Henry at 20.5 months

I just looked through my posts of the last couple months and realized that I have written very little about Henry that isn't related to his eye problems. So here's a more balanced portrait of our little crab-apple.

He's closing in on 21 months old. Which means he's closing in on the big 2-nothin'. Which means Tom and I are starting to experience all the, "whoa, Henry's almost 2, where has the time gone" thoughts that are totally typical when you're the parent of a young child. We feel like Henry's changing all the time, but the milestones a kid hits in his second year are a lot more subtle than the big leaps you see in an infant. We're no longer in the age of firsts, if you know what I mean. He's adding new words almost daily, but he's been talking for months now. He's getting better at jumping, running, climbing, etc, but again, they're not new skills. But one of the big difference I've noticed in the last couple months is the ways he plays with things. This is when I can see his imagination and creativity developing. For example, instead of playing with his wagon or his teddy bear, he'll very deliberately put the bear in the wagon and take it for a ride. He does things like feed his monkey puppet snacks and make his stuffed animals dance along to music. His mania for trucks has morphed into a mania for plows (yes, we see a lot of snowplows around here, and they're all very, very cool), and he's devised a plow game for himself where he'll line up a bunch of toy vehicles in a train-like line and push them from behind, yelling "plow!" It's very cute, but when the cars inevitably bunch up and he can't plow them any more, he immediately gets frustrated and throws a little tantrum. Not so cute, but very toddler. He also remembers games that we've played in the past, like "Pretty Kitty Destroys the Block Tower" (Step One: Build a tower out of blocks. Step Two: Hurl the stuffed animal called "Pretty Kitty" at tower. Step Three: Pretend cat is attacking the pile of blocks. Step Four: Repeat. Step Five: Repeat. Step Six: Repeat). Whenever I pick up a wooden block, Henry will immediately go get the toy cat so we can play the game properly. Add to that a growing list of favorite songs, favorite books and favorite toys, and it's clear that we've got a lot of cognitive development going on. It's fascinating to watch.

Beyond that, his Bob the Builder mania has gotten completely out of hand. I'm finding I have to check myself so that I don't end up letting him watch the show for hours every day. It's just so tempting to turn it on when I have to do something like get dinner started or make myself a cup of coffee. But we try for moderation. The strange thing is that Henry is not remotely interested in any other show. He'll watch for about 15 seconds before wandering off to do something else, or to find me and say, "Bob? Bob? Bob? Bob? Bob?" At music class last week one of the other boys was wearing a Bob t-shirt, and Henry spend the class acting like the stalkarazzi, following the kid around, pointing at his chest and saying "Bob!" They ended up having a lot of fun together and fed each other raisins during snacktime, giggling away as they crammed food in each other's mouths. I'd never seen Henry interact with another kid like that. So I guess that was one first. Courtesy of Bob The Builder, no less. See, TV isn't all bad.

I can't believe I'm saying this. . .

. . .but I wish it was colder. We've had a long spell of mild-for-Ottawa-in-January weather, and it's wrecking winter. The Canal is closed indefinitely, so no more skating. Days of daytime temperatures hovering around the freezing mark, coupled with frequent snowfall, mean the sidewalks are a slick, slushy, feet-soaking mess, and the roads are no better. Things aren't looking good for the big Winterlude festival that kicks off the first week of February.

Having said that, I'm sure we'll get hit by an Arctic front that will kick temperatures down to bone-chilling levels for several weeks. But at least I asked for it!

Snow days

The whole "winter wonderland" experience was in full effect today. Yesterday's snowfall still coated the trees, and the sun came out intermittently and patches of crisp blue sky were visible behind the high, patchy cloud cover. Man, it was gorgeous. It was cold (about -10 c) but not unbearable, so I decided I had no good excuse not to go running. I'm training, remember? I headed out along the Canal (which is closed to skating right now because the weather's been so mild over the past week) and was enjoying the scenery so much that I extended my run for an extra 15 minutes. I ended up going at a steady pace for 45 minutes, covering somewhere between 7-8 km. That's the longest run I've done in quite awhile. I felt pretty good overall, but my hip got sore after 30 minutes--my IT band syndrome making its expected appearance. No big deal.

Even though it was cold and icy, I crossed paths with a couple dozen other runners and a few walkers. You just can't keep people inside around here. At least 90% of the runners I saw, including me, were wearing one of these jackets. I swear we looked like a high school cross country team or something.

Shovel season (Scoop. Rinse. Repeat)

This morning a very nice, earnest representative of the Green Party came to our door to ask for my vote in Monday's election. Would they still want it if we owned one of these things? Sure, they're noisy and polluting, but around here it's soooo tempting.

Eye update: No glasses

We were back at the ophthalmologist's yesterday for Henry's scheduled checkup. All in all, the doctor told us pretty much exactly what I was expecting to hear. He's not going to prescribe glasses because Henry's range of farsightedness is normal for a kid his age, so glasses wouldn't do anything to correct his strabismus. That means it will take surgery to correct the problem. Tom and I agreed to this course of treatment. It's an outpatient procedure and has been tentatively scheduled for early June.

The good news was that the patching has strengthened his left eye significantly. He still doesn't use his eyes together, but the doctor did observe him switching his vision from one eye to the other to track an object. Before the patching he used his right eye exclusively. The doctor also said that if Henry couldn't see very well with his left eye he'd freak out in frustration when his right eye was patched. But he's doing just fine with it. Some days he even seems to prefer wearing his patch to not wearing it.

In other eye-related news, our Bob The Briber scheme has been so successful that now whenever we say "patch" to Henry, he immediately responds, "Bob!" Oh what a clever, TV addicted child we're raising. . .

Recapping the week

1. Skating on the Rideau Canal

Tom, Henry and I hit the Canal last Sunday for an afternoon of fun on the ice. And fun it was! The weather was relatively mild and there were hundreds and hundreds of people making their way along the ice and hanging out at the concession stands that dot the course. We bought a "beaver tail" (fried dough with cinnamon sugar, yum), rented skates and pushed Henry in his stroller, heading all the way down to Dow's Lake and back. Now, Tom and I are not what you could call accomplished skaters, but the great thing about the canal is that you only have to go forward--no corners to navigate! We both did a respectable job out there. The ice was pretty rough, too, which means that even the really excellent skaters couldn't get going too fast without risking a spectacular wipeout caused by a hidden pothole.

2. Traveling west yet again

A couple days later, Henry and I headed out to B.C. for a week-long visit with Grandma Eileen and Grandpa Moe, (otherwise known as MaMa and BopPop), Uncle Dave and Aunt Kristy. Yes, Henry is a very well traveled kid for a 20-month old. But that's what we get for living on the wrong side of the continent. I'm taking advantage of the milder weather and free onsite babysitting service to get my half-marathon training started. Henry's reveling in all the love and attention. Good times!

Rideau Canal open for skating!

Today is the first day of the Rideau Canal skating season. We're going to check it out this afternoon. Tom and I probably need to get some better cold weather gear, like snowboarding pants and balaclavas, before we can really make a day of it on the ice, but it will be fun just to observe the scene. Here's a link to the National Capital Commission's web site with some great 360 degree views of the canal. If you click on the skater by the Queensway, you'll see the bridge near our house. The two skaters directly below that show areas that are near our place, too.

Cookin' it old school

Today I made a dish I've barely thought about, let alone cooked, in the last 15 years: Tuna casserole. Ah, tuna casserole. I felt my 70s childhood come flooding back to me as I mixed cream of mushroom soup into the egg noodles. Even though I was just working from memory, the results weren't bad. Not that I ate much of it. It's all for the boy. Casseroles are my latest, greatest hope in the ongoing effort to act like a respectable stay-at-home mom and feed my kid a proper lunch every day. I tell you, it's a struggle. Lunch just isn't my thing, and most days I really have no idea what to give him. I don't really prepare a lunch for myself--I just nosh on whatever combination of leftovers and snacks I can scrounge together, but most of what I eat, Henry will not. So my new plan is to make a casserole every few days and give him that.

So far, so good. He ate the casserole for dinner. The real test is tomorrow, when he's offered the reheated version. The kid has a fine palate and doesn't always take too kindly to leftovers. But until the Canadian Pediatric Association signs off on crackers, cheese and spicy olives as a nutritionally sound meal for toddlers, I need other options.

You say you want a resolution

Happy 2006 everyone. Usually I'm not so into the whole resolution thing. If I had one last year, I don't remember what it was. But thinking back on last January, an era otherwise known as "Dammit, Henry's Sick Again," my resolution was probably something like, "Always stay awake while operating a motor vehicle," or "Never snore during meetings," or maybe "Try to remain upright in chair while napping at desk." Oh well--at least I didn't get in an accident.

But this year is different. This year, I have a resolution. Actually, it's not a resolution so much as an idea about something I'm probably going to do. And that is (drumroll): Run the Ottawa half marathon at the end of May!

Here's my thinking: The half marathon distance (21 KM) strikes a good balance between challenging (it wouldn't take much effort or training for me to run a 10K) and realistic (I've seen marathon training firsthand, and have no desire to put myself through it). And I need something to motivate me to exercise on a regular basis. See, I really don't like exercising for its own sake. I like competition, and in the past I'd exercise in order to train for competition. But when there's no score to keep or opponent to beat, I become pretty lazy. So I'm hoping a race will bridge the gap for me.

Beyond my innate laziness, two other factors could interfere with my plan. The first is my rather intense dislike of going outside when the weather is bad. I guess that's kind of a subfactor in my general laziness. The other factor is a bit more serious: it seems that my body is falling apart. Bad ankle, bad knee, bad hip, bad back, weak torso--it's getting ugly. So even if I do find the inner motivation to do my training runs through the winter chill and spring muck, I'm honestly not sure if my body will be able to take it. But I'll give it a shot.

Now it's time to download a training schedule and start getting psyched up to actually run five days a week.