juliloquy

dog-eared

Quotes from dog-eared pages.

"The question is always—what are we going to do with this obstacle? And, like all other traumas, if we can use it for learning, then we can turn pain into wisdom. But it means doing the homework—reaching, changing, and going to new ground without maps. Sometimes I wonder if this is why so many marriages fail. Where in life do we have any preparation to be shown our worst selves by someone who loves us and understands it as a gift to become better at being who we are?"
—John Calvi, 1997

"We have to forgive each other,
not for what we have done,
but for what we are.
For being so infinitely less
than we ought to be.
We have to learn to give
where we had hoped to get
and to understand where
we had hoped to be understood."
—Harold Loukes, 1958

"These six sayings are basically all the important messages that one person can give to another.
I love you.
Thank you.
I'm sorry.
I need help.
That's not good enough.
No."
—John Calvi, 1988 

so you see what we're dealing with here

A multiple-choice quiz to give you a small glimpse of life with da Roo.

1. You ask her to go to her room to put on her pajamas. She returns ten minutes later wearing

    a. her pajamas

    b. nothing

    c. the same thing she was wearing previously, plus a birthday hat

    d. princess dress-up clothes

 

2. With whom do the "gooey pahnov goo" hawks roam?

    a. the littlest pets

    b. the watch-out plants

    c. Lovey, the swimming/flying dinosaur

    d. all of the above

 

3. Who/what is seven?

    a. her brother's age

    b. the name of one of her favorite songs

    c. the name of Lovey's pet cat

    d. all of the above

 

4. At school, she has shown true leadership by

    a. getting many of the other kids to "play bird" and "take dirt baths" during recess.

    b. mastering the art of dry transfer and rolling up and restoring the work rug.

    c. starting her own salon and giving actual haircuts to two classmates.

    d. reproducing aminal sounds.

 

5. Words we hope she never learns to pronounce correctly . . . at least for a few more years

    a. calapitter

    b. so'd (so that)

    c. burrtend

    d. all of the above

 

6. When at the kitchen table, Roo might

    a. use chopsticks to imitate a walrus, narwal, unicorn . . .

    b. make a diving board out of turkey bacon for the waffles to use to jump into their "muddle puddle" of syrup.

    c. be too busy talking/playing until an exasperated parent holds the piece of pizza directly in front of her face.

    d. all of the above

 

ANSWERS

1. c. . . . plus a birthday hat (although the others are likely as well)

2. b. the watch-out plants. I'm not exactly sure what these are, but according to da Roo, I don't want to know.

3. d. all of the above. Apparently, Seven [the cat] also has a younger sibling named Four.

4. a. . . . "take dirt baths" during recess. (sorry, classmates' parents!) You also get points for b—her rug-rolling skilz are top notch.

5. d. all of the above. We especially like "so'd" because she "caught" it from her brother, although he no longer says it.

6. d. all of the above. Her chopstick walrus is the absolute cutest.

 

I'm going to do it again

Visit NaBloPoMo
Through November. I've had things I've meant to post here and there, but then thought I'd save them for Nov. Which is silly and dumb. But that's how I roll these days. Happy Halloween!

literary contraband

Tonight I left Roo's room to give a bedtime snuggle to da Shmoo. As he drifted off to sleep, I noticed that Roo had left her room and was standing in the hallway. I was going to tell her to go back to bed, but I instead I watched for a moment. She bent over, picked up some library books that I had left near the hamper, and returned to her room. I heard her bed creak as she climbed in. The lights were out, so she wouldn't have been able to make out much of what was on the pages. I peeked in just now and had to take a picture. What a sweet little sneak.

I've taken some video of the kids playing and will have to post somewhere soon. These unscripted, day-in-the-life sorts of videos are becoming my favorite: They offer a good glimpse of the kids' personalities and interests.

I am feeling that, kids' age-wise, we're entering the golden time of parenting. Shmoo has left behind most of his anger about the move (honestly, would you have suspected it would be such an adjustment for a 4- [now 5-] year old?). He feels connected to his school community and routine. We are also disciplining Roo more now that she is old enough to learn and know better, and Shmoo is responding well to the sense of fairness (that she doesn't get everything she wants because she's a baby anymore). And Roo is able to follow some basic instructions and reasoning. Hooray!

dramatic reenactment

A few days ago I tweeted this:

When we told HPR about it that evening, Shmoo asked again whether he could have another cod liver oil capsule. I hammed it up and said "I'm sorry son, you can't have more cod liver oil until tomorrow." He registered his complaint. HPR remarked that we needed to get it on film, so he grabbed the camera and voila.

icebreaker

I took Shmoo ice skating yesterday. It was his third time ever, all in the span of a month. (The first time was in San Francisco.) He really really loves it, which is great because he otherwise has some serious couch potato tendencies. As it turned out, I spent most of the hour skating backwards, since that was the easiest way for me to support him. My calves are really mooing today.

Some highlights:

• 2010 hockey hair is much cuter than 1985 hockey hair.
• A dad at the rink asked me whether I knew who Laura Ingraham was. I said no and he told me I look like her. I've now looked her up. Wow, between that and the Coulter without makeup comparison two years ago, I realize I've missed my calling as a [your adjective(s) here] conservative pundit. So I guess, depending on my hair length, I have two good choices for Halloween.
• OMG I am glad I'm not a figure skating parent. The gear and the footlockers and the diva-wrangling. I'll take my science/literature/music nerds any day. Although I may be imitating another pundit by becoming a hockey mom because . . .
• HPR ran out with the kids today to buy some hockey sticks. Can you believe he's never heard the "make like a hockey stick . . ." line?

the swing of things

I didn't give proper credit on one of last week's posts. The swing featured in the post's recent photo is new. Pop-pop (HPR's stepdad) surprised us by knocking on our door midday on a Tuesday the week before Thanksgiving. His business handles jobs all around the region, and although he delegates many of the trips to his employees, he looked at the location and decided to do the one near us himself. He delivered part of Shmoo's birthday gift that didn't fit into our car (the base of a desk). He also brought a swing he had made out of leftover Trex® from their deck, some nylon rope, eye bolts, and electrical tape. He installed it right away. What a great surprise! I had looked online for swings to buy, but shelved the idea.

The kids tested it out right away. Giggles.

 

Kiss-kiss!

Thank you, Pop-pop!

glad it's the last week of daily posting

Not feeling a theme to post today. I peeked around the NaBloPoMo site to see whether they have a suggested topic, but I couldn't find it. So I'll just say what I did today. /yawn/. I'll take any topic suggestions/questions you have!

Woke up in the outskirts of Pennsburg, PA, at the home of HPR's mom and step-dad. Roo woke me up at 4something. I got her back to a fitful sleep, but had to lie beside her on the floor next to her portable trundle bed (thanks, Aunt Cathy!). A bit later she was still restless, so I took her to another room and we slept a bit more. She woke for the day, ready to play, at about 6:30.

I had been in deep REM sleep by then and thought about waking HPR to take the early shift with Roo, but Shmoo was asleep in the same room and I didn't want to risk waking him. So I went downstairs with Roo and set her up for playing. HPR's mom and step-dad had work and his sister had school, so they were bustling about getting ready to go. Shmoo woke up after a while and came down to play. I pointed out to him that the donut fairy had come (I made a trip after we arrived Tues. night).

HPR was up by 7 something and we traded off childcare activities, eating, bathing, and some computer time. We decided to take the kids to the Crayola Factory and Canal Museum in Easton. We packed up the car and left by about 10:40. We arrived in Easton at 11:19 (a missed call told me the time). Roo had fallen asleep about 10 minutes before we arrived, which was not ideal, but we persevered. The factory/museum is fantastic and we stayed for a couple of hours and probably could have stayed longer if we weren't bumping up against naptime.

Shaky from low blood sugar, we got into the car to head back west to the Allentown area. Roo kept asking for a snack and we kept having to explain to her that we only had apples, which we offered to her, but which she didn't want. Then I found two fruit leathers in my purse (angelic chorus). Roo and Shmoo were doing a silly imitating game with each other that made us smile. I mean, it was pretty obnoxious, but they were making each other happy and didn't rely on us to entertain them, so it was music to our ears.

We ran into a bit of traffic, so didn't get to the grocery store until about 2:30. We grabbed a bite to eat from the Asian buffet and then HPR and Shmoo went to gather our small list (pie, berries, and cider). Stopped for some wine (I had to go back into the store because the clerk had directed me to Beaujolais rather than Beaujolais Nouveau), then arrived at HPR's dad and step-mom's empty house at 3:30. I crashed on the couch a bit until everyone got home. (His dad was at work and his step-mom was picking up his step-brother at the bus station.)

And we've had a great evening with them and the puppies (one black and one chocolate lab). The amount of wine consumed may have something to do with my lack of ideas for a post. The exhausted and nearly napless kids went to bed with only a glimmer of protest. A lively discussion of politics ensued.

It's 10:30 now and I'm going to drink some more water and head to bed. Most noteworthy parts of the day were Roo's obvious playing-up-of-the-cute for her grandfathers and Shmoo's focus on dog training. Our theory is that Shmoo loves to have someone to boss around who actually listens to him.

guest post - Shmoo and Buddy Bear

Shmoo's class has a mascot, Buddy Bear, whom the kids take turns taking home for the weekend. They write/draw/tell about their adventures. HPR and Shmoo wrote up our weekend and here it is.

Friday

Buddy Bear and I rode to my house in the bicycle trailer. Mommy pedaled. I wore my helmet, and Buddy Bear was safe in the backpack. When we got home, we made soup and Buddy Bear helped. It had squash, apples, coconut, and cashews, and Buddy Bear put in the apples and stock. Then Daddy came home from work, and he was surprised to see Buddy Bear! We played Candy Land, and Buddy Bear won! Hurricane Rooster (my sister [Roo]) tried to wreck the game. It was so late, so we went to bed. We read The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss. We liked it.

Saturday

We woke up early so we could go in Bucky Car to Daddy's work. We dropped him off and went to the "Egg Sandwich Restaurant." Then we went with Mommy to the beach [at Cunningham Falls], but it was closed. The other part wasn't closed, so we went there. We threw acorns into the water. The seeds sank, but the caps did not. We saw some huge birds in cages. The black vulture flapped and pecked at us, but it was in the cage. Maybe it thought we were after its food. There were also owls, hawks, and a falcon.

Then we went to the library in Thurmont. I like that one more than the one in Frederick. They had a snail race, and I guessed that the pink one would win. It did! I played on the computers a little. After that, we went to the nature center in Fountain Rock. We played in the playground and got soaking wet. [Roo] fell asleep, so we didn't feed the fish or turtles. I thought I saw a trout, and it was very big. There's also a lime kiln that dumps burnt lime into wagons.

We went to Daddy's work to pick him up. I bought some tattoos of birds like the ones we saw today. We went to a banquet at Daddy's work. I got two pieces of brownie. One was shaped like a cupcake. Then we went home and it was past my bedtime.

Sunday

It was so sunny that we went to Baker Park instead of Quaker Meeting. Sorry, God, but I wanted to play. We rode the bicycle there, and Mommy pedaled. We went to the fountain, but it had no water or bubbles! (On election day, someone put purple bubbles in it!) I jumped off the stage over and over. I played in the sandbox. I followed a girl in a moon dress. Then we rode home in the bicycle.

We were so sleepy that we took a nap! When we woke up, we made chocolate-chip cookies. Then Daddy came home. We had a dance party and listened to Shonen Knife. Then we wrestled and wrestled.

 

PS: The wrestling photo is from Friday. Today's wrestling photo revealed too much clutter.

and yet our house is still filled with crap

Things I threw away/recycled when my son wasn't looking that I had told him he could keep but that he never thought of again:

• leaves, fresh and dried
• various rocks
• pine cones and other assorted seed pods
• deflated balloons, some with ribbons attached, some without
• foxtails
• wild mushrooms
• a brownie mix box
• various candy wrappers