Turn Up the Heat

This week, I've spent an inordinate time (to me) at indoor playgrounds. Wednesday, Mal spent just under 5 hours at Indigo Play. 

Yesterday, it was just under 4 hours at Urban Air. This morning, I told him I was ready to spend the day at home... but guess where we are now? Urban Air. Again. James was going to bring him when he got some outdoors work done, but then I remembered that it's Friday, and big kids come to Urban Air on Friday night. Mal likes to dawdle in the "ultimate warrior" course, and so I figured it'd be better to let him have his fun earlier.

We have a monthly membership at Urban Air, and I highly recommend it. It's about $12 per month, which is cheaper than a single visit. Lately, we've been visiting at least once a week, and often twice or more. I'm trying to prepare Mal that we'll have two weeks after we get the puppy when I need to stay around the house fairly constantly, and I figure it's a good time now to get some of this out of his system!

It rained for weeks, but that stopped and now it's extremely warm. It's hotter now than it was last week, but much of the moisture has evaporated out of the soil, so it doesn't actually feel as nasty as last week did.

Our adjuster came out this week, so we finally have ServPro scheduled to come Monday to give us an estimate for fixing the bathroom ceiling.

Our lawn mower finally got back from vacation and he's coming out tomorrow. I ended up mowing our front yard because it was getting so bad, and in the process found out that our mower battery has degraded significantly in the past two years. It's mostly my fault, for leaving it in the storage shed. I vowed to take better care of the next battery... before I realized that the battery is no longer available. I knew the mower had been discontinued, but good grief. We've had it just over four years! It still works well; why make me buy a new one?

A cool thing about Mal that shows me he's growing up: You might have noticed that in every picture I took of him during the "lockdown" this time last year, he was just wearing underpants. In the past few months, he's gotten more modest, wanting to have clothes on when we have people over, and even when he's spending the day at Nana and Pappy's. Then when D is around (like not asleep, but walking around the house). Now, he gets up every morning, picks out his own clothes (they're hanging up and he's figured out how to get them down), and dresses himself. Today's the first day he's put two things together that just don't "go," but I'm not saying anything. I'm proud of him, and grateful! 

Our dog was born early this week, and we should get to select it on Sunday. It looks like someone who was on the waitlist above us backed out, so we've moved up and are 6th on the list, for a litter of 9 pups.

That's about it for now; I decided to bring my computer to Urban Air today, and I've gotten a few things done... but Mal still wants me to come play with him a lot. The one thing about being away from the house for half of the day is that when I get home, it feels like I have to pack hours worth of work into the couple of hours before I'm ready to start relaxing for the evening. I think, hopefully, than I got everything done I need to get done today before we left, even though it was a last-minute decision to come. 

Have a good weekend!

Running and running and running, like a constipated wiener dog

Good news to start: After kind of sinking into a mild depression and getting really bogged down in that, I realized that I'd been doubling up on allergy medicines most days, trying to avoid asthma. While I understand I can't take more than one specific type of medicine per day, I hadn't really researched taking a couple of different ones. So I stopped. And after a couple of days, my regular energy came back, so that's fabulous.

Speaking of which, here's my week's goings-on, for your enjoyment. And this is basically a typical week, just so you get an idea of how this whole "unschool preschool" looks for us:

SUNDAY:
Mal and I went to church, then afterwards, I took him to a splash pad that's really close to the school where our church is held.

We came home and had lunch, then Mal really wanted to go to Jump Street... so I took him there.

MONDAY:
We stayed home until D had banjo practice at 3:30. Mal wanted to do pixel art, so we made a couple of characters from Teen Titans Go! (Mal's already broken one of them, plus The Flash emblem I made him several weeks ago). C'est la vie.

Mal is pretending with some stuff we keep on the table, since it takes a while to set up these puppies.

Starfire and Cyborg

While D was in class, Mal and I went to CVS to look for gummies. We found some fun stuff at the Claire's encap, too.

TUESDAY:
As soon as Mal got up and around, we drove to Temple. Hannah and Chance were there, and he and Mal had a good day. They played together, blocks and tinker toys, then we took the boys to Little Land.

We went back to Pappy and Nana's for a while, then Mal was ready to go to the water park. At first, he wasn't thrilled with getting wet, so he played on the playground.

Then he decided getting wet was okay, in limited doses.

He ended up back at the playground, though. Mercifully, it was shaded. It's already HOT in Texas.

This slide isn't in the shade. I was sitting in the shaded part.

WEDNESDAY:

Mal woke up and got ready for his day late enough that the first thing we did was go to McDonald's... for lunch. Nana and Pappy went with us, then we started back toward Jonestown.

On the way, we stopped at the Round Rock Outlet Mall, where Mal wanted to visit the Disney Store. But first, a visit to the also-shaded playground there.

We didn't find anything we *really* needed at the Disney Store, but we DID get some Cars, kind of, by going to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate shop, where we purchased a few chocolate cars that Mal played with in the food court before we drove the rest of the way home.

Mal asked me to take him somewhere Wednesday evening, but I was worn out! He could go forever.

THURSDAY:

Mal woke up at 10 AM, but was ready to go to the library just as story time was starting. Two of his friends, Alexei and Fox, were there (plus Alexei's little sister, Anya), then after the craft, we went to the lake to play for a bit with Fox.

As we left the park, Mal requested a visit to Target. I needed several things, in addition to the water balloons he wanted, so we went. We started off with a cheese pizza and apple juice (for him, soda for me), then shopped. I think HE got a bit worn out!

We came home and played with some of the water balloons, then played with play dough and cookie cutters.

Mal was rarin' to go to Lego time, but it was too early to drive over, so I asked if he wanted to walk to the library this time. He did, and GOOD GRACIOUS, it was 91 degrees and about 80% humidity. It was Orlando hot, friends. But it's GORGEOUS around here, so difficult to get too mad about it.

Mal was the only kid at Lego time except for the library director's sons. He had a good time. He was enjoying himself so much independently that I got to go browse the books for the second part of the hour. It was great!

Then we walked back home to get ready for dinner.

Fingers crossed, I would love to stay home tomorrow. But Mal might have different plans. We'll see soon... right now, he's requesting that we go to bed. He doesn't have to ask me twice!

When to Visit Kids' Spaces if You Have a Sensitive Kid

Twice now, we've made unfortunate timing decisions in visiting local kids' destinations.

First, last month, when school was still in session, we tried to visit the Austin Aquarium on a Friday (May 11, specifically) at about 10:30 AM. Oh my goodness. Well, we waited in line while two field trip groups checked in, then bought our admission, and went into the first room.

Cool cool... but no sooner had we looked at this first tank when a whole school group came in and circled one of the displays. A tour guide with a mic and speaker started talking to them, and Mal ran for the gift shop. It was SO LOUD.

We hung out in the gift shop for a few minutes, but the spiel didn't seem to be winding down, so we decided to go in the "exit" side of the loop to see what we could see there.

See these fish? This is how it felt. Unfortunately, we found that every single display area: sting rays, sharks, these guys, the birds, etc. had a school group so kids were packed in with no room for us to look at anything. Also, more guides with more amplification systems.

I'm not overly-sensitive to noise, but the volume both in terms of sound and of people nearly made me cry with panic. There was no way to navigate the space in a stress-free way.

Finally, I appealed to the admissions desk, who told me my admission was good for the whole day, and I could come back. When I explained that I had afternoon plans, they were gracious enough to give me two tickets to come back another time. 

I've learned that if this is what we see outside of a venue, we might as well keep driving.

Incidentally, that was two of four ISD buses, and there were at least four day care/private schools there, as well.

Our intent is to try to go back next Monday, after 3 PM. Google has a great feature that is hopefully accurate. We're going to test it and will let you know.

We do have reason to be skeptical, however.

Because today we tried to go to Mt. Playmore for the first time. We got there at about 11:15. Good. Gravy. Okay, first, here's what Google says about Saturdays.

Which is why we never do any of these things on the weekend.

And here's what it said about today.

No. Maybe that was just during the school year and they haven't had a chance to factor in that it's summer.

There were HUNDREDS of kids there. So many kids in matching T-shirts, part of schools or summer camps or day cares. And then there's a reptile show on Wednesday, so that lady had her, of course, mic and speaker up loud to talk over the hubbub. Then we got there at around lunch time, and a bunch of the child care people were trying to get kids out of the play structures and over to the eating area for lunch, so they were walking around YELLING AT TOP VOLUME into the tubes to get the kids out.

GOOD LORD NO GET ME OUT OF HERE.

So we cheated a little.

There's an area called Kiddie Kanyon that has contradicting signage regarding the height limit. Several signs say 42 inches (we're good there, but barely) and several say 36 inches. Thing is, there's a measuring stick that SAYS 42 inches, but it's at the 36 inch height, because it was much shorter than Mal, who is probably right at 40.5=41 inches.

Regardless, the toddler area wasn't busy, and they do allow bigger siblings, and it was quieter in there, so we happily killed enough time to make the $6.95 combined admission not seem like such a waste in there.

We plan to go back to here literally never, as it's 35 minutes away on a low-traffic day, and if we're driving that far, we're just going to go to Catch Air, which is HUGE but somehow manages not to be overwhelmingly loud, and is much cleaner and more imaginative in the general play area. (This toddler area is a lot more decorated and fun-looking than the general play area, which I did not photograph because I was running away as fast as I could.)

Another fun facet about our trip to Mt. Playmore is that the girls' restroom was out of order. They had two single-family-use family restrooms, but that was it. So when Mal needed to go and the family rooms were occupied, I sent him into the boys' alone. He emerged a few moments later having not gone and generally freaked out. I'd seen the only kid I'd seen walk in come out, so I just marched into the guys' room with Mal and helped him use the urinal. When we walked out, a kid waiting in a LONG line for the water fountain said to another kid, "Look! That girl and that lady just came out of the boys' bathroom."

I have two bonus thoughts to add: If you decide to go to Catch Air in the Austin area, the one in Round Rock is larger, quieter, and seems better maintained than the one on Anderson Mill. There's a lot more to do, and neater options in Round Rock.

Also, I get a little weird feeling in my stomach when I see kids all dressed the same and waiting in lines for literally 10 minutes before they can change activities and who are involved in loud, constant activity. I know it's summer and they're out of school and parents work, and I'm glad there are options for kids to get out and do stuff... but, man, it was overwhelming for us for an hour. I can't imagine either of my kids being able to handle that for hours a day all summer long.

I'm sure not all kids are as sensitive to stimuli as mine are; I think it's rubbing off on me, because it not only makes me nervous for them, it's starting to stress me out of my own accord!

If you have sensitive ones like I do, I've found that once people start getting ready for lunch, public kid spaces clear out a little. So at about 12:30-1. Then again, after 3:30ish when day cares need to get their kids back, and families are heading home to plan dinner. We just have to remember to plan to get out and about then instead of doing things earlier in the day.

Here's to a peaceful summer!

Catching Up

It's been a hot minute since I blogged, I suppose. Heck, James wrote an entry about a week ago and I never saw it until just now.

Anyhoo, I was kind of waiting for a dramatic statement and the moment came and went, so it seemed like time to check in.

James lost his job the week before Mal's birthday. He had quite a lot of PTO, so I was thinking it'd be really cool if he got another job before that time elapsed, and we came out square, or even ahead. But we didn't. This time of year is a bugger for finding tech jobs. We're fully prepared to have to wait until after the new year. We'll be fine, we just have to dip into stuff that's supposed to be for our future... but I'm grateful that it's there to fall back on!

Incidentally, this round of job-hunting has been ridiculous. Tech jobs are a bear to acquire. There's typically a phone screen, then some technical test(s), then Skyping with people, and THEN an in-person interview, which might also have more tech stuff. Or variations on that model.

James has been applying mostly for remote jobs, but did have one live interview in Austin, about two blocks from where we used to live off-campus. It was a 3-hour interview, and he drove allll the way into town, and the guys who were supposed to interview him had apparently skived off early for ACL Fest. Another guy did interview him, but he was convinced that the "nice to have" portion of the job description (which James has never done and told them this before he ever went in) was actually mandatory. Then another guy in San Francisco did a video interview, but because it was two hours earlier than it was supposed to be (since he was supposed to finish up after the other couple of interviews), he hadn't actually looked over James's resume, and asked fluff questions that he wouldn't have had to ask if he'd been prepared.

Other than that, four different interviewers have canceled/postponed lengthy phone screens the day of, sometimes within half an hour of when they were supposed to start. In fact, one company who had scheduled James for a three-hour call first thing on a Monday contacted him early in the morning and said they'd decided not to hire until after the new year. Don't tell me that they didn't have that information before the weekend and just impulse-changed it at 7:45 on Monday. No. They could have told him earlier and saved him hours of preparation on Sunday night.

Also, there's the Mal factor. I've been getting him out of the house well before the calls are supposed to start, so James can have some mental prep space. And we get involved in something, then James messages me to say, "They're postponing until next week." Ugh.

That's a potential issue: We'd LOVE for James to work from home. One of the companies he's in process with right now (I think he's completed three of seven (!!!) steps, and had a second phone call postponed yesterday) says their guys only work 40 hours a week. If you are in tech or know anyone in tech, you know this is unheard of. It would be so cool for him both to be here AND to be able to turn it off after 8 hours per weekday!

However, Mal doesn't totally get the "I'm working" boundary yet. He gets it if James's blackout curtain is closed (yeah; the office doesn't have a door). But if James gets involved in something unexpectedly and doesn't shut himself in, Mal can't read body language and will go in there and start chatting, or playing guitar, or asking the name of an obscure Star Wars character.

So it falls to me to manage that.

Usually, if I'm involved in starting dinner or paying bills online or whatever, and Mal disappears into the back of the house, I don't have to stop what I'm doing to follow up. If James is working at home, I'll have to. It'll just take some getting used to.

With Mal and me getting out so much, we ARE eating out more often than usual, at a time when we are otherwise cutting back on spending. But I'm trying to be frugal about it, anyway.

Today, for instance, we went to Toys R Us first thing, with Mal understanding we weren't buying anything ("But I'm going to play with everything!" Great!). He played there about 45 minutes, then we left, and we did pick up a box of Cars fruit gummies for $2. Then we went to Chuck E. Cheese where we spent about 45 minutes and zero dollars. I had 33 credits left over on an old card, and Mal played enough to get a little rainbow lollipop and a few gummy Ring Pops. He was happy, and didn't mind leaving.

He DID want pizza, but now that he's 3, we'd have to pay for him to eat the buffet, and he doesn't eat $6.49 worth of pizza. However, I looked it up, and Cici's lets kids eat free until they're 4, so we drove over there and, even with my getting a soda, only spent about $8.60 for both of us to eat lunch.

We stopped at Target on the way home, for some lunch meat and household stuff I don't count as a "day o' fun" expense, plus Mal got to see more toys, so it was a bonus visit.

All told, we killed four hours at about $2.50 per hour, and came home really full. Not too bad.

Toys? Who needs toys. This Swiffer is my best friend!

So, that's what's going on around here. No cool stories about how we beat the system and made money doing it. But cool stories about, you know, it getting cool! Loving the weather and looking forward to Thanksgiving. And putting up the new tree for the first time. And Christmas. And a new job adventure for James.

Ever have one of those days?

Yesterday, someone posted a set of pictures on a radical unschooling board of which I am a part. It was their "school" day (they call it "freeschooling," which I love because I feel like it is a much more realistic and colorful description of how everybody learns). It had a picture of an about-five-year-old outside on this very bucolic rural property, complete with a little pond and a barn. The first thing I noticed was that it didn't seem to be 515 degrees with 4000% humidity wherever they were. The second thing was that when this person asked, "What did your day look like?" I didn't want to share! Not pictures, anyway. We stayed home all day and basically did chores and nothing. I guess we did get out on the patio a bit in the afternoon, when it was shaded, but it was still pretty hot. The cicadas in the trees out back were cacophonous, though, so that was neat.

I'm in the middle of reading "How to Raise a Wild Child" and it's becoming ever more clear to me that if I'm going to foster a love of nature with my younger kid like I did with the older, we're going to have to end up somewhere that I can stand to be outside more than four months a year. I'm starting to have guilt pangs every time he wants to go outside and my first thought is "heatstroke and mosquito bites."

Anyway, my point is that most of our days don't look bucolic. Most of them look something like today, which was on the "grrr" side of normal, I'll admit, but still fairly typical.

Here it goes:

Mal got up and woke ME up by purposefully swan-diving over my lower legs onto the bed (from the bed). I was unprepared for such a game, but tried to shake off the sleep quickly so as to avoid his injuring himself.

We got up and I got pancakes ready. Mal ate some blueberries and played around, then after breakfast, was trying to climb back up onto the bar stool, lost his footing, and fell forward, smacking his temple on the side of our granite counter tops. Ouch!

After he settled from that, he told his daddy "goodbye" and we went into Mal's room to wave out the window and then to read some books. I hooked up a horse that walks with his pull dog toy so the horse could take the dog for a walk. This infuriated Mal, who screamed and tried to pull them apart until I unknotted the leash from the horse.

I was trying to get Mal ready to go to be at the library by 10, when it opens. We were planning to try story time for the first time. It's at 10:15, but you need a ticket and apparently they do get full. During preparations, I found a Texas redheaded centipede on the floor, thankfully dead, and after the scorpion I found in D's floor earlier this week, I called the office to request inside spraying when the pest control people come Friday. I think that's what made us "too" late.

We got into the car and left in time to get to the library by 10:05. Five minutes after the library opened. And the regular lot was full. There was a police officer directing cars to the roundabout by the book drop-off, and people were parking on the inside of it, where there isn't a red curb. Okay. I drove around it, but it was full by then, so the police officer directed me to one of the four "electric only" parking spots. Obviously, my 1997 Chevy Astro is not electric, but since she told me I could...

As an aside, I doubt there are ever four electric vehicles charging at that library ever. And I'm willing to bet that 99.5% of the time, there isn't even one.

Anyhoo, by the time I got parked, the lot was officially full, and the police office was having to tell people basically "I don't care where you park, but you can't park here." It was 10:11. Eleven minutes after the library had opened. As annoyed as I am that they'll be closing down for MONTHS in October, it looks like they definitely need some infrastructure work.

We got inside to be told, "Sorry, story time is full." Ugh. Fortunately, Mal didn't know what I was telling him would happen since he's never been, and he had fun running the aisles and messing with the catalog, which I let him. There were about half a dozen people who came in after me, and they got into story time. This means that their friends got tickets for their kids, which I think stinks. If you're going to cut people off, it should be first come/first served. You only get tickets for the kids with you. So I didn't feel too bad that Mal kept repeatedly adding the library search page to the browser's short cut bar. Have I mentioned how hot it is, and what a pain in my sweat glands it is to get out at all, much less on a pointless errand?

After that, I took him to the gym so he could get some energy out. He had fun, and got to do all of the things he wanted to, and didn't poop even once, much less twice like he has the past two times we've been to the gym. So that was good for everyone. Then suddenly, the place was PACKED. We made a quick exit for Chick-fil-A.

I usually park at the strip mall next to Chick-fil-A because their parking lot is bonkers. But for some reason (we'll see why), it was full. I parked at CFA, and fortunately got under a tree. While Mal played around in the van, rather than rushing him to get out, I decided to order from the newish app. I'm glad I did! My food was ready when I got inside, and I had forgotten that today is Dress Like a Cow Day, so that place was JAMMED WITH COWPEOPLE.

Mal and I sat down to eat, then he decided to go play in the playground. I watched him go in (it was on the other side of the restaurant; all of the tables near the door were taken, natch), then decided to head in there with him to free up our table. The line was just not stopping.

By the time I gathered up his book, his fries, his chicken nuggets, and both of our drinks (I was okay with them accidentally giving Mal a large soda, but it was a lot to carry) and got into the playground, Mal was scream/crying. He had partially climbed up on the lowest landing of the playground, then was trying to get back down, but couldn't feel the floor. His feet were dangling approximately 2 inches from the padded mat, but he wouldn't listen to me when I assured him he could drop.

So I laid down our drinks, the fries, the nuggets, the napkins, et. al., and grabbed him. By then, parents were giving me the "where were you?" stink eye. He's fast. Sorry. Can't do much about that.

Poor kid had tears streaming, but was calmer once he realized I was there. Sitting on the floor, I started getting claustrophobic. More and more people just kept coming, and there were at least 50 people in this little (smaller than standard) play area. I easily convinced Mal that it was time to go, picked up the nuggets, drinks, blah blah everything in the world, and we headed out.

Kids at two tables had spilled drinks, so there were mop buckets, chairs pushed back, and employees mopping both ways we needed to walk to get to an exit. People were gathered, waiting to get their tables back. People had high chairs in the same aisles, and had put regular chairs on the end of booth tables to allow for an extra kid. Somehow, we got out of there and into the parking lot, which was jammed.

I wanted to drop all of our stuff in the van before we walked across to Walmart to get D a few things, but there was one car at the front of the lot, parallel with the drive-through, who was holding up about 8 cars as it waited for a parking space. I would have felt bad exciting a parking space vulture, but also could not have backed out at that point, since there were cars behind my van... so we just walked over to the store.

Believe it or not, Walmart was kind of the highlight of the morning. Easy-peasy, we got chocolate milk, gummy worms, clear tape, and sugar, and were on our way.

Mal requests to see the fans now any time we go to Walmart. I think it's part of his air conditioning obsession. He signs "light" kind of when he means "fan" and says, "hot." I know what he means. One thing he has learned in the past two days is "off." He's always said "hot" for "on" or "off." Now he says "hot" and "oaffff." It's cute for real, guys!

On the way to the fans, though, I noticed that his finger was bleeding. No, it wasn't. His nose was bleeding. So my kid is Ralph Wiggums now.

When we got back out, I had to carry Mal and the groceries to the van in one trip, then go back to the buggy for our sodas. I have 25 bags in the van, but didn't want to stop to get them on our way because, you know, that situation up there.

FINALLY we were ready to come home, and were we ever. Mal stayed awake on the drive, which is always good when I have a load of stuff to get upstairs. He was sleepy, though, and wanted immediately to lay down and nurse. I put the milk in the fridge, which took too long for him, and needed to use the restroom. THAT was beyond the pale, and he required snuggles the whole time I was... busy. *sigh*

Nap time! We headed to the bed, and on the way, Mal noticed two quarters on the floor. He bent over to pick one up, smacking his forehead on the frame of our bed. And thus, he fell to sleep quickly but sadly.

I hope our afternoon is less eventful!

A couple of other things: My bike got stolen on Saturday! I'd unlocked it to get Mal's tricycle to go down to the pool at 5:20, and had left the chain unlatched. We've never had any problems here. Well, when I came back at 7:15, the bike (and ibert baby seat) were gone! Grr. People.

Here's an interesting (and a little gross, if you're sensitive) article on nose-picking, and eating boogers specifically. I was thinking about this this morning, before the nosebleed incident (which I think was because I can't seem to get the edges of Mal's nails smooth, so he's constantly nicking his facial region with his fingers, and I hate it!), that I don't smack Mal's hand away or tell him "no!" when I see him picking his nose. I'm GLAD he can do it. He has some serious production capabilities, he doesn't understand how to blow his nose yet, and I hate it when he's stopped up. So it's a relief to me. I've asked him not to wipe boogers on things, because they're very difficult to clean, not to mention disgusting. But I was wondering what I'd do if some other well-meaning adult told him not to pick his nose, or that it was gross. So I started warning him, and will remind him often, "That's fine. I don't care. It's not bad. Some people think it's gross and might tell you, or might stare at you, so you might want to do it in private." (Which, come to think of it, is the same advice I'll give when he's... you know... exploring another socially sensitive bodily region.)

Okay. I have a project I want to try to get done during Mal's nap, and I've already used up an hour! It probably won't happen, but a girl's gotta try!