The Farm Report – Page 77 – Archiving the early years

Snow Day (a new horror film)

January 27, 2009

Don't let that pastoral picture fool you—this day was awful. So awful that I don't even want to blog about it because it would mean reliving it, and really, you might fall asleep because the minutia of it is really a big old bore.

But I will share a few things I learned today:

1. Two parents shouldn't be sick at the same time. Especially when one
of them still has to go in to work and the other one still has to look
after three children. Thank goodness Tom left early, which helped avert tragedy, I'm fairly certain.

2. Snow days and my children don't mix. I'm sure for some people it is glorious, but for me it means three crazy children in a confined space where they have blown through every activity we have by 9:45am. Then they have the whole rest of the day to argue, pick at each other, and press my buttons.

3. Sometimes you can yell at your children so much in one day that your throat hurts. (I'm not proud of this, but it is true.)

4. Most kitchen thermometers are no longer made with mercury. See? I've just saved you 45 minutes of panicky phone calls to poison control and the thermometer manufacturer, you know, just in case you make donuts to try to keep the crazies less crazy and then you only realize after everyone has eaten a donut that the base of the thermometer exploded into the cooking oil somewhere during the process without you noticing.

5. Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully, much better.
Scene of the crime

January 25, 2009

Our kids wake up stupid early. At about 6:15am, Shep was yelling because he didn't have enough pacifiers. I got him settled, and tried to go back to sleep. About 15 minutes later, Neko started sobbing about her chapped lips which are cracking. Lip balm applied, I sent her back to her room. I was just getting comfortable when a blood curdling scream came from the bathroom.

I won't go into details, but Shep had an encounter with the toilet lid. It was probably dark, and he shut the lid a little too enthusiastically, and, well, something got smashed between the bowl and the lid.

Did all the male readers just pass out?

It must have been excruciating. He recovered fairly quickly, but it'll probably be a week or so until things heal up.

Until then, we're applying Neosporin and trying to keep a straight face as he retells the story to anyone who will listen.
Saturday morning coffee

January 24, 2009

Coffee and cocoa at our favorite coffee shop.

Neko adores the Disney chess set, where you pit Sleeping Beauty and cute puppies against Cruella de Vil and hyenas.
Skating with the girls

January 23, 2009

The important part of that title is "girls".

Since her birth, Neko has been surrounded by boys. Which, for the most part, has been really wonderful. Her oldest, dearest friends are boys. Her everyday playmate, Shep, is a boy. Our playgroup was filled with boys. I adore that these friendships encouraged her gusto and spunk, but I was also a little worried she might have trouble making friends with girls once she got to school.

I can now lay my fears to rest. She's happily settled in with a fantastic group of girls at school, and seems happy and at ease. Plus, she's still forging friendships with the boys, one of whom she has a playdate with this weekend!

Now maybe, just maybe, one of these girls (or boys) can convince her that its okay to wear a color other than pink.
New for 2009!

January 21, 2009

Well, except that it's almost February.

I meant to start January with a new-ish format, but, oy, TypePad. I wanted to post larger photos. As Chris points out, laptops are getting bigger, and suddenly my pictures were looking kind of dinky. So I futzed with it and tried my best. But I'm a woman who knows my limits, and I threw in the towel. This is clearly a problem that required things like CSS and, ultimately, SOS. Enter Chris again, and he waved his magic wand, and made it all better.

The other thing you'll notice is that the archives before January 2009 are gone. They're not really gone, they're just over here, in a different blog space for safe keeping. You see, when I started this blog, I hadn't really thought far enough ahead to the point when Neko would start reading. Soon she'll be able to follow along with the rest of us, and I don't want her to hit that "back" button and uncover posts about the big guy with the white beard and other similar things.

Some day (maybe 2010?) I'll have the perfect system, but for now, this seems like a good enough one. So welcome to 2009. 21 days late.
Of mothers and sons

January 21, 2009

The other night, when we were out for Anne's birthday, Libby was expressing some worry about having a boy. She has Scarlett, who is nothing but scrumptious, and a boy on the way. I get that worry—it's a journey into the unknown. I had some major apprehension when I was pregnant with Shep.

But today, when Shep was walking around with Tom's ski goggles on, and stopped what he was doing to pose for a few photos, I had one of those moments. One of those moments that mothers have with sons. When they look you in the eye, and you know, that for this space of time, his heart belongs to you. He thinks you are the most wonderful woman in the world.

I know this adoration has a time span. There will be a time in the not-so-distant future where his heart will belong to someone else, and I'll have to get comfortable in my role as the runner-up.

I don't want this to sound like I love him more than the girls, because I love them all the same. With a girl there is a closeness and intimacy you have with your best girlfriends. With a boy, there is this purity and innocence.

Please let me get be a good mother-in-law, because now I totally get why that's one of the hardest jobs on earth.
Tom celebrates the inauguration

January 20, 2009

Tom decided to celebrate the inauguration by getting his wisdom teeth pulled.

Okay, really it was just poor scheduling. Or was it? Come to think of it, he got to lie in bed all day and watch every minute of coverage while still totally numb. Hmmm.

Anyway, here he is just after we arrived home, with cotton packed in the back of his mouth. Those pieces of floss help you pull the cotton out after a set amount of time. I'm thinking the look will be all the rage in clubs next year.
Yes we did.

January 20, 2009

Happy inauguration day.

Picture by Neko.
We went outside!

January 20, 2009

See! I made that vow a week ago, and I'm kind of keeping it. You know, now that we're not doing constant laundry on the sanitize mode and taking a bowl with us everywhere we go just in case someone throws up.

We only lasted about fifteen minutes before everyone got cold and demanded hot chocolate. But I feel good we got out, and (this is for you, Dr. Oz) we got our daily allotment of Vitamin D.

Hooray for sunshine!
Yes we did.

January 20, 2009

Happy inauguration day.

Picture by Neko.