One adult, three children and a cat

This morning BSG, Driver and I are all downstairs playing while Back Seat Boy takes a nap. I should set the scene a little bit here: There is a tiger zoo and a tiger pen, both built out of wooden blocks, and a Lincoln Log barn. The zoo and pen are home to, of course, two tigers--a mommy and a baby. The barn is home to a family of horses--a mommy, baby, and sister. The mommy is one of those Schliek (is that how you spell it, I'm not sure) brand of animals that is very real looking. The baby is a tiny plastic horse that came with a bunch of other tiny plastic animals in a tube that The Godmother got her when we went camping this summer. The sister is a My Little Pony.

Driver decides it would be fun to start tickling me, so he sits on me and starts tickling. BSG was busy putting her horsies to bed, but comes over to join in the fun, until we get too out of control. I start writhing around trying to get free, we start to get a little loud, the tiger pen gets knocked over, and BSG is disgusted. When the dust settles, she tells Driver to fix the tiger pen, then picks up the baby horse and sits on the bottom step. When I ask her what she is doing, she says "I have to rock baby horse back to sleep because you guys woke her up when you were being too loud" in a very accusatory and exasperated tone.

It is hard being the only responsible adult in the house.

IPods=3, Furnace=1 (soon)

You can all rest easy, we're getting a new furnace on Monday. What a boring thing to spend so much money on.

God help me, I still love him

Have any of you heard the story of our IPod? No? Well, since you haven't, let me give you a quick re-cap:

We had a nano which my parents gave to us a few Christmases ago. It is engraved "Love, Mom and Dad" on the back. Driver has been taking it to work with him and using it when he works out over his lunch break. Well, a few weeks ago he said he couldn't find it. Perhaps it was in the car? No. Perhaps in his desk at work somewhere? No. Perhaps in the locker for the gym at work or in the Lost and Found? No. OMG--someone stole the IPod!! We must buy a new one. Immediately. Right now!

The week after the purchase of a new IPod nano (Did I mention we don't have a working furnace? No? We don't.) Driver was at work when a taller coworker came over to his cube, looked on a tall shelf that Driver can't see the top of, and said "Did you know your IPod is up here?". Obviously the theif felt so guilty he/she brought it back and put it on a high shelf. So, now we have two Nanos. Two Nanos and a Shuffle. IPods=3, furnace=0.

Since we are on a bit of a Driver roll, I guess I could tell you what happened yesterday. Most of you have probably read some of the 3 or 4 posts Driver has written on this website, so you know he is a great, very awesome speller. cough

Whenever I have to work Driver writes me an email in the morning telling me how it went getting the kids ready and dropping them off at daycare. Yesterday morning Back Seat Boy was up before I went to work (up before 6 the last 3 days in a row again--AAAHH!!) so he informed me that BSB was "as happy as a clam until he saw me eat a beagle. So I gave him a piece of the soft part.". I was going to let it go, because I know he meant to say bagel, until that second part, the soft part, got me. I copied and pasted the beagle part of his email and underneath it wrote "I will have to ask that you refrain from doing that ever again".

Some time goes by and then I get a reply, which basically says 'hey, it was just the soft part and he did fine. I've seen you give him pieces of your food so I know it's OK'. I think that maybe he just didn't notice that he typed 'beagle' instead of 'bagel' and is mad at me for scolding him for giving BSB table food. I called him and left a voice mail saying "re-read your email, [Driver]".

It turns out that he had read it just fine and thought a possible spelling for the word 'bagel' may be 'beagle'. I'm sorry, you don't have to be a champion speller to realize that the pronunciation of those two words would be very different from each other. Really, you just have to have a basic grasp of the English language. Also, those of you who know where we live know our house is one block away from a Bruegger's Bagels. He passes it every day on his way to work. He passes a big lit up sign with the word 'bagel' spelled out on it in red letters, but he thinks that maybe you spell it 'beagle'.

I'm sorry, but I can't not blog about that.

Sitting at the Bar

When traveling, more often than not, I am on a solo mission. Most of the time I’ll sit at the bar for dinner and read the paper, a book, or some work stuff. I end up hearing some pretty interesting conversations but they always sound lame when I try to retell the story. My luck changed at the TGI Friday’s in Flemington New Jersey.

I sat down the bar from two guys in their early twenties who were talking about their cheating girlfriend the other fiancé and the latest youtube video. This video totally captures these guys and their conversation. Not that I’m above this type of video. Had you tube existed when I was in college, this blog would have been far more interesting.



How great is it that a few key search terms can permanently document an overheard bar conversation?

-Driver

P.S.
Here is a great little book that I read during the flight. Space Prisoners

Kids should parent themselves

This was going to be a post all about how I really didn't feel like I had to be a mom to Back Seat Girl until it came time to potty train, seeing as how she weened herself from the bottle, breast, and pacifier, and didn't move until she was a year old, which cut out a lot of "don't touch thats" and "get down from theres". I guess I still really don't have to say "get down from there" to her. Ever. Anyway, I was going to go on and complain about how I have no idea how to ween a baby from the bottle/breast even though this is my second baby and am actually kind of perturbed that I have to do it, because it really is so much easier when they do it themselves.

Then today, while I was reading BSG books before her nap, I put BSB in his crib (sitting up) with toys so he had a safe place to play until I finished up with his sister and could commence with putting him to bed. I got all done with BSG and went into BSB's room, where I found him laying, face down, in his crib, clutching his blanket bear, sucking on his pacifier (which I did not give to him), fast asleep. So, I did what any sane person would do. I closed his shade and walked quietly out of the room.

I guess he will do some things for himself.

That's my girl

The scene: The kitchen table today at lunchtime. The BackSeaters and I are having soup for lunch.

BSG: This is good soup. I should be a soup tester when I grow up.

Me: You want to be a soup tester when you grow up?

BSG: Yea. After I'm done being a princess. Right now I'm busy being a princess.

Me: she really has no idea how true that is

BSG: (sharp intake of breath...you know, like when you're excited) I know! I could be an ice
cream taster!!

Pork Roll

Tonight was kind of a sad night at our house. You see, Pork Roll II had to be retired. He's sitting here next to me now, all floppy and well-loved, while Back Seat Girl sleeps in her bed with his successor.

Everyone that knows us knows Pork Roll and his place in this family. He's been a part of our lives for almost as long as Back Seat Girl has been here. Before she knew she had hands he sat on her changing table waiting for the day when she would be able to pick him up and put him in her mouth. He was the perfect size for her little baby hands and his snout fit perfectly into her mouth. Pork Roll and BSG became inseperable. He came everywhere with us. He slept with her for every nap and at night she would babble to him until she fell asleep in her crib, her hand firmly gripping his neck. When she finally started to crawl, he got dragged around the house from room to room, exploring this new-found freedom right along with her.

Then, one fateful day when BSG was about 15 months old, we took a walk to the grocery store. Of course Pork Roll came long, riding proudly in the stroller. I had gotten into the habit of checking on his where-abouts during our outings since we'd had a few close calls with him before. He had fallen out of the stroller or gotten set down somewhere and then forgotten, and I didn't want to face a world that included BSG without her best friend. So, as we were walking home I bent down and looked into the stroller. No Pork Roll. I looked in the basket under the stroller. No Pork Roll. I turned around and looked behind me along the path we had just walked. No Pork Roll. I retraced me steps to the Lund's, around the Lund's, and finally asked to talk to someone about a Lost and Found. I was introduced to a very nice managed who said that "no, no ratty stuffed pigs had been turned in, but here is this brand new very big Clifford dog.". BSG and I looked at him in disgust and I stuffed him in the basket under the stroller. For a week after that I called the Lund's every day asking if anyone had turned in Pork Roll. I walked our route rooting around in leaves and looking into the storm sewers. Pork Roll was gone.

In the mean-time, I introduced Alison to the new Pork Roll. He was pink and fluffy and noticeably bigger than his predecessor, and while I was heartbroken that we had lost the original Pork Roll, BSG didn't seem to care. She took to the new Pork Roll immediately without questioning how I had managed to clean him and fluff him and make him look brand new. I secretly hated the new Pork Roll, with his ability to sit up without his head touching the ground and his new, fluffy fur. Soon, though, he started to lose his ability to hold his head up. His fur became just a little dingy, and his bean bag butt started to shrink from being continually squished under his human during naps.

That was almost two years ago. I have come to love the new Pork Roll just as much as the old Pork Roll. This one has been around a lot longer and gotten Back Seat Girl through a lot--giving up her morning nap, learning to walk, transitioning to a big girl bed, potty training, and welcoming a baby brother. Lately, though, BSG has been starting to show a bit of a preference for Puppy. While Pork Roll still accompanied her on the days she went to daycare and is a fixture at night and at nap time, Puppy is the one she pushed around in her stroller at home, or put to bed 500 times a day, carefully covering her (Puppy is a girl, make no mistake. She has had a baby in her back, after all.) with a blanket and reading her stories. While this made me sad, I knew there was nothing I could do, and I realized that Pork Roll would always have a very special place in her heart.

Last night while Driver was putting BSG to bed, he realized that Pork Roll was missing. He didn't want to say anything, and BSG didn't bring it up, so he let it go, and forgot about it. Then tonight, his presence was requested at bedtime. Driver and I frantically looked around the house, but couldn't find him. BSG was in bed, so Driver had just about been ready to seal the deal with a prayer. We didn't have much time before the bed-time window closed. We had been talking about switching out Pork Roll. He was really starting to show his age and the last itme I washed him you could barely tell he had touched soap and water. So, Driver and I made the decision that we would introduce a new Pork Roll and continue the search for the old one after BSG was safely tucked in.

I reached up into her closet where we keep the back-up Pork Rolls and pulled one out. I told BSG I was going to give her Pork Roll. I wish I could describe her face when she saw him. There are no words. She looked betrayed, hurt, sad. She reached up for him, took him from me, and said through tears "He's fluffy. I want him all crinkly". My heart broke into a million pieces. Driver and I explained that he had gotten all clean and he needed BSG to love him to make him crinkly again. We hit another snag when she noticed he had a tag (I had to cut the tags off all of her stuffed animals about a year ago one day when she made up her mind that they bothered her), but Driver snipped it off for her. I rocked her and let her ask questions. She seemed to understand and accept the fact that it was her duty to make him "crinkly" again.

After I put her back to bed I found Pork Roll. He had been tangled up in the sheets on Driver's and mine bed upstairs. I thought about sneaking into her room and switching them out, but then I realized that his time had come. I couldn't reintroduce him to BSG, not after all of the explaining I had to do to get her to accept the new Pork Roll. So, he is officially retired. I am sad, but I know that this new Pork Roll will soon look like both of his predecessors. He is ready to accept new tears: tears of 3 year old rage, or sadness, or hurt. The old Pork Roll holds the tears of her toddler years, and now it's time for him to let a new Pork Roll help her through these years as she transitions from being a toddler to being a little girl. I know he's up to the task.

Pork Roll II, you did a great job. You'll always hold a special place in my heart, and I hope I can find a place suitable enough for your retirement.