Have you seen...

...Kindred's new haircut?

Too tired for a title

Well, it's been a pretty crappy morning. The boys were up last night-- Kindred woke Elias because he was hysterical after peeing the bed-- and I spent the night (from 4am to 8am) on the couch while Kindred had my spot in bed. In the morning, I headed to a shore town in south Jersey because I'd been subpoenaed to testify on behalf of a friend to retain parental rights of his son, a nearly two hour journey for an 11am court appearance. Halfway there I get a call from Michael who said, "Turn around and come home. Court has been rescheduled."

Then there was yet another new neighbor debacle involving the gas company, the police and a locksmith. I won't go into it, and I hope our neighbor forgives us. It was an event that had unintentional consequences. And finally, I'm feeling weighed down by the news that an acquaintance of mine and fellow mommy-blogger is nearing the end of her life. I wasn't going to mention it because, although I've met her a few times, I'm not close with Andrea. But I have been following her story through her blog, and I've been overcome with the beauty and grief that envelopes her family. As Lara put it so well in her post, especially the last paragraph, the Collins-Smith family deserves to be honored.

Whew. So all that being said, I'm going to change gears a moment and recognize the fact that I've been tagged once again for a meme (oddly enough, by the same woman who pulled the last one out of me), but this one isn't really about me, so I decided to do it. Here's how it's done:

The rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

So, like many mothers who might have to pick the nearest book, and then the next-to-nearest book, and so on in search of one that might have words instead of just pictures, have pages made of paper instead of cardboard, and might come somewhere near 100 pages (Green Eggs and Ham does not count, even though it must be close to 100 pages long), I found one:

The sound had come up that passage. So she went on with her dim light, almost feeling her way, her heart beating so loud that she fancied she could hear it. The far-off faint crying went on and led her.

Mad props (or a nice HT) to anyone who can guess what book this passage is from. Your hints: 1) I loved this book as a child, but once I saw the [Hallmark version of the] movie, I got tired of trying to navigate the dialect written in many parts of the dialogue; 2) A turning point in the plot happens when a bird leads a little girl to a key.

(Mom, you aren't allowed to guess.)

And if you're reading this, you're tagged. (Isn't this fun?)

My New-Neighbor Faux Pas

One of the selling points of our house was the fact that they block off our one-way street from 10am to 4pm every day in the summer, and the city delivers lunches and snacks to the kids. This program started on Monday, and although my kids have yet to play in the street, we are all pretty excited about it. The only real downside is that we can't park in front of our house during those hours unless we back down the street blowing our horns and inching along. I've done this once, and I got yelled at by a neighbor who, since I was using my FIL's car (Thanks, Ffil!), did not recognize that I was a resident of the block.

This particular neighbor is a bit of a mystery to me. I have studied this person walking down the street with their cane, very short hair, rounded shape and nearly toothless mouth. This person was never outgoing or friendly, and always seemed to regard me with an air of suspicion. So I have never spoken to them. But they are one of the people who sits across the street and makes sure the children all get their lunches, and like I mentioned before, chases down and reprimands people who might drive down the block during the prohibited hours.

The problem is that I have never been able to tell if this person is a "he" or a "she". So I resolved to figure out the answer to my uncertainty when I took Elias across the street to pick up a lunch (that he couldn't eat, but thanks anyway). I introduced myself to this mystery person, feeling confident that I could identify this person's gender if I could learn their name. An introduction was returned to me, in a high-pitched voice:

"Jesse."

Well, great. Why couldn't they have said "Tom" or "Carl" or "Joanne" or "Reba"? This didn't really help. But I decided there was my slightly tenuous answer: Jesse is a woman, with short hair neatly divided and "styled", the protrusions on her front, breasts, her sing-song-y voice a solid giveaway. She is a tall and frankly unattractive, really, woman.

Um, nope.

When I returned later to pick up a snack for my napping child, I offered my thanks for her kindness: "Thank ya, Ma'am."

To which she replied, "SIR!! It's SIR! I am a MAN!" And he got up and stomped away toward the car the had pulled up under the rope and allowed itself entrance on our forbidden street. He was going to perform his self-proclaimed civic duty.

Dammit.

Visiting

In the past few weeks, we have visited many people. Some good visits, some surprising visits. The pictures are from our recent visit to western PA to see my side of the family.

Uncle Mike had to do a little convincing, but eventually Kindred agreed to go for a ride on PapPap's new tractor/ riding lawn mower. (Elias wasn't coming near the thing when it was on.) PapPap couldn't take Kindred for a ride himself because he got himself admitted to the hospital a few days earlier, in need of a pacemaker. Uncle Mike really stepped up to the plate in dad's absence and was a great help and source of fun for the boys. It was a treat that he had most of the days we were there off from work.


Because PapPap was in the hospital, we only got to see him a few times during our weekend stay. Our visits were fun, but PapPap wasn't up to his usual antics with the boys as you could imagine. The boys really adapted to the limitations, and were happy to sit and share lunch with him and read books and run cars and watch the races. The only traumatic event (that Elias hasn't really recovered from yet) happened when we were returning to the car parked in the garage. The fire alarm was loud and screaming in our ears when we exited the elevator. There wasn't a fire, just some construction workers making a lot of dust. Everything was fine, just really loud. But since then, when I pull into a parking garage, Elias firmly covers his ears and cries when I ask him to exit the vehicle.

For several years I had made it a gift to my mom for Mother's Day to visit her and help her buy and plant flowers in her front lawn. Since I had kids of my own, I haven't kept up that tradition. That generally has meant that my mom either doesn't get anything in the ground until late June or July, or she doesn't plant flowers at all. So this year, while she was with my dad on the morning of his surgery, the boys and I planted flowers for her. She didn't get to pick them out, and I know she would have preferred something a little more dissonant, but I went ahead and grabbed some simple plants and spent an afternoon putting them in the ground.


As much as they wanted to be helpful, the boys, well, weren't. But they were cute. (I'm lying down in the picture because I was reaching the music player. No one hit me with a trowel.)


Even though their beloved PapPap was away, the boys enjoyed the time they spent with Grammie, Aunt Mart, Patti, Gram, Aunt Sally and Mika. And got to meet my friends Diana, Curt and George. I love watching them play with some of the old toys I played with when I was little. This train was a favorite, and although it doesn't work quite as smoothly as it used to, it still provides hours of entertainment.

The Long Arduous Job of Catching Up

It is 12:18am. I am sitting at my computer in the basement, since the office is still powerless. And when I turn around I am looking at this scene:


Elias didn't nap this afternoon, despite my efforts, so it is after midnight and he and I are sitting in the basement together. He is playing with his trains (or his "woo woo," as he calls them) and I am enjoying having my own computer to work with but am wishing I had the option for sleep. I will kick him back to bed in about an hour. It's like his little internal clock can't re-adjust to not shutting down for 2-3 hours in the middle of the day so he compensates by being completely awake after 3-4 hours of bedtime sleep. I'm so tired. He, alas, is not.

So why, you might ask, has there been no power to your office? This is why:



We got a book out of the library for Kindred to learn how to re-wire some of the outlets upstairs. He's really taking a freakin' long time to get this job done. Come on, man. Can you put down the fire trucks and playdoh for just a few hours and finish the job you started, like, 3 weeks ago? Jeez. What a slacker.

Instead of working on this project, Kindred has used these last couple of weeks to take vacations to Grammie and Pap's house, lie around on holidays, get a haircut, get an ear infection, wave to people from the front yard naked after peeing on the flowers, learn how to nap again, visit with his cousins and Grandma, and play in pools with friends to beat the heat. (more on all those later, some with pictures)

Elias has been discovering all kinds of new words, and seems to be getting smarter every day. (Maybe we should put him on this wiring project.) He makes nunnels, calls for "howp", enjoys playing with his brother "jidgee", asks, "Why, Mommy?", hops and jumps and laughs, has become a puzzle expert, and is learning to pretend.

Michael and I have been getting by. He is almost finished with his work at the after school program and his kids in acting club put on a fabulous end of the year show for everyone last week. Now he gets prepped for camp. I've been trying to stick myself in cool places any chance I get, and I've been doing a lot of reading since my retreat. I've tried very hard to be interested in cooking but with the heat and suddenly picky children, I have lost my drive. A few weeks back, however, we got sweet pea tendrils from our CSA and I gave cooking them a shot. It was eating skinny vines, but they were surprisingly tasty!


I am going to end this. My eyes are crossing. I will continue to get you all up to speed on our lives in the next few days. I must get my kiddo back to bed. Looks like he's ready, right?

Missing You

I miss blogging. I'm getting my computer out of the closet. Tonight. I miss you guys.

100ºF in the Shade

That's what the local headlines say. Great. My livingroom is 85ºF, and that's only because I've barely opened my front door today. It was 86ºF when I went to bed last night, around midnight. And the kicker was it was still hotter outside. At midnight. The AC unit we have in the kitchen window keeps blowing the circuit. Michael and I have been sleeping in our room, the only room with an air conditioner that works, and the kids have mostly been sleeping in the basement. And then today we decided that smell that we'd noticed down there that could be just a basement smell or could be a gas smell actually was a gas smell. The gas man came and, after some sleuthing, discovered our neighbor had a very leaky meter. Thank goodness it wasn't ours, but still. We've spent so much time down there in the past few days, it's a wonder we don't all have headaches and stomachaches.

The kids are napping. Nighttimes have been a disaster. Elias fell asleep within a reasonable time last night but Kindred wasn't about to close his eyes. We tried to sleep them in their room with fans but it didn't really work. Kindred woke Elias a few times and eventually we all ended up downstairs to watch the NBA finals from about 11-12am. They slept in the basement again, and then they woke up at 8am. Today I decided to screw the schedule and took them to the store instead of napping them, but when we got home, E was melting down so I put him to bed. Then Kindred asked me, "Mama, where am I going to sleep?" I told him to choose, so he chose his room, and there he has been for the past 1.5 hours.

Me? I'm sitting here wishing clothes were optional in our culture, and waiting for the boys to stir so we can go to our friend's house to swim instead of sit here and bake for the afternoon.

(I'm still not officially back online, so I will post pictures from the past few weeks and more stories as soon as I have power.) (Literally.)

Public Service Announcement

Attention:
Computer is in the closet due to project ongoing in the office. Hope to be completed, well, 2 days ago, actually, but things don't always go according to plan. Do not be alarmed. I am still alive and kicking, and should be plugged back in soon.

Thank you all for your continued support. Moderate temperatures and temperments to everyone this week.

~meeshemama~