Unreserved

The wisdom of 4yr olds

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 | Kids | 3 Comments

Claire is still consumed by the thought of going to school in the fall.  At dinner she asked us what the names of her new school friends would be.  I told her I didn’t know.  I asked her if she thought there would be any other Claires in her class.

“No.  There are two Claires in the world – me. . . and. . . um. . . the other Claire!”

It made total sense to her, I’m sure.

What dreams may come

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | Kids | 2 Comments

Anna had a nasty cold this past weekend, and Claire caught it yesterday, only Claire got the bonus fever along with it.  Or maybe it’s a totally different virus and we can look forward to Anna glowing red hot in a few days, too.  Poor kids!

When we put her to bed she was feeling warm, but she’d already been dosed with Tylenol, so off she went with a cup of water and instructions to call me if she needed anything.  (at which point Anna piped up with, “What about me?  I’m sick too!”)  Around 11:30 she woke up crying, miserable, and burning up.  Into bed with me she went, with more Tylenol and cool wet wash cloths and lullabyes and back rubbing.  I got her comfy (She was being a total bed hog – I spent the night on the outer 6″ of the mattress curled up with the Little Toaster that Could; Parenthood means not minding sleeping with a little vector of disease breathing all over your face) and settled down, she flung her arm over me and said, “I’m so glad I have my family back!”

Huh?  I have no idea what fever dreams were running through her head.  In the morning, bright-eyed, bushy tailed, and only moderately warm, she told me she dreamed about a fly that ate a frog.  Then Anna had to one-up her by claiming to have dreamed about crickets that ate people.

Weasel

Friday, July 24th, 2009 | Kids | 1 Comment

Claire is three years old.  She will tell you that with great pride, also pointing out that next she will be FOUR!  Amazing how that happens. 

Three year olds abhor food.  Not all food, just food on their plates at dinner time.  The rule at Casa Unreserved is she who fails to eat her dinner will not get any “bedsnack.”  (snack eaten before bedtime, healthy as often as not since my kids are suckered into thinking things like fresh fruit and yogurt are grand treats,  typically consumed on Mama’s lap while one is hearing stories)  Claire, being very very three, thinks she is smarter than house rules.

Last night after a near solid hour of monkeying around, the girls were told that they had five minutes to finish their dinners, after which plates would be removed.  Anyone not eating a suitable amount of dinner, a.k.a. “eating good,” would not be getting any more food until breakfast.  “Fine,” said Claire, “I’m not hungry anyway.”  The remainder of her dinner went in the garbage and she ran off to demolish her bedroom play. 

Bedtime rolled around, and Claire asked what she could have for a bedsnack.  I reminded her that she was getting no snack, cue wailing and gnashing of tiny teeth with full histrionics.  The storm was brief.  There was a sisterly consultation.  Not five minutes later she was at my side, tapping on my shoulder.  “I wanna tell you something, Mama.  I love you.”  She threw in her most winsome face for good measure.  Eyelashes may have been batted.

“I love you too, Claire.  But you’re still not getting a bedsnack.”

“But I just want to give you a kiss!  That’s all!”

“I’d love a kiss from you!  You’re still not getting a bedsnack.”

“That’s okay.  Anna said she’d share hers with me.”  With plan in place, the self-satisfied weasel sauntered out of the room.

“Anna is not allowed to share her bedsnack with you – you get NO bedsnack.  Maybe tomorrow you’ll eat your dinner.” 

Cue tantrum #2. 

Never try to outweasel Mama.

And now, a book review.

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 | Kids | No Comments

The girls and I love to go to the library.  I get and audiobook or two for me and heaps of children’s books, even though we have heaps of them at home.  I have every intention of turning my children into bookworms.  I believe I’m succeeding so far because they’d rather be read to than just about anything (except maybe take a bath – now that the weather’s warmed up they can use the tub again).  We pick up a variety of books because it’s hard to predict what’s going to tickle the girls’ fancy on a given week.  Recently we’ve found a couple that tickle my fancy as well.

“The Cheese” by Margie Palatini is a twisted take on “The Farmer in the Dell.”  We read this one so much that Anna was “reading” it to her sister by reciting it from memory.  Both girls crack up at the phrase “High Ho the dairy-o” now.  The book has caused a running joke in our household; we very sternly inform each other that, “You can’t eat the cheese.  Cheese stands alone.  Everyone knows that.”  Hearing Claire attempt to be stern is extra cute.

Last night we got another whack of books and when I read “Cowboy and Octopus” by Jon Scieszka I giggled harder than the girls.  I wasn’t surprised to find it was by the same author as “The Stinky Cheese Man” (which we also checked out last month, coincidentally).  Lettuce can’t knock on doors.  An octopus dressed up as the tooth fairy is not scary, it is pretty, according to Anna.

What is the moral of this post?  I like warped children’s books.  My kids like warped children’s books.  An off-kilter sense of humor is hereditary.  Getting to giggle over an octopus being hit on the head with a hammer is one of the perks of parenting.

Five!

Monday, January 5th, 2009 | Kids | 2 Comments

Anna Peanut has gone and turned five!  After I specifically forbade her to become another year older!  Kids these days.  *tsk tsk tsk*  Pictures of the dual birthday merry making to follow.

My children are convinced that various things are going to blow up.  I don’t know where they get this idea.  Maybe they’ve been watching too many cartoons.

Last Monday, in lieu of a birthday cake (since the coveted monkey cake was slated for Saturday) I put a lit candle in Claire’s milkshake.  Yes, Mr. Unreserved pointed out that I am weird.  The girls both freaked out and took cover under the table, shouting that it was going to blow up!  Stop singing! And put that candle out right now!!  And don’t EVER do that AGAIN!!!

Sunday in church they broke out the thurible (yes, I could have just written “incense burner,” but thurible is a cool word) for Epiphany.  I am still waiting for the state to declare liturgical incense a violation of the clean indoor air act.  I have a right to worship in the absence of second hand incense.  Claire watched the smoke curling up to the valuted ceiling, and whispered loudly, “It’s gonna blow!”

I kind of wish it did.

This reminds me of a story about my brother and the aquarium

Friday, January 2nd, 2009 | House, Kids | 3 Comments

Yesterday I paused in my painting (nine hours worth) to eat lunch.  Since I wasn’t climbing all over the stairs like a howler monkey, I got chilly.  I put on a sweatshirt.  I was still cold.

Me:  Do you think it’s cold in here?

Mr. Unreserved:  Maybe a little.

Me:  [checks digital thermostat]  It says it’s 66 in here.  It’s not just me. 

Mr. Unreserved:  [looking at thermostat]  It says it’s turned off. 

Mr. Unreserved and I ponder why the furnace would be turned off.  Mr. Unreserved goes down to the basement to see if anything is obviously amiss.  I feel an all too familiar sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and flashback to the very expensive furnace repairs we had in the other house prior to replacing it.  (Completely my fault as it turns out – never cut the power to the blower on a milivolt system when the gas is still on and it’s cold outside.  The heater runs without the blower on, toasting the thermocouple.  LIve and learn. (in a perfect world the blower wouldn’t have been wired to the same circuit as the dining room I was wallpapering))  I hit the “mode” button on the thermostat and it kicked back on into “HEAT” mode. 

We went back to eating lunch, brainstorming what could have made the furnace decide to stop spontaneously.  We asked the girls if they touched it.  They denied it.  At first.  Then Claire piped up, “I did it.” 

“Did what?”  (Claire has been known to cop to things that she didn’t do; the truth is a flimsy concept for her yet.)

“I push button.  I like green light.”

The display on the thermostat lights up green when buttons are pushed.  She wouldn’t have known that if she hadn’t actually done it, so I believed her.  Mystery solved, followed by a lecture on not pushing buttons on the thermostat, pretty green light or no.

No more cribby

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 | Kids | No Comments

Claire is at this very moment falling asleep in her big girl bed.  Her Pap-pap brought it over tonight, and Claire wanted it set up tout de suite.   She is very excited and demanded that we dismantle her “cribby.”

I’d been planning on putting her in a big girl bed ever since she learned how to climb out of the crib herself many months ago.  We talked up the big girl bed to get her ready, since she was a little attached to the crib.  What I was unprepared for was how I would feel.  This is the first time in nearly five years that we don’t have a tiny person in a crib.  As I dismantled the crib, the memories of setting it up for the first time were so vivid.  Could it really have been five years ago?

Happier bits

Monday, December 8th, 2008 | Kids | No Comments

So busy was I focussing on the madness that is the hallway last night that I forgot to mention the smiliest moment of the weekend.

The Scene:  Saturday evening dinner (eating the mediocre squash soup)

Anna:  Do we have to go to church tomorrow?

Mr. Unreserved:  Yes.

Anna:  Why?

Me:  You could use some Holy Spirit.

Claire:  Amen!

Our family has the most fabulous Advent calendar ever.  It’s a big manger scene, and each item in the scene is a door hiding a little cubby.  Every year on Nov. 30th we make a big production about leaving it out overnight and it “magically” gets filled with little toys and candy and whatnots.  The girls decided that Santa does the filling. 

This morning they got to open door #8 – Joseph.  There were two pairs of very girly striped Hello Kitty socks inside.  Both girls were thrilled.  Anna told me, “Santa’s elves must know how to knit like you, Mommy!”  That must be why I’m in such a better mood today.  (but really I think it’s because at work I have nothing to paint)

That can’t be right.

Thursday, November 20th, 2008 | Kids | 1 Comment

I am only 31, but I am an old 31.  I knit for fun.  I seldom go out.  I listen to NPR while commuting.  Tonight, having feasted on pizza and applied more drywall mud to the living room wall, I am curled up on my couch with a throw blanket, a hot cup of Darjeeling, and the latest Interweave Knits.  Later I will wash the children, put them to bed, and try to stay awake through the football game.  I may knit a hat.  It’s really rather pathetic, but I’m a happy pathetic person.

As I was (half) listening to NPR on the way home, I caught the local weather forecast.

“. . . and tomorrow’s high will be 26.”

Nah, that can’t possibly be right.  It’s colder than a witch’s tit out there now and it’s 33.  Twenty six must be the low.  I’ll check the paper’s forecast.

It said 30.  The local tv news says 28.

I accept that I live at roughly 42deg latitude.  I accept that we have seasons.  I accept that summer is long since over and I have no right to expect it to be warm outside today.  BUT TWENTY-SIX?!?!?!

It usually takes me until February to hate the cold with this much passion.  I wish I could get as much of a jump on my holiday shopping as I am on the weather.

Excuse me for a moment, I have to yell at the children for de-stuffing the throw pillows and shoving the polyfill down Anna’s shirt.

That’s better.

Anna still believes that cauliflower grows on the moon.  Today a coworker gave me a brilliant way to entertain gullible children in warmer weather.  It involves convincing them that if they sprinkle salt on a bird’s tail, it won’t be able to fly away, rendering it easy to catch.  I am so going to try this as soon as the weather is reasonable again.  Perhaps in May.

Life in pictures

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 | Kids, sheep | 3 Comments

Have camera card, will blog!
As mentioned before, Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was a blast.
Mom, Aunt Sue, and I filled the role of “girls gone (fiber) wild”:

Mom was happy with her find of baby camel/silk:

Aunt Sue got up close and personal with a friendly sheep who liked his head skritched:

(in case you can’t read her shirt, it says “Too much to knit, too little time.”)

I managed to wait to assemble my wheel until we got home.
Anna had to try it out, having already had treadling practice with Grandma’s wheel:

It’s monkey see monkey do in our household. Claire jumps on the treadles every chance she gets. The wheel has been stained and waxed in this picture – I really like how it came out!

The fiber obsession, it starts young. The force is strong in these two:

Claire gets into everything she does. Literally.

Bartender? One beer, please!

Ahhhh, there’s nothing like a cold one after a hard day at the office.

Lest you call CPS on us, the beer bottle was empty, and she made a healthier choice for her beverage enjoyment.

Where was Anna while this was going on? She fell asleep in her seat. This has been a common occurrence lately as she refuses to nap and all that fresh air and sunshine wipes her out by dinner time.

And every time she does this her foot falls asleep and she wakes up fussing and we put her down on the couch and she konks back out once her foot quits tingling.

Also, isn’t my dining room wallpaper lovely? Don’t you wish you owned a house with such lovely wallpaper? You can! For a limited time only, buy the dining room and we’ll throw in five additional rooms, a basement, a garage, and a lot at no additional charge!