To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
~ e. e. cummings
Yes, Spring means "sweeps week" for our local Cat TV stations (aka windows on the lower levels of the house). Besides the regularly scheduled programming of Birdies, Squirrels and Chipmunks, we also get the big guns - BUNNIES!!
Though, all the hours of sweeps week excitement do tend to tire a kitteh right out............
Hubby and I took a break from Paintathon 2010 this afternoon to go outside with Kiddo and do a little bike ride practicing.
I present to you Before...
and After...
Yep, Kiddo got going good and fast heading down our street (she's still a little wobbly, so until she's mastered a more steady balance as well as the whole concept of "braking" so she's not doing a Fred Flintstone and stopping by dragging her feet on the ground, she's limited to biking in our driveway and on our street only) and she experienced her first major Wipe Out. (For the record, she was totally Meryl Streeping up that pout up there, and it took four separate tries before she could maintain the "sad" face long enough for me to capture it. Still, though, ouch to the large, skinned and bruised area on her forearm.)
I'm a little nervous because Kiddo has swimming lessons tomorrow after school, and in the past, boo-boos of any significance + pool water = MAJOR freak outs. And this? Definitely qualifies as a boo-boo of significance. We've had freak outs over microscopic paper cuts in the past, so there's a precedent here. I spoke to Kiddo about this tonight, because frankly, if she's going to get to the side of the pool and lose her shizzle, I'd rather not even go. We decided that I will buy some large, waterproof bandaids tomorrow and she'll go to swimming. We'll see how that works out........
Speaking of Paintathon 2010, here's a summary of what we've done in the past 10 days:
2 coats of primer for the downstairs bathroom
2 coats of primer for the living room
2 coats of primer for the front hall closet
3 coats of primer for the foyer
2 coats of primer for the dining room
2 coats of primer for the upstairs hall and downstairs stairwell
2 coats of primer for the trim for all the above rooms
2 coats of primer for the railings
1 coat of ceiling paint for the living room
1 coat of ceiling paint for the dining room
1 coat of ceiling paint for the upstairs hall and downstairs stairwell
1 coat of ceiling paint for the foyer
1 coat of ceiling paint for the front hall closet
1 coat of ceiling paint for the downstairs bathroom
1 coat of ceiling paint for the dining room and 3/4 of the living room
replace the light fixture in the dining room
As of the end of today, Hubby's got a Perma Claw thing going on with his right hand from so many hours wielding the paint brush, while I am a solid three inches shorter from multiple neck vertebrae getting compressed from rolling out the ceilings. Also, we're tired! The good news is we are pretty much right on schedule with our rather ambitious To Do list for this round of home renovations. We've got two more weekends to get everything else done before the big Secret Agent themed birthday party (aka "Operation 7 Candles") and I'm thinking we'll get there. The day *after* Operation 7 Candles? We will be napping. Majorly, majorly napping.
Hope your weekend was full of sunshine and paint- and boo-boo free!
I know all you moms out there are hoping for something fantastic for Mother's Day this weekend (at least all you moms who live here in the US where Mother's Day is being celebrated this weekend).
Well, you'll never guess what my kid gave me for Mother's Day on Thursday. Yes, it was a few days early so I'd have that much more time to enjoy it...............
She gave me this - a possibly broken nose. I know I definitely heard a crunching sound as she tripped while climbing into my lap on the couch to read her homework book to me and her rock-hard skull came crashing down into my nose.
To quote the ever-groovy Marcia Brady: "OH MY NOSE!"
I confess I yowled in pain, which was a lot better than the word that popped, unbidden, into my head at the moment of impact. *That* word would have caused a lot of trouble, so hallelujah that my record of Not Swearing in Front of the Kid remains intact. Let's just say that the word I'd been thinking has been redubbed as "Monkey Fighting" or "Monday to Friday" in the broadcast TV version of that piece of cinematic dreck Snakes on a Plane...
So, I managed to only scream "OWWWWWWWWWW!" as my eyes began tearing of their own accord. Of course it was entirely accidental and Kiddo felt *terrible* about it. (She actually asked me specifically to please tell Hubby that she "felt really, really terrible about it" when I related the story to him when he got home later that night.) I immediately went for an ice pack and after a few moments, returned to the couch where Kiddo quite gingerly set herself down next to me and proceeded to read me another scintillating book full of facts about the life cycle of a frog.
I kept icing it and took some ibuprofen for good measure, and by three hours later, it looked like this:
It was hard to tell if I was going to wind up with black eyes, but I took the lack of a nosebleed as a good sign and went off to bed. Sleep was not restful for me, though, because I am a habitual stomach-sleeper, face down on my pillows, so although I carefully arranged myself on my side with my nose well clear of the pillows, as soon as I was deeply asleep enough, I'd automatically roll over and then OW OW OW wake myself up, wait for my eyes to stop watering, carefully rearrange myself on my side and repeat until morning. A few times, I felt my nose running and though "Oh crap, now I do have a nosebleed" but it was just a plain, old, garden-variety runny nose, likely due to all the tears that my rolling onto my face was causing.
When daylight arrived, I did a quick survey - nothing seemed to have fallen off or swelled up to any grotesque proportions, and my pillowcase was delightfully clear of any bloody nose type stains. I went into the bathroom to observe what time had wrought -
Whew, no black eyes and the bruising and swelling weren't too bad, either.
So yes, for Mother's Day, I get to channel my inner Marcia Brady. She was so pretty and cool and popular - who wouldn't want to be Marcia, Marcia, Marcia? She did get to hang out with Davy Jones and have him sing to her, after all...
Now, while you're doubtless sitting there wishing your kid could accidentally be so thoughtful for you, let me wow you further - do you know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow? What my big plans are for Mother's Day? Well, hang on to your hats, because I'm going to be................ painting! (Are you jealous yet?) I'm actually rather excited about it, just because it means we're making progress on our renovation project list. Our current To Do List has a deadline on it - we want to have everything completed before Kiddo's seventh birthday party, which we're having here at the house (eep!) and to which Kiddo's inviting her whole class, Daisy troop and a few other friends (I believe we have 30 kids total who will be invited - double eep!) and which will have a Secret Agent theme. Speaking of the theme, I'm a bit miffed because I entered a contest to win food and beverages for a kid's birthday party through a group of organic food companies, and while I didn't win, they still posted my idea as one of their top "ideas we love" - what's up with that? You loved my idea but don't want to give me a few cases of organic snacks? Grrrr. (You can find their list here, and my idea is #3 - the Kim Possible Secret Agent theme. THIRD on the list, but I didn't win. There were multiple winners, btw. No, I'm not bitter. Okay, yes, I am a little bitter. I was so hoping to win!!) Anyway, we want to have the foyer, living room, dining room, hallway, stairways and downstairs bathroom done by then - we've got 3 more weekends before the party. Then there's the actual party, which is going to take some planning and preparation. There's also a bunch of school/PTSA and Girl Scout stuff going on in the next three weeks and the yard which won't stop needing mowing, just in case I thought I was going to be relaxing any time soon.
So, tomorrow when all you other moms out there are having mani/pedis or champagne brunches with George Clooney or hot stone massages or just sleeping in until noon and then watching whatever you want on TV completely undisturbed with snacks and beverages brought to you on demand, think of me, Marcia Brady with a paint roller. I'll raise a gallon of primer in a toast to you and wish you a very happy Mother's Day!
(Okay, I should mention in all seriousness and officially for the record that Hubby has said we will be going out for breakfast tomorrow morning, after Kiddo lobbied hard for "going out to eat for all three meals" for Mother's Day. I also know that Kiddo has a Mother's Day present for me hidden in her closet, as I've been expressly forbidden from looking in her closet before tomorrow. So, I don't mean to imply that they're not planning on doing anything in terms of celebrating tomorrow, just that once we're done with the celebrating, lots of painting type stuff will be taking place.)
I will leave you with a short video clip that has had all three of us Smiths cracking up this weekend -
Once Lost had finished blowing my mind and breaking my heart this evening, I'd intended to come in here to the office, shut off my computer, grab my book and head up to bed. (I'm reading the latest Jodi Picoult, by the way, anyone else read it? I'm about 3/4 of the way through right now, so please, no spoilers. I'm still wondering Did He or Didn't He? Or Did His Brother?...)
Well, one thing led to another - or more precisely, one click led to another, and here I still sit, almost two hours later. Time Management and Decent Bedtime FAIL. So, instead, I'm going to throw out a Random Thoughts Tuesday (now with rambly intro, woot!) like my bloggy friend Cristin does so well. (I know it isn't Cristin's original idea, but she's the one I read regularly who does this the most, so I'm going to leave it with her.) Here goes!
*** I've developed a new landscaping style in the past few weeks. I call it the "Yard Mullet" and it is achieved by mowing the front and sides of one's yard, but leaving the back long. I find it's easiest to create the Yard Mullet by attempting to mow when under impossible time constraints and if there's Weather coming. You know, with a capital W, like last week's spring snow, or this morning's thunder, lightning and hail storm that blew in out of seemingly nowhere. Yep, from the street, it's all business - neatly trimmed, nary a dandelion bobbing, but in back? Jungle party!
(For the record, I *do* go back out and get the yard de-mulleted eventually. It's not like my property is the equivalent of a 90's Billy Ray Cyrus or anything.)
Feel free to try it. It's just retro enough to be cool, and I really think it will catch on. I mean, have you seen some of what's considered fashionable these days? I mean, for Pete's sake, jeggings?!?! ***
Speaking of cutting, Kiddo needed a trim, and when I took her in to the salon yesterday afternoon, she asked if she could have it cut even shorter than it had been when we had it bobbed back in March. I said yes, and lo and behold, another two-two and a half inches hit the floor. It still looks pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself, but it is reverting to its wavier self now that it is shorter, which is bugging Kiddo (who didn't listen to her mama, even though Mama always is right, heh). She's going to lose her mind when we go to Florida this summer and her shorter 'do meets the southern, summer humidity!
But in the meantime, it looks like this:
If she continues to want it shorter at every consecutive haircut appointment, I figure she'll be channeling Demi's G.I. Jane look by the time she's eight.
***
Back to the topic of yards and specifically dandelions - do you want to know why I'm now convinced dandelions are EVIL? Because last week, I pulled a handful out of a planting bed, all of them not-yet-silver-and-open, and tossed them in the yard debris pile at the curb. Two days later when I was out getting the mail, I glanced over at the debris pile and discovered this:
Yes. They'd continued maturing and had opened even after being picked. Every single, last one of them. WTH?!?! That is just so not right!!
It would also help my yard out considerably if my beloved daughter didn't find blowing dandelions irresistible. Grrrr. I guess this is karmic payback for all the dandelions I blew in my youth, but still. Oy.
***
I'm on the school carnival committee, and part of my job is to solicit businesses for donations for our raffle. I haaaaaaaate soliciting. Even for a good cause (which it is) and even for a nonprofit (ditto). I've told myself I don't know how many times in the past week I'm going to get out there and get it over with, but each time something (something totally legitimate, like Kiddo coming down with strep and me coming down with a nasty but fairly brief stomach bug) has prevented me from going. Now I've sworn to myself that I'm going to go tomorrow and do it. Maybe typing the words and hitting the Publish Post button will help reinforce my resolve. Why can't the donation fairy just turn up at my doorstep with some artfully packaged gift baskets and a fat stack of gift cards? Sigh...
***
This afternoon was our monthly Daisy Scout Troop meeting. This fact should not ever be a surprise to me, seeing as how I'm the troop leader. Yet once again, I found myself looking down at Kiddo's Daisy tunic and at a baggie of patches that needed to be affixed, just so, to said tunic, just an hour before I had to leave to go to the meeting. I don't know if this counts as Mom Fail, Daisy Troop Leader Fail, or both...
So, I was determined (as I always am in that final 60 minutes before I have to leave when I discover anew I haven't attached last month's acquisitions to the dang tunic yet) that I would get them on before I had to go. I dragged out the ironing board and plugged in the iron. Checked the contents of the baggie - only two patches, not too hard. I began doing the larger one that needed affixing to the back of the tunic first. I ironed and I ironed and I ironed, and the damn thing just *wasn't* sticking. It took me over three minutes before it finally dawned on me - this was a sew-on patch, not an iron-on patch. All the ironing in the world wasn't going to stick that bad boy on. If only I hadn't burned my hands and fingers fourteen times while attempting the impossible. Sheesh. I abandoned it in favor of the more important Daisy petal that had to be stuck onto the front. This one I *knew* is an iron-on, as I've already put eight of its brethren on the front in a rather haphazard, circular formation per Daisy Uniform Guidelines. I lined it up and began ironing away. It isn't adhering, either. ?!?!? Yes, I kept attempting to iron it on for another good minute before pausing, engaging the rusty wheels in my skull that pass for a brain, and flipping the petal over. It still had the backing paper on. Whoops.
I burned my fingertips mightily removing the now-nuclear-hot backing paper from the tiny petal, but I got that dang thing on before I left. Of course we came home from the meeting with two more petals that need to be sewn on, so I purposely left the iron and ironing board set up and set Kiddo's tunic on it when we got home, because this time? I'm not waiting until the afternoon of the meeting. I might as well get them on before the scabs heal from the burns I incurred today!
*** Has anyone out there actually bought and tried those sneakers that are supposed to help your posture and tighten muscles and help you get in shape? I will admit to being intrigued whenever I see an ad in Entertainment Weekly or a commercial on TV. I'm more than halfway tempted to get a pair, but I'd love to know if they live up even vaguely to the hype. (Sorry, Joe Montana, you don't cut it for me, endorsement-wise. I'd like to hear from a real person, preferably a woman, whose opinion I could trust more readily.)
Whoops, now it's Wednesday. I really need to get to bed. I'm meeting (in my carnival committee persona) with the principal tomorrow, and I don't want to be either racoon-eyed and yawning or so jacked up on caffeine I can't sit still, and I fear at this point, it's going to be one of those options or the other......................
I am bursting right now. With pride, not chocolate (though the bunny that remains pristine, whole and untouched in Kiddo's Easter basket has been calling to me quite loudly today). You see, today, for the first time ever, Kiddo did this:
Yep, she rode her bike without the training wheels.
I know you're thinking "What's the big, flippin' deal? Isn't she almost 7?! Of course she's riding her bike without training wheels!" Yes, she will be seven at the end of May. I know that most kids are riding without their training wheels way earlier than practically-seven-years-old. But for Kiddo, bike riding came with extra challenges.
Due to her SPD, Kiddo has always had issues with two of her senses in particular. Which two? The vestibular and proprioceptive senses. "Whaaaa?" I hear you ask, "Those aren't senses..." But yes, they are. They have to do with balance, where one's body parts are in relation to each other and in relation to everything around the body, and how much pressure/effort is needed by the muscles to achieve a certain task. This has always been a problematic area for Kiddo. When she was younger, before she was diagnosed, we just chalked it up to her being extraordinarily clumsy. Seriously, not a day would go by without her walking into a doorjamb or table or wall or trip on a stair or curb - something she was paying attention to and looking straight at as she was moving, yet still, KABOOM. Once she was diagnosed, it was an "a-ha!" moment as we finally had an explanation for the extraordinary levels of clumsiness, and I'm happy to say that in some areas, (like, for example, the walking into doorways) Kiddo has improved greatly with a few years of OT under her belt.
Still, bike riding just wasn't coming to her. Even with training wheels, she wobbled a lot and often crashed and fell. Her SPD was really making it difficult and frustrating for her, to the point that she eventually refused to even try to ride her bike. She preferred "scootering" - on a three-wheeled scooter from which she still has falls and crashes regularly thanks to the same issues that were preventing her from riding a bike - and it seemed like the day would never come that she would master bike riding. It isn't that Hubby and I haven't tried to get her going without the training wheels, mind you. We tried every trick suggested by well-meaning friends and relatives whose own, younger children were merrily pedaling rings around Kiddo. None of them worked for her, because her sensory system was unable to help her brain figure out how to balance on two wheels. Knowing how frustrated she was broke our hearts.
Here, in our new neighborhood, she has friends from school. Friends who ride their bikes past our house, who race their bikes up and down the streets, who invite her to join them. Motivation anew for her, but still, she was nervous and hesitant to try. Hubby did some research on the internet (actually, he was looking for a different program that Kiddo's PT and OT had mentioned in passing when I asked them for suggestions on how to help Kiddo master a two-wheeler) and found a system that seemed worth a try, so he decided to give it a go. He had Kiddo watch the explanatory video yesterday and she was super-excited to try this method out with Daddy after school today.
This system is called Pedal Magic and all I can say is that within 10 minutes of Hubby and Kiddo starting to use the system in the parking lot up the road, she was doing this:
I was at home, busily stripping wallpaper, when the phone rang. It was Kiddo, giddy and breathless with excitement, asking me to come up to the parking lot and watch. So I did, and I'm telling you, I could've started crying, I was so happy. Sometimes it's the little things, you know. When we got home, she was bubbling over and couldn't wait to call her grandparents to share the news. She was busily planning outings on her bike with friends as I tucked her into bed tonight. Of course, she's going to need more practice at things like turning and stopping, but just the fact that she can maintain her balance on a bicycle unaided? That's huge.
Now I just wish the Bike Fairy would come and leave Hubby and me each a bike in our garage so we could go on family bike rides this summer. Sadly, every last cent of income that is above and beyond normal living expenses is slotted towards the neverending home renovations, so there will be no bikes for us this summer unless I can find a great deal on Craigslist or at a garage sale. I've been keeping my eyes peeled... You see, when I was a kid, we would go on family bike rides all the time in the good weather months. We'd spend entire afternoons riding our bikes, exploring our neighborhood or some other scenic spot. I have such fond memories of those outings, which started when we were too young to ride our own bikes. Dad built a "bicycle seat for two" child carrier for the back of his bike (I recall plywood and shag carpet remnants being primary components) so my sister and I could sit side-by-side on his bike, while our youngest sister rode in a more standard child carrier on Mom's bike. Eventually, we were all biking under our own steam, and we'd ride for miles, us kids zooming off ahead, then waiting for Mom and Dad to catch up. Good times, very good times. Now, the idea of doing that with Kiddo is so much closer to being a reality, despite the stumbling blocks her SPD threw in front of her bike tires. And this is why I am bragging about my kid riding without her training wheels. I hope you will indulge this proud mama! Yay, Kiddo!!!
The object: to master our newly attained wallpaper steamer to strip this -
(Isn't it hideous?!? It was the pattern on the living room, foyer, stairway and hallway walls!)
The implements of destructiontools culprits who conspired to take me down -
(Actually, not the palm leaf. It was merely a witness to the atrocity. I just couldn't be bothered to move it out of the shot.) The height from which I fell, while holding the scraper thingy in my right hand and the steamer thingy (the white, rectangular bit attached to the hose) in my left -
The result -
(Also banged up: my left wrist, elbow and hip and my lower back which had already been sore from yard work done earlier in the week. Sadly, I don't have that many ice packs with cool, hands-free wraps.)
Ow. Hubby has now promised me he'll bring the stepladder inside for me when I try to tackle the wallpaper stripping in the living room again tomorrow.
Yes, I am the Queen of grace and dexterity. How could you tell?
Say you have an iPod Touch that your kind and thoughtful, wonderful husband gave you for your 15th wedding anniversary back in January. (Thanks again, honey!)
And say that a kind and thoughtful, wonderful friend who also owns an iPod Touch gave you a super-cool, hot pink, silicone skin for your Touch. (Thanks again, Kristin!)
And say that your six year old owns a little, red egg full of Silly Putty that she leaves on the end table in the family room right next to your favorite spot for curling up and watching TV at night.
Sure, go right ahead, play with that Silly Putty while you're watching TV. It's fun, after all, I mean, it's Silly Putty - go crazy, stretch it out, roll it up, flatten it on the table to make it all smooth...
Just don't. Do. This.
You will not wind up with a cool, funky, line-y print from the back of your iPod skin on your flattened blob of Silly Putty. You will wind up with some sort of chemical reaction that bonds the Silly Putty to the silicone skin with a vengeance and will not come off.
Oh, and if you do decide to stick the rolled out, flattened circle of Silly Putty onto your iPod Touch skin and then spend the next forty-five minutes scraping it off molecule by molecule? Don't decide to try to get the last blob off by resticking the Silly Putty to the spot because then you've just wasted forty-five minutes, you complete and utter idiot.
Oh yes, I am so smart. S-M-R-T.
I'm just glad I didn't try to, say, get a print of my eyeball with my contact lenses in or something equally clever.
UPDATE: I put the skin in the freezer overnight, then scraped off what I could with a butter knife and followed that up with some rubbing alcohol on a q-tip and a warm water bath with plenty of dish soap, and voila! Good as new! Or, at least as good as if it hadn't had Silly Putty stuck to its back, twice.....
(And in case you're wondering, no one yet has posted *anything* on the internet about "how to remove Silly Putty from a silicone iPod skin" - yes, I managed to stump Google! I used various methods recommended for other things to which folks have stuck Silly Putty in the past to come up with what I finally did. Now, I suppose, any future such Google searches will come to..............me! Hee!)
Kiddo has been way too excited about April Fools' Day's impending arrival this year. She's been talking to me about it for at least a week, several times a day. Clearly, it's been on her mind. Last night she was giddy with glee at the thought of today finally being the day.
I decided we'd have to do something to prank her. I've blogged before about how my own father loved a good April Fools' prank, so there is a family precedent. After tucking her in, I came downstairs and tried to brainstorm with Hubby. We were coming up mostly blank (I think Hubby might've been a bit less invested in the effort given that he had a 7am meeting on the schedule, so he wouldn't be around for any prank witnessing) so I turned to the trusty internet, and found in the fruits of my Googling the plan for today.
It involved a bit of prep work last night, so I set about getting stuff ready while snickering to myself around 11:00pm. This morning, I finished my set up before Kiddo came downstairs for breakfast. (Still snickering to myself, of course.)
See this perfectly ordinary bowl of cereal and mug of milk?
Not so ordinary, after all!
(*snicker snicker*)
Thanks to an idea I read online, I'd filled both the bowl and mug last night with water (colored with a few drops of half-and-half) almost to the top and frozen them. This morning, I topped off the mug with milk and the bowl with cereal and milk, and voila.
Kiddo came galumphing down to the table, fired up her iPod (because everyone needs to hear this songandthis song at 6:43 in the morning, dontcha know) and picked up her spoon. I carefully acted nonchalant and she seemed to not be quite awake enough yet to recall the date. I had the camera at the ready, just out of her line of vision.
APRIL FOOLS'!!
She thought it was hilarious and was so excited to have been pranked. I took the joke bowl of cereal away and told her to start drinking her milk while I got her real breakfast out.
APRIL FOOLS' AGAIN!!
Hee hee hee! Now I see why Dad was so into pranking on April Fools' - it's FUN!
Of course, Kiddo felt the need to retaliate. The best she could come up with off the cuff was "Hey Mom, your shoelaces are untied!" This, while I was standing there barefoot and still in my (new and ridiculously adorable, pink flamingo-and-palm tree) jammies. Well played, Kiddo. *snort* Especially when she tried it again ten minutes later, while I was still barefoot.
I texted Hubby to let him know the pranks were a hit. Oh yes, I am feeling pleased with myself right about now. Not the levels of excitement I felt a year ago today, but still.
