Riding the carousel in Carlsbad Mall

Natural History Museum

Quinn and I have done a lot of traveling lately and in the process we've taken a lot of trips to Albuquerque. While we're there we want to make the most of it, so we've become incredibly familiar with the Natural History Museum.

Calvin calls it "the other museum" because so far we usually go to the Children's Museum, and we had to tell him to go to the other museum.

But he liked it. He loves looking at the dinosaur bones, looking at leaves in the microscope (it's kind of hard to explain to a little kid how to look into a microscope... but he figured it out) and look at the stars.

Sibling rivalry

 

Before Gloria was born I wondered how Calvin would react to having a little sister.  He's been an only child for so long and he's used to being in the center of attention.  Would he have sibling rivalry?

Kind of.  For the first few weeks he didn't want to go near her.  He wasn't mean, he just didn't acknowledge her presence and while other toddlers (mostly girls) wanted to hold her, he didn't even want to touch her. 

But he noticed that she was getting attention, and so he started to show a lot of interest in doing baby things - maybe to get attention. 

He wanted to play with her toys and suck on her Nuk. Then when Alison, Katie's 10 month old, came and was jumping in one of our baby contraptions and getting everyone to whip out their video cameras, he started to jump in it too even though he is way too big. 

I took a picture of Gloria doing tummy time and he wanted me to take a picture of him doing tummy time.  Then he wanted to make a family event out of tummy time where we all lay on our tummies on the floor (I took it as a sign that he's warming up to her). 

Finally, after a month, and probably in an effort to stay up a few minutes past his bedtime, Calvin said, "Wanna hold the baby." And he did.  For ten seconds. Luckily I got the picture. 

What I did with my placenta....

A couple of weeks before Gloria was born I was given the number for a woman in Santa Fe who would come to my house to pick up my placenta and turn it into capsules that I can take. The person who recommended this service said that she did it (and also tried a little placenta in a smoothie... which made her gag because she detected a fleshy chunk) and the benefits included warding off post partum depression, and speeding up the healing process after birth.

I tucked the number into my wallet and promised myself to at least think about it.

And I did.  I mean, how often do we have a chance to do something as primal and, well, weird, as eating a placenta? Not very. And I would just love to see this person who will come to my house and wisk away what was - hours ago - a body part of mine and come back with some special vitamins to take.

But rather than call the lady, I started talking to other people.  It was a toss up.  Most of my friends in  town were all for it and were ready to recite the list of benefits (but I'm still not sure how many of them have tried it).  My relatives were all pretty against it.... Mainly because of the ick factor.

My sister, Katie, said, "Sure, a lot of animals eat their placentas. But they also eat their own poop."

(My mother in law pointed out a hilarious Joel Stein article about placenta eating and crossed her fingers that I would change my mind, or that I was really just kidding all along)

Quinn was mildly aware that I was thinking about eating the placenta when it came out.  Later, he told me that the only thing he could compare it to was when his dad came home from South America with a real shrunken head, and his mom devoted her life to getting rid of that thing. He desperately wanted it out of the house.

But my midwife took a moment to reflect on it. "My, that is a good looking placenta!" she said, pointing out the thick veins that branched out from the umbilical chord.  "These are called the roots of life."
his
"Take a picture!" I told him, and pointed to the camera on the bookshelf.

Halo popped in sometime after the paramedics to make sue that we were all still alive.  I'm not sure if she witnessed the delivery of the afterbirth, but she did come in time to see a big mess, and to remind Quinn of several inspiring things we could do with the afterbirth... just as he was on his way to throw it away.

He ended up wrapping it in a plastic bag and putting it in the freezer.

I thought, "Well nuts.  The pill lady won't take it because it's not supposed to be frozen."

We spent the rest of the week wrapping other foods in plastic bags and putting them into the freezer, and joking about slipping a little placenta into one another's chili. But nothing came of it, and finally Quinn asked if he could throw it away, and I said sure.  Let's face it... the main reason I would want to eat it is so I could blog about it later on.  And I'm still doing that.

The Derrière Caretaker

I just gave birth on Monday, so naturally, it was time to send Quinn to the store to get some pads. His man's jobs are getting more and more manly by the day.  Normally I don't ask him to buy that type of thing, but I'm not supposed to be up and about too much.

Quinn's mom said that when he was born her husband wouldn't buy them for her.... she had to walk in the store herself.  But he still owes her for that! Quinn thought that owing me forever would be far worse than buying pads, so he went to the store with the list.

It was the kind of list that made him thank the lord for automatic self-checkouts. Overnight maxi pads, two sizes of diapers, wipes, toilet paper and Desitin. Everything that he was buying was for someone's hind end.

So naturally, when he went through the self-checkout, he got the obnoxious beeping message on the screen: "Please see attendant". After the attendant made a show of sorting through his purchases, he thought he was free, but instead he set off the security alarm so that everyone in the store could see his armload of merchandise.

I didn't even realize, until he got home and dumped all of the stuff on the couch that I realized that there was a theme to this grocery store trip. We laughed so hard.  He said that if there was another store in town, now would be the time for him to start to go there.

Life Goal Achieved: He's swimming!

Quinn and I are super proud of Calvin, because a few weeks ago he started to swim and tread water on his own!  Now when we take him to the pool we don't even have to hold him, he holds onto the edge, pushes off and swims for a little while.  Then when he gets tired he goes back to the edge. He even jumped into the pool and swam to the edge by himself.

This has been a goal of mine all year, because now that Calvin is more independent in the water, I can take both of my kids without worrying about one of them sinking.

Chateau Tilovi Bed and Breakfast

In San Francisco we stayed at the Chateau Tivoli Bed and Breakfast for two nights.

It was an old victorian mansion full of antiques, located in the historic district of San Francisco.

My only regret is not choosing one of the fancier rooms. We got a room in the basement, and it would have been perfect if Calvin was a little older, because there was a separate bedroom across the hall with it's own double bed. But we didn't feel comfortable putting him in there, because it was right next to the door going out, and it just seemed a long way from our room in a strange place.  So we put him on a cot in our room.

Breakfast was served on a sprawling dining room table, and they also had cheese and wine in the afternoons (but we missed that).  The breakfast included fresh fruit and bagels with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers, which made us happy, but Calvin was miserable. There was no peanut butter!

So we bought a jar of peanut butter, which not only got us through the second breakfast at the Chateau, but also served us well for the rest of the trip. I don't know whether he was going through some kind of a growth spurt, or what, but that week he ate three or four peanut butter sandwiches every day.

The San Francisco portion of our trip came when we needed to do the laundry, and we also had to deal with parking and packing our stuff.  Luckily, when it was time to do those "chores" there was a playground right by the Bed and Breakfast. So we took turns taking care of business and playing with Calvin at the playground.