Loose ends

We're striving, against all the odds of doing a project in the company of a three-year-old, to finish the porch this long weekend. It's 97.5% done, lacking only paint and screens, but we haven't been able to get past all the other projects and childcare in order to finally wrap up the loose ends. 

The big plan, once it's all completed and the contractor gets the rest of the soffits and facias covered, is to have a wrap-around awning installed so that it's truly a useable room, regardless of sun, rain or the pernicious mosquitoes. It's going to be great! 

We need to find a weather proof fan (or, as Riley says, waterable) for the porch so that we don't get the dreadful drooping blades on the ceiling fan. The last fan we had up, the blades eventually absorbed so much moisture from the air that they became Dali-ish, so we finally just took the sorry things down. 

In other news, we're watching hurricane Gustav and his dangerous cohorts with a wary eye. I'm thinking a lot about all the people on the gulf coast and hoping that somehow it won't be as bad as it looks right now. :-(  Seeing the way the storms are lined up across the Atlantic, all the way to Cape Verde, it looks like we're really in for it this year. 

Oh, and for those who may be wondering, Riley's eye is nearly all healed up! Hooray! :-) 

A trip to the emergency room

Just a quick note, as the DNC is calling, but we had to take Riley to Children's Hospital this evening. I was working on a sewing project and had the ironing board set up in the dining room near a table. While I worked Riley ducked his head to walk past the ironing board, and as he did, he grazed up against the edge of a three ring binder that sat at the edge of the table. All the sudden he began screaming and clutching his eye--oh no!! We got him into the bathroom to get a good look at what had happened, and when we saw the blood and a cut right by his eye we immediately knew that we'd better go to the emergency room.

Thankfully, once we gave him some arnica and got an ice pack on it, his eye started looking better. The swelling began to go down and at the hospital they all agreed that it wouldn't require any stitches. (thank heavens!!) Arnica is pure magic. We gave him the oral tablets and dabbed a little gel on the unbroken skin away from the cut and shazam! all better.

The emergency room is a dreadful experience, and our boy might have a teeny scar, but it could have been much worse. We're counting our blessings.

Sleeping on the way to the emergency room.

A fine day for ducks!

This summer here in B-ham has been, far and away, much more livable than last summer was. Last summer was brutal; endless drought conditions and unrelenting heat lasting well into late September. This summer we've had a reasonable amount of rain up till a month or so ago, and I don't believe we've hit the triple digits once, so pretty good all in all. The last several weeks have been ones for the record books, in my view. We've had days where the highs have been in the 80's, for crying out loud. In August! In Alabama! Pretty awesome. But last weekend and early this week, when we're getting the last dregs of tropical storm Fay's spin-off, we've gotten the best soaking rain I can recall.

Actually it reminds me of the summer Robbie and I were house hunting and every single item I owned was crammed into a storage unit. It drizzled for weeks that summer and when we finally got my stuff out of storage, all my wool rugs, my wooden furniture and my leather shoes were crusted with mold. What a huge drag that was. But I digress.

My point is that it's raining and cool in Alabama in late August, and it's surely a mercy to all of us who were cringing at the thought of a repeat of summer '07.

I told Robbie the other day, when it was windy and gray and even slightly coolish outside, that there's something about the look and feel of this weather that makes me want to don a plaid skirt and make a pie. Or a big pot of stew, or a loaf of bread or whatever, but something. Lay in the provisions for the long winter ahead, I guess. Is that a northern tendency? I don't know, but I think my sister would know the feeling I'm having. It feels like fall! Let's cook something cozy and yummy! :-)

And now, apropos of nothing, here's a little vignette I spied out our back door yesterday.

A family portrait of Crocs.

Weekend: Whoosh!

Riley is ALL about Dad these days.

This weekend Robbie cut out some shelves for me to install in the closet in my project area in the basement. I'm finally able to put my things away! I am so very pleased to have a place to do my thing. It's hard to imagine that this basement used to be dirty and neglected. No longer! :-)

New Photos

Did I happen to mention that Riley LOVES his Fire Chief suit?

We finally went to the park today after a nearly four week hiatus. Thank goodness he was there, as there were about nine hundred fires that needed putting out. Apparently he's a Fire Chief no matter what he wears!

Riley 'Giggles' McClendon

Super Boy!

Breaking the Bottled Water Habit

The New American Dream site has a great article on breaking the bottled water habit. Their Top Five Reasons to give bottled water the boot is quite convincing!

I recently got Riley a cute little Sigg water bottle and we like it a lot. I'd gotten both Robbie and Riley some steel water bottles at Whole Foods, but the lids both ended up having issues, so I'm going to take them back. Since we were so pleased with the kids Sigg I think I'll get one of the adult bottles for Robbie. I really like their twist-spout lids.

What in the world is going on?

Riley and I have been repeatedly sick for about three weeks! (Robbie's been able to dodge it for the most part because he's been out of town quite a bit) It's really strange because I'd say we don't normally catch what's going around, but this time it's been the opposite. Every variation on whatever virus is circulating has latched on to us. What a rip off!

Can't get much bigger than this one.

Oh dear. I thought it was a bit awkward and difficult to field Riley's questions about meat packing. Ha! He has since moved directly onto mortality.

We were in the car the other day and listening to a tune by Leadbelly when Riley asked me if we could see Leadbelly play. I told him no, and having no forethought of the land mine I was laying, said that Leadbelly had lived many, many years ago and was probably dead by now. A long silence from the backseat ensued and when it broke there came forth a long succession of questions about death. Will we die? When will we die? Will ____ die? (And there he went on to name everyone we know or have ever seen...) Why will we die? Will we bring our pajamas? (our pajamas?!) What makes us die? Sigh. It's a hard question for an adult but nearly impossible to broach with a little person without risking his sense of well being.

Robbie's out of town till tomorrow, but when he and I spoke today I gave him a heads up about Riley's questions and that we need to quickly talk about mortality and spirituality and how we wish to represent these things to our very small boy. It's weird how fast these things come up. One minute he's playing and the next you're faced with trying to explain the great imponderable.

What's he thinking?

Number 1 Fire Chief!

Riley was given a fire chief outfit by his Memaw yesterday and oh my word is it a big hit! It's by a company called Get Real Gear and while I'm far from an expert on fire chief wear, the detail they put into these little togs is impressive.

He put them on while Memaw was here and they never came off. He wore them in the heat of the day as we hauled brush and limbs to the curb for the grabber to pick up. He wore them till bedtime last night and this morning he put them on again and wore them all day long, including when we went out and about. Tonight, can you guess what he absolutely had to wear to sleep in? Yep, Fire Chief. I was able to talk him out of sleeping in the hat and coat, but had to relent on the overalls. Hmm. I wonder what Riley will be wearing tomorrow?

We needed to go to the library today and we decided to stop at the fire station, which is just across the street. Riley stated with great certainty that the firemen would be very excited to see his fire chief outfit, and in fact they were! They were all very nice and one of the men even put on his coat so that he and Riley could compare features. During a lull in the conversation Riley held up one finger and cocked his head to the side and declared "I'm the Number 1 Fire Chief". The firemen all heartily agreed. ;-) My only disappointment in our visit to the fire station is that for once in my life I didn't take any pictures!

Here's our boy playing an elaborate game of Peter Pan and Captain Hook (who was a friendly man and had just given Wendy Darling a pan of grits...) on his bed this evening. As you can see a dinosaur was also aboard the ship. ;-)

Bracing for the big ones

We don't eat a whole lot of meat, but occasionally we'll get some organically raised chicken for a little variety. 99.9% of the time I get groceries Riley is with me, so I knew at some point I'd end up fielding questions about the meat department, and yesterday it began.

We were before the refrigerator case and Riley and I were peering in (myself reeling with sticker shock and considering other options) when he said "Is that chicken?". I told him yes, hoping that'd be the end of it, but knowing, by watching his expression, that the wheels were turning and he had more to say. He said "Is that the chicken's blood?" and wincing, I told him that yes, that's the blood. He said "How do they get it out?". I cringed inside, considering the prospect of explaining that the chicken is, in fact, killed for it's muscle and there just happens to be some blood left over. Mercifully I found that I didn't need to go there as he seemed to extrapolate for himself and began discussing hunting, which he's seen on Mickey Mouse.

There's really nothing like explaining things to a small child to bring them into sharp clarity. It makes it hard to stay in denial about the 'production' of meat, that's for sure. :-/ I know this isn't the first we'll hear from him on the subject, so I'm trying to prepare myself in advance. I'd like to answer his questions, but I'm striving to strike a balance between glossing it over and going into too much detail while he's so young.

Back to normal

We're all basically well again, thank goodness.

We've been busy today, but I wanted to post a lovely picture of Robbie playing his new uke. It's a match made in heaven! ;-)

Robbie hearts his new ukulele!

Thrifty finds

There's a great little thrift store near us that Riley and I go into nearly every month. Sometimes we go to donate, as it requires constant 'weeding' of toys and clothing to stay up-to-date and uncluttered with a small person (and grown up people too) but sometimes we go to shop.

This store is run by retirees and is the coziest, most friendly thrift store I've found here. And for some reason they stay stocked with absolutely fabulous books! Top quality, current title books as well as great old Weekly Reader books for kids. The book section is neat, well ordered and even labeled with the different categories. Dreamy!

We hit the jackpot on our last trip, finding three Playmobil super sets and a bin full of nifty stamps and stamp pads all for a grand total of $4.25!

A farm set, a knight set, including fearsome dragon, and a castle set! Very cool!
For some reason this picture insists on remaining sideways. :-/

Lots of stamps! Christmas, Winnie the Pooh, bugs and other cool themes. Also many different washable colored and metallic ink pads. I see cards and custom wrapping paper in our future. :-)

Out of the woods

Well, we seem to be past the worst of Riley's fever. He was still hot when he woke around 4:30 this morning, but I gave him a dose of Motrin and he went right back to sleep. We slept till almost 8 o'clock and when he woke up his jammies were soaked with sweat and his fever was down, so hopefully it's broken.

Robbie and I, on the other hand, seem to be getting increasingly ill. Great. :-/

New Territory

In all of Riley's 3 1/2 years in the world he's had a real, honest to goodness illness once. He's had minor fevers associated with teething and garden variety colds, but only one real whopper. To have him officially sick with a high fever is unfamiliar territory for all of us. To look at our usually hale and hearty youngster and to see him pale and lethargic with glassy, watery eyes is quite unsettling.

The doctor told us to watch him today and if his fever is still high tomorrow to bring him in. Here's hoping his long nap this afternoon and a good nights rest will put him on the mend.

I made a little nest on the floor for him today and he crawled in, covered up his poor little goose-bumpy arms and fell asleep.

Despite his illness, Riley's hilarious three year old humor is still intact. We were having some juice this afternoon and after taking a big swig he burped. He said "A burp!" and then followed up that observation with "It's like a tootie from my mouth!". Ha! How can you argue with that?

Scary

Riley woke last night around 3 AM and came in to our bedroom. I was half asleep when I reached for him but I was suddenly wide awake when I realized that he was blazing HOT. Out of the blue he had a fever of 102. I gave him some pediatric fever reducer and he went back to sleep, but he's definitely not well this morning. Lots of heavy chest congestion and a headache. Poor guy. Looks like we're off to the doctors office today. :-(

The Pono has arrived!

I'm finally feeling better, thank goodness. After going to bed minutes after I got Riley to bed for a number of days and sleeping for 9+ hours a night, I'm finally winning the fight against the dreadful germ.

The big news: Robbie's new uke has arrived! He wanted one a bit larger than the little Silvertone soprano he's been playing, so after doing a bunch of research he decided on a tenor sized Pono. We're both very impressed with the sound and feel of it and it's been hard for me to keep my hands off.

I have my Larrivee parlor guitar to fall back on though, so there's definitely no hardship on my part. And actually, the Larrivee feels new to me again because I've only recently gotten it back out, now that Riley is able to be more gentle with fragile things. For several years I was using my cheap-o 3/4 sized classical and it was officially Not Pleasing.

Happy to have his new uke!

The Pono uke sounds as good as it looks. It has the resonance and sustain of a good guitar.

Lovin' on the uke. ;-)

This morning we set most of the stringed instruments up on the couch so we could take a photo. I guess along with the drum set downstairs and the other non-stringed instruments, we should be pretty much covered for whatever style and sound we choose. Riley insisted that his 'boy sized' guitar be included in our photo, by the way. That's it, far right. All three dollars worth.

Ha HA! I've got the Pono! ;-)

And I'll leave off with this gratuitous cuteness of dad and lad:

Laughing at a hilarious book book they were reading before bedtime.
Clearly it was a laugh riot!

Out and about

I'm still sick and wondering just how sore my throat is going to get before this is all said and done. No tell-tale signs of strep, so I'm just hanging in there. :-/

Here are some images taken during recent jaunts.

A fireman's hat and a box of raisins makes the long wait at the power company tolerable.

Nearly asleep and somewhat offended at the bold intrusion into his reverie. Note the stylish ensemble of rain boots and work gloves. ;-)

Summer Cold=Drag

Why, why, why must there be summer colds? Riley picked one up somewhere and generously shared it with me. Now I have a dreadfully sore throat and feel like doing nothing but sacking out on the couch to finish my book.

Speaking of books, I'm reading Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett (yes, really) and enjoying it a lot. I've always liked her books, having read The Secret Garden and A Little Princess about a thousand times each when I was little, so when I saw this one was also written by her I picked it up. This is what comes of hanging out in the children's section of the library--I start books to pass the time and end up reading them through. There are worse things, I guess. ;-)

No shortage of things to do.

I did some searching for sewing books the other day and found that many of the ones that I found most interesting are held by our county library system, so I placed requests for a handful of them to be sent to our local branch for me to pick up. Can there be a more luxurious service than that? I request the books from all over the metro region and they are delivered to my local branch's circulation desk, where I appear at my leisure, hold open my bag and drop them in! Wow.

One book in particular, called Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Sewing Projects, is really great! I especially love the fact that it includes patterns and I intend to make some of the nifty projects for our house to see how they turn out. If I like them I'm going to make them as gifts.

I'm certain I've sent the link for my favorite fabric source to most of my friends and family who sew, but for those of you who have yet to see it, Reprodepot Fabrics is the BEST source for fabric EVER in all the land! Love, love, love every single thing there! Did I mention that I love Reprodepot? I do. ;-)

In other news, I got a good banjo instruction book yesterday and have learned more from it in the last day than I did in two weeks with the other book I was using. One thing that surprised me was that I realized that I had been trying to play the banjo like a guitar; I was focusing on chords and wondering how to integrate them into the old-time songs and tunes I knew. It wasn't working and I didn't know why. I've come to understand that old-time banjo is primarily used to play a melody and the other strings serve as tone and percussion accompaniment rather than as full chords. Once I discovered that, the instrument began to make a whole lot more sense to me.

At least when I have interesting creative projects at hand it's less dull to tend to the sisyphean minutia of running a house. ;-)

Time to think and do

We've been marveling recently how it's become possible, for brief periods of time, to do some of the creative things that were a large part of our lives prior to Riley. When this precious person arrived there were many adjustments to make, but one of the biggest was setting aside the things that had previously occupied our free time, such as playing music and making things.

I know some parents think nothing of setting the child aside in order to pursue their own interests, but knowing that a persons emotional security depends on loving, responsive parenting in the first years of his life, we didn't consider that a reasonable option. So we sucked it up like grown-ups and waited, trying now and then to play guitar, work in the wood shop, pull out the sewing supplies etc. Most early tries ended up in a tug-of-war with small hands and a hasty retreat to a baby-proofed area, but 3.5 years in, we're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. For whole minutes at a time we can focus and have a continuous train of thought before being interrupted! It's remarkable. ;-)

We're enrolling Riley in our local Waldorf school's early childhood program this fall and we believe he'll really enjoy being there, but I think I'll enjoy it a lot too. However much I love, love, love the company of our boy, I am very ready to have a little time for myself. With very few opportunities to think or do anything that isn't related to caring for a very small person, I sometimes reach my saturation point and long for the chance to play an instrument or do a project sans 'help'. Having several hours in a row a couple of times a week will be a welcome change.

Two Wishes

We went to the mall today (tax free!) and when we were on our way out Riley wanted to toss some coins in the fountain. I gave him the few I had in my billfold and we watched as he very solemnly held each one for a moment and then threw it into the water. When we got home I overheard Robbie ask Riley what he'd wished for. Riley very sincerely answered that he'd wished for a rabbit suit (a rabbit suit?!) and a ghost. I didn't get a chance to follow up on either of those, but I hope to.

How Not To Look Old

When you discover that you must wear reading glasses in order to read fine print, be certain that they are of the sassy variety.

Hmmm. I guess these'll do.

We were given a large sack of golden delicious apples off our neighbor Julia's tree. We initially intended to make applesauce with them, but Riley's been burning to use the juicer, so we made juice instead. He was very pleased!

Hello, I'm in a tree! Again! ;-)

Regarding the post heading, I actually checked out a book titled How Not To Look Old from the library last week. I saw it as we passed the new book section on the way out and at first I laughed at the title, but I've been feeling dowdy and lack-luster recently, so I decided what the heck and grabbed it. The glasses recommendation did in fact come from there, though I don't think I needed to be advised to choose cute glasses. ;-) The upside of getting my new specs: I can actually read the ingredient lists in the grocery store without squinting and holding the item at arms length.