Labor Day Weekend, aka Tropical Depression Ernesto

I had a fun four days with Sir Ian. On Friday, Ian's school was closed for teacher training, so I stayed home. Of course, the day before, I was sent a contract that absolutely needed to be reviewed and sent out by Friday afternoon because the CEO had gotten involved. It was chilly and overcast, but it didn't rain, so Ian and I played outside in the backyard in the morning, practicing our jumping skills. Yes, Ian is very good at jumping these days and even gets both feet off the ground at the same time now. That wiped him out enough that after lunch, we went up for a nap and he fell asleep while I was holding him. But as soon as I put him in the crib, he woke up and screamed. I had to get the contract revised and out to the client, so I let him cry, thinking he'd fall asleep in a few minutes. He screamed on and off for an hour. Every time I thought he was done, there would be another pathetic cry. As I said in my previous post, he then cried for daddy. But then he slept for 2 hours and I got my work done.

On Saturday morning, we took Ian to get his hair cut at the little barber shop near our house. Grandpa and Abuelita had taken Ian there back in May when they were visiting us. We were prepared for a battle, much screaming, and probably hair all over us. But Ian surprised us by quietly sitting in the barber's chair after the barber, Pino, gave him a lollipop, letting Pino put a little cape on him (it had bears on it), and sitting very still and serious as Pino cut his hair. Ian was kind of frozen like he was afraid to smile and he had his head tilted slightly and it stayed that way the whole time. It took less than 20 minutes and he looked very grown-up and handsome. It was a good thing that we went in the morning, because Ernesto rolled in soon after we got home and it was rainy and stormy and windy all afternoon. Ian and I played inside while Jeff worked. We watched Lola and Elmo and only cried for about 15 minutes before falling asleep at naptime. Our cable went out around 3:15, which meant no TV and no internet. Ian woke up at 4:00 in a foul mood (just as he did on Friday). Totally cranky, nothing was right. It took him about 30 minutes to calm down. We called Grandpa and Abuelita and of course once we stopped paying attention to Ian, he began to sing. Abuelita was talking, so Jeff shushed her, but she didn't hear him, so he shushed her more forcefully. Suddenly, Ian started BAWLING. He thought that Daddy had told him to shush and he was just inconsolable.

In the evening, we went out for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, thinking that the storm had died down enough. It had, but boy, there were a lot of branches down, wires knocked out, streets closed, etc. And the wind just whipped the car doors open. But we had a very nice dinner.

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. It was warm out and Ian and I went to the park in the morning. One of our neighbors had a huge tree branch fall and hit their house and damage their gutters. The streets were strewn with branches and leaves, including the path into the park, so it was a bit difficult maneuvering the stroller. Ian had a great time at the park after being cooped up in the house for 2 days. There were 3 little girls at the park, but Ian wasn't too interested in them. Then a family of two boys and a baby girl came. The boys were about 13 and 9 and the girl was 14 months old. The oldest boy went to soccer practice, but the younger boy was a very good big brother and was watching his sister. Ian wanted to play with the little girl's little ball, so he shared his bigger ball with her. They were Mexican, so the mom spoke Spanish to Ian.

After his nap (he only slept for about an hour and a half), he woke up cranky again, and once I got him settled down (without the help of Lola or Elmo because the cable was still out), we went to the baby store to get him some winter pajamas (it was pretty cold these past few nights). We got him a backup Elmo and a new toy "avi" and a new puzzle. His teachers told me that Ian can do all of the puzzles at school very quickly, so I got him one that has buttons, a belt, shoelaces, etc., on the pieces so he practice before learning to dress himself (tonight he tried to button his pajamas). He played with it for quite a while when we got home.

On Monday, Jeff had to go into the office to get work done, so Ian and I were hanging out, playing peek-a-boo with Daddy's plush Yankees blanket. Ian got down off the bed and decided that he would take Daddy's blanket back to his room with him. It was pretty funny watching him drag this big blanket down the hall. We went to the park after breakfast (he fed himself yogurt and most of it actually went into his mouth). We met a family at the park and Ian suckered the dad into playing catch with him. Then the little boy joined in. He was four and he had biked to the park with the family on a two-wheeler. I thought that was pretty good. It turns out that the dad is from Peru and the mom is Belgian and they speak Spanish, French and English at home. So Ian got to listen to more Spanish. While Ian was playing catch with the dad, I held Ian's hands so he could catch the ball. After a couple of times, Ian pushed me away and swatted at me, like, "Hey, get out of here. I'm playing with HIM!" When we went home, he ate his lunch really well and passed out at naptime. Of course, he woke up cranky again after a 2 hour nap. I finally got him to settle down with some milk and watching Elmo (thank goodness the cable came back on). The first episode of Sesame Street I put on did not have Elmo in the first segment, so I had to fast forward to the "Elmo's World" part of the show. He wanted more when it ended, so I played another episode. This one did start with an Elmo segment and it was about going to sleep. At the end of the segment, he turned and said, "Elmo!" and I said (in Chinese), "Elmo is going to sleep." About half a second later, he was wailing like I had taken Elmo out and had him destroyed. I frantically fast-forwarded to "Elmo's World" and he calmed down. Man, he is really sensitive these days!