It’s not that I don’t read; I actually read quite a bit, but at least for the past three or four years, I don’t read anything very demanding. Plus, it’s all straight-up, novel-length fiction.

Enter Book Riot’s 2016 Read Harder Challenge. They’ve provided a list of reading challenges, 24 total, averaging 2 per month. I’m hoping this will give me a framework for varying my book consumption a bit. My mother-in-law Helen is doing this with me, so I have company. The purpose of this post is only to keep track of which of the challenges I’ve already completed, and to share the information with her.

Read a Horror Book. Complete
“Slade House” by David Mitchell

Read a nonfiction book about science. Complete
“Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach

Read a collection of essays. Complete
“The Opposite of Loneliness” by Marina Keegan

Read a book out loud to someone else. Complete, every single day.
To Maya: “Mog and the Baby” by Judith Kerr
To Ian: “Dear Zoo” by Rod Campbell

Read a middle grade novel.

Read a biography (not a memoir or autobiography). Complete
“Joss Whedon: The Biography” by Amy Pascale

Read a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel. Complete
“The Fifth Season” by N. K. Jemisin

Read a book originally published in the decade you were born.
Goodreads Best Books of the Decade: 1970’s

Listen to an audiobook that has won an Audie award.
Maybe Sandman by Neil Gaiman

Read a book over 500 pages long.
“The Obelisk Gate” by N. K. Jemisin

Read a book under 100 pages.
“The Grownup” by Gillian Flynn

Read a book by or about a person that identifies as transgender.
“Nevada” by Imogen Binnie

Read a book that is set in the Middle East.

Read a book that is by an author from Southeast Asia.

Read a book of historical fiction that is set before 1900.

Read the first book in a series by a person of color. Complete
“Half-Resurrection Blues: A Bone Street Rumba Novel” by Daniel Jose Older

Read a non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years. In-progress
“Bitch Planet, Book 1: Extraordinary Machine” by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro

Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate which is better.
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” by John le Carre

Read a nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist themes.

Read a book about religion (fiction or nonfiction).

Read a book about politics, in your country or another (fiction or nonfiction).

Read a food memoir. Complete
“A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table” by Molly Wizenberg

Read a play.

Read a book with a main character that has a mental illness.

Maya is getting old enough now that we can warm her up a little for upcoming adventures and she’ll actually remember them and anticipate them. I had been prepping her for a few weeks for our family trip to Denver this past September, discussing some of the different things we might do. She had been excited for weeks about riding on the airplane again, and thanks to her good nature and the iPad, she managed the trip pretty well.

She got lots of grins as she tromped along with her pillow and octopus

Ian had a rough run. A couple days before we left, he sprouted a fever. There were really no other symptoms that we could perceive, and we figured it fell into the “it’s a virus and has to run its course” category. He was still not feeling well when we left unspeakably early for the airport, so it’s really no surprise at all that he wasn’t a huge fan of the flight. Luckily he slept for a good half of it, so it could have been worse. While he was awake though, he was very vocal.

Thanks to the inhuman hour of our flight, we had some time to do a few things on our travel day. We had a delightful late breakfast at a place called Four Friends Kitchen. It’s a nice, vaguely hipster-esque place, but it’s also very kid-friendly. Maya got crayons upon arrival, and they had a wall of etch-a-sketches she could play with. The food was fantastic, and except for Ian trying to bash his head in on the table, the kids were fairly well-behaved.

Maya and Oddipuddy at the Butterfly Pavilion

The first place we went after breakfast was the Butterfly Pavilion. Early in our trip discussion, I had asked Maya a few times if she’d be interested in seeing some butterflies while in Denver, and she of course said yes. But in her toddler brain, since then, anytime I said Denver, she thought “butterflies.” These were so indelibly linked that she thought the Butterfly Pavilion *was* Denver. Through the rest of the Denver trip she’d ask us over and over again if we could go back to Denver and see the butterflies. We tried explaining that the city was Denver and we were visiting lots of attractions in it, not just the butterfly place, but I’m not entirely sure we’ve cemented that idea yet.

Ian at the Butterfly Pavilion

The Butterfly Pavilion was neat, and suitable for kids Maya’s age (not quite 3). She got to touch a tarantula (or rather the tarantula got to touch her), there was a play area for the kids, and she was able to see lots of different invertebrates throughout the facility. The butterfly rainforest was really pleasant, especially when considering the variety of gorgeous butterflies. We had told Maya to be very gentle with them and only touch with the backs of her fingers to discourage her impulse to grab them. She had a great deal of fun brushing their wings with her fingers and watching them flutter away. However, we learned toward the end of our visit that we should have kept her from touching them at all. Their wings can be irreversibly damaged with even the lightest contact.

After a nap at the hotel followed by a bit of time playing in the pool, we all went out to the Kokopelli Beer Company to have some pizza and beer. Their take on a standard Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza was delicious. They sauced the pie with barbecue sauce, dotted it with cream cheese, and at the end added large chunks of toasted coconut. It was even good cold the next day. I probably shouldn’t tell the Internet this, but Maya is a big fan of beer. We generally let her have little tastes of whatever we are eating and drinking, so she also got to sample the brews at Kokopelli. Ian, ever the man of action, at one point decided he’d like some too, and his little cobra arm struck out and grabbed Sean’s beer and dumped a goodly amount of it all over our table, our food, and himself. He went through the rest of his trip with a beer-stained bib. I guess I could have rinsed it out at the hotel, but generally by the time we finished with our evenings, I was ready for little more than a few minutes reading before crashing. Parents of the year, right here.

Back in September, I’d have described Ian as an early riser, but generally a good sleeper. Unfortunately, sick and traveling Ian hadn’t gotten the memo, and every night on our trip, he was up at some point. None of us slept very well.

Maya and Ian, waiting for the giraffes

The next day, after a terrible hotel breakfast that had us vowing to eat at restaurants the rest of the trip, we made our way to the Denver Zoo. I need to back up a little. You know how toddlers go through phases where they are completely infatuated with certain things? The current obsession timeframe will be heretofore known as Maya’s Giraffe Period. She has several giraffe variants at home that she plays with regularly. She’s aware that the little horns on top of their heads are called ossicones (though she says “bossicones”). And she chose to be a giraffe for halloween. When Sean found out that we could feed the giraffes at the zoo, we knew we’d have to get Maya in on it. We waited in line and paid $5 for three leaves of romaine lettuce to feed to the giraffes. Maya was able to stand by herself and reach her little arm up with the lettuce leaf clutched in her hand. The giraffe then leaned way, way down over the fence, reached out with its enormous tongue and took the lettuce from her, crunch-crunch-crunching away while Maya giggled. She loved it. The experience was so fantastic that we bought another set of lettuce leaves so she could do it again. Even now, months later, Maya still talks about feeding those giraffes lettuce and how they took it from her hand and crunched it up.

Check out that tongue!

We kept the kids out way past nap time, so after a good rest, Sean went out and picked up Indian food from Yak and Yeti, and we had a picnic in Maya’s room at the hotel. Why Maya’s room? Here’s how it went down. After looking through condos, we thought we’d make our lives simpler by renting a hotel room instead. Sean found an option that had two bedrooms whose doors closed leaving a third room in the middle that was both kitchenette and living room. That middle room is where Ian was sleeping when our dinner arrived, so we all went into Maya’s room (which had more available floor space than ours), and feasted on the floor. Again, Maya loved it.

Maya LOVED hotel picnic

The next morning after a serviceable breakfast at Goody’s Eatery, we visited the Denver Children’s Museum. The great thing about this morning is that Ian’s fever was finally gone. The sad thing is that some nasal congestion had taken its place.

Unfortunately, a great deal of the children’s museum was undergoing renovations when we visited. If we had come in November/December, I suspect that museum would have been pretty phenomenal. As it was, it was still pretty neat. There were areas for Maya to dress up and pretend to be a firefighter, a veterinarian, etc. There was a GIANT kitchen to play in. There was a model back yard to tromp around in, complete with costumes (we think the one we put on Maya was a squirrel). They had a really neat bubble area, and Maya had a good time filling the bubbles with smoke and watching them pop. There was a baby area as well where Ian got to stretch his legs and roll around for a while.

Daddy and Maya playing at the Children’s Museum

The outside area was really nice. They had a giant sand pit with all kinds of trucks and buckets and shovels to play with. Their water area was multi-tiered and entertained Maya for a really long time. They had a ropes area to climb around on and a building area that looked wonderfully dangerous (think: giant lincoln logs).

Ian playing at the Children’s Museum

We again kept the kids there way too late and were trying, trying, trying to get Maya out of there so we could go to another brew pub for lunch. We were basically at the brewpub when I realized I had left my jacket at the children’s museum, so back we went. I retrieved the jacket, but by then it was just stupidly late, and rather than subject our children to a long wait for food (and subjecting a restaurant full of patrons to our tired and hungry kids), we went back to the hotel and had leftovers for lunch. Picnic again!!

That afternoon, I hung out in the hotel room and let an exhausted Ian sleep while Sean and Maya had another swim in the hotel pool. We all felt reasonably relaxed, so we decided to go to a Japanese restaurant called Sakana. This proved to be a mistake. Let me make this point up front – the food was good. Sean was content with his ramen and my sushi was really fresh and flavorful. Maya had pretty much decided that she was all done with listening to us at all at this point. She wouldn’t sit in her seat, wouldn’t eat without us feeding her, and certainly wouldn’t keep her hands off things that weren’t hers to touch. Ian, despite having had a really good nap, was disinterested in the restaurant experience. He squirmed and yelled almost from the beginning. We thought he’d chill out once he had food to eat, but we were wrong. I took him out for a walk while Sean and Maya ate, and then Sean did the same for me. By the end, Ian was flat out screaming and Maya tore a decorative grating off one of their walls. I expect they weren’t sorry to see us go.

Ahead of this vacation, I had also prepped Maya that we’d get to see mountains when we went to Denver. She’d repeat the words and look at pictures in her storybooks, but I don’t think the concept really sunk in. The next day, after a very good breakfast at Early Bird, we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park. The drive itself was beautiful. The road curved back and forth as it climbed ever higher toward the park.

Then we heard a noise. “Ian, did you barf?” I asked. As the vomit aroma filled our vehicle, I changed my question, “Maya, did you barf?” She told me she hadn’t but that Ian had. We pulled over and I went to Ian’s side of the car, prepared for the worst, but nope, he was clean. It turns out that Maya had barfed after all! Our guess was that a combination of a belly full of chocolate milk (her favorite thing at breakfast that morning) and curvy roads had caused her some motion sickness. We changed her shirt and cleaned out her car seat as best we could. After a few minutes of her poking around outside, and against much protest, we reloaded and finished our journey into the park. We drove directly to the Bear Lake area, where we planned to hike so that everyone could stretch their legs a bit.

Family photo … sort of

The hike around Bear Lake is short (0.6 miles), flat, and well-maintained. Maya walked the entire thing on her own. I had Ian strapped to my back in the carrier, and Sean kept an eye on Maya as she touched leaves and gathered sticks. She wanted desperately to go in the water, even after we let her stick her hand in to feel how icy cold it was. Crazy kid. She’s very proud of the fact that she made the entire trip by herself. “I hiked awound the entiwe wake!”

Maya and Mom in Rocky Mountain National Park

The leaves don’t really change color in Texas. Yes, I know, brown is a color too, but the vibrant colors I associate with the autumns of my childhood simply don’t happen in central Texas. We were lucky to see the beginnings of the fall color change as we drove through the Rocky Mountains. Little bursts of yellow and red highlighted vistas and mountain and tree framed lakes. The mostly evergreen-coated mountainsides were dotted with pockets of color.

Ian and Dad, two miles high

We had a late lunch at Baba’s Gyros and Burgers (whose gyros and burgers were both pretty terrific) in Estes Park and then headed back into RMNP to drive as much as we could of the Trail Ridge Road. That drive was wonderful, and I truly wish we had had time to both cover the whole thing and get out and hike more. I’m not sure whether it was the cold wind, the vertigo-inducing drops from the highway, or the Rockies themselves that took my breath away. We stopped and got out of the car a few times. To her delight, Maya had little rodents (pikas maybe?) nearly crawl across her feet at one stop. She got pummeled with icy wind at another. Ian mostly slept.

Even stopping our drive early, we still got back pretty late, so Sean went out and grabbed dinner at Kyoto Teriyaki. Again, we picnicked in Maya’s room. The food was solid, though I thought they were a little stingy with their vegetable tempura. Once the kids went to bed, Sean and I tried to pack up as much as we could so we’d be ready to hit the ground running the next day.

That grouper could have eaten Maya for a snack

Our last day in Denver, we visited the Downtown Aquarium. It didn’t open till 11, and we were worried we couldn’t do it justice before running off to lunch and then to the airport. As it was, even at Maya pace, we were able to see everything we wanted to see in about an hour. The set-up was really great for a small kid. Many of the tanks were visible down to the floor, so Maya could get really close to the various sea creatures. One of her favorite ones was the otter tank. I held her up to see the otter sitting above water and when he dove, I stood her back on the floor so she could watch him swim around and around in the water. It was great!

Ian liked watching the fish

She also got to see turtles, seahorses, jellyfish, and an octopus. And sharks, so many sharks. She pet sea stars and sting rays. Inexplicably, there was a tiger there and she got to see him as well. All told, I think she really enjoyed it. Ian actually liked the visit as well. The zoo animals were a little far away for him to really understand, I think. The fish were right in front of his face and often very colorful.

Maya and Dad getting photobombed by a fish

After we finished at the aquarium, we went to the Wynkoop brewpub and had a really nice lunch. Sean and I (with a tiny assist from Maya) split a five-beer flight, all of which were pretty delicious. The food itself was decent enough, but the service was outstanding. They were easy-going about the kids and kept our schedule in mind throughout the meal. If we lived there, we’d go back. Ian slept through lunch, which I’m sure helped keep the meal peaceful. It was a nice break for Sean and me before we weathered the chaos of the car rental place, the airport, and the drive home.

Maya feel asleep on the way to the rental car drop-off, and I think we may have startled her a little when we woke her up. Plus, we had been asking a lot of her on this vacation. She had the mother of all meltdowns right there at the rental car return. I kept track of a wailing, thrashing Maya while Sean scurried around uninstalling car seats and unloading bags. it was … weird.

Bye bye Denver

Everyone dealt reasonably well with the airport. Security with a car seat, a stroller, and two small children is a bit of a circus, but once we made it through there, cookies and bathroom breaks and escalator rides filled the time before our flight boarded. I thought I was home free when Ian passed out during takeoff, but he barely slept a half hour before he woke up. And he stayed awake for the entire remainder of the flight. And by awake, I mean yelling. I fed him snacks and let him play with my phone, but none of it did a bit of good. Ian was through with vacation, and everyone within probably a four or five seat radius heard about it. The poor man sitting next to me had kindly swapped seats with the lady who was originally seated in our row so that she could sit next to her son. After Ian’s performance, I suspect that man no longer believes in karma.

I can’t work out whether I’ve told the story of a successful trip or a failure. Sean and I both consider it to have been a good, albeit difficult, trip. This is the first time we’ve taken Maya on vacation where we feel like she really understood that she was somewhere else and doing fun things. It was incredible to see her excited about tarantulas and otters and giraffes. I loved how much pleasure she took in that walk around the lake. And Ian did as well as he could have given his age and the illness early in the trip. We set out on vacation thinking we’d keep the kids as close to their normal schedules as possible. That notion quickly went out the window and we just played it by ear each day. We pushed those kids hard. Meals and nap times were often late. When in Austin, they have a fair amount of downtime at home to just play. On vacation, it was activity after activity. Even only planning one thing a day, we still kept them hopping. I think for a nine month old and a not quite three year old, they handled it fairly well.

Unless you count Halloween, Maya’s birthday this past November was the first event in a crazy month-and-a-half long string of celebrations. She’s so much more aware of things now, we really wanted to try to do something special for her. Alas we defaulted to more or less the same thing we’ve done for the past couple of years, but you know what? She loved it anyway.

One of Maya’s birthday gifts – a ball pit!

For one, there were balloons. (Bawooooons!!!) Sean sprung for a few helium-filled mylar type balloons that deflated ages ago but that I’ve only recently managed to throw away. We also got several smaller balloons that we just sort of blew up and let her play with. She was so happy. One of her little friends from gymnastics class came over to celebrate with her, and Maya simply could not understand why the girl wouldn’t immediately take the balloon she offered. Because bawooooooons!!!

This is the first of her birthdays where she’s been able to really talk, so we actually got to ask her what she wanted. When I asked Maya what kind of cake she’d like, she was torn between an octopus cake and a rainbow cake and a duck cake. The best looking mold I could find was for the duck. I used 1.5 times this Smitten Kitchen recipe, some basic buttercream icing from the Wilton site (makers of the ducky cake mold), and more finesse than I’m generally capable of to construct her cake. The cake matched the pillow she sleeps with, right down to the blue water. Maya was suitably pleased, though she insisted the icing be removed from her piece.

Blowing out the candles

We were lucky to have my parents (aka Grammy and Grandpa) visit for her birthday. We were a little unlucky otherwise this year. Our normal group suffered illnesses and alternate plans, and so we were fewer in number than we have been in the past.

This year we sprung for a Franklin brisket (purchased cold and reheated), and augmented with sides from Rudy’s. As usual, it made for delightful leftovers for quite some time after that. I actually still have some brisket in the freezer that I’ll use to make Franklin’s pinto bean recipe.

Tall girl could reach the gifts we lined up “safely” on the banister

Maya is definitely hitting her “threenager” stride. We are pleased to report that she’s becoming ever more independent. She has her own opinions about how she wants to spend her time, and often, how you spend your time as well. We do regularly get cold-cocked by the random temper tantrum (“I don’t wanna pee,” “I want to play with [whatever Ian has picked up],” etc), occasionally in public. Potty training is a pretty sore subject around here.

As with all kids though, she tempers the crazy with sweetness, kindness, and a budding intelligence that we just can’t help be admire. She worries about the people around her, fussing over us if we bump an elbow or have a headache. She still tries to make Ian feel better when he’s crying (“It’s okay Ian, buddy.”) Her new thing this week has been to drag her bed – yes, her bed – around her room so that she can climb on it to reach things in the upper drawers of her dresser.

Lately she spends most of her nap time playing instead, often wrecking her room in the process. It felt like it was causing more stress than good, so with much sadness, we’re trying to skip Maya’s last remaining nap now. We’ve implemented an earlier bedtime, so we’ll see how she adapts.

Birthday dinner for the big 3 year old

For the night of her actual birthday, we asked her what she’d like to have for dinner. Of course her answer was “hangewbangew … and fwiiiiiiies,” so we took her to Hat Creek Burger for some hamburger and fries, complete with chocolate milk. And then our big three year old girl spent several minutes trying to figure out how to negotiate a play area full of even bigger and faster kids. Needless to say, she had a fantastic time, and we had fun celebrating with her.

Sean’s birthday is exactly in the middle of the kids’ birthdays, 15 days after Maya’s, 15 days before Ian’s. Amazingly, we managed to fit in a little birthday celebration for the big 4-2 (you know, the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything).

Daddy is 42!

Maya helped choose a couple small things for Daddy. It was really nice to show her how it worked to give gifts to others since she had just experienced receiving so many nice presents for her birthday.

Maya assisting with present opening

She and I baked him the best birthday cake I’ve made so far, a triple chocolate malt cake that is so worth the effort. A couple alterations: first, I used one fewer sticks of butter for the icing and and second, I eventually used a meat tenderizer to smash the malted milk balls to decorate the outside of the cake. It seemed to work much better than cutting them, though it did create a bit of malted milk dust. The cut malted milk balls are shown in these photos.

I am not a cake decorator

We had dinner at Launderette that night. The place is surprisingly kid friendly. They even have a kids menu (though at least the one thing we ordered from it was pretty bland). We enjoyed our dinner well enough even though Ian managed to fling one of their plates to the floor and break it and Maya spent the majority of the dinner standing up in her seat.

I checked just to verify, and sure enough, we managed to post on the day of Maya’s first birthday. Second kid syndrome strikes again! Actually, it’s really the proximity to Christmas that’s the problem here. We wanted to have Ian’s first birthday as close as possible to the actual day, so we celebrated his birthday on the 19th of December, a day after his actual birthday, but right before we left home for more than a week of holiday travel. It was hectic.

Ian – 1 year old

We were fortunate that Lolli and Pop were down anyway for Christmas, so they were able to come celebrate with us. Aunt Darci, Uncle Will, and cousins AP and Steele came down for a quick visit as well. Several friends came and helped us celebrate.

During Ian’s smash cake photos earlier in the week, I clued into the fact that Ian really wasn’t that into icing. For his actual birthday, I made him a little chocolate cake and sprinkled it with a bit of powdered sugar. It met with his approval.

Smash cake!

To differentiate from Maya’s barbecue celebrations, we secured tacos and sides from Torchy’s Tacos for Ian’s party. The food was great, and there was a ton of it. We chucked most of our leftovers in the freezer and have been enjoying them since returning to town.

Ian has been such a different child from Maya. Right or wrong, it’s impossible to talk about him without making comparisons. We don’t even mean to do it, but the one whole child we had before him is our frame of reference, and frankly, she made some things pretty easy for us.

Maya photo bomb

Maya was a sit and play kind of baby. She liked to read books. She liked to sit and linger over her food and mealtimes. We talked a lot with her calmly regarding us. Ian, on the other hand, is a mover. He wants to go go go, all the time. He’s a speed crawler. I thought Maya sprint crawled. Nope. I’ve never seen a kid crawl so fast as Ian when something has caught his interest. You almost have to trot to keep up with him.

Ian so badly wants to walk. It’s clear to me that even now we’re a ways away from that, but he’s really motivated. He’ll crawl up to my legs, pull himself to standing by my pants, and then grab the index finger of each of my hands so that I can walk him around the house. He covers a lot of ground that way, even doing a passable job of going up and down the stairs. And he giggles while he’s walking, he’s so happy to be doing so.

New chair for his birthday.

Maya was and continues to be a fairly independent child. Not so with Ian. He wants your attention, and he wants you on the floor and playing with him. 13-year-old Ian may kill me for this, but he’s a very snuggly little guy. First thing in the morning, you fetch him from bed, and he greets you with a giant grin and as soon as you pick him up, he nestles in. Once he gets his affection, he leans back a bit, pats your face a few times, and then wants you to carry him around a bit. Then, naturally, he’s ready to move again, and even while he’s on the go, he wants you with him … unless you’re doing something annoying like keeping him from crawling head-first down the stairs.

He’s a Lego master (the Duplo variety, anyway). If you build him a Lego tower, he’ll carefully pull it apart brick by brick. I’ve even watched him put the bricks back together a time or two. He’s so interested in disassembly and reassembly. Take things out of the container, put them back in the container, ad infinitum.

Ian’s better at the mechanics of eating than Maya was, but he’s more particular than she was. And he’s more aggressive about denying what he doesn’t want to eat.

There are only a few books Ian will reliably sit through – another way he and Maya differ. Right now, he really likes Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. and Tails by Matthew Van Fleet. He wants to be the one to turn the pages, and especially with Brown Bear, his timing is spot on. Most other books, we get about halfway through before he’s trying to shut the book and chuck it off your lap. All I can say is that we’re working on it.

One of his favorite things continues to be this big box of musical instruments we have, which has been pleasantly augmented with birthday and Christmas gifts for the kids. Ian bangs and shakes and taps on all manner of instruments and loves every minute of it. Still the most reliable way to calm him when he’s upset is to sing to him. It is now habitual for Maya to rush up, say “It’s okay Ian buddy,” and sing him Six Little Ducks whenever he’s crying and upset.

This past year has been tough. We had a rough start with the early birth and the NICU stay. Plus, adjusting to the second kid is just harder. Now, instead of directing our efforts to a single individual relying on us for their every need, we need to focus on two, often with different agendas and requirements, sometimes at odds with one another. Sean and I agree on this: we have no idea how you parents who are outnumbered manage. We have a two on two game, and we still feel outnumbered most of the time.

Covered in birthday cake!!!

A year ago, we may have thought we knew what to expect from babies as they’re growing and developing, but with Ian and Maya being so different, there are lots of surprises, even on a second run. This next year, we’ll hopefully get a few of our questions answered. Will Ian walk soon? When will he start to talk? What will his favorite color be? (Maya thinks it will be yellow.) Will he ever make his peace with airplane travel? No matter what, we’re looking forward to finding out.

Happy new year, everyone! We are slowly, slowly recovering from the holiday debauchery. Most of us are over our various illnesses. Holiday decorations are now making their way back into their storage areas. Piece-by-piece, we’re finding homes for all the kids’ new toys, puzzles, and books. I’m working on restocking the fridge with fruits and veggies so we can have nutritious choices at mealtime. Insurance should be covering the damage to the rental car. Wait, what?

Ornament? What ornament?

Our holidays were going pretty well before we started driving. We managed to get the kids down to Mozart’s to have some hot chocolate and see their fantastic light show. If you’re in Austin and looking to take the kiddos out for a low-stress outing, this is a good one. The Trail of Lights is an institution, but with a 1 year old and a 3 year old, we just weren’t up for it this year.

Deep thoughts during the holidays

We decided to take the kids to see Santa. Maya missed out last year (hospital, NICU, bleh), and we wanted to get some cute photos. We visited him at the Bass Pro Shop of all places. Not that we have a ton of comparative experience, but their setup seemed pretty nice. We spent maybe 30-45 minutes in line. Mostly I stood there while Sean ferried the kids about the store to keep them occupied, so it wasn’t so bad. The place is crazy huge. There are RC cars and trucks to play with, a little train set to watch, fish tanks to examine, a bowling alley. Not to mention the restaurant. The folks working there were all friendly and genuinely tried to get good, happy photos with the kids.

We had worked with Maya a little bit before going, explaining that you told Santa the things you might want for Christmas. She did a great job. She willingly sat on his lap, played with his beard a little bit … and calmly asked him for an octopus … please. I’m not sure Santa knew quite what to make of that, but it made her happy. Ian was kind of tired, so he mostly just sat there.

Santa!!!

We wedged in a first birthday celebration for Ian on the 19th (more on that later hopefully) and then packed on the 20th for the drive up to Dallas to spend the holidays with Sean’s side of the family and then later to Missouri to see mine. Luckily Lolli and Pop were at the house and could watch the kids while we loaded up the car, otherwise we might never have left!

Other than some scheduling issues with the kids, the Dallas part of the trip was reasonably uneventful. The cousins played together, everyone opened gifts, Maya had fun sleeping in the big hotel bed and riding around in the minivan.

Toward the end of our stay, we had learned that my dad was sick and we were dithering over whether or not to drive to Missouri, but we decided to go for it. The morning we were to start our long drive, we went into Maya’s part of our hotel room to get her going for the day and found that the poor girl was coated in vomit. She explained to us that she had to turn her pillow over (to the non-vomit side, so she could finish sleeping). That kid is awesome. Every once in a while, Maya overindulges in some kind of food, and we thought maybe that’s what had happened this time.

The only way we could get her to smile was to feed her candy cane

After an extra shower and devising storage solutions for now-stinky items, we got a late start out of town. Around lunch time, we were disabused of the notion that the barfing was an overindulgence issue. Maya, ever the trooper, had (mostly) vomited in her little barf bucket (thanks Aunt Darci!) and was ready to go into the restaurant we had stopped at. Except surprise! She barfed in the restaurant too, all over the floor. We were definitely their favorite customers that day.

She threw up one more time during our car trip, and told us several times that we were never going to make it to Missouri. Neither of the kids had been on a car trip quite that long before.

Once in Missouri, her stomach seemed to settle pretty well. She was playing with her grandparents and cousins, nibbling at food, and having a good time, so we thought it was probably just a little 24-hour thing. WRONG AGAIN! For our return journey, Our plan had been to drive to Dallas on Sunday and then to Austin on Monday. Saturday evening, just as the family holiday festivities were winding down, Maya threw up what seemed like most of her food for the evening. Then around 1a on Sunday morning (the morning we were to leave for Dallas), poor Maya woke up vomiting again. It was awful. That’s how she spent her next hour. And of course, Ian woke up too. Maya was freaking out about making a mess of her “wittle bitty be-ed,” and Ian was screaming for all he was worth. We finally got everyone sort of simmered down around 3a, and made the decision to drive all the way to Austin right away on Sunday so we could take Maya to see our regular doctor on Monday.

Ordinarily, that drive takes about 12 hours. With our various stops and slow-downs it took 14. With the kids, that’s actually not a terrible mark-up, but that trip can only be described as terrible. Maya managed to keep some gatorade, cheerios, and crackers down throughout the car trip. We even got brave at dinner time and let her have a few of her beloved french fries. Ian was sick, sick, sick of that car seat by the time we even started the drive. He only had two real modes for that journey: angry or asleep.

The real trouble was the weather. It rained pretty much for the entire 14 hours. Seeing how parts of Missouri look right now with the catastrophic flooding, I realize we got off light. The rain wasn’t even so bad for a while. Our fortunes turned around Prescott, Arkansas. We received EAS alerts on our phones for a tornado warning in the area while we were parked at a gas station. After doing a bit of examining radar and seeing the condition of this particular gas station, we decided to carry on. Not long after that, the hail started. Growing up in the midwest and living in Texas, I’ve seen plenty of hail, but nothing like this. When I say it looked at least baseball sized, I’m not exaggerating. There was no gentle lead-up; there were only intermittent giant thunks on the roof of our rental car, causing the adults to instinctively duck and Maya to laugh (who knows – I was just glad she wasn’t scared). We found an overpass to hide under as quickly as we could, but the damage was done: a couple of good-sized dents in our front hood and one broken windshield. The hailstone actually hit at the junction of the car’s body and the windshield and dented both of them substantially. It was scary, I’m not too proud to say.

The adults in the car were visibly rattled as we continued on our drive, the rest of which was marred by near zero-visibility torrents of rain and occasional weather-induced traffic slow-downs. Because things were so crummy, Sean actually never let me have a turn driving. He drove the entire 14-hour trip. Needless to say, his nerves were frayed and his brain was putty by the time we got home around 11 o’clock that night.

Ian, who had slept for most of the trip only wanted to play when we got to the house. Maya, who had kept her food down all day, requested water. Without even thinking about it, I gave her a glass full of water. She proceeded to chug said water and then vomited enormously all over the hall by her room, and the bathroom too, of course. It was well past 1a before everyone was cleaned up and settled in for a short night’s sleep.

Despite all of that, it was really great to see our families for the holidays. Despite illnesses and holiday-related chaos, spirits were generally high. Everyone was unspeakably generous; we’ll need to add a room for all the kids’ toys and things. Maya and Ian enjoyed seeing everyone, especially their grandparents. We made it home in one dented piece.

As analogies go, it’s not overly inventive. Of course our house is sometimes like a zoo; we have a 10 month old, an almost 3 year old, and three ancient cats. I work, Sean works, and Anna juggles our crazy kids during the day. Sometimes it’s loud, and sometimes it’s smelly. And there’s nearly always something interesting to see. Sounds like the zoo to me.

It’s the only real photo we have of them together in their costumes!

It has been for at least two solid months that Maya has had her costume and Ian’s chosen. We let it bake for a couple weeks before we finally pulled the trigger, but we had their costumes purchased already several weeks ago (holy shit, we were ahead for a change). This year for Halloween, Maya was a giraffe, and Ian was an elephant.

Maya’s third Halloween!

We saw both of these creatures last month when we visited the Denver zoo (more on that soon, hopefully). And better still, we thought a fun souvenir for the kids would be a stuffed giraffe for Maya and a stuffed elephant for Ian. Maya of course is very into her stuffed giraffe (which has joined the crazy array of creatures that sleeps with her). Ian likes his elephant about as well as he likes anything else: briefly and with a bit of slobber.

Ian’s first Halloween!!

We thought that this year would be the first year that Maya would try trick-or-treating. We’ve been working on her off and on for the past week to say the magic words after she rings the doorbell (you know, trick-or-treat). She never would do it. Her fate was sealed today when Ian, who has lately come down with what seems like a bit of a cold, decided to short his nap by an hour. He was crabby and Maya wouldn’t say trick-or-treat, so we decided that maybe next year would be The Year.

We did get it together to go to our neighborhood’s block party. Another couple who lives on our street are probably about our age and just had their first baby in September. They hosted our block party. When Maya was 1.5 months, there’s no way in hell I was hosting anything. And here these fine folks were, hosting a party for our street.

The Hoot!

Our jack-o-lantern was again sort of non-traditional. Maya worked out that she wanted “a hoot,” which is to say an owl. Last year we had a cat. She and nanny Anna found a design they liked online. Anna drew it, I carved it, and Sean and Maya installed the candle. Maya watched the lit up jack-o-lantern on its opening night and exclaimed, “It’s candling!!!” I took a shot at letting Maya remove some pumpkin guts this year. She gingerly fingered one seed before dropping it and moving to playing with shiny, clean kitchen tools instead.

 

It’s been a little more than a year ago now that we took our last vacation as a family of three. I was pretty pregnant at that point, but we knew things wouldn’t be the same once the new kid showed up, so we thought we’d treat the original kid to some focused parent time while she could still get it. We had found inexpensive flights to Ft Lauderdale, and so we decided to spend a few days tooling around Miami.

Maya, not quite 2 years old

Funny aside: it really doesn’t work to shop for swim suits in September / October. This appears to be doubly true for maternity swim suits. I wound up purchasing the only suit that fit me in the only store I was willing to stop at.

Maya is funny. She and I occasionally play with some seashells she collected while on that vacation, so she hears me refer to Miami all the time. Since we’ve been working on this post, Sean and I have been discussing these photos and the things we did on that vacation. He looked at her recently and asked her if she’d like to go to Miami again. She gave him her best angry face and said she wanted to go to “Mommy’s-ami, not Daddy’s,” presumably because we found seashells at mine.

Maya and Mommy

We learned a lot on that trip. It was really our first time vacationing when our goal wasn’t to see family or mess around on the beach the entire time. We unintentionally fell back to our pre-kid version of trip planning, which involves getting a good jump on the day and packing in lots of activities. We knew we’d need to keep Maya entertained, so we had beach time and a visit to the Miami Seaquarium built in. But our list also included strolls around town, a list of restaurants to try out, and maybe even a boat trip if the weather held.

Yeah, we way, WAY overshot. Generally speaking, we were lucky if we were out of the apartment, breakfasted, and on to wherever we were going before 10a. And Maya was still taking a pretty solid afternoon nap, so our window for activities was pretty narrow.

Maya and Daddy

We had read that Key Biscayne was a good place to stay for families. We found a nice apartment via Homeaway and also rented a crib for Maya to sleep in. It worked out well enough. The drive from Ft Lauderdale was pretty quick. (Seriously, we saved hundreds of dollars by not flying directly into Miami, and it’s less than an hour car trip between the two.)

Our two difficulties were scheduling and meals. Given our slow start with Maya, we were generally having breakfast somewhere in Key Biscayne, and it just didn’t seem like there were too many breakfast options. We’d drive into Miami, putter around a little, have some lunch, putter a little more, and then head back for a nap. Our intention had been to head back into Miami after nap to do a little more sight seeing, but it just never worked out that way. More typically, we’d play on the beach a bit and then try to figure out where we were going to eat. And the places to eat where kinda swanky. We did reasonably well, in that all the food was really fantastic, but we definitely spent more than either of us thought we were going to.

Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne

We also experienced what will forever be known as The Miami Incident. Maya is a really good eater. Even now as a picky almost-three-year-old, she’ll usually try out whatever you’re offering. For instance, on this vacation, she ate a whole plate full of Indian food, a few bites of my grilled octopus, plantain fritters, fish, and who knows what else. She also discovered the wonders of fresh-squeezed orange juice.

We had stopped at a little restaurant by a gas station for breakfast, and each of us ordered orange juice with our food. Sean was holding Maya and letting her nibble on whatever he was eating. Then she got ahold of his juice. It was in a styrofoam cup, so we didn’t really see how much she was drinking, but whatever, it was cute. Of course she liked the wonderful fresh-squeezed orange juice. It was a lovely thing to wash down her breakfast empanada.

Miami

We took the toll road into Miami and were driving along the main drag enjoying how fantastically Miami everything looked. Sean was hunting for good parking, and I was in the back seat with Maya. She spat up a little bit, which is rare, but no big deal. I grabbed a burp cloth to wipe her up (yes, at nearly two years old, I still carried them around; they’re good for spill clean-up). And she just kept vomiting. She looked as startled as I felt. I tried to catch it in the burp cloth, but it was no use. The poor girl was basically sitting in a puddle of regurgitated orange juice.

Sean pulled us into the parking lot of a Walgreens and ran inside to procure cleaning supplies of some kind while I set about giving Maya a wet wipe bath and changing her clothes. He bought a couple jugs of water and some paper towels and did the best he could to de-barf the car seat. This sort of thing was so out of the ordinary for Maya that we actually thought she might be sick, so after all that craziness, we gave up on the day and drove back to our hotel.

Maya loved her beach ball

But wait, there’s more. Maya was crazy about balls, so we bought a package of beach balls to take on our trip. We blew one up, and true to form, she LOVED it. That’s all she wanted to play with. She’d toodle around the apartment rolling it around and laying on it. This very same day, she was playing in the apartment after her nap (yeah, not sick at all), and her ball got the best of her. She accidentally rolled forward on it and cracked her chin on the tile floor. She cut it open and of course it bled profusely. After a trip to the drug store (our second that day!), she was band-aided up and feeling a little better, but I think all of us were a little weary of our “vacation” at this point.

The Miami Seaquarium was neat, but not what we expected. There were some sea creatures in tanks and whatnot like you’d find at a traditional aquarium, but really the draw here seemed to be a series of shows instead. We saw dolphin shows, killer whale shows, sea lion shows. It was really neat, and when Maya was watching it, she seemed interested. Often she was messing around playing in the seats instead. She liked getting splashed because then she could lick delicious salt water off her face. But often, the movement between shows was what she really enjoyed. They had a playground there, and of course we let her play there a bit between shows.

Killer whale

Generally speaking, I remember the vacation fondly, and I think most of it has to do with our very simple time spent together playing on the beach. Also, till I looked through these photos, I didn’t realize just how much Maya has grown up in this past year. She’s leaned out and lengthened a lot. I love, love, love our silly, expressive, independent, almost three-year-old girl, but I do miss the pudgy almost two-year-old she was then. This was still in that sweet spot where she liked to be held, where she rolled with the punches a little better, where she was generally content. She still had her baby face and her baby body, at least a little. She still let Sean take her picture once in a while. These days, she’s much too busy for all that.

In July, we took what is seeming like our annual trip to visit family in Missouri and Alabama. This was the first time we had really traveled with the two kids beyond a quick trip to the Dallas-Ft Worth area. Let me just say, finagling luggage, two small kids, and two car seats is a feat in and of itself. Getting all of us through security was particularly interesting. I hear about single parents traveling like that, and I honestly have no idea how they manage.

Everything was okay in the airport. Maya generally climbed around on the seats or busied herself with the iPad. Ian watched people. Things didn’t get rough till we were on the airplane.

Maya got lots of grins as she walked through the airplane toward our seats, clutching Oddipuddy in one hand and her duck pillow in the other. She and Sean were sitting next to each other in one row, and Ian and I were sitting next to each other directly behind them. Maya was strapped in with a CARES system for the first time, which I think she liked because she felt like a big kid, and Ian was in his car seat.

It wasn’t long before Ian was yelling. As Sean says, Ian doesn’t suffer boredom well. We had just walked down a nice aisle full of people he could grin at, and then I stuffed him into his car seat, where he could barely even see out the window. Also, a reminder: that boy is loud.

My only hope was that takeoff would help soothe him to sleep. Sure enough, he fell asleep, but it didn’t last, and when he woke up, he was really unimpressed. I had packed along a nice bottle of milk for Ian so that he’d have something to help his ears on takeoff and landing. He should have been hungry, so I offered it to him. Nope. And bless his stubborn little heart, he never would take that bottle. He slept a tiny bit later in the flight, but generally, he was just angry and vocal.

Luckily for him, as soon as we landed, we had to get our luggage, take a shuttle to the rental car place, install two car seats into the rental car, and then drive a couple hours to my parents’ house. Poor guy.

Maya, once we were actually at Grammy and Grandpa’s house, quickly found the toys and could stretch her legs and unwind a little bit. Ian just had a really rough, rough bedtime.

Grandpa and Maya feeding fish

I was impressed with how quickly Maya warmed up. The very next day, she was already willing to play with Grandpa and walk to the pond with Grammy. She really loved going to that pond. There were sticks and rocks to mess with, a couple of piers to walk out on, and fish to feed.

Grammy and Ian

Ian, not surprisingly, loved all the undivided attention he received from his grandparents. He was mostly along for the ride when it came to activities, but he got lots of interaction with people, and that makes him a happy guy.

Sparkler!

We dickered around about showing Maya some fireworks last year. She’s particular about loud noises, and we didn’t want it to be one big unpleasant experience for her. This year, we were fortunate to have the ideal set-up. We all hung out on Grammy and Grandpa’s porch and watched as fireworks were launched from the yard below. If we needed to, escape would be as simple as heading inside and being distracted by toys. That wasn’t necessary though. Maya sat on my lap and let me hold my hands over her ears while she watched her first fireworks. She even got to throw some little poppers and hold a sparkler. Ian, of course, slept through the festivities.

Goat!

We also went to Lazy L Safari Park. It’s sort of a little mini-zoo that lets you pet and even feed many of the animals. One of Maya’s favorite activities was feeding the little parakeets from a popsicle stick coated with seeds. We walked into a cage full of birds with our seed-laden sticks and they’d flock to our arms to get to the seeds. She was on the fence about whether she really wanted the birds on her, but she very much enjoyed them being near her.

Our trip to Alabama was mostly uneventful. Ian again was screamy on the airplane and refused the bottle. I had room enough this time to breast feed him partway through the trip, though it really didn’t help much. Maya wound up falling down and busting open her lip on our way through the Birmingham airport. Again, by the time we got to Lolli and Pop’s house, Maya needed some time to unwind and play, and Ian really desperately needed to sleep.

One of the great things about Lolli and Pop’s house is that there are kitties. They have six cats living at their house, and Maya can now name all of them and tell you which ones might bite and which are safe to pet. Even months later, she still runs down the list from time to time. Ian also is a big, big fan of kitty cats. We spend no small amount of energy keeping him from unintentionally damaging them.

Maya the firefighter

One of the highlights of our trip was the McWane Science Center. Ian mostly hung out in the stroller and watched little kids running around, so he was pretty happy. Maya was in heaven. She dressed as a firefighter, played in a kitchen, messed with bubbles, pet a shark and a stingray, and dozens of other things I can’t clearly remember. She was very well occupied and did not want to leave when it was time to go.

Ian’s not too sure about the pool

We also got to visit the Homewood Pool. It’s like no other swimming pool that I’ve ever been to. There’s a shallow area with lots of splash-pad-esque sprinklers and showers and things. And there’s a giant whirlpool type thing that gently urges you along as you drift lazily around and around. Maya was in heaven. This was officially Ian’s first visit to the pool, and he was not immediately a fan. After three quarters of our pool visit was over, he finally relaxed a little. Until then though, it seemed like yet another torment he’d have to endure more so than actual fun.

Maya is SURE she likes the pool

To save a fair amount of cash, we drove the couple hours to Atlanta to catch a flight there back to Austin. Everything was going well enough, except that our flight wound up being several hours delayed. I was really impressed with the fact that Ian basically took his nap while hanging out at the airport instead of in the plane where I had hoped he’d sleep. But sure enough, after another long, loud flight, we finally made it home. Even with the travel drama, we had a great trip. Maya still talks about her visit with both sets of grandparents and the things she did while she was there.

Remember Ian in the NICU? Tiny Ian inside an isolette with leads attached to monitoring points, an IV in his arm, and a tube down his throat? Yeah, dude got over it. At his 9-month appointment last week, premie Ian weighed 22 pounds (85th percentile) and was 29 inches long (80th percentile). Yikes.

Ian – 8 months old

Given his size (and mine), breastfeeding him at this point is a pretty hilarious affair. I lay the top half of the baby more or less in my lap and the legs just dangle off to one side or the other, kicking and squirming away. Also he’s so much more alert now. If I try to feed him while we’re out, he has to stop often to look around, grin at me or random strangers, maybe yammer a baby word or two. I support and encourage public breastfeeding, and I do it routinely. However, I’m more than a little shy and self-conscious and prefer to limit the amount of time my nipple is exposed. Ian, naturally, is indifferent to my plight.

Ian – 8 months, Maya 2 3/4 years

We discovered that if you buy summer clothes at the end of summer, they can be had for a song. I had found the hat and linen shirt for Ian a while back but just couldn’t justify the cash outlay. In August, it turns out, everyone thinks summer is over (not in Texas, of course – I bet we still get a couple more weeks of summer even this late), so I was able to not only acquire the cute outfit, but get two different sized hats so I’d be sure to have one that fit him.

Maya with sticks, of course

I probably sound like a broken record, but any photos that were captured are a testament to Sean’s patience. Maya continues to shun the camera, and Ian’s moods shift with the breeze, so getting children that are both happy and in focus is something of a chore. Here they are in all their fedora-ed glory.