Performance Review: N.Lo

Height: 34.75 inches (60th percentile). Grew 2 inches since 18-mos review.

Weight: 29.5 lbs (75th percentile). Hasn’t gained an ounce! Bye-bye, round belly...

Fully vaccinated. Was a bit torturous, but hopefully there will be a little less sickness around the office this winter. Mainly did well with checkup, although was highly insulted when not allowed to play with the choo-choos. (The waiting room was reserved for sick kiddos today.)

Smiles: Excellent.

Fashion sense: At times questionable.

Overall: Incredibly cute.

Thanksgiving Crafts, Part 1

Our office is hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, and K.Lo is capable of so much more in the area of crafting, so I am stepping up our efforts to decorate the office a little bit. We started small today, with a few project kits picked up on clearance at the craft store, as well as an adapted project from a cool site recommended by a fellow manager.

Here is one of the kits, which I think was $.75. As far as teamwork went, I basically put it all together while K.Lo attended to her own project, cooking up a bowlful of google eyes and plastic beads, served with a plastic spoon. Yummy. Some of these projects are still difficult to fully enlist the staff because they involve use of the hot glue gun, which I can barely operate myself without injury. In fact, I did suffer a glob of hot glue on my finger which I couldn’t shake off for several long and painful seconds. Would you believe glue doesn’t shake off? It’s shocking. Anyway, the scarecrow is cool, but he has to stay on the book shelf, as he can’t stand up by himself. Top heavy.

Here is the turkey, which we made from felt instead of foam. K.Lo was more than cooperative as I traced her hand, and then we put it all together. It reminds me of the turkeys we used to make from construction paper in elementary school; I like it because it’s also a record of hand size. Pretty sure K.Lo likes it, too.

Employee Files

Overheard in the Office

• A favorite of N.Lo’s: “Go a-WAY!” And he means it. Difficult not to laugh in response.
• K.Lo, standing up for her coworker: “Why did you yell at my brother? Do not yell at my BROTHER. He’s MY brother.” *Hugs him fiercely.* Duly noted, dear.
• K.Lo, pushing a small rocking chair ice cream cart around the office. “I have some black cherry ice cream for you. Want some?”
• Sitting down to dinner, K.Lo: “Bon Apetit, now we may eat.” Well, well!
• K.Lo, channeling the Manager: “I can’t hear you, I have wax in my ears.” (Long story. Another day.)
• K.Lo has taken to saying, “Just a minute,” in response to requests, with all the right emphasis in an uncanny imitation of Management. When asked a second time, she responds the same, except with a smirk. When asked a third time, ooo. Trouble.
• My personal favorite, K.Lo on a rant: “If you shout like an OLD LADY, I will not be very happy.”
• This morning, which involved a less than exciting 5:30AM wake-up call, K.Lo greeted the CEO with, “Good morning, Daddy. I pooped in my sheets.” Indeed.

The Working Relationship

• Wrestling moves between the employees are becoming much more hard-core. Injuries have been sustained. Lots of giggling occurs otherwise. N.Lo is now much more able to hold his own in such a match.
• N.Lo wants everything his coworker wants, which can be very cute and/or very frustrating. As in, should a request be denied, cries of protest are presented in surround sound. Also, K.Lo feeds N.Lo off-the-wall ideas, which he latches onto and won’t let go. For instance, the other day during lunch, which was going along most pleasantly, K.Lo mentioned for a nanosecond the word “outside.” In minutes, the lunch had entirely dismantled, with both children devolved into tears because they weren’t allowed outside before finishing lunch. Which they never did.
• N.Lo demands requires assistance from whichever member of Management is not present. If the CEO has left for work and the Manager appears to begin the Day Shift, tortured screams of “Daddy! I want Daddy!” occur. Likewise if the Manager is not available: “Mama, I want Mama!” The situation can escalate quickly.

 

Progress/Performance

• At our out-of-town Halloween party on Friday, N.Lo fell down the stairs. Between his new cowboy boots and his general lack of luck with these stairs in particular, it was likely a disaster in the making. I knew who it was and what was happening the moment it started… oh, years off my life. He is fine, just a bruise/scrape above his eye. But still.
• Although I never, ever expected them to, K.Lo and N.Lo fell asleep at a reasonable hour (maybe 10PM?) at our friends’ house, with not too much insistence/prompting from Management. We did “go to bed” twice, but the second time, they fell asleep on an air mattress and were just fine for the rest of the evening. Unprecedented.
• When we made our printout calendars last week, K.Lo copied the letter “P” (for preschool days) fairly well. Who knew?
• N.Lo now sleeps with two blankies (white, green) and a turtle. The turtle we acquired on our aquarium trip, where the employees were each allowed to choose one thing from the gift shop. He was interested in many things, but kept coming back to the turtle and hugging it, so the turtle it was. Don’t try to leave it out of the crib!
• We lost track of the white blankie over the weekend. I try not to bring it up, or distract when it does come up. Oops. Wonder where it went?
• K.Lo likes to sit in the Tonka dump truck and ask N.Lo to push her around, which he usually obliges. Funny sight.
• K.Lo will often begin a conversation with, “Hey, I have a good idea…” and will then proceed to tell me the idea, which may or may not be a good one.
• Management is having trouble figuring out where the comma goes, with N.Lo. For example, is he saying, “No, juice,” as in No, I don’t want what you are currently trying to give me, I have something else in mind? Or is he saying, “NO JUICE,” as in, I don’t want juice at all (and back off!). This conundrum occurs in approximately 50% of all conversation with N.Lo.
• We are finally to the point of a) ordering 2 separate kids’ meals for the employees when eating out, instead of 1, and b) seeing them eat their food when eating out. The CFO has been placated.
• Also, it seems like they have both moved beyond the toddler forks? As both managed just fine with grown-up forks when out to breakfast this weekend. But, they do love the small plastic colored utensils so much, so we will see how it goes this week without them.
• N.Lo can FINALLY drink from a sippy cup other than the squishy silicone kind that is practically a bottle. At the moment, he prefers the disposable kind with the mix and match tops and bottoms. The kind K.Lo drank from as a 6-mos-old. I’m just saying. Different skill sets, I know, I know, but just try forgetting that all-important specific sippy cup once in awhile. Not fun. 
• We will not begin training in the Employee Rest Room for at least a few months. I’m trying things a little differently this time around, for a few reasons. N.Lo is a boy and I don’t want to deal with it just yet has a different temperament, and I feel like K.Lo’s training was so drawn out because we started too soon. Regardless, N.Lo is still a big potty participant whenever K.Lo goes, especially while out and about. He insists on flushing the potty and also (thankfully) likes to wash hands, dry them, and throw the paper towel (or toilet paper, as he calls it) in the trash.
• That being said, I sort of loathe going to the potty while out. It is a big production, with the 3 of us. Oh well. It’s all part of the job. 

Trick or Treat!

The whole company dressed up to go trick-or-treating this evening. A butterfly, Woody the Cowboy, the Mad Hatter, and a Cereal Killer. Notice that N.Lo now has super-cool Toy Story boots to finish out his costume, and the body of K.Lo’s butterfly costume has been changed out and newly decorated with glitter glue and jewels. She did all of the jewels by herself, took initiative of that project from the start, insisting that we buy the stick-on jewel pack at the craft store and everything. Huh! Management’s costumes made an appearance the night before at an out-of-town party, so we simply put them on one last time, just for fun. Our company joined a big group of other companies on the street and went trick-or-treating together. All employees were ages 5 and under, so it was an especially cute crew. I wasn’t sure if N.Lo would really get the whole concept, but I guess all that training with his coworker paid off, as he was not at all shy about marching up to the door and asking for candy. He clearly knew what was at stake. All the employees were delightfully polite; we hit a handful of houses together and then met over at our neighbor’s for a quick game of Pin the Tail on the Black Cat before heading home.

At our own office, the turnout was strangely low for a Saturday night, and N.Lo, who had missed his Afternoon Break on our long car ride back to the office, was sort of (beyond) a wreck. And K.Lo was wired, though she once again enjoyed handing out candy to the few trick-or-treaters that did show up. Let’s hope that between the costumes, candy and all other excitement, the employees achieve some semblance of productivity on the Night Shift. Happy Halloween!

Cinderella, Cinderella

For her preschool Halloween party, K.Lo decided to forgo the butterfly costume and dress up as Cinderella. The dress came from our dress-up bin, had been procured by the Regional Manager for $1 at a consignment sale. I added a Cinderella sticker in place of the missing brooch, and we also added a white beaded necklace to this ensemble, along with her pink sparkly shoes, which clearly go with everything. The party was apparently a fun time, with a lot sugar great snacks, and a bag of take-home treats. So much fun!

 

 

 

Woody the Cowboy

N.Lo did like his costume, and after awhile even consented to wearing the bandana. The black, white and red, along with the hat, happen to photograph well, if I do say so myself. (I may be biased.) The second half of these photos are from the Jones Company—thanks!

“No! I want blah blah blah!” That’s all I hear when the whine switch turns on, is blah blah blah. Oh wait, I remember now—I thought he said, “I want picture!” because I had just taken K.Lo’s picture. But it was, “No picture! I want PRETZELS.”

 

Between the hat and the shirt, the costume strikes me as distinctly 50s, or older, so I turned on the B&W, just for effect.

Varying angles to capture the full effect of the costume.

 

The Jones Company was on the same wavelength with the sepia? Except instead of 50s dress-up costume, think Western!

 

Love these angles.

Off into the woods I go!

And I also love the original caption for this photo, which was, “Even cowboys need their mommas.” Aww. Indeed.

     

Use the Force

N.Lo, of course, was supposed to be Darth Vader this Halloween. Or as K.Lo would say, Darth Spader, who I am pretty sure is James’ second cousin. It’s late October, and I’m not even going to get into the fact of what the weather should be like this time of year; it is what it is. And that is, warm. Or actually, it’s been pleasantly cool several days, but never when it’s convenient. And tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday, when the employees are to attend two costume parties, followed by Trick-or-Treating, the weather will be decidedly inconvenient. Darth Vader is long-sleeved, black, and fleece. One breaks into a sweat just looking at it. I purchased the costume last year, uber-marked down after Halloween, and I’m not sad that it will simply end up in the dress-up bin. Between this incident and Belle and the Butterfly, I’ve learned a few lessons for next year: 1. Don’t plan so far in advance 2. Don’t neglect planning altogether when it comes to the final shopping trip(s).

Because today, honestly, was a shopping trip from hell. I was just poorly organized, and ended up running all over town, unfocused and overwhelmed by options, not just for N.Lo’s new costume, but for my own (another story, another day). I won’t bother recounting the thousand tiny battles fought throughout the day, because frankly it’s not worth reliving. Just know that 1 preschooler + 1 cranky toddler + 1 scattered Manager on a Halloween quest does not = good times. Especially when you add in low blood sugar, picked-over stores, and a lot of traffic. Anyway.

We finally settled on Woody from Toy Story, but I sort of hated the one-piece outfit version, for various reasons. So I thought I could either find an accessory set, and/or assemble my own. The accessory sets were ultimately too pricey for what you got, so I went with assemble our own. I do love the hat, which was the first acquired piece, from the party store. The bandana we found at the craft store. I don’t know if he’ll wear it. A yellow plaid shirt, I couldn’t find, but this one has yellow in it. Don’t even get me started on the gun set—it came from the Dollar Store, which I should have gone to first, for maybe a zillion reasons. The set also came with the silver badge that says “Police,” even though it was listed as a Cowboy Gun Set, and so I decided to paste Woody’s face on there. I cut out the face from our Toy Story fruit snacks. The vest is an old shirt of K.Lo’s with the sleeves cut off and split up the middle. Black cow spots were painted on; they are pretty hard to mess up. Shoes—we don’t have shoes. I’m tempted to buy the Toy Story boots at Kohls, as they are rad, and like the shirt, he will get further use out of them. But maybe not. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the result, and I hope N.Lo will be, too.