The Grass is Always Greener …

They say the grass is always greener on the other side … meaning that whatever you don’t have always looks better than what you do have. I’m finding that to be truer than ever in my life lately.

Although I’m not working right now (lost my job last year), I generally consider myself to be a working mother. After all, I worked full-time until Book Boy was nearly 8, and fully expect to be working full-time again well before the year is out. Being one of two parents who work full-time is really hard. (I’ve written before about how hard weekday evenings are.) I always half-dreamed about what it would be like to be an at-home mom – I’d have lots of time to play with the kids, take them to the museum and other educational activities, put a nice meal on the table every evening, keep up with the housework, etc.

Hear that sound? That’s the sound of Tim laughing his butt off.

Because, of course, the reality of being an at-home mom is much different, especially when one of the kids is an infant.

Playing with the kids? Forget it, I spend half my life sitting on the couch nursing the baby. Same goes for that nice meal and keeping up with the housework. Taking the kids places? To be avoided during flu season, plus it’s just plain hard to take all three anywhere. Even story time at the library or a quick stop at the grocery store for milk is a big deal right now.

And boy, do I miss people. I’ve never exactly been a social butterfly, but during the week, Tim is usually the only adult I talk to. Oh, how I miss conversations with co-worker friends! Need to discuss the phrasing of a paragraph or two in the current newsletter we’re editing? Bring it on! These days, the most stimulating discussion I have during the day just might be what to make Book Girl for lunch, or what Book Boy is going to select for his daily “reading log” book.

All that said, being home with the kids is getting easier as the baby gets older and slightly more flexible. If I’m still unemployed this summer, I’m really hoping that we can have a repeat of last year’s good summer. (It wasn’t terribly exciting, but the kids and I did do some fun things, and BB was able to take swim lessons and go to day camp.)

Hmmm … maybe I can find a part-time job with all the pay and benefits of my former full-time job … (yeah right)

That’s My Boy!

Book Boy stayed home sick from school yesterday. It was nothing major – just a cold – but he was miserable with sneezing and coughing. He spent a good part of the day curled up in bed, reading. He was reading a book called Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go, which I had brought home from work in the old days, when I used to work for Borders. I enjoyed the book when I read it last year, and was glad to see that he had finally picked it up.

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when, in late afternoon, he told me that he had read the entire 304-page book that day! “That’s my boy,” I thought.

But wait, there’s more! He told me how excited he was that there was already another book written in the series, and asked me to reserve it from the library right then. He’s discovering early the joys of “old faithful” authors.

(We also reserved the first book in the Percy Jackson series, which he asked about after seeing the trailer for the movie. I’m hoping he likes it, because I know there are already several written in that series as well.)

Old Faithful

 

As you might have guessed from the name I use for myself, I love to read. LOVE to read. I enjoy many different genres – general fictions, mystery/thrillers, history, biography, other non-fiction, all sorts of children’s books, etc. Most of the books that I read are one-offs – single books, not part of a series. That’s just fine with me – I have no trouble getting invested in characters and then saying goodbye after just one volume.

On the other hand, I love my “old faithful” authors. You know the type – the ones who put out a new book every year or two, featuring the same character every time, often with the same sort of predictable story. I visited the library earlier this week and checked out Sue Grafton’s latest, U is for Undertow. I’m about a quarter of the way through the book right now, and am savoring it. Sure, these types of books are by no means great literature, but many of them are well-written, and it’s fun to read something that I just know I’m going to enjoy.

I’m including a list of my “old faithfuls” below. Feel free to comment, or list your own “old faithfuls” in the comments section. (Have I mentioned that one of my biggest reading pleasures is discovering a new author that I like – and then finding out that he or she has already written several other books, just waiting for me to read them?!)

Sue Grafton – “Alphabet Mysteries” featuring Kinsey Milhone

Jonathan Kellerman – Alex Delaware mysteries (he has written a few with other characters as well, and they are also worth reading)

Faye Kellerman – Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus mysteries

Patricia Cornwell – Kay Scarpetta mysteries (she has written several featuring other characters, but I found myself disappointed with all of those books)

Janet Evanovich – She writes two of the fun Stephanie Plum books most years.

James Patterson – He actually writes several series, but I only follow the fast-paced books that follow his main character, Alex Cross. I have no opinion on his other mystery series, having never read them, but in my experience, his non-mystery books are iffy at best. (This is perhaps because he often provides only the outline for these stories rather than writing the actual books, as he confirmed when I heard him speak a while back.)

Letting the Leash Out a Bit

Some might call me over protective, though I don’t see it that way. At age 8.5, Book Boy has never really been on his own. Oh, sure, we don’t directly hover over him every second at home, and he and Book Girl are allowed to play outside unsupervised (preferably in the back yard). But I’ve never let him go around the block by himself (it’s a big block, he’s a dawdler, and we really don’t know anyone in the neighborhood). And when we go out, to the mall, Target, whatever, I prefer to have him in my sight just about all the time.

Am I really that worried that someone’s going to make off with him? No, I just want to be able to keep an eye on him.

Anyway, given all this, you can imagine Book Boy’s surprise when I let the leash out just a bit last week. We went to the newly re-opened Imagination Station (formerly known as COSI, it was closed for two years due to lack of funding) with three cousins and their assorted kids. Though we had four adults and eight kids – not a bad ratio overall – I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, because three of them were mine. They were well behaved, of course, but Book Baby wanted to nurse, while the two bigger kids wanted to go in different directions.

Laura, my cousin’s wife, could see that Book Boy and Book Girl wanted to start through the museum, but I was stuck on a bench with the baby for a while. So … she suggested that she take BG where she wanted to go, and that BB and Drew go where they wanted to go. I was a bit hesitant at first, but Drew is 12-1/2, very responsible, and is a certified babysitter. I asked Laura if she felt comfortable with Drew being responsible for BB, and she said yes. So the boys were off!  They weren’t on their own for very long (maybe 30 minutes, twice), and with four adults, we bumped into them several times, but BB really seemed to enjoy his first taste of freedom from the grownups.

I don’t know how long it’ll be before I let BB go off on his own again, but it felt good to let him go for a while.

Happy Holidays From the Bookmama Family

Oh, Crap!

On Monday, Tim mentioned that our desktop computer (primarily used by him) was starting to “crap out.” I believe that’s a technical term for “die.” It seems to be hanging in there, though it does randomly lock up or shut down once a day or so.

On Tuesday, he said he couldn’t get the laptop (which I had been using on and off all day) wouldn’t start up for him. It appeared to be “crapping out” as well. Great. It, in fact, appears to have actually crapped out for real and we’re debating a new laptop purchase. (We have the money and will probably buy one, though that’s not exactly what we’d like to spend a large chunk of money on at the moment.)

So … I’ll continue to be scarce for a while, at least until we replace the laptop. I can type one-handed while nursing Book Baby, but I can’t do anything (except read) at the desktop while holding her.

What a pain!

Random Pics

I’ve been terrible about sharing pics lately (it’s really hard to edit them when Book Baby wants me to hold her all the time), but I thought I’d share this batch from the last week or so. I was hoping to have more time to try out my new camera but it hasn’t worked out that way yet!

A-OK

Just thought I’d do a quick follow-up post to let you know that Book Boy and Book Baby are both A-OK.

The pencil erasers that BB stuck in his ears? The doctor managed to get one out on Friday, and the other one fell out at the playground on Sunday. He ran up to us with a little eraser piece in his hand, laughing, and said that he bumped his head (never did get more details about that) and caught the eraser as it fell out of his ear. He has definitely learned a good lesson, though, as it was most unpleasant to have the doctor remove the eraser on Friday. (And I have no idea what she would have done to remove the second piece if it hadn’t fallen out – might have had to refer him to an ear, nose and throat specalist.)

Book Baby has gained some weight – about 5 oz. from Friday to Monday, and her color (i.e. jaundice) is much improved. We’re still keeping an eye on her weight, and trying to make sure I nurse her as much as possible, but I’m not nearly as worried as I was last week.

Poor Two, on the other hand, didn’t have such a good day today – Book Girl woke me up this morning and said “Mom, you need to put Two back together!”

(Fortunately, it was a simple fix, and Two is good as new now.)

Breaking Me In

Tim and I are painfully aware that as the parents of three children, we’re now outnumbered.

So far, that hasn’t been a big deal. Tim was home from work the first week after Book Baby was born, and the second week he was back at work but dropped Book Boy off at school and left work early enough to pick him up in the afternoon (charter school, no bus service). That was the perfect way for me to kind of ease into being a mom of three - especially the “staying at home with a newborn and preschooler while having to pick up the third grader at 3″ part.

But on Friday, boy did those kids break me in!

In the morning, Book Girl, Baby and I were upstairs. I had to use the bathroom, so I put Book Baby in the bouncey chair and told BG I’d be back in a couple of minutes. When I came out of the bathroom, BG was carrying the baby across the living room. Which meant she had carried the baby DOWN THE STAIRS! I nearly had a heart attack, and poor BG cried when she realized how upset I was. (We had a nice little talk, and she now understands that she is NOT to carry the baby without expressly asking permission. Of course, I thought she understood that in the first place.)

Then in the afternoon, all three kids had a doctor appointment. BG was getting her four-year checkup, Baby was having her two-week checkup, and BB was just getting a flu shot. It turns out that Baby hasn’t gained any weight since leaving the hospital, and is also jaundiced, so the doctor wants me to make sure I feed her every 2-3 hours, etc. Great, just what I need in my already sleep-deprived state.

And, to top it all off, as the doctor checked in BB’s ears, she said “What did you put in your ears?” We thought she was joking until she continued, “Something pink? Bubblegum, maybe?”  He shook his head sheepishly. Then it hit me … the boy loves to pick at pencil erasers, and I find them all over the floor. “Pencil erasers?” I said. He nodded. Great. He had a piece of an eraser stuck in each ear. Dr. was able to get one out, but the other eluded her. We were sent home with a syringe and instructions to flush the ear several times to see if the eraser came out. It didn’t come out with flushing … but apparently it did come out when he bumped his head at the playground today. I was so very glad, because I can’t imagine what the doctor would have had to do if the eraser was still in his ear at our follow-up appointment tomorrow. (He was in tears when she was trying to remove it on Friday … and this is the boy who says “I want to watch!” when he has to get a shot.)

Cross your fingers that this week is a little less fun-filled!

Falling In Love Again

Tim and I are pleased to announce that our new baby was born on October 23, healthy and weighing 6 lbs. 8 oz. and measuring 20″ long. (She is much smaller than her sibings were, and we actually didn’t have any clothes small enough to fit her.) We are totally in love with her.

And my goodness, Book Boy and Little Sister are more in love with her than we ever would have predicted!

Before she was born, I thought that Book Boy would be somewhat excited but mostly ambivilant about having another little sister. However, from the moment he first laid eyes on her when she was just a few hours old, it was clear that he was totally enamored with her. The day we brought her home from the hospital, he sat on the couch and just held her for about an hour. He runs in the door after school and says “Where’s the baby? I want to hold the baby!” It’s very, very nice.

Little Sister, on the other hand – well, I knew she was thrilled about the baby. In the months leading up to the birth, LS came running whenever I sorted through baby items, she asked to look at baby things every time we went to a store, and she practiced with her dolls all the time. She’s little enough that we don’t let her hold the baby as much as we let Book Boy, but I have a feeling these two girls are going to be very close as they grow up.

(Yes, I know it took me forever to get this posted – I swear, every time I started to write and edit pics, Book Baby woke up and needed me!)