading too much into it but I really think Donovan is acting more like a big boy; he's talking more, just seems more engaged. I think being around older kids is good for him--even tho he has learned how to yell.,,

Farewell, Happy Fields...

2010-09-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

I forget exactly where we left off so I’ll try to do a quick summary: Last month, Donovan was supposed to start school at Pittsburgh Montessori. I, of course, was stricken with grief that he would be leaving Waldorf Fairyland behind. At the end of his first day of Montessori, we were told he was’nt potty trained enough and that we had until September 30 to get him up to speed or we would loose his place. That is significant as Pittsburgh Montessori is a magnet school and we were lucky that we got thru the lottery to place him there.

We were also lucky in that Waldorf was kind enough to take Donny back into the Little Friends program until things got sorted out. A funny thing happened tho—in the 72 or so hours between Donny’s last day of Waldorf and his starting up there again, he got too big for Little Friends. Suddenly he was the oldest kid in the group and all his running buddies were in the Nursery School program. So I started up with the angst again, but it was a different brand of angst.

Fast forward: I told Donovan’s speech therapist that he would be back at Waldorf due to potty training issues, she mentioned this in passing to her boss and suddenly Donovan is invited back to Montessori and they are buying equipment and (this is the crazy part) rewriting job descriptions because it turns out it is illegal, or at least against school board policy, for public schools to “discriminate on the basis of potty training.” So Donovan’s last day at Waldorf is TOMORROW.

TOMORROW.

Oh, sweet Jesus. Here I go with the angst again…

Le Sigh

2010-09-15T10:22:00.001-07:00

What is it about 3 year olds? I suppose I should just contain that question to my particular 3 year old. He’s so little but so big—its like I can’t get my Personal Viewpoint lens to focus on him. Two Fridays ago he had his first day at Montessori and the whole week leading up to it I was a mess. He’s too young! He’s too little! He can’t be cooped up inside all day, he’s just a baby! Its too soon for him to be in a real school! At the end of that first day, we were told he was’nt potty trained enough and we had until September 30 to get him on track or he would loose his place in the school. We put him back at Waldorf in the program he had been in. We drop him off there and my heart breaks: He’s so big! All the other kids are tiny! All his friends graduated up to Nursery School! What’s he supposed to do outside all day with all these babies? He’s not going to progress!

Sigh.

And, really, that’s been the theme of the past two weeks: is he a big boy or a little boy? I’m at a complete loss to figure that one out.

While I have a nasty feeling the potty training deadline will come too soon for us, we are still giving it the old college try. Please say some Novenas to St. Jude. Which reminds me—as far as I can tell, there is no patron saint for potty training. Considering the manner of martyrdom often determines the assignment of various saints to various causes, I guess is good news

Bait and Switch

2010-08-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

Lordy, but its been awhile! August is the craziest month of all so far but it is slowing down. I got to go to Washington DC for a conference and I did no sightseeing at all. In fact, I have come up with a new phrase: "Offsite Staycation." Basically, I set up shop in my hotel room--which assisted me by providing a mini fridge that was in no way connected to a minibar--and lived an in-between-the-sessions life as a lady with no responsibilities. It was lovely.

Once I got back home, however, it was potty training bootcamp. Donny has basically 3 weeks between the end of Waldorf and the start of Montessori so Mike and I have been taking turns taking off of work to look after him and work on the whole Pee In the Toilet message. The jury is still out but we, the Defense, are optimistic.

Here are some photos that have been piling up from the last three weeks or so:

From the series starting with our "cover photo" for this post, Donny has been playing outside alot (our house is mostly carpeted...) Here he is in a pair of his big boy microgutchies in the role of Nature Boy:

Ah, crap--the other photos did'nt download. Check back in a day or two for more photographic evidence of Donny's Between School Adventures...

Day One: So Far, So Good

2010-08-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

Today was Day #1 of 5 of being home with The Boy. It was also Day One of Potty Training Boot Camp. That went ok but I'll spare you the details.

Because its Potty Training Boot Camp the next five days will be spent close to home. That's fine as it means both saving money and reactivating toys that have been neglected. Today we got out what I call the Architecture Blocks and we made houses. I would set up the base for the four walls and Donovan would take it from there. This one is my favorite of the day:

You'll note below that the horse and the ladybug are having a birthday party in the house. According to Donovan they ate a big red cake. We sang happy birthday to them a few times. Then we knocked down the house, which is obviously how you end any decent birthday party.

What the Boys do when Mama's Away

2010-08-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

Can't Stop, Won't Stop

2010-08-04T11:05:00.001-07:00

So far, the big boy bed experiment is going well. Of course, Donny gets out of his bed to play and walk around his room but he does eventually get back in and fall asleep. We still use the monitor and last night he was singing all sorts of snippets of this and that. At one point, I heard him singing letters but it wasn't the alphabet song. Then I realized he was singing the names of notes. I have no idea if he was singing a C# when he sang "C#" but he was singing them in groups of 3 and 4--Mike confirmed the note groups he was singing were chords. Which just goes to show, you can put the boy to bed but you can't make him stop playing the piano.

And that reminds me: how cool is this? I may just have to do this if there's any lumber left from the new porch we are eventually going to get!

Big Boy Bed

2010-08-01T17:39:00.000-07:00

A couple--well, maybe a few--months ago, we bought a toddler bed for Donovan. It sat in its box next to the front door from the day we brought it home. Last night I finally put the damn thing together.

I put it together in the front room, which was'nt very good planning, but Mike brought it upstairs while I was trying to get the kid to nap in our bed. Mike dismantled the crib and set up the bed. While he and Donny went to the playground this afternoon, I gussied it up

Please note the framed prints. Donny is in love with the book Uncle Andy's Cats, and I managed to find a cheapo set of Warhol cat prints on Ebay. Got some frames at Michaels Crafts, et voila! Expect a new paintjob and (hopefully) new carpet soon.

Misting Fountain Hop

2010-07-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

Ovaltine Moustache--and Unibrow

2010-07-25T17:24:00.001-07:00

"I put a G on the G!"

2010-07-15T06:22:00.001-07:00

Breakthrough!

2010-07-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

Last night was an important night in our family as Donovan finally figured out how to blow bubbles. The whole "blowing" thing has been rather fraught for us as Donny was convinced that biting his lower lip was the proper embouchure for blowing bubbles or blowing out candles. Poor kid couldn't even blow out his own birthday candles. Any attempt to show him a better system would end in a meltdown (usually his).

Well, last night I was blowing some bubbles for him and he finally tried pursing his lips: BUBBLES! The kid was jumping up and down yelling, "I DID IT! I DID IT!" I decided to try the next level and asked if he wanted to blow out some candles. Still superexcited, he hopped into the kitchen while I lit the "fire fairies." I lit three candles and he blew them all out! It was great!

I would note here that "fire fairies" are a Waldorf thing--when the teachers light candles they sing a little Fire Fairy song. Mike and I have joked that the Fire Fairy song is like Waldorf Fight Club because Donny refuses to sing the song for us. He was so excited last night, tho, I thought I might catch him off guard. "If I light the candles again will you sing the Fire Fairy song for me?" Still jumping up and down, Donny said, "YEAH! Yeah, yeah YEAH!" So I lit the candles and what does he sing?: "Happy Birthday to You/Happy Birthday To You!..." Sigh.

It did remind me to look up the damn Fire Fairy Song. As you can see, its nice but I wasn't missing much.

My Son, The Singin' Frog

2010-07-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

Mike took Lil' Amadeus to his "mini lesson" with the Suzuki teacher today. The result was pretty much what I was expecting, which was call back in 6 months. The kid's just not ready to take instruction, which considering he is a 3 year old should be no surprise. The funny thing is, he did what he did after his last lesson, which is he refused to do what the teacher wanted him to do when we ask him, but then 10 minutes later, he's doing it and he's so proud of himself that he's laughing. This time it was playing in a rhythm--and anyone who's ever played an instrument will be familiar with the "Mississippi Hot Dog" rhythm. Also, he bowed for the teacher but he would'nt bow for me. He did bow for Mike a little later on but I missed it.

So, yeah, the world isn't ready for our Boy Genius yet. Which is perfectly fine. The teacher said to come back in 6 months or so to see where he is. Mark your calendars for January 2011.

Ill Advised

2010-06-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

Mike, Donovan and I had a rather ill advised evening tonight. We went out to Waterfront as I had some last minute shopping to do for a baby shower I will be attending tomorrow. This is a family member babyshower and I am going to support another mother and to pull some daughter in law duty. I'm sure it will be lovely but its no one I really know.

ANYhow, we thought we'd stop at Wendy's for dinner as we were in a hurry and one thing Donny will always eat is french fries. First, you can't read books like Radical Homemaking and Lunch Lessons and expect to really enjoy Wendy's. Second, we got there right as this gaggle of guys in their 20s got there. I am so spoiled in that I'm surrounded by people similar to me that seeing these guys in action came as sort of a shock. It was almost like being surrounded by wolves--you just keep quiet and hope they arent hungry. I think they were friends but they were being really mean to one another. One of the guys started to get pissed off and it was like blood in the water--they all started picking on him and pushing his buttons in this we're-just-playin' kind of way.

Watching them made me wonder if, despite our best efforts, Donovan might grow up to be an asshole. It also made me wonder if raising him on Silver Pennies and Charles Ives is the equivalent of releasing a 3 legged gazelle back onto the Serengeti. To continue with a metaphor.

But now I need to ask: have you ever seen Woodstock? The part where Country Joe and the Fish do the No More Rain! chant? Well, when the guys left, Donny started chanting, a la Country Joe, "No More Dudes! No More Dudes!" Not sure where that came from as Mike and I were both keeping our mouths shut while the Dudes were there.

I could'nt find the No More Rain chant on YouTube but here's some Country Joe from the same performance: Rock n' Soul, baby...

Wherein We Test the Hypothesis

2010-06-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

I just asked Mike to play some notes on the piano and ask Donny what they were. He got all three right--and he was across the room so he was'nt cheating and looking at the keys.

And to think, I view the piano as the poor man's Nickelodeon Network: put him on the bench and I get 20 minutes to put away the dishes and refill the dishwasher. Amazing what a little benign neglect can do...

The Corner of Too Smart and Vaguely Disturbing

2010-06-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

Donny and I were having a snack this afternoon. I had just finished a little bottle of San Pelegrino that I'd taken home from the coffee shop. He likes it when I blow into bottles so I did a nice loud note for him. "That's a B," he told me.

I mentioned this to Mike tonight, who took the bottle into the living room and played it while playing a B on the piano. He came back into the kitchen with this look on his face and said, "It's a B."

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit....

Vacation Toddler Style!

2010-06-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

Donovan is off from Waldorf this week. Mike took off Monday and Tuesday to be with him and I took off Thursday and Friday. We were bad and both took off Wednesday so we could take him to Kennywood.

When Wednesday rolled around, I wasnt so sure we'd make it--and after seeing the ticket prices online, I was almost convinced that was alright. We had agreed to take him after his nap and while he was sleeping, Mike and I went over the pros and cons. I was finally convinced when Mike said, "Well, if we don't go, we have to do something with him that will blow his mind." That made me think, "Dammit, I took the day off for Kennywood. We are GOING to KENNYWOOD."

Blow his mind we did. And my mind to. Forgive the girlish squealing but Kiddieland is SO CUTE!!! Seriously--some of the older rides I just wanted to put in my pocket or solder onto a charmbracelet.

We finished the night by going to Lost Kennywood. I knew he'd love all the fountains and lights.

I'm very happy we went and I'm very happy that Kennywood is the birthright of my Pittsburgh born son. I would add that, as I am an Ohioan, his dual citizenship entitles him to full rights at Cedar Point as well.

The rest of his/my vacation has been wonderful. We went to Phipps today, took a ride on the Schenley Park Merry Go Round. Yesterday we made birdseed cakes for the Mama Bird, Baby Bird and Papa Bird that have a nest in our Mock Orange (Cardinals! How great is that!), and there's been alot of reading and roughhousing and piano playing.

Looking at this post and the one before it, our lives look like all funnelcake and bumpercars. I should mention we are also trying to fast track the potty training. So far, not so hot. I'll leave out the details since I can't buy you a drink to dull the pain. Also today, Donny and I visited a lady who gives Suzuki method piano lessons. He may be a little young for that but he's going back next week to see. Either way, she said he "has gifts." Now if you'll excuse me, I have to sew some more sequins on his costume and set up some professional head shot appointments....

2010-06-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

Busy weekend and busy day or so ahead of that!

I was so proud of myself on Thursday--I got some cash money together, grabbed some bags and was all set to go to the Bloomfield Farmer's Market. Too bad there was a church carnival there instead. Mike and I took Donny to ride on some rides there. The cars were a very big hit.

The spinny thing, despite these charming photos, was the opposite of a big hit.
There was much crying during the spinny thing.

On Friday, Jenn and I took the boys to the carnival after daycare. The guy they had working that ride was fantastic. I feel really bad that we did'nt tip him. Donny and Brendan basically made themselves at home on the ride and they pretty much owned it for the first half hour or so.

When a bunch of other kids showed up, I forcibly extracted my child and that's when the heartaches began. On our way off the midway, I dragged Cryer McCriesalot over to one of the many Wheel of Fortune games. This one was for kids and featured cartoon characters. Donny put fifty cents down on Elmo, I put the same on Charlie Brown and, by one tic, Charlie Brown came in! The prizes were a little desultory but the lady who worked the booth was very nice. She gave Donny a huge light up magic wand. He was fully prepared not to like it.

But then, when we missed the bus and had to get dinner at Grinders, he discovered that it lights up.
I have to admit, as far as a carnival geegaw goes, this thing is amazing! Hours of cheap, plastic fun.

The End.

Recently Overheard

2010-06-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

* Mike to Donovan: "Which is it you want? Sun Ra or Echo and the Bunnymen?"
* Donovan singing Brahms Lullaby at the top of his lungs over the monitor while making the house shake by jumping up and down on his bed.
* "TACKATACKATACKATACKA!" which is Donny's version of "Tickletickletickle."
* "Hello? Yeahyeahyeah. Nonono. Byebye." This is Donovan's take on a cellphone call. Best example yet was him saying this into one quarter of his peanutbutter and jelly sandwich.
* "I want PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!" The boy has never had pie in his life--no idea where this came from.

We're Here!/We're Queer!/Oh My God, Its POURING!

2010-06-05T17:10:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days that turned into an endurance test. I gave my first cemetery tour of the season, trusting the rain that came down between 5am and 9am had dried up all the reserves in the sky. Turns out I was wrong so the tour got short real quick. While I was out in the cemetery, Donny had a date with Kirsten at the Squirrel Hill Library and they both had a very good time.

After lunch with Kirsten, Donny and I caught a 54C but it wasnt the one that goes to Polish Hill. My thought was we would get off in Bloomfield, get cookies at Patty Cake and hang out till our bus came. When we got there, tho, there were police cars and barricades everywhere. Turns out that bus was the last one through before they closed off the streets for a Dykes on Bikes parade. It was supposed to start at 2--and it started at 4. In the meantime, Donny was a very good boy. For a kid who was trapped at a busstop for over 2 hours he was funny--he kept pretending to kiss my elbow and saying (inexplicably) "Mama, have a tortilla!"

He actually fell asleep in my arms at one point and, of course, that's when the parade got underway. Turns out it was'nt Dykes on Bikes--I think it was more a young transsexual/transgender pride parade. My guess it there were almost 100 people in it--it was very short but it was great to see. I woke Donny up but he did'nt want to look and he wouldnt clap.
Note the, "Wha? Is it morning?" look on his face.

Of course, once the car at the end drove by us, Donny perked up and said, "I want parade again!" Don't we all, kid, don't we all...

At that point we started to wait for the bus again and the heavens opened. The rain was so hard that you could see sheets of it whipping around.
These photos in no way indicate how intense the weather got. A bus finally came and we got home at 5:00. We had left Squirrel Hill at 1:00.

Once we got home I changed into dry clothes and Donny went straight for the piano. When I came in the front room and laid on the floor, he decided to lay down with his piano.

He played like this for about half an hour.

Time to Waste

2010-05-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

Mike had to work so Donny and I squandered the first day of our 3 day weekend. Did'nt get much done at all but we had fun doing it.

Donny found my hat and that was the theme for most of the day:

Then we ended the day (Donovan's day that is) with a bath outside in the copper laundry tub. Soaking wet, my kid has a Louise Brooks thing going on:

My Son, Quasimodo

2010-05-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

Whew! Busy day despite the rain. We went to Phipps because they plied us with Gargoyles. For the past few years or so, Phipps has been fitting in a goth-themed show every few months. I like. I like alot.

Here are photos of what Donovan did today--run around, pet gargoyles and play the piano. For him, that's a perfect day.

Full Plate

2010-05-15T17:05:00.000-07:00

We packed alot in today, Donny and I. First I dragged him kicking and screaming to the Children's Festival in Oakland. Belly Dancers, rock walls, balloon animals and what does my kid want to do? Play with gravel.

Sigh.

We got annoyed with each other so I sat with him on a bench in that little "parklet" for about 15 minutes and then tried again to get him over to see the drummers. That was'nt going to happen but the Mary Schenley Fountain was on and he very much liked that. They made some major repairs to it last year (or the year before) and now its in excellent shape and its bronze turtles are happily spitting for another season.

After he insisted on dipping his elbows in the water a few times we went across the street to the PNC Carousel. I've got mixed feelings about this carousel, mainly the whole PNC part of it. Still, they were having free rides today and after Donovan had said no to it about 8 times he started crying as we were walking away, so we got in line.

It was his first ever merry go round ride and he got to ride a big eyed baby seal:

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He liked it alot. So much so that he was very confused when the merry go round stopped. He did not want to leave his new best friend, The Seal, so we got immediately back in line. And for a kid who's never been particularly whiney, he kept whimpering, "I want the seal. I want the seeeeaaaaallll!" Of course someone else had taken the seal and there's a 45% chance I bodychecked this lady who was trying to put her kid on the giant rabbit. She gave me the right of way, however, so Donovan got to ride the bunny. Which he is still talking about hours after the fact:

Back home for a nap (for him, not for me, unfortunately) and then to meet Daddy at Whole Foods, with a stop on the way to buy hooch. While we were there, Donovan made another inanimate friend:

Finally, at Whole Foods, we found the kid some sunglasses. He is very excited to have them--so much so I had to strongarm them off of him to get the pricetags off the lenses.

And to think: one more day in the weekend!

Vinegar Tom and Giraffecow

2010-05-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

Donny asked me to draw some of his stuffed animals.

I did and it started reminding me of something:

I'm inordinately proud of myself.

Long Term Implications of Decorating

2010-05-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

The thing about Oakland is that you have Universities with their students and faculty, and you have Western Psych, with current patients in the hospital buildings and many former, indigent patients living out on the Oakland streets.

About 15 years ago I was walking to work and stopped to check the progress painters were making on a little row of about 5 very sweet Victorian houses—not mansions, just little working class houses that an otherwise heartless realty/landlord company had bought up. Standing a little away from me was this painfully thin, dirty and dusty old man. He had a shock of unwashed white hair going every which way, no teeth. He also looked like he’d been smoking so long his skin was starting to fossilize. He, too, was watching the painters, who were working with a bunch of different colors all at once—purple, blue, ochre, pink. The guy started to walk away and then stopped in the middle of the street and yelled at the top of his lungs, “THOSE ARE FAIRY TALE COLORS!!!”

Why bring this up? First, I saw a pink and blue house today and heard that guy’s voice in my head. Second, what is Donovan going to remember about his childhood? Not so much factually but what likes/impressions is he going to carry with him? Whatever life had done to that old man in Oakland, and it did look like he’d been thru a mangler or two, there was something left in him that saw those colors in those tones and clicked. I wonder if he was picturing books from his childhood in his mind. I’ve gotten a few beautiful volumes of children’s poetry from the 19teens, 20s and 30s off of Ebay and he was right: those were exactly Fairy Tale Colors.

We will be redoing Donny’s room fairly soon and I know we need to Big Boy it up a little bit. I am also cognizant of the fact that he is a boy. But would a few Fairy Tale Colors be such a bad thing?

Next Stop: Henry Cowell!

2010-05-10T06:20:00.000-07:00

Donovan can be hard to wake up in the mornings. I usually coax him awake by asking him questions and his first answers are always noes, which translate to, "NO stop trying to wake me UP!"

Today he was particularly hard to rouse but as I was poking him at talking to him I saw his eyelids flutter open and he looked at the radio. "Do you like the music?" I asked him. He thought a moment and then whispered, "Yes." Of course the exact song that was on my iPod is nowhere to be found online but here is the theme to the soundtrack the piece was from. It will give you a rough idea.

Fun at the Funeral Home

2010-05-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Beltane, everyone!

I unwisely planned today to be the first official Day of Potty Training. I'll be polite and leave out details but I will say that the boy did pretty good.

That being said, potty training is not really a show you want to take on the road so we spent most of the lovely afternoon indoors. I figured after his nap he'd want to run around outside.

Not Donovan.

I'm not sure what was wrong but he woke up from his nap screaming and crying and it literally took an hour and a half (and two glasses of ovaltine) to calm him down.

Here is a list of all the things we missed out on today between potty training and post nap surliness:

* May Day Festivities at the Waldorf School
* Opening day of the Gargoyle Themed flowershow at Phipps
* Guerrilla Sunflower Seed Planting day at the Civic Center
* Big May Day parade RIGHT IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

Sigh.

I finally managed to manhandle my child into shorts and shoes, trundle him on a 54C and we met Mike at the Philly Steak place where Mike and I had sandwiches and Donovan ate fries and raisins and banana chips. Mother of the Year Award, here I come.

Things got better after the fries when we went across the street to Freyvogel Funeral Home to see the fountains. I love those fountains and so does my son. By the time we left, all was right with his world. Now he's in our bed with Mike, watching the prerequisite selection of Donny Videos on Mike's phone. Then he'll go to his bed and Mike and I will eat chips and dip, listen to the podcast of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! and have a couple of drinks.

If that won't make the crops grow, I don't know what will...

Successful in the Passed Torch Department

2010-04-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

I'm putting these photos up mainly for my own enjoyment. The quality is crap but they capture my Mom reading to my son. I was read to alot growing up and Mike and I try to inflict the same on our son. Sometimes it backfires, like when he hands you a Virago Press book about Julia Margaret Cameron (well, not backfiring but when you're trying to get him to bed before midnight...). The sweet thing was my Mom can't see to read any more so it ended up being a combination of Donny telling her the story and my Mom making stuff up as they went. Lovelovelove...

Little Pitchers

2010-04-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

Donovan’s speech therapist said that she’s seen kids mimic their parents by picking up a phone and saying, “Yeah?” As opposed to “Hello?” that is.

I thought of that the day before yesterday as Donovan surprised us by mimicking Mike on two different occasions. First, on our way taking Donny to daycare, we were driving thru Gold Way which is basically an alley. Everyone thinks it’s a secret shortcut but if everyone uses it, its not really a secret. What that means is there is always some jockeying going on as far as who drives and who pulls over to let someone else by. We were at a stopsign with a car in front of us when Donovan said, with the perfect slightly flustered inflection, “Come on, come on!” And then he started laughing. At the end of the day, Mike and Donovan had just finished reading Donny’s bedtime story. That’s my cue to come into the room and turn off the lights. I heard Mike say to Donny, “Why don’t you call Mama now?” And Donny did, but instead of asking for Mama, he yelled, “HEY JEN!!!” And, again, started laughing.

That kid knows exactly what he’s doing. That’s a big part of why its funny…

I Think It's So Groovy Now That People Are Finally Getting Together...

2010-04-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

Shovelwhack!

2010-04-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

The day before yesterday, Donny came home from school with a nasty bruise on his nose. Apparently one of the other kids was'nt watching what he was doing and Donny got whacked in the face with a shovel. A plastic shovel, mind you, but a shovel nonetheless. I had alot fun saying to him, "Maaaan--you look like you got hit in the face with a shovel!"

The odd thing is, when I picked him up from Waldorf the next day, one of his teachers met me at the gate with this very wide-eyed look on her face. "Everything that came out of Donovan's mouth today was a full sentence! 'I have raisins and banana chips for lunch,' 'No, its my turn now.' 'I want to turn out the lights.'" And my first thought was, "And all it took was a whack to the head with a shovel!"

I know that's not true but still. Joking aside, the full sentence thing is very exciting! Stay tuned for more word out the mouth of my babe.

Just Like Daddy...

2010-04-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

The Christmas before Donovan was born I scoured the internets to find a babysized black beret. I succeeded (no link because the place is now out of business, sadly) and gave it to Mike as a present from Donovan.

Donny recently rediscovered the beret and insisted on wearing it all day yesterday, to bed last night, to breakfast in the morning (see photos below) and all day today including during his nap. Luckily he took it off tonight for a shower.

Et Voila!

2010-04-09T13:03:00.001-07:00

Before the haircut:

After the haircut:

Granted, the haircut is now a week or two old but I felt the Before and After set up was too good to pass by.

Tomorrow is Saturday, the day when its Me and The Boy all day. I'm not sure what we are going to end up doing--I thought we could garden together but this wintery weather has me wondering.

Suggestions?

Scenes from a Unitarian Universalist Egghunt

2010-04-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

Birthday

2010-04-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

So in getting this entry together I realized I have several key photos on my blackberry that need to end up here so I guess this will be a two parter. The next installment will discuss our rather extended stay in Elyria. For now, here are two rather lame photos of the kid jumping on my Mom's bed:

More on that later.

Today on the kid's actual 3rd birthday, we took the bus to Oakland and then hopped another to Squirrel Hill. The goal was to get an official measurement of the kid's feet at Littles. Of course, I ended up buying shoes for him but, really, I could'nt stand to have him wearing his boots in this weather. And, of course, Birthday Boys get french fries for lunch:

After lunch I thought I'd take the kid to ride the silent carousel at the park in front of the library, once we got off the bus, he made a beeline for the Art Museum. We've got a membership there so I figured, why not? We killed about half an hour there waiting for the Polish Hill 54C and the majority of that time was spent trying to get a photo of the kid to commemorate his third birthday. You will see from the results below that staying still that long was not an option.

Dad brought him a birthday cupcake from work which he, of course, would'nt eat. That is until I suggested we eat it outside. We had a little cake picnic on the porch and he managed to eat about half of it. Obviously Mike and I split the rest.

Tomorrow is Easter at the inlaws so expect more photos. Eventually.

Happy Birthday, Baby D!

Trifecta!

2010-03-28T22:18:00.001-07:00

You would’nt think being a toddler would involve a lot of parties but I’m here to tell you that it does. The past two weekends have seen three birthday parties, two for friends of Donovan and one for the Prince of Polish Hill himself.

The other two parties were at the Pittsburgh Toy Lending Library which, I must say, is a fantastic place, especially for a birthday party. All those big toys you don’t want to buy but you know your kid would love? All in the same huge room: big plastic rocking horses, huge plastic castles with slides, trampolines, balls of all sorts, playclothes—everything all in one place. I took Donny to his friend, Brendan’s party there and Mike did the honors yesterday for Leo’s party. I stayed home to get ready for our event.

I have to say that I was not too sure about how Donny’s party was going to go. I mean, I’ve thrown some good parties in my day but not for the younger set. Because I’m fond of feeling superior to folks I’ve never met, I’ve read lots of articles about how ridiculous some parents get with their kid’s parties (tho if anyone wants to rent a real live tiger cub for my birthday: May 24). I did’nt want to go that way but what to do? Its not like we have a usable yard or anything. I asked Mike’s mom if she would do bubbles for the kids as she has an arsenal of wands and a secret bubble formula. She was kind enough to agree but it rained all day. I ended up clearing the kitchen to be a playroom of sorts and making a fort out of the kitchen table and a bedsheet.

I need’nt have worried. Get a bunch of kids in a house with toys that are new to them and everything is copacetic. There were a couple times that Donny got a little overwhelmed—one time Mike had to take him to the dining room to read Uncle Andy’s Cats to him and another time he and Grandpop sat at the piano together for awhile. Still, he did really well. He played the piano with Brendan and Leo (LOUD, lord so loud!), ran back and forth from the kitchen to the living room with some of the kids and, this was too damn cute, sat down with all the kids in the kitchen for a Cake Picnic.

Here are some photos of his party—enjoy!

Phone Photos: Apres Waldorf

2010-03-13T12:03:00.000-08:00