she's a survivor

a few weeks back we went to a 'celebration of life.' this is the annual get-together sponsored by the oncology department at children's hospital for patients, current and past, and their families.

this year was the first year we have been available to attend. i wish we had gone before because it was a blast! it was held at a giant amusement center. they have batting, arcades, go karts, boats, etc. we had so much fun and we didn't even get to stay for the whole day.

being anal good little techies, we looked them up online beforehand to get an idea of what we wanted to do. pooka had some activities on her must-do list, as did i. we told pooka before we went that she if she wanted to do her things, she was going to have to try some others, as well. if you know pooka, you know she crabbed about it.

when we actually got there, though, she was surprisingly willing to try our must-dos. one was a hit, the other was, well, also a hit, but not in a good way.

the first activity was rockwall climbing. kisu suggested that we race up the wall, but that just wouldn't have been fair. (besides, i had to pee something awful and i knew the harness would destroy any shred of bladder control i might have after birthing two children.) so i just watched and took pics of her efforts. while waiting in line, i made sure to point out how gently the other people were descending. that eased some of her fears.

she was very nearly eager when the aide put her harness on (which is way more than i can say for the aide himself. a more bored young man i have rarely seen.) she even chose a route that was not the easiest. she really tackled the wall with gusto, but after the first 3 moves stopped and fell off. she looked like she wanted down, but we said no. she reset herself and climbed more. she was only a body length from the top when she quit for good, claiming that her hands hurt.having overcome her first obligation, she dragged me to the bumper boats where she proceeded to soak me.after that refreshing adventure, we hurried to stand in line for the go-karts. this place is so big, they actually had 3 different courses for different ages and experience levels. we had to wait through 4 rotations, but she benefited by being the first in line in her group. that meant she got her choice of car:

all the rest were black. she had a great time, even if we did have to yell at her to speed up or not hit the wall. she claims she was going as fast as she could, but she's not the speed demon type. when bug gets in one of those things, lookout.

while everyone else was waiting for the go karts, i ran off to swing for the fences of the batting cages. there were no real lines there and i'm not sure if it was because it was a less attractive activity or because you had to walk towards the back of the facility. i was able to hit 10 pitches and get back to the track in time for pooka's drive. but our time was running short, since we had plans to go out for kisu's birthday dinner. pooka wanted to do water wars, but i insisted that she attempt the batting cages. we headed over and again she surprised us by actually stepping up without whining. we had to wait for 1 person ahead of us and i used the break to show her where to stand to be able to hit the ball. ahh, here she failed herself. when she entered the cage, she stood precisely over the plate. frankly, i'm shocked it took as many as 3 pitches for her to get hit. she connected twice but the third took her squarely on the knuckles. she was officially done.

the only drawback to the day from my perspective (since i didn't get cracked on the hand by a pitch) was the lack of activities for bug. it was so crowded and we were so focused on pooka and photographing her actions that we didn't want to let bug out of the stroller. the poor thing spent the whole day sweltering in her prison. but she did get a chocolate chip cookie.


all in all, an awesome day celebrating an awesome group of people: survivors and their caretakers. we're hoping they hold next year's celebration there, too. we'll be there. and so will she:

our very own william wallace

otherwise known as 'braveheart'.

we were driving in the truck the other day, listening to i don't know what song on the radio. bug was babbling away as she has recently been doing. everything is 'momma, look.' 'momma, what's that?' etc.

i was simultaneously trying to acknowledge her, in the faint hopes of quieting her down, and maintain a conversation with kisu. somewhere in the cacophony, bug heard an interesting word on the radio. she repeated it, "freedom!" that was all she said for the next 2 minutes. over and over.

i wish i could remember the song so i could try and get that response again, because it was pretty funny and cute as hell.

working on the pronouns

bug's speech has been audibly improving day by day and week by week. i thought she was going to be way behind her sister, but the gap might not be that great, ultimately.

her latest task is a difficult one for toddlers, grammatically and egotistically. the differentiation between mine and thine. the idea that something in the world might be "yours" and not "mine" is a large barrier for 2 and 3 year olds to hurdle.

bug has been working on it, as i said. she will begin, "ball. my ball." and when the response is, "no, this is not your ball, it is my ball," she will repeat, "my ball. no, yours ball."

progress.

she is pretty comfortable with "myself", as in, "no, my do it myself!" but we really threw her a curveball with "yourself." the other day at breakfast she wanted me to feed her. (this is something that particularly irks me in the morning while i'm trying to assemble lunches, after having inhaled my own food. i'm pressed for time, plus? she knows how to feed herself!)

anyway, after doing our usual dance of "eat," "no," "ok, fine," "help me," "no, you're a big girl, you do it," i walked away. she got very frustrated and yelled, "you do it yourself!" as she threatened me with her spoon. i had to laugh.

and then i fed her.

goggles

bug had a heckuva day on saturday. she hit a trifecta of damage. she snapped pooka's headband in half (not while it was on pooka's head), she pulled the pin out of the closure assembly on the screen door, and she broke my glasses.

i was in the shower and kisu thought they were pooka's. pooka is forever leaving her glasses (even the spare pair) in random places around the house, so she got quite the scolding. bug got a thrashing, as well. when i told kisu that they were mine, he did right and apologized to pooka.

meanwhile, i have no glasses. it's not really a big deal because my prescription is very mild, but i did have to get some cheap sunglasses. i cannot tolerate the glare while driving and my clip-ons don't clip-on to my eyebrows.

ultimately, i will have to get a new pair of specs, but i don't relish the thought of spending $200. my friend at work tipped me to a site called goggles4u.com. there is a wide selection of inexpensive frames, free shipping, and a feature that allows you to experiment with various levels of ridiculousness preview them when you upload a picture of yourself.








besides being a useful tool, it lets you get your elton john on.



by the way, these are the ones i'm probably getting:

fit to be tie-dyed

*just found this draft from 4/13. it was waiting for pictures, so here they are.

we colored easter eggs on saturday.


bug was delighted with the idea of coloring eggs. she was so studious about it.

daddy even got in the act, which doesn't always happen.

i bought a tie-dye kit and it was pretty neat, but very time-consuming. each egg took at least 5 minutes to apply all the color and then let it sit. not the typical "plop it in a cup and wait impatiently for 90 seconds" method.



and then we colored the baby.

pooka, the spider hunter

our house, like many others, has spiders. mostly just the translucent yellow variety, although we have seen a much larger, and hairier, species once or twice. the yellow ones are essentially harmless. which is good, because lately they have been quite numerous. we typically take a modified live and let live stance. they have a safe 'spider' zone: anywhere higher than we can reach without aid. if they venture into the 'people' zone, we usually dispose of them. they congregate mostly in the kitchen, but perversely, they seem to like pooka's room second-best.

unfortunately, pooka has a fear of spiders. this, combined with her unnatural flair for melodrama, creates hysteria whenever she spies one. (in our house, that could be more than once a day.) since pooka has a loft bed, she is closer to the spider zone, and that amplifies her anxiety. we have had several nights post-bedtime where she left her room crying for us to kill a spider.

one night the hysteria got to be too much and kisu decided that it was time for pooka to face this fear. he told her that she had to kill her own spider. or she could ignore it and go to bed. she sobbed for at least 20 minutes. finally we realized the spider had left, and so she went to sleep.

a few nights later, the scene reoccurred. this time, i was on duty. i gave her the unused paper towel that kisu had provided before and gave her some pointers on spider smooshing. she just cried. after many pleas and attempts at bartering (on her part), i shut her in the room.

she lost privileges that night for her cowardice. she even lamented the fact that she was "such a cry-baby" --her words! after 35 minutes, kisu arrived to apply the muscle. (she responds to his discipline often, only rarely to mine, although we use the same threats techniques.) finally he delivered the ultimatum: "kill it or name it, because you're grounded to your room until you deal with it."

5 minutes later, she came out and said, truculently, "i did it, daddy." she was, i think, a little bit satisfied for having done it. when she opened the wad of paper towel to prove her skill, it was empty; she got defensive. from the privacy of my bedroom, i laughed. kisu helped her locate the maimed spider on the floor and finish it off. now she could rightly claim her first kill.

after many hugs and proclamations of pride and honor, she returned to bed. kisu and i went into the kitchen.

where we saw SEVEN more spiders.

they arrange memorial services quickly in the arachnid world.

trash picker

i remember that "trash-picker" was an epithet we used when i was a child to describe poor people who had to rummage through the garbage of others to find scraps of clothing to wear. or so we thought.

what a revolution now to see people who voluntarily "free-cycle" food out of dumpsters. and it's considered eco-friendly and uber-conscious.

we are not quite that green, but we did do some trash picking this weekend. kisu suggested i take the girls out for a bike ride while he cooked dinner friday, but i knew that bug would not be able to go all the way around the block on her push-bike. pooka pre-empted a toddler meltdown by dragging the wagon out of the garage.

we started out (me:reluctantly) but only got halfway down the block when pooka said she was too tired. we walked her bike back to the house, but she didn't want to go in yet. no, she wanted me to pull them both in the wagon. (reluctant +2)

on our first foray, we picked up the paper that had been thrown onto our walk by a hapless duo in a large pickup truck weaving their way down the street. they lurched close to each drive with one person leaning out the window to throw the paper, then inevitably getting out to reposition it after the lousy throw fell short of its target. why the passenger didn't just stand in the truckbed and chuck the papers out i don't know. do i have to mention it was two females performing this farce?

anyway, as we headed out on our second attempt, i noticed many pieces of garbage lying in the grass. being on the corner, our lawn gets a lot of attention from lazy, no-good bums who can't be bothered to take care of their own messes.

that is to say, we get some mysterious trash items.

i suggested to pooka that we pick this trash up and she was prepared to run into the house to get a garbage bag. she was perplexed when i told her to use the newspaper bag. she couldn't fathom what we would do with the paper.

she was quite excited and we picked up a fair amount of paper bits, and partial wrappers (nothing more scandalous than a cigarette box, thankfully) with her hopping in and out of the wagon just like a real garbageman. (yay for my shoulder muscles!)

we encountered one homeowner who was incredulous when we told her what we were doing. it probably didn't help that although i have seen her taking great care of her yard, we were still finding more there to clean.

we managed to fill that whole sleeve well before we completed the lap. i felt very accomplished and also proud that pooka tackled the job with such enthusiasm. little by little, we are taking care of our world.

monkeys everywhere!

bug's birthday party was last weekend. she likes monkeys. ergo, we had a monkey party.

we had pictures of monkeys on the walls. (but no pictures of pictures of monkeys.)

we had inflatable monkeys.

we had a monkey balloon.

we had a monkey on the cake.

bug was dressed in her monkey shirt.

the gifts were monkeys.

what we didn't have? bananas.

but nobody minded. bug had such a good time, she slept in the next morning AND took a 3.5 hour nap. yay! we tired out the toddler!

tea party for the age (of 7)

sorry for the delay on this.

pooka's birthday party was held at granny's tea room. it went surprisingly well.

i was nervous about having a gaggle of 7 year olds in a room with classy, breakable fixings, but no problems occurred. and the two boys that attended even had a good time.

they ate finger sandwiches of pbj or turkey, and treats of 2-bite chocolate cake and a spoonful of ice cream served in a molded chocolate tea cup. gee, i should've taken a picture of those...

the kids really got into the place and loved wearing hats. thank goodness granny had some top hats for the boys.

a couple girls said that they wanted their next birthday parties hosted there. even better, many of the adults bought loose tea and said they would be back for more.

that's what kids are for

blog fodder, right?

pooka has always been advanced for her age, in everything from smarts to attitude, but lately, i think it's getting a little out of hand.

i have intercepted my first love note as a mother. and it comes complete with graphics:



pooka's young enough where this is still charming and adorable in a dismissable way. the funny thing, it appears completely mutual. way back for pooka's birthday party, the boy's mother told me about the card he wanted to buy for pooka. it read: "to my wife."

we had a grand laugh, but pooka didn't hear about it (i don't think). so to see this note come about a short while later tells me there truly is some feeling there. i'm not about to arrange a dowry or anything, but i think these two will be lifelong friends.

she doesn't know i snatched this note, either, so don't narc on me.

p.s. i just realized that i never posted about her birthday party. oops. check back later for pics on that.