Monday, April 26, 2010

Paint, Paint, Paint

Well, contrary to what my last post might have lead you to believe, I haven't been laying around.
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Much. I have snuck some in, just because I love me a sunbeam on the loveseat.
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But I've mostly been busy painting. Actually, I've been busy with the regular routine, but especially busy because the painting has crept in to the naptime window of peace. I guess the regular routine has been slightly altered; but the parts of the house that have been painted look fantastic. Amoryn approves of the yellow; here's hoping that she likes the green that's the next to go up.
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She's not so sold on the primer grey, but it's primer & she doesn't have to look at it for long.
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In other news, I think that my strange & brief spell of knitting monogamy may be coming to end. For a little while, I was plowing through projects, with no fickle thoughts of casting on for something else, or gazing longingly at the flirty merino hand-dyes. Today, I thought four different times about going to wind up that one skein of Malabrigo, so that I could cast on for... And then I reminded myself that seriously, I have like 8 rows left in that other project, and it's just the fact that I'm making notes on it that's killing my fun. And my other fun project - the secret one that I can't show you because it's going to be a gift, blog - is great, but, well, a secret.
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I'm off to bed now, with visions of fiber dancing in my head. I've got the itch to do some dying, but the kitchen space is currently full of paint & rollers & brushes. Sooooo... another good reason to get the painting all done!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Springtime Sloth

Ah, the sun is out, it's nice outside, and all I want to do is nap.
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Actually, I could go outside, look at the tulips, ignore all the yardwork, come inside, ignore the housework, sit in the sun by the open window, and knit until the sunshine knocks me out.
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Sadly, that's not going to keep my children from becoming naked and dirty little heathens*. At least, not unless I can knit fast enough to produce clothing & diapers faster than Amoryn & Eleni can soil them... and I don't think anyone is that fast. Even 118 st/minute** isn't going to cut it.
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So, sofa in the sunshine, I am going to look at you longingly, and go & flip the laundry. And carry on with the projects until one/both of the girls wakes up.
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*I mean heathen in an affectionate way, natch.
**I believe that that's the current world record - Google isn't being helpful, so I can't remember who she is or what her exact speed is. But yowza! That's about 3 times faster than I knit.

Friday, April 16, 2010

The Mouths Of Babes...

It's been a long, tough, up & down week. We had an appointment at ten this morning, halfway across the city. I don't drive over there terribly often, & I made a wrong turn that I realized before I was even half way through the intersection.
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If my plan of leaving super early had worked, then it would have been no big deal. That plan had been foiled by my petit entourage, so we had just-enough-time-if-the-lights-are-all-green.
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As I was trying to figure out a fix, I muttered "Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t."
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From the back seat came a chipper little voice: "You made a mistake Mommy? You made a d*mmit jebus?"
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Me, surprised: "What?"
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Amoryn, helpful: "You made a d*mmit jebus?"
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Me, incredulous: "Yes honey, I guess that I did."
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I managed not to laugh, shriek, or cry. I guess that bad news is that we (obviously) must be swearing in front of Amoryn. The good news is that she's using what she learns correctly, and in an imaginative way. And not at daycare.
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The appointment was for a consultation at a breastfeeding clinic. It started on Sunday; my body seems to have decided that it's done producing milk. When Am was about six months, the same thing happened. However, Am could have formulas... and with Eleni's milk/soy protein issues, there is no formula option that works*. So the bad news is that I've spent all week waiting for the appointment & frantically trying to visualize my body into making milk for an increasingly hungry & unhappy baby who is sleeping less & less (because she's hungry).
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(I've been taking fenugreek too; it's an herb that is supposed to help with milk production. Not so much there, but its side effect is in full swing: my sweat smells like maple syrup. Really.)
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I was going to go to my regular doctor on Wednesday, but she was sick. I thought well, we can tough it out to Friday. We couldn't, though; yesterday I called their office & threw myself on the receptionist's mercy & got in with another doctor in the clinic. And I got me some, um. Triclinium? No, that's a kind of Nabatean building. Um. It's, erm, motilium. Yes. Motilium. So the good news is that it will help increase my milk supply, and while I may have to stay on it for a while (to keep the milk supply going), the amount that passes through to Eleni isn't harmful. So it's great & a huge relief that she will be able to keep nursing.
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(It's not ego related, my desire to keep nursing. I want Eleni to grow as fast & well as possible; and I can imagine the challenge we'd face if she weaned at six months. Also, I like having that close time with her.)
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And speaking of the mouths of babes, apparently Eleni has a type of thrush. The good news is, we've got (more) meds; the bad news is that she hasn't been registered on the man's medical plan yet. However, we can afford it, so that's still good.
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And the last thing about the mouths of babes....



MUSH!! (She isn't really feeding herself, of course. That's her vanity spoon, that she gets to wave around & chew on, while I shovel mush.)
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Also,

"Balilla" yogurt. Am helped herself to a second serving, right out of the container, whilst I was nursing Eleni. Don't feel bad if you're shocked, Mr. Potatoes Head was too.
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All rightey... off to clean the kitchen, and organize the piles of paper that have accreted. I've got what seems like an inordinate amount of printouts from the pharmacy...
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*Even the expensive hypoallergenic ones. They are all soy based.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

No, Santa Claus, Ziplocs Aren't Always the Answer

We survived! It was an errands & appointments morning.
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We've been to the dentist, the doctor, the bank, the accountant's (sort of - Susan, bless her buttons, ran into the parking lot & grabbed the stuff I had to drop off), and the pharmacy. We made sort of a big "@" shape on the map of Calgary.
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The worst was the prescription, which took a half hour to fill. That doesn't sound so bad, EXCEPT that we were running into Amoryn's nap time & Eleni had been trapped in the car seat virtually all morning, and was getting hungry.
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So it was a very long half hour at the pharmacy.
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We stopped in by Make 1 too - I needed a treat, and I was hoping that some of their new yarn had arrived.
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It hadn't, but there was a new crop of needle cases, so I picked one up on impulse. My ziploc bag is a little worn, and kind of ugly.
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(How can something clear be ugly? Well.)
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I spent a happy portion of naptime transferring everything from the baggie into "Jack".
(Isn't he pretty?)
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I feel better. Amazing what some quiet & some organizing can do for a gal.
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(I remain very faithful to ziplocs as the preferred option for toddler snack transportation.)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Four Fifths of Creepy

I'm trying to de-clutter the house some, in order to paint & just have a tidier life in general.
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Today, I opened the bottom drawer of my cedar chest, and I found five teeth in two different containers.
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Here's the thing: only one of them is mine. (A wisdom tooth that I had extracted. I think I said I wanted to keep it when they asked - but I was all doped up, so I'm not culpable for that choice.)
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Yes, that means that four of them are not mine. They are molars. Cavity-eaten molars.
Where did I get four molars from? And who was taking such terrible care of their teeth? They're in a little medical-style container, and there's nothing written on them.
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I have the niggling sensation that they might be Z____'s... but if so, why do I have them? Why doesn't she? Either way, I hope that she flosses regularily.
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If they're not, um. Am I an insomniac nutjob who runs around pulling cavity-ridden teeth? Am I a schizophrenic who rootles through medical waste looking for teeth?
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Either way, I'm afraid that I'm one step close to being on "Hoarders: Collecting Other People's Teeth".
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And how do you dispose of teeth? Throw them out? Bury them in the backyard? Sneak them into the "Sharps" container at the next doctor's visit? The tooth fairy ain't coming for these bad boys, I bet.
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I'm feeling a little self conscious about the anti-depressants, but this is crazy enough to have me a little worried. Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.
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PS: My CSI-watching self is all "get the DNA of the teeth analyzed, then crosschecked against myself, to see if they are Z's, because we're related". Sadly, I have no access to that kind of lab equipment - or knowledge - and I don't think they're part of an active homicide investigation, so nobody is going to help me with that.
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PPS: CREEEEEPY. I'm going to go & keep cleaning. I'll let you know if I find anything else that odd - teeth, treasure maps, S______'s cell charger. Creepy.

Monday, April 12, 2010

It's What?

We're painting the house - it's a sort-of longer term project than painting usually is, as we're doing it one wall at a time so that we can work around the kids more easily.
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I've got the colors all picked, and apart from some brief drama over paint types, it's going well. However, I was having second thoughts about the upstairs bath, and as I was browsing the paint swatch book I just really had to stop and say "That's what? You named this color that? What?"
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Now, I'm all for fun names. I'll go for a nail polish named "Ladies & Magenta-men"; I've got yarn named things as exotic as "Bloodflowers" or "340682". Our bathroom is now "Mermaid", which is a nice soft grey with a bit of purple. (The purple was a surprise - I like it, it remains to be seen what the man thinks.) The downstairs bath is "Adonac", a brilliant orange. No idea what an Adonac is, but if I ever see one, I bet I'll recognize it.

(Orange! It's a little different than this in real life, but hard to photograph.)
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There are some names in this paint swatch book that I'm having trouble with. "Rat Portage" was sort of a nasty brown, and if that's the color you paint something, then that's the name it deserves, I guess. But "Blue Mayonnaise"? If I ever see blue in my mayo - or my yogurt - then I throw it out. "Clingfilm" is clear, people. I've never been to Mexico, but when I get there, I'll be sure to check & see if "Mexican Tan" is really a gunmetal grey.
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But the color that left me feeling the most offended is a soft, peaceful blue named "Saladin". I mean, Saladin was a hero, a fierce warrior, an honest and noble man. How does a powder blue reflect any of that? You can't even guess that maybe his eyes were blue; he was an Arab of Kurdish descent. And he was Muslim - a green would have been so much more appropriate.
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(His tomb - I borrowed this image of the internet, I was still using a film camera. There are two sarcophagi - one is a wooden one, that he's in; the other marble one was a gift from an emperor hundreds of years after his death.)
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Maybe I'm just feeling a little more of a connection (and mild offense) on Saladin's part because I've been to his mausoleum, by the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria. Still though. Ridiculous color name. It's like, um. Naming a silly banana yellow after Queen Elizabeth I.
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And speaking of silly bananas... it's morning snack time!





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Sunday, April 11, 2010

Blog Blog Bloggity Blog

I feel like I haven't blogged in a while - I think it's partially because we got back from vacation & then a whirlwind of work commitments for the man started. He's had three trips away for at least three days each in three weeks plus we all had Easter at his folks... It does throw a bit of a wrench into the regular schedule. That's okay though; the man gets home tomorrow, and then things settle out.
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But Easter! Easter was lots of fun - and Am & her cousin M______ (who is seven, and delightful) had a really good weekend. The pinnacle was totally Sunday morning, when the Easter bunnies got together & hid jellybeans AND eggs through the house. M_____ woke up first (because she understands that Easter is coming), and was very good and managed to be quiet for 23 minutes until Am woke up too.
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Then the fun started. "Holy moly, lookem all the beans!" exclaimed Am, and the hunt was on. She'd find the odd egg, then put it back. M_____ even tried to share, and put some eggs into her basket, but Am would take them out, hide them, and go back to collecting jelly beans.
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After they were all found, she went to climb onto the couch. You can see that her basket has quite a long handle, and it was a little tricky to maneuver. She ended up dumping half of her basket as she climbed up; but she thought that she'd just found another stash! "WOW! More BEANS!".
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(She doesn't even need Alzheimers to hide her own Easter treats, ha-ha!)
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Am has also been very interested in her sister lately - she's always been very protective, but now she's starting to just hang out & talk to her. Eleni lights right up for her big sister; and I melt into a giant puddle of motherly goo. Am's also very keen on trying to help Eleni - she mostly expresses this by stuffing her bink into her face, and sometimes she gives her a blanket.
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We've had a sort of unusual weekend - an uncle died unexpectedly. What makes it odd is that he was estranged*, so the funeral was a little surreal. Mom was here for the service, and so that was also odd - a very brief visit, without most of our usual jaunts. Now it's just me & the girls. (The man's away)
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It was a very princessey morning, though. Shortly before this photo was taken, Am had me all decked out in the princess finery, right down to a scepter. So I guess if we're all dancing princesses, then things can't be all bad. We also had a lovely visit with Grampa D & Gramma D this morning via Skype - which I totally LOVE!
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I've been finishing things off like crazy - there's the cowl & the wee bag that I'd been working on, as well as a bonus impulse project that turned out beautifully. I'm also knitting my last two rows on a Colonnade scarf, but I'm sort of stalling on that - I'm afraid I did one too many repeats & I'm not going to have enough yarn to finish. If that's the case, then I'll have to rip back four rows of knitting & one pattern row - not really that bad, but I'm feeling a little 'Schrodinger's cat' about it - if I don't finish knitting it, then the yarn is both sufficient & insufficient at the same time. I'll do a bigger blog post about FO's with pics later.
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I've also recently finished two non fiction books - a little unusual for me to read two non-fiction books in a row. They were both good; Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, by Richard Wrangham, and How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer. Catching Fire is exactly what it sounds like; an interesting theory & support about how cooking our food is what caused/helped us to evolve to be what we are now. Totally trashes raw foodists & has a couple interesting sociological theories in it too. I read most of it on holiday. How We Decide was an impulse buy just before we left on holiday - I picked it up, thought it sounded interesting, then put it down when I was in the lineup for the cashier. Then I realized I was at risk of becoming a caricature - ohmigawd, I can't decide if I should buy a book about decision making, lol. So I bought it. I'm glad I did - it's not a self-help type of book at all, it's more of a discussion about making decisions on an emotional vs. rational basis, and the physical processes in our brains when we do both or either. Not what you'd expect, necessarily.
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And now, since I've already acted on my decision to spend the girl's afternoon nap by catching up on CSI & blogging (following the emotional choice, as opposed to cleaning the bathrooms, which was the rational option), I should move on to the next part of the day & wake the girls up. Ah, there's Eleni now; how sweet of her to save me the effort!
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* - Or we were estranged? It was strange, at any rate.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Sweaty Jellybeans

Ah yes, the Easter fall out. Amoryn has been busily packing & repacking her jellybeans, which are getting increasingly sticky. (Those little palms are a tad moist - all the excitement! All the beans! Holy moly!)
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She keeps wanting to share, and honestly, I'm not so keen as I first was.
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And for some reason she chose a white turtleneck to wear today - I guess for maximum jellybean dye transferral? Ah well, that's what stain removers are for.
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PS: She is THREE now!
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PPS: Photos later, when I finish unpacking the bag with the camera in it. We went to visit family for the weekend, and had lots of fun & jelly beans.