I give this day an A-
Jul. 23rd, 2006 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarflameThis morning, after going to bed far too late, I awoke to the bleary, far off sound of knocking. "I think someone's knocking on the door", I mumbled to Grant. It woke up Jake, so I latched him on and he dozed back off. "Hey, Grant, I think someone is knocking at the door!"
Grant came back a minute later and said, "It's your mom", fumbling around for a shirt. My mom. My mom who lives 400 miles north of us. She was driving my grandfather back home to Key West (150 miles south of us) over the weekend and stopped in as a surprise.
The house was TRASHED. Like worse than it's been in weeks. Grant Sr is out of town for the week and we are stuck inside due to van troubles and terrential rain, so it got kind of bad yesterday and whatever, it always happens like that, I can keep the house amazingly clean for days and as soon as it falls apart someone drops in. She said Laura and Frank (my sister and her husband) were on there way over because she'd called them ahead of time. Laura and Frank are total neatfreaks, Frank has said he "doesn't feel comfortable" here just because it doesn't have a "nice smell" - like it doesn't smell bad to him, but he's used to being hit with cleaning product or scented candle or whatever when he gets home so this seems lacking(?). So I ran around half asleep folding up the stroller and putting it away, getting all the blocks back in the chest and pushing it back under the bench, etc etc while Grant cleared and scrubbed the dining table (it was covered in art supplies) and went to get dishwasher detergent, which we'd discovered we were out of right before bed (when we usually start the dishwasher for the third time in a day...)
I felt unduly irritated with my mother for waking us all up, coming unannounced when the house was such a mess (and inviting my sister), and then immediately insulting me twice in the span of 10 minutes. "I don't want to offend you, but...is there something you're not telling me?", she asked, motioning to my belly. It's bloated because I'm about to start my period, which is also no doubt part of why she was irritating me. Then she kept going on about how Jake, who has a cold and was crawling around rapidly and panting while congested, "Breathes just like I do/got it from me." WHATEVER MOM. She was here for about an hour, my sister for about 30 minutes.
Aaron woke up with his left cheek all swollen up again, this time with faint discoloration. If it persists tomorrow I'm taking him to the doctor. It doesn't seem to be interfering with his eating or hearing, but it's VERY tender to the touch. He's had a normal level of energy, but is much more emotionally sensitive.
Aaaaaanyway. They left, at least the house was a lot cleaner from G and I doing a rapid double team on it. Grant helped me get the babies down for naps and then -
Annie, Aaron and I looked at Edward Gorey drawings in a book I have, sprawled out on the living room rug, drew with colored pencils and painted our toenails. Sometimes it's a lot of fun having big kids, and it's always really relaxing when the babies sleep for awhile.
Ananda did a lot more drawing today. A penguin king with an ice castle, geishas near a river. She is in turbo art mode. I love the things she makes.
Grant's cousin Bethany came over to do laundry in the afternoon, and stayed through evening. She's really weird, in some ways - like she speaks in a halting, cultivated psuedo Hialleah latina gangsta dialect despite being the whitest thing since saltine crackers and talking normally until high school - but I also discovered she is nice in a lot of ways, too. She works at The Gap, and brought clothes for all of the kids. I boycott the Gap personally, but whatever, she was sweet to think of us and it's all nice stuff. The shirt for Isaac especially is the perfect shade fo blue to make his eyes pop, and she knew just from seeing him here and there over the years that Aaron would want stripes. It's strange to be around someone only a couple of years younger than me (she's in college) who seems SO MUCH YOUNGER - she is living out on her own (in a dorm situation) for the first time in her life, bragging about making dinner out of a box for herself and asking us how to use the washing machine. With all of our kids running around. I remember when we used to jump on the neighbors' trampoline for hours together when she was 11 and Grant and I were 14. I showed her all her other cousins' Myspace pages because she didn't know about them, and she asked me to teach her to sew next weekend. She french braided Ananda's hair.
Ananda is so painfully shy that I think people are starting to find it really jarring and somehow WRONG. Like, when I got out the dress Bethany brought her, she just got really downcast and looked the other way. When I said, "Come on honey, just say Thank You, isn't this nice?" she hid behind me, clinging to my leg. Within 30 minutes they were in the backyard alone together setting up soccer goals, but her initial reaction to just about anyone is like that...
We went across the street to Aracelia's house (my nice elderly cuban neighbor who reminds me of my grandparents), and Aracelia said Hi and she did the same thing. Downcast, uber serious face, hiding and clinging - when Aracelia started walking around me and persuing the "How are you? Do you help your mom?" stuff she was going around me in circles, holding on with both hands and making these sad, frantic little groans. Yet, she was openly talking to Isaac and walking around her yard with him within less than a minute of that and came with us, into the house and around the back to see Aracelia's chicken coop and gardens. When Aracelia offered her a piece of chocolate, she took it and said Thanks, albeit nearly inaudibly.
I know that people who don't know us well and encounter this think it's because of being homeschooled, but really, Ananda has been like this since infancy and gets plenty of socialization. Now that she's 6, though, I'm starting to wonder if there comes a point when "acting that way" is just unnacceptably innapropriate - I've tried to explain to her when we're alone, since she is SO SMART, that it makes people either think she's really rude and mean or that she's immature, but I think that just makes her feel more pressured and then she gets even more strained with introductions and strangers...
Speaking of Aracelia, she speaks "spanglish", i.e., "I love food, pero no quiero uh, uh, bro-coli, por es too much por me - throat, I have the problems of eh, eh - esophagus y el operacion I have last year means no mas, nada con, uh...hard" etc And she is very much influenced by and steeped in cuban culture ("I don't hate all Mexicans, I knew a nice Mexican once...") The point is that due to age, language and generational barriers I "let her slide" with comments that would TOTALLY not fly from someone young, fluent and more educated. Today she commented THREE times on what a big butt Ananda has (she so does not, btw)...I think the only reason I didn't make a bigger deal than disagreeing is that Ananda can barely understand a word she says anyway. But geez. Also as I was walking out, she grabbed me by the arm and pleaded with me to please, please not have any more kids. *sigh* She gave Isaac bananas, picked flowers for us and let them collect fresh eggs, she really does not mean harm or offense in any way. It's hard to explain, or justify, or whatever.
I made "no peaking in the crock pot chicken and rice" tonight for dinner, with corn on the cob. We ate on a sheet in the front yard, and then Grant and Aaron took a bike ride. Later I had them all help me make chocolate pudding for dessert. I did a double batch so I could do pudding pops for tea tomorrow afternoon, too.
Also I dug out these wool shorts I made custom for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
boxcarbecca/ididntso last Fall. She dissapeared from the internet for months and hasn't responded to my questions about whether she still wants them or not. I have some ideas for a different package I could put together for her...Anyway I put a drawstring in the shorts and tried them on Isaac, but they're kind of big so I think I'll put them up for sale, if she is still not interested (really I think Eli has either outgrown them or potty trained by now). They're organic wool that I dyed with blueberries and kool-aid, and brand new. Just extra large. I think I could easily get $60+ for them, as they cost me a good $30 in materials to make and took MANY hours, between the dyeing, re-dyeing and the crocheting.
Isaac's been out since 9:30, Jake is so adorable I could die, and A and A are now waiting for me in their beds. So off I go to tell stories and snuggle.
Grant came back a minute later and said, "It's your mom", fumbling around for a shirt. My mom. My mom who lives 400 miles north of us. She was driving my grandfather back home to Key West (150 miles south of us) over the weekend and stopped in as a surprise.
The house was TRASHED. Like worse than it's been in weeks. Grant Sr is out of town for the week and we are stuck inside due to van troubles and terrential rain, so it got kind of bad yesterday and whatever, it always happens like that, I can keep the house amazingly clean for days and as soon as it falls apart someone drops in. She said Laura and Frank (my sister and her husband) were on there way over because she'd called them ahead of time. Laura and Frank are total neatfreaks, Frank has said he "doesn't feel comfortable" here just because it doesn't have a "nice smell" - like it doesn't smell bad to him, but he's used to being hit with cleaning product or scented candle or whatever when he gets home so this seems lacking(?). So I ran around half asleep folding up the stroller and putting it away, getting all the blocks back in the chest and pushing it back under the bench, etc etc while Grant cleared and scrubbed the dining table (it was covered in art supplies) and went to get dishwasher detergent, which we'd discovered we were out of right before bed (when we usually start the dishwasher for the third time in a day...)
I felt unduly irritated with my mother for waking us all up, coming unannounced when the house was such a mess (and inviting my sister), and then immediately insulting me twice in the span of 10 minutes. "I don't want to offend you, but...is there something you're not telling me?", she asked, motioning to my belly. It's bloated because I'm about to start my period, which is also no doubt part of why she was irritating me. Then she kept going on about how Jake, who has a cold and was crawling around rapidly and panting while congested, "Breathes just like I do/got it from me." WHATEVER MOM. She was here for about an hour, my sister for about 30 minutes.
Aaron woke up with his left cheek all swollen up again, this time with faint discoloration. If it persists tomorrow I'm taking him to the doctor. It doesn't seem to be interfering with his eating or hearing, but it's VERY tender to the touch. He's had a normal level of energy, but is much more emotionally sensitive.
Aaaaaanyway. They left, at least the house was a lot cleaner from G and I doing a rapid double team on it. Grant helped me get the babies down for naps and then -
Annie, Aaron and I looked at Edward Gorey drawings in a book I have, sprawled out on the living room rug, drew with colored pencils and painted our toenails. Sometimes it's a lot of fun having big kids, and it's always really relaxing when the babies sleep for awhile.
Ananda did a lot more drawing today. A penguin king with an ice castle, geishas near a river. She is in turbo art mode. I love the things she makes.
Grant's cousin Bethany came over to do laundry in the afternoon, and stayed through evening. She's really weird, in some ways - like she speaks in a halting, cultivated psuedo Hialleah latina gangsta dialect despite being the whitest thing since saltine crackers and talking normally until high school - but I also discovered she is nice in a lot of ways, too. She works at The Gap, and brought clothes for all of the kids. I boycott the Gap personally, but whatever, she was sweet to think of us and it's all nice stuff. The shirt for Isaac especially is the perfect shade fo blue to make his eyes pop, and she knew just from seeing him here and there over the years that Aaron would want stripes. It's strange to be around someone only a couple of years younger than me (she's in college) who seems SO MUCH YOUNGER - she is living out on her own (in a dorm situation) for the first time in her life, bragging about making dinner out of a box for herself and asking us how to use the washing machine. With all of our kids running around. I remember when we used to jump on the neighbors' trampoline for hours together when she was 11 and Grant and I were 14. I showed her all her other cousins' Myspace pages because she didn't know about them, and she asked me to teach her to sew next weekend. She french braided Ananda's hair.
Ananda is so painfully shy that I think people are starting to find it really jarring and somehow WRONG. Like, when I got out the dress Bethany brought her, she just got really downcast and looked the other way. When I said, "Come on honey, just say Thank You, isn't this nice?" she hid behind me, clinging to my leg. Within 30 minutes they were in the backyard alone together setting up soccer goals, but her initial reaction to just about anyone is like that...
We went across the street to Aracelia's house (my nice elderly cuban neighbor who reminds me of my grandparents), and Aracelia said Hi and she did the same thing. Downcast, uber serious face, hiding and clinging - when Aracelia started walking around me and persuing the "How are you? Do you help your mom?" stuff she was going around me in circles, holding on with both hands and making these sad, frantic little groans. Yet, she was openly talking to Isaac and walking around her yard with him within less than a minute of that and came with us, into the house and around the back to see Aracelia's chicken coop and gardens. When Aracelia offered her a piece of chocolate, she took it and said Thanks, albeit nearly inaudibly.
I know that people who don't know us well and encounter this think it's because of being homeschooled, but really, Ananda has been like this since infancy and gets plenty of socialization. Now that she's 6, though, I'm starting to wonder if there comes a point when "acting that way" is just unnacceptably innapropriate - I've tried to explain to her when we're alone, since she is SO SMART, that it makes people either think she's really rude and mean or that she's immature, but I think that just makes her feel more pressured and then she gets even more strained with introductions and strangers...
Speaking of Aracelia, she speaks "spanglish", i.e., "I love food, pero no quiero uh, uh, bro-coli, por es too much por me - throat, I have the problems of eh, eh - esophagus y el operacion I have last year means no mas, nada con, uh...hard" etc And she is very much influenced by and steeped in cuban culture ("I don't hate all Mexicans, I knew a nice Mexican once...") The point is that due to age, language and generational barriers I "let her slide" with comments that would TOTALLY not fly from someone young, fluent and more educated. Today she commented THREE times on what a big butt Ananda has (she so does not, btw)...I think the only reason I didn't make a bigger deal than disagreeing is that Ananda can barely understand a word she says anyway. But geez. Also as I was walking out, she grabbed me by the arm and pleaded with me to please, please not have any more kids. *sigh* She gave Isaac bananas, picked flowers for us and let them collect fresh eggs, she really does not mean harm or offense in any way. It's hard to explain, or justify, or whatever.
I made "no peaking in the crock pot chicken and rice" tonight for dinner, with corn on the cob. We ate on a sheet in the front yard, and then Grant and Aaron took a bike ride. Later I had them all help me make chocolate pudding for dessert. I did a double batch so I could do pudding pops for tea tomorrow afternoon, too.
Also I dug out these wool shorts I made custom for
boxcarbecca/ididntso last Fall. She dissapeared from the internet for months and hasn't responded to my questions about whether she still wants them or not. I have some ideas for a different package I could put together for her...Anyway I put a drawstring in the shorts and tried them on Isaac, but they're kind of big so I think I'll put them up for sale, if she is still not interested (really I think Eli has either outgrown them or potty trained by now). They're organic wool that I dyed with blueberries and kool-aid, and brand new. Just extra large. I think I could easily get $60+ for them, as they cost me a good $30 in materials to make and took MANY hours, between the dyeing, re-dyeing and the crocheting. Isaac's been out since 9:30, Jake is so adorable I could die, and A and A are now waiting for me in their beds. So off I go to tell stories and snuggle.
