fragments of sense

Tonight my mood is fizzing, swinging between delighted and sensible, so I won’t aim for a coherent post. Instead, I offer you these snippets:

*today I used craigslist for the first time as an consumer, rather than a provider. I’d used it twice before, to get rid of a bookcase and to put our bird up for adoption. Each time, craigslist served me well. Today, I picked up a rocking chair – a solid and surprisingly large piece that will hopefully help us in the great effort to persuade the babes to sleep. (Yes, still working on that. Please don’t offer advice…) Magid joined me and hoisted most of the weight, most of the time. Okay, nearly all of the weight, nearly all of the time. I darted ahead and opened doors, measured openings and delivered opinions. And held small children and got in the way. Huzzah for craigslist, for magid and for the commonplace marketplace! We could never have afforded such a chair on the fly like this, nor would I have managed to get the thing home without magid who, when I was nearly ready to give up (we couldn’t fit the thing into the car), figured out a way to secure it in the trunk and guided me home.

*The babes is now happily standing on his own, and continues to rise to standing calmly, with an expression that indicates that applause would be appreciated, but that he intends to look mildly surprised and humble should it be provided. If I am too slow, he provides this himself. He continues to delight the Eldest and I, recently by helping put laundry into the washing machine, or by holding a block or toy to his ear with a quizzical expression, as if waiting for it to act like a telephone. I had forgotten how much a child of nearly-one understands, and the social scientist of their minds at work. Already, he recognizes and responds to my roar – less clear to him is the Eldest’s wail of distress, perhaps partly because he knows that the wail may easily turn into a giggle..

*the search for a our-family-friendly breakfast cereal continues. Most contenders have potential cross-contamination with wheat, dairy, nuts or peanut, so we’re limping along on puffed rice. Today, I broke down and bought a cocoa-flavored puffed rice. Any suggestions, o readers? On the upside, I finally found an easily portable finger food for the babes, who needs practice with such things, as well as to be persuaded that when I produce chunks of baked sweet potato, bits of rice pasta, etc, that these things are desirable and delicious, despite not being pureed. And yes, he maintains this position of uncertainty despite his happy continued peach-gnawing. I salute his determination to hold the line, whatever that line may be. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to respect it.. But it irks the dickens out of me that the new option is by Gerber, evil megacorp that it is.

*I have finally embarked on a long standing project. Two, to be precise. The first was working on the lighting for our home – our tenth anniversary present to ourselves, supported by the MIL and FIL. We intend to bring light into various dimnesses, and to get rid of the ancient halogen that pretends to light our dining area. It was perhaps unfortunate, then, that we went as a family to look at lighting while I was loopy on Benadryl. What a waste! My chances of getting my partner back out to the store are nearly nil, and I spent most of the time thinking things like ‘ooo, look at the pretty light. It sparkles. Do I like sparkles? (note: I probably do not.)

However, I pulled it together long enough to make several potential choices, to gasp at the cost of the only – only! – fixture I liked for the dining area, and to go home where I fell over. I have a vague recollection of my partner looking grumpy as he sat on the edge of the bed, and I’m fairly certain that at least one child joined me at one point. If not two.

Combining the beginning of the lighting project with another minor project, painting blackboards on a wall in the boys’ room, and I feel pretty snappy. My list of DIYs is irritatingly long, and each morning I look at the cracking grout around the bathtub and swear that yes, today is the day! I will caulk today. I even have the caulk. It is even sittng on the staircase, waiting to be taken into the bathroom and used. And yet, there it sits. Could I yet become a person who has caulked tubs? Today, I feel that there is hope.

* The fish have stopped dying. (We can now all pause for a wee Hannibal Lector moment.) We went burning through Speckles One and Two, Katie One and RedCap, but Katie Two, Snapper/Snappy and SillyFish seem in the bloom of health. And occasionally cranky when I forget to feed them quickly enough. And to my joy, the fishtank has actually had an unexpected benefit: instead of collapsing in front of the TV in the late afternoon, whilst I make dinner, the Eldest is now watching the fish, and narrating what he sees. When he gets bored, he wanders off and plays. The amount of TV he watched was a major point on my Bad Mama list, and to have that removed is a great relief. That the Eldest, sans TV, is a happier kid surprises me not at all: a half hour of the idiot box and he’d be a limp rag. More, and he is a whining limp rag. (shudder) Now, if only the fish didn’t seem to be taking turns with the roses, my score on the keeping things alive scale would be better.

All of this, and I have yet to find a nanny. Anyone know of someone in the Boston area who wants to look after the babes two days a week? She should be loving, inventive, cool headed in an emergency…and preferably carry a parrot-head umbrella.