Lovingheart

This has been heard by LB many, many times. Never seems to make a difference. Never made a difference either when I first spoke these words to PM many days previous. And I can say that the words were not spoken with the calm voice that LB continues to repeat over and over again (well she speaks them when she is not overtired or hungry or overwhelmed or unhappy or feeling harassed which has not been terribly often the past few days. Her common response is an ear-splitting shriek.) When I used those words I have no doubt I was yelling out of pure frustration. Ohhhh so frustrated. ‘Your name is…’ over and over and over and over and over (well you get the idea) again. ‘Your name is Whack!’ ‘Your name is Telephone!’ ‘Your name is Gobbledygook!’ ‘Your name is Bang!’ And many other ‘names’. This is all to LB and she is frustrated by it and often shrieks. I am over the top hearing it as well. I am over the top hearing her shrieks. Now to be fair to PM (this is no

The kids have their own ways of sorting out the sizes of things. They are baby, boy, mother and daddy. Say we are talking about zucchini from the garden and there is a really huge one then it would be considered a big, big daddy one – otherwise the words stand on their own. This started back when LB was more the baby and PM would get the boy size of whatever and LB would get the baby size. They also have my body separated out into the ‘boy booby’ and the ‘baby booby’ though this is one place where size is not part of the picture – at least I don’t think so!

The other day I went with the kids to get some copies of a flyer advertising my bookkeeping and office services. I mentioned to them that we would walk around town together and distribute them. PM thought this was great. He was really looking forward to it and kept asking when we were going to do this. Luckily it was only the day after doing the copying. He took a canvas bag with a folder inside that had the flyers. He put this around his neck and was all set. The three of us walked into stores and businesses and dropped off the flyers. He thought this was great and didn’t want to stop. Many of the store folk thought this was great as well and he received extra attention and polite and enthusiastic responses. We covered a fair bit of ground in one day and got most of downtown done with another area as well. Today I figured we would finish up downtown. There wasn’t much to do and when we were about done PM was not ready to finish up. He convinced me that

Walking along with the kids this morning and they were up ahead a bit. LB was riding her tricycle and PM came along and started pulling her along. The trike would half tip occasionally but they were laughing and having fun with it. A ‘Be Careful’ started to come out of my mouth but turned into more of a mumble. Yes, I could see potential accidents which would likely end with LB in tears. How often is it that kids are running around playing and having a grand old time and someone ends up in tears because of an accident? I also realized at the same time they were in the moment and enjoying their play together. They were both having fun and were oblivious to the ‘what if’s’. There’s so much freedom in that place. There was a time that I would swing around on the jungle gyms in all directions and would give parents a few 'heart in mouth' occasions. I felt safe and had fun. I was active and athletic and young and wasn’t concerned about the ‘what if’s’. I enj

Whew I realize it has been a long while since I’ve written anything here. One of my excuses is our new family members. A week ago we adopted two baby kittens. Most evenings when I finally make it to the computer (which has also been later than usual as my already busy life now has more distractions and more things to do) I have two little warm bodies that like to curl up in my lap. Also I have been falling behind on the basics of upkeep on the computer. My inbox is growing and the messages that are unread also continue to multiply. Time spent in the kitchen seems greater and though I say things are going to change I haven’t quite figured out how to put that into motion yet. But let me say these kittens are adorable. They are very young. I didn’t realize how young they were when we got them. I was under the impression they were about 7 weeks old (when I met the woman that had them she said they were around 6 weeks and a week had passed). It turns out they are no

The kids are both quite different in how they approach treats or things they like. If I give them something like a homemade trail mix LB will immediately go for the pieces she likes out of it (ya know the sweeter things like raisins, cranberries or apricots) and depending on her mood she may or may not eat the other bits and pieces (though she does like many nuts and seeds). She just chomps away paying little attention to anything other than her enjoyment (that is as long as she hasn’t had a major meltdown because she didn’t get the right amount or some other factor that sets her off into a puddle of tears and a terror of screams). PM on the other hand will inspect what he has and then decides the order in which he will eat them. He will save the best till last. He may even save it for a long period of time and savour it. He has been known to make a dried fig or sweet bar (heck even a chewable vitamin C) last for hours as he goes and takes a taste of it ever so often or ho