Nicole Tasker Woods

I’m beginning the close of what I know was the perfect weekend.

Every night, Aidan was a joy, full of smiles and laughter. We enjoyed every second he was awake. The days were filled with sunshine, long walks and a lot of restaurant meals with a very well-behaved young boy.

It’s one of those nice weekends at the end of April that makes you believe that the coming summer months are going to be fantastic.

The highlight, of course, will be Aidan’s 2nd birthday party in mid-June. Then a rafting weekend in July and hopefully some beach days in between. We are also planning our triumphant return to Boston in late August after my mom picks up Aidan and enjoys her grandson with the Northwood folk for an entire week.

Personally, I can’t wait for her to pick him up! I love him to pieces, but I am in dire need of strengthening my social scene with my friends. I hope to go out at least three times with three of my closest friends. I also want a couple of date nights. If all 7 nights are spent out on the town or next to my hubby in the darkness of a movie theatre, I will be in heaven!

Aidan says “bye” so well.

He’ll follow the bye-bye wave with a kiss on his hand that is meant for you (even though he doesn’t blow it your way).

Whether you are going to the bathroom or leaving the house or just putting him in his crib for the night, he’ll say “bye!”

It’s so cute, sometimes I walk back to him and give him a big kiss!

Aidan is a fan of music.

If a commercial comes on that has music in it and I am sitting on the couch, he will push my legs (his way of telling me to stand up) and then he will lift his arms in the air and say “up!” Once I pick him up, he will lay his head on my shoulder as we dance to the music. He likes all kinds of tunes as long as he has a dance partner. One night, after dinner at the country club, he wandered over to the live music and in the same fashion, asked a stranger (who was dancing) to pick him up so that they could dance together. He laid his head on her shoulder and she held him close. She told me she has a grandson that looks just like him and she was happy to get a baby hug. When the song was over he waved buh-bye and blew her a kiss.

One day, I walked down the stairs at our house to find Ryan holding Aidan so close with A’s arms draped over his shoulders as they swayed to a slow song. Made my heart melt.

When we tell Aidan to give us a hug, he does. He then follows the hug with a back pat.

CUTEST – THING – EVER!

If you want to feel loved, just ask Aidan for a hug, that will surely do the trick.

I trade favors with him for a “please” or a kiss or a high five. He goes along with this pretty well, I wonder how long that will last?!

Last night he wanted me to turn on the iPad for him, which has changed from mine to his in a matter of seconds once he realized how much fun it was. It has so many apps and YouTube (of course) so it is the perfect toy to bring to a restaurant to buy us time to eat while he reads a book or plays a game. Last night, as I changed from my work clothes into comfy clothes, he climbed up to our bed, sat up straight and pointed to the iPad and said “pad!” I look at him and he says “pease” – as if he already knew I was going to ask him to say it! So I give it to him and as we watch the glowing apple, waiting for it to start up, I ask him for a kiss and he lunges towards me and plants a wet one on my lips.

LOVE – THAT – KID!

Last week, the Big A figured out how to escape his crib. He’s only 20 months old so I’m not sure what to do. I thought he’d be in his crib for a whole lot longer. I certainly don’t want him to continue getting hurt so maybe turning the crib into a toddler bed is the right decision. But I just KNOW he will not stay in that bed once he has an easy out. I thought about turning the crib around so that the higher side was towards the room and the low side towards the wall, but this weekend, I watched him crawl out of the crib and he uses the corner so turning the crib around might make it worse. And I have to admit, Aidan’s pretty good at escaping. Ryan & I both stood close to him and watched, but we did not help him. We wanted him to do it himself and he was pretty crafty as he swung one leg over, straddled the bar on his chest in a laying-down position and then swung the other leg over and then as he held onto the bar with both hands, he lowered himself down until his feet touched the floor.

This weekend, he seemed hesitant to climb out (while we were watching at least). When it was just me watching, he tried to climb out, but was reaching for me to pick him up, he wasn’t confident he could escape without making a swan dive to the ground. I think he can go a little bit longer in the crib, honestly. At least until my Dad & Mom visit at the end of March and Dad can turn the bed into one fit for a crib-escaping toddler.

I do love a 3-day weekend! Ryan actually had the day off as well so got someone to watch Aidan so that we could go out and see a movie. I do love going to the movies, but the stuff I’ve seen these last 3 days hasn’t been that great. ‘Side Effects’ was just OK – ‘Die Hard’ was better, but that’s not saying much.

I wish that I could have seen ‘Safe Haven’ but it was a pretty popular movie this weekend and that made it tough to find a showtime that worked. But even if they turn off the lights and make shadow animals with their hands, I’d still enjoy going to the movies. Always have.

We also went to Costco to pick up a big-boy car seats for the A-man to use when he rides in Ryan’s car. I’ve had one of these in my car for months, but we finally got around to replacing the infant seat that Ryan had been using. Those infant seats are crazy because they say it will last until he’s 35 pounds, but he’s barely 27 pounds and he’s so scrunched up in that seat when he’s in it.

I’m so glad he can now ride facing forward to look out the window when he’s with his Daddy.

It’s back to work we go tomorrow, but I enjoy it so I’m not that bummed about my return to the office. I know Aidan isn’t that thrilled because he just loves having us home. But that’s what weekends are for!

A tiny seed planted in the depth of nurturing soil

You soak up the warmth of the sun and the rain.

Stretching roots like legs when waking up in the morning

Standing tall, stems extend like arms towards the sky.

You grow from the flowery love that is always around you,

Poking bud above soil, like a nod of fresh air.

Breathe in deep and flourish, as purple bloom unfolds

Into a flush of flowery violet and unwrapped petals.

Swaying in the field, you bend with the breeze

Floating and flowing on the whim of the wind.

  Copyright © 2013 N.E. Tasker

Happy 75th Birthday Grammie!

Saturday evening my little boy closed his little finger in the hinge-side of our closet door. I’ve never heard anyone cry so hard in all my life. All I could do was hold him, but he was delirious because he could not make the pain go away. He was screaming and waving his bloody finger in the air – the nail raised up off the top of it. We finally got him to calm down after some Tylenol, milk and mommy-love. Then he passed out and slept for 9 hours.

We started to get worried at 8:30am on Sunday morning when we still hadn’t heard from him. I was certain he’d be up all night after bumping the finger throughout the night, sleeping and rolling on it. It was so tender to the touch when he went to bed that I would have put money on him having a bad night. But thankfully he did not.

Sunday he was totally fine! I got back to the house with donuts, within minutes of him waking up to find him laughing and playing. He was certainly mindful of the new boo-boo, but it didn’t slow him down.

Looks like the nail might re-seat itself and heal, but only time will tell. Until then, you should buy stock in kid’s Band-Aids, we go through about 12 a day.

I have been sick, sick, sick since Friday night. I left work feeling the fingertips of a cold creeping up the back of my throat and nose. Saturday morning I woke up to Aidan yelling for me to get him at 8am and I wondered what I did to be punished like this. That’s how bad I felt. My nose was stuffy and runny at the same time, I had an unforgiving cough and the body aches were indescribable.

At 10am I thought to myself, “Is it time for Aidan’s nap yet?!” His naptime is at 3pm every day, so you can understand how depressed I was to realize that I had to make it through 5 more hours of baby-play before I could get a break. But once his head hit the crib, mine hit my bed and we were both out for 3 1/2 hours. I woke up so stiff I could barely move. I continued to take the daily allotment of dayquil and pound water like I never had before in an attempt to flush the cold from my system.

By Sunday morning, I had less aches all over, but could not stop sneezing. Aidan was up again at 8am (so unlike him) – I had to suck it up and make it through the first half of the day. Since it was Super Bowl Sunday, I prepped Chicken & Noodle (very gravy-like stew) per Ryan’s request, along with some chocolate fudge pudding for dessert. We watched the game and enjoyed the food. I continued to struggle with the stuffy feeling of a head cold until 10:30pm when I realized that I just couldn’t go to work the next day. I showed no signs of feeling better by 7am the next day (which is the time I have to leave each morning in order to get to work by 8:30am) so I emailed my boss and let her know that she should not expect me at work in the morning.

Monday was odd because I felt ok. I forced myself to sleep until 9:30am and then proceeded to watch the worst daytime television while barricaded in my room. I ended up getting antsy and started to clean the shower, then the toilets, then vacuumed the rug and mopped the floor. I made dinner and timed it for Ryan’s return from coaching soccer practice after work and it felt like a good night. I took my last dose of dayquil and suddenly got very chilly and my hands got the shakes. I had to step outside to catch my breath – it was very unexpected. I decided to lay off the nyquil, take some cough syrup instead and hit the sack.

Tuesday morning I woke up at 6am and though, ok – I can go to work today. Then at 7am I thought I was in the long process of dying. It hurt to sit up, stand upright and lie down. My cough was uncontrollable and my head was so stuffed up that I lost my breath after unloading the dishwasher. I was haunted by cold sweats and just couldn’t shake the sick feeling resonating throughout my entire body. Nothing I did worked. I went back to bed until noon.

Today, Wednesday, I took the liberty of tacking on a third sick day from work and here I am, enjoying one last day to get my strength back. Honestly, I don’t know how I will feel tomorrow, but I switched my meds up a bit and am planning on going into work tomorrow. I feel OK at the moment. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

If Tom Brady can’t get it done in the playoffs, he doesn’t deserve to go to the big game. I’m just glad he realized that during the playoffs so I don’t have to cry today. And no, I’m not fair-weather, just realistic. I told you 2013 was unlucky, maybe 2014 will be luckier.

Open lanes, open roads
Broken story, full of holes

What will happen? Will it rain?
Pour all the way, break the pain

It’s not magic in the air
Static stars cling to hair

Twinkle twinkle – make it shine
It’s not a wish, not this time

Hardly close to the end
More to come, more to bend

Copyright © 2013 N.E. Tasker

It’s finally February. I can’t believe my birthday month is over! I will miss you January…

Aidan is finally feeling better. His snotty nose showed signs of subsiding 2 days ago and now his cough is lessening every day since. I really couldn’t take his cold much longer. And I’m not squeamish when it comes to snot, it’s not about that. It’s about his inability to blow his own nose. He is still too young to understand how to hold the tissue (or even let me hold it) and push the snot out of his nose. Instead, he breathes it in – sometimes snorts it in – or waits for it to drip out so he can sleeve-clean it. Yum.

And because he is sucking in the snot through his nose, it goes into his throat and he does not know how to process it. He can’t swallow it so it catches in his throat and causes him to cough. He coughs so violently (because he just doesn’t know any other way to do it) that his face turns red and he will occasionally vomit. Double yum.

It took a dozen washes for me to remove the smell of puke from his blankie. Just when I thought it would never be the same again, I went hard core and got Wisk laundry detergent, which claims to remove sweat and body odor–perfect, right? I also splurged and got fabric softener, which I haven’t used since I was in college. I never saw a need to use it, but I was desperate to make his blankie smell like something other than puke. Well, one good long warm water wash with Wisk and fabric softener did the trick.

The Big A was more than ecstatic to hold his fresh-smelling blankie again. He did his ritual of balling it up and burying his face in it. Love that kid.