Let me first address the elephant in the room: it has been awhile since I’ve written. I don’t really know how to account for the time missing from my blog, only that I probably was not inspired to write about anything humdrum so I just stayed away altogether. What have I been doing with the past six months or so? Well, working, momming, daughtering, becoming an aunt, dealing with family illness, trying to keep my head above the water and my little family healthy. Nothing much to write about.
This past fall was a confusing time, for a bunch of reasons. But one thing that I will discuss is the funny way that once fall hit, and we locked up the cottage, I completely forgot about it. Like, put it completely out of my head. Once in a while I would think of it and go “huh, I have a total second house just sitting there by itself, under a thick blanket of snow.” Acknowledge the strangeness of that, and move on. But then January hit, and all of a sudden as though a switch was flipped in my brain, I started planning stuff for the cottage again. Pull-down loft stairs, a loft railing, a shower stall, a bed, decorating, it all started coming fast and furious and now I find it hard to focus on other things (well, mostly work. I find it hard to focus on work).
We had Christmas, and it was lovely, though Nora and I were sort of sick for the whole of December. There seems to be a plague going around our town, and my hope is that after that December, we will be in the clear for awhile. So far so good, fingers crossed. We got Nora some skis in the hopes that we could familiarize her with the only sport in which I have any proficiency, but when we put them on her she goes all limp like a purple sack of jello so we have a ways to go yet. The other day I put my own skis on and sailed down the tiny hill in our front yard, only the snow was pretty fast and I went pretty fast and ended up nearly running into the woods at the far end of the yard. Nora just sat there and looked at me like “what the hell are you doing?” as I huffed and puffed back towards the house, pole-less, in the deep snow. I don’t think I was selling it.
I keep putting off potty training and I don’t know why. Doctor, why do I put off potty training? Why, Gennyland, it’s probably because you don’t want to acknowledge that your baby’s growing up, especially since we’re not sure there are others in the cards. Yep, that’s probably it. I figure she’s more than ready, as once in a while I will come around the corner and she’ll stand there, looking at me accusingly, and say “No, don’t come in here! I’m pooping!” So fine, she’s allowed to grow up this little bit, but she’s never getting a cellphone. Compromises people!
She’s super hilarious these days. NOTE: if you are bored reading stories about peoples’ adorable toddlers, skip the next two paragraphs! She’ll be two and a half next month – 30 months – which means that (according to BabyCentre.com) she should “name a few body parts, some colors, and even a friend or two. Her memory and speaking ability work in tandem. Help out by expanding on what she says. If she says, "Dog sleep," you might say, "Yes, Spot is curled up and fast asleep in his doggie bed." She can't imitate your complex language patterns yet, but her brain is absorbing them.” Ummm, my kid corrects me. I think BabyCentre needs to update their sources because most toddlers I know can handle those basic tasks, and mine knows all the colours of the rainbow, can count to 12, recognize about 50% of the letters in the alphabet, names all her friends AND their parents, identifies her own written name, knows the street she lives on, all the members of our family and remembers who gave her that dress that she wouldn’t take off last summer. Also she pronounces the “I” in “again” which is the cutest thing ever, because neither my husband nor I do this. She picked it up from the daycare provider, who speaks proper english. She will say to us “read it agayn” And it makes me chuckle quietly.
She is super into penguins these days - goddamn Happy Feet, which I have seen 78 times. Though I do appreciate that my kid now knows “Boogie Wonderland” and Grandmaster Flash’s “the Message”. Hearing her say “don’t push me, cause I’m close.to.the.edge” kills me every time. I learned the hard way that a 2.5 year old kid is like a broken record, so if you introduce one movie to them, they will want to watch it over and over again until they have it completely memorized and can recite the lines over dinner each night. Once in a while she will turn to me out of the blue and, with a very mock-serious face, say “remember the Leopard Seal? Ooooh.” We put a moratorium on Happy Feet so we only watch it maybe once a week now, but we talk about it daily. Putting on her snowsuit (“got one flipper in!”) in the tub (plastic penguins are “Mumble” and “Gloria” even though one is a yellow wind-up and the other is a squirt toy, and I have to draw killer whales on the sides of the tub constantly. Black tub crayon doesn’t come out easily BTW), at Sunday dinner (mom and dad are kind of bored of hearing us repeat “Remember dumplings, I know where you live” but her giggles make it worthwhile. Also when she does her Schwarzeneggeresque “I’ll take you with ketchup” it is so genuinely funny). Part of me wants to blow her mind and buy Happy Feet 2 but the other, sane part of me really does not.
Nora is pretty excited these days because she has a new family member: her cousin Henry, who was born to my brother and his wife two weeks ago. Henry is a sweet babe, very chill, and Nora is pretty amazed that someone can be so small. She’s always telling me things like “Henry doesn’t have his words yet” and “Henry can’t jump yet.” Seeing her with Henry warms the cockles of my heart and makes me love her 15 times more, but somehow I think having a baby cousin she can visit weekly is somewhat different than having a baby in the house that she’d have to share me with. For now, my itch is scratched, especially now that Henry’s in the picture. I can hold a baby when I feel the urge. I can give him back to his momma when my attention is required elsewhere. My only disappointment is that I can’t foist my bins and bins of outgrown girl clothes on him.
So, now it is almost Forevuary. I started 3 bean seeds in a jar the other day, effectively kicking off gardening season 2013. Goals for this upcoming month are: go skiing at least once or twice, bring a giant load of old junk to the local old junk store, potty training, knitting hubby a sweater, fixing up my ‘office’ and building a desk, and maybe painting a dresser I’ve got for Nora’s cottage bedroom. Not a priority yet. The office space is sort of halfway there, but it has made me realize that we are such crazy paper hoarders. Also, a wee moral dilemma has presented itself: what to do with random photographs that are sent to us? Hubby’s cousin’s graduation photo, pictures of peoples’ kids from a few years back, family wedding photos… all of them are in a special pile with which I do not know what to do. I am leaning towards throwing them out. In this age of facebook and digital pictures, everything is available at any time anyway.
Now it is lunchtime. Good bye.
