The Toddler "Pit Stop" in my Kitchen

Capone has 2 potties.  In theory one is his bathroom upstairs and one is in the downstairs bathroom, but in reality one is probably parked next to his race car or in the middle of the living room or being used as a stool in the kitchen.  And just last night, I caught him wearing one on his head as a hat.  We aren’t really potty training, but we talk about the potty A LOT.  He’s even asked to wear his big boy training pants for short periods of time and occasionally asks to sit on his potty.

Tonight, though, we had a major potty breakthrough.  We aren’t actively potty training, but we talk about the potty a lot.  Capone ran in the bathroom, plopped himself down on the potty (without being asked) and peed.  He was so proud of himself.  We clapped and cheered and got M&Ms (and quickly emptied the potty before he flung it across the room).

I don’t know if this is the beginning of a trend or fluke, but if the toddler pit stop in my kitchen is going to help us move out of diapers, I think I can live with it a little longer.

Last spring, I really wanted to join a CSA (community supported agriculture ) program.  I researched and researched and by the time I found one, Henry was full, so we went on the waiting list for this year.  Fast-forward to February and I was delighted to discover an email one morning telling us that we were officially offered a spot for for 26 weeks of organic produce.

I was beyond excited and have been trying to figure out how I can manage to blog about this adventure in our currently hectic lives.  And to be honest, I’m still not sure how that’s going to work out.

The irony of this move to eat locally, it that it has also taken us across the world to Japan.  We talk about our farmer Henry a lot.  He sends us emails about the farm, we follow him on Facebook and mostly we talk about him to get Capone ready* for the diet and lifestyle change that will be coming in a few weeks (10 lbs of produce a week doesn’t leave much room in the fridge for Goldfish).

And while we are getting to know our food better, we are also getting a inside look in the tragedy in Japan.  Henry’s family is from Japan and his daughter is currently an exchange student in Tokyo.  We’ve been fortunate to get updates about Zoe through her blog but today her story was picked up by the Chicago Tribune.   So our CSA experience has started by showing us the local thousands of miles away.

*Thanks to lots of talking and reading about farms, Capone thinks he knows all about Henry.  Although his version of Henry’s Farm includes a train, apples, and an octopus in addition to the usual farm equipment.

Life’s been a little crazy and among other changes in our lives, there just has been no time for blogging. So I make no promises that there will be super regular posts in the future, but in the meantime. Here’s a recap of the last five months in five minutes or less (because that’s about all the time I have today)

Over the summer I decided to embark on a major job change and in September that new job finally materialized. I now work in the same buidling as Rakicy and that means we carpool and most days our whole family is out the door by 7:15 to drop Capone at daycare and we don’t get home again until after 5. It makes for longer days, but it’s been a nice cut back on gas and Capone loves that both of us drop him off and pick him up together. September also brought a trip to Indianapolis so Rakicy could run a half marathon and all new kitchen appliances when our oven decided to quit.

October brought finally settling into a new routine with my new job situation and Halloween. And just like last year, Capone got a cold and we took a slightly snotty, but very cute puppy trick or treating to the businesses downtown.

Due to all of the job changes, we couldn’t travel for Thanksgiving this year, but we have a wonderful community Thanksgiving with all of our friends who were also in town.

Before we knew it, it was December and that mean year end craziness at work and Christmas preparations at home.

Capone wasn’t so impressed with Santa….

…but he loved the magnetic play fridge that he brought on Christmas morning.

In January…Capone got his first haircut.  And considering that I cut it myself while he raced around the kitchen on his ride-on racecar, I think it turned out pretty well. And after weeks of not sleeping at all, Capone finally was diagnosed with acid reflux and we all began sleeping and feeling better.

In February, we got hit by a monster snow storm that closed schools, work, and most of the town for a couple of days.  Since Capone was excited about the snow drifts that were taller than he was or the bitter cold, we taught him how to Swiffer and he cleaned the floor for days

Spring doesn’t look like it’s going to be slowing down anytime soon.  We’re working on finishing the basement into a playroom among other home improvement projects.  And while we haven’t been blogging we’ve been participating in the 365 project to record the little moments each day.

Every morning at 7:00, Curious George, comes on PBS right was Rakicy and I are rushing around trying to get ready, so it has become the 1 television show that Capone gets to watch regularly.  And while he rarely sits and actually watches, this morning he did not want to get up and Rakicy had to leave for work early, and Capone was not in the best mood.  So while I packed his daycare bag, he sat on the couch and watched.

As I’m stuffing cloth diapers, I hear him start yelling and beating on the entertainment center and I rush to see what happened.  PBS intersperses Curious George with clips of real children talking about the character and drawing pictures and this morning there was a little girl on the show talking about “George the Monkey”  and everything monkeys could do that humans couldn’t.  Capone was mad.  He was furious.  And while he kept yelling at the little girl on the tv every time she said the word monkey, he was signing “dog” over and over again becoming slightly more animated each time.  When he saw me he babbled some string of what I can only assume was an angry rant at the little girl’s mistake and as the cartoon came back on he kept pointing at Curious George and then looking at me and telling me “dog”  even adding “please” occasionally.

So why would Capone insist that Curious George is a dog?  Because he’s missing a monkey tail.  This morning’s argument with PBS was more animated than I had ever seen, but it was not the first time we have had the monkey v. dog conversation at our house.  Several weeks ago, he started telling me that Curious George was a dog and while I thought he was just using dog because he didn’t know what a monkey was, it became clear when he would take my arms and push them down every time I signed monkey that he was fairly certain that the cartoon character in question was anything but a monkey.  In the last several weeks he has developed quite the animals signs and sounds vocabulary (dog, mouse, cow, goat, monkey, chicken, turtle, snail, cat, horse, bird, etc).  And between Signing Time and numerous animal books, he can identify if not sign numerous animals.

So while George is called a monkey repeatedly on the show, Capone has discovered a error.  Curious George cannot be a monkey because he doesn’t have a tail.  He is, therefore, by default he is most likely a chimpanzee which is classified as an ape.  (For more differences between monkeys and apes click here).  And Capone seems to be a fan of the tail rule, which I will admit I was not even aware of until several weeks ago when this all started.

In the mean time, however, I think we may refrain from using the word monkey in our house.

This past weekend we took Capone to the Day of the Dozer. It’s a fundraiser for the local community cancer center and give kids a chance to see lots of different construction equipment up close and even ride on the bulldozer, excavators, dump trucks and other equipment. We knew that Capone would be a little young for some of the activities, but decided to give it a try. He had a blast.

At least until it was time to actually ride on an excavator.  Then the combination of the heat, impending naptime, and being handed over to strangers led to about 30 seconds of riding and crying.  By the time we got out of the parking lot he was already asleep.

We’ve also had some other terrain changing news.   About a week ago, Capone finally decided he was ready to walk on his own.  He’s been walking while holding on to hands or walls for quite some time, but he just wouldn’t let go.  Then last Saturday, he let go and in the span of 5 minutes went from 2 steps to 5 steps to 10+ steps.

He’s gotten much faster and steadier in the course of the last week, but here’s some video of his first steps.

Now he walks as a default unless he’s trying to escape quickly.  Once he discovered that he could walk and drink at the same time, he was sold on the idea.  He now officially hangs with the big kids (i.e. 3 and 4 year olds) at daycare now.  No more crawling.  No more morning naps.  And he got transferred to a cot like this for naptime because he outgrew his Pack n Play.  All of those things have been exciting, but the transitions have gone very smoothly.   The biggest issues have been trying to find shoes that a) actually fit him and b) he’ll wear for more than 5 minutes so he can walk when we’re out and about.  I haven’t even started to tackle the challenge of devising some sort of travel sleeping arrangement for a toddler who’s too big for a pack n’ play, but not ready for for a toddler bed either. We may just end up staying home until that transition is complete.

And in the midst of all of Capone’s new milestones, I’m undertaking a earth moving change as well.  Last fall I officially decided to take a leave of absence from the university.  There were many factors involved and it was a decision that I had been contemplating for a long time, but ultimately I decided that I needed some time to rethink some priorities and explore other options.  So for the first time since Kindergarten a school years started without me as a teacher or a student.  It was a very bittersweet moment, but also very exciting.  As friends and colleagues headed back, I was weighing job offers one of which would have taken me back to the classroom albeit a classroom 45 minutes away.  After a summer of applications and interviews and weighing job offers and career paths, I have officially accepted a job.  Ironically it just 4 floors above Rakicy, so we’ll be driving together.  It’s by no means my dream job and is a complete shift away from teaching, but after considering all my options, it hopefully will be the best fit.  I consider myself very blessed to have had choices especially given the current economy.

Daycare officially on Monday and I finished Capone’s new backpack in the nick of time.  It’s been a crazy summer and I’ll have more details on that soon, I promise.

Among the other milestones that the amateur child development specialists (friends, relatives, colleagues, random people at the grocery store) like to comment on is talking.  Does Capone talk in sentences?  Why doesn’t he say “no”?  Maybe he would talk more if you weren’t teaching him sign language, etc.

But Capone does “talk” in complex sentences.  He signs all done when he thinks the homily at mass has gone on long enough, but also when he’s finished eating or ready to get out of the tub.  I’ve realized in the last week or so that years of deciphering bad student handwriting  has paid off hugely in my ability to translate toddler speak. Capone talks A LOT but the average person who hasn’t spent years translating hand written reading quizzes and exams and emails that are written in some variation of text-speak isn’t really equipped to translate.

For example.

• Both frequently include long strings of words that run together and may or may not be about related ideas.
• These long strings of words are rarely punctuated.
• The answer may or may not be relevant to the question (Ex. Q: Can you point to your toes?  A: Moo!)
• Both rely heavily on context clues and “sounds like” to convey meaning.
• Both sometimes throw fits when you guess the meaning wrong.
• Even mundane observations/requests include excessive use of the exclamation point!!!!!!!!!!!!

Capone has very good receptive language skills.  He can identify and bring me objects from the word (book, shoe, block, hat, phone, etc) and he can point to several body parts when asked (head, nose, belly, toes), but he doesn’t say any of those words.  He can tell you that a cow says “Moooo” and that he wants to go “ownsars” (downstairs).   But people ask him questions like “Can you talk?” to which he stairs at them blankly (and sometimes signs “all done”)

There are days when I don’t have a clue what he is asking for or saying, but there has been more than student paper that I’ve picked up that I’ve read and reread and still not been able to decipher any meaning.

This past spring, I started researching area photographers to get Capone’s pictures taken for his first birthday.  We had opted to skip the semi-professional monthly baby photography packages and just taken lots of photos at home, but I really wanted a portrait for his birthday.  While I was looking for photographers, I stumbled across a photography contest to benefit the Baby Fold in Normal, IL.  The organization began in 1899 to care for children who had no where else to go and has grown to include adoption services , foster care, residential care , special education and family and community services.  Among other things, they have been a leader in adoption placements for children with special needs.

So, we decided to use the opportunity to both get a professional portrait for Capone’s first birthday and help raise money for the organization.  Jackie at Studio J Photography took gorgeous pictures of Capone.  He was featured in Round 2 of the contest and we contacted friends and family to donate.  Thanks to the generous support of many, Capone won Round 2 and is now in the finals. While we would love Capone to win the contest, we would really love to continue to help this wonderful organization one more time.

We would greatly appreciate it if you would take a minute to click on the links above and learn a little about the Baby Fold and consider donating a dollar or more.  Voting starts over (previous votes no longer count) and you have until 5 pm on June 28th to vote.   All donations are 100% tax deductible.   To vote, simply go to the contest website and click the button under the photo of the child you are voting for or call (309) 828-4200.
Thank you!

Tuesday I had a job interview.  It went great and then a few hours later, the interviewer called and said “we need you to come back in, your social security number came back as invalid.”  I flipped.  I have a mortgage in that name.  I’ve applied for credit cards and jobs in that name.  That’s the name on my son’s birth certificate and inportant documents and now mysteriously, that’s not my name.

So I call the Social Security people who boast that you can reach them anytime via this magic 800 number.  They, however, fail to disclose that you will spend forever on hold, and they can’t really discuss personal details due to security concerns.  So after an hour of:

Them: Can you please spell your name?

Me: G-E-N-E-V-I-E-V-E  Married Name

Them: I’m sorry that doesn’t match, can you try again?

Me: G-E-N-E-V-I-E-V-E  Maiden Name

Them: I’m sorry that doesn’t match, can you try again?

Me: G-E-N-E-V-I-E-V-E  Hyphenated Name

Them: Is is possible that you got divorced and submitted a name change?

Me: No, I think I would have remembered getting divorced.

I finally learned that there were possibly some spelling errors in my account  and they must have been caused because I misspelled my own name when I applied for a name change OVER 5 YEARS AGO.  So the only option I had was to go to my local Social Security office.

So yesterday, I take my pre-marriage Social Security card (which thankfully I hadn’t shredded as instructed) and head to the local office.  They look at all of my documents and say.  We’ll since the DMV (in Missouri and then Illinois) hypenated your last name, it doesn’t matter that you have a home loan, several major credit cards, and master’s degree in your married name, we can’t fix it until the DMV fixes it first.   I did, however, learn that after I had submitted a spelling correction 4 years ago because they spell Genevieve like this: Genevieveve , they had also mysteriously changed my last name back and misspelled it at the same time.  All of this, of course, they claimed was my fault.  Clearly when I was filling out the form, I decided that I wanted to be called Genevieveve Misspelled Last Name.

So I drive all the way across town to the DMV and wait there for at least an hour before I had a wonderful conversation that ended up with “we can’t change anything without a corrected Social Security card or a court order.”

Exhausted, I come home for the evening.  This morning I headed back with the following in tow: driver’s license, old social security card, home loan paperwork, major credit cards, university picture id, Capone’s birth certificate, marriage license, car title, voter registration card, library card, paystubs, and the last 4 years of tax returns.  If  anybody had mugged me would have hit the gold mine of identity theft.

I get to the social security office, show the security officer my completed forms and small mountain of documentation, promise that I’m not carrying any concealed weapons and am allowed to take my number.  30-45 minutes later, it’s my turn.

I recap yesterday, plop down my info and tell her that the DMV won’t change my license (which has an unwanted hyphen in it) until they process the change first.  We go through the information and discover that not only is my name misspelled (both parts) and has the wrong last name, but that my address is wrong and I was born in Alaska not Arkansas.  She, of course, does not have the authority to fix all of these things because it essentially involves changing ALL of the information on record which the system thinks is creating a fraudulent person.

She calls her manager, who tries and doesn’t have authorization, but offers me an out if I will just agree to have a hyphenated name for the rest of my life.  I debated, but pushed on.  I’m sent back to the waiting room while they work on it.  They call another manager who realizes that they have to fix all of the errors in one sitting or I could possibly eat up my maximum number of change requests for the rest of my life (3 per year, to a maximum of 10 per lifetime).

I’m taken to a back room where they ask me 10,000 additional questions to verify my identity.  Mother’s maiden name, middle name.  City of birth.  Last 5 jobs.

They call a regional manager to see if they can fix the issues over the phone and avoid me having to drive to a larger office.  Finally success.

5 years and 13 days after I got married, I have a legal name which both not hyphenated (that’s a story for another time) and has includes all vowels.  I am also no longer a former resident of Alaska.

The scary thing is that in the last 5 years, not a single person before today has ever caught the mismatch on the social security card.  Not the mortgage company, bank, employer, IRS…  If I’d only known that I was a ghost for the last 5 years, I might have had more fun.

Between a stomach virus the week before last and spending last week at the beach (without cell service and questionable internet), we’ve been MIA lately.

We met my mom, dad, and sister at Dauphin Island, AL for vacation and despite the fact that the island is crawling with biologists, environmental scientists, clean up people, and Coast Guard, we had a wonderful vacation.

Capone settled into a daily routine of lounging at the beach/pool in the morning, living off of goldfish crackers, and daily wagon rides.

Rakicy and my dad went deep sea fishing with a friend.

We didn’t see any oil on the beach, although the west end of Dauphin Island was closed to visitors. Every morning we saw them bus in the BP Clean Up crew. The crew (of what looked like mostly college students) raked and bagged the hay and then spent the rest of the morning in tents “watching” for oil.

The hay bails, however, made nice seats right on the beach.

These pictures were all take last week (May 21-29) and sadly the oil spill reached Dauphin Island yesterday and there are now swimming advisories and fishing bans.

I hate to use this post for oil spill/clean up crew pictures, but click the thumbnails below if you want to see more oil spill impact/prevention pictures.

the tide would break apart the hay and scatter it all over the beach on Dauphin Island

oil boon off coast

Clean Up crew standing around

clean up crew would bag soiled hay