Thursday, March 24, 2011

Fightin' for Your Rights, In Your Satin Tights...


Last weekend was a busy one. Saturday was downright hot, just a hint of what's yet to come. We spent all of it outside. We walked to the farmer's market in the morning. Then, after a tiny bit of clean-up in our own garden, we hit the Botanical Garden. The tulips were all in full bloom, but the girls were more fascinated by the frogs and tadpoles.



Sunday was a good 20 degrees cooler and gray. So, it was a perfect day to hit the Zap! Bam! Pow! exhibit at the Breman. They were showing the pilot episode of Wonder Woman at 2:00, so we met our friends Kim & Jerry and their offspring, Alexia and Simone, for a campy viewing. It's 4 days later, and the kids have not stopped pretending to be Wonder Woman yet. All we have to say to either of them is "Quick, Wonder Woman! Bullets and bracelets!" and they strike the pose seen here. It reminded me of how, when I was just a wee lass, I liked to put on my Wonder Woman Underoos, sit in the spinny barstool at the kitchen bar, twirl until I felt a little sick, then burst forth to dizzily make the kitchen safe for democracy! Usually, after all the spinning, I just went and laid down on the couch in the family room and watched the ceiling spin. I don't know how Wonder Woman took out all those Nazi sympathizers with her inner ear fluid sloshing around; she really was a wonder.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Friday night in Excitingville

Until Jeremiah has finished utilizing the massage gift certificate I gave him for Christmas, there will be no sushi before me. Meanwhile, I'm watching one of those creepy Barbie movies with the girls. They tricked me into joining them by telling me they were going to watch Despicable Me. Total bait and switch. Big changes with little Kate this week. She's taken to using an alarm clock to get up for school all on her own. She's been getting up and getting herself dressed all by herself every morning. Well, every morning except yesterday. Yesterday Jeremiah had to go wake her up. When he asked Kate if she'd set her alarm she said she had, but "when it buzzed, I wanted to keep sleeping, so I turned it off". Perfectly logical. Kate and Sarah have been bathing themselves, which is also new. They do a good job. Faces, hair, even necks are noticeably clean. It's a whole new freedom. I put them in the tub dirty, go make dinner, and they emerge clean and dressed in their pajamas. The bathroom is usually trashed but it's totally worth it. Lately, Kate's been asking if she can join the Girl Scouts. I was a Juliette Lowe follower myself all the way from first grade through junior high. Back then they didn't have Daisies but now, Sarah could join, too. I quit Girl Scouts because I hated selling cookies, and I still don't want to sell cookies but I do have a lot of fond memories of my time with my troop, so I have been looking into local troops. Looks like we'll have at least one cookie peddler in the house soon. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:TV Room

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Progress Report

Kate and her asthma are coming along. We're treating her with pharmaceuticals and homeopathic remedies and chiropractic care and tender loving care and if one of those doesn't take I give up. Her blood test came back from the allergist earlier this week. She shows enough antigens in her blood to be considered highly allergic to cats and dogs. A blow to the home team, no doubt, but we haven't even met with that doctor yet, so we will discuss this with her on the 25th of this month. We told Kate that since we have 4 pets and only one of her, we'll probably just get rid of her. I think she knew we were kidding.

In more upbeat news, the seeds the girls and I planted the weekend before last are looking like this right now!
I'm going to move those sugar snap peas and probably a couple of the basil plants to slightly bigger pots this weekend...and then maybe plant more seeds. We've had to move the bathroom step stool into the guest room, where these plants are hanging out under their grow lamp, so the girls can climb up and see them several times a day.

Friday, March 04, 2011

Spring Fever

Kate is in the ER again. She started looking rough last night and today she had to leave school early. As I headed out of the office I found myself inexplicably angry at all the cars on the road. I ruminated on the work I was not finishing. I felt guilty for leaving early. My mind wandered to people from my past who had wronged me or irritated me in some lasting way. I smoldered. About halfway home I realized, and I should point out here that it was 20 minutes into my drive but it's 38 years into my life, that this vexing feeling I always call anger or irritation or hunger was worry. It was worry. That is unpleasant.

When I got to school she was curled up on a tiny couch mostly asleep. The alder and the cedar are filling the air with their pollen right now. It's making a lot of people sick. Kate looked pollenated. The problem with Kate's allergies is that they literally cause her not to be able to breathe. She napped for awhile but I woke her up when I checked on her because she was rattling and wheezing in her sleep. We tried the inhaler a lot. We tried the Zyrtec. I even tried Reiki. Finally Jeremiah arrived home and he took her to the hospital and I stayed home with Sarah. Now I'm sitting here with Sarah, still worried, feeling momentarily defeated by this stupid asthma. I know she'll be fine, but few things in this life suck as much as seeing your child in pain and being powerless to fix it. And now, as if that's not bad enough, I just have to sit here and wait for Jeremiah to call.

It does help that I have a sweet little blonde dressed all in pink and wearing a cat headband cuddled up next to me, watching Bolt.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:TV Room

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Something Sweet

Last month I made a cake for Glynnis, whose baby boy is due on the 13th of this month, and whose nursery is all underwater-themed. I also made some cake pops. Our co-worker, Yanwen, took some lovely shots of the results, much better than the one I took with my phone, so I thought I'd share them here. The cake pops have no real theme going, except deliciousness, but the cake is meant to go with the deep sea theme. She'd originally been shooting for a more specfic Yellow Submarine deal, but that proved too challenging. I could've done something around that, but opted for the Octopus's Garden instead. I don't know why, I just thought it would be fun. And it was.