Sometimes Even Nutmeg Doesn't Feel Like a Nut

When I was planning my trip to San Francisco to help celebrate the impending arrival of Bert & Bryan's baby, I waffled on whether to bring Nutmeg. Toth had to come with me, of course, but I thought it would be nice to have an otherwise kid-free weekend. And Epu's parents were coming anyway to babysit Pebbles.

But, then, Nutmeg pined to see her friend Eliot. Eliot and his parents pined for Nutmeg. What clinched it is when I realized that my planned visit coincided with Eliot's 5th birthday. How could I not bring his babyhood friend?

So I bought a $250 plane ticket for the Nut and instructed her to pack a backpack of in-flight activities.

She was a perfect angel during the flights there and back. She wore flip flops and was therefore able to scoot easily in and out of her shoes at security. She actually helped a lot, pushing the stroller or rolling a suitcase when needed. She handled her disappointment at not being able to sit by the window on the plane, and she kept herself occupied with the books and toys she'd brought.

While in San Francisco, we went out to lunch together at one of my old favorite restaurants, and I had to admit it was better than eating alone. It was almost like eating out with a girlfriend.

Am I glad I brought her? Not at all.

Those moments I just described were the good parts. Most of the other parts of our four day stay, Nutmeg was either vomiting or asleep. I guess she picked up a bug on the plane. While I'm not generally one to complain about a kid who sleeps too much, it sort of kept me from going out and revisiting any of my beloved Bay Area spots. My hosts, Eliot's parents, were gracious enough to keep an eye on sleepy, barfy Nutmeg while I co-hosted Bert's (super-fun) shower, but on most of Sunday I felt it best if I stuck around. Every once in awhile she'd wake up and cry for me. Eliot's mom and I did get out for a couple hours Sunday afternoon to shop in Japantown, but that was it. Then there was the fact that I got even less sleep than usual, since sick Nutmeg wanted to be near mommy and that meant sharing a twin-sized bed with her.

$500. Ten hours of travel. Mostly to just barf in a toilet on the other side of the country. We have one of those at home!

While I was gone Sunday afternoon, Nutmeg woke up and felt great. She spent those hours playing with Eliot and his dad, and these moments defined her memory of the whole trip. When we got home and Epu asked her how the trip had been, she said:

"Great! Eliot's dad carried us around the apartment on his shoulders!"

Because of her persistent lack of consciousness, I got very few photos of Nutmeg in San Fran. Here's one, though:
Yeah, pretty cute.

And sure, I was pretty happy to reconnect with Keith and Kay and Eliot too. And I love hanging out in their San Francisco neighborhood. Here is where I'm supposed to say that it was all worth it, despite the mess and trouble and expense, because of all the love and friendship involved.

I can't say it. Despite Nutmeg's two hours of fun (@ $125 an hour!) I wish I hadn't brought her. I'm not blaming her for ruining my trip with her insolent barfing; I'm AWARE that she couldn't help it. I didn't even spank her for it! But I'll tell you what: Any trip is better without barf. And that's the truth.

Her Highness

You know that crown Nutmeg wore on the first day of school?

(to refresh your memory, here's Nutmeg breaking out of the joint at the end of that first day)

Well, that night I asked her if she was going to wear her crown to school again on the second day. She said, "Of course not."

Instead, while she's at school, Nutmeg keeps her crown on a homemade pedestal. The sign, which she wrote with help spelling "please" and "touch," reads "Please do not touch."

And finally, last night at dinner it came up that we don't have to pay for kindergarten. Nutmeg looked at me with a face that would normally be reserved for news of a trip to Disney World. Then she raised one hand high in the air.

"Slap me some skin!" she shouted.

I love this because a) Nutmeg think kindergarten is so great that she imagined it was very, very expensive, and b) Nutmeg understands and shares my love of a good deal.

First Day of School

OK, I'm in tears and not just because my baby started school this morning.

My baby started school and I didn't bring her there.

Also, she was tardy on her very first day.

My God, what is WRONG with me? I've been late for everything in my entire life. It's somewhat of a family joke. But I was quite determined that the whole family would be taking Nutmeg to school this morning with plenty of time to spare for pictures.

This morning, Toth woke up at 6 to nurse. I was still pretty tired since I'd stupidly stayed up until 1 to blog after getting Nutmeg's school things together. But no big deal. He wouldn't quite settle back down afterwards, so I got him up a couple more times to swaddle him, rock and burp. No big deal.

Then, just as I sank into bed for a few minutes of shut-eye before we all had to get up at 7, I heard Pebbles cry. She was lying on the floor of the hallway, of all places. She knows how to crawl out of her crib now. I tucked her into our bed and lay back down.

Then Toth started fussing again. I must have gotten him settled because when the alarm went off at 6:30 I was definitely asleep. Epu got up and went downstairs to do some work like he always does early mornings, and I fell back asleep until 7:10. I wish I could go back in time right now and poke myself with a mildly hot poker and say "Don't go back to sleep, moron! It's the first day of school!"

When Pebbles and I woke up and came downstairs, Nutmeg was sitting at the table eating breakfast, the coffee was made, and Epu was heading for the shower. I ate something and then noticed that Pebbles was putting her head down on the table. I figured she was tired from waking up too early and carried her to the couch.

Then I showed Nutmeg the backpack I bought her last night -- she loved it -- and the outfit I'd laid out for her. She didn't want to wear that so we looked through her closet and found something different. Naturally she picked something that had fallen to the floor of the closet and was wrinkled, but, no big deal. Then I had to sit down and nurse the baby.

She got dressed while I took my shower and by the time I got out it was 7:45, the time we really should have been leaving. Epu got Toth dressed, Nutmeg combed her own hair and put on -- interesting fashion choice -- the crown she made in a craft class yesterday. Epu got Pebbles dressed. I got dressed, took a minute to argue with Nutmeg about what shoes she was going to wear, and then we were all scrambling to get out the door. It was 7:55, 3 minutes till the line-up bell. I went out with Nutmeg, camera in hand, realized I'd forgotten Toth in the swing, and ran back to get him.

Nutmeg was already partway down the block when Pebbles threw up on the front porch.

Well, that explains why she was lying on the couch all morning.

"You go ahead," Epu said.

"No, you go!" I said. He knew it meant a lot to me to be there for her first day, but I knew it meant even more to her to have her dad there. She'd been so excited that the whole family was going to be allowed to stay with her for the first half hour of school.

Pebbles and I stood next to her little puddle of watery barf and watched them disappear down the block. We were both disappointed at this turn of events.

The school is less than two blocks away, so I pictured them getting there just in time to get in line before the bell rang to call the kids inside. But, when Epu stopped back here before heading to work, he told me that the kids had already gone in by the time they arrived. He'd snapped a couple pictures outside, and then had to ask directions to her class, which is just inside the door.

When they got there, all the kids were already sitting down, ready to listen to a story.

This just breaks my heart. Nutmeg had no time to reconnect with the friends she'd met at the kindergarten meet and greet, no time to soak up the moment of her first day of school.

Apparently Nutmeg didn't even realize she was late, and was a big ball of happiness, chatting with her teacher and skipping down the hall when the class adjourned to the auditorium. And one other parent and kid showed up after Epu and Nutmeg did. And hey, lots of parents were lined up at the office because their kids probably weren't even registered yet or something.

But still. We effed up her first day of school. What kind of parents are we?

I now realize that our error was purely tactical -- since Epu and Nutmeg were ready first we should have had them go ahead without me and the little kids. We could have caught up later. Oh well -- I'll keep that in mind for her NEXT first day of school.

Heh.

The Latest Nutmeg News

Remember when this blog chronicled every new thing that happened to Nutmeg? I even used to call it "The Nutmeg News." So many times in the swirling maelstrom of the past month, I have composed Nutmeg posts in my head for you. Today I'm sitting in a cafe on Michigan Ave. and I have a few minutes to actually type one.*
Nutmeg has been a science and nature nut this summer. I picked up a book of kids' science projects at a rummage sale for her, and she took it and ran with it, completing several experiments out of the book with no adult prompting or help. She learned something, too: Activities that parents would normally prompt your parent to say: "Stop it! You're making a mess!" are suddenly sanctioned and encouraged when labeled as "educational."
But really, neither experiment was as messy as I'd feared. Experiment #1 involved adding food coloring to the vase holding some white flowers. Yep, the flowers turned color, and she was hooked on science. Experiment #2 involved drawing on stiff paper with markers then putting the end of the paper in some water and watching it creep up and diffuse the marker spots.
That one reminded me of watching a pregnancy test stick for results, but I didn't tell her that.
Then we moved onto biology. I'd picked up a couple of these butterfly kits on sale on Amazon, for my birthday gift drawer, but we ended up letting her have one as a reward for not waking me up EVER AGAIN during the night unless she or her sister was on fire. (There is also a meteor clause.) We sent away for the caterpillars and sure enough, they formed coccoons, butterflies emerged, and I believe they even got it on and laid eggs, although we haven't been able to spot any eggs in the butterfly habitat with the magnifying glass.
The highlight of this process was Nutmeg calling to me, "Mom! Mom! It's using its proboscis!" Then she showed me something I had never seen before: The butterfly's long tongue-thingy that it had unfurled to slurp up kiwi juice. I tried to correct her pronounciation -- she called it a "pro-boss-is" and I told her it was "pro-boss-Kiss." But you know what? She was right, I was wrong.
I'm sure that's the last time THAT will happen, right?
Yesterday was the beginning of the end of Nutmeg's summer of learning. All three kids and I trooped down to the school playground to meet her kindergarten teacher and some other kids from her class at the official kindergarten meet and greet. Nutmeg's teacher is a young, beautiful and sweet woman, just the kind of teacher a 5-year-old loves to hug. Just like Miss Binney in "Ramona the Pest." In fact, I will henceforth refer to the new teacher as Miss Binney.
Nutmeg quickly made friends with a couple of the girls who will be in her class, and promptly began asserting alpha dog dominance. When someone announced that it was time for the kids to stop playing on the slides and gather around their new teachers, Nutmeg started herding up her new friends like a Shetland Sheepdog. "Sarah! Sarah! It's timt to go stand by Miss Binney!" Neither of her friends had heard the announcement, but Nutmeg did not give up until she had gotten them both to the appointed meeting place.
Then it was time to gather in a circle and have each 5-year-old tell something special or fun about themselves. While the other girls clung to their moms and spoke in whispers, Nutmeg stood 3 feet away from me and spoke from her diaphragm. Then she did something that would have surprised me if she hadn't done something similar last year when meeting her preschool teachers -- she flung herself into the middle of the circle and did some dance/tae kwon do moves.
Suffice to say, the kid's excited.
After the introductions, one of Nutmeg's new friends ran up and hugged Miss Binney. Then Nutmeg ran up and hugged her, and, not to be outdone, Pebbles hugged her. Then they all did it again. When the new friend went in for a third round, her parents finally stepped in and rescued the poor teacher.
Then Pebbles told me, "Now I am going to meet MY teacher." Poor kid. At least they had extra popsicles when they handed them out to the new kindergarteners.
Miss Binney asked if the kids had any questions, and naturally Nutmeg did: "Are siblings allowed at recess?"
She was told that while they were not, the whole family was welcome to hang around for the first half hour of the first day, which is August 25. This sent her over the moon.
We also picked out Nutmeg's first "lunch kit." Did you know they're not called lunch boxes anymore? Nutmeg was tempted by one with peace signs all over it, but then I pointed out a really cute one that said "I Love Trees" on it.
"That's perfect! Because I love peace AND I love our maple tree!" she said.
"Can I has a lunch kit?" Pebbles asked.
So yes, we're looking forward to kindergarten around here. Even those of us who aren't going for three more years.

* I'm sitting at Cafe Descartes on Michigan Ave. with just Toth because I just got done doing a spot on the WGN morning show to promote my Frugalista blog on ChicagoNow. Don't you hate it when TV stations use their news shows to promote their other media offerings? I sure do, and yet, when they said "Jump if you wanna be on TV" I said "How high?" Coming up next week: Interview on WGN radio. I'll post here with the day and time when I know it.