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Saturday, October 09, 2004
kids'-eye view
Today my dad came over to help me take apart our dryer, and see if it could be saved. It couldn't. But during the repair-attempt-turned-autopsy, we found no less than $17.90 in loose change in the space outside the drum but inside the dryer. LT, upon seeing the Mason jar filling with money we were pulling out, exclaimed, "That's why we've been poor for so long! Our money was getting lost in the dryer!"
If only that would solve it all. :)
Thursday, September 30, 2004
five years ago
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
SPLINTER AAAUUGGHHH!!!
Just had the terribly unpleasant experience of having to pull a 5/8" sliver out of C's foot. Oh man. It took about fifteen minutes, and much of the time she was screaming like we were torturing her (and, well, from what I remember about having other people take splinters out of me, that's not far off). I was holding her and trying to use my body to block her view of Daddy and the tools he was using. T took over the actual removal early on, at my request, because he is so much steadier-handed than I am. Meanwhile I was stroking her head and singing to her and just generally trying to put her in a happy place, which actually helped, a little -- thinking about swimming lessons worked the best. I ended up using labor pain management techniques to help keep her from thrashing around. Hey, those lessons should go to some use, after all... I didn't end up needing them. Even the cats were getting in on the action -- Molly, who thinks a good ear-licking will fix anything, was doing her best to make the screaming stop, and Mary, who is normally a little leery of the kids, was rubbing up against her cheek. My respect for those pesky, destructive, cute little varmints went up several notches, I must say. Everyone except the cats needed ice cream afterward. With whipped cream.
And of course this is prime fodder for C's pity-me attitude. We just asked her how she was feeling, and she said it was hurting just as bad as ever. When we pointed out that she wasn't screaming, at least, she said, "I'm only screaming inside my head. Because I'm not supposed to scream outside my head." Little nut.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
swimming lessons and deprivation
This has been LT's first week of swimming lessons for this summer. He is taking Basic Beginner. Again. This is due to the fact that the cautious side of his nature (which is substantial to begin with) takes on mammoth proportions around water -- which, hey, is good in a lot of ways, right? There's hope, though; last year it took him two weeks to get his head under the water and this year it only took two days. Every summer we have to work up to this again. I wonder if when he's forty he'll still have to spend a few days each summer getting over the panicky feeling that accompanies getting his face wet (even in the shower) before he can enjoy the pool.
I am trying not to think about how hungry I am. It's the 2:30 munchies setting in. From here till about eight o'clock it's always quite a struggle to keep myself from ruining all my hard work in the morning, eating a good healthy breakfast and lunch. Lately (OK, so since Thanksgiving) I've given in more often than not, which is why my weight is basically unchanged since December or January. But I keep recommitting (I remind myself of those people who go forward at Billy Graham crusades over and over and over), because the beach and my extra fifteen pounds are getting terribly close to a very unattractive collision. Those persnickety fifteen pounds! I know I can't lose them all by the time we go on vacation, but I'd like to at least lose half of them. :) So I will sit here and visualize a confident version of myself strolling on the beach in a swimsuit, and pretend that that makes up for the deprivation that comes with denying a craving. sigh.
Saturday, May 22, 2004
end of an era
Today I decided that with the house clean and our houseguests gone doing touristy stuff for the day, I would finally give in to LT's patient pleading to take down his "shed".
The worst part of this task -- even worse than the Puff-the-Magic-Dragon-ish nostalgic kind of sadness involved, as my mind replayed the video of the first time the smaller, younger version of my great hulking boy had seen the finished house, and how his face had lit up -- was when I found Shelob's evil twin sister lurking along the floorboards. I am not exaggerating when I say that this black widow spider's body was the size of a small walnut, and her legs were long in proportion. I did not know black widows could be this big. At this point all guilt about doing this without T present evaporated, because one look at that monstrous beast and he'd have been on his way to the emergency room. And to think that this demonic being has been living in my child's playhouse -- next thing you know I'll be finding orcs under his bed (ack, no I won't! the nightmares, the nightmares!). Providentially, I had a hammer in my hand and work gloves on, so the evil thing was dispatched quickly, thoroughly, and with much enthusiasm. [shudder]. --------
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
much much better day
I want to thank everyone for your nice notes wishing C well. She's doing far better today than I (or the doctor we saw in the ER) thought she would be and I honestly and frankly believe that that has a lot to do with all the people who were praying for her. She's basically her normal self with a minor sore throat, and the laceration is looking so much better and less frightening. Incidentally, whenever I've told anyone on the phone today that she is "doing much better", my drama queen has dolefully, emphatically stated, "no, I am not." You would have to be there to fully grasp the pitifulness. She has the makings of a competitive-caliber hypochondriac.
Overall, today was quite a decent day really. Nothing out of the ordinary... which, considering yesterday and its non-stop stress of one sort or another, is a welcome relief. The only excitement we had today was when the pest control guy called at 9:30 and asked if he could come spray inside "before noon", at which we began frantically cleaning up to get things ready, and he showed up at 10:15. When we were so not ready it was not even funny. ah well. At least it wasn't my father-in-law. (if you want to make your wife nuts, inform her ten minutes before you must leave for lunch with her extremely fussy in-laws that they are coming by afterward to visit, and then act all astonished when that upsets her. Go ahead, try it. But don't tell her you got the idea from me, OK?)
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my poor little princess
If you need something to distract you from the fact that you have a zillion things to do before your husband gets home in five minutes, having your precious darling daughter injure herself in a most disconcerting way can prove very effective. However, I doubt it's worth it. You know how our mothers always told us not to play with sticks in our mouths? And now we tell our children the same thing? And you know how sometimes kids just don't pay attention and they have to learn things the hard way? Yeah. My poor baby girl has a deepish laceration just forward of her right tonsil about the size of my pinky fingernail. It makes me choke up just thinking about it -- and about how much worse it could have been.
This was C's first emergency room visit, and I think initially the fear about that was worse than the pain. Now the pain has surpassed that pretty thoroughly, however. And now I'm facing another episode of the hardest part of motherhood -- which isn't sleepless nights or stressful days or even watching my children grow up and away from me; it's watching my child suffer and not being able to do a single thing to make it better. Right now she's asleep, but I know that before long she'll wake up in pain and cry and the crying will make it worse and that'll make her cry more, and I'll hold her and cry because I can't help her. And this should go on for probably two weeks or so. This all makes the rest of the problems I was whining about today look pretty stupid.
And her poor brother, who was partly responsible for the accident, was just horrified at what he did to his beloved sister. And I feel a huge load of Mom-guilt even though moms around the world have to take their eyes off their kids periodically and it's not my fault, right? Tell that to good old Nameless Dread, which at least has a name tonight.
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Friday, May 07, 2004
Happy Mother's Day To Me
Recipe for an improved day:
1 son with a recycling habit
About fifty pounds recyclable beverage containers
1 daughter with a roll of quarters
1 set of parents, middle-aged, in on the kids' scheme
1 husband, likewise in on the scheme
1 frustrated mommy
1 Lowes ad
1 PORCH SWING, which the mommy's only wanted for, oh, say, eight or ten years.
I had some idea this was coming -- neither of my children are great at keeping secrets, and they'd gone with my parents to trade in LT's recycling this afternoon. But I wasn't sure until the kids arrived home with this big box:
An eight-year-old and a four-year-old, deciding of their own accord (nobody told them to do this! they just knew I wanted a porch swing and had heard me mention in passing that there was one in the Lowe's ad for $70) to pool all the money they have to get their mother a Mother's Day present? That's THE SWEETEST THING I ever heard. I am compelled to hug them, hard, every time I go past one of them. Anyway, T wasn't home yet so the kids and I put it together.
This whole thing just completely turned my day around. It didn't fix any problems, but hey, who cares. :)
Early in the project, a progress picture
C took this one. Whoops.
LT as the photographer
We were using C's hat as a work bucket. (how Mothers-Dayish of us, no?) Note the owner wiggling her way into the picture -- if there's a camera in the vicinity she thinks she absolutely must be in front of it.
That's me, sitting on the finished product. Don't we all love how wonderful our bottoms and legs look when we're photographed sitting down in shorts? grr.
Another one by LT
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Tuesday, May 04, 2004
kid questions
Today I took the ten kid question from Art Linkletter's humor classic Kids Say the Darndest Things.
What are some things you do that get you into trouble?
LT: Destroying some things of C's. [Why do you do that?] I don't know.
C: Disobey. Being bad. Biting.
If I gave you five dollars right now, what would you spend it on?
LT: Go to the 99c store and buy five things.
C: Something that costs five dollars. A dolly.
Tell me about your pets.
LT: Our fish like to just swim around, and our cats like to eat food and sit on people's laps.
C: They are fun. They're cute. They like to eat cat food and drink water and milk.
What kinds of things would you do if you were a doctor?
LT: I would drive the ambulance.
C: Help people by making them better.
How would you settle an argument with another boy/girl?
LT: Say "Stop it. Now believe me!"
C: Stop talking.
What do you want life to be like when you're grown up?
LT: I don't know. [Use your imagination]. Good. [OK, then, what are some things that you DON'T want to happen in your life?] Going to war. [Anything else?] No.
C: Happy. [What would make your life happy?] Having pets, and still being able to ride my bike. A bigger one, though.
How does television work?
LT: From the television station. Because of the video.
C: I don't know.
How can you tell if a person's smart?
LT: If he knows how to build an AT-AT.
C: Because they do what they're supposed to do without being told to. And remember when I made my bed all by myself?
Where does the sun go at night?
LT: On the other side of the world.
C: Down.
What would you like to tell the whole world?
LT: Never to buy My Little Pony stuff. I said that one because C was right in here. She'll never say that one.
C: That I can do things without being told to.
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Saturday, April 24, 2004
santa for a day
I won't bore you all with a long post about my day today. It was a lot of fun; I took my two nephews and my two offspring to the city for an all day zoo/picnic/Storyland/Playland extravaganza. It was all free because it was the once-a-quarter free Storyland/Playland day for zoo members. Also, everyone was very well-behaved, and as an added bonus, I got to feel like Santa Claus all day because the kids had such a fantastic day. This was great for my mood and I'm all relaxed and cheery now. Especially now that my caffeine-addicted self has imbibed a bit of Diet Coke. Aaah.
I am the mother of the epitome of the four-year-old drama queen. She just fell down outside and got one of those scrapes that's visible more because of the dirt than the injury; I sent her to the bathroom to clean it off. Soon her shrieks of "It's blooding!! It's blooding!" filled the house, and if I hadn't been her mom for four and a half years now, I might have been naive enough to do something besides saunter in her direction, practicing keeping a straight face. Sure enough, she had maybe three microns of blood at the end of one of the barely-visible-once-cleaned scratches. Oh dear. I think she'd have loved it if I'd run in a panic to the phone and called the paramedics. She seemed quite disappointed when the blood went away and she didn't even need a Band-Aid.
Pictures from today:
It looks like she's doing a "talk to the HAND" kind of thing, in a four-year-old sort of way, but I think really she was just reaching for something. And the real reason I posted this picture was so that I could show off the denim jeans quilt I made.
PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE CHILDREN
If you didn't know this was a ferris-wheel sort of ride, it would look like a really inventive and abusive form of child containment. Not to say that there's never been a day when this would have a certain... appeal*. ;-)
*please don't call CPS; obviously I am so totally kidding. It would absolutely have to have padding before I'd even consider it.
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