sittin’ around, nothin’ to do

invasion of the princesses

saturday morning i heard mairin making her veeeerrry careful way down the stairs (she likes to run and jump down them, which rarely ends well), when i heard her stop and gasp.

“mommy! look at that!” and there, on our front porch, was christmas in february.

our neighbor’s girlfriend is moving in and his kids’ old playroom will become her office. so our neighbor was making the trek from his attic to our porch, and apparently had been doing so all morning.

to bring us an easel.

and a play table.

and a little nursery-type doctor’s cart, complete with stethoscope, thermometer, knee-reflex-bangy-thing, and miniature x-ray machine. (it only does skulls. go figure.)

and a purple stroller.

and a my little pony head. (now don’t go all godfather on me. it’s the kind of head with a lovely long (and brightly purple) mane that besotted young girls are supposed to spend hours combing and braiding.)

and an ariel head. (ditto.)

and 9 cushy puzzly mat pieces, 8 of which have a disneyfied princess likeness on them: cinderella; snow white; briar rose; etc.

well.

mairin and i sat outside in our coats and mittens and put the princess mat-puzzle together, and have left it out on the front porch as a warning to all tonka trucks or boy superheroes welcome mat. i was not thrilled about this plethora of princesses, and so contemplated taking a small measure of revenge against the culture machine by calling the princesses just plain “girls” (which in fact i have done) and letting mairin name them (which we will have to do, in part, because i don’t know all of their names anyway). 

now lest you think i am a thoroughly ungrateful wretch of a neighbor, i will confess to be pleased by the notion of toy recycling and i am, in the abstract, quite happy to be given a ton of stuff that will entertain the kiddos and not require any outlay of cash on our part. but as much as i have defined my mothering by being anti-pink, i am rabidly anti-princess. you all know me, so i’m sure it is no stretch of anyone’s imagination to guess how i feel about having a princess welcome mat, let alone a disembodied princess/mermaid head, floating around my house.

so imagine my pleasure when mairin put ariel’s head in the purple stroller and pushed her away, hollering over her shoulder “be back soon, mom. we’re going to target. she needs some thomas panties.”

smug

this weekend the kiddos and i:

did 8 loads of laundry. mopped the kitchen floor, including wiping down the baseboards. made vegetable stock. finished cutting the fabric for the twinslers’ quilts. did most of the grocery shopping. sorted and delivered seven (COUNT ‘EM!) bags of baby clothes to goodwill. sorted and delivered two HUGE boxes of maternity clothes and one medium-sized box of infant boy clothes to auntie ‘ra and cousin emmet. baked bran muffins. delivered bran muffins and one box of infant girl clothes to the twinslers’ house. caught up on top chef & damages. made paneer. worked on potty-training with mairin (no, tim, we’re not done yet.) rearranged the living room furniture (slightly). wrote a little bit. took the kids to the park. walked the dogs.

i am awfully proud of myself.

extra extra bonus points

for larry st john, who clearly thinks gus is named after some skinny, flouncing white girls.

introducing the chairman chairmen chairpersons of the board:

discipline & punish

a.m. timeout:

p.m.  timeout:

yeah, it’s not floor-cleaning day at our house. (then again, it rarely is.)

now, if we could only get the whole panopticon thingy worked out….

5 months!

and in this corner, weighing in at 15 pounds, the round mound of rebound, our very own sweetness, mr. september, the deacon of arbor avenue, the sultan of swat and swing:

eeeeeamooooon….shannnnnonnnnnn…smith!

forgive the old-man pants. it’s laundry day at our house.

 

bonus points for those who name the sports heroes behind the nicknames (tim and christopher, you must refrain from answering immediately.) extra extra bonus points if you can add an appropriate metaphor of your own.

because everyone needs a villain …

mairin is fascinated with thomas the tank engine — she received some track as a gift not long ago, and since then she has added several new engines to her collection. every evening includes the question “is it too late to build track?” and most mornings begin with dumping the track on the floor and playing with her engines. even more fascinating is that she has full-fledged conversations with her engines, as well as with the other engines she doesn’t have. she’ll ask carole, “where are henry and edward?” (two missing from her stable) and then proceed to “find” them (usually in my pocket) and play with them, right alongside the more physically present thomas, percy, and james.

all of this is prelude to the most recent addition to her engine collection (the physical one, not the imaginary one), diesel. (and yes, we are sucker-fools who are likely to make a run for contact solution and come back with a new thomas the tank engine engine and forget the contact solution.)  diesel was a surprise choice, since he’s an unsympathetic engine, self-absorbed and domineering. the description card that accompanied his packaging describes him as “oily, scheming, and ever-ready to stir up trouble,” and he’s definitely less of her favorite than some others she doesn’t yet “have” (henry and edward, for instance).

but it was diesel she returned home with, and carole and i shook our heads a little and figured what the heck, maybe in play “her” diesel will be sweet and friendly.

ha. since he came home friday evening, diesel has been in continuous “time out,” banished from the other engines and isolated at the bottom of the stairs. in fact, moments ago i reunited him with the other engines; mairin spotted him a few minutes later and said, eyebrows arched: “diesel, you need time out.” and off he went.

have we mentioned…

…how much we love piper, elizabeth, and their zen queen of a mommy, miss kresta?

i thought not.

we do.

sleep? sleep? mwaaa-ha-ha-ha.

okay, so forget that last post. eamon has since decided that the best way to sleep is next to me, or on me, or attached to me in some way. all night long. with wakeful periods every 90 minutes (on the nose) just to remind me he’s there. in case, you know, i forgot.

on the other hand, mairin loves sleeping. and she loves waking up (HI mommy! it’s GOOD MORNING time! the SUN is UP! daddy is at WORK!) especially when, as this morning, she can get ready for a big adventure. boots on, sweater zipped, hood pulled over head, backpack (empty) strapped on, bike helmet buckled: thusly attired, this toddler was ready for her visit to the children’s museum. i can only imagine what she thinks she’s going to do with the bike helmet. and i’m waaaaaay too tired to ask.