Nothing too clever - 6/27/07

The shrieking continues. Dave and I were hoping it was a fleeting thing but I guess I'm going to have to bust out all those toddler-rearing books. We don't know whether to ignore him (Grant) when he does it, scold him, or run screaming from the house. When the screams seem frustration driven, I try to help him figure out how to solve or work around whatever problem he's having. He screams regularly during mealtimes. The mealtime shenanigans seem to be him testing us. He's not very subtle about it. Shriek and scrunch your eyes closed oh and don't forget to flail your legs. Then open your eyes and look from Mommy to Daddy. Sometimes smile.

He's trained Kyle on shrieking, too. A few times in the last couple of days they start this screaming volley, like they're hitting a tennis ball back and forth. It's so loud and I envision it escalating into a cage match so I usually jump in and try to divert their attention. Maybe tomorrow I'll just let it go and see how long they can keep it up. When I played tennis as a kid, sometimes we didn't keep score the real way; the challenge instead was to count how many times we hit the ball back and forth before messing up. Maybe I'll do that with Kyle and Grant screaming back and forth. It might be less irritating if I'm actually cheering for it to go on as long as possible so we can set a record.

It's still raining. The boys and I went to IKEA today and as I was pulling out of the driveway I could see dark clouds behind me. My first inclination was to say oh forget it and pull right back in the garage. Getting the two boys in or out of the stroller and getting the stroller folded or unfolded is NOT fun in the rain, so unless there's some compelling reason to do it, I try to avoid it. But it's been raining on and off it seems like forever, so I've decided we're just going to have to get wet.

Tomorrow afternoon we're going to see my friend, Heather, from college and her 5 year old, Hayden. She and I email a few times a year and until today, we hadn't talked on the phone in a few years. It's so easy to lose touch. They are down from NY visiting her folks in Keller so the boys and I will head over there after lunch. I'll try to remember a camera so I can post pictures. Hayden is really into Harry Potter and Spider-man and Buzz Lightyear so I'm guessing Kyle is going to learn a lot tomorrow.

I went to the knee doctor yesterday and I'm going to have to have surgery, but he gave me a cortisone injection in hopes that it would buy me several weeks. I can definitely tell a difference today - not perfect but much better. I somehow managed to fracture a bone on the top of my foot and there's some sort of bone fleck / spur (his words) on the top of my foot which is why my foot has hurt so much in the last week. He came in the room after looking at the x-rays and said, "Now, you're sure you didn't fall? Or trip? Or drop something on your foot?" It's a mystery as to how it happened, but he gave me an injection there also and hopefully that'll be the end of the foot saga. Leave it to me.

Enjoy your day,
Mary Jo