Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

Every spring Sydney succumbs to an unusual illness.  He starts making regular references to dirt, looks wistfully at birds and out windows, and utters an only slightly more sophisticated version of Nathaniel’s “Out, out, out!”  Most people get spring fever, but Sydney’s comes with very particular desires to play in the dirt and chase after birds.

This morning, after a half-hearted attempt to figure out which of us was going to work and which was going to take care of the children, Sydney suggested that none of us work, so we took a walk in the mist-turned-rain to Port Meadow.  It was an unusual day at Sydney’s favorite birding spot: 33 swans dotted the water, and many, many, many swifts and swallows swooped and dived over our heads.  At some point they got close enough for Sydney to feel the wind from their wings.  Outings like this help, but at this time of year he just wants to camp outside permanently, abandoning papers, students, and house alike.  Ithaca’s long winters helped to keep the spring fever at bay for awhile (though never until the end of the spring semester), but here, where spring starts in March, rather than May, and the school year runs through June, he’s really struggling to keep his head inside!

Erin

Sydney and I are in the kitchen, making breakfast and loading the washer, respectively, and the kids are in the living room, jumping on the air mattress.  After about a minute of joint fun, Katherine starts laying down the law: “‘thaniel, no jumping on the bed!”

“Katherine, Nathaniel is allowed to jump, too.”

“‘thaniel, no jumping.  No, no, no, no.”

Here Sydney interjects to point out that she’s not unaware of my stance, just disagreeing.

“‘thaniel, Katherine said ‘NO’!”  [Hmm, so she clearly heard me in those rounds of “Mama said ‘no'” but apparently missed that “Mama” is the source of authority in them]

“NO!” Nathaniel chimes in, jumping around gleefully to the reverberating “Nos.”

At times like these I  feel like I’m living in a fun house at an amusement park, but we did eventually get around to breakfast and on with our day.

Erin

This morning I hopped on an early bus into London to take care of some passport paperwork for Sydney.  Given that my days are often largely filled with the sounds and sights of Katherine and Nathaniel, I enjoyed the opportunity to do a bit of people-watching: the man who announced to the passport official that this was his last passport, since he was 88, and her assurances that, no, he may well have another one or two yet; the young guy sitting next to me on the bus home, who spent half the time using his iPad as a mirror to help him artfully muss his shaggy hair (it was amusing to be out-primped by a young boy); the security guys at the Canadian embassy who chuckled over Sydney’s old passport photo (in which he really does look like a terrorist), and over my satisfaction with the new one, in which he looks quite handsome, and who were floored when I said I had no electronic gadgets to surrender before entering; and the extreme vigilance of the security detail at the US Embassy, as they patrolled the perimeter with machine guns, just inside a tall iron fence, on the edge of a quiet green park in central London.  And, of course, the children.  I noticed the children in strollers as I walked, and smiled to hear them playing as I took a detour through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.  Am I really going to be smitten with children wherever I go, now that I’m a parent?

Erin

This morning I curled up on the couch for a bit and Katherine, after studying me for a little while, brought over her favorite blanket and began expertly tucking it around me.  It will be awhile before I forget the feel of those little hands carefully working their way around the edges of the blanket.

After a long drought, Oxford has finally gotten some rain this week.  Now the entire town is one large puddle.  I am thankful that we have a flexible schedule, so that we can get out every day but avoid the worst of the weather.  The kids have been wonderful about not complaining when we got caught in wet weather, and we’ve been out running around the parks even as I watched the clouds gather overhead.  I am so glad that we have a great place to play that is still only a five-minute walk from our house.

Erin

We are preparing ourselves for another year of job applications, starting in September, and this time we’ll be applying to more places–and with a bit more desperation.  Given how busy we both will be, I have been looking into finding a nursery for Katherine and Nathaniel to attend a couple of mornings a week.  But, this being Oxford, nursery applications are a big deal, and highly competitive.  Some places have waiting lists that are several years long!  So I am in the midst of hunting and applying . . . so that we can hunt and apply this fall.

Erin

When Mom was here she and I finally did something to swap out the snowflakes in Katherine’s room for more seasonal fun.  I had planned to make birds out of colored paper, but we came across these fun cut-outs in a museum shop, and I put them up last week.  They’re definitely helping us feel a bit more spring-like, and the kids love the shadows they make on the walls.

Erin

Nathaniel has recently laid claim to the large Eeyore that Katherine got for Christmas, and it is now his favorite sleeping and hugging buddy.  He sleeps on its tummy, or next to it, with one arm around its neck.  Between the two of them, the space in his crib is pretty much filled with soft and cuddly creatures.  He also makes regular “visits” to his Eeyore whenever he wants a hug.  Sydney, who often works on the top floor, reports that Nathaniel comes up, requests his donkey, hugs it, and then returns downstairs.

Erin

Erin

Erin

I now find myself saying this roughly 213,047 times a day.  When he climbs up a chair or stool to remove items from the dish rack next to the sink, or to turn the tea kettle on, or to unbolt the door to the back garden.  When he moves said chairs or stools from their places in front of forbidden cupboards or electrical cords.  When he upsets bowls of food that are carefully placed near the back of the table, or drops toys, keys, and watches behind the radiators.  When he starts up or turns off my washing machine.  When he reaches up to change the thermostat on the wall next to the stairs.  When he stands on the back of the couch and waves his arms wildly.  When he uses a slat from Katherine’s crib to nudge items from the high shelves of the bookcase.  When he throws unwanted objects into the shower (This morning I was lucky: just a wooden orange.  Other days it’s been clean clothes, articles for work, and, occasionally, books).

I’m finding myself a bit exhausted in the past few days, and I think that it is in part because Nathaniel’s curiosity has kicked into high gear–and he has the strength and reach to really do some damage.  He’s also incredibly cute.  I highly doubt it’s a coincidence that he is granted both the desire for danger and protection from it in the same developmental stage.  Katherine looks on with a mix of horror and glee 🙂

Erin

[In the twenty minutes since posting, I can now add pulling the vacuum on top of himself from its place over the freezer, not to mention helping himself to the contents of our fridge . . . ]