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November 28, 2007
my middle
Big J is in the middle of a fascinating growth spurt. Yesterday for dinner, he ate: a plate of roast beef and vegetables, a plate of leftover enchiladas, two apples (seriously), another plate of enchiladas, and two granola bars. He then left to go to hockey, and came back home and ate another plate of roast beef and vegetables. And complained when I kissed him goodnight that he was hungry.
His body is also in an awkward stage; I cannot find long-sleeved shirts that fit him properly. It's as though his arms are two or three years ahead of the rest of him. If the shirt fits him in the body, the arms are three inches too short. If the shirt fits him in the arms, it hangs nearly to his knees. He's taken to wearing MY hooded sweatshirts, as they fit him in the arms. My son is a gorilla.
I'm trying very hard to not let Big J, the middle child, get lost in the sea of my attention. H is becoming super-independent these days; I don't have to tell her to take a shower or to do her homework anymore. Little J is a bit slow on the independence chart; I still have to get him dressed (and as he's just turned 4, I'm harboring a bit of indignance about this--Big J and H both could dress themselves by now), and he's developed this annoying fear of being in the bathroom by himself, which means everytime he has to go he requires a chaperone. I have to remind myself to remind Big J about his homework and to bathe and stuff like that; he has the tendancy to blend into the chaos of the house because he's soft-spoken and undemanding.
He lost a tooth the other day, and he gave it to me for safekeeping. I stuck it in a ziploc and promptly LOST IT. He was devasted that I could be so thoughtless. The toothfairy left him a note to explain that his mommy was sorry to have been irresponsible and that he shouldn't be angry with her.
She's just got a whole lot going on right now.
Posted by mryonker at 08:39 PM | Comments (3)
November 24, 2007
shoes
An update of the utmost quickness:
I was laid flat last week with the worst of stomach bugs. We've been lucky the past couple years to have escaped some of the nastier ones, but this year...ouch. Big J and I had it in the worst way. I'll spare your the gory, but I'm still a little weak and did not have much of an appetite for the feast on Thursday, understandably.
We hosted this year's festivities; in fact I called my sister and mom the day before they were to arrive (Monday) and told them to wait at least a day so they might avoid catching the grossness.
Dinner was mostly a success as result of the saving grace of gravy; the bird was dry and I managed to glue-up the potatoes as well--really I am lacking in the culinary prowess department.
The pie was good.
The relatives will leave town tomorrow after Big J's hockey game, of which I will attempt to record a short clip with my new digital camera that the great sis and bro-in-law brought us for Christmas.
Hopefully, when the mass exodus occurs, some of these shoes will go with all of them.
Posted by mryonker at 08:25 PM | Comments (3)
November 19, 2007
no word count?
It's hard to write anything, even a blog post, when you're barfing your guts out.
I'm just sayin'.
Posted by mryonker at 07:48 PM | Comments (1)
November 13, 2007
i'm not on strike
November is a bad month to have to travel. A quick jaunt to Virginia this past weekend put me waaaay back. With NaBloPoMo, my friggin' bloglines account is jammed to the hilt, and I know if I hit the "mark all read" I'm missing some great shoe and Cookie shots from Fussy. My students are all in various stages of their final papers/projects, so Blackboard is full of drafts I need to read and respond to. And somehow Chapter Three of the diss is taking about 4 times as long to write as I anticipated it would.
::heaving heaving sigh::
The good, though, is that the end of the semester is in sight. And even better, ze is offering up "post show" tidbits while, apparently, he is on strike.
Go Ze. We love you.
Posted by mryonker at 05:46 PM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2007
I'm it
I've been tagged.
I feel like 7 "facts" will be hard for me to come up with. I could see this reduced to metrics, as in, "I wear a size 7.5 shoe." But then I'd have the endless caveats: except running shoes, when I have to buy a full size up, and when I wear Birkenstocks, because then it's a size 38, etc etc ad nauseum. But I'll be good meme-er and follow Dr. Write's lead:
1. I tend to overthink things (see above). While this can be very useful in analytical writing, it sometimes gets in the way of the everyday workings of a household, and gets even MORE in the way when my whole family gets together and we're trying to make a decision involving the happiness and logistics of many adults and small children. My mom calls me the "baritone" of the family. Those of you who know barbershop will understand that.
2. I am secretly very competitive, and at the same time I disdain competition and assume that much of what is wrong with humanity is a result of opposition, rivalry, and fear of loss.
3. I often disgust myself with my own hypocrisy. At the same time, I strive to be more compassionate for myself and others. It's a bit of a vicious cycle, and sometimes my own awareness of it adds to the frustration.
4. I go to bed every night and think about how lucky I am to have a clean, dry, warm bed. This sounds rather cliche, I know, but it's true. I find it incredibly easy to name things I am grateful for--there are a lot of them.
5. One of my biggest pet peeves is when the cushions are off the couches and chairs in my living room. And, coincidentally, taking the cushions off the couch is one of my kids' favorite things to do. They make caves with them or stack them and bounce off of them, or they use them to lay on the floor in front of the tv.
6. Hard, physical labor makes me feel virtuous. This is why I like running. I am a bit of a masochist, I suppose, in that I equate discomfort with progress.
7. This post is an example, in the coding for my dissertation, of the following categories: MEME, EFFCON, LIST, RFLX.
And I tag:
Runningburro, Luna Boricua, aerobil, Krista, Marcia, J, and my mama.
Posted by mryonker at 02:05 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2007
fragments
Things I should post about:
Little J's birthday post. It's already about 4 days late, as he is a Hallowe'en baby. I had the narrative set up: the way, four years ago today, I canceled classes by email; the trip to Taco Bell on the way to the hospital as I knew they'd deny me food once we got there; the way B snuck me into the bathroom--after the nurses told me not to--like a good good husband does so I could avoid crapping on the doc; the way Little J was immediately a cranky, cranky baby and fussed from the very beginning, etc etc. But now he's a grown boy, calling me from the bathtub: "Mom! I have a SITUATION in HERE." What four-year-old says "situation??!"
The race report from Bruegger's Bagel run. It was fun; we dressed as M&Ms courtesy J, who has a pic up. It rained and hailed on us, which wasn't bad while we ran through the woods, but while we waited for D to get her award (first place in her age group! woo-hoo!) the hail pelted us like peanut M&Ms. Ouch.
The way my mind and body are slowly rebelling. The long hours of writing, along with keeping on top of the prep and grading for three classes, along with all the stuff that my family is doing right now--all that stuff is finally catching up. I have moments during the day when I can't remember what I'm doing; if I'm in the car I can't remember where I'm going. For little J's birthday party on Friday, I completely forgot to put the salad and vegie tray out. I had $20 worth of cucumber and broccoli and salad, and it just hung out in the cripser, lonely and forgotten. I forgot last night to turn the clocks back, and only remembered when I opened up my machine this morning at 10 (well, really 9) o'clock. We spent last night working the Public Skate at the ice rink where Big J plays hockey. I sat at the front desk taking money and stamping hands, and at times I felt like I was in a stop-motion film, where I was moving frame-by-frame, and the people around me were in FFWD X2. And I don't mean this figuratively. Strange and trippy.
Posted by mryonker at 10:00 AM | Comments (3)