Cold Spaghetti

Over the past 4-5 days, we have been dealing with Will’s first true diaper rash. The last two days have by far been the worst. The stuff comes out of nowhere and sticks around — particularly because, now that diaper changing hurts, Will does his best to hide his diapering needs. This morning saw our first sign of improvement and Will did not shed any tears during the two changes we’ve had today. Our choice ointment for fastest improvement: regular destin (highest percentage of zinc oxide). Choice for daily maintance? The local brand: Boudreaux’s Butt Paste.

I’ve mentioned that Will can count to 10 without any problem. But apparently I’ve sold him short. With a little coaching, he actually can go on to 20. It is super cute listening to him go around the house and count things: “one, two, three, four Santa Claus!” He’s not even 25 months old. I’d be thinking Doogie Howser if he weren’t doing all this with his finger up his nose.

In the midst of our holiday madness, we are also prepping the house and ourselves for our next trip overseas. The fact that we leave in just over 2 weeks (2 weeks!) is both exciting and overwhelming. So far, we have:
– Arranged for a sub-let from a fun UK family with a precious two-year old girl and another little girl due soon!
– Have reservations in a local hotel for the night we arrive (the flight comes shortly before midnight; we’ll meet the housekeeper at the house the next morning)
– Paid half our rent up front by electronically transfering money to their account in Indonesia (where they used to live!)
– Have a housekeeper (fairly standard in these parts)
– (Almost) have a nanny — just a phone call left to confirm
– (Almost) have a private spanish tutor — just have to arrange some logistics
– Are reading all that we can about Peru (history, culture, art, travel, etc.)

The faculty I’m working with assure me that getting an assistant (for transcription and assistance with interviews) will be no problem, so that is great. We’ve got a list of contacts and organizations and will brainstorm further once I’m there. The idea is that this is just an exploratory trip. I have a bunch of potential research questions to expand into a disseration… the idea is to talk about the issues and questions within the field, gather some observational data, then return home, run models from DHS and other data sources to compare, and develop a final research question and disseration topic from all of the information. Then I can write the prospectus, which sort of lays out my plans for a disseration and serves as the “background” — sort of like the first few chapters — and apply for formal disseration funding. Because I am interested in an academic career, it is important to me to both collect my own data for at least part of my disseration and obtain outside funding to do so. This is first step towards that end. I am excited and a bit nervous to sort of be on my own, which is what getting a doctoral level degree is all about.

University Montessori held a holiday program tonight where all the kids gathered on the stairs in the front of the school and sang Christmas carols. It went sort of how you would expect for a pre-school presentation. Some tears, lots of blank faces, and a little singing from a few of the older kids. In other words, it was really cute. Then we were ushered inside for cookies (made by the older kids) and while we chatted with parents, Will managed to score at least 3 cookies. We captured the evening on video so no still pictures were taken until we got home.

With all those cookies, Will had some energy to expend. Insisting that his hat “stay on” he ran around the house after the squeeky ball. I managed to catch this photo in a rare moment of pause.

All tuckered out from his big night, Will rests and waits for shower time.

Our weaning method is working even better than expected! It has made going to bed something Will is excited about (“Binky time! Nite-nite, Daddy, nite-nite, Mommy!”) and he completely understands how the system works. This morning, when Paul went to get Will out of his crib, Will had already put “up” his binky so that he could be lifted out of the crib to start in on morning playtime.

A bonus: his already impressive vocabulary is now growing at an alarming rate. This kid does not stop jabbering! We love it.

Will spied his hat and mittens hanging on the peg in his room and insisted on wearing them after dinner this evening. In return for our compliance, he put on a little show (I think he’s singing “ee-ei-ee-ei-oo!” here.) Not that he needed them to be warm (it was 75 degrees today) — he just wanted to have some fun! 

It’s a few days old now, but in the event you haven’t read it, please do.

An excerpt:

“
If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.

Our nation would then look like a feeble giant indeed. But whether we admit it or not, this is our choice to make. We decide whether New Orleans lives or dies.

“

Have I mentioned that my 24-month old kid can count to TEN? Will was playing in the living room while I was making dinner and I was shocked to hear him rattle off the numbers to himself, several times over. Although he has yet to repeat the astounding display on command to his anxious parents, we feel assured that he does NOT require these toys in his holiday bounty.

I don’t have a problem with kids and pacifiers. However, we are way past the drooling, teething stage where kids chew on everything (when the pacifier can actually prevent the spread of germs) and into the stage where most kids have outgrown their binkys. With the new baby coming, it is time to think about how to transition Will into the role of “big boy.”

So, we have begun to wean Will from the binky. We had started this over the past few weeks by slowly limiting binky use, i.e.: no binky outside the house. He did great with this to the point where he was willingly turning it over to Paul before walking out the front door. With this success under our belts, we began to daytime weaning this morning. We started by explaining to Will that the binky was for use only in his crib. When he was ready to “Give the binky to his Oso” (oso is spanish for bear) he could get out of the crib. Eventually, the desire to ride his bike and play outside of the crib overcame his want of the binky and he placed it in the lap of his Oso and let it be. We did this both when he woke up in the morning and at naptime. There was one rough moment this evening when he reached into his crib, pulled out the binky, and came out of his room with it. (We explained that this was not the system, plucked the binky from his hand, and dealt with the few seconds of tears that followed.)

So, we are hoping that by the end of the week, he is totally on board and putting the binky aside after he wakes up as part of his routine. We are holding high hopes that tomorrow goes as smoothly as today.