It's fall, and now it really feels like it. It's chilly in the mornings; the boys are wearing long sleeve shirts and long pants now. I guess we'll have to wait and see if any of those shorts still fit next spring.

We've gone to a few pumpkin patches in the last week or two. I kind of thought that pumpkin patches were popular places to take kids. Well, I had no idea. Paul and I took the boys to one of the many pumpkin patches in Half Moon Bay (a place that literally turns orange with all the pumpkins they grow every fall). Hay rides, okay, but the place we went to in Half Moon Bay had all that and more: inflated huge slides, elephant rides, a petting zoo, pony rides, a kid play area, and of course a huge pumpkin patch to meander around in. We all had a grand time. We're going on a nightime train ride this Friday at the Ardenwood Farm here in Fremont. The Halloween pumpkin thing is all a big production, but I have to admit it's fun and the kids love it all. I can't remember the last fall season I've enjoyed this much (or been this exhausted, but that's another story).

There are some other changes going on as well. Today was a good example; both boys were rather willful and cranky today. Riley has started having nightmares occasionally at night and in some ways I think he's gotten afraid to go to bed at night. The bedtime ritual works just fine, but then he doesn't want to go to sleep and he holds out as long as he can. Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and nothing but a momsnuggle, rocking and a bottle will calm him down. Needless to say, nobody is getting enough sleep. I'm told by various more experienced people that to start having nightmares around two is very common, and one of the developmental signs that they look for; it has something to do with the development of imagination and separation anxiety combined. I could do without it myself.

Both boys are getting very independent, wanting more choices, wanting to do things for themselves. Casey threw his first classic temper tantrum this morning as we were trying to get out the door; he didn't want to wear a jacket. Well, honestly, he'd rather not wear anything at all at any time, but usually he's more willing to going along with the charade of wearing clothes. It took me a bit of staring in puzzlement and shock to figure out what the problem was, and meanwhile, man was Casey pissed. After I concluded it wasn't totally essential that he wear a jacket he was fine. Go figure.

So we managed to get to our kid/parent class this morning, but it was a struggle all the way through. Riley was thrilled to get to scribble with pencils (two-fisted), but he also wanted to try drawing on everything in the room. He loved painting with yellow paint, too-- all over everything he could reach. Huh... Why does that feel so familiar? Meanwhile Casey was experimenting with disassembling several toys at once. It's not so much that they're bad, but that they're so enthusiastic. It'd be much more manageable with just one at a time, that's for sure. At least I had the benefit of making some of the other moms count their blessings with their single less-active babies. Sigh.

So now they're watching Woody and Buzz in the second Toy Story. I'd feel more guilty about pacifying them with movies and television except that they really enjoy it; I only do it in limited doses, and it's such a clever set of movies. Who knows how this will influence their set of cultural references later? But there are worse things they could be watching. And to be honest it's obvious why so many parents use the TV as a babysitter; it's a way to keep them entertained long enough for the parent to actually get anything else done. Okay, so I'm justifying my laziness somewhat. Paul made a comment over the weekend that he was amazed at how I'd managed to get by for so long without being able to get anything done. Umm...

Next day. (Ran out of time and energy yesterday.) Ran around madly in a cleaning frenzy this morning while the boys entertained themselves pretty well for about an hour. Then changes, clothes, drive out to the park for some necessary running-off-steam time. Playgrounds are both good and scary; the play equipment is too big for these guys, but they reallyreally love climbing and sliding and playing around on them. They have no caution and no fear, though, which can make a mom go crazy trying to keep two at once from trying to fling themselves off high platforms to untimely deaths. Or at the least a flat plop on the back to knock the air out of them.

So far we've had no real accidents, though. I've had other parents sitting on the sidelines stare at me for hovering so close and running back and forth from one to the other. What they're thinking I'm not sure, but who the hell cares? I saw a mom the other day who dumped her small kids out of the car in the parking lot, then sat in the car herself and hollered occasionally while her ratty kids took over the playground and intimidated other smaller kids, including an attempt at mine. The boy told me defiantly "they're smaller, this is for big kids" and I told him, "You're bigger, so you should be careful of the smaller kids". Pretty meek response considering I wanted to seize him by the legs and fling him bodily into the parking lot where his mother was sitting on her ass. He left for the bigger playground after that.

I know, I know, no need to get rude. Sometimes I just have to vent a bit. Incidents like that just bring out the protective MamaTiger instincts in me. Stupid neglectful parents really set me off. I shouldn't throw any stones, since god knows I'm just struggling along myself trying to do the best I can, but I'll be damned if I'll let my kids get hurt or bullied, or let them hassle any other kids, when I can do something to prevent it. Now if I can just figure out how to keep up with them...

Most recent journal entry

Previous journal entries:

9/24/2002: Deep Breath...Savor the Moment... Whew.
8/20/2002: San Francisco:Traffic and Hills
7/22/2002: Summer Grunts
7/9/2002: Thank You Excedrin
6/15/2002: Father's Day and Junior Policemen
5/8/2002: Time Insanity
4/9/2002: Good Friends and a Weekend Getaway
1/30/2002: Runaway Day
1/19/2002: Ready to walk
12/16/2001: Ornaments
12/6/2001: Galpals
9/25/2001: Flags
9/7/2001: BabyBabyBaby
8/9/2001: Moving
6/25/2001: Sleeping through the night
6/21/2001: Why Website?