The Farm Report – Page 110 – Archiving the early years

The kid’s got timing

February 22, 2008

Wednesday was a rough morning. School cancelled again, kids waking up all night. It was one of those grouchy mornings where you feel the world has served you an injustice, but, unfortunately, your spouse feels the same way, so you both just get grouchy with each other.

I swear we weren’t being grouchy at each other in front of the kids. Truly. Which is why Tom and I were both shocked when Neko walked up with a freshly-drawn picture in her hand. “This is a picture of when you guys got married.”

And then we had a big family hug and decided being grouchy was stupid.
Haiku

February 21, 2008

the white drifts of snow
pristine flakes fall from the sky
if we miss one more mother****ing day of school I’m going to completely lose my sh**.
Playdate

February 20, 2008

Since we were already in the Big City for tumbling, our friend Kate N. invited us over to play with her kids Irene and Ezra. For the most part, things went swimmingly. Suddenly, the kitchen became the beach (hence, the bathing suits) and the kids set up a makeshift campfire. There was ballet and cars and fort-building. All in all, loads of good fun. And Ellery slept through most of it. I even got to sit down and sip my coffee for a good part of it, which is, well, unheard of.

The exit, however, was a bit of a disaster. I won’t even bother to go into details because I’m too exhausted, but the short version is that the world dared not to go exactly as Neko decreed it. And to top it off, it was later than I’d planned to stay (forgot my watch), they were probably hungry, we’re all short on sleep, and school (and therefore our sense of routine and regularity) has been cancelled for almost half of February due to snow days and celebrations of dead presidents.

Anyway, I had to carry Neko out of the house kicking and screaming, having a full-on temper tantrum. Hopefully, Kate will vouch for me when her neighbors start asking nervous questions.

But I came out of today with reassurance of some things I know to be true of parenting:

1. Kids need to hang out with other kids their age. It spurs their creativity like nothing else and makes them smile and giggle.
2. Kids need routine. Without it, they are scattered and needy.
3. Parents need other parents, real conversations, and steamy cups of coffee. Few other things can soothe your soul so well.

(Thanks to Kate for taking photos, since I completely spaced on bringing my camera.)
Our new dishwasher

February 19, 2008

Not available in stainless steel. But he does make a mean cafe mocha.

Oh, except that the portafilter broke on the espresso machine, so I am having to drink just PLAIN OLD COFFEE. Between that and the dishwasher, we should just hang it up entirely.

(Thus, admitting fully to our total reliance on modern conveniences.)
Blogging on blogging

February 18, 2008

021808, Shep and Henry from Wendy on Vimeo.

My friend, Kate D., has a blog where she keeps friends and family up to date on their family. Her youngest son, Henry is perhaps the most energetic exersaucer-er I’ve ever seen. And Shep thinks it’s hysterical. He keeps watching the movie over and over again.
Apologies

February 17, 2008

In the last two weeks both my sister and I totally spaced out on doctor’s appointments. If we didn’t like our pediatrician, and he always ran late, we might feel badly, but not lose too much sleep over it.

But we really like our pediatrician. He’s always accommodating, respects our opinions as parents, and allows us to be a major voice in the care of our children. So, um, we both felt pretty rotten about missing these appointments.

So I made cookies. I know it’s not much, but it’s a gesture, and I hope they know how stupid we feel about screwing up. That, and I hope they can appreciate a little testicle humor at 9 o’clock in the morning.
For Beth (because one apple is not enough)

February 16, 2008

Shep is a little obsessed with fruit these days. It’s a little weird, but I’m holding out on therapy for the moment due to the huge increase in our produce bill.

He likes to carry around lemons and stuff them into his little airplane as passengers. He fills his arms with apples and loads them into the back of his pick-up truck. His first stop in the morning is the refrigerator to unload the fruit drawer. Not since bagels and crayons have I seen him have such a comfort item.

I met up with friends from college today, as Carole, Beth, and Becky drove down to meet Anne’s new baby, Ronan. (I completely forgot the camera, so you’ll have to trust me when I say we all looked like supermodels and the kids were super-cute.) While I was catching up with Beth, she asked me if Shep was still as in love with apples as he was when we visited her mom’s house in October.

I think the answer is pretty clear.
Dear Tom

February 15, 2008

While I appreciate your concern for the health of our children’s bottoms, I would like to ask that you kindly find a new spot for the diaper rash cream, preferably far away from my similarly packaged toothpaste. Although an unfortunate incident was avoided at the last moment, we may not be as lucky in the future.

Thank you for your time, and the P.F. Chang’s was delicious and well appreciated.
Good fortune

February 14, 2008

Yesterday we hosted playgroup, which was both wonderful and terrible all at the same time. Wonderful because we love having all these great people come over and play. What a fabulous way to pass the day! Terrible because between the sick and the snow, all my kids are off schedule, way behind on their sleep and cranky.

Ellery dealt with this by taking a three hour morning nap. Which was good, because the entire morning Shep was beyond high-maintenance. Everything that went wrong was a complete catastrophe, and resulted in him hurling his body to the ground, wailing in tears and frustration. And when I say all morning, I mean ALL MORNING. I swear I spent 30 minutes and three yogurt tubes trying to figure out that he wanted the yogurt tube cut in half, and he just wanted half, and no, not that half, I want the half with the cow on it and please hand it to me on a diamond encrusted platter, and don’t forget to tidy up on your way out. The whole morning was like that.

Neko was doing just fine until the very end, where a little thing threw her over the edge, and for the first time in a very long time, she threw a knock-down, full-on temper tantrum. Screaming, yelling, kicking, wailing. I’m not sure I even said goodbye to anyone. That anger transitioned to anger about going to quiet time, which she then kicked and screamed and wailed about not wanting to have quiet time and you would have thought I was asking her give away her favorite toy, it was such an awful request.

30 minutes later I got her settled, and was finally able to go to work, leaving a very wide-eyed babysitter in my wake.

When I returned home, everyone had napped and was back to normal.

After dinner, Neko reminded me I had promised her a fortune cookie, so she cracked it open and I read her fortune, “Do not give up; the beginning is always the hardest.” I explained that meant that sometimes things are hard at the beginning, but if you persevere, they get easier.

Neko got quiet and thoughtful for a moment and then said, “Just like quiet time today. That was very hard at the beginning. But it did get easier.” And then she smiled and hugged me, and I began to think that five is going to be a pretty wonderful year.
Visual dictionary

February 14, 2008

I never had a visual dictionary as a kid. I’m not even sure if they existed. But if I’d had one, I would have poured over every page regularly.

If you have kids, this is $30 well spent. It has information on every subject under the sun, all described in pictures. Since it arrived on our doorstep, Neko has been looking up all kinds of subjects, and even Shep is intrigued.

In fact, I was going to take a picture of it, but someone has already squirreled it away in their room. Which is probably a good sign, huh?