Well this is Clearly Unacceptable

Has it really been nearly 6 weeks since I last posted on here? Six weeks? And I'm the one around here who is supposed to be doing updates for a toddler. Six weeks in toddler time is like 3 years in regular person time. Let's get back with the program.

Tyler has been in the toddler classroom for a few weeks now, and is starting to adjust. He had a nice transition, where he spent the last few days in his baby classroom hanging out more and more in the toddler room. He still gets a bit fussy when we leave, but there is a security camera that cycles through the rooms on the way out of the day care place, and on the days when it is pointing at his room, we see that by the time we've reached the lobby, the fussing is pretty much over. He is a big fan of the slide they have in the classroom, and really likes all of his older friends who walk around and do big kid things like singing songs and having circle time and reading stories and doing dances together and stuff. You know, like grown-ups do. The day care has also almost finished up the renovation. I'm most excited to see the new kitchen and new activity room. I'm told it may have computers for technology education. I approve.

Also, we went on vacation. Abandoning all the rest of the siblings who congregated up in Juneau (though we did miss them) we decided to head over to the much warmer (and closer) state of Florida to see the other half of our family. Some of us aren't so lucky to get both halves in the same zip code pretty much ever. It did expose something I didn't know about vacationing with a kid. Most vacations you have a little bit of relax time and a little bit of activity time. It takes work to get over to Europe or to plan hotel visits across a continent, but you do the work and you get a nice memory out of it. But it's also important to have some relaxing time, or you'll just feel more and more stressed out the more you try to do. When you have a kid, though, there's no real relaxing time, and any activity has the focus taken away from the cool event you're trying to do, and put on trying to keep your kid from, let's be honest, killing themselves. We hit the beach in Florida, and I'm glad I went, but you have no idea how excited Tyler was to get himself killed all the way to death in the ocean. When we left Tyler behind with the extended family for a few minutes, we got to enjoy ourselves in the waves, and for those few minutes it felt like a real vacation. But as soon as we got him back up, we're trying to keep him from eating watermelon that has fallen in sand. We were lucky enough to have some grown-up time when we left Tyler with grandma and went out *dancing*, and again when we drove down to do some snorkeling in the Florida keys. We'll put up some pictures eventually, but we have to finish off the underwater camera we bought. Anyway, it was a nice glimpse into the difference between traveling with kids and without them. They are quite different animals.

I changed jobs. I'm still at the same company, but I'm in a different group. The reasons are varied and probably best not discussed here, lest they sound too much like wining...or lest people I work with read this (and why wouldn't they? I good writing!) But I'm really liking my new group. I've been instantly plunged into exciting and important work, and people appreciate what I do. Plus, I get to travel in a few weeks, which is nice because hey, travel! But a bummer that I'll miss Tyler for the week. Yay for video conferencing.

Can I update Tyler's dictionary?

Ah-Oooh has become uh-oh, though he still doesn't know when he's supposed to use it.

We got a 'Wa-Wa' out of him this weekend and are trying to associate it with water.

Cats are now 'Dee-Dee', though he hasn't learned to differentiate between the one that always runs away and the one that gets patiently manhandled until the cat gets treats.

Bah is sometimes 'bath', now.

And Tee means 'teeth', specifically brushing them, often as a precursor to bedtime.

Those are the highlights. I'll try not to take so long before coming back with more stories, but I do keep myself pretty busy these days.

-N