It's like Tuesdays with Morrie without all the wisdom
I have some daughters
Her Favorite Color is Green
8August 17, 2009
by Abby
in I have some daughters
She is heartbreakingly sweet and breathtakingly lovely. Her precociousness is both exhausting and exhilarating. She is pushy and gutsy and won’t be denied. She loves fiercely and fully and if she loves you, you belong to her. She is full of amazing and full of grace, and my life is charmed because she gives me chance after chance to be worthy of her.
She is 6 and she will change the world.
Old Man Cheezer and Maya’s First Blog Post
4July 16, 2009
We hired somebody to do the tile in the basement bathroom and Liberty has nick-named him “Old Man Cheezer.” I don’t know why. He is an old man, but he doesn’t smell like cheese and I’ve not seen him snacking on cheese.
Soon, when Old Man Cheezer’s work is done, our plumber (“Young Man Crackerz, with a ‘z’” says Lena) will be able to get in there and get that place toileted up. Then the big children won’t have to carry their tired tushies all the way upstairs and to the other side of the house in the wee hours of the morning when the tinkle fairy comes. They’re very sad and sleepy when that happens. Every morning I hear them dragging themselves up the stairs and through the house whimpering, “When is our bathroom gonna be dooooonnnnnne?” The poor babies. The worst part is, when Maya (whose bedroom is right next to the bathroom on the main level) hears the walking dead, she races to the bathroom and locks herself in there shouting, “I have to go peeeeeee! Really baaaaaad!” And then I imagine she silently cackles while Lena and/or Liberty stand outside the door yelling, “Hurry UP!” I told them the toilet would be in there this week. I lied. Old Man Cheezer is going out of town today and he won’t be back to finish his job until Monday. Then we’ll schedule Young Man Crackerz.
And now, Maya would like to tell you about this:
The water is super, super, super, super, super deep and nobody can touch. Moms and dads can’t touch. Big girls can’t touch. Teenagers can’t touch. Little girls can’t touch. Toddlers can’t touch. Babies can’t touch. There should be a baby diving board in the baby pool. <At this point, she switches to a commercial announcer voice> So come here and dive! It’s where the water slide is! And if you lay down on your back, you go super fast! And if you sit up, you go slow. So come here and dive off the little board and dive off the platform and dive off the medium board! So I want you to come here and diiiiiiive! It’s fun! And how you dive is you bend down and put your hands over your head together and make sure your hands go in first and then straighten your legs. Bye bye!
And she also wants to tell you about the water slide.
Hello, my name is Maya and I’m going to tell you about the water slide! Yay! The water slide is fun, you should come at the swimming pool and this is the same place where I talked about the diving board, so come here and go swimming! And you can do a bunch of stuff, but you can only go down on your butt on the water slide, so you have to come here and swim because <singing> it’s summer time, it’s summer time, and I love summer time! Now you sing it! The slide is swirly because it doesn’t go straight down because when you start going you go left, right, left, right, left, right, and at the end you’re in water. Right now come to the swimming pool! <singing> Boom boom, boom boom, boom boom. Bye bye!
It’s not Disorder, it’s De Rigeur
10July 9, 2009
by Abby
in I have some daughters
I was cleaning up a little bit last night and when I was done, I took some pictures of what I didn’t clean up. It occurred to me that I do not consider Several Piles of Books Scattered all Through the House something that needs to be cleaned up. I didn’t clean up the kids’ bedding on the basement floor, either. Apparently, on the scale of child-rearing necessities, Scattered Reading Material ranks just as high as Comfy Slumber Party Sleeping Arrangements. What did I clean up? I did the dishes and mopped and vacuumed the floors. Then I put the books and bedding back down on the just mopped or vacuumed floors.
Having Twins is Like This:
12May 6, 2009
by Abby
in I have some daughters
That picture pretty much sums it up.
When I found that picture during our move, all of those exhausted feelings came rushing back to me. It was hard to have 2 babies at once. Really hard. Until they were about 3, it was really hard. It was fun, too, but I spent most of my time feeling like I look in that picture. Please don’t lecture me about that magical time and how I should have truly enjoyed them and how quickly it all goes because, let me tell you, I did enjoy them, but that time did not feel like it went quickly. And I say this as the mother of ten year olds. I look back on Lena and Liberty’s babyhood with mixed feelings. They were such yummy, easy babies, but it was such backbreaking, spirit-weakening, endless work just to keep them alive, let alone keep them nurtured. I enjoyed them and I continue to enjoy them as they grow. But the fact of the matter is, I’m less tired now. And that feels good.
Since there are dozens of pictures of me from that time with that exact same look on my face, I looked for a picture from Maya’s babyhood that would compare to that one in tone, but all I could find were dozens where I look just like this:
“Whee! See how I stuff this one single baby in this here carrying thing? And then this baby’s the only baby I have?!? It’s like a frickin’ miracle!” I wasn’t so tired. I wasn’t so completely spent. Just, you know, regular new mommy spent, but not completely wasted.
I have no point. Just making an observation.
Grief in the Age of the Digital Natives
6April 24, 2009
by Abby
in I have some daughters
Our hamster died several days ago. Maybe a month ago, but nobody paid any attention to the thing so we’re not really sure how long ago. I discovered Choji lifeless in his cage while I was doing laundry. Usually I can hear him burrowing around or biting on his cage, but I didn’t hear him at all. So I kicked the cage. When he didn’t peek up at me with his beady little rat eyes, I summoned Bryan because I do not play with dead animals. He had only days before extracted a dead possum from under our porch, so I knew he’d know what to do. He poked at Choji and reported, “He’s really stiff. And kind of deflated.” I gagged and ran away. We couldn’t tell the kids right away for a couple of reasons. 1. It was very near bedtime and I knew Maya would use it as an excuse to stay up forever and I couldn’t just say, “Yeah, I know you’re sad, but go to bed!” 2. I couldn’t say it with a straight face. I might have been a little bit happy.
So we waited a couple of hours while I rehearsed in the mirror and Bryan put Maya to bed. Then we told Lena and Liberty. Liberty said, “That’s ok, I was kind of sick of him anyway.” Lena cried a little bit and then, Digital Native that she is, said, “I’m going to make a slideshow of Choji and put a sad song on it and post it on my blog and my Facebook.” She’s very proud of it, so I’m posting it here, too. By the way, when she posted it on Facebook and received condolences, she responded, “Yeah I miss Choji, but doesn’t the song go good with the slideshow?” I can’t wait to see what she does with my funeral.
In the morning when we told Maya, rather, when we remembered to tell Maya, she cried a tiny bit. We had the funeral that night and she cried more. Choji’s death has made her more concerned about when our cat Kisa dies or when Kristen’s dog Rudy dies, though. She wonders how they’ll bury a big old lab, she wonders if we’ll get another cat (yes), and all three girls want to get another hamster. ??? The answer is no. We will all just have to wallow in our grief over our one and only rodent. I will never miss seeing him put his butt up against the cage in order to pee or poop outside of his nest. That just ain’t right. I can deal with a lot of things, but an ugly, smelly rodent is not one of them.
