Clap hands clap / till Daddy comes home
Jan. 27th, 2014 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thanate/For Daddy has money
But Mommy has none.
This ghastly little gem brought to you by my grandmother (over thanksgiving; apparently it was given her by a neighbor in NYC when her eldest daughter was tiny and she thinks it's nice) and my subconscious, which dredged it back up recently. It has even settled into a tune. We have been adapting lyrics wildly to suit the moment.
Snowed in much of last week (we could have gotten out if we'd needed to, but my car didn't get cleaned off until Saturday) and the Megatherium started leveling up like crazy. I think she finally got walking sorted out to the point where it wasn't taking up most of her mental processing; at any rate, she's working on concepts like putting things into other things (as opposed to taking them out again) and contemplating what I'm doing when I stack blocks & things for her. I also pushed the issue when she started trying to pull at my clothing to indicate she wanted milk, and made her use the sign for it instead. Now she runs around making fists and little pinchy finger motions to go with her ALL DONE like some kind of abstract game of paper-rock-scissors.
We're also pretty well sorted for getting her to go to sleep in her real actual bed at bedtime, though I'm still holding her to fall asleep for naps. The real test will be Saturday, when I'm off to the Daily Science Fiction book launch party and grauwulf will have to field both dinner and bedtime without me being there to say goodnight in between.
Unfortunately, as the skillset increases so do things like running about pulling books off shelves and trying to eat cat food. There was a grand game for a few days of running into the laundry room, pulling a piece of clothing off the drying rack, walking it around the dining room table, and taking it back to drop next to the rack so she could repeat with the next item. Grauwulf went out on Sunday morning and got a couple of the pressure fit baby gates so we can now close off the kitchen and the laundry room, which helps tremendously, though there's still no room in the house that has not got either books on kid-level shelves or something worse (cat box, cat food, bathrooms...) We're working on the distinction between board & cloth books vs books that are not toys, but it's uphill work. Fortunately, she's not nearly as hard on things as she used to be.
Also we have entered a period of fuss; mostly cranky happens when she's hungry (which makes "no, you have to ask for milk" more difficult, particularly when she's also in high distractable eater mode) but I also can't shut her out of the bathroom without her screaming unless there's someone else there to distract her.
Tomorrow we attempt a Howard County library program at a branch that's closer than most of the AA County places we've been and which runs two sessions back to back, the second of which may even not conflict with naptime. Madness.
Other things:
*purged hordes of unused closet contents before they started galloping their war ponies over the bedroom floor, and then VVA sent us a note saying they were doing a pick-up today, so I didn't even bother asking if I knew anyone who wanted any of it.
*However, I still have some SeedSavers packets-- mostly tomato & squash, I think? that I'll be happy to mail to a good home. A few years old, so I don't know what the germination rates will be, but probably good for at least a harvest or two. Let me know if you're interested in what those are.
*I am currently wearing a blouse chopped up and resewn out of my favorite turtleneck from high school, which I had not worn in years and on which the cuffs were going. It has become sort of crop-top/peasant-blousy in a style that I find fits nicely under tank tops to make them winter-friendly. By next fall, I suspect it will also work well under (less nursing-friendly) T-shirts as well. +2 to productivity, -1 from last night's bedtime.
*Not only am I going to be reading at the Rocket Dragons Ignite launch party (the only link is to the book-of-faces, I'm so sorry) but I have what I believe to be my SFWA-qualifying story coming out shortly. Watch this space & all that. Now to decide, um, if I want to leap into that weasel pit or not.
*Still have not even tried to have a useful discussion about going to cons. I mean, I'll be at World Fantasy. Some other things would be nice, but planning is an issue. Ok, about three different issues, actually, and one of them is my worrying about the other issues rather than doing something.
*Ordered breadmaker. Panasonic thinks it'll turn up tomorrow. Then there will be Adventures in Baking. (BabyToddler approves of bread. Will even eat things she's not wild about this meal if I spread them on bread. I am also fond of bread, and the ability to make higher protein/fiber versions without all the weird crap they put in commercial bread to make it shelf-stable seems like a nice idea. Then we will see what other nutrients we can add, too.)
*Irritated by continued existence of last ~5lbs of obsolete pre-baby support system. Treadmill continues frustratingly on the blink, weather continues dangerously cold 5 or 6 days a week. Trying to find mild stomach muscle exercises that actually work my stomach muscles instead of mucking up back/neck/other overcompensating things-- so far leg lifts & fake sit-up curls (the kind where you just touch the knees with extended arms) sort-of work if I put a pillow under the small of my back first, and leaning back with arms upraised seems to work fairly well. Any other suggestions? Also could use good things that stretch out the backs of the calves besides, um, walking on the level on, say, a treadmill that trips the breaker about two in every three times we try to turn it on. (sigh)
*Got ridiculous tea magazine at the hardware store when we went for towel racks & child thwarting devices. 90% glamorous staged pictures of tea tables, 5% silly descriptions, 5% intro & brewing advice, plus several pages of cake flour advert recipes upside down on the back. I find this vaguely calming and entertaining, & am sort of considering subscribing to the related magazine that's actually all about [the American conception of British] tea, instead of just being a single special issue. There's this check for audio rights on my desk...
*Need to e-mail Real People regarding lunch and/or tea and/or other dates for further actual adult conversation that is not with either grauwulf or my mother. Have got as far as opening a blank e-mail, then getting distracted by twitter and/or end of naptime. This is unhelpful. (The blogotwittersphere is shaping up to be one of those coping mechanisms for lack of regular adult conversation that is very helpful in the short-term and leads to crippling inertial habits in the long-term.)
*Apparently I had Things to Say in excess of having time to write tonight. Phoey. Though comparisons with molasses and winter apply to writing at the moment anyway, which is a pity as I'm running short on things to send out or the usual places to send them.
*And I was going to talk about children's books, too. Perhaps later.
Xposty from dreamwidth.
But Mommy has none.
This ghastly little gem brought to you by my grandmother (over thanksgiving; apparently it was given her by a neighbor in NYC when her eldest daughter was tiny and she thinks it's nice) and my subconscious, which dredged it back up recently. It has even settled into a tune. We have been adapting lyrics wildly to suit the moment.
Snowed in much of last week (we could have gotten out if we'd needed to, but my car didn't get cleaned off until Saturday) and the Megatherium started leveling up like crazy. I think she finally got walking sorted out to the point where it wasn't taking up most of her mental processing; at any rate, she's working on concepts like putting things into other things (as opposed to taking them out again) and contemplating what I'm doing when I stack blocks & things for her. I also pushed the issue when she started trying to pull at my clothing to indicate she wanted milk, and made her use the sign for it instead. Now she runs around making fists and little pinchy finger motions to go with her ALL DONE like some kind of abstract game of paper-rock-scissors.
We're also pretty well sorted for getting her to go to sleep in her real actual bed at bedtime, though I'm still holding her to fall asleep for naps. The real test will be Saturday, when I'm off to the Daily Science Fiction book launch party and grauwulf will have to field both dinner and bedtime without me being there to say goodnight in between.
Unfortunately, as the skillset increases so do things like running about pulling books off shelves and trying to eat cat food. There was a grand game for a few days of running into the laundry room, pulling a piece of clothing off the drying rack, walking it around the dining room table, and taking it back to drop next to the rack so she could repeat with the next item. Grauwulf went out on Sunday morning and got a couple of the pressure fit baby gates so we can now close off the kitchen and the laundry room, which helps tremendously, though there's still no room in the house that has not got either books on kid-level shelves or something worse (cat box, cat food, bathrooms...) We're working on the distinction between board & cloth books vs books that are not toys, but it's uphill work. Fortunately, she's not nearly as hard on things as she used to be.
Also we have entered a period of fuss; mostly cranky happens when she's hungry (which makes "no, you have to ask for milk" more difficult, particularly when she's also in high distractable eater mode) but I also can't shut her out of the bathroom without her screaming unless there's someone else there to distract her.
Tomorrow we attempt a Howard County library program at a branch that's closer than most of the AA County places we've been and which runs two sessions back to back, the second of which may even not conflict with naptime. Madness.
Other things:
*purged hordes of unused closet contents before they started galloping their war ponies over the bedroom floor, and then VVA sent us a note saying they were doing a pick-up today, so I didn't even bother asking if I knew anyone who wanted any of it.
*However, I still have some SeedSavers packets-- mostly tomato & squash, I think? that I'll be happy to mail to a good home. A few years old, so I don't know what the germination rates will be, but probably good for at least a harvest or two. Let me know if you're interested in what those are.
*I am currently wearing a blouse chopped up and resewn out of my favorite turtleneck from high school, which I had not worn in years and on which the cuffs were going. It has become sort of crop-top/peasant-blousy in a style that I find fits nicely under tank tops to make them winter-friendly. By next fall, I suspect it will also work well under (less nursing-friendly) T-shirts as well. +2 to productivity, -1 from last night's bedtime.
*Not only am I going to be reading at the Rocket Dragons Ignite launch party (the only link is to the book-of-faces, I'm so sorry) but I have what I believe to be my SFWA-qualifying story coming out shortly. Watch this space & all that. Now to decide, um, if I want to leap into that weasel pit or not.
*Still have not even tried to have a useful discussion about going to cons. I mean, I'll be at World Fantasy. Some other things would be nice, but planning is an issue. Ok, about three different issues, actually, and one of them is my worrying about the other issues rather than doing something.
*Ordered breadmaker. Panasonic thinks it'll turn up tomorrow. Then there will be Adventures in Baking. (
*Irritated by continued existence of last ~5lbs of obsolete pre-baby support system. Treadmill continues frustratingly on the blink, weather continues dangerously cold 5 or 6 days a week. Trying to find mild stomach muscle exercises that actually work my stomach muscles instead of mucking up back/neck/other overcompensating things-- so far leg lifts & fake sit-up curls (the kind where you just touch the knees with extended arms) sort-of work if I put a pillow under the small of my back first, and leaning back with arms upraised seems to work fairly well. Any other suggestions? Also could use good things that stretch out the backs of the calves besides, um, walking on the level on, say, a treadmill that trips the breaker about two in every three times we try to turn it on. (sigh)
*Got ridiculous tea magazine at the hardware store when we went for towel racks & child thwarting devices. 90% glamorous staged pictures of tea tables, 5% silly descriptions, 5% intro & brewing advice, plus several pages of cake flour advert recipes upside down on the back. I find this vaguely calming and entertaining, & am sort of considering subscribing to the related magazine that's actually all about [the American conception of British] tea, instead of just being a single special issue. There's this check for audio rights on my desk...
*Need to e-mail Real People regarding lunch and/or tea and/or other dates for further actual adult conversation that is not with either grauwulf or my mother. Have got as far as opening a blank e-mail, then getting distracted by twitter and/or end of naptime. This is unhelpful. (The blogotwittersphere is shaping up to be one of those coping mechanisms for lack of regular adult conversation that is very helpful in the short-term and leads to crippling inertial habits in the long-term.)
*Apparently I had Things to Say in excess of having time to write tonight. Phoey. Though comparisons with molasses and winter apply to writing at the moment anyway, which is a pity as I'm running short on things to send out or the usual places to send them.
*And I was going to talk about children's books, too. Perhaps later.
Xposty from dreamwidth.