NILL FAMILY news

Hello? Hello, hi, it’s Ashton. A little birdie told me I’m getting a bad rap on this blog. Specifically, that I’ve been referred to as “a ferocious little dinosaur”. Now that’s just silly – dinosaurs aren’t little and neither am I. Not sure where that comes from. It also seems that my mom is already blaming me for any and all future coffee table damage. You know that saying “who needs enemies when you have friends like that”? As if I would bother with the coffee table, the most boring piece of furniture in the house. Anyway, the point is that the birdie told me if I ever wanted to get on this blog and say my piece, now would be a good time. To save my reputation and all.

Besides general destruction, chaos and constantly sticky hands (“grubby little fists”), I am also accused of whining a lot. Well picture this: you’re minding your own business, quietly playing with your trucks and then faster than you can say “Pampers” you are swept up, laid flat on your back with your legs in the air and your nether regions violated with a wet wipe. How do you think that feels? No warning whatsoever. You were just playing with your trucks! The only thing worse is the nubby washcloth that assaults my face after every meal. Listen, you’d whine too. You’d also be mad if your milk was too cold, your toys were too organized, and you were forced to take a nap every day. Who has time for that?? Personally, I’m too busy.

My mom recently started to read “The Happiest Toddler on the Block”. I snuck a peek – who is this person? What kind of Kool-Aid are they drinking? While it didn’t give me a name, I did learn that members of my demographic should be considered “little cavemen”, unequipped with patience or the ability to reason and hence, prone to tantrums. I sat quietly pondering this. Well, which is it? Am I a caveman or am I a dinosaur? Perhaps the problem is that they can’t come up with something more modern! Either way, I would like to meet this H. Toddler. Maybe the snacks are better at his house.

I’ve been enrolled in Early Intervention for speech. At 20 months old, my vocabulary is not big enough and I don’t pro-NUN-see-ate. I do wave and say “Buh-bye” quite frequently, and it’s intentional, but my mom never gets the hint. She smiles and then STAYS where she IS. So annoying. I end up having to be the one to leave, usually in search of a toy that I don’t own because she never buys me anything. But where was I. Oh, Early Intervention. So far EI has meant a nice lady coming once a week for an hour to play with me. Besides her terrifying bumblebee puppet, I like her. She calls me “adventurous and brave” instead of  “ferocious” like my mom SOME people.

My best friend is Owen. He is the only one I would ever want at the top of the slide with me. NOT my mom. The bottom line is, what does she want from me? I know I’m not the best shopper. Sitting in one place for an extended period of time (>1 minute) is a lot to ask. I know I tug at her leg when she’s trying to brush her teeth, or cook, or do anything at all, really. I like to be included, so what? But I sleep through the night. I drink my cold milk. I take the damn nap! A little appreciation for my positive qualities would be nice around here. In fact, based on what I’ve read, my mom should be thanking me for the material. I’m the talent! Now who do I call about royalties?

This might get long but I think it’s necessary. Let’s start with last Tuesday around 5:30 pm. Chera and Owen had just left after a little impromptu playdate and the boys had been running around like crazy with their trucks. I put the oven on for Ashton’s dinner when I noticed he was having an extremely difficult time breathing. Short gasps and wheezing. He had had a bad cold but I have never heard him struggle for air like this. I sat on the floor next to him and my stomach dropped – I just knew we were headed for the emergency room (because doesn’t stuff like this always happen on nights and weekends when the pediatrician is closed?!). I paged the doctor on call and put the phone up so she could hear Ashton’ breathing. Long story short, off we went to the pediatric ER at Newton Wellesley. We have been there twice before, once for croup and once for the gash Tate left on Ashton’s face when he bit him.

The rest of the story plays out like your typical emergency room visit. Forms, co-pays, a packed waiting room, check-in, and finally, a room where we waited and waited. A room filled with gadgets and buttons and wires that I had to keep Ashton from playing with, pushing and pulling. The medical treatment for his wheezing was a nebulizer – a little machine that you put liquid meds into, it shoots out a mist and the patient is supposed to breath in the white fog for as long as it takes to empty (ideally with a mask on). Ashton was petrified, screamed and I was sweating from holding his flailing body for five solid minutes (I was by myself – Jason was working). Afterwards, “We’d like to monitor him for the next couple of hours to make sure his lungs don’t close back up.” Excuse me? The next COUPLE of hours? “Yes, and we should mention, the medicine we just gave him can act as a stimulant for some children.” So he is going to be even more hyper than he is now, not having had dinner and past his bedtime by 2 hours? N.o.t. p.o.s.s.i.b.l.e.

It was a blur. Ashton was up, down, on the floor, on the ceiling, rolling around and basically a pinball in a pinball machine. They brought toys in, a little DVD player to watch Mickey, snacks and books and it was a very long 2 hours. They give him a liquid steroid, monitored him for another hour, and he finally crashed after crying his head off for a solid ten minutes. We left at 12 am. Once I got him in his crib I sat and gave him another 20 minute nebulizer treatment, snaking the tube next to his nose and mouth and he breathed it peacefully, fast asleep. I did this again at 4:30 am.

I had to take Wednesday off from work to continue to try to give him nebulizer treatments (even with Jason’s help, yeah right. He won’t sit still for anything for 20 minutes, let alone a machine that blows white mist into his face), go fill his prescriptions and get him to the pediatrician for a followup visit. He did not want to take a nap in the afternoon so I spent about 90 minutes off and on rocking him and trying to get him in his crib despite his wailing. I tried to squeeze some actual work in somewhere. Wednesday night I was so, so tired.

Thursday was ok.

Friday morning Jason had to be at work at 7 am so he was out the door by 6:30. I was on my own. I had to be at work at 8:30 and get Ashton to Chera’s by 8:15 so I  rolled him out of bed at 7:30 am and straight into his highchair with breakfast waiting. He did not like this one bit. Usually Jason is home and they play and watch a little bit of cartoons before he eats. Perhaps he was not hungry but he whined and screamed and eventually I just threw in the towel and packed it all up to take to Chera’s. 5 minutes later, he is pointing to his high chair. Oh, NOW you want breakfast?? I put him back in, unpack his food, and re-serve him. It’s 8 am.

Nope. Ashton starts to pick things up one by one and fling them in every direction. Isn’t this fun? He laughs. I  want to scream. Back out of the high chair, repack breakfast, get his lunch, get my lunch, change him, change me (because a piece of jelly toast had hit my white shirt, of course), and we’re off to Chera’s. 8:15 am. I unload him and the car and realize his milk sippy has leaked all over the place. My passenger seat and my bag are sopping. When this happens with water, fine. Milk, not fine, and it’s ALWAYS milk on mornings like this. I stomp into Chera’s and apologize for him not having had breakfast and am off to work in my sticky car with my sticky stuff.

11 am. Back at Chera’s to pick Ashton up to head to VT for the weekend. Jason is going to a bachelor party and Kathleen and Woody (10 weeks old) and Ashton and I had planned on going home for about two months. But, considering Ashton’s ER visit and breathing problems and cold (he is not quite better and is coughing) we had decided Woody and Ashton should not share a backseat for a 3.5 hour car ride. So that was a real bummer for me – me and Ashton went alone.

The drive up was ok even though Ashton only slept for 30 minutes. There was no real additional trouble until Saturday. He was up at 6:15 am and then his nap was a mere 12 pm – 1:15 pm. Yikes. But off we went to Shelburne Farms to see the baby lambs – me, Ashton, my mom and our dear family friend Patti. Shelburne Farms is such a special place, incredibly beautiful, and I snapped a couple of cute pics.

Afterwards, we went to a cute toy store, filled to the brim with everything you can imagine, and Ashton just started to puke everywhere. Totally out of the blue. Fab. My mom took Ashton outside and Patti and I mopped it all up. Met back at the car, Ashton had a dirty diaper but seemed as good as new. We all commented that it seemed he just had a sour tummy and felt better after getting sick. So we went off to a furniture store to check out their outdoor clearance stuff (I need a set for our deck). Welllll Ashton got sick there too. Another mop-up session while I took Ashton outside. At this point, he was stripped down to his diaper and long sleeve tee, that’s it. His other clothes and shoes were filthy and my poor mom – she was too. Back in the car on the way home … sick again. Pull over, more mopping, more stripping. At home – sick AGAIN. But he seemed to feel better each time and leading up to each incident there was no warning at all – we were all beside ourselves. I ended up calling the pediatrician (“Um, yes hi, this is Ashton’s mom… yes I know we just saw you but this isn’t about his breathing, it’s something else..”) Oy. I put him to bed with no milk and no dinner, poor baby.

Sunday (yesterday) Ashton woke up at the glorious time of 8:30 am, had a big breakfast, and was generally fine except super clingy. He was like a little barnacle all weekend in general and I feel like he never had his paci out of his mouth (which he is getting too old for, but that’s another story for another day). We drove back to Boston, got home around 3 pm, and I just wanted to collapse. Jason had just rolled in from his bachelor party in Sunday River and between the two of us we had the energy of a snail. But no rest for the weary! We had cars and suitcases to unpack, laundry to do, chores chores chores blah blah blah. Ashton was asleep by 7, we were in bed at 10, and I don’t think Ashton, Jason or I moved a muscle until 7 am.

Monday (today) was not an ordinary morning either. Jason had to work at 9 am (and me at 8:30 am) and Chera couldn’t take Ashton until 10:30 am so Uncle Berg, Ashton’s hero, took the bus out to babysit. But we no longer live on the bus line so after carefully coordinating our getting ready schedules, Jason took Ashton for a quick car ride to pick Berg up while I got breakfast ready. (Incidentally, it was Berg who put the “bachelor” in “bachelor party” this past weekend – his wedding is this summer and Ashton is the ring bearer 🙂 ) Luckily, Ashton was in a happy mood and I landed safely at work on time, in unstained clothes.

And a new week is upon us. You see why I feel like I get nothing done! When I do have a free moment, I like to spend it writing ridiculously long blog posts about why I never have free moments.  If you’ve made it this far, I hope this illustration was as long and drawn out to read as it was to write (and to live!) because then I will have made my point 🙂 I love Ashton but boy am I tired!!

p.s. Ashton’s breathing was much improved by Wednesday evening but the pediatrician said if this kind of wheezing episode happens again in the absence of a cold, it is likely asthma. Unfortunately, considering he has allergies and eczema, this could be the case- these conditions are usually a package deal. If he has it, he may or may not grow out of it. To be continued…

We had a wonderful visit this past weekend with Jason’s sister Melissa, her husband Jason, and their son (my godson and nephew and Ashton’s cousin) Owen Anthony! Owen is almost 11 months and totally at that sweet baby stage where he just smiles and makes cute noises and plays nicely with toys. Ahhh those were the days. Anyway, they came up from Long Island to see our new house and let the cousins have some much needed bonding time 🙂

It was a very busy weekend for them. They ate:

They went on the swings:

They went to the farm to see some animals and chickens:

They played:

Well, Ashton did somehow.

And of course, they had a bath.

In between all that, Liz and I managed to get in a (baby-free!) trip to TJ Maxx (angels singing), the husbands cut down some dead branches and cleaned up our backyard, we went to an Easter Saturday party at our old 346 Trapelo Road, the Stones got a date night Friday and the Nills got a date night Saturday and it was generally a wonderful time had by all! Looking forward to the summer, our week together on Block Island in July, and more. Love to the Stone family for making such a big trip up here, we love you and had soooo much fun!! 🙂 xoxo

Also, quick shout out to Debbie Jackson in East Quogue!! Liz told me you love my blog and I’m so happy every time I find out I have fans 🙂 Thanks for reading!!

A slight departure here. Folks, I have no intention of turning this blog into a DIY home improvement forum. I simply don’t have the skills (using a screwdriver and spray paint is as far as I go) plus my sister covers all that. But everyone loves a good before and after and I thought I might pepper in some of those as they become available.

So what did we do? Are you on the edge of your seats?? BEFORE: 

Photo credits to Chera on a few of those 🙂 He remains his usual busy-body self.

On another note, Katie moved to Florida yesterday. She is one of the best friends I’ve ever had and I know she always will be. We’ve shared some pretty high and pretty low moments over the past 6 or 7 years and have never failed to be there for each other. Katie is my #1 supporter, loyal blog reader and just an all around favorite person of mine. But as often happens in life, things change and she’s off to Florida where her family is (lucky Florida! humpf). So, Katie, please consider this a little tribute to how important you are to me – I love you!! Safe travels for you and Norm, ttys obvi. xoxoXO

If you read this blog faithfully, you know that when Ashton Smashton is awake, it’s full speed ahead. He throws things, he climbs things, he’s loud, he’s fast, and he’s curious. This will be me:

So, we went to our friends’ daughter’s one-year-old birthday last Sunday in Rhode Island. Sadly I have no pictures but it was nice to just relax and BE at the party without my phone glued to my hand. We had a great time, Ashton ran his little heart out and, predictably, fell asleep in the car on the way home.

A few weeks ago Ashton decided to turn 18 months old. I don’t know who gave him permission to do this, it was not me.  With this milestone age, my sweet baby toddler has turned into this ferocious little dinosaur who wants to do WHAT HE WANTS TO DO. And RIGHT NOW. It has been a challenging “all about me” age because he’s learning his independence and insists on trying everything for himself. He mimics being on the phone and using keys to open the door, and the best part of his day is getting up on the little stool in the bathroom to “brush” his teeth before bed.

18 months has brought an easily discernible list of likes and dislikes that I thought I’d share with you.

LIKES

1. Sour cream.

To borrow Frank’s tagline, “he puts that sh*t on everything.” I’ve actually seen him make entire meals out of it. And two nights ago as I was making his dinner, I poked my head into the living room to see what he was up to. He had pulled the Desitin out of my diaper bag, squeezed some onto his hand and was licking it. I waited for the moment he realized it wasn’t sour cream, but that never came so I had to yank the tube out of his grubby little fist. Well, he didn’t like that too much, which brings me to the next item on my list.

2. Whining. A favorite pastime. Ashton just looooves to walk around and whine. We never know what it’s about or what he wants but it is brutal. It reminds me of this clip from Dumb and Dumber except the sounds go on for way longer.

3. Snack Art. He’s still very into organizing and grouping things and leaves behind little gems like this.

His “Shoe Surprise” series has been tremendously popular. Most famous works are: “String Cheese in a Stride Rite”, “Teddy Graham in a Loafer” and “Goldfish in a Sneaker” as depicted below.

At first glance, these pieces appear incredibly complex and many have struggled with their interpretations. Alas, they are shockingly simple. The artist hand-placed a single snack tidbit into a shoe and left it there.

4. Compartmentalized food. Most meals consist of little things all separated into their own cups. I have actually read that the best thing you can give a toddler is an ice cube tray with a different snack or piece of food in each hole. I haven’t had to resort to that yet – little cups are satisfactory (for now). Breakfast for one?

5. Footwear. I did a previous post on boots and boy he just can’t get enough. His boots, my boots, anything that can go on his feet really.

6. Baths. Fastest way to turn off the aforementioned whining and clean off the aforementioned sour cream.

That thing between his feet is not a poop. It’s a shark.

7. Waving and saying “Buh bye” even when no one is going anywhere. It’s like “Sorry to disappoint you Ashton, but…”

Other likes: trying to stick his fingers in places they don’t belong (like electrical outlets), pressing buttons (literal and figurative ones), and climbing on anything that gets him at least two inches off the ground. Oh, and mirrors and/or looking at pictures of himself. This does not come from me.

I am not going to spend too much time on Ashton’s dislikes actually because I prefer not to re-live diaper changes or haircuts. He screams and writhes during both and it’s just a horrible time had by all.

Basic 18 month old stats:

Teeth: still holding steady at 10
Height: 34 inches (95th percentile)
Weight: 28 lbs 5 oz (95th)
Head: 19 inches (somewhere in the 70’s)
Feet: 6.5W but wearing 7’s
Naps: 1 in the afternoon
Meals: 3, plus snacks, and getting very, okay, PRETTY good at using a spoon and a fork
Words: Ba-ba (bottle), da-da, ball, car, and when you ask what sound a cow makes, “mmmmm” and a duck “cack cack cack!” His receptive language is much better and he understands most everything I say.
Diapers: size 5’s, 6 overnights
Clothes: 2T
Toys: I need to get him some new toys He’s outgrown pretty much everything and I know he would love a play kitchen and a little barn with animals in it. And more puzzles. For now the Home Depot Work Bench from Grandma has been a total favorite!

It’s been almost six months since I started at Bentley and we said goodbye to Tate. One month already in our new house. Time marches on…

The Nills have left their condo behind! As many of you know because I have bored you silly talking about it, the road to selling 346 Trapelo Road was a long and difficult one. But it’s over and we are beyond in love with our new little 129 Edenfield Avenue. It has been our home for about 3 weeks now and the settling in process has been going slower than a snail caught in a river of molasses not been as quick or efficient as I would prefer. Don’t get me wrong, Jason has taken care of some “immediately necessary” projects, but I’m coming to realize just how much time and money it’s going to take to get it perfect. But we are really, really happy. We had been feeling shorter and shorter on space and I distinctly remember sitting on the deck together right after saying goodbye to Tate last September. We were both so sad and quietly agreed, “Time to go. For real.”

So we finally moved on January 30th. Jason had lived in our condo for 10 years, and me for 5.

Despite all our memories, I didn’t cry at all. I fully expected Jason and I to have some kind of emotional “moment” saying goodbye to our first home, but after my mom snapped that picture we were back to business, finishing packing and getting the hell out of there. Ashton helped at first:

But by the end, not so much.

You know what I found out? Moving is awful. Like, THE worst. And I actually didn’t even move anything, haha. Jason did it all, with Berg’s help. We had some movers come for the big stuff in the afternoon, but they were so slow, in fact, that I called to complain and got some money back the next day. Other than that, everything went smoothly thanks to very dedicated friends (Chera and Berg) and family (GG and Grandpa Pat) and here are Jason and Berg enjoying some well deserved beer and dinner at the end of a long day in our new living room.

The first week was tough because the electrician was working off and on- the floor was covered in construction paper, his tools were everywhere, and we slept on a mattress on the floor because our box spring hadn’t fit up the stairs. I honestly felt like we were camping or something. Living out of boxes is no fun and even as I write this, only about half of them have been unpacked. Once our new furniture arrives, we’ve painted, fixed up the exterior and siding, and things are all done I will post some official pictures (so look for those like never haha). For now, this is our home sweet home 🙂

We totally love it, flaws and all (built in 1927 = small closets, lots of quirks 😉 ) and can’t wait for visitors!

I’ve never seen so much love in my life. (It’s a read-between-the-lines thing, but it’s there.) Happy Valentines Day! ❤

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

No big deal. Just twenty five inches. Mother Nature let us settle into our house for a few days and then dumped it all right on us.

These kinds of winter storms used to be exciting for me. Oh, how I loved hearing the words “snow day” and imagining a cozy day replete with yummy snacks, hot chocolate, wine, too much TV, pajamas, maybe a fire. But last week, when rumors of a snow day started to swirl, panic set in. Who was in charge of this idea? Did THEY have an 18 month old? Would they like one for the next couple of days? DO THEY KNOW that “housebound” and “toddler” should never be used in the same sentence?!?

Sure enough, the message arrived in my inbox: “Closed on Friday.” A pretty straight forward way to announce that a few inches of snow was more important than my sanity. I filed the email under “Could be fatal” and started to make arrangements. Keeping Ashton busy for a few days was going to require all my resources.

Turns out, I was right to worry. Survival wasn’t easy and I didn’t make it. My ghost is typing this…hahaha lol. Jussssst kidding. Honestly, Ashton and I didn’t leave the house (aside from snow adventures in the neighborhood) for almost 3 days and it was mostly fine. When he wasn’t working, Jason did a LOT of shoveling. We went out a few times to check on things and “help”:

You’ll notice the tremendous amount of snow on Ashton’s shovel. He actually cleared that whole street all by himself- true story.

But by far the best part of watching him run around was his snowsuit and how it made the “whish” sound with every little step. *whish*whish*whish*whish*whish*. I was dying laughing. He was also dressed in a ton of layers which restricted his movement quite a bit. He fell over a lot.

We took a tour of our new neighborhood

(These darn iPhone videos always come out terribly!)

And snapped a few cute pictures that look like this.

All in all, a long few days but we had a good time 🙂 Thank god. We are loving our new house so far but have tons to do in order to feel truly settled. More updates on that shortly! Right now I have to draft a memo to whoever decided on the snow day last week. It is entitled “You’re lucky!”