Grant threw up twice tonight, the first time right as we were trying to get him to go to sleep for the night.  Nothing like vomit all over a duvet cover...  yum.

He seems to be okay, though, now, having slept for 1.5 hours without waking up with more problems.  That's good and hopeful.  Madeleine always seems to wake up every half hour to throw up more when she's sick.

I've noticed I feel really guilty about lots of things:  mostly parenthood, religion, eating, legos, exercise, spousehood, etc., etc.... okay, just about everything.  I always feel like I'm not doing well enough, but I really think I'm probably doing "good enough" -- I guess you just do "good enough" and make your way through life and then you die.  At least I have lots of fun in my mediocrity.  I think excellence would be a bit -- un-fun.  And that's the most elegant word I can think of at the moment.  Of course, I should be sleeping and I'm probably tired and that's probably why I can only think of a word like "un-fun". 

There is so much to write about my kids, and of course I feel guilty about that too, that I haven't written so much lately.  I try to tell myself it's okay to not write everything, and that a few anecdotes will be fine. 

Uh oh!  Crying bayb!

These kids make me laugh.

I was trying to do the laundry, and I put their pajamas into the wash, leaving them naked.  So they were "wild naked babies" and running around like wild hooligans.  I was trying to put some clothes away, but then Madeleine started bringing all the clothes she could get from her room into my room, and throwing them all over everything.  Grant helped her, of course.  Then she said, "We're cwapping up the room!"  I said, "What??" And she kept saying it and telling me that I needed to listen.  I was listening.  I asked, "Are you clapping up the room?" and she said, "We're not clapping!"  And I asked (several times) if they were "crapping" up the room?, and finally she said, "Yes, we're filling it with a bunch of crap!"  Oh dear. 

Then they were hiding in our closet and Grant decided to play hide and seek.  He started by saying "E, E, E! (which is his old way of saying numbers, or count), and then said "count!"  Then he started counting (He kind of does 2, 3, 8, 9, 10 -- and he's really good at pronouncing all of "nine" and "ten", last sounds and all) and then said "Not!", which is for "Ready or NOT, here I come!"  And then he found Madeleine in her hidey hole under my dresses.  Then he yelled "again!"  The neighbor girl comes over sometimes, and she plays hide and seek with the kids, and I guess they really like it.

I came down to type this up, but they're still up there.  I heard them running around, but now it's quiet.  Hmmmm.  I suppose I should go investigate.  At least Grant let me put a diaper and pants on him. 

Grant got a hamster Zhu Zhu pet for his birthday.  Today we made a DUPLO cage for it.  We were putting fences around the outside to keep the hamster in.  We put a double layer of fences, and I thought we were done.  But Madeleine told me that we needed "one more detail", which was putting on a third layer of colored fences on top.  I had no clue she knew the word "detail". 

Now Grant is standing in the cage and Madeleine wants him to get out and then he destroyed it and Madeleine says "Grant, you're making me sad!"  He makes her sad a lot.  I said we should build the cage with walls, so that it'd be stronger:  the fences are flimsy.  But no, Madeleine wants fences.

Madeleine says now "Grant destroyed his hamster cage and I want to make it again." 

Now she's pointing at the words on the screen that I type and tells me that she sees the kids' names. 

The other day she brought me a marker and told me that it was "baby bunny pink", and she'd never been told that before.  She's really learning to recognize lots of words.

Well, she's standing her right next to me whining about all sorts of things -- she's thirsty, she needs to make a new cage -- so I better go.  But I feel like writing, so hopefully I'll be back soon.

So for Grant's birthday he managed to destroy  some chapstick by scooping out and eating it; was found playing with a large rubber ball in the toilet (but it spins and splashes!), opened up a banana all by himself and squished it all over everything; rubbed his cheese all over his high chair and the floor and was trying to eat it from the high chair with his mouth; knocked down Madeleines's pony house towers repeated; and.... more, but I'm tired, and I forget.  Being two doesn't seem to be the cure-all for the ones. 

Madeleine's pink socks seem to be getting too small, so I told her we'd need to start using her larger purple ones.  She told me something along the lines of she can only be pretty if she has pink socks.  I tried to reason with her a bit, but she insisted that if she had to wear the purple socks, we'd have to cover up the purple parts (the heel and toe) with shoes. 

She's also obsessed with My Little Ponies at the moment.  So I pointed out various ponies that were purple and pretty.  I guess that seemed to go over passably well.

Happy Birthday, Grant!

Madeleine was talking about how her My Little Pony Pinkie Pie has balloons and streamers on her body.  I said it was because Pinkie Pie loves to give parties (true).  Madeleine said that Pinkie Pie also loves her (Madeleine), and then added it's because "I'm so pretty."  Then she went on to say that Pinkie Pie liked me too.  I asked her why, and Madeleine said "just because".  Then she said it was because I had so many great shirts.  Apparently Pinkie Pie has no sense of fashion.

I really shouldn't be writing long, because the kids are here, but I'm just going to try writing in more little bits.  I just want to say that Grant is an amazing kid.  He's so happy, enthusiastic, sweet, friendly, kind -- seriously, he's all around awesome.  Madeleine is often whining about things, and then he'll try to make her happy (often) -- and he's always saying "hi!" to everyone he meets, and he loves to give hugs and kisses and we just want to eat him up. 

My baby is turning two years old tomorrow.  I'm sort of surprised that we've both survived this long. 

January 26, 2011

We had a nice disgusting moment last night.  The kids love to be wild naked babies and run around screaming like wild hooligans.  Grant had already had his pants off for a diaper change, but I finally took his shirt off too.  As soon as the shirt comes off, the diaper comes off, but that was not good:  it had a log of poo in there.  (I’d just changed his diaper; it was brand new.)  And since it was hard-ish, it fell out of the diaper and onto the kitchen floor (thank goodness it was onto the tile!).  Then he stepped in it, and somehow managed to get poo all over everything.  It was all over the floor, all over him.  I tried to clean him at the diaper changing table, but the wet wipes just wouldn’t get the sticky stuff off.  So I hauled him up to the bathtub, and ended up scraping the poop off of the bottom of this feet with my fingernails.  It was lovely. 

I go around composing paragraphs for this blog in my head, but then I never come and write them down.  When I have free time I want to make patterns or play games…. Okay, just two days ago the game thing started:  I bought an iPod touch.  It’s my sister’s fault, really, because she gave her old iPod touch to my mom.  Then my kids loved it, as did I.  So I acquired one, too.  Hmmm.  I might donate my entertainment budget to the cause.  For the next four months.  No more cheese slopes for four months?  Oh dear.  Well.  Maybe it’s my Valentine’s Day present.  I got the Diagon Alley set, and called it half my Christmas present, half my Valentine’s present.  But perhaps that was all Christmas, and this iPod is all Valentine’s Day.  Yeah.  And I really want two more, one for each kid, so they’ll leave me alone when I want to use it.  They crowd in so close, and the screen is so little, and then I can’t see at all.  How am I supposed to protect my house from a wave of invading zombies if I can’t see the screen?  That game is Plants versus Zombies, and Karen was playing it all the time on our vacation this summer.  She was going on and on about how great her iPod touch was, and I just tried to not think about it, because if I don’t know about how great something is, then I won’t want it, right?  But alas, now I want it, so now I’m playing Plants versus Zombies too.  It’s amazing how fast an hour can go by, when you’re cuddled up in bed in the dark and want to play just one more level…. Just one more level…

I’m finally getting a LEGO pattern to look like the geometric drawing that I have done.  It’s a different process than drawing was, but for some reason I just really love to see the lines arcing and connecting and interlacing, all in wonderful rotational symmetry.  Sometimes I wonder why I find those shapes so appealing.  But really, it’s not just me.  There is all sorts of art filled with symmetry and shapes and patterns.  My parents have a rug on the floor outside of the bathroom, and while I wash my hands I stare at it and follow all the lines and am amazed by all the shapes that are formed.   It’s kind of a mix between geometric art and floral art.  It seems all geometric, but there are all sorts of flowers in the pattern.  I used to want to draw like that, but felt like I had to stick to the ruler, because I had no drawing talent, just the ability to make straight lines.  But really it’s not so hard to draw flower petals; I could probably do it.  Sometimes I think I should have been a mosaic maker for some fancy building.  Most of the time though I think I should have been a research scientist, since I love discovering all the pattenrs, looking and looking and finding some more.  That’s research – looking, trying, exploring, finding…

Sometimes I think I don’t write more because I know there is so much I’ve missed, so much to catch up on, and the idea is overwhelming.  Then I resolve to just try to write little bits, to just get moving again.  So perhaps I’ll be done for now, and try again later. 

12-14-10

We were driving to my mom’s house, and Grant kept asking to have the light over his chair turned on.  I said something about not needing it, and Madeleine told Grant, “It’s morn-in’.  Can you say “mornin’”?  Morn-in’ is a Spanish word for when the sun comes up.”  I asked her if she meant that it was “morning”, and it was in English, and she told me that “morning” was English, but in Spanish it was ‘morn-IN”, and she repeated it over and over.  It was rather amusing and cute. 

December 6, 2010

Today is my last day of being 32 years old….  2^5!  Tomorrow, I’ll be a third of the way to 99.  So – I feel older, but also I must admit that there is a lot of time between now and the age of 99.  Twice the life I’ve lived already, and that has gone on for a long time.

I got blogged in two more places:  http://www.brothers-brick.com/2010/12/04/christmas-window/ and http://maskedandflare.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/happy-holidays/

The kids have had done/said some really cute things lately.  I guess I’ll try to write about those instead of going on and on about my struggling faith.  That latter thing is just depressing.

The kids went to Al’s and Ellen’s this afternoon, and I spent most of the afternoon fiddling with cheese slopes.  They might be home at any time, but I’ll try to get some typing done before they arrive.

Lately, when Grant is thinking about something, he’ll say, “Hmmmm” very deliberately.  It’s usually when I’m reading a book with him and I’m asking him to find a certain object.  He’s really good at finding objects and usually doesn’t need to think about it.  But I think he likes saying, “Hmmmm,” probably because I tend to do it.  And probably Madeleine does it too.  When he says it, it has a very deliberately cut-off ending.  Hmmm.  Period.  It’s so cute.

Speaking of Grant being cute:  starting yesterday he really started kissing me with gusto.  Kissing my mouth, my chin, my ears, my cheeks.  Almost trying to make out with me.  It was pretty funny.  He’s so sweet. 

On Saturday we were watching the beginning of the Apple Cup (football), and Madeleine started bouncing around the room laughing hysterically.  I asked her what was so funny, and she shrieked and giggled and then pointed to the TV.  She said there was one line of people here (and she put out one arm in front of her) and another line of people here (and she put out her other arm, parallel to the first), and they just ran into each other!!  It was soooo funny!  Brian and I both laughed and said that’s what they do in football, and look, they were going to do it again!   

We went to the library last week and got some books on the planets, because Madeleine loves them, especially Jupiter.  When we got home, she went to the table of contents of one of the books, started reading the planets’ names, and then would look at the page that that planet would be on.  She told me she wanted to see Pluto next, went down the contents till she saw the name Pluto, and told me it was on page 22.  I didn’t know she could read “Pluto”, let alone find it in a table of contents.  I was fairly impressed.

Sunday Madeleine was sitting at the computer playing games.  She told me, “Big Brown Bear wants to play Google Earth, but I want to play Dora!”  Uh-oh.  Dissension in the ranks of that friendship.  And do you know what they played?  Google Earth.  I guess Big Brown Bear is a pretty special friend. 

Madeleine loves to get out her scissors and cut a piece of paper to shreds.  She was doing that a few days ago, and then held up a piece she had cut and said, “This looks like a state!”  I looked and thought maybe it looked like Indiana or Illinois.  She said she’d show me which state it was on her states puzzle, and went and got a piece.  She brought it back, and sure enough, it was Indiana.  Then she cut some more.  After a bit she held up another piece and said it looked like another state.  I thought it looked like Nevada.  “I’ll show you,” she said, and ran to her states puzzle, and sure enough, she brought back Nevada.  Then she kept cutting and held up another piece.  She told me it looked like a state that was next to Alabama.  I couldn’t see very well, so I just said that maybe it looked like Mississippi.  She didn’t seem impressed with my guess and said it was the state with the picture of the nut on it.  So she went to her puzzle and brought back Georgia, and sure enough, the Georgia piece had a picture of a nut on it.  My grandma Shirley gave Madeleine the states puzzle for her third birthday, and I thought for sure it was going to be a long time into the future before it would get used.  But no, my little girl loves it already.  She can do it all by herself, but she likes to have us tell her the state names as she puts them into their spots.

Apparently Madeleine has decided what my favorite planets are, as well as those of Brian and Big Brown Bear.  Brian told me about how my favorite planet was Mercury.  I was surprised.  But Madeleine said so.  Brian’s favorite is Uranus, apparently.  Big Brown Bear likes Jupiter and Mars, and Madeleine likes Jupiter.  Grant’s favorite planet is Venus.  Interesting.

One more thing before I’m done…. (the kids are back, but I’ll squeeze this in).  If Madeleine is wrong about something, instead of saying she’s wrong, she’ll say, “I’m just teasin’.”  Ah, she’s a lot like her Mommy:  never wants to be wrong!

Oh, but one more thing:  I found my lost things!  The thermometer was in the spice cupboard, right where I had put it.  Of course it should be in with the spices!  And then Brian got his car cleaned, and they found my lost LEGO headlight bricks!  Yay!  I had used them on a little spider mosaic I took (but did not display) at BrickCon, and sometime in that frantic day, the mosaic (carefully wrapped in saran wrap) made its way under the seat.  I’m so glad we found it.  Those are some expensive little bricks.