• Mom and Dad have been in Europe since the 8th. VoVo and DiDi are in Oaklahoma and left on the 19th. Neither set of babysitters…uh, grandparents… will return until July. Lame.
• Had 2 half days of work at Sacramento Magazine for shipout. It was fun to go and work in the world for a little while and be around other people.
• Went to a party at Jane’s new home in Sac. Saw old high school chums
• Lucas was off school for two weeks, but returned to do the Little Gate summer program starting on the 20th. Lucas’s behavior lately has been really challenging. I partly blame the schedule interruption for it. I also wonder if his aggressive behavior is partly from taking the prednisone and antibiotics? This is something I’m going to watch. It seems like anytime he get’s really sick (and takes medicine), he goes a little haywire. This time it’s hitting me and dad. Striking out at other kids, etc. All the most obnoxious stuff. One Sunday at the day care at church, a kid bit Lucas’s hand. He/she SHOWED Lucas that biting in anger can hurt other people. Since then, Lucas has bit me several times and probably Ian too. He’s had a LOT of time outs lately. He’s really testing his boundaries in a major way.
• For example, one day, June 6, RoRo took me to the Windmill Nursery to buy me plants for my birthday. (Actually, I took her and Lucas.) Lucas was so difficult—he ran away, he hit me, etc., that we really had a lousy time. I was having to spend so much of my attention on L that RoRo was kinda on her own, hobbling along pushing her shopping cart, which helps to keep her on her feet. Basically it was a disaster
• RoRo and Glen both had another birthday. For Glen, we took him to a concert at the Sacramento Zoo on the solstice (his actual birthday is the 23rd). Joe Craven was playing jazzy mandolin. It was fun and we got to roam the zoo after hours with Lucas. Lucas quietly appropriated the toys of the small boy named Everest sitting next to us on the lawn. His parents were cool, and the boys played together. Lucas got filthy. It was a good time.
RoRo’s birthday is on the summer solstice (21st). We were at the zoo that night, but we went to her party on Saturday the 25th. It was a typical family birthday party. Some were surly, some friendly. This time we got her a present that she might actually use: a lavender purse/handbag.
• On a positive note, Lucas’s imagination seems to have taken over. His toy trains have very elaborate dialogues, exciting adventures, and interpersonal problems and resolutions. It’s very interesting to listen to.
• Recent Lucas quotes:
—“I’m trillobananabun. That means I’m eating breakfast!”
—tonight, coming down a flight of stairs, he turns, goes back up and says, “I’m rescuing a kitten. She’s blue.” He gently cradled the kitten while coming downstairs.
• This month, Lucas has spent a lot more time with T at the Bs’ place. I’ve seen him picking up her mannerisms, sense of humor, love of the absurd, etc. Sometimes it’s even charming.
• X turned two on June 14th. We went to his birthday party on the 18th. We got him two books—Is Your Mama a Llama? and Freight Train.

Let’s see… News from my exciting life, which I lead while living no less than 10 minutes by car from my family’s home…

Ian and I just had our 10 year wedding anniversary last Friday. Yikes. I’m still giddy-in-love with him and our trip to parentland has been difficult and challenging, but also has deepened our relationship with each other. I know it sounds goofy, but I am truly honored to be a part of this little family of three that we have built.

Ian is working for a company who provides early intervention services for children with autism. Although when he started he was working directly with the children, he now is doing a lot more management of consultants, cases, and deals with the funding agencies (such as school districts and the California state regional centers). The business belongs to an old friend, and Ian is working really hard to make it viable in the long term. It’s good work, but stressful sometimes. He often has to deal with parents who are somewhat crazy with grief over their child’s disability, and a model of in-home programs that leads to a handful of annoying problems like staffing. Still, he love it because he’s working to help little kids who might otherwise fall through the cracks.

I am still my own boss and we’re coming up on my 2-year anniversary of being in business for myself. I’m a good editor, but not a great business person. So I try to keep the business stuff really simple. I have a handful of regular clients. Lately I’ve been working on nursing and allied health textbooks for Pearson Education. With three other women, I am co-writing a medical terminology textbook this year. I love that project because it will lead to residual income in the form of royalties. My current challenge is to figure out how to work smarter (and not harder), in order to make more $. I’m able to be more selective about the projects I take on now, which is a good feeling. I’ve also been doing a bit of freelance writing for Sacramento Magazine this past year. I’m currently working on my fifth article for them. (I actually interned with Sacramento Magazine back in 96. We starved that year because of it, but that internship has paid off nicely since I’ve been freelancing.) I should probably try to expand and get published by other magazines, but I’m busy and lazy at the same time. I am, after all, still raising a small child.

Lucas is…loving, wonderful, clever, charming, smart, infuriating, independent, clingy, funny, graceful, clumsy, friendly, amazing, and confounding. I’m finding that three is an age of contradictions and paradoxes. Most of the time we enjoy him completely; sometimes I can’t wait to ship him off to grandma’s house or daycare or just about anywhere else. He is sweet as pie for others and saves his most challenging behaviors for me and Ian. This is textbook three-year-old.

Ian and I are starting to think about having another child—a thought that fills me with a warm and cozy feeling and a deep dread at the same time. (Maybe thirty-three is also an age of contradictions and paradoxes?) Like I said above, I sort of now feel like my old self has emerged from the fog of new-parenthood. I have my body back, my mind functioning again, and a lot more freedom to come and go when I need to. So, the idea of walking back into that cloudy dreamland of sleep deprivation and lactation and baby fat is pretty terrifying. On the other hand, I do want to have another baby and I don’t want to be 35 or older when I do it, nor do I want my children to be too far apart in age…. Basically, I am still completely neurotic, but now I can see that clearly.

Took Lucas to the doctor today. He is allergic to mosquito bites and is having a “Wow” reaction (according to the doctor). Now he has to take benadryl and prednisone to control the allergic response and antibiotics to prevent secondary infection from itching.

Today is our 10th anniversary!!

Today was the last day of preschool. Until summer school starts, that is. I’ve been dreading this day a bit, because it’s going to be tough having Lucas off for 2 weeks. After much hemming and hawing, it sounds like Karen will be having summer session—but I still don’t know if Lucas will go 3 full days or 4 mornings per week. I have a feeling he’ll enjoy the four mornings more, but I don’t know how that will affect my work. It sounds like Kimberlee and Emma will attend summer session with Lucas. I’m really hoping my friend Holly will bring Teryn too.

Anyway, tonight we had a potluck picnic at the bird track park on Pheasant. Kevan and her mom Nora were there with Karla, Nick, and Julie. Anna was there with Emma. Cindy, Gordon, Kimberlee and Joe (their teenage roommate) were there too. It was a lot of fun and there was yummy food. Of course, Lucas was so distracted by the kids and being in the playground that he hardly ate at all. The weather was beautiful. (We have had such a mild summer so far.)

We Wilsons presented Miss Karen with a cement and glass stepping stone that we made for her garden. Ian designed it to have two roses, one red and one orange, with crossing stems, and there’s a little white arch in the back to represent Karen’s white garden archway that we have passed through every single day of school. Lucas helped place the stained glass into the wet cement and tapped them down lightly. Karen had gifts of baby dolls for all the children too. Lucas’s doll is blue—of course.

Recently the children made stick horses at Little Gate. Lucas’s stick horse is, of course, blue. They’re stuffed with wool that the children carded themselves. Lucas chose red buttons for eyes and Karen says he helped her sew them on. It has a little finger-knitted bridle out of yarn. I think its name is Mr. Ed. Lucas brought Mr. Ed home today, and he desperately wanted to bring him along to the picnic.

The handmade stick horse really serendipitous too, because Lucas has been really interested in cowboys since his birthday. He got the Woody doll (à la Toy Story—even though Lucas has not seen the movie) from us for his birthday. He actually asked for a Woody doll for last Christmas. For months he has shown a distinct preference for the pull-ups that have Woody on them over the ones that have Buzz Lightyear—ever since the Woody design was introduced. For the last couple of weeks, Lucas has been wearing the cowboy hat that Glen gave to Ian when Ian was a boy. He’s rediscovered his rocking horse too. Sometimes Woody rides it, sometimes Lucas, sometimes they both ride it.

It appears Lucas has developed an allergy to mosquito bites. I didn’t know one could actually be allergic to mosquito venom, but I poked around on the Internet tonight and confirmed it. I’ve been suspecting that he is having a greater-than-normal reaction to them for a week or so. He got several bites that swelled up and became quite inflamed, then they were open wounds for many days. Actually—they still haven’t healed completely. Unfortunately, today, Lucas came home from school with probably 10 new bites. I guess he might have gotten some of them here yesterday evening, but I didn’t notice. Now, however, he’s swollen all over with bites. I bought some anti-itch stuff and covered his welts with band aids. We put hydrocortisone on his left side and the new anti-itch gel on his right. Tomorrow we’ll see if there’s any visible difference. I may run to the grocery store tomorrow and buy the Merkel family mosquito bite remedy: roll-on antiperspirant with the aluminum salts in it that you aren’t supposed to use in your armpits anymore. I’ve actually read in magazines within the last year that it works to reduce the swelling and stop the itching—so it’s not just a Merkel legend born in the coastal jungles of Mexico in … what… 1982. Dang! Why didn’t I think about that today when I was buying food for tonight’s picnic?