Testing out the new camera

We have a new camera--hooray!--but I'm still figuring out how to use the photo editing software that accompanies it. The camera is a lot nicer, but the software is slightly more complicated.

Does this picture look okay?



















Ah, the Thanksgiving turkey headdress. This picture probably should be filed under the category of "Pictures to Show William's Prom Date."

Later, Dad

My child is entirely too verbal for his own good. Or for ours. We forget that he's only two sometimes. It's as if because he can say so many things, we expect him to be able to do more things, too.

The other night, he cried out in the wee hours. David blearily staggered into William's room to see what was wrong. William stopped crying as soon as David opened the door and simply handed his fleece blanket to his daddy so he could cover him back up.

"William, you could put the blanket back on by yourself," David told him.

"No," William responded. "I'll do that when I'm older."

So he can say that but he can't actually cover himself up with his blankey? Hmmmm...

Books We Need

In a committee meeting the other day, I was chatting with some other women who have small children, and we came up with a good idea. Someone should write "A Pregnant Woman's Guide to Nashville."

It would contain a carefully audited list of pediatricians (ahem, I can recommend an excellent one by the way, if anyone's looking), places to buy maternity clothes (the Opry Mills Old Navy), places to fulfill your odd cravings, stores with good restrooms, stores where they sell nursing supplies, and so on. We'd interview all the moms we know and get the best advice and then compile it into one (mostly) definitive guide.

Or perhaps it could become a series, like travel books for various cities. The Lonely Planet Series of Guides to Motherhood. Fill in the name of your own city. Anyone want to sign on with me and create a new venture? Anyone know how to write a business plan?

But I had another idea later. Someone should also write a book that contains all the stuff about parenting that the parenting books always seem to leave out. The not-so-glamorous stuff that happens After you give birth. There are shelves full of books about sleep-training your child but precious little about what kind of nursing pads to buy and why. Or the return of certain bodily functions. Or how to get poop stains out of a christening gown. Or the best way to deal with the mess created by a projectile-vomiting infant. Or why your breast pump is making funny sounds and when it's time to buy new tubing.

Parenting books often deal with, yes, parenting, but let's face it: is adjusting to your new life and all its messes not a cruicial part of being a parent? I know I can find a book about introducing new foods to my child and helping them learn to love a healthy balanced diet. But I want to know how other moms deal with Play-Doh and tiny PlayMobile parts. How do you get puke out of those car seat straps, anyway? What's the best way to get Craisins stains out of the rug? How do you get your two-year-old to smile for the camera? If you hide your child's Halloween candy so they don't get cavities or beg for candy for the rest of their young lives, are you a bad parent or a good parent?

You know, the un-warm-and-fuzzy stuff.

William in his own words

Sometimes I wish I could be a fly on the wall and observe William when he's not with me. I always wonder how other people see him, how he really acts when I'm not in his presence. I know him so very well--but only in relation to me. He's my son, and I adore him. But what is he like as a friend? A student? Even a grandchild? I can never really know for sure.

So when I get a small insight into William Without Mommy, I always get a small thrill. The latest came when I saw the new bulletin board for his class at school. The teachers had asked each child what they were thankful for, then transcribed the answers onto a piece of paper. The children then colored on the papers, and the teachers hung them up in honor of Thanksgiving.

William's paper reads, "I'm thankful for my books, and my mommy and daddy, and that's all."

I choked back giggles when I read this. First, because he listed his books right off. Mommy and Daddy don't come first; his books do. And the "that's all"--what's that about? When I picked him up a few minutes later, I asked him about the picture and asked if he wasn't thankful for anything or anyone else. He thought for a moment or two, then added, "My toys and my books." And with some subtle reminding/prompting, he also added his grandmothers, grandfathers and uncles to (verbal) list. (Amazingly, he did not say "food" or "fruit treats" or "lollipops." He must not have thought about that angle. One of the other children in his class did, though: she added "my lunch" to her list.)

It's so funny to think that this bright little person with all these funny ideas used to be a tiny little helpless blob of a baby. Every day, he grows farther and farther away from that tiny baby and grows into his own person. It still sometimes amazes me. There was a time when I really thought of him as an extension of myself, but those days are long past. In case I ever forget that, though, I am reminded when he says something new or unexpected. And that happens just about every day. He still repeats some things that we say, but often, he comes up with things all on his own. William's mind seems to be whirring along at warp speed all the time. I can barely keep up with him. I don't know: if I were an expert in early childhood development, would it still seem as amazing the way his mind is developing?

So I just try to write as much of it down, so I can remember and marvel again later.

William Wyckoff: On Domestic Affairs

A toddler's take on the world:

William, upon hearing that "Bock Mama" had won the presidential election and defeated John McCain, asked why they couldn't just share the job.

I guess when you're two years old and constantly asked to share your toys/food/books, that idea seems so natural that you can't imagine why adults don't just sign on, too!

Never underestimate your child

Never underestimate your child.

But if you do underestimate what they are capable of doing, trust me. They will surprise you! I learned this, in a delightful way, last night.

William was dancing around the bathroom while I brushed my hair and put on makeup yesterday morning. To give him something to do, I pointed to a stack of plastic cups sitting on the counter and said, "Hey, William, do you want to carry those cups downstairs for Mommy?"

William is at the age where he loves to "help." He loves to help unload the dishwasher--which I let him do; he gets to take out all the little plastic forks and spoons that he uses and put them in his drawer. He loves to help take clean laundry out of the dryer and put it in the laundry basket. And he's finally old enough to fetch various things for me when I need them; if I ask him to grab a kleenex for me, he goes running off and comes back moments later with, yes, a kleenex. It's actually quite nice. Even nicer is the look of sheer pleasure on his face because he knows he has been helpful, like a big boy.

Anyway, he was happy to help by carrying the cups downstairs. Off he went. I managed to get distracted by various things and completely forgot that I had asked him to run this little errand.

Fast-forward to about 6:30 p.m. last night. William was eating dinner, while I ran upstairs to get something. While I was upstairs, I remembered the plastic cups. And then I realized that I hadn't actually seen where he put them. They could be anywhere. Really. Anywhere. I walked back downstairs and called, "Hey, William, do you remember those plastic cups I asked you to bring downstairs this morning? What did you do with them?"

Through a mouthful of strawberries and pears, William said, "I put them in de dishwasher."

Astonished, I opened the dishwasher, and there they were! He had opened the dishwasher, pulled out the top rack, unstacked the cups, and placed each one individually in the top rack, just like Mommy always does, pushed the rack back in and closed and locked the dishwasher.

Amazing. I never would have thought he'd even think of doing that, let alone actually do it! He just gets more and more interesting and amazing as he grows up. Wow.

Some Halloween photos to tide us over

It's taking me forever to get Halloween pictures organized and posted, so I'll just have to do it piecemeal.

And frankly, I'm just glad there are pictures at all...I managed to break our camera at Leland's birthday party on Saturday morning. Ack. That poor camera. We bought it when I was pregnant with William, and it's taken so many pictures since that it deserves a Bronze Star for meritorious service or something. Is meritorious even a word? I digress. I read a news article a few months ago about a UPS driver who logged something insane like a million miles on the same UPS truck over a couple of decades of work. My little silver camera was like the Canon equivalent of that truck. That was even more of a digression, wasn't it? Bottom line, that camera has worked hard, but at least it held out through Halloween!

Anyway, here are a few...



































We had a Wyckoff-McDonough family Halloween shindig at our house this year. Mark, Diane and William represented our family with costumes:















Here, Alethea helps William sort out and organize his candy, clearly a very serious enterprise.















I'm a little unclear on their sorting criteria. I think I heard Alethea proposing that they sort by color, but it could be that they ended up sorting by candy type. What I do know is that William has enthusiastically embraced this whole free candy thing. He's eaten almost all the lollipops he collected, except for the Tootsie Roll Pop, which er, I am going to work on convincing him to give to his dear old mom. Last year, he didn't understand candy, so we ate Twix bars and M&Ms from his pumpkin with abandon. This year, it's going to be much harder to get away with that. So my plan is to let him eat some of it, over the course of a few days, and gradually spirit away the rest. For the sake of his teeth, of course.

Hopefully we'll get this whole ugly dead camera debacle behind us soon.

Aaarrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I have buckets of pictures of William in various stages of wizardhood and pirateness over the last week, but for now, this soon-to-be classic photo will have to suffice.

Say aaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrr!



















Happy Halloween from Chez Larson-Wyckoff!

The Jack'o'lantern

The process:





























If you've ever been with David when he's eating ribs, you have likely seen him attack the ribs with a very surgical precision that kind of freaks me out just a wee bit. Same thing with the pumpkin, except useful, not freaky. (He would argue that it's not creepy at all ever since the rib-cutting technique that he uses allows him to remove the maximum amount of meat from the bones, thus allowing him maximum enjoyment of his delectable meal. Whatever. It's very, um, visceral.) And luckily, that skill served him well here. See?

The finished product:

Pumpkin time

Look what we picked out!




















Now David is planning to "help" William turn this modest little pumpkin into Jack: The O'Lantern. Last year, we had to forego the pumpkin-carving because David claimed it wasn't safe for him to carve a pumpkin because he didn't have disability insurance yet. I'm not exactly sure what kind of pumpkin-carving David was envisioning that was so dangerous it required insurance (chainsaw-powered carving, anyone?), but this year the insurance is in place and he's on board with the project. He even bought a neat little carving kit from Target, and William's all excited. I'm all excited about roasting the pumpkin seeds myself...

Stay tuned.

You know you're an English major when...

If y'all weren't already impressed by my dorking out at Walden Pond, reciting Thoreau, you'll surely be impressed* by this!

Yesterday, I taught William to say, "To be, or not to be: That is the question."

That's right, I've got my boy reciting Hamlet. I convinced him to do this by telling him that the guy who wrote those lines was also named William. This is how we entertained ourselves in the car on the way to my committee meeting at church.

*Okay, maybe "impressed" isn't exactly the right word. "Amused" or "bemused" or maybe even "horrified" might be more accurate.

Mom the Human Mapquest

Yesterday's conversation, in my car, en route to Centennial Park.

William: Mommy, what street are we on?

Me: Highway 100.

William: Dis DeeDee and Gandaddy's street?

Me: No, they live on Post Road. Remember?

William: Yes. (pause) Where's Post Road?

Me: You drive a little further down, and then you have to turn left and cross over the railroad tracks to get to their house.

William: (nodding) That makes sense.


I'm so glad he approves.

I love fall

I love fall. I do. I love it, love it, love it.

I love the leaves that change from drowsy summer green to surprisingly brilliant yellow and red. I love sleeping with the windows open at night. I love the first night when the temperature drops below about 55 degrees and you have to snuggle up under the covers or wake up with an icy nose. I love the snap in the air with the cool mornings that lazily warm up as the October sun rises in the sky. I love putting on sweaters after months of t-shirts and tank tops. I love simmering some apple cider on the stovetop and smelling the cinnamon waft through the whole house. I love the sight of pumpkins perched on front porches and bin after bin of crisp apples in the grocery stores.

I love it all.

And I love that William seems to love fall, too. He is delighted, absolutely ecstatic by all the Halloween decorations that have popped up over the past two weeks. He helped me pick out another pumpkin and a big scarecrow at Michael's the other day so that we, too, would be "a Halloween house."




































































I get this giddy feeling when fall seems to have arrived at last. I don't know exactly when I developed this affinity for this season above all others. I don't really remember, but I think it may have been when I was living in California, though, and deprived of four normal seasons. When David and I lived in San Diego, we used to plan at least one October trip to this little mountain town called Julian, an hour or two east of SD. Julian was known for its apple orchards. We'd drive up there in the morning and wander around the little gold-rush-era town, then buy a few jugs of fresh-pressed apple cider and a couple of fresh apple pies to take home with us. There was almost nothing as good as a crumbly Dutch apple pie from Julian. We made sure we always procured one, somehow or other, for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals when we lived in that part of the world. Since then, apples, more so than pumpkins, really signify autumn for me. We never really got the red, gold, and orange leaves in California, but at least we got apples. Now that I live here in Tennessee, we get it all.

And the best part is that there's still a lot of autumn left. We have plans to attend at least one or two costume parties before Halloween, plus then there's Halloween Night itself. And November is nice around here, too--and I adore Thanksgiving almost as much as Halloween. And today, we went to a pumpkin farm, down near Franklin. It was so perfectly autumnal that I was a little dreamy-eyed. I mean, how is this for storybook? We took a hayride and wandered around a pumpkin patch where you could pick your own pumpkin.

















And of course, having Leland with him made it that much more fun for William:

A few Boston photos

A few quick snapshots from our Great Boston Adventure....

Me at Walden Pond. You know, as in Henry David Thoreau's Walden.




















The leaves at Walden Pond:

















David in front of Paul Revere's house in the North End:

















Eating lobster at the Ye Olde Union Oyster House...

















...with Brian and Jennifer:
















David at Fenway:




















Me at Fenway--on top of the Green Monster:


















David inside the Old North Church, where the famous "two if by sea" signal happened:



















Me in Lexington, site of "Don't fire unless fired upon" unfortunately came true:

Have some chowdah!

In case anyone's wondering why there've been no urgent Three Peas news items posted in the past week, let me just reassure you. I just got home a few hours ago. I've been in Boston for almost a week with David. He attended the annual American Academy of Pediatrics conference, while I perfected the role of sightseer. Fenway Park, the Old North Church, Paul Revere's home, Lexington and Concord, Harvard, the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, and the list goes on.

Oh, it was wonderful. I slept in almost every morning, walked so much that I think I'm three inches shorter than when we left, and ate clam chowder or lobster in some form every single day. We also watched the Red Sox with some of David's Princeton buddies, and we ate dinner with his old roommate and his wife. And David's friend Brian even gamely showed me around and took me up to Walden Pond, where I got to indulge my inner English major geek and recite from Thoreau's "Walden" while standing in front of the site where Thoreau's famous cottage once sat. Brian even took a picture. I'll have to post that later.

And yes, we left William here in Nashville with Aaron and Diane. We called them every day, and once or twice, they even managed to coax William to talk to us on the phone. Usually he was too busy having fun and reveling in having the undivided attention of his grandparents for days on end, with no pesky interruptions from boring old Mom and Dad.

So I was steeling myself to walk in the door tonight and hear him say "No! Go 'way!" We joked the entire time in Boston about how William was having so much fun with Dee Dee and Grandaddy that he might start to forget about us. And so I kind of figured we'd be met with, at best, a lukewarm reaction.

But what did he do? He and Diane opened the door, and a huge smile spread across his face and he began shouting, "Mommy, Daddy! HI! HI!"

And I ran to him and gathered him in my arms, and he gave me "big hugs," as he likes to call them. And he smiled and laughed and clung to me in joy. And I thought my own face was going to split in two from smiling so hard.

It's great to go out of town. It's great to take a vacation with just your lovely husband. But it's also great to come home to the smiley little guy who's part of both of you--and to gather him up in your arms and hug him until he squeals.

Rain and other assorted minutiae

Signs that you've had a lot of rain recently:

The grass is green again.

The trees look a little less shriveled.

Your car hydroplanes just a little bit if you accelerate too fast.

Your toddler greets you barefoot at the classroom door at the end of the day because he spent all morning jumping in rain puddles and completely soaking his socks and shoes.

Remember when you were little and loved to jump in puddles? And didn't care if your clothes got dirty? After I got over my initial "OH, no," I felt a little nostalgic for my own childhood. I'd never intentionally jump in puddles now and get my feet wet on purpose...but I remember when I did.

William at Cheekwood for the annual scarecrow exhibit.

This is the Loch Ness Monster:





















































At his school's big fall carnival, better known as the Hoo-rah!

Playing the knock-over-the-pumpkins-and-win-a-small-dubious-plastic-prize game:















The infamous snowcone that ended up all over both Mark and William:





















Hmmm, William wonders, is that hot dog good enough to eat? (Notice the snowcone stain here, too.)
















A recent visit to the Belle Meade Methodist Pumpkin Patch:

William kept finding "the best pumpkin in the whole world!" over and over and over again...
















But eventually he found The Best Pumpkin in the Whole World:

Go team!

You know the old saw about how it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game?

Well, we went to the MBA-Ensworth High football game, and our team definitely, certainly, absolutely lost. But William had so much fun that I don't think it really matters. (Of course I'm saying that! Our team lost!) After all, William kept saying we were at a baseball game, so I'm thinking the football part was incidental to him at best anyway. He got to eat ice cream sandwiches and play with Leland and run around and make lots of noise. It doesn't get much better than that when you're two years old.

David, William, Leland and Chris stand near the end zone to watch the kick-off:



































And the shakers. The shakers were big. (Despite being the colors for the opposing team.)




















Give me a W!




















When was the last time you had this much fun at a sporting event where your team lost?















William is multi-tasking here, by the way. He's eating his ice cream sandwich, running, and havin fun, all at the same time. Pretty impressive, don't you think?

William Wyckoff, Batter

Every once in awhile, I get a really good series of photos of William. Yesterday was one of those lucky days.

My little baseball player. Move over, Chipper Jones.



































Safe!



















And a quick sidetrip to the dugout..er, the playhouse:
























































































This one's my favorite:



















And a close second: