37 posts in 30 days

I did it! I made it through NaBloPoMo, with posts to spare. I am so proud of myself for sticking with it.

And now for something completely different.

I spent an hour this morning at Ella's school helping the librarian and two other volunteers set up for the Scholastic Book Fair, and it brought back some wonderful memories of 3rd grade - actually, this is pretty much the only good memory from that year of school - when, for the first time, I went to a school that had a book fair.

We had just moved to Sarasota, Florida from Albany, New York, by way of Westfield, Massachussetts, where we lived for 18 months. I was a bit lost in my new school and missing my friends and family up north pretty badly. I didn't like the school I was in or the teacher I had. I had gone to a combination of private and Montessori-like schools up north, and I didn't deal well with the new public school I attended in Florida for one year before moving on to magical Pine View (Which at that time was a ramshackle collection of portable classrooms, with no cafeteria or gymnasium. We called it Camp Pine View.).

Anyway, fairly soon after I started there, the school had a book fair, and I just loved it. I love books, pure and simple, so getting to shop for books at school and put together a wish list for my parents was such a treat. I don't remember what books I picked out, but I do remember the one my mom bought for me - Strawberry Girl by Lois Lensky. It was an appropriate book for me because it was about a little girl living in the pine scrub area of Central Florida on her family's strawberry farm. Florida was such an alien place to me and reading about it helped me to adjust. The little girl played in palmetto bushes, just like we had behind our house. And she dug in the sandy soil just like I did when playing outside. That book made a new and scary place seem less scary.

Behold the power of literature!

So this morning I looked around at the books being set out and wondered which books Ella would pick. She's been banned from including anything related to Pokemon and High School Musical on her wish list. I would love for Ella to find that one book that reaches her the way Strawberry Girl did me. I'm going back in next week to volunteer. I'll take some time then to look more closely at the books to see if I can pick a magical book for her.

I should have waited 10 minutes

I did a meme as my last post because I didn't have anything to write about. It turns out I should have waited 10 minutes, because my darling daughters put on a little show that had me laughing before I confined them to separate bedrooms for time out.

To set the scene - Ella is in the living room taking off her tights and her turtleneck because she's hot. To do this, she also had to take off her dress.

Lily: I see London, I see France, I see Ella's underpants!
Ella: Lily, stop singing that. It's embarassing.
Lily: I see London, I see France, I see Ella's underpants!
Ella: Lily! I said STOP SINGING THAT!
Lily: I see London, I see France, I see Ella's underpants!
Ella: MOOOOOMMMM!! I've told Lily to stop singing that because she's embarassing me.
Me: Ella, if you don't want to be embarassed, you could always go in your bedroom to do that instead of the living room.
Ella: But I don't want to go in my room.
Me: Then deal with it.
Lily: I see London, I see Fr-owwwwww. Ella kicked me!
Me: Ella go in Campbell's room. Lily, go in your room. You're fighting too much, so you need to be apart from each other until dinner.
Ella and Lily (in harmony): But we'll be looonnneeellllyyy.

I heartlessly sent them on to separate quarters, where they both wailed about the injustice of the world.

I have an aunt who is a middle child, and she worries a great deal about Lily's being the middle child. Based on how quickly Lily can wind Ella up like this, I don't think I need to worry about her being lost in the shuffle.

Another tag

Again by Barb, sort of. But I've found myself for the second time this month - the penultimate day of NaBloPoMo - without something to write, and so I'm going to do a meme. I'm too tired and sick to think of something wildly original, although I did have lots of good posts floating around my brain when I was awake at 3 am wheezing.

My uncle once: finished an IronMan.
Never in my life: been to Eurpoe
When I was five: sucked my thumb
High School was: hard
I will never forget: the moment each of my children was born
I once met: ummmmm I don't think I've met anyone famous.
There’s this girl I know who: ?
Once, at a bar: I used the men's room because there was a long line for the women's room.
By noon, I’m usually: showered and dressed.
Last night: I went to bed at 8:30 because I felt sick.
If I only had: finished my master's degree.
Next time I go to church: it will be for either a wedding or a funeral.
Terry Schiavo: How dare Congress and the current occupent of the White House think they had the right to get involved in that?
What worries me most: That something will happen to my kids.
When I turn my head left, I see: into my bedroom, where there's a large pile of laundry that needs to be folded.
When I turn my head right, I see: out the front windows.
What I miss most about the eighties: The music - Duran Duran was the best!
If I was a character in Shakespeare, I’d be: I have no idea.
By this time next year: Able to have a little more time for myself.
A better name for me would be: Jennifer - whenever anyone gets my name wrong, they always call me Jennifer.
I have a hard time understanding: the appeal of Star Trek.
If I ever go back to school I’ll: study history instead of literature.
You know I like you if: I invite you up to the lake.
If I ever won an award, the first person I’d thank would be: my husband.
Darwin, Mozart, Slim Pickens and Geraldine Ferraro: genius, genuis, who?, trailblazer
Take my advice, never: trust a four-year-old to watch her baby brother for five minutes while you empty the dishwasher.
My ideal breakfast is: pancakes.
A song I love, but do not own is: thanks to my iPod, I can't think of any.
If you visit my hometown, I suggest: Barton Spring, Mt. Bonnell, Gueros.
Tulips, character flaws, microchips and track stars: Wha?
Why won’t people: be more polite?
If you spend the night at my house: be prepared to wake up early.
I’d stop my wedding for: the imminent birth of my baby.
The world could do without: Little tiny blonde women driving Hummers.
I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: go skydiving.
My favorite blonde is: Campbell. who's kind of blonde.
Paper clips are more useful than: binder clips. I never have the right size binder clip.
If I do anything well, it’s: read a lot.

The best 15 minutes of my day

It's been a day for the books, that's for sure. Nothing big has gone particularly wrong, but little things have piled up on me, to the point that I've almost been in tears several times today.

Campbell is continuing his destructo-baby phase, and he is demolishing the house a piece at a time. His favorite thing is to play in our kitchen pantry, which doesn't have a door on it, so I have no way of closing it off to him. I came around the corner to see him in the process of throwing out every single thing on the bottom shelf of the pantry. He was so proud of himself. Later in the day he got his hands on a box of 200 zip-lock sandwich bags and shoved about 100 of them into the recycling bag. I'm finding it impossible to baby proof for him, because he does things I never in my wildest dreams think he would do.

As the day progressed, I started feeling worse and worse -bad enough that I took my temperature. At 5:00 it was 100.1, which is high for me. I almost never run a fever, not even the time I had mastitis and the time I had a sinus infection.

I still managed to put dinner on the table, and that's when I really lost it. B and I are big proponents of family dinner time. We really believe in the value of everyone gathering at the table to share stories of the day and visit. After tonight's dinner, however, I think I may be switching to an every-man-for-himself dinner plan.

Ella wasn't sitting properly in her chair, and just as I was about to ask her to sit correctly, she managed to flip her plate over and onto the floor, hitting her lap and her chair on the way down. Great hilarity among the kids ensued. B and I weren't as amused. Just as we got Ella focused on her task of cleaning up the mess, Lily knocked over her cup of milk, covering the table. She and Ella had another good laugh at the mess before Lily headed off to get a towel to wipe everything up.

At that point I asked to be excused.

But I didn't get away without one more problem. As I was getting Campbell out of his seat to take him to bath time, he chucked his cup of water off the table, hitting Ella, who was lying on the floor still cleaning up her mess, square in the back. Campbell thought it was hysterical; Ella, not so much.

Campbell had a blast in the tub, as he usually does, and I called my mom so that she could listen to the racket he was making. It was fun and games until he leaned over to pick up a toy and donked his already bruised head on the side of the tub. Sigh.

Finally, after wrestling him into jammies, Campbell and I snuggled down on the sofa for his bedtime cup of milk. And that's when he did something he hasn't done since he stopped nursing - he just cuddled with me. When he was done with his milk, he handed me his cup, and I prepared for the usual wriggling that follows his evening drink. Instead, he just laid here, head on my shoulder. I scootched down on the sofa so that I was stretched out, and we just snuggled. It was the calmest 15 minutes I've had all day. I could have easily fallen asleep like that - feeling the rise and fall of his chest, smelling his wonderful baby hair. I think he might have drifted off if it hadn't been for his sisters, who picked that moment to come crashing into the living room to tell on each other.

Sigh.

I put Campbell in his crib and dangled over the rail for a minute just stroking his back as he drifted off. I wish every day could end so calmly. It made up for all the mess and noise of the day. Now if I could only find a way to not get sick.

It's official

I'm a knitting addict. I'd suspected as much for a while now, but this morning confirmed it. It was my turn to be parent helper in Lily's class this morning, which is always fun, even if I do usually come home with a migraine as a result of being trapped in a room with 12 four-year-olds.

Anyway, there were plenty of moments when I was just sitting and watching the kids paint, or listening to the teacher lead circle time, or watching the drama teacher lead the kids in pretending to be underwater creaters, and all I could think during these moments was, "I could be knitting while doing this." I have a sock in progress that's been riding around in the car so that I have it with me when the opportunity to knit presents itself. I almost went out to the car several times this morning to fetch it, but I just couldn't bring myself to get it. To do so would have been to give in completely to the addiction. Plus, my mom told me that you're not allowed to knit when you're being paid to be attentive. While I don't technically get paid to be in Lily's class, I am supposed to be paying attention to the kids, not to my knitting.

So I was good and didn't knit this morning, even though I was just itching to. But as soon as I get the kids down for rest time, I'll be fishing the baby bootie I'm working on out of my knitting bag.

Poor choice, Ella

B and I are big believers in making the girls face the consequences of their actions. We are very upfront with them about what they can expect - if you do X, Q will happen. Most of the time the girls realize that we mean business and pay attention to our words.

Last night, not so much. At least not with Ella. She always sits in the chair right next to Campbell at the table. It used to be B's seat, but she made him move so she could be closer to her brother. Lily sits at the end of the table, still next to Campbell, but around the corner from him. As we were setting the table for dinner last night, Lily asked if she could sit in Ella's usual seat because she felt it was her turn. She asked very politely and reasonably, so I said yes and asked Ella to sit in Lily's chair. In the process, I explained to Ella that it was only fair that she and her sister take turns with the favorite chair. Ella wasn't interested in listening to me.

She crawled under the table until I told her that if she didn't get her bottom in her seat and sit politely at the table, she'd be sent to bed immediately without dinner. Ella sat in her new seat, but she pulled her jacket over her face and refused to show us her face. When B told her one more time to move her jacket, she said, "I just want to be alone!" We granted her wish and sent her off to her room.

After dinner was over, I went in to try and talk to Ella, but she refused to look at me and squiggled away when I sat in front of her. I told her she was allowed to be angry but she wasn't allowed to be rude and disrespectful to me, but she still wouldn't look at me. So I ordered her into bed and turned out the light.

I went in later, and she'd written a letter to her best friend about how she wished there was a secret world that only the two of them knew about where they could go and hide and no one would know where they were. When I told her it was time to stop writing letters and reading because she was in trouble, the waterworks started. She started crying about the unfairness of the situation, I reminded her that she had created it by being rude at the table and again to me later, that everything that had happened had been her choice. Then I walked out, leaving her to cry.

The tears lasted about 15 minutes before she passed out cold. I knew that much of her behavior was caused by sheer exhaustion. Ella and Lily had spent the night with their grandmother, and I know that they never get to bed early there. On top of that, Ella had had a busy holiday weekend with later than usual bedtimes, but still, being tired is no excuse for being rude to me.

Ella woke up at about 9:30 pm and staggered into the bathroom to pee. As she headed back to her room, I called her into the living room and gave her a big hug, telling her that I loved her no matter what. She gave me a big hug back and went to bed.

Maybe Ella learned a lesson last night, maybe she didn't. Either way, B and I will have had plenty of practice enforcing consequences by the time she turns into a teenager and the stakes are higher.

Saved by Barb

Today, the 25th day of National Blog Posting Month, I found myself for the first time at a loss for what to write. Every other day I've had something ready go. On several days I even had two posts. But today, nothing. I have several knitting posts that I can't quite do because I don't have the "after" of the before and after pictures, or I haven't finished the second baby bootie, or I haven't finished the second sock. I have a lot of unfinished things lying around, mostly because I had to focus on my paying job of editing and my unpaying jobs of raising three kids, being a wife, and managing a house. So I was sitting here, pondering my limited options, when I remembered that Barb tagged me last week. Ta-dah! I have something to write!

1. What were you afraid of as a child? UFOs

2. When have you been most courageous? Hmmm. I guess I'd have to say both of the times I walked Ella to the operating room doors when she was small and had to have surgery on her leg. I was scared to death, but I had to put on a brave face for her.

3. What sound most disturbs you? This swishing noise B makes with his mouth. He never even realizes he's doing it until I elbow him in the ribs.

4. What is the greatest amount of physical pain you’ve been in? Aside from any of my blinding migraines that rank as an 11 on a scale of 1-10, I'd have to say it was the first time my left shoulder went out as a result of an old swimming injury. I couldn't move my arm without excruciating pain, and since I'm left handed, I accidentally moved it a lot as I reached for things, or brushed my hair, or put on my seatbelt. I ended up with my arm in a sling just so that I wouldn't use it. Even my knee surgery and c-section pain don't compare to that.

5. What’s your biggest fear for your children? (or children in general if you don’t have some of your own.) Goodness, there are so many. I guess my biggest fear is that something will happen to me and B and the kids will have to grow up without us there to guide them.

6. What is the hardest physical challenge you’ve achieved? Well, there were the two marathons I ran. But I think going through 18 hours of pitocin-induced labor with Ella before I broke down and got an epidural was harder.

7. Which do you prefer: Mountains or oceans/big water? Oceans and water, without a doubt. I spent most of my growing-up years on the gulf coast of Florida. We'd go by the beach every day on the school bus ride home. Being at the beach or near water in general calms me in a way that nothing else does.

8. What is the one thing you do for yourself that helps you keep everything together? Running. It's the one thing I do that is strictly for me.

9. Ever had a close relative or friend with cancer? Yes, lots.

10. What are the things your friends count on you for? I've never thought about this before, and I have no idea. I'm usually so amazed that people will actually be friends with me, that I never think about what I might bring to the equation.

11. What is the best part of being in a committed relationship? Getting to spend every day with someone who is absolutely my favorite person on the planet. There's no one else I'd rather hang out and do nothing with.

12. What is the hardest part of being in a committed relationship? Not holding a grudge when he's been a butt.

13. Summer or Winter? In Texas, winter. But if I lived up north, I'd have to pick fall. I love the cool crisp days and the light in the afternoons.

14. Have you ever been in a school-yard fight? Why and what happened? Nope.

15. Why blog? Because it makes me work on my writing, and since I'm sort of a writer/editor by trade, it's important that I have a non-work-related outlet for my writing.

16. Did you learn about sex, and/or sex safety from your parents? Yes, during an excruciating car ride to a swim meet with my dad. But he said something that stuck with me. He said that all teenage boys were after just one thing, and that if they said anything other than that they were lying. He then added something along the lines of knowing this to be true because he used to be a teenage boy.

17. How do you plan to talk to your kids about sex and/or sex safety? As openly and honestly as possible. And not in the car where they (or I) can't escape when it gets to be too much. I'll probably drink wine beforehand, too.

18. What are you most thankful for this year? I am of course grateful for my family and our friends. But I think I am most grateful for Campbell. He has just been such a wonderful addition to our family. I can't imagine life without him. I am also just having the best time watching him and his sisters together - they are a fun, if very noisy, little group.

I know I'm supposed to tag other people, but I prefer to let people tag themselves if they choose. It's what I've done in the past.

Count me out!

I will just never understand the need to swarm the malls on the day after Thanksgiving to shop. I did it one time - we were visiting my grandparents in Clearwater, and we went to the local mall, which had an ice skating rink. My sister skated, and mom, grandma and I shopped for a formal dress for me for a dance I had coming up. It was awful - enough to convince me that I never, ever needed to do it again.

This morning's paper had pictures of people who left their family Thanksgiving celebrations to sit outside stores in the cold and be first in line when the store opened at 4:00 am just so they could save $50 on a laptop or video game system. I'd rather stay home, shop later when it's not so crazy, and pay the extra money.

Fortunately, I really don't have that much shopping to do. We've never gone overboard with the kids for Christmas. Neither of them knows that they're supposed to get mountains of loot. They each get one big present and a few little ones from me and B, one present from their siblings, and two or three from Santa. Granted, the grandparents can go a little nuts, but at least my mom has gotten into the habit of running potential gifts by me - this year the girls are getting new backpacks with their initials on them. She'll give them a few other little things, but she knows better than to give things that need batteries or that come with lots of pieces.

B's dad is pretty good about giving them one big joint present. Last year he, at my suggestion, gave them a whirling see-saw for the back yard, which they all love. I've sent him another suggestion for an outdoor toy again this year.

There's just not much that I want or need for Christmas, except maybe some new yarn. I've asked my parents for a new bike rack for the back of my car, and I've asked B for a bike trailer so that I can take Campbell on bike rides with the girls. He's pretty good about paying attention to what I've asked for.

I had vowed not to go shopping at all this weekend, but I need some sort of special wash to use when I felt the purse I'm almost finished knitting. So darn, I'll need to go to the yarn store. Somehow I doubt there will be hordes of people trampling each other for bargains.

Lazy day

Today has been so quiet and lazy, that it's hard to believe I went running at 6:00 this morning. It feels like a day ago.

When I got home from my run, everyone was up and going, except B, who went back to bed as soon as I walked in the door. I got breakfast taken care of, and then the girls and I watched the SpongeBob marathon on Nick while Campbell noodled around.

Campbell went down for a nap at 10:00, so I rousted B out of bed and took a nap too. I woke up 2 hours later to the smell of bacon and eggs. I love when B cooks brunch.

The girls spent the afternoon playing with one of their best buddies. All three spent hours in the backyard playing "space" despite the cold. They came in with pink noses and cheeks, got warmed up with hot chocolate and marshmallows, and headed back outside. Later they came in demanding food, so we made a huge bowl of popcorn and let them watch America's Funniest Home Videos.

I loved the day because there wasn't much to do other than vacuum and mop the kitchen floor, which was so disgusting that Campbell nearly stuck to it. But the kitchen is still clean from last night, and the house is still picked up from all our turkey day preparations. I spent much of the afternoon knitting and watching Campbell play. I also ignored the mountain of clean laundry in our room that needs to be folded. I decided it was my turn for a day off.

Now I'm off to bed to read for a while before conking out. It's been a very good day.

Scenes from Thanksgiving

Here's Campbell shortly after we got home from the ER. He was starving by the time we were finished, so he was thrilled with his food. His good mood quickly faded, though, and he turned pretty cranky. His poor little head had to have hurt. I ran this morning with a friend who is a surgeon, and she recommended keeping him on Tylenol for the rest of the day for the pain and swelling. I think I'll follow her advice. The bruise, however, isn't nearly as bad today as I thought it would be. The two other marks on his forehead are mosquito bites. His head is just a mess.

B loves to cook, but only when he can show off . I really don't care much about food - it's a means to an end for me. But B loves good food, and he still gets misty when he talks about a meal we had in Corpus 8 years ago. So he's in his element at Thanksgiving when he has an appreciative audience. This year he made Beef Wellington, which was a big hit. The dish involved his starting the process the night before, reducing 8 cups of beef stock to two cups and making something called duxcelles. B also made steamed veggies and bread-crumb stuffing (down here in Texas, people eat something called cornbread dressing, which just isn't the same). I made two pies, both of which were devoured.

After several questions, I'm adding this - we did have a turkey and all the traditional Thanksgiving casseroles and potatoes. There was so much food that everyone left with a plate of goodies to eat later.



Now I just need to finish cleaning up and putting the house back together again. And laundry - there's always laundry.