Random Thoughts

It hasn't been the kind of week that serves coherence. So, today on Elvis Sightings, a heaping helping of stream-of-consciousness.

• We all went to Grandma Judy's wake last night. It was so good to be with family, and to take part in this shared ritual of closure. Neither Rose nor Joy had ever encountered an open casket before. But Rose bravely went up to the front to "pay her respects" as we had discussed with her beforehand. Joy went up a little later in my arms. I think she might have been a little confused, as she reached out to Grandma Judy with an uncertain smile. I told her that it was time to say "bye-bye." She gave a small wave and an adorable spoken "bye-bye."
• Goodbyes are so hard.
• We had brought all sorts of tools and tricks to get the girls through the evening, from a portable DVD player & Baby Einstein to Rose's sketchpad and her little ZhuZhu-pet video game. But it was AuntieS who saved the day. She brought a brand-new travel set of the game Guess Who? that Rose could play with her cousin. For Joy, she brought one of those soft plastic bath-scrubby-poufs with a terry-cloth ducky in the middle. Once again AuntieS scored big, as she did with the curly-ribbons at Thanksgiving time. Joy spent the rest of the evening watching video and happily shredding the bath-pouf. Simply perfect.
• JoyDad will represent our little family today at the memorial service and burial. It didn't make sense to try to chivvy the girls through a day as long as this one will be. I'll be there in spirit, though.
• This all comes at the end of a long, hard week. It's been on my heart to join the amazing huge creative peaceful protests at the Capitol building, and re-fill myself with their hope and energy, but I've been unable for over a week. Schedule is part of it, and sickness even more. Both Rose and Joy were home from school most of the week fighting the flu, and I was trying to care for them and fight pneumonia myself. Thank heaven for antibiotics (for me), and for speedy recovery (for all of us.)
• The events of the day in Wisconsin continue to seep into most everything we do. When I went to the deli counter last weekend, wearing my "Save Medicaid" sticker on my coat, the guy at the counter asked "So, what can I get for you? [pause] Besides a new governor?" When I went to the doctor with my complaint of sleeping difficulty and on-rushing bronchial issues, he asked me whether there was a movement to recall this governor who has pushed forward this extreme agenda so very far in excess of anything he'd campaigned on. I left with prescriptions for the aforementioned antibiotics, a sleep aid, and the doctor's personal e-mail address -- promising to send him the website address where he could add his name to the pre-recall database at http://www.unitedwisconsin.com/. (In this state an official must hold office at least a year before a recall can take place; at that time, there is a 60-day window to collect sufficient signatures.)
• Healthcare workers and professionals are marching in support of Medicaid in Wisconsin today (Saturday), starting at 11am on campus at Library Mall. I wish I could join them, but I'm on childcare today. I'll be thinking of them, and looking forward to seeing pictures.
• I was on childcare last Saturday as well, while JoyDad and brothers were helping GrampaK get some things taken care of. Let me be clear, I am ever-so-willing to hold up my end and do what needs to be done! but last weekend it meant that I ended up forgoing the opportunity to be in this political ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecsX7HxRork. I have not embedded the ad-video here because it is highly partisan, and frames the events in Wisconsin as a "war," terminology that I would personally prefer to avoid. But it's a powerful piece, and I would very much have liked to add my story and get a mention of Medicaid into the ad, something that did not happen in my absence.
• However, it's not as if I'm lacking a voice this week. I've had the opportunity to have some of my writing published on a national level (under my real name, so no link here, sorry!) And that feels good.
• After several weeks of high intensity, I do feel now that the initial frantic urgency of "Medicaid emergency and nobody even knows!" is receding. People do know now, and many other voices are being heard. It's time to take a deep breath, and move things to a level more manageable for the longer term.
• Right after I write just one more blogpost / Facebook status / protest letter...

Random Tuesday Thoughts

On toilet-training:
You can lead a girl to potty, but you cannot make her tinkle. (sigh)

On gardening:
Beans, beans, good for your heart! We got green beans. We got dragon tongue beans. I need to process some beans tonight for freezing.

On growth:
Joy can now reach the mantel in the living room. We used to put things up there to be out of her reach. Must create new strategies.

More on growth:
Rose started soccer practice last night for the upcoming season. When we tried on her cleats (which she was able to wear through the end of the season in May), it was like the stepsisters trying on the glass slipper. We went up two and a half sizes to get her comfy with room to grow for the fall.

Still more on growth:
When it rains a lot (and it has), the weeds in the garden go crazy! But at least it's easier to pull weeds from damp soil than from hard-baked soil.

On peek-a-boo:
Joy has created a delightful new twist on an old game. When you put a blanket up to your face for peek, she doesn't yank it down -- she lifts the other side and burrows under to join you. And then says "peek"!

On switch-flipping:
Guess what has faded back into Joy's communication repertoire. Self-biting (and to some extent, chomping others). She's doing some swatting & hair-grabbing too, and not excluding her daycare buddies. Just in time for kindergarten. Would like this to fade back the other way very quickly.

On school administration:
A new principal has been hired for Joy & Rose's elementary school. Must get him introduced to Joy. I hope he's easy to work with. Joy needs allies, especially if we're in a mode where she tips easily into intense protest...

On summer:
How did it get half over already?!

Random Thoughts Saturday

• Random thoughts -- they're not just for Tuesdays anymore. Because how un-random is that, huh?
  
  
• All four humans in the house have colds. And one of the bunnies has been sneezing too.
  
  
• None of us are much fun to be with when we have colds.
  
  
• Joy is learning a new sign: the sign for "open." There are many things to open in this house. Gates, doors, buckles, bins.
  
  
• Joy also took the "open" lesson to heart yesterday during nap time. She took off her pants, opened the onesie (remember how smug I was about those just a week ago?), removed her diaper, and soaked everything.
  
  
• Today I have added a big diaper-pin at the onesie level. With any luck, she'll be stymied and give up trying. At least for a while.
  
  
• We ordered a new backpack for Joy yesterday. With a buckle across the chest, kind of like her monkey-backpack. But with room for school-supplies, and without the tail.
  
  
• Why does Joy need a real backpack? Because she's going to school in a couple of weeks! To learn to be a kindergartener! (More info later...)
  
  
• Wahhh, my little baby is growing up!
  
  
• I really shouldn't wahhh when I have a cold.
  

Random Tuesday Thoughts

It's a good day for some random!

• The lovely fall colors have migrated their way down from the northwoods to here. Today the bright leaves have a clear blue sky for a backdrop, with crisp fall temperatures.
  
  
• Joy and I walked Rose to school and then kept going, with me pushing her jogging-stroller along paths of a nature conservancy across from the school. We saw a hawk, a downy woodpecker, and two different groups of wild turkeys.
  
  
• Joy kept her mittens on purt-near the whole walk. It took some intentional distracting on my part, though. Mitten-removal has become a giggly game, to be embarked upon for the adult reaction. It will be less funny when the temps drop into the teens and beyond...
  
  
• It felt like the teens on Saturday morning as I huddled in my camp chair along with the other chilled parents on the sidelines of Rose's soccer game. I didn't dress her warmly enough for SNOW FLURRIES either. Was half expecting a mutiny, but she kept playing. What a trooper.
  
  
• Ordinarily I'd've sent JoyDad to the game, but I wanted the leverage to send him on a computer-buying mission (better him than me). Given the virus-munched state of our old (and yes, it's really quite old) computer, we really wanted to walk out of a store with a new desktop that we could set up right then. Except that Windows 7 is coming out October 22. So stores have no computers in stock, because they don't want to be stuck with a single CPU with the icky Vista operating system which NOBODY will buy once Windows 7 is out. Fortunately JoyDad ran into a friend in one of the stores who was willing to loan us a laptop.
  
  
• The virus-munched computer is supposedly ready to bring home from the computer hospital today. Now watch, we'll all catch H1N1 because some unfortunate sick tech coughed and sneezed all over it...
  
  
• Speaking of sneezing, a weird thing happened on the bus yesterday morning. I sit down, pull out my notebook, some gal (student probably) comes and sits next to me. And I start sneezing. Once, twice. Sniffle, grasp for tissues. Three, four, five. Nose and eyes both start running. Big ol' nose-blow. Six, seven. I don't dare make eye-contact with my seat-mate, but she's obviously starting to shift around and get uncomfortable. Eight, nine. Sniffle, snork. The bus slows at the next stop, she bolts out of the seat and flees to sit elsewhere. And... the sneezing stops. Apparently I am deathly allergic to certain fellow passengers. Who knew?
  

Ah, the random is strong today.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

It's been a while... the randomness has been building up... it's time for another edition of Random Tuesday Thoughts!

• What a beautiful morning for a pre-dawn run! I am back to being able to slow-jog a full 5K. Emphasis on the slow.
  
  
• JoyDad is running too. I think the last time we were both doing the running thing was back during my fire-eating, bridge-jumping grad-school days. Except that now we have to tag-team. Can't leave the sleeping kids alone in the house and all.
  
  
• Hey, maybe these ARE my fire-eating, bridge-jumping grad-school days again. Y'think?
  
  
• One week from today, Rose goes back to school -- as a second grader. Woo hoo!
  
  
• Tomorrow, I go to my first day of orientation for my leadership training program. Woo hoo times two!
  
  
• It took me three tries to pass the Emergency Procedures and Infection Control test that followed the pre-orientation online training module I took this weekend. I am quite certain that I will never need to know that Security personnel, and not the fire department, are responsible for fire-watch when the sprinkler systems go offline in the university health-care buildings. But now you know too. Just in case.
  
  
• Speaking of sprinkler systems -- we're working with Joy on drinking from an open cup. She likes to put her hand into it to play with the water, and even when she's using it properly, she doesn't always pay enough attention to get the cup put back safely down. She did great the other day at snack with her barista, though, who commented afterward, "That was some impressive drinking -- and I mean that in a non-undergraduate sort of way!"
  
  
• With fall-like weather and school coming on, I sorted clothes for the girls this weekend. Joy has grown into her sister's old 5Ts. There's a particularly cute dress I pulled out for her... checked the tag... yep, 5T, good deal... and then I saw the label name. SPEECHLESS GIRLS. Must have been made for her!
  
  
• Except that Rose wore the dress in her day. And on the speech front, my girls are like matter and anti-matter.
  
  
• Except that I had them on the same tire-swing last night. And it didn't cause a universe-ending, matter/anti-matter collision. I swung 'em high, totally whipped that swing in circles. The grins were immense.
  
  
• Both my ladies continue to be loving the Food Network Channel. Joy's favorite thing about it lately appears to be the logo-bubble image on the lower right of the screen. She keeps trying to pop it.
  
  
• Speaking of bubbles. Must... go... shower. See ya!
  

Random Tuesday Thoughts

A belated May-basket to Keely at The UnMom for running this Random Tuesday Thoughts operation, and giving me a reason for randomness!

• Joy wants "more". She's been signing it for food, bubble machine, swinging, all sorts of goodies and activities. Way to go, girl!



• Rose wants more too. More time playing with Mama.



• Mama wants more too. More independence on the part of Rose, especially during handbell concert season.



• Sunday's concert went awesomely well. I love it when we finish a piece and the audience gives a little gasp/sigh after the last note and before the applause...



• We debuted new royal-blue floor-length dresses for the show, most with plunging necklines, and managed not to have a single "wardrobe malfunction"!



• When Joy has a "wardrobe malfunction" it usually has to do with a leaky diaper.



• Why is it that Joy always seems to wake up in the wee small hours on Tuesday mornings, one of her busiest days of the week?



• I was up early today too, but it was intentional. Got a nice pre-dawn run in. Lots of birds and blossoms and bunnies out there.



• The strawberry patch is starting to bloom, now that JoyDad has fenced the bunnies out. Can't wait till the garden we planted this weekend starts to sprout as well!



• Did you know that violets are edible? Tastes kind of lettuce-like and makes a lovely unusual contrast to a salad of greens. Rose has loved picking flowers for dinner. Joy eats them on her plate, but hasn't figured out to pick them out of the yard to eat. Which is just as well, I suppose.



• Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

How nice -- there's a meme out there to match my random mood.

Don't try too hard to see patterns in any of this.

• Joy was still up in her crib when I got home from handbells after 9pm.
  
  
• Joy is awake in her crib now. Come to think of it, she didn't sleep enough last Tuesday either.
  
  
• My house needs a spring cleaning. Possibly due to lack of winter cleaning. How thick does dust eventually get, if you leave it to its own devices?
  
  
• We bought a new car over the weekend. Actually we put a little deposit down on a Honda Fit that won't arrive at the dealer till sometime next month (it's worth a bit of a wait to get a RED car with a manual trans!)
  
  
• Joy has discovered that the shoulder belt for the booster seat makes a nice pull-toy. Anyone have a favorite 5-point-harness carseat recommendation for kids past 40 pounds?
  
  
• Rose has been trying valiantly to lose tooth number five ("Is it bleeding NOW, mama?") I wonder what tooth-losing will be like for Joy?
  
  
• I had planned to run early this morning. But I'm too achy. Joy & I will go for a nice long morning walk with the stroller instead after we drop Rose off at school. Last time we did this (Friday) we saw a wild turkey at the park!
  
  
• Joy signed "more cracker" at daycare yesterday. Very cool, but feels very Elvis-sighting-ish to me. The singular use of the word "book" (as mentioned the other day) has not re-appeared.
  
  
• How did April get so close to over already?
  
  
• I'm going to go take a shower now. 'Cause April showers bring May flowers.