Love and hate; the world of a child's smile.

It is quite lovely how little ones don't hold grudges. I may be not making the H man's lunch as quickly as he desires, but the moment the food laden spoon is being directed towards his mouth he is all smiles. Or the little H man will be at one moment protesting my changing of his diaper and furiously upset with me for not letting him kick his legs wildly - then with my tickling under his chin, he changes his frown to a smile and wraps his little arms around my neck as we head downstairs to play. The smile of a little one seems to shove away all shadows. Any frustration, tiredness and general unpleasantness cannot coexist in the world of a child's smile.

Back to the bike!

Today, after a two month hiatus, I went for a bike ride. My roommate and I rode to the lake, after first dropping of DVDs at Blockbuster and then a brief stop at the local bike shop. She needed a quick tune up for her brakes and I bought a hat that fits perfectly under my helmet. It was too warm for my mask, but too cold to not have my ears covered. Over all, it was about 12 miles and roughly 30 degrees outside. The wind was a bit cold at times, but we were dressed warmly.

I think it was worth the ride, here is why:



I wont be biking to work this week because my schedule is going to be nuts. I don't want to be biking home at 10 pm. However, it was wonderfully refreshing to be on my bike again. I am sure that once my work schedule is back to normal AND if is not snowing or slushy, then I'll be biking again. Oh, I love my bike.

Not as scheduled...

H and I did not make our daily field trips as previously planned. The weather has been at record lows with wind chill factors well below zero. I did not feel the need to subject the H man to such conditions. As a result we have been going slightly stir crazy. I have also been fighting off the onset of a cold. Loads of water and vitamins have helped so far, but my voice becomes scratchy when I talk too much.

With the help of my roommate, her car and a few shopping trips I finally feel like the apartment is being homey. We still would like to move when our lease is up, but it is nice to feel cozy now - especially since all I seem to be doing lately is hibernating. Another friend is closing her gift shop / gallery, so my roommate and I are buying a bunch of bookshelves and two chairs from the shop. I love the idea of having bookshelves everywhere with books and art. I like the my roommate and I seem to share a similar vision of our apartments decor.

Excitement

Today was bit more exciting than usual.

I heard this reported on NPR (it's my alarm) this morning and realized I would not be able to hit snooze. I work in this area and the hole in the ground kind of slowed down my commute to work. I'll be walking about six extra blocks in the very, very cold mornings and evenings to get to my bus stop until this is all cleaned up.

On the bright side, the little H man and I took a walk down to look at all the big trucks. I believe if he could talk he would have told me that this was our best field trip ever. He was audibly excited and squirming in my arms trying to see more things. If I turned away from the trucks he would whip his head around to get them into his view again. Just for the record, I did not train him to care about trucks and such boyish things, but it seems to be inbreed in his little head that these are truly things of great joy. We plan to continue these field trips daily until the road is fixed.

Baby, it's cold outside!

I managed, to my delight, to not leave the house at all yesterday. It was said to be below zero (or close to that) all day with a wind chill factor of a much lower temperature. So, I stayed in my pajamas, cleaned, watched a few movies and over all had a great relaxing day.

Today it is also very cold. Too cold to be waiting for a bus, so I stayed in this morning. I will migrate a few blocks east this afternoon to watch the Patriots game, but that is the extent of my traveling plans. This weekend has been the perfect weekend to follow a bout of the flu. I am sure I needed to be forced to rest to actually do it.

I am so glad I got a flu shot...

There is no need to go into great detail, but yesterday I left work around 3:30 with the flu. I got home just as the full misery of the situation hit me. Thankfully (I am not sure thankfully is really the right word here, but....) Thankfully my female boss was home (with the flu) and I was able to leave right away. I felt terrible leaving her, but I felt much more terrible later that afternoon and was very thankful to tucked away in my pjs in bed.

My roommate should win some sort of award. She was beyond helpful and sweet. It was almost like having a substitute mommy.

(Oh, and a side note: My cab driver on my way home from work was hilarious. I felt bad that I couldn't fully appreciate him because I was fighting off nausea. He said that before he was a cab driver he was a stand up comic. He kept me entertained the whole way.)

I think I am feeling somewhat normal this morning and will go to work around noon. I am far from 100 percent again, but I am so much better than yesterday that I feel a sort of rebirth. I am also really thakful it was only a 12 hour bug and not something much worse.

The ever adorable H man strikes again.

Today I watched the almost eleven month-old H man dismantle a carrot. For his afternoon snack I had given him a baby carrot that had been dipped in water and frozen. When I released this poor carrot from his drool soaked hands it had the consistency of a soft, slimy piece of rubber that was somehow, oddly, the color of a carrot. He doesn't have enough teeth to chew it, so he spent the time between inhaling his cheese and apple pieces gumming the carrot. As a nanny there are very few things that I find really gross and the texture of the carrot was getting close.

In general though, the H man is quite adorable. I am continuelly amazed at his ability to figure out that he must duck when pushing things around under the dining room table and how he is able to balance while clmbing on his toys. I am also equally amazed that no matter the number of times I say "no, thank you, let's not play/chew on the cords (phone, radio, lamp, etc)" he still continues to try to get to them. It's a good thing he makes me laugh, because there are some days when his cord fascination gets really frustrating.

Winter is only as boring as you make it.

Winter is the time when cabin fever sets in and people like me start developing a nasty little travel itch that never really is cured unless some sort of actual traveling is executed. Rather than my usual insanity (moving to D.C., Japan or Chicago are such examples), I embarked on a short weekend trip this past weekend and have a few other such weekend trips planned.

This past weekend involved me driving three hours to Michigan to spend Sunday with a friend who is working on a presidential campaign. I was able to watch the speech away from the crowds, next to where the national press was siting. I had no idea who I was mingling with, so I was not really impressed with any of them. I also found the whole process political process (well, what I was able to observe of it) to be kind of nonsensical and I feel less like voting now than I did before I went to Michigan. I was able to see a writer friend from D.C. who was following the campaign for the day. Oh, the biggest surprise was a unexpected meeting of a guy I knew when I nannied in Japan. It is such a small world.

My next upcoming trip is to St. Louis with three other friends to visit with my married friends who are forced to live there because of a his graduate school's location. As much as we love these two friends, the main draw to St. Louis is to see the play Avenue Q. I am beyond excited about seeing the play.

Bunny Moment

I saw a bunny today! It was hopping on the grass between the sidewalk and an apartment building on my block while I was on my way home from the bus stop. It made me momentarily forget how motion sick I was from my bus ride. I normally don't get car sick unless I face backwards, but today the bus was really warm and I was playing a game on my cellphone. Anyhow, I feel fine now.

So, I know, I know. . . a lot has happened since my last update, but I haven't been online much and when I have been I haven't felt creative.