what we did

1. Donut cloud
2. Shoe thief
3. Lily's birds
4. Busy bee
5. New Doctor Who is coming! New Doctor Who is coming! August 23.
6. We went to the circus. It was free and Noah actually sat through almost all of it.
7. Peach green tea lemonade or whatever it's called is back. And still delicious.
8. I took Lily and Noah to see the fireworks. And tried to take pictures while holding onto a toddler that wanted absolutely no part of watching fireworks.
9. I finally grew a sunflower. And then one windy day it snapped. Which just ended up being a good reason to bring it inside.

at least i'm not alone?

Occasionally "things" will happen in our house. I feel like I've mentioned this before, but as it happened more than 5 minutes ago.. I don't remember.

By "things" I mean, like.. mmm.. stuff without explanation. Not the wind, not the age of the house, not power fluctuations, not someone else in another part of the house, not.. whatever. You want to call it ghosts.. call it ghosts. Sometimes I say ghost, usually I will just refer to the "stuff" or the "things" that have happened.

These incidents without explanation never happen before "the incident" and then they never ever happen again. (Or so far anyway.)

We have a sliding door in the living room that shook back and forth one night. Then stopped. Then shook back and forth again. The stopped. Like someone was gently pushing it from the other side. I got up and looked on the other side. There was no one.. and no pets. Nothing.

An upper cabinet door in the kitchen swung open after I had walked into the room and stood at the counter doing something for about 30 seconds. I tried multiple times to recreate it, but I couldn't. It would either stay completely shut or if you unlatched it.. would immediately swing open. I wouldn't say it scared me.. but it was definitely the thing that has startled me the most because it was right next to my head.

The incident that left the creepiest feeling with me was when I thought I saw the last bit of my daughter (her shirt sleeve/arm) disappearing past a doorway. I called out to her and when she didn't answer I went to see where she was going. Nowhere it turned out, she hadn't even left her spot on the couch. And .. then there is the most recent thing.. which.. I'm not gonna lie.. I also really didn't care for.

In the room next to the living room, I often put on a low light when it starts to get dark out. The light in the hall that both rooms open out to also has a low light, but when you sit in the living room you can still see the room light shinning out because it's slightly tinted. Two nights ago the light shinning out went black for a second. Like something blocked out the bulb or passed by the doorway. Ya.. oh ya.

It wasn't even that I saw it out of the corner of my eye.. my head was almost fully turned in that direction. When I told someone else about it, their initial response was "why didn't you run and see what it was?"

..

So far I have taken it all pretty well, I think, but I am certainly not seeking anything out. I do not want to see a big black mass (or whatever) floating around my house.

what we did

1. The coolest thing we've ever found at a playground. And I don't even know what it is. Does that occur naturally or was it carved out like that?
2. Pep talk from my cough drop..
3. The Mother's Day breakfast that I made myself..
4. One of the best license plates I've seen..
5. Being followed by a mustachioed vehicle..
6. Took Lily out for "ice cream." It was actually frozen yogurt, but really what's the difference when you're 5 (and it's covered in sprinkles, strawberries and whipped cream)?
7. Over Memorial Day weekend I watched The Monuments Men.. It was really good (and PG-13). Netflix commemorated the holiday with their envelopes as well.
8. "Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death." My life..
9. And.. as if reading at a 1st or 2nd grade (at least) level wasn't enough.. now this kid of mine is expanding her math skills.. (multiplication!). I'm going to have to get her a pillow for kindergarten.

hello, June

My right eye has been twitching for about a week now. I don't know why it is, but I wish it would stop. I assume it twitches all day long, but I'm too busy and important  involving myself in motherhood/house/finance stuff to be constantly aware of whether or not it's still doing it. I just have to assume it is, because it doesn't seem like it would only twitch for certain parts of the day and not for others. But, honestly, who knows.

It may have something to do with allergies. Or it might not. I've been taking some OTC medicine for that. I thought I had a cold. Which then turned into a really terrible and lengthy cold. Which then I figured must be allergies, but I also think there was a sinus infection in there somewhere. (Because I couldn't bend forward more than 10 degrees without feeling quite a lot like my head would explode from the pressure.) Which was followed then by what was most definitely allergies. Probably. So I started taking an allergy medicine that has worked other years. I'm still taking it because I'm afraid not to. Because it's just barely June, you know?

Which.. I cannot believe we've found ourselves in again so soon. It will only be a few more weeks before I will be hating summer so much, as I always do. There will be heat.. and humidity- my hair will be sticking straight up, and it will be so awesome. (No, it will be not be.)

fear, wonder, and hope

This scares me..

On the way home from Target last week the girl (yes, girl.. she looked like she was barely 18) driving the car in front of me was smoking. And texting. I could see her little baby face perfectly the way her side view mirror was angled- and it looked like her eyes were barely open as she looked down at her phone.

When our red light turned green- she didn't move. I yelled out "stop texting and drive your car!".. and eventually she did. Drive her car I mean.. but she did keep texting as she turned off towards the highway. I am too old and careful and.. a parent driving her children around for people like that.


This makes me wonder what's wrong with people..

On the way home one day, I had a few minutes before I needed to pick Lily up (which doesn't happen. ever.) so I decided to make one more stop. I found my things and headed to the register with a sleeping Noah in my arms. There was another little boy, younger than Noah, toddle-running near the registers with his mom. He wasn't all over the store, but he was getting further away from her than it seemed like he should, but by the time it was our turn at the register I stopped paying attention to what he was doing.

I paid and started out the door when I heard some scuffling and voices behind me. I turned a little, but didn't see the other boy so I kept walking. In between the two sets of doors I saw him try to scurry by me as I heard a woman calling out to him. I stooped a little, while still carrying my own 2 year old, to try to stop him before he got by me, but I missed. So I reached out further and managed to grab the top of his collar just as he got up to the second set of doors (and then would have been out in the busy parking lot). He stopped, turned, and looked up at me. And that was it.

The woman, not his mom but whoever was with her, that came up behind us a second later, said.. nothing. Not. One. Thing. As she lead him back into the store.


But this makes up for it. A little..

I made a quick run through the grocery store with a tired toddler that wanted no part of it. I got more than I meant to and by the time we made it to the checkout, Noah was fast asleep. In my arms. And I still had to take everything out of the cart and get it onto the belt. Hmm.

I bent sideways.. and backwards.. and started pulling things out one by one. After 3 or 4 items.. the woman behind me asked if I needed some help. And I've got to admit it surprised the heck out of me. I've dealt with all kinds of children nonsense at the register.. but never once had anyone ever asked me if I needed help.

So, I just laughed (in that way that meant 'oh, this? this is NOTHING.) and told her no, but thank you. She must have been a mother..

Being two is as bad as it gets

My children and I went to the car dealer today so that I could finally finally finally finally (6 months later) get my 2nd car key. It was genuinely a mircale that I did not lose the 1st/only one or lock it in the car or break it or whatever else. But, now that I have two keys, I assume one of those things will happen within the next few days. To both of them. Anyway..

They were just programming a key, so I figured I could get away with having my pit crew, as one of the salespeople joked, with me. Lily was fine. Noah on the other hand was more like..

Wait. Where are we? Wasn't I just sleeping? I'm not sure about this. Why are we getting out of the car? Fine, we're getting out of the car. Who is this man? Why are you talking to my mommy? Now you're talking to me?! Don't talk to me, I don't know you!

Now we're going in that building? I'm not sure about this. No, no I don't think I like this. Now we're moving again. To chairs? No, nope, no way.. not sitting in a chair. Nope not sitting on your lap either mommy. Wait, how come Lily gets a chair? I want a chair! I don't care if there aren't any chairs left! Fine! I'm going to sit on the floor then! Nope I am NOT going to sit on the floor.

No, seriously, I'm not sitting on your lap mommy. Oh, you have my iPad.. I think sitting on your lap would be fine.

Nope! IPad is no longer sufficient!! Ah, juice. Juice. Yum, I love juice. Juice and ipad.. everything is alright with the world. Well played, mommy.

NO! Everything is terrible and I hate this. Juice and ipad are totally unacceptable. I want your phone! NO!- I will hold it!! Actually you can hold it then because I am going to use my iPad also.

I want to watch videos of myself. Over and over and over. No I want to take pictures of myself. I want to take pictures of Lily. Now I want to take pictures of the other people in the waiting room. I'm doing it! I AM!! Oh, look if you hold the phone so we can see ourselves and I flip my iPad around I can watch what I'm doing on your phone instead.

Hold my juice. Hold me. And your phone. Now hold my iPad too. NO stop holding me! I want to sit on the floor! I want to stand up. I want to go for a walk. Yeah, we're going for a walk!

A clear wall- this is fantastic. Yes, I'm happy just standing here looking outside. Forever. Yup.

Now I want to go out there. No, I'm going to lock this door so no one can come in. NO I WILL NOT MOVE OUT OF THE WAY SO PEOPLE CAN LEAVE! This is intolerable! Why are you talking to me lady, I don't know you. What do you mean I can't cry in here? Do you think you're being funny? Oh, look you're laughing.. you do think you're being funny. I don't care for your humor, lady.

Look it's the clear wall again. Okay, this is fine. Hmm.. no, I'm pretty sure I still want to go out there. Wait, where is Lily going? Why doesn't she want to keep standing here looking at the grass? She needs to come over here! Right now. NO SERIOUSLY I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS!

Oh, we're done? We're going outside? Yeah! Wait. Wait. No no.. I hate outside.. let's go back inside. Inside! 

Oh, but there's that bush I saw. That's awesome. I want to look at it. No I want to look at it closer. Nope, now we're too close. I hate this! Oh, but maybe I could touch it. NO NO oh my God I don't want to touch THAT! Why are YOU touching?! Stop it. No, it's not okay! Not at all.. we need to leave right now!

Why are we leaving? We can't leave! What, the car? No, we can't get in the car! No. Oh God no! She's stealing me! Stealing me! Help me!! Oh, my iPad.. ah..

And then I went to buy coffee so I would be able to survive the drive home.

merging into the outdoors

Everything that's going to sprout.. has. I guess. Which means no lettuce this year- none of the seeds from last year ever came up. I also only have one cucumber plant, even though I planted at least 20 seeds.

But on the other side.. I have tons of bean plants. Or rather I did before I put them outside for a few days and then into their outdoor window boxes- two days before tons of wind and rain.

They currently look really, really unhappy. Two of them are definitely broken and the rest just look miserable. But.. most of them do have some smaller leaves that I'm hoping will keep growing and revive the rest of the each plant.

I left one plant inside just in case the outdoor transfer didn't go well. And now I'm really glad I did, because when I looked at it closely yesterday..

..there were already 4 or 5 little beans growing! The pepper and tomato plants are small, but some are outside already in small pots- just waiting for their time to go into the window boxes as well.

The onions are still so very small that I'm not sure they are even growing anymore. A lot of the flowers are sprouting up like crazy and before long every available surface will be covered with daisies, poppies, and whatever else it was we planted. Also, very unbelievably, I finally have some sunflowers. There are some just sprouted ones outside and one pot of larger ones inside (and honestly I am afraid to put them outside).

Two of the three pumpkin plants are still growing. I put the one outside, but it was too early in the season and it just couldn't take it. So now I only have to figure out what to do with two pumpkin vines, instead of three.

Overall I feel like this garden is a few weeks ahead of last years, which is good because a lot of the tomatoes still weren't done growing until November.

what we did

1. Easter mustaches. I didn't buy them, but I did feel like I needed to document their existence.
2. I started a latch hook rug, took a picture, and then only worked on it one or two times since.
3. A branded donut full of sugar. But pretty. And I was the best mommy ever. For about 35 seconds.
4. Unbelievably, it was still snowing on April 16.
5. With spring brings the arrival of full-on vegetable sandwiches for lunch.
6. Lily.
7. Watermelon Oreos. At first I thought, wow.. that's really different.. and probably gross. Then I couldn't stop thinking about them. So I did finally buy them. And? They're good. Vanilla was definitely the way to go- if they had gone with the traditional chocolate Oreo, I think that would have been gross.
8. You never know what is gonna be in a mom's bag. I burst out laughing in the middle of Target when I went looking for my shopping list and found ONE of Lily and Noah's walkie talkies instead.
9. Hello blue skies and warm weather, what took you so long?

yesterday

The weather yesterday was ideal. Most Saturday mornings I go to the thrift store. Right sharp at 9am.. or I may as well not even go. There is always a line outside before the doors open, which gets longer and longer as the minutes tick closer to the door unlocking . I watch, with amusement, from my car while I listen to music and play Words with Friends.

Yesterday was the first Saturday that it hadn't rained in three weeks.. and there were twice as many people outside as normal. I don't get the correlation.. you'd think there would be less people as everyone should be out enjoying the fantastic weather.

Later, I attempted to take Lily and Noah to our favorite playground. But we had never really gone there on a weekend when the weather was warm.. and I was reminded why. Easily fifty to sixty cars were in the "parking lot." Which is in quotes because there are really only enough spots for about thirty cars.

I laughed and drove right on by. And kept going, naturally, to Target. For the most part they were alright with that.. that and the promise that we'd play on our own playground when we got home.

Which we did. For a little while.

Slides. Swings. I cleared up a lot of the sticks that had fallen around their playground over the winter. Until I looked down to ants crawling all over my shoes. And beyond shoes.

As the weather has gotten warmer and warmer this year, Noah is getting better at not wandering (and running at a full tilt) away from me when we're in the front yard. I have definitely been lulled into a false sense of security and will be more likely to be duped in the future.

Lily stalked a butterfly.

There was also general wandering.

And then we went inside so I could put the groceries away.

Boring.

However, not before..

Spent the last 2 minutes yelling at a bee (yellow jacket?) to GET OUT OF MY CAR! Because the neighbors don't think I'm wacko enough yet
— Laura (@teamtantrum) May 3, 2014

I got the groceries out of the car while holding onto Noah as he tried to escape. Then I tried to keep both children away from the bee while also trying to get it out of my car. Without getting stung.

Because there was nothing I could do but keep the car door open and loudly encourage the bee to not take up residence in the small hiding spaces under the driver's seat. After a couple minutes of encouragement, it picked the rear passenger window on the other side of the car and banged up against it half a dozen times. I quickly opened that door before I lost any chance at all. There was no way I was going to walk away without 100% knowing it wasn't in the car any longer.

I really wish I had seen the video.

zoo zoo

Having no children currently enrolled in public school and having not been in public school myself in a hundred years, "school vacation week" doesn't really mean anything to me. Except that there is a slight increase in the number of child-friendly activities going on. So, keep that in mind.

I am a very go-with-the-flow parent. I hardly ever know what we're doing until its on the very verge (hour wise) of happening. And even then plans often change 20 times during those hours. My children are not regularly enrolled in classes, sports, lessons, whatever. It is what it is.

However there is a children's thing.. group? that happens regularly that Lily absolutely flips her shit over and I try to take her as often as it fits into our lives. One of those instances was the first Monday of what I guess what school vacation week. It was going on several times during the day, but I choose the first one.. for a couple of reasons.

I figured if we missed it the first time, we'd still have a few more chances.  Smart, right? The other reason was.. oh, it's so early in the day that I bet most parents won't be that organized to get out for it and it won't be as crowded as will later in the day. Pff.

Oh, it was crowded alright. Crowded like 100 or so people in one room. At least. And when we walked by the room for the next group going on.. that number was about half. So, lesson learned- everyone else IS that organized and I should learn to navigate around it.

Anyway.. after that we toured the zoo. Yup, on the first day of school vacation week. It was.. okay. It actually wasn't super terrible as the landscape of a zoo is a much larger space than just one room and the hundreds of people were spread out enough that.. we could ya know.. wander around easier.

(Although it was interesting to see the number of older kids (and adults!) that totally didn't care about jumping right in front of a 2-year old. Or getting in the middle of a picture his mother was trying to take of said 2-year old watching the fish that were right at his eye level.)

Unbelievably, the only problem of that day was just the normal Lily doesn't like to be at the mercy of anyone else's agenda. It's worse when a 2-year old little brother that doesn't walk as fast and also wants to look at things longer than she does is on the scene. But we got through it with no one being murdered, lost, or kidnapped. Or completely losing their parental-shit. I did however require more coffee and "quiet time" when we got home.

My camera also broke. Temporarily, of course. Just while we were at the zoo though. The next day, when I sat down to "fix it".. it no longer required fixing. Thank goodness for modern technology.

the easter

Now that Easter is over by a full week, I guess I have procrastinated enough about it.

For me, Easter really started the day before, on Saturday. When I went to Target to pick up a few things for Noah. He's difficult because although he will accept any and all presents with wheels, he already has 900 cars, trucks, vans, buses, etc varying in sizes from matchbox to almost as big as he is. He also doesn't eat candy (mostly because he's 2 and I don't let him eat candy) and isn't all that interested in presents in general anyway. SO.. it took me until the day before Easter to really even get him anything. He's also with me 99% of the time, and although I'm sure I could get away with buying things right in front of him, I just hadn't.

I found him a box of interesting crayons (even though we have 900 of those also), a small purple dinosaur (that he actually really likes although he doesn't care that much about stuffed animals either), and probably something else but as it was more than 5 seconds ago I can't remember.

I also saw A LOT of Easter baskets at my most local Target. Surprisingly a lot- easily several hundred. Easter baskets were not something we needed since we just reuse them from year to year, but I made a note to go back for a couple of these..

.. ninja and robot metal buckets on really what I consider to be my favorite part of the holidays.. the day after clearance.

(Target was closed on Sunday, but I got there at 8am on Monday, and you know what? Gone. Everything was gone. The supply went from several hundred on Saturday to less than 10 on Monday morning. And 9 of those 10 were broken. But..

I had to pick up a few real things later in the week, Wednesday I think, so I checked the Easter section again. And the section had magically refilled with about 60 baskets.. all different styles. Except instead of being 50% off, they were now all 90% off. Thank. You. Target.)

After Easter Bunny Target shopping there was egg decorating the night before..

.. and egg hunting and opening the next morning. The eggs really didn't have much of a chance. Lily found them all, while Noah didn't care one bit about any of it. Until he I opened one of the eggs in his basket and found a car in it.. then it was okay, see ya later Noah for the rest of the morning.

Then was the period of getting ready to leave the house for the day. Which is always a favorite of mine. (No it's not.)

I was really, really dreading the holiday drive even more than usual. Because I had to drive right through the middle of..

.. Boston. Holiday driving through a city is never anything I find awesome, but when you add in that it's Boston.. the day before the marathon.. especially when it's the first time after last year's terrorism. I thought it would be horrible (especially after the rice cooker incident at the previous week's memorial service. yes, seriously). With runners coming in, security, news crews, looky-loos, etc.

But.. other than a couple of spots of slight traffic for less than a minute, it was fine. Almost more fine than it normally was. And the weather was absolutely perfect. I mean, look at that sky..

Easter dinner was what it normally is with my children. For the last year or so Lily has finally consented to sit at the table and nibble at a few things from her plate. This year I didn't even have to pacify her with an Apple product. Noah on the other hand, is still in the midst of only running around and refusing to eat even one bite. I believe he finally did have a granola bar and some goldfish however.

Shortly after we ate, we left so that the rest of my extended family could take naps and rest up for their next encounter with my children and I.

And that was our Easter.

what normal must be like

The other day I found out we had an almost $300 credit with one of our utilities. A credit! "Thaaat's weird!" I said to the woman on the other end of the phone. She even double checked- it was true. I hung up with her, turned around to Noah in the back seat and yelled "That's weird!" at him. "GOOD weird! That NEVER happens to me! And that makes it even weirder!!" He just stared at me.

Today, I took my children out for errands. Which I rarely do. With both of them. To more than a quick trip to the post office and/or spree around Target. Most of the time I go when Lily is at school so it's just me and Noah.. and I am not outnumbered.

But.. too many things to do were piling up- like returns at the mall. The dreaded mall. (I said that out loud and had a great conversation with Lily about what dreaded means.) So.. off to the mall we all went. To go to three different stores.

I was preparing for it to be really, really horrible. I thought there would be running, yelling, crying, serious non-listening, etc. And.. there actually wasn't. The first store was.. fine. The second store was fine.. I even bought a couple of things for Noah. The third store was.. almost fine. The music was a little loud and Noah wasn't happy, but he chewed on my jacket for awhile and calmed down.

Honestly, I was scared. And suspicious. So naturally we then went to Target. Where I bought a lot of things. We were in the store for awhile. We walked and walked around the whole thing. Even into the Easter section. And my children were.. I don't know, what I assume normal children are like. Noah rode in the cart and Lily walked along with me. Like.. near me. By me. I didn't have to have a death grip on her for fear she'd take off at any second. She didn't even say one word about the toy section that I purposely and fully avoided.

It was like the twilight zone. So much so that at one point I just had to ask Lily if they were plotting against me. Her response? Possibly. I burst out laughing and thanked her for her honesty.

Still, I've been doing this too long to have pushed my luck any further.. we went home after that.

mailing failings

For the last few months I have been at the post office a lot. At least once a week, often two or three times. Most of the time it's fine, sometimes the line is long.. sometimes the other customers are beyond unprepared for their turn at the window, sometimes there are severe language barriers, etc. It is what it is.

There is one clerk that has been there for years.. I usually end up at her window and she's never given me a problem regarding anything I've mailed. I pay for things online, have her double check, get my receipt, and leave.

But.. then there's the other side of it all- the clerk that seems to really not especially like me. I get told different policies and rules all the time and it's such garbage. Their attitude is, at best, very "short" with most of their customers. Unless, I've noticed, the other person isn't speaking English. (I hope I'm wrong, but I've stood in that line enough times to see hundreds of other customers transactions, so..) Which has been going on for close to a year, except for the last few weeks that it seemed like they were slightly less unpleasant towards me. And it was fine. But..

Then there was today. Where every bit of distaste for me was back. And probably more. It was essentially the postal police. I was told I could not reuse one type of official post office product to mail in another method. (That's going to be a problem since 90% of my mailing supplies are reused.) For example, if someone sent me something in an Express envelope, I could not, disassemble it and reuse it for Priority mail. What? I even repeated what the clerk said and added "seriously?" to the end of it. Yup.. seriously.

I raised my eyebrows, looked away, and said uh, alriiight under my breath. But "just this once" the clerk allowed me to do it.

The usps policy is now reduce, reuse, recycle? I wonder if they know that. Whatever, happy Earth Day, right?

and so the 2014 garden begins

Winter hung on for so long in my part of the world, but now it's time for a garden again. Thankfully.

Lily and I planted seeds a few weeks ago and more than half of them are sprouting already. And some of them are really sprouting. The beans and pumpkins are definitely the stars so far. Ya, I know, pumpkins.. I have no idea what I'm going to do with those, because as you can see..

..they are already getting pretty big. And obviously a pumpkin plant has no place (room) in a window garden.. never mind 3 pumpkin plants.

Even though it's still not warm enough for anything else, especially at night, these guys are out already. Onions. Not grown from seeds, but I didn't eat them fast enough and they started sprouting roots and tops. They almost went in the garbage, but after researching online.. I planted them instead. Apparently, they can have flowers as well, which would be interesting.

 

The onion seeds I had from last year are doing okay though..

  

As are the poppies, which went almost nowhere last year. Then there are tomato plants (which took forever to have tomatoes last year) grown from tomatoes that I grew. That is the best.

As soon as the weather gets a little warmer at night.. those bean plants will go out into their larger boxes. Hopefully it won't be more than a week or two, as I'm starting to run out of window sills.
Only one pot of sunflowers. And just like the last two tries, they refuse to grow straight. I am still hopeful that with a little encouragement I can correct it. But I also hoped that before and they all ended up broken.

I kept everything inside longer than I probably should have last year. And I didn't get things into bigger pots as fast as I should have. This year I'm working harder to not make either of those mistakes.

Nasturtiums..

And lots of tomatoes. Which is good because, so far, the lettuce and cucumber seeds from last year have not sprouted at all. And I am starting to think that they won't. Which would be sad because they were my favorite things last year.