Calm

Calm

After a hectic start to the day, I'm starting to feel a bit more calm.  It should have been a very calm start, but I let myself sleep in.  Normally, I'd wake about 7:30 ish on a weekday.  However, I slept until 8:45.  I woke up and realized that Avery had not woken up yet. She does sleep until 7:45/8:00 quite often, but it is very rare to sleep past 8:00.  I jumped out of bed and ran into her room to find she was just fine.  Since Rachele & Elise were arriving at 9 AM, as well as a personal chef (see next topic), I dashed to get ready.

In addition to my late start and no time to prepare for babysitting and chef hosting, I posted a ton of Freecycle ads last night, so I had a massive amount of emails needing attention, as well as packages to label and stick on the porch.  This isn't a tough thing by any means, but trying to watch Elise and Avery, keep the dogs happy outside, and keeping the toddlers from toddling under chef feet, I was kept on my toes. 

Now I'm in my office and am finally caught up on emails.  I still have a bunch of pesky chores to do, but blogging seemed like more fun. 

Personal Chef

So, yes, there is a personal chef here cooking meals that will last the next two weeks.  The G's enlisted him since they are expecting G2 any day now, have no workable kitchen given the state of their remodel, and have CSA produce coming in weekly.  He's using our kitchen for cooking given the aforementioned lack of kitchen at the G's.  Of course, you must be asking why wouldn't we also have him cook meals for us, you know, while he's here anyway.  The answer is an obvious one: we are having him do this.  I've always been curious about this sort of thing, so this was a great opportunity to try it out.  I am having delusional fantasies that it will somehow be cheaper than us cooking for ourselves.  Cleary, this will not be the case.  But one can dream.  I don't do drugs, so delusional fantasies are my outlet.

He's the sous chef at Andina.  Katherine, if you're reading, that's the restaurant where you and I went to lunch when you were in town.   It's a Peruvian restaurant, though I don't think he's cooking us strictly Peruvian food.  I have seen the menu for this time around (he will be cooking for us once every two weeks until Rachele tells me otherwise because that is the way Rachele and I operate: she tells me the deal and I say OK) and it looks delicious, though I didn't analyze it that closely.

It's fascinating how much stuff he brought.  I have a fairly large kitchen and all the counter space is taken up with food and supplies and utensils.  He brought all his own stuff, down to oils and spices and cookware.  I am trying not to pepper him with questions, but I did ask about his other clients.  He said he cooks for one family that has two working parents and three kids.  The father is a firefighter; he couldn't remember what the mother does.  They have odd schedules and just want to spend more time with their kids, so that's their reason for doing it.  Another is an older couple who both work and they enjoy tango dancing in the evenings.  They don't have the energy to tango if they cook, so they use him.  Very interesting. 

Avery

So, I am hesitant to blog this as I don't want to appear as though I'm trying to be all braggy about my wonderful child.  Of course I think she's wonderful.  That is a given.  But for the purposes of this topic, I'm truly just offering this as an observation and realization I have only recently had, not as in "look what my kid does that others don't necessarily do."  And, furthermore, I know this could (and very likely) will change in the future - probably the moment I hit "publish post." OK, I'm done disclaimer-ing.

I got an email from Babycenter.com the other day - you know the ones that say how old your kid is and what he/she might be doing, etc.  It started off by saying that you probably can't get your toddler to sit down for three meals a day at this age, what you should do about it, etc.  I was taken a bit aback.  I thought, "What does that mean?"  I then started to piece together some of the other things I've observed with other kids that I didn't think anything of because, well, I just never thought about whether what Avery does is typical.  I figured it was.

Anyway, Avery sits down at the table for all of her meals.  She's done so consistently since she started eating with utensils around 13- or 14-months-old.  She sits at the table and feeds herself whatever we put on her plate. She doesn't necessarily eat everything on the plate, or all of whatever she's chosen, but she picks from the variety I provide and sometimes requests other things.  She is happy to sit there alone or with us.  She loves to eat with utensils. She doesn't need distraction while she's eating.  And she eats most of her daily food intake during these mealtimes, not via snacking (unless she sees other kids snacking, and then she totally wants whatever they are having).  If we're at home all day, she really doesn't ask me for snacks very often.  Until I read that email, it had never occurred to me this isn't the way other toddlers eat at home. 

She also sits nicely at restaurants.  We rarely have issues with her needing to get up and run around.  It does happen occasionally, but in general, it's kind of like taking another adult to lunch or dinner with us.

Now, of course, having read the email about toddlers often not being willing to sit down for three meals a day, I'm all paranoid that what I thought was a lovely (and not rare) trait will become a lovely (and somewhat rare) phase.  Please, oh please, let it be a trait!  Had I known there was a chance this was a phase vs a trait, I would have known to been very grateful for it all this time.  With her sleeping, I've always known it could change at any moment, so I never, ever take good sleep.

I find the differences in children of similar ages absolutely fascinating.  Like when I say no to Elise and she just stops what she's doing!  And doesn't do it anymore!  Amazing.  Saying no to Avery, as I'm sure I've noted several times before, usually accelerates the speed at which she completes the offending task.  Elise, when she stayed with us that weekend, came into our bed for a bit when she woke up a bit early.  She was just totally still while laying there.  She didn't try to sit on my face or kick or try to wake me up.  She just laid there.  Avery in the same situation will literally try to sit on my face, or do somersaults, or squeal loudly, or identify my eyes by poking them.  And this is just comparing two kids.

Freecycle

I love Freecycle.  Well, my love continues as long as everyone shows up to claim their items. Here is what my front porch currently looks like:

Freecycle certainly takes more work than just taking the whole batch of stuff to Goodwill, however, I find it so much more satisfying.  Knowing that a specific item is needed by a specific person is gratifying to me.  I love that stuff I thought would be trashed is going to someone who will use it.  I also like that all the Freecyclers thus far have been very reliable.  Plus, I don't have to actually interact with people.  I just stick the stuff out there and wait for them to be magically picked up.

And I have found TextExpander to be brilliant when Freecycling.  I end up typing the same information over and over: my location, where the items will be located, if there is public transit to my house, etc.  TextExpander totally rocks for this. 

Movies and Weekend

Tonight, D and I are going to see The Hangover.  Tomorrow afternoon, we're taking Avery to see Up.  I'm so excited about Up with Avery.  I know the odds of us watching the whole movie are very slim, but I'm still excited.  Wheee!  Oh, and on Sunday, we're going to see Avery's birthparents - both bm and bf.  Should be a great weekend!