...And I Realized That You Are an Extrovert

I usually do not blog about work, but something happened today that needs to be shared. You need a little background first. I've been working on this very exciting project for several months now. I'll spare you the detials, but the project is a study where we have to compare/evaluate/prioritize a large list of unrelated items. We also have a large amount of people that are the boss in this case, so there are lots of meetings and lots of presentations. The project manager and I get along great, but I've noticed that we have not been connecting on several occasions. At times it is as if we are speaking different languages.

We are nearly at the end of the project, and we had some extra time this morning to chat because of a power outage in the office. During our conversation, she shared that she had recently listened to a speech where the speaker was discussing the various traits of introverts and extroverts. She is an introvert and related to the speaker's perspective, but during the speech she had an epiphany that she shared with me. To quote, "...and I realized that you are an extrovert, and you have so many of the qualities that he used to describe extroverts like working collaboratively."

In that moment I realized that I was not alone in sensing the awkwardness or misunderstandings that occurred and that we most likely are speaking different languages more or less. I might have to do some research about "what extroverts can do to annoy introverts less" or "what to do when your boss is an introvert." I forget sometimes that I work in a field of introverts, so it's probably worthwhile research. It also never occurred to me to actually present that personality trait to project managers at the beginning of a project, but that might not be a bad idea either.

So to all you introverts out there, I'm sorry if I don't get it the first time. I just have a different set of operating criteria than you do. Good thing is that as an extrovert, you can just collaborate with me on how to improve our communications.

The Stress of Growing Up and Lots of Pictures

Christopher is changing so quickly right now. He is learning more and more each day and is trying his best to keep up with Daniel. One area of particular interest for him right now is the potty which is wonderful (at times). After the long and drawn out experience with Daniel, I've taken a much more relaxed approach to Christopher's potty training. My new approach is that the potty is there, but he's in charge of when to use it. And let me tell you, he's in charge. Like last night at 3:30 am when he woke up with a dry diaper and needed to go to the potty. Or when he woke up again at 5 am to let me know that he needed a sticker for his last potty episode. It makes me wonder if he was just lying in bed awake for 2 hours trying to figure out what was missing in the process. Or again, from 5:45 until 6 am when he was throwing a fit because he wanted another sticker. I'm hoping for an equal amount of potty enthusiasm during the daylight hours in the coming days.

We will see where this leads. Christopher really has the bug now because we recently finished a sticker chart, and he got to pick out a toy at the toy store. I guess he really enjoyed that activity because today when he was looking at his new sticker chart with three stickers on it he was musing about when he would get another new toy. Daniel, meanwhile, potty-trained so recently that he is recreating his experience for Christopher - now we get to put a space for blue popcorn (which pushed him over the edge from lukewarm to really hot about the potty), we turn right to go get the potty treat (when giving Matt directions on where they go to get ice cream), he also insisted that we go to the same toy store for Christopher's toy as we did for Daniel's toy.

Here is a picutre from our pre-Easter photo shoot on the porch. The boys loved modeling their new clothes and were having a blast posing for pictures. Lots of laughter and silliness.

I must provide an update since I wrote this a couple days ago. Christopher is still doing great with the potty! He also told me tonight that, "I am a big boy now because I can turn off my light without a grownup." I love that he can tell me what he is thinking in response to my little comments here and there. He is so specific and factual. I wonder what this will mean for him as he grows up?

Backwards pictures!

"Angel" pose.

Sitting like this is too much fun to get a nice face.

Yoga pose!

With "Thomas" one of our 20 pet rocks. Thankfully only 2 have names.

Daniel's turn with the camera.

Had to add this one. I couldn't figure out which was more entertaining - shoveling with a helmet (which he did attempt to wear to bed) or biking with the gardening gloves. Both were done.

Running with the Pack

Spring has hit Madison, and it's wonderful. In a matter of days, we went from winter weather (25 and cold) to summer weather (80 degrees and sunny). It has been warm long enough for all the spring plants to be coming up. My daffodils have blossomed, the lilacs are budding and the grass is green again. It is just amazing to see all the new life outside. The boys seem to sense this in an almost primal way.

Daniel has wanted to be outside since the moment it warmed up. I can see the difference in him.The joy and excitement of just being outside in the warm weather, seeing things grow must be soexciting for him. The kids in the neighborhood have been outside playing, too, and Daniel has been noticing them. On Sunday, we were working on the brakes on his bike when a pack of girls on Razor scooters came by the house on a mission. Being beckoned by the sound of their wheels, Daniel looked up at me, and as if he were taken over by some sort of trance said, "Mom, I have to go scooter. Goodbye." And just like that he was on his 3-wheeled Lightning McQueen scooter and off to join the neighborhood pack. It was quite the Mom moment for me, but I let him go. I'm sure he will figure out soon enough that his scooter will never go at fast as theirs or he will figure out that they are all 3 years older than him and have older siblings, but right now he is thirlled to be hanging out with the other kids.

Last week the boys and I had quite a few adventures while Matt was out of town for several days. We planted our garden and went to the Union to enjoy the weather on Friday night. Then on Saturday we marched in Madison's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Christopher was only slightly resentful that I disrupted his nap two days in a row. The routine is back in place more or less and Christopher seems happy with that.

I can't believe how much difference a season can make!

Our first snowman! Mine, too on March 2.

Enjoying the fresh air during naptime on March 11.

A little Union ice cream to help heal the "worst owie ever" on Daniel's chin.

Riding in the Notre Dame Club float for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Practicing bike riding.

Picnic time for lunch today!

Gratitude

Today I'm really feeling a sense of ease, acceptance, and gratitude. I'm thinking it is the growing presence of yoga in my life, but it could just be a good day. Like this morning, I thought I was going to have to skip yoga because Matt was going to go to the office early. Instead the alarm went off at 5:30 am and he said, "I set that for you, in case you still wanted to go to yoga." It took me a few minutes to really grasp that, but I quickly realized that I did want to go to yoga. It was a great class and I did a new arm balance pose! A very crude version of this, http://www.fitsugar.com/Strike-Yoga-Pose-One-Legged-Arm-Balance-1004848. When I got home, I was able to clear all the fresh lovely snow off the driveway. February is so much prettier with snow!

Then the boys and I headed on to our usual Friday activity, swimming lessons and grocery shopping. Swimming was fine. Grocery shopping was great. For some reason, my boys decided to cooperate, enjoy the ride, and listen. Another check in the plus column.

When we got home, I felt that we were at a tipping point. Christopher wanted to play in the snow. Daniel wanted to stay inside. Then he decided that he wanted to erect some sort of climbing rope involving the vacuum cord and the bannister. He had just been helping me vacuum, so that was nice, too. The need to have a climbing rope was successful redirected into assembling a pulley system from the bannister with some bags for transportation of small items up and down. These are the parenting moments I like to call offensive. I just knew that he would not let go of this idea, so instead of fighting it head on with a 'no' I found a way to satisfy that need and taught him something in the meantime. So much of my day is spent playing defense, it's nice to get ahead for a change.

Now we get to the good part. Christopher was really sad to go down for his nap because he really wanted to have some avocado, but he finally gave in to a rest. Daniel wanted me to hang out in his room for a few extra minutes while he tried to fall asleep, which I was glad I decided to do becasue both boys are napping! A quiet house is a really rare occasion these days. Daniel usually has a quite time in his room during Christopher's rest, but his definition of quiet involves loud singing and lots of kicking of the furniture. When the doorbell right as Daniel was about to be out for the count I was sure that Daniel was going to come bounding out of his room, but luckily he didn't and the person at the door was here to bring me a suprise out of the blue unexpected bouquet of flowers from my husband!

What did I do to deserve a day like this? So here I sit, thankful for such a thoughtful husband and fun kids. And as I make Christohper some guacamole as a treat for his snack, I'm just going to remember these parts of my day not the one where Daniel decorated his pants with the marker because he thought it would look nice, or when I decided that maybe Daniel was mature enough to manage the water for his shower after swimming and ended up showering all four of the people in the area in dry clothes instead of himself, or the part where, well I'm sure the third in the list is coming. I only have two so far :)

Three-year-old of a Different Sort

Today has been a different day for us here in the Lee house. I'm not sure what changed, but Daniel is being different today. It all started when I came downstairs to get coffee at 6:30 am, and Daniel politely insisted that he needed oatmeal right then. I agreed, but then had to leave him to wait for it to cool off to eat to deliver coffee to Matt. Several minutes later Daniel came upstairs to announce that he was all done with his oatmeal. There was not a speck on him, so I assumed that all was fine. He returned downstairs alone which is pretty unusual for him. He always wants company. Well, he came back upstairs with a face and hand full of chocolate cupcake crumbs. I guess he was still hungry and was fed up with looking at the container of cupcakes that were still around since Saturday, so he decided to do something about it.

The next unusual happening was that he chose to have baby carrots for his morning snack and also insisted on carrying the rest of the bag around in his pocket from 10 am until he finished off the last few at 12:30 pm. What a goose! I guess I can't complain about having a kid that eats a bunch of carrots.

So while Daniel was upstairs 'napping,' he was very quiet for 35 minutes or so, and then I started hearing him go back and forth between his room and the bathroom and the water was occasionally running in the bathroom.  I usually force him to come downstairs before I'll go up and chat with him, but today I decided to go up and give it a look. Well, the water was from a toy octapus that squirts water. Ok, no big deal, but then I went in his room and the chair was directly underneath the ceiling fan, suspicious to say the least.

Next Daniel announces in a voice as matter of face and serious as he has ever been, "Mom, I'm doing an experiment." Me, "really?" Daniel, "Yes, I am going to put the towels up there (gestures to the fan) and the I'm going to do this (puts book over his head)." I can only assume that the book was protection from the falling objects.

After this announcement he asks me if I can get the fan pull out of the glass shade for the bulbs where it was caught so he can continue his experiment. At ths point, I removed the fan pull, shook my head, made some mild direction of the "fan pulls are for grownups" sort and left. I was unable to come up with more specific or strong correction because my mind was flooded with visions of my sister and I putting things on the fan blades in our room and seeing what happened when we turned the fan on. This event happened on several occasions. What goes around comes around I guess. Hopefully he will move on to the next experiment soon.

This kid has a mind for science. Yesterday he was asking me for a magnifying glass so that he could see which feet were on the Cootie in the picture on the box.

It is wonderful to see him trying to figure out his world and coming up with the words to describe what he wants/sees/thinks. Finding the words and patience to go step by step is extremly furstrating for Daniel which makes it frusterating for us, too. I love these moments when I get a glimpse of what is going on inside his head.

Strange Milk Buying Neuroses Developing

It dawned on me today that I'm developing some very odd milk purchasing neuroses when I returned to my desk at work from picking up lunch with a gallon of milk in tow. This on top of ending our anniversary date on Sunday with a trip to Target to browse and I purchased a gallon of milk just in case. Our family's consumption of milk has reached a new level. I'm not sure if the consumption is actually up or if it is just magnified since we are all drinking the same kind of milk now. It's changed enough that I'm always a little worried that we are going to run out of milk. I can't imagine what happens when the kids are teenagers or if we have more children. I bet that is the day that I come home with several gallons of milk and an extra refridgerator to hold all the milk.

Conversations with Christopher

More than once last week, this was my first conversation with Christopher. Me, "Good Morning Christopher!"
Christopher, "I want Daddy to open my door. I have dreams Mommy."
Me, "I'm sorry Daddy didn't open your door today. What did you dream about?"
Christopher, "Babies. I dream about babies, Mommy."


Then today on the way home from school Christopher announces:
"Mommy, I want to go to the dentist. Yes, I go to the dentist first. I go to the doctor, too, Mommy."
Me, "Really, Christopher, you want to go to the dentist and the doctor."
"Yes, Mommy, I go to the dentist first, and the doctor, too, Mommy."
"Why do you want to go to the dentist?"
"My mouth hurts Mommy. I hurt my mouth on the big friends side, Mommy." (there was no apparent injury)

If you have not noticed, Christopher says most things twice and punctuates almost every sentence with the name of the person he is addressing.

Not all conversations are this pleasant. For instance, yesterday there was a brief break in the action, so I hopped up in the tree to remove the Christmas lights. It was somewhat timely as the tree trimmers were working in the backyard at the time and they needed to get the tree with lights as well. Anyway, the boys decided to come watch, so we got all bundled up, but Daniel did not want to wear his mittens. We were only going to be outside for a few minutes, so I figured the consequences would become obvious to him rather quickly. For several minutes the boys were pushing and yelling at each other on the porch and creating a rather noisy scene, but they were not getting too overly adjitated. Well, when I finished I asked them what they were arguing about and Christopher announced that, "Daniel needs his mittens on," and Daniel whined that, "Christopher was telling me to put my mittens on." Seriously, Daniel got totally worked up because Christohper told him to put his mittens on. Christopher seems to have a good grasp on how to get under Daniel's skin. I see some interesting conversations coming my way.