Snailie
Greetings to everyone.
Today, as it has been since Friday, was all about Xavier. Tomorrow, he will be up at the crack of dawn again and handed off to one of our sitters, who watches several other children as well as her three. Dad needs to work, and there is no CDC here in Denver, and no school.
We played outside most of the day. One thing I learned from the CDC program, Xavier does very well if he gets enough exercise. He eats better, he naps better and he goes down at night better.
While outside this morning, we came across a snail. These are everywhere around here, but not so often as out in the open as this one, which is about the size of a quarter. After observing it for a while, Xavier grew excited by it.
It became like a dog to him. He started out by putting sticks in its path. When the snail slid over the stick, he leapt with excitement. The next thing to do was put in on a tree.
After the tree, he moved it to one of his wind-up trucks, a tractor. Winding up the tractor, the snail got a ride—complete with crash into the grass from the sidewalk.
Xavier put the snail everywhere, watching it crawl and glide along. It entertained him for nearly an hour. Then the greatest honor: Xavier placed "Snailie" on Lightning McQueen—Xavier's most prized toy. The snail rode in style, touring the patio and surrounding areas.
As nap time neared, we placed the snail on a tree to "let it sleep." After Xavier's nap, he went outside, excited to see his snail (that's all I heard about since he awoke). The snail was still where we placed it. "Snail sleeping, Daddy," Xavier informed me after he could not get it to move (that sucker was anchored to the tree bark something fierce).
The next day, the snail was gone. However, Xavier still tells me of the snail and asks about it.
The Day Bed
Greetings to everyone.
Last night was Xavier's last night in his crib. Now that we were home for Biloxi (where Xavier slept in his own queen-sized bed for two months), it seemed a step backward for him to return to a crib.
This afternoon, we removed the front rail of his crib. Viola! A day bed.
I must admit, I was skeptical. I wanted Xavier to graduate into the day bed, but it meant we would lose containment of him. What if he did not want to go to bed? What if he got up every time we put him down to sleep? I overcame my game of "what ifs" and did what needed doing.
Xavier helped remove the front rail. As I pulled it away, he grew disappointed. He wanted the rail back on, and he had no qualms telling me so. "Back on, Daddy. Back on!" he said while pointing at the rail I was carrying away.
"Let's try this for your nap today," I replying. "Let's see how you like it."
Tired from the trip home and from the park we visited in the morning, Xavier crawled right in when it was nap time. He fell asleep quickly.
"Victory!" I thought. I was excited. "He likes his bed! He'll sleep in it!" Alas, the naivete of a first time parent.
He did sleep in it for his nap, but come bed time he wanted nothing to do with it. "Daddy's bed," he informed me as I carried him to his room (he was very tired from his afternoon play). "I want sleep in Daddy's bed."
So, to Daddy's bed we went. This also meant I had to go to bed with him, at least long enough for him to fall asleep.
Disappointed with him not taking to his bed at night, I decided to replace the front rail. So Saturday that is what I started doing. Off came the rail again. I thought we'll try this a little later. I also made plans to get four Velcro straps to use to hold the rail in place on a temporary basis. Perhaps Xavier just needed to be introduced to the idea of an open bed more slowly. Plus, if I needed containment again, I could put up the front rail quickly with the straps.
Xavier saw what I was up to and got mad. "No, Daddy. Off! Off, Daddy!" he demanded while tugging at the rail to pull it away from the bed. Fortunately, I had only gotten one bolt in place before Xavier threw his snit.
He took his nap in the day bed again, but spent another night in "Daddy's bed." This was not working as I hoped, and those Velcro straps seemed all the more necessary. Fortunately, Xavier took to his bed Sunday night. Now, he "hits the sheets" and so far has stayed there until the morning.
Hurricane Hunters
Greetings to everyone.
Today, Rebecca had a friend fly in to spend the weekend. The friend served with Rebecca when she was in England; it was fun to meet so old a friend. We showed Meagan around and introduced her to Tatonuts, a wonderful donut shop in Ocean Springs.
Meagan and Xavier got on wonderfully. Meagan even gave Rebecca and me a date night. Xavier did not care we were gone; that's how much Xavier got on with Meagan (who likely sealed the deal when she walked Xavier next door to Souvenir City and bought him a little helicopter!)
One of the things we got to do when Meagan was here was get a tour of the Keesler Weather Station. Meagan knew one of the weathermen there and, as it turned out, so did Rebecca. Rebecca did not know he was working there. All three of them served together back in the 1990s.
The weather station sits right on Keesler's runway, and right outside it park the Hurricane Hunter fleet of C-130s. We got the tour and learned about the aircraft duties. We see these aircraft taking off and landing all the time, but here we got much closer to them.
The navy was also running nighttime airfield landing practices. We had a small jet practice its approach. It did everything but land; as it nearly touched down, it sped up and off the runway. Xavier was thrilled by the sound and roar of its engines as it sped passed us a few hundred feet away! He squealed with glee and pointed excitedly at the plane as it tore back into the sky. This was much different than a couple of years ago when we watched the Thunderbirds air show in Wyoming; there Xavier did not like the noise at all.
Some helicopters were also doing practice night landings on the pads across from the C-130 line. These Xavier liked watching these also, by not so much as the jet. The helicopters were much more quiet and harder to see in the darkness.
While we stood outside looking at the C-130 fleet and watching the other aircraft make practice runs, dozens (in fact hundreds) of little creatures were landing on us: termites! This is the time of year when they swarm, and they swarmed! It was because dozens of termites a minute were landing on us that we went back into the weather station to finish the visit.