I only get a sense of how full the week was when I look back. There were so many little moments, so many things to learn and try.

• Kaizen
  • I sketched a thought on my laptop. Later, I opened the drawing on my phone and typed accompanying text on the tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard. Lots of tech, but this workflow might actually work well for me…
• Us
  • W- showed me how to replace the humidifier filter and turn the furnace on.
  • I was feeling a little left behind professionally, since I've been getting worse as a programmer (not up to date on tools, not writing tests, etc.). A- is doing so well, though, so this is probably a good path.
  • Four fillings at the dentist! Oh well.
  • I was thinking about the individual development plans I did during my corporate life and how to create a sense of growth in parenting. I made a list of the big things we're going to be working on over the coming year, and I realized that there's actually lots to learn and many skills to work on. Whee!
  • I started working on a way to put my sketches on the web in a form that makes it easier for me to search through titles or refer to them by ID. It felt great to work on a personal project.
• Language
  • A- is learning about indirectly asking for things. She said, “I want something from the big freezer. Something cold. Something hard. Something that needs a scooper. Something that has a container. Something that needs to soften. Something that's not round.” We were greatly amused, although we were firm that ice cream wasn't one of her options for breakfast.
  • While we were out, A- said, “I want something with nuts.” I said, “I thought your tummy was all full.” She said, “My tummy is not full already. My tummy has space for the energy bar.”
  • We reread “Betsy Goes to the Doctor” after maybe six months of not checking it out. A- still remembered a few of the words.
  • I forgot to ask A- for permission before planting a kiss on her head. She said, “No Mama germs on me. Wash it off.” I rubbed the spot. She said, “Not pretend, real! Wash with water!”
  • I asked A- to play by herself while I washed dishes. She wandered about, then said, “I'm wandering about.”
  • A- wanted me to pretend to be a nurse. She said, “Mama take care of me. Mama keep me healthy.”
• Self-care and independence
  • A- voluntarily brushed her teeth, and for a few minutes too. I suggested different areas to brush and she did it all by herself.
  • A- had some quiet independent play time while I did some consulting and W- read. She said, “I don't want to be independent. I play with Daddy.” After a short while, she was quiet. We looked over and found her napping.
  • A- wanted to go to the library bathroom. When we finished, she took the key back upstairs all by herself while I stayed on the ground floor with the cart.
  • When we were done at the organic food store, I offered to help A- return the small child-sized cart she had used. She pushed me away and said, “I do it myself.” She headed out the first set of doors, pushed the cart back into the corral, came back into the store, and looked at me proudly.
  • A- was recovering from a stomach bug, so we set timers to help her pace herself while eating toast and bananas. She patiently waited for the timer to go off, even refusing when I offered food a little early.
• Eating
  • A- is still teething and often insists on crunchy food.
• Emotion
  • A- wanted me to take her in the stroller to the supermarket, but she didn't want to ride the stroller on the way back. I hadn't brought my carrier along, and she was too slippery in the snowsuit for me to comfortably carry her. We were both a bit tired and hungry, too. After a long tantrum, we settled on my trying to awkwardly carry her and push the stroller at the same time, taking frequent breaks along the way. I got pretty frustrated, so when we got home, W- took her for a bit while I had some hot water and a snack. Once I calmed down, I apologized for being grumpy. Some time later, A- said, “Daddy is not grumpy. Daddy is a bigger adult.”
• Household
  • W- showed A- and me how to spread wood filler on the cracks in the floor.
• Social
  • J- had a few friends over for a study group. Before they arrived, A- declared, “I don't like J-‘s friends. I want J- to play with me.” They set up their laptops in the kitchen, and A- and I had our evening snack in the living room. A- kept going to the hallway right outside the kitchen to chat with J-‘s friends or show off things.
  • Lola slept early, so A- chatted with her cousins G* and A* instead. G* showed us her room, A* drew, and A- jumped up and down.
  • A- playfully pretended to whine, peeking at our reactions.
  • We had a muffin at the coffee shop outside music class. A- shared food with her classmates. She accepted seaweed and she offered her orange segments. I chatted with the other parents about activities.
  • We experimented with a Facebook group video chat so that Lola could talk to all of her grandkids at the same time, and so that the kids could hang out with each other too. We were having some problems with video orientation, so we might tinker around with that a little more. G* got a little frustrated and wanted some one-on-one time with Lola, so we took turns. Still, this is quite promising!
  • We chatted with Lola and A-‘s cousins, went to music class, then pretend school (the drop-in centre at a school), then another drop-in centre, and then the organic food store. Full day! A- fell asleep on the way home.
• Pretend
  • A- enthusiastically joined us on a trip to the hardware store, since the hardware store has a few special carts that has steering wheels for kids. She said, “I often like to drive a cart.”
  • A- pretended her stuffed toy had lots of pee accidents all over the place.
• World
  • A- spent some time typing on the Bluetooth keyboard. She held down keys and said what they made, and she used the Enter key to “wash away” what she typed. She liked toggling Caps Lock so that she could type big or small letters.
• Oops
  • I forgot to bring my credit card to the dentist. Fortunately, I'd asked J- to hang out with A-, and J- brought her debit card.
• Thoughts
  • If I consider this as my current career, what are the skills I'm working on building?

Blog posts

• Weekly review: Week ending November 16, 2018
• 2018-11-19 Emacs news

Sketches

• 2018-11-22a Learning plan for 2019 #my-learning #parenting

Time