Category: bliefs

Been a while I know…

Apologies for the wait, just haven’t made the time.

So, to kick things off again let me share a phrase I didn’t think a 4 year old knew, but she is film-wise, fancy free, and 4 years old going on 14.
The other night while putting her to bed, her enthusiasm for thwarting my attempts to get her into her pajamas was evident.

She giggled, moved her foot around, evaded, giggled again.
Pretty soon it was a laugh, but my patience was thin.

Abby?! C’mon now (I wasn’t very convincing)
(giggle, evade, shuffle, giggle)
ABBY! Stop. — (she relents in the face of The Stern) Thank you.

I feel a small pang of remorse at squelching childhood enthusiasm for The Tease, but that dissolved into laughter when, twirling her hair, she shot back,

Ahh, old killjoy.

–Cinderella, 1950

Interview with a 4 year old.

Abby and I talked about what she might say if someone asked her about her birthday, it turned into a good old fashioned interview.

L: What is your name?
A: Abigail.
L: Your whole name?
A: Abigail Elaine Zimmerman, my full name actually.

L: How old are you?
A: Uhhh, Four

L: What is your favorite movie?
A: Dorothy actually.

L: What is your favorite color?
A: Green, Most of all Red, but…and green.

L: Do you like to sing?
A: Yes
L: What?
A: Somewhere Over the Rainbow…sometimes.

L: Do you like to dance?
A: Yes
L: What do you like to dance? What is your favorite?
A: Lullabye League mostly. And, uhhh, Annies movie and Dorothy and Annies tap dance too.

L: Do you have any good friends?
A: Lexis…Lexi and Bella

L: Are you going to have a birthday party?
A: Yes, after I’m four.

L: When are you going to be four?
A: Ahhh, after we sleep!

L: Anything else you want to tell me about yourself?
A: I like pony coloring, the pony stuff at least. Halloween and Snow White dress, and the bugcatcher cage and the crickets.

L: The crickets? What crickets?
A: Mandragora and Carrot that I let go.
L: This summer?
A: No, next…ah…I don’t know when we let them go….and they poop! Ewwwww

L: Ok. 🙂 How tall are you now?
A: [Stands up and shows me]

A: Ask me what favorite clothes?
L: OK, Do you have any favorite clothes?
A: My Snow White dress is mostly it, but my Dorothy dress mostly, Bella’s jacket, Bella’s outfit, Bella’s smell. You know, everything that I get from…I won’t let my Mom wash it because it smells like Bella. I have a pink one.

L: Okay, so tomorrow you are going to be four. Is there anything that you would like to tell three before we stop?
A: My favorite puzzle and my favorite friend is Pooh Bear. And my best laptop is the flower one over there, and I have a purse that matches that too.

L: Thanks honey.
A: OK, you’re welcome.

The princess has become a queen.

While laying together falling asleep last night Angela was at the brink with Abby. [It was a long weekend]. After many minutes of arranging Mommy just how she wanted, her last request was a little dictatorial.

NO, Tickle my back here!
Hey, don’t be so bossy.
[raising her head and flicking Angela lightly on the chin with her finger]
YOU don’t be so cranky!

The look she got back can’t be written, it can only be witnessed. Many of you have seen THAT look.
What she then said was…

Do you think that was a good thing or NOT so good thing to do?
[Nobody has accused Abby of being less than observant]
Not so good thing. Sorry Mommy, Sorry.

Shortly thereafter, when it was my turn Abby instructed me that she would like me to lay on my back so we could snuggle. Never one to turn down a good snuggle, I obliged. Whereupon she said:

Momma…ah…Daddy?
Yeah.
You are more comfy than Momma.
[This is news to me, Mommy has ALWAYS been the preferred snuggle]
I am? Why?
Cause your bones aren’t so hard.

So, some small measure of consolation for one previously flicked on the chin.

Ever want to disappear?

If you ever feel like dropping off the planet for about four days, do I have the package for you.

The Package
It starts quickly with a flash weight-loss program, you can have your choice of one end or two. It WILL be one or the other, or both.

Rinse and repeat for 8 hours.

Follow that up with 6 hours of fever and chills with an occasional foray into the challenges of the first 8 hours followed closely by 36 hours of headache and energy levels on par with finally delivering your first child.

The Experience
4AM Thursday, Angela woke me up

I need you to stay home from work today.

I did, and saw her disappear, camouflaged against the white and green striped sheets all day. As it turns out I was staring down the barrel of a loaded bear rifle because at approximately exactly 8:22 AM Fri morning my weight loss program began.

I came through losing only three pounds in 12 hours. Angela lost eight pounds in about 8 hours.
Then late Friday night, 14 short hours after I waltzed into town, and just over 36 hours since Angela’s grand entrance, Abby uttered the words we had been waiting with dread.

Momma? My tummy doesn’t feel so good.

The viral jihad was on.

Those fateful words preceded a virtual all-nighter with a very sick little 4 year old, two beaten down 34 year olds, and one happy 6 month old to have everybody awake all the time when she wanted milk.

The Deal
HooWah. If you ever want to drop off the planet for four days, and don’t have the money for a bender to Hawaii, have I got the all inclusive, family-of-four, whale of a deal, virus for you.

Trick or treat 2006

Snow White had a successful haul of candy and Dopey tried her best to get a nap in the cold, it wasn’t happening.
We tracked all over the hilltop and got many adoring looks from The Princesses’ growing fan base.

Too bad I couldn’t get a great representational picture but here are some attempts that document the event.
Snow White and Dopey waiting to go.
Snow White and Dopey
Ms White posing for her adoring fans.
Ms White to the cottage! Ms Snow White, please report to the dwarf cottage!
Emma makes a good Dopey; doesn’t say much, big dreamy eyes, eats soap. Hi Dopey
This is the best shot I have of Abby in her new red hooded cloak that Mommy made. She wore it all day and became Lucy (from Narnia), Little Red Riding Hood, and Snow White all in one day.
Cloak and dagger
I experienced the “can’t capture the grandeur of the landscape with the teeny tiny point and shoot” camera tonight. The dark, the excitement, and the camera conspired against me for suitable live action shots.

Pumpkin warmup

Haven’t taken the time to update pictures recently so I get backed up like this and then dump six at once. I still promise a shot or two of Snow White and Dopey. But here are a few recent pictures to precede All Hallows Eve.

So we went to the patch…
The wheelbarrow saved the day
Saw one we liked…
Warm little punkin
Picked it…
peep pluck
Took em home and carved em…
ritualistic disembowlment of an otherwise untoward squash
Decided we liked this one too much…
Mine all mine
So we kep’ her.
Couldn't see sticking a candle in there

Geek o’ the week

Well my geek quotient went up a little bit tonight.
Despite the fact that I am blogging at 3 – no 2AM I am doing it from my re-invigorated Powerbook.

Infused with a self-installed new 100GB 7200RPM drive and partitioned for easy upgrading. The real geek factor is that I enjoyed taking this thing apart and only had a mild panic attack when lifting off the connector for the trackpad made a distinct cricking noise as if I had lifted the piece right off the motherboard. I am proud to say I don’t have another entrant in my “I broke this” category. In fact, this one could go in a VERY small category known as “I fixed this”.
I took about 15-20 pictures of the process that I may post someday, if I feel like it.

But ahhhhhh, it feels good to have her back. She is fast, secure, portable, and if I am lucky, it means that I will actually be able to update you all a little more without freezing my toes negative impact. More news, more pictures, less time.
It is ALL good.

Coming soon!
Pumpkins and princesses and dwarves.

I have no idea what you are talking about…

so here’s a picture of my daughter with a pancake on her head.

Who we talkin 'bout?

Lest you think I am responsible, hear this now;
Abby did this of her own free will with no encouragement…in fact before you go hog-wild I wasn’t even there. Emma happens to be a hapless innocent, imposed upon by her sister, and if you must know Momma took the picture.

And somehow none of them yet know anything about the internet and bunnies with pancakes on their heads.

Okay…now you can go hog-wild.

____
no pancakes were harmed in the making of this blog.

Smart Disk Status: Failing

That is the message my laptop finally revealed to me late last week. So, did I really break Eleanor?* It seems not. It seems there was simply had a hardware problem that was inevitable and unavoidable. Nothing I did, looks like a classic #2 Case – Obtuse.
Now, whether it was because he took pity on me or through some sense of perhaps misguided and definitely reinforced (by me) responsibility for his own software installation Brad has been invaluable and helped me diagnose and find out much information regarding the reporting structure within Eleanor. His final bit of advice, which resonates on many levels.

…take the mentally conservative, financially liberal approach and buy a new harddrive.

I might have to snail mail that one to BopOp as he completely “off the grid” right now.

Next steps. First, I order a new hard-drive, bigger, faster, cheaper; that is what makes me happy about technology.
Then I crack open Eleanor’s case and perform what has been coined “moderately difficult” surgery.

Then…on to Shelly (my iPod shuffle) to figure out why she is mis-behaving.
* MacFans refer to machines by name. My other Mac is named Lily. Of course when hard-drives go out and flash drives do the hokey pokey “stupid machine” pretty much covers it.