no fits today!

ahhhh. this was the first day in many many when miles did not have a sad and/or angry tantrum (i tell miles they are "fits", don't ask me why. did someone call them fits when i used to have 'em?). we spent thanksgiving with the cronans and their motley crue: emily's middle school friend who moved here from china last year and her dad. this girl was, as david described her, "a beam of sunlight", and gave me hope for the future. her dad spoke no english and brought some mean homeade potstickers and was sweet enough to entertain miles by putting stuffed animals' heads into a pop-up shark book for a good 45 minutes. david's mom debbie was there with her theater voice and her amazing cooking skills (brined turkey, sweet potatoes au gratin). dean, who is a cool music and art kind of guy and who brought some specialty cheese and sauerkraut (he is some kind of cheese merchant), emily, dressed to match her new american doll , and rebecca, supplying delicious pillsbury biscuits, her green bean specialty, charades, and homeade crabcakes. well, i probably got who cooked what wrong, but i do know it was fun, miles and maya were perfectly behaved which was fortunate as NEITHER RICH AND I SLEPT THE NIGHT BEFORE (see postscript if you care to know why). we ended up taking an after pie-gorge stroll in the cool night air to get milk on irving street. miles and emily told a very long string of inane knock knock jokes (knock knock, who's there, feet, feet who, feet in your meat, face, hahahahah), maya pointed out the moon as jiaweh pushed her stroller and sang merrily,and rebecca and i reminisced a little about a thanksgiving at cassie's years ago when there was a post-meal soccer game in dolores park and tedd played and was good but had trouble with his red leather pants. tedd (and cassie) you are loved and missed.

today we went to the water park briefly and saw little seamus from around the block. he has a fifth grade brother and i had a very calming (this calm will also be brief i'm sure) talk about the schools with his parents. then seamus tried to smack maya with a water bottle and we departed. miles did not tantrum about not getting a little toy. he did not tantrum when i said i couldn't carry him up the steps. he drew calmly until jonah arrived. they jumped, made loud noises, played a turn-taking game for 30 seconds, drew lots more pictures (i'm starting to worry about how much paper we are going through), and hugged and kissed goodbye. maya kept hugging me all day, wrapping her arms around my neck and staring into my eyes, smiling "hello mommy". during maya's nap we played regressive trains but there was no bickering. miles wanted to look at his baby book and we made up hilarious comments for each photo such as "um, is anyone gonna change my diaper?" it was good to hear my little boy laughing so hard and then not getting mad and throwing toys around 10 minutes later. later we played full-on miles is a baby for THREE HOURS. maya got into it too, and for an afternoon i had a gigantic baby named miles who could not crawl, had a big sister who liked to give him bottles, looked at crib toys in his pretend crib, wanted to be patted and burped, and ate dinner in a high chair. this may sound very wacky but i think it was therapeutic as there were, let's say it again NO FITS all day!! thank you thank you thank you.

p.s. rich is out at the show, rocking. i am at home anxiously reading confusing research about dual immersion. maya wakes up around 12. it takes me a long time to get her to sleep. just as she drifts off a little moon face appears beside me in the dark. miles is up. i get him in his bed but he wants me to lie on the trundle as he tries to fall asleep. it seems to be taking a long time. then, dunt dunt duhhhhh,maya toddles in. hello mommy. hello brother. she climbs in next to me and all is quiet and i am amazed. then i hear wierd breathing from miles' bed. i'm hoping it is sleepy breathing but know i am wrong. it is i'm gonna have a fit breathing. he just doesn't want maya in there. he doesn't want to be alone while i put her back to sleep. he starts throwing all his stuffed animals around. i take maya into the living room where she starts playing (it's now about 2:45). when i leave he breaks into heartbreaking wails. oh brother. finally things quiet down and i talk to miles and he is trying to be reasonable but very stressed out so i let him play starfall
on the laptop in bed. now maya takes forever to fall asleep after all the excitement she has just witnessed. as the blurry digital numbers on the dresser slip by i assume miles has conked out in front of his abc game. finally rich returns as maya goes down. it is 3:45. miles is still playing on starfall. he falls asleep by around 4:30. my adrenalin is flowing. maya starts crying and rich holds her off until 5:30 when she wakes up for the day...........................
no rest for the wicked

love, me