My fancypants morning coffees are much fancier in the pants than I'd dreamed. After one day of drinking perfectly nice moka-pot coffee, I was presented with a Mother's Day present of a real, actual, shiny espresso machine. Woo! Puts my little $10 coffee pot to shame. It still looks sweet sitting on the counter next to the shiny, shiny machine.
The kids are abed (cuddled up together in my room) and Husband is out for a night of poker. It is dark and quiet in the house, and I keep hearing neighbours outside, which makes me sit up straight and stiff the way dogs do when they hear a deer clear its throat four miles away. I am paranoid that one kid will wake and disturb the others, which is the downside of having the three of them sleep together. They were up late for the second night in a row (long weekend, yo!), and I want them to sleep well and not be total poops tomorrow.
Speaking of poops--and what a marvelous segue that is--J is terribly squirty from the bum this week. The poor kid shat down his legs three times today, and his little nethers are red and sore. I have been doing the grossest laundry imaginable, and there is no end in sight. I ran out to get Pedialyte today because he is shooting so much liquid out his rear that I am expecting him to shrivel up like a stinky little raisin soon. Fortunately, he thinks that stuff is nectar of the gods, so he must be at least reasonably hydrated now. He is miffed that I won't let him have dairy, but he is happy as heck to eat plain rice cakes. Small victories.
J's nasty sickbutt forced us to change plans on Friday night, since the littles were going to hang with Grandpa, and we decided not to inflict the liquid poo on a poor, defenceless, old man with a bad knee. N was performing his Happy Drummer dance at a Chinese song and dance night (they had a more refined name for the evening which I cannot currently recall), and we opted to leave the shorter attention spans at home. So N and I wolfed dinner and left his dad and brothers to run downtown to an arts school, where the theater was located. We pulled up to the (totally unfamiliar) building and I realized that nobody was there. Poor N was getting a bit worried, as we were already a few minutes late and we had no idea where we needed to be. We started jogging around the building, looking for signage or some other clue to point us in the right direction, when a stranger pulled her car over and told us she could show us where to go. I guess N's blue satin pants with gold sequins were a tip-off that we were looking for the theater (what, these old things?).
I love that lady--she told us to hop into her car, then drove us all the way around the block to a totally different building that I didn't even know was part of the school. I would never have found the place on my own! She dropped us right at the door, bless her, then toodled off to find parking. The serendipity train just kept right on rolling--now we were at the right building, but where the heck were we supposed to go once we got inside? N's classmate M arrived just then, and we tagged along and ran downstairs through a maze I couldn't have navigated without assistance. I was so, so grateful for the well-timed help. And I felt a little like a dolt for not knowing where we should be. Bad mom!
All's well that ends well; N was so blasted cute onstage, and enjoyed himself thoroughly. I was reminded again that I really need to get schooled in the Mandarin language, because I would have loved to understand even a bit of the emcee chitchat. We watched several acts after his performance was finished, and then we cut out to grab ice cream on the way home. He was floating all night. Next week he does it again at a different venue, and this time I will have DETAILS about precisely where we need to be and how to get there. And we will leave early.
And after cancelling the Grandpa and making Husband stay home, J's bum stayed explosionless all night. Ah well. (He made up for it today.)
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Yadda Yadda
Lessee, last time I posted, I was recovering from a nasty flu. That's right about where I am this time too, only it was a much nastier version this time. (Swine flu? Doubtful.) Fortunately, nobody else in my family was felled.
My birthday boys had a lovely party together, and I am so happy that I didn't have to do two parties. It worked really well, and I loved watching them all run around like a pack of deranged, beautiful animals. The weather cooperated, and we managed to get a bit of outdoor playtime, trotting out the bouncy house again. (I'm sure the neighbours are sick to death of listening to the fan start up every time my kids are in the yard, but man, we've really gotten our money's worth out of that thing.) My trick cake (slices of pound cake with orangey icing in the middle, to look like grilled cheese sandwiches) fooled them all--unfortunately, they were so convinced that they politely declined to eat any. "No, it's really cake!" I told them. "Honest!" They remained dubious. Even the kids who politely agreed to the crazy sandwich-pusher ate the other stuff and left the cake. Lesson learned.
So now I am mother to a 3 year old, a 4 year old, and a 7 year old. Whoa. Those kids are practically senior citizens--how did they get so damn old? Their advanced ages are really apparent lately because I have been reacquainting myself with their baby photos. All of our photos from 2002 (the year of N's birth) through 2005 (the year after G was born) were stored in a computer that suddenly died one day. I was so worried that the photos would be irretrievable that I refused to address the issue for four years. The computer tower has been stored in the basement, waiting for the day that I would admit it was time to take it to a shop for data recovery. That day finally came last week, and despite my adding to the challenge by DROPPING IT ON THE CONCRETE as I struggled to carry it into the building, they saved every last photo and video. Bless those geeks, I could kiss every last one of them.
Since then, I have been obssessively clicking through photo after photo after video after photo of the most amazingly gorgeous babies in the history of the world. Seriously, I make cute kids. And oh, how I miss those chubby thighs! Not that I am really jonesing to gestate another one--but now they're all so large and gangly and ancient. I'm just a little wistful, is all. It really does go fast.
My dad popped in this week, delighting the boys beyond measure. Every night before bed, J would hug him, then give him the Serious Eyes and tell him sternly, "You don't go anywhere while I am sleeping, alright?" Apparently he was deeply scarred by a previous stealth exit by my dad, which none of us remember.
I did the morning school run today (usually Husband's jurisdiction), and slept later than I'd planned. When you don't set an alarm because you are always up by a certain time, you are pretty much guaranteed to sleep well past that certain time. Fortunately, the kids were on the ball and woke me in time to put on some pants and brush my teeth before we had to dash to school. And that's about as far as I got with making myself presentable today. No makeup, unwashed hair, no bra! Egads. And I went out three times, dropping off kids, picking them up, running errands...I feel a tiny bit rebellious, but also a bit like I just proved a point I already knew to be true. Like, surprise, the entire city didn't issue a collective gasp at the sight of me without makeup...though my greasy hair may have earned a sideways glance or two. Whatevs.
I have been knocking a few longstanding items off my to-do list, and it feels GOOD. Today I finally fixed the latch strike on the front door, which has been nonfunctional for, oh, about two years. The door wouldn't latch when we closed it, and we had to turn the bolt to keep it from blowing open with a breeze. My dad found a replacement and removed the old one, and then it stayed like that for several months. To be fair, it wouldn't have been a pleasant job to do in the dead of a harsh winter, what with the working in the open doorway. Today I locked the curious kitty in the bathroom and bashed a chisel into the doorframe for a while, and now there is a most satisfying click when the door is closed. Yay! Last week I installed blinds in two windows which have been nude for the five years we have lived here. Go me! I'm on a roll.
I have been coveting a home espresso machine lately, but simply cannot justify the cost. So today I impulsively bought something like this (mine has a glossy white enamel on the top half), all giddy to come home and try it out with the finely ground espresso I'd inadvertently bought instead of regular ol' coffee. Alas, I discovered that all that finely ground espresso had been used up, because we just dumped it into our regular ol' coffee maker anyway. Thwarted! By the time I picked up some more, it was too late to be indulging in caffeinated anything, so my taste test will have to be in the morning. Now I just need one of these, and I'll be set. Woohoo! Now I can feel all fancy-pants with my morning coffee. Can't wait!
My birthday boys had a lovely party together, and I am so happy that I didn't have to do two parties. It worked really well, and I loved watching them all run around like a pack of deranged, beautiful animals. The weather cooperated, and we managed to get a bit of outdoor playtime, trotting out the bouncy house again. (I'm sure the neighbours are sick to death of listening to the fan start up every time my kids are in the yard, but man, we've really gotten our money's worth out of that thing.) My trick cake (slices of pound cake with orangey icing in the middle, to look like grilled cheese sandwiches) fooled them all--unfortunately, they were so convinced that they politely declined to eat any. "No, it's really cake!" I told them. "Honest!" They remained dubious. Even the kids who politely agreed to the crazy sandwich-pusher ate the other stuff and left the cake. Lesson learned.
So now I am mother to a 3 year old, a 4 year old, and a 7 year old. Whoa. Those kids are practically senior citizens--how did they get so damn old? Their advanced ages are really apparent lately because I have been reacquainting myself with their baby photos. All of our photos from 2002 (the year of N's birth) through 2005 (the year after G was born) were stored in a computer that suddenly died one day. I was so worried that the photos would be irretrievable that I refused to address the issue for four years. The computer tower has been stored in the basement, waiting for the day that I would admit it was time to take it to a shop for data recovery. That day finally came last week, and despite my adding to the challenge by DROPPING IT ON THE CONCRETE as I struggled to carry it into the building, they saved every last photo and video. Bless those geeks, I could kiss every last one of them.
Since then, I have been obssessively clicking through photo after photo after video after photo of the most amazingly gorgeous babies in the history of the world. Seriously, I make cute kids. And oh, how I miss those chubby thighs! Not that I am really jonesing to gestate another one--but now they're all so large and gangly and ancient. I'm just a little wistful, is all. It really does go fast.
My dad popped in this week, delighting the boys beyond measure. Every night before bed, J would hug him, then give him the Serious Eyes and tell him sternly, "You don't go anywhere while I am sleeping, alright?" Apparently he was deeply scarred by a previous stealth exit by my dad, which none of us remember.
I did the morning school run today (usually Husband's jurisdiction), and slept later than I'd planned. When you don't set an alarm because you are always up by a certain time, you are pretty much guaranteed to sleep well past that certain time. Fortunately, the kids were on the ball and woke me in time to put on some pants and brush my teeth before we had to dash to school. And that's about as far as I got with making myself presentable today. No makeup, unwashed hair, no bra! Egads. And I went out three times, dropping off kids, picking them up, running errands...I feel a tiny bit rebellious, but also a bit like I just proved a point I already knew to be true. Like, surprise, the entire city didn't issue a collective gasp at the sight of me without makeup...though my greasy hair may have earned a sideways glance or two. Whatevs.
I have been knocking a few longstanding items off my to-do list, and it feels GOOD. Today I finally fixed the latch strike on the front door, which has been nonfunctional for, oh, about two years. The door wouldn't latch when we closed it, and we had to turn the bolt to keep it from blowing open with a breeze. My dad found a replacement and removed the old one, and then it stayed like that for several months. To be fair, it wouldn't have been a pleasant job to do in the dead of a harsh winter, what with the working in the open doorway. Today I locked the curious kitty in the bathroom and bashed a chisel into the doorframe for a while, and now there is a most satisfying click when the door is closed. Yay! Last week I installed blinds in two windows which have been nude for the five years we have lived here. Go me! I'm on a roll.
I have been coveting a home espresso machine lately, but simply cannot justify the cost. So today I impulsively bought something like this (mine has a glossy white enamel on the top half), all giddy to come home and try it out with the finely ground espresso I'd inadvertently bought instead of regular ol' coffee. Alas, I discovered that all that finely ground espresso had been used up, because we just dumped it into our regular ol' coffee maker anyway. Thwarted! By the time I picked up some more, it was too late to be indulging in caffeinated anything, so my taste test will have to be in the morning. Now I just need one of these, and I'll be set. Woohoo! Now I can feel all fancy-pants with my morning coffee. Can't wait!
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