Happy Birthday... a day early.

Yesterday we had a little halloween party for some playgroup friends and also had Carter's birthday cake cutting. I wanted to do something fancier, but we ended up going out with the DiMicelis to Campbell shops trick or treating and, well, I'm happy we enjoyed ourselves. The cake was yummy, even if it was not something fancy. :)

Carter got into it. :)

Rememberies of a Geisha

Bunny loved the pretty kimonos in Memoirs of a Geisha so much that she decided she wanted to be a 'real Geisha' for Halloween. Mama did her best with the makeup, but discovered that watching a movie and expertly applying makeup are different, haha. But anyway, the point was made.

If at first you don't succeed.

Frog and frog again. It took me four tries to get this 'skull' skull cap to something like what I'd envisioned when I decided I wanted to make it. Couldn't find a pattern, so I graphed the skull from a SnB pattern for sweater--and had to use a different scale alltogether. I learned that you can't get the same straight sides working in rounds that you can on a flat piece, even on the tube part just because the stitches end up staggered, not in a grid. So, I did a straight piece for the skull section, joined it and completed with decreasing rounds. All in all I am happy considering I was making it up as I went along. Paul wants one in his size. :)

Running Commentary

Having a child who's learning to speak means one must--if one desires their child actually learn speech, cadence, etc--have a constant running commentary on one's extremely dull goings on.

I don't simply pour a sippy of milk. No, that would be too efficient. I must explain the sippy comes out of the cupboard empty, but that we go to the fridge and get the big bottle of milk, then put some into the sippy--then put the big bottle back!

It's all well and good, but there are times when you wonder if it's getting in while a nearly 12 month old stares at you. You wonder, "Is he processing this? Is he just thirsty and waiting for me to hand him the damn sippy? Or is he thinking his mama's a bit loony?"

There have been (rare) times that I have caught myself talking to myself, I am so used to the 'color commentary' of my day to day existence. I was in Trader Joe's and asked no one in particular, "What kind of juice should we got today?" I blushed when I realized why someone was looking at me funny. Maybe they thought I had a mouse in my pocket, and that's who 'we' was, haha.

Then there are the times when it pays off. Yesterday was a working day at the co-op preschool, and Heidi watched Carter for me (saint that she is). When I picked him up, she told me he really like a Pooh toy and they played with it for a while, Heidi asking where the nose, eyes, etc were and Carter pointed them out! I guess all that telling him what things are and what I am doing sinks in after all.

Carry on. Carry on, crazy woman who asks invisible people questions in the store.

The Little Duckling

Bunny chose The Little Duckl for her bedtime story tonight. We've read that book about Henry's birth, babyhood, and eventual return to the pond to find true love many times. I recall reading it when I was a child, so it's also a nice memory for me, too.

Last night Bunny asked about the egg in the grass at the end. Would the boy get it and put it in an incubator? We agreed maybe, but probably the duck and his 'special friend', the girl duck, would be its mommy and daddy and it would hatch by the pond.

Then Bunny asked if the ducks got married. We laughed a lot thinking about the ducks dressed in tuxedo and wedding gown. Possibly they invited the hen, rabbit, and goat to the ceremony. It was a nice giggly way to end the day.

School Photo Day

Today Bunny has her school pictures. Fingers crossed my hard playing girlie actually kept out of the paint/dirt long enough to look presentable! I think I used a whole can of hair spray trying to tame her crazy Einstein hair, LOL. But it was darn cute. I am giving myself extra points for braiding yarn bows that matched her outfit.

This is what I get for being ambitious

I so rocked my after bed routine tonight. Did it all, baby. Decided I'd go for the brownie points and even set up the coffee maker to go off tomorrow morning, which I have been skipping lately.

About 15 mins later, Paul asks, "Did you mean to brew a pot of coffee?"

Shit. I pushed the on button instead of timer. So much for that. Well, Paul had a good idea to put it in a pticher and tomorrow afternoon I'll have iced coffee waiting for me.

Well, that sucked.

So this morning was interesting! After I feed the kids breakfast, I go into my room to dress, since no way do I dress to the shoes before I have a LOT of coffee. ;) As I am in the room, I hear an odd noise. It's water pouring down the outside of the bedroom window. Hmmm. That's odd, I think. Seeing as it's sunny out and we do have adequate eaves. Pop open the sliding door and, OMG... the hose that goes from the pool filter to the booster pump for the sweep has busted off and there is a not-so-mini Old Faithful going on outside my house. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to not step in the water and I was able to reach the breaker box and shut off the power instantly.

I'm calling the pool guy about it, as Paul calls to me that it's puddling inside the bedroom--it caused a flood. Sheep dip. About a 10X5 foot area is soaked to the padding. Long story short, the carpet is now pulled up and draped over something to get air to the padding while a MASSIVE fan rented from Home Depot is running in my bedroom to dry the padding. It may take 48-72 hours to dry. YAY!

At least I caught it. That could have been a lot worse than it was if I were not home and didn't happen to walk in when I did.

It's all a matter of perspective

Isn't it weird how perception changes your reaction to the same thing almost instantly?

Yesterday at Bun's school there were men excavating outside. I was pretty sure at first they must be working on the electrical problem the building has been having, where the breaker trips if, say, the coffee pot and the fridge are on at the same time. Seemed reasonable to me.

Went inside and the place reeked of onions. As we were in line up, waiting for Bunny to get her nametag, I joked maybe they were serving just a big pile of onions for snack today. Then Skyler's dad said he thought it might be the sewage line they were working on and that's what the smell was. He sounded authoritative. Instantly, I began to feel woozy, since, well, onion-poo is a bad smell! I was going to deal with it, but ugh. It was not good, and I could see I was not the only parent going green in the face.

Then, it turned out potstickers was part of a snack the cook mom brought for the working parents that day. Viola--that was the onion smell. Again, instantly, I liked the smell again.

Did the smell change? No! My perception of it made me amused, then revolted, then hungry all within about 3 minutes. Hmmm. There has to be a deep thought there. ;)

More Bunnyisms

This one from Paul:

Wednesday I had to go to my doctor to review the results from my annual physical (which was actually about 15 years after the prior one). Paul was home working, so he hung out with the kids. Bunny kind of drove him crazy as he tried to get Carter asleep, but he did have this gem to share.

Bunny: Daddy, when Santa comes for Halloween do his reindeer come in the house?
Paul: Santa comes at Christmas.
Bunny: Oh yeah, I meant that. When Santa comes for Christmas, do the reindeer come inside? Because the deer nibbled the carrot, right?
Paul: I don't know.
Bunny: If they leave footprints does Santa vacuum?
Paul: Maybe. We'll have to check next time, okay?

So... we are going to have to figure out how to leave hoofprints. And a note apologizing for not cleaning up, since he's so busy...

Ponay Partay

Today was busy... life has been on some fast forward the past month or so since Bunny started school. Discovery has been great for her. For me? Eh, I'm learning.

Why do I have to always make things as hard as possible? I could have chosen a typical preschool, but noooo, I had to choose a co-op. I'll get the hang of it. Bunny is doing very well--I vascilate between loving it and hating all the work it is for me. Currently I have a tricycle in my garage that needs to be painted, primed, and sanded... or wait, reverse that. And I have an art project to prep for the kids. On the plus side, it's only $130/mo. Which, to a newbie may sound like a lot, but preschool around here costs more than UVA cost me annually undergrad for tuition. Not the co-op, of course, but there are those who spend something like $450/mo on school for a toddler.

Whatever. I'm kind of in the 'can't polish a turd' school of thinking on that. Kids need to learn social skills, to listen to a teacher, the flow of events of school (come in, do different tasks, play, eat quietly, line up, yada yada). She'll have plenty of time to learn algorithms when the time comes. Usually the people that I know who send their kids to ridiculously pompous schools have rather dense kids or are ridiculously pompous themselves. Or both. ;)

Anyway, Bunny's thriving there, but she has always thrived everywhere. Give her an arena and she takes to it. Next week she has a playdate at the park with Anna, her first schoolmate playdate. She also has a playdate Monday with Jacob, park day Tuesday morning, a birthday party Friday afternoon....and so forth. The rest of the month goes pretty much the same. Carter? He's along for the ride until his moment in the sun on the 28th for a party here.

Carter is at Heidi's house with Lily and Luke every other Monday when I am at school working. He is dealing pretty well for a total Mama's Boy. And he is a total Mama's boy, lemme tell you.

Anyway, what did all this have to do with Pony Party? Nothing! Just playgroup had a pony party this weekend. Bunny rode the pony 5 times. Got right back at the back each time to line back up...until Tucker the pony had to go home.

Duuuh, Mama!

Driving is such fodder for the best bon mots from Chatty Cathy. The other day, we were nearly home from whatever boring errand and Bunny kept asking me if I remembered some mundane moment that was obviously more interesting to her than me. I kept saying that I did not remember it, that I forget way more than I remember these days and that's how it is when you're a grown up. You can't keep all that junk in your head. Well, Bunny says to me, "Mama, I keep all my rememberies in my head! You should do that."

Touche.

Yesterday, when we were driving home from picking up our CSA veggies:
Bunny: Can I take a cat to college?
Me: Usually they don't like you to have pets in dorms. Dorms are the big houses that kids live in in college.
Bunny: Oh, I am not going to live at college.
Me: So you just want to take him to class?
Bunny: Yes! Can I?
Me: Well, I think he'd get awful grades. And how would he use a pencil? It might be too hard for a cat to go to college.
Bunny has melted into peals of laughter at this point...

Then there was last night, while we were watching Survivor, and yes, Bunny watches, it, too:
Bunny: Mama, if I ever go on Survivor, will you pack me some snacks?
Me: Yes, that's a very good idea.
Bunny: If I had snacks, I am sure I'd win. Because no one remembers food.
Me: Yes, they do seem to have a hard time finding food.
Bunny: Oh! And some lasagne. No one could beat me if my belly was full of lasagne.