Category Archives: Food

Busy

Yesterday was mostly good, with one huge time-out-worthy aberration just before dinner. Ten minutes’ worth of time out, in fact.

I made a single jar of jam this morning. I ordered new glasses, paid some bills, crossed another couple of things off my To-Do list, and now have (of course!) run out of steam, twenty minutes before Jan is due to show up for our weekly writing jam. If I am completely useless at the writing thing I may switch to doing the local freelance stuff that landed in my inbox at lunchtime.

I also had a half-hour conversation with an orchestra contact this morning. Looks like we have an executive meeting next week, and while I’m not an official member of the executive I seem to be invited along like last time because I have Valuable Input.

I need to reformat the laptop at some point today (or possibly tomorrow) as well, so I can give Liam something to do while I work (he is in love with Youtube because it has Veggie Tales and Thomas episodes, and there is always Peep!). Because if I’m on the computer he wants to be on the computer, which makes working while he’s at home somewhat of a challenge.

Off to write, come what may. There’s a thousand words of Orchestrated on my list of Things To Do that needs to crossed off.

Thirty-Eight Months Old!

I think the biggest milestone over the past month has been Liam’s first official haircut. I’ve been cutting it myself at home when I could, but it was getting to the point where I couldn’t keep it as even as it should be, so in he went. He was pleasantly distracted by the movie they were showing (CARS!), and ran up to his stylist to thank her twice at the end of it all. He chose a red lollipop, naturally; they seem to be his favourites. The other big thing this past month has been the bike trailer. He has dragged everyone who has stopped by down to the garage to show it off.

His current favourite books are the Henry and Mudge series. Like lots of the other books we read together they’re early reader books, but they’re perfect to read aloud. Henry is a very Liamish boy. Mudge is, well, a huge Great Dane. Liam started calling Gryff Mudge for a while. And let me tell you, when they galumph and chase one another up and down the hall, Gryff certainly sounds like a Great Dane. (HRH told me the vet weighed Gryff when he was taken in with the infected bite, and he’s eleven pounds now. Gah.) I love looking in the rear view mirror while driving and seeing him sitting casually in his booster seat, legs loosely crossed, a book held open on his lap.

In the food division, the recent winners are ice cream bars on sticks, corn on the cob, and any kind of meat on a bone of some sort. Seriously. It gives us both great pleasure to watch him hold a bone in his hands and tear the meat off with his sharp little teeth. His snack of choice is fresh mangetout peas from the garden. (Note to self: plant lots and lots more mangetouts next year.) Last week he ate a banana as if it was a cob of corn — peeled it completely then held it horizontally and ate bites out of it that way. He has also discovered what he calls ‘iced cappuccinos’. I crush some ice cubes in the blender, add some milk and chocolate syrup, blend it all together, and serve it to him with a straw. It’s basically a chocolate milk frappé, but to him it’s a very grown-up drink and he loves it.

Current fave music is the Snacktime album by the Barenaked Ladies. He’ll even dance to it, and encourage other people to dance as well. He still won’t let other people sing it, though. “No,” he’ll say, “that’s my song.” Meaning, of course, that no one else is allowed to sing it. He’s still a big fan of ‘The Mesopotamians’ and ‘Dr. Worm,’ too.

He’s been having trouble with his sleep patterns lately. His naps have been comparatively brief (an hour instead of two), and he’s been fighting bedtime in general. He gets up after the door has closed, cries, and pushes our buttons. It’s hard to keep the frustration under wraps. He wakes up between five and six AM, often with a mid-night waking as well. We’re buying a set of bunk beds from HRH’s officemate next month, and I’m hoping the novelty of a big bed will help him stay in it. We’ll get to choose new sheets and a coverlet, too. We plan to set up the bunkbeds but leave the upper mattress and the ladder off the unit. Voila: instant tent once one has hung fabric off the two open sides.

On the other night-time hand, he’s only wearing a pull-up at night in case of emergency, and he’s dry more often than not. So good for him.

We’ve been having problems in general with whining and encountering resistance to any idea that isn’t his own. We try to remind him or tell him ahead of time about things so as to avoid the sudden change of direction or activity, but the immediate response to any prompt is still resistance. In fact, he’s been resisting things in general, running the gamut from deliberately doing the opposite of what we ask to simply ignoring us, to throwing a fit. I know he’s working things out, testing boundaries and confirming structure, but it’s very wearing. He’s also been very screechy and shouty. Liam is a very strong personality, and it’s hard to grit one’s teeth when he looks at you and does something deliberately to provoke you. Forget the terrible twos; these are the infamous threes. Not to imply that he’s a stress all the time; there are long stretches of fun and cheery Liam, and then suddenly there is a horrid moment of vexation derived from naughty behaviour or something positively Not On, for which he gets a turn in the Time Out chair. (Suddenly turning around and biting Mama for no reason until the teeth meet but the skin isn’t broken qualifies as one of those Not On things. Especially when followed by laughter.)

I figured it was about time he got to play with one of the consoles, so I bought Endless Ocean for him to play, and he’s having a ball. He feels extremely important holding the Wii remote, and once we’ve set the game up he won’t let us touch it. We’d opened it and played it before HRH came home that day, and Liam took great delight in showing HRH how things worked (going so far as to say, “Here, Dada, I’ll show you how it works” in a very officious manner). He’s lost his game a couple of times by hitting a sequence of buttons, but he doesn’t care; he likes being able to move the diver around and switch between first-person and third-person views. And he is very chuffed about having figured out where the A button is. He acquired his dolphin friend over the weekend and now has way too much fun making it do tricks.

When he sees that my computer is on he gathers a bunch of his trains up and patters into my office, eagerly saying, “Hi Mama, can I play in your office? Can I watch Thomas and friends?” He has discovered the joys of YouTube, and the seemingly endless supply of child-directed reenactments of Thomas episodes using the actual episode narration and toy trains moved around in front of a video camera. It’s the main reason I want the laptop up and running properly again, so I can work and he can do his internet-related stuff at the same time. ( “I’m working,” he said importantly the other day when I’d gotten the laptop up and running, albeit temporarily, as he sat there and typed away at the keyboard. “I’m sending you a message.”)

He is very sensitive, and he’s working that out in his own way too. He unintentionally made me cry the other day. He trundled his blanket-covered toy shopping cart up to me. “Mama,” he said in a coaxing singsong way, “I have a surprise for you!” “Really? A surprise?” I said. “Wow! What is it?” Liam whisked the blanket away to reveal the little stuffed black and white cat he now calls Maggie. “Ta-da!” he said. “It’s Maggie-cat!” And I burst into tears, surprising both of us. He looked very unsure as I reached out and picked the toy up and crushed it to my chest. “Thank you,” I said. “Mama?” he said uncertainly. “Are you okay?” “Yes, lovey,” I said through the tears. “It’s just that you surprised me. And I miss my Maggie-cat so very much, more than I thought I did, I guess.” He still looked kind of spooked, so I held out my arms and cuddled him along with the toy. I couldn’t stop the damn sobbing, not for a while. He cuddled me and patted my arm, and finally said, “It’s okay Mama. It’s just a stuffed Maggie.” And I laughed through my tears. I his world, it made sense. And sometimes we need to take a three-year-old’s point of view and say to ourselves yes, it’s just a stuffed Maggie. There’s no need to be upset. She’s something to squeeze and love and play with, and if we can’t have the real Maggie (as he seems to finally understand, or at least he’s stopped saying “We’ll find her again later” at any rate) then a stuffy is just fine.

Liam-themed posts over the past month:

– The new bike trailer
– Mama’s birthday, Liam’s first car wash, and Mama’s new bike

If you missed the 37 month post (and didn’t we all) I did one a couple of weeks ago and back-dated it.

Harvest 2008.1

We betook ourselves to the Atwater market this morning, and came home with thirty-five dollars’ worth of fresh fruits and vegetables. HRH and the boy munched through a good half of the berries at lunch; I had a delicious peach for dessert this evening.

I made ratatouille for dinner. The place still smells of roasted veggies and Parmesan. It also smells of fresh homemade bread. I am currently eating my way through a slice an inch thick. It’s my second third.

The first harvest rocks. Happy Lughnassadh weekend, everyone.

Not Dead…

… just completely and totally exhausted. HRH is fighting a bad cold, the boy is taking up every bit of energy I’ve got, and I have that restless-but-hermity thing going on. I’ve lost all interest in food and eating.

The rest of the birthday weekend was lovely. The picnic was enjoyable (despite the somewhat uncomfortable experience of the sad attention-starved little girl who insinuated herself into our group because her very-not-sober father was passed out under a tree) and it was good to see people just sitting flaking out in the shade, listening to the kids playing on the playground equipment, munching fruit and bread and cheese and such. Dinner with HRH’s parents on Sunday was also lovely. Thanks go out to everyone who came by or sent their regrets and best wishes, and for all the thoughtful gifts I received (organic nibblies! gift card for the bookstore! a very generous contribution to the 7/8 fund!).

My office feels much bigger with only one cello in it. I tried playing my 4/4 the other day and, as I was afraid, it feels clunky to me now. I so didn’t want this to happen.

I’m currently slogging through a freelance MS evaluation. I know what’s wrong with it, but I’m having a hard time putting it into words (saying ‘overwritten’ isn’t precise enough, alas). Also, what’s wrong with it is making it very difficult to read and get past the wrong to the story, which is, as far as I can tell, a good one.

The boy and I went to a bookstore today (gift certificate, yay!) and I picked up a book thinking it was one kind of thing, and started reading it to discover that it’s something very different. I wish I hadn’t bought it. I’m considering taking it back and exchanging it, except providing the reason of ‘I thought it was something else’ when I’ve read the cover copy thoroughly and flipped through it in the store is really, really lame. Still, a thirty dollar book I’m not going to read is a thirty dollar object taking up room on my shelf that’s needed for other books. This is what comes of (a) having a lousy mental focus (thank you and no love, fibro fog) and (b) shopping with a three year old who is clamoring to get to the train table. I am, however, really looking forward to the other book I picked up (A Romance on Three Legs by Katie Hafner).

Because we went to the Big Bookstore (With The Trains), as the boy calls it, we were obliged to visit the Big Animal Store in the same strip. I was partially looking forward to seeing the little Senegal parrot who stole my heart two weeks ago and partially dreading it, because I didn’t know if I could stand to have my heart broken again. I was both disappointed and relieved to see that it was gone. I hope it went to a good home.

We also stopped at the library to pick up a book I’d put a hold on which had come in: Wit’s End by Karen Fowler. I am very set for reading material. For the next two days, at the very least; I seem to be inhaling books these days. I suspect it has something to do with my need to turn off my brain to some extent, and the need to absorb someone else’s words. I also feel like I’m accomplishing something when I finish a book, which is something I sorely need when I’m down to functioning on inadequate energy.

So I’m muddling around, trying to keep up with the basic things that need doing, and feeling very flat about it all. And when I feel flat and inadequate I get irritated, and I’m very afraid I’ll fall back into the ‘going to bed mad because I didn’t do anything of worth during the day and waking up irritated the next morning’ thing, a rather destructive cycle in which I was mired five or sixish years ago. I think I need to get writing and creating again, which is a challenge because when the boy’s with the caregiver I’m working on freelance stuff for more immediate (and concrete) money (as opposed to working on something uncontracted which may or may not ever sell for theoretical money in the future).

I missed the boy’s thirty-seven month post on the 11th and I can’t see it being written any time soon, if at all. I also missed marking the three-years-at-home-as-a-family anniversary on the 13th as well. I’m so damn tired.

But I do have a shiny red and white bike on the back porch. Someday I may even put air in the tires and ride it. When the next chunk of money comes in we’ll buy the trailer so the boy and I can go for rides together.

There you have it. I’m exhausted and uncommunicative. The end.

Party!

Huzzah! The first kids-only (except for their parents, and the grown-up kid!) birthday party has come and gone, and not only are we alive, we’re pretty darn pleased with it all. The boy behaved beautifully, from the moment he jumped up with excitement and exclaimed “My friends are here!” when the door bell first rang, to the hugs and thank yous as he opened gifts and then again as each friend left.

This year’s masterpiece, designed and decorated by HRH:

(Do you sense a theme to this year’s party? Invitations, thank you cards for the little gift bags given to each attendee, and yes, he was even wearing a Totoro t-shirt I made for him using a transfer.)

Note to self: morning birthday parties with a bit of lunch for the kids = awesome idea. Perhaps next time I should make a third pizza or a second foccaccia, too, and not burn the front edge (first time I made pizza in the new oven, argh… at least now I know to do it at a lower heat). The boy is now napping soundly, and will be able to play with his new toys once he wakes up. He already made me assemble the play shopping cart and roamed all over the house with it on the way to bed for a rest (including two bathroom trips).

It was fun to play with little friends we don’t see that often, but there was also a touch of sadness, as Liam’s friend Arthur is moving to Windsor with his parents on Monday. They were the last to leave, and the boys gave each other a couple of very sweet hugs. We’ll miss them.

I’m thankful the rain held off so everyone could run and jump and play outdoors. We ended up taking the food outside, too. All in all, a good morning. Now that it’s over, I’m not quite sure what to do for the rest of the day. I didn’t sleep very well last night, but I’m restless and can’t settle down. I would eat cake, except my last solid meal was thirty-one hours ago and a piece of foccaccia, three cups of tea, and a square of cake haven’t done much to fill the gap.

And I have to admit that I actually did make cookies this morning, because there was so! much! frosting! left over. In the shape of threes, naturally, following through on the ones and twos I made for the previous birthdays. Liam helped me frost them.

Thanks to everyone who came out, especially those with other commitments weighing on them in the form of packing, sick kids, and other birthday parties to travel to. We appreciated everyone’s company!

Party Minus Twelve Hours

Well, here I am, writing my now annual night-before post. There is cake, but no icing yet, as HRH is designing the cake illustration this year and I had no idea how much icing to mix up. I have wrapped a couple of small gifts from us for the boy (one home-made, two actually separate parts of the same gift). There are small, adorable home-made gift bags to send home with small guests. There are a pile of balloons in the bathtub, hidden by the shower curtain. (There is nowhere else to safely store them overnight.) I have just finished printing thank you cards for those who have gifted the boy, but who are not small children and thus will not be here tomorrow. There’s not much else to do, as I’ll be mixing pizza dough and chopping fruit tomorrow morning. I’m not doing cookies this year, or extra cupcakes, since I am not feeding a small army. Small people, yes, but not large numbers.

HRH has just finished the design, so I am summoned to the mixing bowl.

Today So Far

Storytime at the library for small child (for the first and last time this season — we joined late, and though next week is the last session before September we have a doctor’s appointment already scheduled): Success.

Trip to the office supply store for postcards and stickers: Success.

Introducing small child to a half-dozen Smarties: Success. Except then he whined for more all the way home.

Lunch, bathroom, small child down for a nap: Success. Please, gods, let him sleep for a full two hours. Two and a half would be even more awesome. (ETA: So much for that; all I got was an hour and a quarter.)

BIRTHDAY INVITATIONS: SUCCESS. It deserves capital letters, okay? I designed them and printed them out correctly on the first go. I found enough properly-sized envelopes and addressed them after looking up the addresses I didn’t have. I even have enough stamps for the ones being mailed. As a result of all this, I am currently watching for the four motorcycles bearing harbingers of the apocalypse. (I wanted to carry on the style I’d established for the first two birthday invitations, but the MS Publisher CD has mysteriously vanished and therefore I cannot install the program. It’s fine; these are more than acceptable, mainly because I had the brainwave of printing them on blank postcards and using a picture of Totoros and soot sprites on them.)

Obliterating headache: Failure. Unfortunately, this one is really, really dragging me down. I do cheer up every time I think of having done the invites, but they can only take me so far.