Baby Bye, Bye, Bye

So this weekend was the trip to Dallas to see the Skaggs family. I was very excited the whole way up there, which made the four hour trek seem that much longer. But they welcomed me, finally, with open arms and a nice taco salad dinner. I managed to stay up until the wee hours of the night talking and laughing and discussing trivial things. In short, I had a blast. I almost didn't want it to end. And then on Sunday morning, they had me fill in with them for nursery duty in a class full of fifteen 18 month olds. It was not my cup of tea and it left me anxious to get back to my own, singular, toddler at home. However, my time with Sara made me realize how much I miss the people that really know me. I got to talk about everything from high school to divorce with her and it felt so natural. It is safe to say that I need to make more trips to Dallas. Although next time I am seriously considering flying. On Saturday Sara and I took her daughter to the Dallas Aquarium. Despite the crowds of people and the overwhelming fish smell we had a lot of fun. That family has to be full of the nicest, sweetest, most genuine people I know. And also some of the quirkiest. Saturday night we stayed up late playing Cattan. I am relatively new at the game and so I was pretty confused at the beginning. It didn't help that the Skaggs' had their own home-made board that took up the whole dining room table and none of the cards or pieces from the original game. We were using decks of playing cards and Popsicle sticks. It was the most entertaining game of Cattan I am certain to have. Thank you Skaggs family for hosting my stay and for sharing your bed and for all the laughs and discussions. I will never think of Boston's the same way... or ponies.

And in other news, we are entering the count down to Luke's 2nd birthday. It rained this morning and we stayed in our pj's until after nap. At that time I decided to get dressed and get out of the house. So we went to Toys R' Us to buy a birthday present for "the boy" (that is what he calls himself). I knew that I wanted a Radio Flyer tricycle and I had even tracked down the one I wanted to that particular store. So I found it and pulled it down from the shelf and placed Luke on it for a trial run. He couldn't quite get the hang of the pedals but he loved it none-the-less. After a few minutes of steering it into everything imaginable, I asked him to get off so that I could put the trike in the basket. Crying immediately ensued. We managed to calm down and then I let him sit on the trike in the back of the basket while I continued shopping. When he had to get off at the register for the checker to scan the thing, more crying ensued followed by sobs of "mine". I guess he thought she was stealing it or something. Anyway, we made it outside where I had to put the trike in the back and there was even more crying until I mentioned food and a movie. He watched his movie in the car and forgot all about the treasure in the back of the car. On the plus side, i know he likes the present. On the negative side, I have to hide the thing for the next three weeks in order to prevent another melt down.

And lastly, today began the great binki (pacifier) phase out in our home. Luke is highly attached to his binki and always has been.

At one point he even had to sleep with 3 of them, one for his mouth and one in each hand. As he is nearing two, it seems appropriate to say good bye to the binki. However, I am not a fan of the cold turkey method and so we are doing this in phases. Phase one, which started today, involves using the binki only at nap time, bed time and in the car (thank you, Skaggs). So this morning Luke was asked to leave his binki in his bed when he woke up and he willingly did so. We did pretty good for our first day. There was a sketchy period of time right before lunch when he wanted the binki bad enough to lay in the bed for a while. But that, too, passed and we made it through day one. Incidentally, all of the trike sobbing was made worse by the fact that we did not bring the binki and did not have it for the melt-down. However, I was so proud of that little guy for being able to do without his most trusty of comforts. I know many adults who would not have handled losing their small comforts so easily. Look out 2, we are knocking on your door!