Friday, January 12, 2007

Just when you think you have this whole "adult" thing down...

When my dryer caught fire in May of 2005, I found out that you're supposed to have your dryer serviced every year. The technician takes it apart and vacuums it and gets all the lint out of it. Who knew? My mother in law knew, she does it every year. But nobody told me that.

When Eric was about 7 or 8 months old he outgrew his "bucket" car seat: the removable seat with a handle. We bought him a new "convertible" seat that could be rear facing until his first birthday. For my car, we got a four-year-old Britax Roundabout. I called Britax and they said it was fine to use and we've been using it for Eric ever since. Now, I just found out that car seats have an expiration date of about six years. This seat is at least 7 years old and I've been blithely strapping my precious son into it and driving all over town.

Perhaps I'll write a simple rule book on how to be a grown up.
Harvard in Allston

Over the past 10 years Harvard has purchased a huge swath of Allston (roughly 200 acres) and they have just revealed their master plan for it. They're going to bury a chunk of soldier's field road and create a usable greenway on the Charles River and create a mixed use retail area designed to be a new Harvard Square. Looks like there is a ton of green space all along the river in the form of parks and athletic fields. Somerville is sorely lacking in green space, so I'm a little jealous. All they need is a T-Stop and it could be really cool.

There is of course some concern about such a large project and what the results would be for Allston. An huge chunk of their city would be owned and developed by one entity. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing. I grew up amidst a large chunk of Harvard and for the most part it was pretty unnoticeable to me as a child and a teenager. Harvard people aren't the greatest to have around. They're obnoxious and arrogant or they're unbelievably cool. I've never met a harvard person I didn't love. Or completely despise. There's not a lot of middle ground with them.

Anyhow, back to Allston. Here's some stuff to think about: Harvard keeps all its outdoor spaces really maintained and anybody can walk through them. They're also quite safe to walk through 24/7. They do close them to the public twice a year for Harvard Graduation and one other weird thing they have to do so that the land doesn't revert to the city. (some Cambridge blue-law I think) A lot of their building lobbies are open to the public so it's really easy to find a clean restroom if you know where to look. Try doing that in downtown Boston. Until Eric is completely potty trained (we're at 95%) I just can't take him downtown.

If somebody is going to go in and develop your city, which is inevitable this close to Boston. It's better to have an entity with a livable scheme for live-work spaces than a developer who's main goal is to just make money and get out. Harvard wants to create the most usable, functional space it can. I think we should approach these plans with an open mind. Remember, without the colleges, we're just Springfield on the Charles.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Eric has discovered "Hide 'n Seek." This is him trying to hide under a futon chair. When he didn't fit, we put the Boppy around his neck to help him hide.

Priceless. He's the best.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Recent Cuteness

A song, by Eric:

I like ladybugs
I like ladybugs
Ask the lady if she has any ladybugs

From the annals of sleepless parenthood:

Eric is slowly but surely giving up his nap. He's on the cusp, but there are many problems. If he doesn't fall asleep in the afternoon, by 6:30 PM he's a wreck. He's grouchy, he's exhausted and he can barely eat his dinner. He runs around moaning "I'm SO tired. I want to take my nap now." Usually we're in the middle of dinner by then, so we can't just pop him into bed, and I don't think a 6:30 bedtime would work for us. 7:30 is fine, but 6:30 is just too early. Rich doesn't even get home until 7:15 half the time and Eric really needs to see his dad at the end of the day.

On days where he does nap, he has a really hard time falling asleep. The nap keeps getting later and later. It's supposed to be 1:30-3:30, but lately he hasn't been falling asleep until 3 or 3:30. Then he can't fall asleep at night. He just lies there with his eyes open until 10 or so. Poor little guy.

But the upshot of all this is that he now sleeps until at least seven AM. Very often we have to go wake him up at 7:30. Last April, he was getting us up at 5:30 AM, so this is a huge improvement. However, his early rising guaranteed an early nap so it wasn't so bad.

But now that Eric is consistently sleeping past seven, are we getting a few extra hours of rest? Hell no. We now have 2 options with Kaylee and they both suck. Either she gets up and nurses at 4:00 AM and takes a good hour to fall back to sleep and then sleeps until 7, or I don't nurse her, and let her work it out and then she'll get up at six for the day. The second option is the most feasible long term. But she's very stubborn. I'll give her the binky at 4, and she'll quiet down long enough for me to doze off and then once I'm asleep, WAAAH! Repeat, binky, lay her down all is quiet and then WAAAAH! Saturday and Sunday we went through a couple hours of this, but this morning seemed better. But then she was up for the day at 6.

Between having 2 babies and being pregnant I have not had a good night's sleep in 4 years.

No wonder I want to take so many naps.