Charlyn’s Web

I have talked about Privacy here before. Children don’t seem to think anyone needs any- until they reach the Teenage years. Then all they are concerned about is their own.

When my youngest is a teen, I am going to stand outside the bathroom asking over and over if she is done. I will not be satisfied when she replies that she will come out when she is done so I’ll try the door. She’ll yell that she will COME OUT WHEN SHE IS DONE! Unsatisfied still I will then lay on the floor so I can peer through the gap between the door and the floor. Then I’ll be able to ask her more specific questions as I watch her feet move about.

Are you done peeing?

Are you done washing?

Are you done with the lotion?

I’ll be laughing, I’m pretty sure she will not.

KJ was 2 when people started asking her name. She wouldn’t answer. I was busy with a 6 month old and realized that I hadn’t made sure she really knew what her name was. So I asked her- what IS your name?

“John.”

What? Thinking she said Sean.

“John.”

Where did that come from? Did she really think her name was John?

I asked some more questions and determined that she did know her own name.

But for the longest time she told people her name was “John” although most of the time people didn’t understand her anyway.

The other day at the breakfast table she asked why we didn’t name her Johnny.

I did point out that her middle name is the female Germanic version of John; otherwise it was just a dumb oversight on our part.

TG yells this from the bathroom.

I sent HP out to the Shopee to get milk from the fridge we have out there.  Of course, KJ decided to tag along.

The Big Guy bought a new impact sprikler that shoots a long ways.  He has it going this morning between the house and the shop.  I told the kids they would have to go out to the driveway, instead of taking the path, to avoid getting wet.

When they came in- KJ announced that they didn’t go to the driveway that they ran along the path when “the sprinkler wasn’t looking!”

They are so sneaky.

My Little Sunshine turns three today.

She’s not so little but she is a smiler.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been three years already.

It’s been fun to watch her grow; to watch her personality bloom. She’s a great hugger! But watch out! She’ll run up, grab your legs in a killer squeeze when you least expect it. She has been known to about knock me over- 35 plus pounds flinging themselves at your legs when you’re not looking can definitely cause someone to lose their balance. She’ll grit her teeth, say “squeeze” and run off.

She has become better at verbalizing what she wants without screeching. From telling me she’s sick -“I don’t feel” as she lays her head on my lap, to the spontaneous “I wuv you!” to letting you know how things are -“I’m Tia, not honey!” and “Me do it!”. She has the funniest and most annoying little voice. It can be rough, shrill and grating to hear but still it can be the sweetest sound to a Mama’s ears. She used to screech and scream a lot but has quieted down quite a bit.

She likes music and can pick up the beat right away. She likes to sing, I’ve heard her sing “Happy (Birth)Day You” and “Jesus Loves me” and I could tell what they were by the tune!

She likes animals. She will often check on and greet the dog. She’ll check on him through the day and let him in if she feels he is cold (even if it’s 70 degress + out).

She loves to “read”. She will sit and look at books for the longest time. There doesn’t even have to be pictures in the book! She has a book she calls her “bible” which is actually a devotional that Gambler’s Anonymous gave away at a Family Conference. She likes to go to bed with it, checks her crib to see if it’s in there and will look through it. She’s about wore it out! She does like her books, but for the longest time it was hard to get her to sit to listen to a book being read. She is doing better now.

She’s a labeler. She likes to know names of things and whose they are. Of course, because she has been two, most things are “mine!” or “Tia’s!” Once she has a label on it, she’ll check once in awhile to make sure it still fits. “Mama’s?” Yes. “Oh, Mama’s.” I found with the first born, HP, that he didn’t use the term “Mine!” very much. I don’t know why, it’s not really his personality. The second born did use it, partly because there was a big brother to take things away. But she out grew it. Not my TG. It’s not that she will grab every toy in sight and scream “mine!” as I have seen some kids do. She doesn’t automatically yell it when another kid picks up a toy. But somehow it is important to her to attach a label to things. Whether it’s “mine” or “Tia’s” or “Mama’s”, it needs a name and a place.

She’s independant. “Me do it!” is often heard around here. So with patience waning, I’ll let her do it until she realizes she can’t or I’ll be a overbearing parent and tell her that she can’t do it and I must and then I listen to the shrieks.

She’s growing up, soon these days shall pass. But she will always be my Sunshine and my baby.

I mentioned No Impact Man earlier in a post where I jokingly said that we may be “pioneering” it without a microwave but at least we still had toilet paper and electricity. No Impact Man is a writer who is undertaking a year long project where he tries to leave the smallest carbon impact on the planet. They are working at it in stages and just recently threw the breaker to turn off the electricity. The difference between him and us, of course, is that our microwave broke (and only our microwave- as traumatic as that has proved to be) and he is making a choice. So there is no real comparison.

I have been following him with interest after finding him due to reading a conservative blog that made fun of him and his no toilet paper rule. That does leave a person open to derision and, personally, I don’t think I’ll go there. What I find interesting is the challenge of living in New York City without the creature comforts we all take for granted. They eat locally, don’t ride elevators, only human powered transportation, compost their garbage and are looking for ways to wash their laundry and keep their daughter’s milk fresh without electricity. One commentator I read cast despairing remarks at him because he turned off the electricity AFTER the New York winter but I think it will be equally challenging to keep the fourth floor apartment livable in the New York summer.

I don’t buy into the whole idea that Man is causing the planet to heat up. I found a very interesting read here. The whole site is very informative but what I have specifically linked to is the 15 year old girl’s debunking of Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” . It is long and takes a while to get through but it is worth it. Fascinating Captain. I have nothing but disrespect for the soon to be Dr. Al Gore because I don’t see that he lives his beliefs. The energy it takes to heat his house and pool are outrageous plus he jets all over the world collecting fees for his speeches. I agree with the site I linked to earlier in her concluding paragraph:

“It’s easy to see why Al gore’s movie should not be shown in schools. An Inconvenient Truth is a political commercial that misrepresents a whole area of science. He admittedly uses scare tactics to get people to listen then shows them a professional slide show that blames every thing bad on so called man made global warming.

Al did not make and publicize this movie because he cares; something obvious when you consider his own lifestyle. He did not make this movie to run for president. This movie has grossed over 60 million dollars to date and it hasn’t even made it to cable. Al charges over $100,000 per slide show. But the real money that Al will make is through his new company, Generation Investment Management, a company that seeks to establish the rules and licensing for the new carbon-trading scheme. We have all heard of politicians who lie for money and power; it looks as if Al did not retire after all.”

Are you aware that he set up the (non-profit) company from which he buys his carbon credits? Those intangible things he says he buys to offset his carbon impact. Doesn’t that just smack of a condescending rich guy? It’s like he is saying- “You should alter your lifestyle but I don’t have to because I have the money to buy offsets.” No Impact Man, on the other hand, is trying to live his life by his convictions. Many people in this day and age do not do this.

So I will check in with interest once in a while to see how he is doing. I found out how hard it is to live a couple of weeks without a microwave- did you hear my whines? But he is going without air conditioning, a refrigerator and to some people’s horror- TV. He commented once that the pace of life has slowed for them. No jumping in taxis or cars to rush off somewhere, no TV to distract, moving with the natural rhythms of the day instead of lighting the night and enjoying life as the adventure that it can be. I feel many of us miss the simple pleasures because of the rushing around we do and the “noise” all about us from radio, TV, cell phones and MP3 players.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to check on my children who are out picking strawberries in our garden. Life isn’t much sweeter than that.

Oh, and the microwave is supposed to be here Thursday.

“I miss the microwave!” said The Big Tall Guy after sipping his “too cold for him” coffee.

I nod my head in agreement.

BUT help is on the way.  Thanks to the wonderful Internet and search engines he found the microwave that we wanted for $2.01 more than what we would have paid at a store PLUS free shipping!  Yippee!  It should be here on Thursday, after bouncing around Illinois it is on a truck hopefully sailing this direction.

It’s a good thing becuase The Man likes his coffee molten hot.

I had a hankering for popcorn.

In this modern age, how does one pop corn without a microwave?

I could pop it on the stove- I did have some regular popcorn in the pantry- old though it may be, but I decided to go a different route to avoid the oil.  I dug around in the cupboard and hauled out the antiquated air popper.  Yes, I am attached to old things.  It still works and I had lovely popcorn.   Oh, the inconvenience, she said with straight face.

We had leftovers last night.  Thursday is the usual leftover  night but we were on a fruitless hunt on that night.  Just to show that I am not my mother, oops, not a total slave to routine; I had leftovers on the WRONG night.  The problem was no microwave to heat the stuff up in.  Do I sound like a broken record?  Do you know what a record is?  Normally we put what we want on our plate and then heat it up.   But this time I heated it all up on the stove.  Makes for lots of dirty dishes.

It’s not all bad; we have electricity and toilet paper, unlike No Impact Man.

That is a title of a children’s counting book, in case your literary tastes run in another direction and you don’t read those regularly.

Brett got off early and we headed to one of the larger towns in the area, about an hour away to search for a microwave. The kids chose to eat at Subway over McDonald’s in a two to one vote. Maybe there is hope for their tastes yet.

We went to Home Depot first and were surprised and disappointed at their lack of selection. We went there first because The Col. Panic had researched their inventory and determined that they would have what we wanted. Wrong. Shoulda called first. Sigh. They can order what we want with no shipping charges but we would have to go back to pick it up. One in white will not be available until after the 28th. Did I mention we went in the Suburban for various reasons- room being one of them- can you hear the diesel being sucked down?

Then we went to Sears, they did have one we were interested in but The Col. decided that the reviews were better for the other one so off we went to see if anyone else in town had one. They didn’t.

It seems to have gotten complicated somehow. All we want is a microwave, for goodness sakes! But we want a GOOD one- there is the rub.

So after loading and unloading the kids seven times and five bathroom visits, we still have no microwave.

As the salesman at Home Depot said- “you don’t realize how much you use it until it’s gone. ” How true.

But I am developing coping skills and the withdrawal symptoms are lessening. There is hope for me yet.

My time stamp was off but I have fixed it. By myself, thank you.