Mommy's Pen

A writer's notes on family

You are here: Home / 2011 / Archives for May 2011

Archives for May 2011

Birthday Interview

by

Four years ago today, at 3:11 in the morning, the very best thing possible happened to us. We had a daughter.

At 3:11 this morning, I was wiping up dog vomit in the corner of that daughter’s bedroom, and remembering back to the first moment I saw my girl.  I was strangely happy to be awakened in the middle of the night.

Last year, we started a tradition of interviewing Nora for her birthday.

This year’s interview features some questions sent in by Nora’s loyal fan base.

@kristinglas wanted to know, “If Nora was a fairy, what colored wings would she have?”
@kidtyger wanted to know, “What’s your favorite song?”
@pabberson wanted to know, “What the most fun thing in the world?”

For the answers to all these questions and more, see below:

Protest Song

by

Nora turns four on Monday.  I am not one of those mothers who gets sad at the thought of her child getting older.  Three quarters of the fun of parenting is watching your child development and grow.

I am, however, in distress over the loss of nap time.

Nora’s napping only about 3 days a week now.   She’s fussier in the evening.  And she’s getting sassy.  This probably has more to do with being four, but I’m sure lack of sleep isn’t helping matters.

Come to my house any given weeknight to witness some variation of the following scene:

“Nora, it’s time to go inside.”

“No, I don’t want to.”

“I know you don’t want to, but it’s time to get ready for bed.  Let’s go.”

 Nora scampers up the steep pile of mulch in the driveway. “I want to stay outside and play.”

“I know you do, but that’s not one of your choices.  Your choices are to take my hand and climb down the pile or get down on your own so we can go in the house.”

“I’ll sing a song about this. I don’t want to go in the house I want to be a fairy on the top of this hill and sing about spring. No one can come near me and bug me because I just like to sit on top of the mound.  When you hear this song that means not to bug me.  Please don’t bug me I just want to be by myself.”

“Five, four, three…”

Nora scampers down and runs for the house.

As you can see, loss of naptime is tiring for everyone.

Ben Stories: Guest Post

by

This installment of Ben Stories is brought to you by someone who knows him very well, even if she doesn’t always know everthing he’s up to…his mom, Debbie.

Let me introduce you to Ben: Sue’s husband, Nora’s Dad, Elizabeth’s brother, and Larry and Debbie’s son.  Ben is quietly clever, smart, funny, creative, and always has a project of some sort going on.

Sharing this story borders on exposing ourselves as really tuned-out and oblivious parents.  But, what the heck.  When Ben was growing up, he was fascinated with putting things together.  Well, actually, he was usually more interested in taking things apart, but we like to frame things in a positive way.  Not all parents would appreciate this type of talent, but we thought him amazing.

I truly believe we are the only parents on the block who were unaware that their teenaged son was rebuilding a motorcycle in his bedroom.  Ben would walk by the family room on his way to his room, slinking ever so slyly, carrying something large and heavy.  “Hi Mom.  Hi Dad,” he’d greet us.   At this stage in his life he kept his room in such disarray that we seldom entered, and when we did there was so much clutter that we probably wouldn’t have noticed the large engine setting on the floor.  He was always carrying tools in and out of the house.  This should have probably alerted us to his craft, but who ever thought he’d be so bold to do automotive repair in the house.

And then one day we noticed him carrying objects out of the house, back into the garage.  Voila!  A full motorcycle suddenly appeared in the garage.  Of course, when he moved out, we had to pull up the bedroom carpet (a few oil stains), paint the walls (minor splashing) and set out air fresheners (petroleum, you know).

You gotta love the guy!

Ben’s Mom

May Day In the Valley of Love and Delight

by

Yesterday was our Waldorf school’s May celebration. Time to celebrate spring, flowers and sunshine, never mind that there wasn’t any of the latter. The glowing children produced their own.

All the children wore white and each class danced and sang around the Maypole by turns.

Tis the gift to be simple,
tis the gift to be free,
tis the gift to come down where we ought to be
and when we find ourselves in a place just right
it will be in the valley of love and delight

–Jospeh Brackett Sr.

What Condition My Condition Was In

by

Ben and I were together for nine years before we had Nora. We spent much of that time watching The Big Lebowski.

Right now, you’re either thinking “Cool! I love that movie,” or “Huh?  Why?”  It’s the kind of movie you either love or couldn’t care less about.

If you’ve never seen the movie, the only thing you know to read this post and make any sense of it is that the main character, played by Jeff Bridges, calls himself “Dude,” and is a complete lazy ass who gets sucked into a complicated kidnapping scenario.  Through much of the movie, he looks like this:

See that sweater?  Let’s take a closer look:

Well, this year is our 10th wedding anniversary*.  I told Ben I’d make him a sweater for the occasion.  I set him down with his laptop at the Ravelry website and made him look through hundreds of sweaters to find the one he wanted.  He literally gasped when he found this one. The search was over.   I would be making the Dude’s sweater.  It’s a reproduction of the Pendleton Cowichan Cardigan that was made in the 60s and 70s.  These things sell on Ebay for hundreds of dollars, thanks to the popularity of the film.

Thankfully, some crazy beautiful knitter named Andrea Rangel wrote a pattern and offered it for free.

So, that’s how I’ll be spending my weekends until the big day on July 14th.  And this is the song that will be going through my head….

*For those of you doing the realtionship math, we’ve been together 13 years, but married for 10.  Thus 13-4=9 years before we had Nora.