Random musings from Bellevue

It’s a typical Sunday:  We are unwinding from a busy weekend, getting lunches packed, laundry put away, things cleaned up, schedules confirmed and oh, wait, what?  It’s not a typical Sunday because it’s a SHORT WEEK!  We leave about 4pm Wednesday and decided to leave the house at 1:30 since we will be traveling with 1 million other people and will need the extra time

(I’m choosing not to talk about all of the airport security drama that has been going on in my house this week.  We do have some very strong opinions on the pat down vs xray scanner topic: Some are in agreement and others aren’t,  but we have decided “ let it be” and we’ll tackle that decision when there is a decision to be made.   We don’t now what line we’ll be in.  I’ve heard the “frequent traveler” lines are more likely to have the scanners than the family lines. I normally try to avoid the family lines even when traveling with Walter because I’m a travel snob (hey at least I admit it) but might give Evan this one and do the family line since we plan to have enough time)

so we have a short week!!  I plan to go in to the office Monday and Tuesday only and work from home Wednesday.  Evan the same. 

So what else is new?  It snowed here today!  We woke up (way too early) to a dusting on the cars and windows.  It melted but we had a few different moments of nice fluffy flakes.  None of it stuck here in Bellevue but many of the ‘burbs are reporting a few inches!  I wish it woulda stuck enough to have a work at home day tomorrow.  It’s crazy how a sub 34 degree weather can create such a fuss around here!  I really like it! 

Walter has been a bit of a pill lately.  Evan and I have been having a lot of conversations about “what should we do” about it?  And we honestly have no idea!  We admit, we are spoiled.  We’ve never had any real behavior problems to deal with: we’ve never had to really worry about discipline but he has hit, what we hope is, a rough stage.  He cries ALL THE TIME for no reason and won’t tell us why.  He is great at school and then I walk in and he cries.  He has been playing soccer and cries through all of it.  When he’s done he says he had fun and he loves it and wants to go play again but while we are there he cries the whole time. . For awhile I thought it was me:  Like he wanted my attention so when I’m around he cries. He’s better with Evan but still does it quite a bit.  He knows what he wants and cries when he doesn’t get it.  We started a “chart” and he gets a sticker for doing certain things.  He loves to put the stickers on and to say “can I go get my sticker now” but when he doesn’t “earn” his sticker all hell breaks loose.  We decided and started to implement today:  When he cries like this, he goes to his room to cry.  He can still play but he has to be in there and cry.  And within 1 minute he’s done. Then I come in to say OK you can come out, and HE STARTS AGAIN!!  Ugh.  I’m getting so frusterated. 

When he is not being a pill he is so funny and quite smart.  He sings all the time, random songs he makes up.  He can do every puzzle he has with out even thinking about it really.  He is great at make believe, he likes me to tell him stories, but now he tells me how to tell them!  He can turn on the DVD player, he understand that “the computer has everything, you can order it on the computer”, He can dress himself (although will tell you he can’t).  He can spell his name and his favorite thing is to say “Mallory Valerie Emily Mickels Just Saved Up Nine hundred Ninety Nine Nickels. “  He knows we live on Earth and that Carnivores eat meat and herbivores eat salad.     I have 2 phones and Evan has 1 and we have a house phone and when the phone rings he can tell you which phone it is.  He can tell me if I have a text message or a “BBM” based on the sound it makes.  He knows that he has 3 play lists on his ipod and he’ll tell me if it’s the right list or the wrong list.  He knows “play” button is the triangle on almost everything that plays.  He wants to talk about work all the time.  Where do I work, where does Evan work, where does Nana and Pappap work, where does Poppa work, where does HE work, What type of work do we do.  He wants to do “ms kats work” when he grows up.  His favorite color is green and he wants everything green.  “but my favorite is not orange, it’s green”. 

Walter “gets” Santa this year, but he thinks I buy him gifts from Santa.  “can you buys me ____ from Santa”.  He only wants 2 things from Santa and everyday says the same things which is nice.  We talk about going to see him.  He does not want to sit on his lap but does want to tell him hi and give him his list. He still loves to go for a run with me (which I love)

I spent most of the weekend trying to get gifts done so I don’t have to bother with a single crowd after Thanksgiving but some people don’t feel the need to give me gift ideas, so I am stuck.  I might finish the rest of my shopping on line.  I am crafting a bit but my sewing machine and I are on a break right now after a very frustrating night last night   

Hopefully the snow doesn’t threaten our commute tomorrow.  Tonight while talking about cars (Evan is going to eventually need a car) and talking about the fact that we live on a rather large hill so a vehicle that can get him down that hill was important, Evan said well as long as he has his car if it snows he’ll work from home.  With that logic, I think he might never get rid of it!  However I pointed out I was more concerned with him getting stuck at the BOTTOM of the hill and possible with our child!  Our luck, in the 3 weeks we are here from now till the end of the year, we’ll probably miss all the fun stuff.  I hope we get some snow at home at least!