We were at Liam's house watching football, and I was goofing around with the kids on the floor until I decided I had enough bruises.
Zoe, however, was not ready to stop. "I was born to have fun, Mom."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. I actually think I was."
We had Jacob's birthday cake on Christmas Eve.
We got to open presents. I got a great sweater from Aimee, a deer spotlight from my dad, a knife set from Kelly, and AN IPHONE FROM LIAM!!!
Yes, we've been in negotiations about our relationship, and we are together. And I'm so, so happy.
The iPhone didn't hurt, for sure.
Jacob made me an ornament at day care!
The same day, Zoe brought home her own creation, which she and Jacob quickly devoured.
Zoe's dad arrived the same day, and the next morning I gave him the task of the annual gingerbread house. It was beautiful!!
It is so windy -- and cold -- that I am hearing sounds I have never heard before in this house! We have already been informed that there's a two-hour delay for school in the morning.
That's two extra hours I get to wrap gifts tonight!
I finished my shopping today. I am so relieved. I think I managed to get it done with minimal financial damage, though we'll see what the critics say on Christmas morning.
Tall, quirky co-worker: I need some stuff added to this file.
Short, catty co-worker: Why are you telling ME?
Tall, quirky co-worker: Because at the top of the file, it says to ask you if stuff needs to be added to the file.
Short, catty co-worker: UGH. It just says that, because, like, no one else can do it.
THANK GOD FOR WEEKENDS.
I will never tell anyone that you wear Zoe's shoes. Never. After today. I swear.
Zoe's vocabulary sheet asks her to write a sentence for "discover."
"DISCOVER: find out; learn for the first time. DISCOVER where an adult at home was born."
At first I thought: This is a teacher fishing for identity theft information. But Zoe totally threw them off:
"My Dad was born in Japan."
Her dad doesn't live with us, and he was born in Massachusetts. I bet this, and her 100 percent Irish last name, really left her teacher puzzled.
That's my girl, always sly like that.
After getting in her jammies, Zoe came out of her room and approached me tonight with a fistful of dollars.
"I have to pay the boys at school."
WHAT????????
"Yeah, they made me laugh, and I promised them a dollar for every time they made me laugh."
Zoe would laugh if you told her favorite color was pink.
"You are absolutely NOT giving your money to them," I told her. "You do not pay for kids to be your friends."
Zoe has a difficult time understanding the value of money. Every day when I pick her up, she wants to know if we're going out to eat. CAN WE PLEASE GO OUT TO EAT. Just the other day, we did some running around, and I promised her McDonald's if she behaved. She actually had a coupon for a free large fry in her backpack, so when I ordered and got the food in the car, she was astounded that it wasn't a Happy Meal.
"Where's my toy?????"
"We used your coupon, so I just got...."
"WHERE'S MY TOY????"
I explained to her that money is tight, the coupon thing was great, blah blah blah. She ate her nuggets after I promised that I would find a way to get her the damn toy later in the week. Damn McDonald's.
But now she was standing in my living room with two handfuls of dollar bills telling me she had to pay some boys at school.
"You tell those boys that your mom said NO, and that you will make them a card instead."
I was short on ideas.
She took one handful of the money and held it out to me. "Here."
"What's this for?"
"It's for you," she says.
"I don't want your money. Put it back in your box."
She pressed two dollar bills in my hand. "Take it. You are always saying you don't have money. Now you do."
If you live in Pittsburgh and have never heard of Good Apples, you are missing out.
We've had a program at work for a while now where this company, which bills itself as a "virtual farmer's market," delivers every Friday. I shop online, and the stuff shows up at work.
In the past year, their merchandise has expanded greatly to include not only produce, but meats and pantry items, gift baskets and more. And now, they are offering home delivery. They are located in the Strip District, and I'm not sure about their fees, but through our work program, delivery is absolutely free for over $50. And it's easy to spend that much.
AND THE FOOD IS SO MUCH BETTER than what you'd find at Giant Eagle. And most times, cheaper.
Just tonight I went into the fridge to get a handful of M&Ms that I keep on the door and ended up picking off pieces of cauliflower instead. It's THAT GOOD.
Pass the BEANO!
Take your eyes off me.
There's nothing here to see.
I'm trying to keep my head together.
-- Freedom, David Gray
Wednesday would be one year together, Liam and me. We didn't quite make it.
Zoe was on the webcam with her dad, and Jacob was fascinated. So he got out his own toy computer and followed her throughout the house.
"Now I don't want you back
For the weekend,
Not back for a day, no no no.
Baby, I just want you back
And I want you to stay."
-- Walking on Sunshine, Katrina and the Waves
The sun decided to pay a visit to Pittsburgh today. Lately, this seems to be about as rare as, oh, I don't know... me cleaning my baseboards.
We've had the tree up for a week, which is what I blame on an otherwise unblamable ladybug attack in my living room the other night.
While all the glass ornaments and candy canes are hung at my shoulder height or above, Jacob is still finding a way to get at them. He slung a glass globe around the dining room tonight, with five other people within 10 feet of him, for several minutes before anyone realized, HEY, THE BOY IS TOSSING A GLASS ORNAMENT AROUND THE DINING ROOM. More curious than how he got it off the tree: How the 2-year-old didn't break it on the wood floors.
I'm so far down,
Away from the sun again.
I'm over this.
I'm tired of living in the dark.
Can anyone see me down here.
-- Away From the Sun, 3 Doors Down
OK.
I moved back three years ago, right before my first ever driving winter. I lived with my dad then. Any time I had a problem with snow, he came, got in my Jetta, threw the gears all around and used a lot of gas, but he got my car out of all the snowbanks I drove into. I got to follow him home in his 4WD Explorer, watching him expertly slip and slide ahead of me. I have no doubt some of his skidding was for show.
My second winter back, I lived with Joe in Carnegie HIGHlands. His two cars occupied the garage, and I'm surprised he didn't make Zoe and I occupy the garage also, but nonetheless I parked in the driveway. Up on the hill. The very windy hill. I might note that the entire time I lived with Joe, never once did Jacob ride in his cozy, garaged cars. But that's another story best laid to rest.
That year I was happy for my AAA subscription. Not so happy for all the dings Joe put in the left side of my car one day trying to chip off an inch-thick layer of ice. OFF THE WHOLE SIDE AND BACK OF THE CAR. Before I could even get in the car to warm it up.
Last winter, in my own home, I bought that high-powered salt stuff. I don't recall what it was, but as soon as it hit the snow in my driveway, it was like... it caught fire. Instant melt. On days when it snowed during the day, my friendly neighbor normally plowed the drive before I got home from work.
All this has left me with one lesson: As a Pittsburgher, I need to put on the gloves, so to speak, and tackle the snow on my property. Unless someone else volunteers to do it for me.
I threw regular old salt on my driveway tonight... and gleefully so. I strapped on a Playtex glove and dispersed a good three pounds on my asphalt.
An hour later... it's like... nothing happened. Snow is still falling, and it's covering all that salt I responsibly tossed around generously. I keep going to the window to see the progress, but there's nothing. Nothing but a nice, shiny sheen of snow filling in my footprints.
I thought for a moment that the morning sun would come out and melt it, but there hasn't been sun in ..................... weeks.
We're embarking on another winter... my fourth... and I'm still learning the ropes.
And chains. And salt boxes. And plows. And shovels. And delays.
God, it's me, Sirschy. If you let me have a delay tomorrow, I will recycle more and eat less junk food.
Zoe: So, what do skunks do when they fart?
Mom: (Silence.)
Zoe: MOM.
Mom: I don't know.
Zoe: It's a joke. You have to answer.
Mom: OH! I don't know... they smell good?
Zoe: No! They give out their spray!!! Bwahahahahahahahaha!
Mom: (Silence.)
Zoe: Hahahahahahahaha!
Mom: Did you make that up?
Zoe: Yeah. Isn't it funny!!!!
Mom: Maybe on the next library day, you should get a book of jokes.
My time at home has been mostly preoccupied with projects that cost me little to no money. So, I turned my attention to my basement. Even though I have been living in this house for less than two years, I have accumulated a good deal of CRAP.
Much of it is stuff the kids have outgrown. I put the broken stuff on the curb, and I stuffed my trunk full of old stuffed animals and not-quite-good-enough-for-my-friends clothing.
Tonight I headed to Goodwill to drop the stuff off, and I coaxed Zoe inside to "shop." I actually found a few neat things... a flower box that looks like a picket fence, and the horse-head-on-a-broom-stick (is there an official name for this stupid toy??) that Zoe asks for every time we see one in a toy store. Both for under three bucks each!
The store also had rows and rows of purses, handbags, clutches. I have been feeding my belongings into bigger and bigger purses and have run out of room, so Zoe and I browsed the selection, and I actually found a bag that I like that is quite roomier than anything I own. My only goal was to be able to stop carrying a diaper bag for Jacob, but to have something big enough to throw in a couple of diapers and a sippy cup.
Wouldn't you know, I get the purse home and as I start rifling through all the pockets, I realize what I've bought: A diaper bag.
I now have a diaper bag for a purse.
And strangely, it doesn't really bother me.
I got sick again today... and left work abruptly. That's... hmmm... three out of the last four weekends that sickness has overcome me.
I tell myself it is because I have two young kids, or that my co-workers are germy, or that the change in season has an effect. Those seem to be among the top reasons I hear cited whenever anyone has anything from a slight sniffle to violent vomiting. But something else occurred to me the other day: I am, officially, getting old.
I thought the threshold was closer to 30. I remember sitting through my 29th year thinking, this is it. It's all over for me. But nothing really happened.
But it seems like ever since I began approaching 35, and since I turned 35, my health has been wacky as all hell.
I have few friends who are sick more than I am lately. I have two kids going to two different places during the day, so that's probably a big chunk of my problem. But knowing that doesn't exactly solve it. The other day I was reading about the Herrin twins, whose family seems to be sick all the time, and it made me feel like... well, that I had it good, to be honest. But at the same time, that mom is not working, thus she is not constantly coming up with excuses for a boss as to why she can't make it in today or why she must leave early. Her job is way harder than mine, I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE living that life, but I have to let myself feel sorry for myself.
Being sick so much lately... it sucks. Getting older sucks. Wanting to do nothing but sleep sucks.
Turning to stories of families who have it worse just for perspective... that sucks too.
... is making it crazy around here. I know I have pictures of my sister's Thanksgiving visit, but I can't find them!!
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past couple of weeks, and I'll post more as soon as I find whose camera has pics of what!
Jacob voluntarily goes mute.
Geotrax rocks when you have lots of it.
This is Jacob's favorite dress-up get-up. I PITY THE FOOL....
Let me be the first to say, I accept him as he is! If I turn him gay, errrrr... if he turns out to like Barbies, it's not my fault! GO ELTON JOHN!
Jacob gets on with the creative side of him.
And because I have concentrated too much on Jacob, here's a pic of them all concentrating so hard on being good that they made a chart to track their progress. They were rewarded with a Chuck E. Cheese outing. I'm sure I have pics somethere of that..... SOMEWHERE.
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