Letters from Pemberley

I can’t believe it’s December already!  Today Tommy and I ran all over the north side of the city running errands…delivering cupcakes to Caris, getting stamps, picking up our Christmas letter from the printers, and getting lost a bit, too.  Why are there so many one-way streets near Loyola University?

 The best moment of the morning was in the post office.  Tommy had been very patiently standing in line with me, holding my hand and quietly admiring his new snow boots.  When I finally got up to the counter, I had to let go to pay.  Next thing I knew, he was face down on the floor behind me.  Not crying–just tired, and ready to go to bed!  I had a hard time convincing him that the floor of the US Post Office-Rogers Park Branch was not the best place to go to sleep.  Finally, he got up without a fuss, took my hand, and trudged back out to the car with me.  And I managed to keep him awake across town to Kinko’s and then back home…whew!

After weeks of relentless naughtiness and discipline, I am very pleased to announce that Tommy made it through the day yesterday without being disciplined once!  God was good to me–I had a meltdown last week, Derek had to be at work for 13.5 hours on Monday, I was seeing no fruit for my labors, and I was begging God at some point on Monday to help Tommy obey me just once.  (He was refusing to pick up a puzzle piece that he had thrown down in anger…which turned into a 20 minute battle of the wills…)  God knew when I needed a break, and on Tuesday He worked in Tommy’s heart to listen and obey all day long.  He even went down to bed without a fuss for Derek.  Today has already had some bumps, but I want to thank God out loud (and remind myself) that He is working in my son’s heart, drawing him to Himself.

I am claiming my Bible study memory verse from last week–Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it.  (Proverbs 22:6)  Oh Lord, let that be true for Tommy!

 Okay, so next time Tommy sleeps in, I won’t tell anyone about it…he was up before Derek left for work this morning, and he actually fell asleep in his playpen at 10:30!  Obviously he’s confused.

 We’ve been offering Tommy a fork or spoon with meals for about a year now, but he just wasn’t that interested.  Fingers were just more effective.  This past week, though, I got daring and made cream of wheat for breakfast and let him try to feed himself.  It’s actually been highly successful!  He needs a full-body bib, but he seems really excited about feeding himself with a spoon like a big boy.  I just have to remember to make up the cream of wheat before getting him out of bed, or he totally freaks out about having to wait for it to cool!  Now he’s been using his fork sometimes, too.  (He has a new fork and spoon with trucks on them…we’re not sure how much of this progress we can attribute to the cool utensils, but I’m going to pick some more up for him next time I’m down at Posh.)

Here’s what I’ve been seeing at about 8-8:30 every morning this past week or so.  Yes, Tommy has finally adjusted to daylight savings time, and Mommy has been getting to have a quiet time and a shower before starting up morning diaper duty!

Derek found an alternate method of transferring our photos!  So today, we decided to hit up the free outdoor ice skating rink down in Millennium Park.  It was Tommy’s first time on skates, and he lasted about half an hour.  Our backs were done for after all that leaning over (he doesn’t have the balance thing figured out on ice yet), but it was definitely a fun family activity!

Well, yesterday Tommy managed to lose his winter hat (maybe during the temper tantrum on the sidewalk on Western Ave while I was unlocking our car?) and demagnetize our flash card reader (why did he think sticking dimes into the computer was a good idea?).  So no new pictures of my productive dude until my resident tech support, aka Derek, has time to look into the problem.

 If you think you lost a toddler’s knit hat on a major thoroughfare, who would you call about a lost and found?  Or would you just give it up for lost?

I may not be very productive myself, but while Tommy keeps up with this mischief, I won’t be bored…

Tommy’s getting a decent pair of shoes for his Christmas present (he loves putting on shoes, and so far he has been wearing garage sale finds), so today we checked out Piggy Toes, a children’s boutique specializing in shoes.  I am such a sucker for children’s boutiques, even if I can’t afford their merchandise!  Tommy and I loved it there.  The owner measured Tommy’s feet, and I was shocked to discover that he’s a size 7 (he’s been scrunching into size 6’s all fall)!  Poor little dude–Mommy should have measured you long ago!  Sadly, most of the shoes in the store are more expensive than I would pay for myself, but we found a mid-priced dress pair, and we’ll head to Target for tennis shoes later.  The owner told me that at his age, their feet grow so fast that we should get him re-measured every 4 months.  Whew!  I don’t think we’ll be back to buy him any Italian leather shoes in March, but we might pop in to get measured (and play with the great wooden toys all over the store)…

 Next door was a yucky kid’s consignment store that I had hoped would have more potential, and while I’d fully intended to buy him used snow boots, I just couldn’t compare the cigarette smoke-smelling used (dirty and pilly) boots with the beautiful $100 all-leather boots next door.  I think we’ll be checking out the Target snow boot section now, too.  If I get a basic color, they can last through all of our kids, and I’ll know who was wearing them before, right?