Ouch!

Life in Baltimore has certainly benefited from having Rob home.  When we made the decision to be hungry together as versus solvent apart, we knew we would be both adding and removing problems from our hectic lives, but Rob's travel regimen had truly become untenable.  I remember well his first week at home.  After nearly eight months straight of being a single weekday parent, I was thrilled to have some backup.  One fall morning in early September, in Rob's very first week of unemployment, I remember actually enjoying the morning get-ready-for-the day routine.  I was in the shower, by myself, thinking about my day and not where my four-year-old might be and what he might be doing.  It was blissful--hot water, no anxiety, a second pair of hands downstairs making the kid's lunch.  Unfortunately, my peaceful two-parent morning came to an abrupt end when Romi ventured upstairs and found me wrapped in a towel.  He was clearly on a mission, his face earnest, his movements deliberate,  I soon found out why.  The conversation started like this:

"Ima, Abba OK."  (This was said with emphasis on each word.)  Before I had time to respond, the little guy continued, "Abba need you,"  OK, my thought processes were humming but not panicking until we got to the next part.  Romi calmly added, "Big knife, lot of blood."

He may be a man of few words, but his message was delivered loud and clear.

I threw on a robe and as the two of us ventured downstairs, Romi lovingly and thoughtfully reassured his injured father, "Abba, us coming!" In the kitchen I found Rob sitting on the floor, a towel on his foot, but no blood in sight.  Rob didn't appear to be in much pain and cheerfully explained that as he was slicing cucumbers for Romster's lunch, he knocked the chef's knife off the counter.  This wouldn't have been a big deal but Rob thought it was a good idea to cut cukes in bare feet and somehow the blade managed to land sharp-side down.  Consequently, he had a pretty good gash across the top of his foot.

Rob reported that his foot popped like a balloon and had a pretty impressive pool of blood underneath his toes. When he asked Romi for a paper towel to clean it up, our wonderful hamster offered to do it for him. So the four-year old cleaned up the blood before calmly coming to get me to help. 

Rob got four stitches on his foot and a pretty good scar, Romi got ice cream for being such a helpful trooper, and I got to take care of two people instead of just one.  Welcome home.

"He was a good little monkey, and always very curious...."

We feel so lucky to have come through Superstorm Sandy in tact.  We had done some preparations but nothing like we would have needed if we had really gotten hit hard.  We just had to stay home for two days, warm and cozy in our home.  Of course, keeping everyone entertained did get to be a bit hairy.  At one point, we got desperate enough to suggest watching a movie.  It was cold and rainy and windy, so the four of us made popcorn and hunkered down on the couch to watch Monsters, Inc.  Unfortunately, the three adults were all just getting into it when the four-year-old asked to turn it off and watch a cooking show instead.  Now I know how to make fancy cakes.

We are trying to devise ways to expand Romi's world, both intellectually and socially.  When I recently asked him if he wanted to take a class, I offered up such suggestions as swimming, soccer and cooking.  But the Romster would like to take jump rope; honestly, I have NO idea where to find that.  This is just a sign or how much his mind and body are growing and changing.  Recently he has gotten very into math, adding things up.  When he gets frustrated that we don't understand him, he patiently, and with a bit of condescension, spells out what he's trying to say.  (No, he doesn't spell it correctly, but it's still hilarious.)  He asks how to spell all sorts of words, which is great, but he's got a pretty sophisticated vocabulary and I am dreading the day when he asks us to spell appetizer and cacophony.  (Both words that he uses correctly, but the way.)  He is outgrowing old loves and making new ones.  I realized recently that the age and stage of Thomas the Tank Engine was coming to a close when he opened a flap on the book, acknowledged Sir Topham Hat, studied him closely and then remarked, "He looks disappointed."  On closer inspection I realized he was absolutely right, he did  look disappointed.

Romi doesn't have an imaginary friend, unless you count Elmo.  Seeing as Romi doesn't watch Sesame Street, it's interesting that he has focused on Elmo.  He doesn't even particularly like the stuffed Elmo he owns, but Elmo does everything contrary.  In Romi's world, Elmo doesn't keep Kosher, eats all sorts of odd things, and has a birthday pretty much every other day.  When we explain how something is done, without fail, Elmo does it differently.  

We had been building Halloween up for a while with Romi, hoping he would warm to the idea.  Although he liked it in theory, knowing our hamster like we do, we figured there might be some resistance when it actually came to celebrating.  Romi looked awesome as Curious George.  In fact, he had been trying his costume on for weeks, showing it off to various visitors.  When the big day came, he still wore his beloved ball cap, mostly to keep the monkey face from falling into his eyes.  Rob being the awesome Abba he is, and a good sport to boot, dressed up as The Man in the Yellow Hat (Romi calls him The Yellow Man in the Hat).  We headed off to the Lunken's, where the entire neighborhood gathered for a parade up the street.  Romi didn't love that part, but we eventually got him to go door-to-door.  It held his interest for about 35 minutes and he was done, even if it meant less candy.  When the boys got home, Romi discovered his true love about Halloween: passing candy out.  The doorbell rang and he jumped and squealed, unable to contain his excitement   It truly was his favorite part of the holiday.  When we ran out of candy  he enjoyed handing treats out so much he offered to give out his own stash.  That's our little monkey!