9.25.2009

 

A day as a mommy of (almost) two

Our day yesterday got started like this...



...and it just kept getting better, somehow. My nesting instinct was in full-force as I did a ton of cleaning, lending an air of non-horribleness to our guest bathroom, our kitchen, and our dining room table, all of which were somewhat out of control. We ate a peaceful, early lunch when we both got hungry. There were many morning poops in the training pants, and a lot of laundry before noon, but after that, he stayed dry for the entire rest of the day. We had a fun trip to Hobby Lobby for yarn. Kent took a two-hour (!) nap while I started a sweater for Dean. We had a Mommy/Kent date while Jack had his weekly study night. Then we came home, Jack put Kent to bed, and then Jack and I watched Wednesday's Top Chef before turning in. All good.

The sweater is this Baby Yoda Sweater by Cari Luna, the same pattern I used to knit Kent a sweater before he was born. I ended up not liking the marled yellow yarn I used for Kent's, but I was in a phase of wanting to make things that were gender neutral, you know, just in case. Well, now that we're having another boy, I thought, "The heck with all that. This kid is wearing some BLUE!"

I perused Hobby Lobby's growing section of natural-fiber yarns and found a lovely cotton blend called Eco-Cotton by Red Heart, the makers of that cheap, bright acrylic stuff that's in every elementary school and Sunday school craft closet in the country. This yarn is pretty far removed from the craft closet stuff. It's made of 75% recycled cotton (from old T-shirt remnants) and 25% acrylic. Yarn with acrylic in it isn't usually my first choice these days, but I needed something soft and washable, and this seems perfect.

Here's the bottom few inches of the back of the sweater so far. I'm using Midnight Marl (navy with hints of green and purple) for the hem, the ends of the sleeves, and the ties, and Vanilla for the body of the sweater. There might be coordinating booties and a hat, if I make it that far. It's going to be cold for about a month after Dean is born, but after that, he should be able to wear a lot of the short-sleeved stuff we had for Kent. Also, since Mardi Gras is a few weeks after our due date, I'm thinking he needs some sort of awesome outfit for that, or at least a cool hat. I wonder if there are baby jester hats... maybe I'll attempt to sew a purple, green, and gold sun hat. I'm cracking up at the mental image of our newborn boy in a sling, wearing a Mardi Gras hat to the parades.

Our date yesterday evening was fantastic, definitely Kent's best trip to a restaurant in a while. I decided to take advantage of the fact that Jack wasn't around to eat a food he would be REALLY glad he missed: crab legs. It completely grosses him out to watch me eat them, which I don't blame him for at all, but I still need a fix every once in a while. So to Joe's Crab Shack we went, armed with a certificate for a free kids meal that we earned from the library's summer reading program. We wore funny paper bibs that said, "Let's get crackin'!" Kent had fried shrimp, corn on the cob, and extra French fries because they brought out the wrong plate at first. And I had a big bucket of crab legs, along with some corn on the cob and some delicious herbed red potatoes that got boiled in the same delicious garlic & herb stuff they put the crab in. YUM. I ate the whole thing, plus a few of Kent's crunchy shrimp with cocktail sauce.

We took a potty break in the middle of the meal, and then I convinced Kent to stay in his seat (our main challenge at restaurants these days, because he wants us to hold him before we're done eating) by giving him the toy shark they had brought with his kids meal. I think every restaurant needs to give a toy with their kids meals, because this shark kept him occupied for a good 15 minutes while I finished eating. Hallelujah. The shark was hollow and had a huge mouth, so Kent pretended to feed it some of his orange juice, a lemon, a French fry... you get the idea. It was incredibly cute, as is all of the imaginary play he's just starting to do. The shark even took a bath with him when we got home.

Having dates with Kent is kind of funny, since I spend 10 hours alone with him every weekday. It's like a grown-up date, though, in that it's a different, special, fun thing, and I do feel like it gave us a chance to reconnect. We won't go out for every one of Jack's study nights, especially not to a place where I'd spend that much on dinner, but it was a good choice to cap off a wonderful day with my boy.

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Comments:

Remind me to ask you to take me on a date to Joe's Crab Shack next time I come down there. I have always wanted to stop there, but I felt that it might be a bad choice for Jack and for the younger Kent. Now that I know you like it, don't allow us to miss this.

Auf Wiedersehen
 
Hey, you know, February 2010 is a lovely time to visit Baton Rouge. I hear. We can definitely go to Joe's whenever you come, before or after the baby is born, though it might be easier to crack open the crab legs if I'm not also nursing at the same time. Maybe we could just blindfold Jack and feed him some vegetables so that he can come too. ;)
 
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