In Which All Is Not Sweetness And Light Around Here

Poor Connor.  This morning when Jeremy left the house, Connor burst into tears and cried so hard he threw up.  He threw up again in the car all over his jacket and his hearing aids and then had a total, sobbing meltdown today at school-- an unheard of occurence.  He's really anxious right now.  I'm sure today's continued packing didn't help any, despite our reassurances that Jeremy wasn't leaving and we were packing because we're all moving to the new house together.  We'll just keep repeating the message and hoping that eventually it will sink in and he'll relax a little bit. 

Guess who else isn't happy? 

That's right.  The cats are freaking out.  Loki reacts to all the changes by becoming super affectionate and extremely enthusiastic about everything-- following me from room to room and bouncing around my ankles while I'm attempting to move things.  Packing is kind of hazardous while he's around because not only does he want to jump in every box, but he also tends to ram his head against the back of my legs right as I am lifting something.  Usually something fragile.

Cricket, on the other hand, is not reacting by being enthusiastically affectionate.  She's reacting by becoming extremely crabby with anyone and everyone.  She growls at Loki.  She growls at the cars driving by outside the window.  She growls at the boxes.  She's been spending a whole lot of time up in the cat tower in the corner of the room where she can see everything, because then there's no chance that Loki or one of the evil cars or boxes could sneak up on her.  She's also shedding like crazy all over everything. 

Of course Loki has been repeatedly attempting to administer his own brand of affectionate reassurance to Cricket.  Here he is trying to get her to let him cuddle, which ended tragically shortly after I took the picture.  This has provided our entertainment while we are taking breaks from packing.

So basically we've got Eeyore, Tigger, and what quite possibly might be the Heffalump all living in our household right now, and this apartment isn't nearly the size of the Hundred Acre Wood. 

Can't wait until we're settled!

~Jess

Party Time!

We attended our first ever toddler birthday party today. Connor's friend AJ turned two this week, and five or six little guys and gals between the ages of 18 months and 3 attended the festivities. It was an experience.

I think everyone probably has a grasp on how the typical two year old thinks. Try to picture the birthday party from AJ's perspective. Here he is, an only child who has just been fed an obscene amount of chocolate cake and is therefore on a major sugar high. All of the sudden these six other children have descended on his house, where not only do they have the audacity to actually speak to his mother and father, but they are playing with his toys. AJ spent the vast majority of the evening screaming at the top of his lungs and running around attempting to wrest every toy of his out of the other kids' hands. Picture a scene out of the movie 300, only with more carnage and "MIIIIIIIIINE!!!" substituted for "this is Sparta" and you'll have a pretty good image of the festivities.

Connor and I sat in a rather bemused fashion on the sidelines and watched the drama unfold. Connor, never one to miss out on any great entertainment, laughed and clapped his hands whenever one of the children landed a particularly solid punch on their opponent. He seemed to have a good time, so the party was a success on that front, anyway. I got to eat chocolate cake and see AJ's mom and dad, so I enjoyed myself. Poor AJ, however, seemed to think it would have been much better if everyone had stayed home and just sent presents.

The really interesting thing, though, was watching the way all of the children interacted with Connor. AJ, though initially terrified of both of us, by the end of the party was actually wresting toys out of the other kid's hands and bringing them to Connor to play with. None of the kids screamed at Connor or hit him. All of them spoke to him nicely. One of the little girls was particularly fascinated with him and spent ten minutes or so showing him a toy dragon (See, Connor? The dragon goes RAWR!!!) and patting him gently on the hand. The dragon needed to wear hearing aids too, so we spent a lot of time pretending that my cell phone was a hearing aid and holding it up to the dragon's ear so he could hear what we were saying. Connor and the little girl both thought that was pretty funny.

Connor seems to bring out this reaction in almost all of the children he meets. They are mutually fascinated with each other. I think it might be because he's not a threat to them. He doesn't hit, he's not running around and trying to interact with their parents-- he's just sitting calmly and watching everything they do. Because he is gentle and quiet, they seem to instinctively react the same way around him. Connor, in return, doesn't ignore other children or bury his head in my shoulder the way he reacts when he meets new adults, but makes a conscious effort to stay in their world instead of retreating to his own.

Even Connor has his limits, however, no matter how tolerant he usually is. He strenuously objected to being called a "little kid" by one of the girls at the party. He is a big boy, thank you very much.

~Jess