There’s only 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, and against all odds the Bills are ahead 24 to 16. But I’m so tired I can’t keep my eyes open.
If I go to bed now and they lose, will it be all my fault?
Update: I didn’t go to bed, and they lost anyway. And I lost out on some much-needed sleep. Boo.
I can’t tell you how guilty I’m feeling about not doing Barktober Fest this year, but I’ve been so busy I didn’t have time to register and collect pledges. Not to mention the fact that I worked today. (And boy did I work. We’ve gotten several huge shipments over the past few days, all of which need to be inventoried and shelved.)
Maybe next year I’ll be better organized.
OK, so how does a kid go from 102.1 at 5:00 PM to completely normal at 5:00 AM the next morning, with no other symptoms??
Just to be on the safe side we’ll spend today at home with some nice DVDs and the comfort foods (juice, soup, chocolate pudding) I bought at some unholy wee hour this morning on my way home from the shop. (Or does 1:00 AM count as last night since I hadn’t gone to bed yet?)
I don’t know why I never trust my instincts when it comes to Carrie being sick. All morning she was cranky – to the point of being late to school because she dug in her heels (literally) and stomped her feet (also literally) and had multiple tantrums about not wanting to go anywhere. It crossed my mind that maybe she was sick, but she passed the time-tested hand-on-forehead test.
Then at lunch she wouldn’t eat. Anything. And felt kind of warm. But nobody else thought she was warm.
But when she woke up from her nap (she napped!) still incredibly cranky, I finally took her temperature. Uh, 102.1? No wonder she was in a royally bad mood!
I’ll tell you, though, this kid really knows how to work “sick”. I carried her downstairs because she wanted some water, and she was literally moaning in my arms. And then she said in this thin, wavering voice, “Mommy, my TV will make me feel better.” She sat in my lap to watch JoJo’s Circus…and clapped and sang along to everything. But of course, when the show ended, she started moaning again and telling me that she needed more TV to make her feel better.
My kid, the drama queen.
Carolyn’s school went on a field trip to a farm this morning. The parents had to provide transportation, so we all got to stay and participate. Aside from the fact that it rained unexpectedly – poured, really – everyone had a really good time. There was a petting zoo with teeny baby chicks and a big black llama named Suzette, a “corn box” (instead of a sand box), a hay ride, and (of course) pumpkins! The kids even got a train ride, which was really a tractor with a bunch of small animal-themed cars hitched in a line behind it. Cute!
(The kids all have baseball caps in their team animal theme. Carrie’s on the frog team, obviously.)
On the one hand it was really nice to see Carrie in a group of her social peers, but on the other it sort of underscored for me how she really hasn’t formed much of a relationship with any of them yet. There were other kids there who were sticking together, but I don’t really know if they knew each other before school or not. Then again, it’s not like I knew any of the other moms, and I don’t know if I’m just not outgoing enough or if they weren’t, but nobody seemed interested in chatting with me either…
Ah, well, there’s plenty of years left for Carrie to be a social butterfly, right?
Dear Carolyn,
Today you are one month away from being three. Soon I’m going to have to convince you that the answer to how old you are is “three!” instead of “two-and-a-half!” (I never could get you to say “two-and-three-quarters”.) You are already excited about your upcoming birthday, and the answer to any question about it is “a ladybug cake!” Someone could ask you “when’s your birthday”, and you answer “a ladybug cake!” “How old will you be?” “A ladybug cake!” It’s actually pretty funny, especially with complete strangers who have no idea what you’re saying and think you can’t talk clearly. Not that the confusion is cleared up much when I translate for them.
I’m finding that I’m still translating for you, even though I don’t really think I need to anymore. I guess I’m just most fluent in Carrie-speak. Complete and clear sentences – maybe because they’re unexpected? – still seem to confuse people. And you do still have a few made-up words. I’m dreading the parent-teacher conference where they ask why I feed you “opium” for breakfast. I’m absolutely, 100% certain that you can say the word “oatmeal”, you just won’t. Why can’t you just say “pasketti” like a normal child?
Speaking of teachers, it’s only been a couple of weeks but you seem to be enjoying preschool. Well, once you’re in the room and I’m out of sight, that is. Parting is such sweet sorrow, or something like that. But when I pick you up you’re all full of happy stories about what you did all morning, so I guess it’s just a matter of you getting comfortable with me leaving and then always coming back for you.
I realized today how close you are to reading – you know several words by sight, including “mom”, “dad”, “dog”, “cat”, “stop”, “go”, and “Carolyn”, and can sound out many words…as long as they have short vowel sounds, anyway. I’m not sure where to go from here. You honestly can’t get enough of letters and words, but I have no idea how to teach you the rest of what you need to know to actually be able to read. Phonics are a great start, but how to I explain that sometimes “y” sounds like “ee”, or that “oo” in “moon” is different than “oo” in book?!?
We’re settling into something resembling a routine now, which I think (I hope) will help some of the stress we’ve both been feeling over all of these transitions. I think that by this time next month we’ll still feel busy but we’ll be comfortable with it. Which is good…I have a ladybug cake to make!
Love, Mommy
Here’s what I got at the festival:
At the top of the basket, two bean soup mixes from Healthy Sisters’ Soup & Bean Works and one of two 4 oz. hanks of hand-painted merino from High Bid Farms (the other is already half spun on my wheel – which is at the shop or I would have included the bobbin in the picture.)
The big plastic bag on the right is a sampler fiber pack from Spinning Bunny, in the “Roses for You” colorway. I thought it might be a good idea to try spinning a small amount of a variety of fibers before committing to, say, a merino/tencel spin-your-own socks kit. (Was very, very, very tempted by that sock kit.)
The bottom center of the basket has a 4 oz. ball of gray Jacob wool from High Bid Farms and a hand-made sheep ornament. I wanted something less colorful to spin on my drop spindle for practice.
The left side of the basket has two 4 oz. balls of alpaca/merino/silk from Spinning Bunny. Couldn’t pass on these, the colorway (Autumn Sunset) and that particular blend of fibers was too much to resist.
The center of the basket contains a hand-hooked sheep pin, gray (how exciting) cotton/bamboo sock yarn (so that I can finally make Denis a pair of socks that fit and don’t contain wool), and my Bosworth drop spindle with some of the Jacob wool. Also, there are two wood tools: first, a diz from Millpoint Emporium. I’ve never used a diz, nor am I entirely sure why I’d want one, except that I have a weak spot for exquisitely crafted wood tools. Which leads me to the last item: a nostepinne my dad made from Cocobolo wood…and that I may have gushed over so much that he had no choice to give it to me. He made others to sell in our booth, but mine’s the nicest. ;) Here are the others he’s made so far:
All in all, a bit more than I’d usually buy at a festival, but since I’m actively spinning some of my new fiber already I’m not feeling particularly guilty. Oh, and not shown: a black & white sheepdog stuffed animal to go with Carrie’s sheep and llama from previous years.
There’s a small chance that I’ll actually make it to Rhinebeck next month, and if I’ve spun that merino/tencel sample successfully and Spinning Bunny is there…I’m so getting myself a spin-your-own socks kit!
Carolyn wants a ladybug cake for her birthday. This morning I was doing a bit of cleaning up after breakfast, and she dug out one of my Wilton books and declared that she was going to find her ladybug cake. She looked through all three that were on the shelf, and then said, “Mommy, do you know where the ladybug cake is? Because I looked and I can’t find one anywhere!”
I’m amazed by the changes in her grammar recently. Just in the last few weeks she’s been using much more sophisticated syntax and more complete (and correct) sentences. It’s fascinating to me how the human brain acquires language – in less than three years Carolyn has learned an unbelievable amount of vocabulary and grammar, just from absorbing the world around her. She can recognize upper and lowercase letters, understands that those letters can be put into certain sequences to form words, knows how each letter sounds, and is starting to sound out words. She’s even starting to write somewhat recognizable letters. It’s pretty cool.
And the ladybug cake? She’s right, there are no pictures of ladybug cakes in my Wilton books, but really…how hard can it be?
I wish I could have caught on video all of her commentary as she flipped through the books. “Look, there are lots of ghosts and they have a gingerbread house!” as she was looking at a picture of a haunted house cake. “Oh, there’s the Cheese Man, and he has a cake with cheese on it and is eating it all up!” for a picture of a SpongeBob SquarePants cake. “Oooh, look, a Cinder-grella cake!” At least I have a few backup possibilities if the ladybug cake doesn’t work out!
This year for the fiber festival, I didn’t just buy stuff – although I did do plenty of that! – I also sold stuff. That was a really wild experience! On Saturday our booth was packed full of knitters. The line was never less than six people deep, even with three of us writing up receipts and making change. The weather was cold and rainy, but it didn’t seem to stop people from coming to the festival. Here are a couple of pictures of our booth before the fairgrounds opened:
Sunday was much less busy, so I actually got to walk around for a bit and enjoy the sights myself. Sunday was much worse for my wallet! But the weather was beautiful, so Denis and Carrie drove down and met me there for a couple of hours and we had a really good time.
Carrie especially loved the maple flavored cotton candy – her first cotton candy ever – and wouldn’t let go of the bag even for a picture.
I was not prepared. I had her clothes all laid out, my clothes all laid out, we left the house on time…but she’s been so excited about the idea of school that I expected her to run happily into the classroom and never look back. I would be free to go run errands without dealing with the carseat and have a couple of hours to relax, clean the house, knit…whatever. Instead, I had to peel her arms from around my legs and give her a firm push towards the blocks the teachers had put out for the kids to play with. And then I nearly lost it when I saw her bottom lip quivering and her eyes filling up with tears. I don’t think it helped that nearly half the kids in her class were already sobbing.
I barely made it out to the car before I completely lost it. They gave each parent a “first day survival kit” with a poem about how hard leaving is, and it contained a tissue, a Hershey’s kiss, and a tea bag.
You know what, though? She loved it! According to Carolyn (who apparently can recognize her name spelled out – who knew?) preschool was “really, really, really fun!” and she can’t wait to go back next week. I, on the other hand, haven’t quite recovered!