Good and Bad at the Library

Yesterday (Wednesday) I took Jacob and Lucy to the library. We had some returns to make and a reserve for Angie was waiting for pick up. Also, Angie wanted some more books on potty training to get new ideas for what to do with Jacob. He still has little to no interest in using the potty.

After dropping off our returns, I noticed a free computer, so I thought I'd look up potty training books and we could get them before going to the children's section. What a big mistake that was. Usually, we go to Jacob's section, hang out for a while and then go find books for the rest of the family. Jacob had a little meltdown in the 649.62 aisle. He kept demanding to play with the computers, pulling books off the shelves, and whining without ceasing. Consequently, I grabbed three random books on potty training and hightailed it to the children's area. He calmed down a little bit, but it was very crowded (thanks in part to the triple digit temperatures this week). He picked a puzzle fairly quickly and wanted to go. The hurry was a bit of a shame since I had let Lucy out and she was enjoying exploring the toddler area, cruising the low shelves and playing with the toys. The librarian dutifully retrieved the puzzle for us. I carried Lucy so she wouldn't freak out about being put back in the stroller.

As we headed back into the main library to go to the 30-inch globe that Jacob loves, he asked if we were going to get a book for daddy. I said no, not today. His request made me realize the mistake I'd made. If only I'd have waited to go get mommy's books after the children's section visit, I would have followed proper order at the library. The globe was fun as usual and Lucy didn't fuss too much when I put her back in the stroller there. Checking out went smoothly, though Jacob did want me to pick him up so he could see the receipt print out. He told the librarian that it was just like the printer at the game store. She was impressed. We went home for lunch.


Today, we went to the Savage branch for story time. We arrived just at 10 a.m. so we didn't have to wait for the doors to open like last time. We went in and made a beeline for the children's section. Jacob happily looked through various books and occasionally asked about the computers. He received the usual response: "We can play with computers at home." He seemed satisfied. Lucy was mobilized again to her delight. She even rode for a bit on the rocking horse. Our old friends Miss Ellie and her son Alex showed up. Alex took a turn riding the rocking horse, then as soon as he got off, Lucy raced to have a second ride. She was cute and impressive. Then the bell rang for story time.

Today's story time theme was the circus. Miss Ellie and Alex were there. Alex was acting up, not wanting to sing or sit. I sympathized since Jacob went through a phase like that. Luckily, that phase is over and Jacob enjoyed jumping through the hoop like he was a lion and walking the tightrope (an orange string on the floor). There was a backup on the tightrope, so Jacob only made it halfway across and then stood with the rest of the kids. They looked like they were part of a police line up! A puppet theater presentation of Curious George Goes to the Circus rounded out a fun story time.

But that was not all, because when we returned to the library to check out some books,we discovered Louie from the Bowie Baysox, the mascot of our local minor league baseball team:

Jacob was totally fascinated. He received a high five and an activity book from Louie. We also received a second activity book for Lucy. She has not started chewing on it yet, but I am sure once we give it to her, she will. We went home for lunch, triumphant!

Cry Room Chronicles VI

Today we got to church early. We were a little nervous that a parade route would go right in front of the church, which would be convenient for watching but hellacious for departing. We hoped to see the parade but not get stuck in traffic. More on that at the end of the blog.

After turning on the lights and TV, we settled in for the 8 a.m. liturgy. A different family (who also had two boys) joined us this week. They got along with Jacob fairly well. Jacob got into a conversation with one of them about the little rug squares that we use for kneeling. I couldn't quite follow, but Jacob was explaining some situation where the boy would get a time out. His warning wasn't a threat but more like friendly advice.

Lucy tried to play hide and seek in spite of the paucity of good hiding spots. And in spite of us not participating. The game ended quickly but without hard feelings on either side. She is definitely becoming more mobile. Walking can't be far away. She didn't flirt with the boys and they didn't flirt with her. She was only minimally distracting this week.

Unfortunately, Jacob was having his conversation during the homily, so I did not glean much from it. The gospel was Jesus sending out the 72 disciples to prepare the towns for his coming. Father talked about not being attached to material things. Instead, we should be ready to witness to Jesus's message. We are the new disciples who need to carry on the mission given 2000 years ago. I wish I had paid attention to more. Maybe I should start reading a commentary on the gospels.

After Mass, Jacob insisted that we go to play on the church's playground. Surely he will ask again next week. While there, we watched cars exiting without any problems. We figured the parade route was somewhere else.

With a little driving, we discovered a corner of the parade route. We watched as long as Jacob could stand it, which must have been 20-30 minutes. A pretty long attention span for him. See our pictures here.

A fine day out

Jacob spent the morning asking to go to a "new-new playground." The "new playground" is hidden within walking distance of our house but has had lots of Jacob and Lucy visits, so it's probably passe by now. A "new-new playground" is one which we haven't visited before. Angie also made a request this morning for a couple of books from the Savage branch of Howard County's Public Library. This branch has a Friday morning story time (with craft). It seemed like we'd get a lot done this morning if I could find a playground.

Luckily, the internet came through with some surprising suggestions: school playgrounds. Howard County has a lot of schools and now that it's July, school's out for summer. We went to Forrest Ridge Elementary School, drove around back and found the playground. In addition to basketball courts and baseball fields, two wonderful playsets were completely empty and ready for customers. Lucy tried out the slide. After going down, she decided to go the wrong way for a second ride:

 Please note: Lucy's hair was subject to static electricity, not a bad hair day.

Jacob enjoyed playing on the playground, too, even venturing across a difficult bridge with a little help from Daddy. I gave enough help that I couldn't take a picture, so here's a shot of the bridge. You can fill in Daddy and Jacob with your imagination:

He kept his hands on the top two bars and stepped carefully across. The second time I think he would have made it on his own but I wasn't confident enough in him not to be right there holding him.

Lucy took a much safe bridge all by herself:

After all this picture taking, Jacob decided (as he often does) that he wanted to take a picture too. Somehow I was able to limit him to one picture. Naturally, his favorite subject is hanging on the side:

Yes, that is Jacob's cheek and ear on the right and the playground on the left. The sun seems awfully large and close in this picture, but it really wasn't so bad.

Afterwards, we went to the library for books and storytime. We arrived a little early and had to wait outside with some other people. It's nice to live in an area where people are lining up to get into the library! Once inside, we found three books for mommy (two with cake ideas for Regina's birthday and one for fun) and a video for Jacob. Then story time started.

Today's storytime was all about the Fourth of July, featuring stories and songs of patriotism. Then came time for the craft. Again with the patriotic hat!! Jacob had a lot of enthusiasm for making it, using the glue stick to attach the stars. Unfortunately, since Daddy was helping in stead of Mommy, the results were not as good:

Note the paper clip holding the star and pipe cleaner and the terrible taping job inside. This was supposed to be a hat for Lucy (since Jacob already made one for himself), but the measurement was far too large. Lucy wasn't allowed to model it since the structural integrity is weaker than a sandcastle's in a sandstorm. In hind sight, I think it would have been better to use the glue stick on the ribbon and stick the stars into the glue rather than putting the glue on the backs of the stars. Maybe there will be a new craft next week!

Jacob Makes a Breakthrough

Special guest blogger - Mommy.

Executive Summary - Today we had an amazing breakthrough - Jacob overcame his fear of story time crafts!

Jacob used to like story time at the library. Who wouldn't? There are stories, songs, dances, sometimes even puppets and bubbles and crafts.

Who wouldn't like this? Jacob.

He's always been very dubious about story time crafts and the dreaded hand stamp at the end of story time. A hand stamp, in Jacob's mind, is basically a boo boo and he can't understand why the other children are lining up to cheerfully receive an injury. For some reason, crafts (sometimes simple crafts are offered at the end of story time) are also a no-no. Jacob has been known to scream "No craft! No craft!" when we try to coax him to the craft table during story time. I've always marked this down as some sort of general fear of all things related to Martha Stewart. In Jacob's mind, perhaps there's a slippery slope - one day you're attaching stickers to a bookmark and the next you're knitting custom lampshades.

Recently, Jacob has been refusing to attend story time at all. However, I felt strongly that this was ridiculous and that he would love story time if we could just coax him in. So, I've been making a special point to take him to Pajama Time, a nighttime story time, after dinner on Tuesday and Thursday nights. We've only been going for 2 weeks now, but Jacob loves it. He has a smile on his face pretty much the whole time. The story leaders are very energetic and dynamic and the other kids are all following along enthusiastically. This week we even broke through the craft barrier and Jacob "made" this charming 4th of July hat.



OK - so his contribution was mostly in getting glue stick all over me and the hat in general. But, at least he was trying. Also, he never screamed "No craft". He did, however, refuse the offer of a hand stamp at the end.


I'll close with a quote from that great patriot, President Whitmore:
"And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: 'We will not go quietly into the night!' We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"

Let's all celebrate our independence from craft fears.

Lucy's new habits

Now that Lucy has passed the one year mark, she is trying out new things. First, she is following in her mother's footsteps and is starting to grab as many books as she can. Here Lucy is trying to decide which book she will consume next:

Since I can't read yet, I guess I'll just chew

We went to the library today. For the first time, she got more books than Jacob did. Oddly enough, I checked out items for Lucy, Jacob, and Angie but nothing for me. As Jacob says, "Oh well, maybe next time." Though he usually says that about sitting on the potty and not having anything to show for it.

Lucy is also crawling around like crazy. She can pull herself up to standing on furniture, cabinets and knees. Sometimes she pulls herself up on the back of your knees which makes it awkward to lift her (which is what she really wants). She'll cruise around on the furniture when there's something she wants, like a toy Jacob is playing with. I'm sure walking is only weeks away.

You'd pick me up, wouldn't you?

She's begun the habit of sticking everything in her mouth except for food. Consider what she did with this scoop:

She kept blowing it out, maybe expecting some musical note like she gets from the recorder. Hopefully we'll snag some video of her playing the recorder. So far she only has one note down but can vary the volume quite a bit.

Today's lunch required that I tempt her to open her mouth with a cheerio while I snuck in a spoonful of veggies and meat mixed together. I did giver her the cheerio after each bite. I think of it like a chaser. What does Lucy think of it? If only she'd start using words. Maybe next meal.

Cry Room Chronicles V

This Sunday, we made it to church with plenty of time to spare. Jacob asked if we'd see our friends Brian and Teresa there. Since we went to the Clarksville Picnic yesterday (held on the church grounds) and saw them there, he assumed they'd be there today. Alas, they don't go to the 8 a.m. Mass. Maybe after they have their first child, their Mass habits may change.

As usual, we were the first in the children's chapel and had to turn on the lights and TV. We didn't hear any sound, but once Mass started we could hear everything. Our friends with the two boys came in a little later. At one point, the younger boy was sobbing uncontrollably. The father took him to a corner (presumably for a time out or cool down). The corner treatment wasn't making a change. The dad took his son out to walk him around in the hall. I guess it has to be pretty bad if you're taken out of the cry room for crying. Personally, it wouldn't have bothered me if they'd stayed, since that's the main purpose of the room.

Another example of misbehaving came from Lucy. Crawling around wasn't so bad until she decided to crawl over and stick her finger in the socket. Luckily, it was an Ethernet socket. Considering it a bad precedent, I told her "no playing with the socket" and dragged her away. She cried. Then she crawled back and tried that socket and the electrical outlet. I wound up covering both with my hands, much to the chagrin of Lucy and the laughter of Angie.

Angie was also happy to see Jacob playing with the older boy, who had a little bucket of dinosaurs. They looked at the dinosaurs together and discussed anatomy and such. Boy: "This is triceratops." Jacob: "Triceptops." Boy (producing new dinosaur): "It's a triceratops." Boy's mom: "No, it's a unatop." (I'm guessing it had only one horn?) Boy: "Feel his spiky back." Jacob: "Spiky back!" Boy: "There's his tail." Jacob: "That's his foot." And so on.

When the sign of peace came, I got to shake the dinosaur's foot. Also, the younger boy shook hands with me; when Angie tried to shake his hand, he gave her a look like she was a dinosaur ready to stomp him into the ground. Maybe next week she'll get a handshake.

This week, I was able to hear most of the homily, in spite of monitoring Jacob's playing with the other boy. Father said this week's gospel always makes him nervous. Jesus seems to be short and/or bad tempered with people who are going to be his disciples. One asks to bury his father before he follows Jesus, to which Jesus replies, "Let the dead bury the dead." Another says he wants to go home and say goodbye to his family; Jesus basically says he's unworthy of the kingdom of God. Father asked in his homily, was Jesus just having a bad day? Was he more loving and kind (like the typical idea we have of Jesus) the next day? Or is this really consistent with the good news He proclaimed? After considering some possibilities, Father came up with an answer. A lot of people look at faith in Christ as one of many different things in their lives: job, family, leisure, religion, exercise. For a Christian, this attitude is completely wrong. God isn't just for an hour on Sunday. He's not one of a multitude of goods; He is goodness itself. Nothing should take priority over Him. Not even making sure two kids don't fight over dinosaurs. Father didn't say that from the pulpit, but I can hear it now.

Cry Room Chronicles IV

You'd think that a special Father's Day breakfast would delay our Sunday morning routine and force us to go to a Mass later than 8 a.m. Somehow, we arrived two minutes early. I am sure of this because when we walked in Father told the deacon (who was ready to process into the church) that they had two more minutes before starting. That gave us plenty of time to get situated in the Children's Chapel at St. Louis.

The children were fairly well behaved this Sunday. Lucy did get fussy half way through the homily. I heard the beginning where Father discussed how we are always being tested. We see this in this week's gospel, where Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" They reply, "John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets." Jesus follows up with, "Who do you say that I am?" with Peter's reply, "You are the Christ of God." Father then challenged us to consider who Jesus is in our lives. More importantly, how does our faith in Jesus impact our lives and our actions. At this point, Lucy became more of a distraction, so I missed out on the end. But even that much is a good challenge to any Christian believer.

Lucy was also very distracting later on. Our friends with two young boys were with us again. Lucy was sitting near the door and the younger boy (I guess he was one to two years old) took his mom's keys and tried to give them to Lucy. At first, he would lay them on the floor in front of her out of her reach. She just looked at him, doe-eyed. He would pick them up and then lay them closer to her. Eventually he started trying to hand them to her. Lucy kept up the coy act until he practically put the keys in her hands. Both were all smiles at this. We parents thought it was cute too.

We had more than the usual good time at the sign of peace. Among the four adults and four children in the room, I shook hands about nine times. Jacob still sings along with the parts of the Mass and the hymns to the best of his ability.

After Mass was over, we decided to go to the playground on the church's property. Jacob really enjoyed playing there. All sorts of ladders, stairs and climbing rocks led to an upper level with slides and other toys to play with. Jacob liked to run around all over and wanted me to climb up the rock steps with him. I obliged, though I didn't follow him down the slide. Maybe next time.