Last night was night four of John sleeping in his crib all night. The first two nights were amazing. The second two were pretty horrible. Last night I almost gave up. He screamed for almost an hour when he went in. Ella slept through this. Then he woke up and nursed and took up the screaming again. Ella woke up and got in bed with me. Then the squirrel started scratching around in the wall of my bedroom, sounding like a four foot squirrel scratching on styrofoam or a chalkboard. You could hear it all over the house. I was beating the walls with my fists to scare him out, but he was not to be flushed out into the cold night air last night. John says I'm really a Provo now that I've beat the walls in an attempt to get a good nights sleep. The baby wakes again, and I take him downstairs to nurse. At this point I'm ready to co-sleep and breastfeed him until he goes to middle school if everyone will just let me go to bed.
My husband was a saint this morning. First, he didn't go to work. He took both the kids downstairs and let me sleep in until ten thirty. Then he took a ladder out on a three foot deck two floors up in the airand stuffed steel wool into the squirrel's entry hole.
PS. I was out in the yard on the way to the library and noticed that the squirrel has a large hole in the side of the house through which he comes into our bedroom wall. It is two stories up, really three considering the walk out basement level. This will require professional help.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Review
There is a new restaurant in town, and it happens to be in our basement. It is called the Ella Rose Washington Cafe. The food all tastes like wood, but the service is delightful. I asked her what the name of her restaurant was the other day while we were playing, and she came right out with the name. We have no idea who Rose Washington is, but Ella may be channelling a long lost soul food joint. The specialty of the house is ham biscuits.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
I'm here, kinda
I'm plowing slowly through boxes while trying to entertain the littles. Ella is at the easel right now and John is sleeping. I do plan on writing more here, and I have stories piling up to tell. Ella asked how the first person "got borned if there was no one there to born them" and John said "la la la la da ga". We are struggling with sleep and messes.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Liberated
Today is day two without any coffee or soda. I've thrown off the chains and turned to tea. I feel amazingly alert, but, well, I had four cups. Coffee was just getting too important to me, and I felt like the heroin addict addict always thinking about where the next fix is coming from. Easy Chair? Starbucks? Should I brew a pot? I'm not saying I'll never have another cup. Just not every day. Soda is just unhealthy, and I don't want the kids to drink it.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Why I fuss
Two teeth, six points. Smell the delicious sweet potato breath. The little man ate three meals today, apples and oatmeal, peas, and sweet potatoes and rice cereal.
Why does my thumb look like I've been working down in the mine, all bent, bruised, and hangnailed?
He loved me taking this picture. He thought he was finally going to get to suck on my camera.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Mongolian plate dancing
The lovely Cait and Allen came over on sunday to hang out and wrestle the monkeys. Ella mostly wanted everyone to balance plates on their heads and dance like Shiva.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Thursday, February 09, 2006
a jeep called jesus
J was fussing about something and E starts yelling press the jesus for him, press that jesus for him. It is a "jeep" not a "jesus". Girl doesn't know jesus from a plastic monkey car.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Moved
I somehow lost a post, the one in which I said that we have moved and that moving with two small children is the most excruciating thing I've ever done. It is no palace, but I think we really feel at home here.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Go to Home Depot and Act Like a Woman
Today is day eight as a homeowner.
I've been wrestling with the washing machine since day 2. My brother told me to go to Home Depot and act like a woman, but I didn't. Now I've been to Home depot twice and the Heavener hardware with the nice old men. I thought I'd attained nirvana when I finally got the discharge hose somewhat permanently in the sideways drain, and I did a big, hot, bleachy load of whites...all over the laundry room floor. It is clean now, the floor that is. I lost a lot of the skin off my knuckles to this washing machine.
I called my brother before I even pulled the whole mess away from the wall. I was afraid I'd electrocute myself standing in the bleach pool of a laundry room. Who invents a laundry room without a drain? This brother of mine preached to me his three commandments of plumbing, and this is about as religious as he gets. One. The cold is on the right. Two. The hot is on the left. Three. Shit flows downhill.
That really didn't help. I was wondering why every drop of water I put in the washer poured out onto the floor. When I heaved the discharge hose and the bits of my knuckle into the drain, I pulled the hose off of the washing machine at the bottom.
I've been wrestling with the washing machine since day 2. My brother told me to go to Home Depot and act like a woman, but I didn't. Now I've been to Home depot twice and the Heavener hardware with the nice old men. I thought I'd attained nirvana when I finally got the discharge hose somewhat permanently in the sideways drain, and I did a big, hot, bleachy load of whites...all over the laundry room floor. It is clean now, the floor that is. I lost a lot of the skin off my knuckles to this washing machine.
I called my brother before I even pulled the whole mess away from the wall. I was afraid I'd electrocute myself standing in the bleach pool of a laundry room. Who invents a laundry room without a drain? This brother of mine preached to me his three commandments of plumbing, and this is about as religious as he gets. One. The cold is on the right. Two. The hot is on the left. Three. Shit flows downhill.
That really didn't help. I was wondering why every drop of water I put in the washer poured out onto the floor. When I heaved the discharge hose and the bits of my knuckle into the drain, I pulled the hose off of the washing machine at the bottom.