Monday, January 18, 2021

Long WHEEEEEEEkend

 Happy Holiday(_Weekend!).  So... 2021 has been... interesting? Did we truly expect any less? 



We've been good. Little craft. Little magic. A little (very) inscrutable cat walking... 

Our neighborhood is hemmed in by fast-paced traffic, despite having its own quiet suburban sense between streets. And more to the point, our neighborhood has rats (cute, cute rats, but still rats). Which means rat-bait. And that means, dangerous appetizers for the kitty, so we're not inclined to let her out too often. But sometimes she seems bored. So Andrew thought this might be a nice compromise. 

Besides, Froggy has many canine qualities, so it seems like a possibility.  She's a lap cat. She needs more attention than any cat I've ever had. She doesn't really groom herself that often (like shockingly little for a cat). She puts up with a fair bit of rough housing. She wears the leash pretty well actually. It's the going outside that's a real sticking point.

 Honestly, I'm not sure she wants to be an outdoor-indoor cat. She yeowls perpetually to be let out, but then freezes when the door is open. So far, we've taken her out a few times with and without the leash. Each time she hesitates, begins to walk around. Explores maybe a bit, then panics and BOLTS back into the house. 

So most times we attempt a kitty walk, we end up just going out on our own having asceratined that all that pitiful yeowling at the door was merely to exercise her kitty rights to hover in the neither-in-nor-out. 

Ah well. We'll see. We're a lot more mobile without the kitty leash. And there's plenty to explore. 

It's been raining a bit these days. Then the sun will burst open over the lands for a few days in which we must all burst outside bearing all manner of white flesh in our hunger and desperation for a little vitamin D. 

Also, to go puddle splashing of course. Or puddle swimming. Somewhat depends what puddle you pick. Some of the impromptu lakes that have cropped up overnight are quite impressive. 




Allan only ever wears her light up boots, so she is perpetually prepared for these puddly occasions. Though waders might be more appropriate at this point... 



Back indoors, it's been quite the festive month, with two Grandparental birthdays near nigh back to back. We celebrated Gramma Pam's on Epiphany which was pretty darned close to the actual day. This inevitably involved cupcakes and a handful of cards with epic graphic novels about the bunny family scrawled into them. All cards end up as epic family tomes just shy of War and Peace. Our thank you cards are masterworks Pynchon and Foster Wallace never dared to dream. 

Most of the work is in the drawing, but we scribe out some interpretation. 

Dear __(Addressee)____, 

Baby Bunny pooped in her diaper and brother bunny said "oh radishes are very good" Mommy Bunny did not change her diaper because she does not have a radish. I hope you are all verily merry with you lovely appointment. Remember to brush your teeth. Frosty the Bunny is coming. Lock the pantry door. Mommy bunny pooped on the fridge.

<3 Allan. 

Allan was disappointed we didn't manage to fit all 69 (heh 69! Allan laughed too when I said that, because she knows socially appropriate laughing along like a good little cis girl-bunny)We sang several racuous rounds of Happy Birthday To You and then they went off to Taco Time. 




Grampa Tom followed suit and had his birthday this last Thursday. He has recently had eye surgery, so he's got a patch and speaks in a funny pirate voice, which Allan finds alternatingly uneventful and delightful. They draw together. He reads her some 1960's kids sci fi book about "the Mushroom Planet" (not sure how much hallucination is involved, but it was the 60s). Eventually it's dinner time and Allan doesn't want to stop drawing EVER!

Drawing and painting are regular staples in this household. Equally full of delight and disaster. Allan is a creative type. With a creative temperament. And when something doesn't look right, it may well be thrown across the room along with any attendant media and/or the cat. There may be screaming and primal art howls. But when it's right, it's oh so right. Though I'll note that within the writing of this paragraph I have been summoned with "Uh oh" and tears because a paint color was not as desired and the eyes were not the right size and "FIX IT" followed by "put this away because i don't like it!!!"

Crafting, of course, has occurred. Some more ambitious than others. 






Our monthly WeCraft kit arrived last week and was surprisingly doable. I mean, sort of. We managed. And the crafts were relatively easy to do. Although they have the downside of being quite fragile and having fallen apart several times. Not quite as disastruous as when Allan made a snow globe gluing marshmallows to paper (this doesn't work well) and Froggy ate a marshmallow off of it. 




This weekend, we're enjoying a bit of a "calm" spell. I jest. Not much is going on but the monster makes sure "calm" doesn't ever fully enter the pictures. More like spells of anxious bored restlessness between manic joy and the full dregs of misery.

Andrew decided to switch all the light fixtures around upstairs. This was inspired by our WeCraft box not being nearly complicated enough. Allan and I crafted a "hot air balloon" with a little lion in it. Andrew was like "not good enough, let me start messing around with live wires!" So now, Allan has a hot air balloon light and we took her light fixtures, since our room was pretty much absent one until now, other than this strange spot light that faces towards the window and doesn't do much other than inspire one to burst into monologue while opening the window. 

Occasionally, the husband and I get a little time alone. Little being emphatic. Especially now that Allan has taken to re-emerging from her bedroom after bedtime to howl, yell for us and ask WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING????? Last night she spent a good forty minutes after bedtime tromping around the stairs yelling ADELLWAAAAAAA COME! HERE! Having learned from previous days that she just wants me to continue telling her stories about Baby Bunny pooping and is not, in fact, in mortal peril. We've started ignoring her. Which worked ok yesterday, but eventually she'll just come all the way down the stairs. 

Which is to say, we take what and when we can get..




Married with kids in a nutshell:

On days that Andrew isn't working, he goes to take a nap after lunch. I take Allan up to her "naptime" a little later and she plays on her Kindle usually. I try to sneak out and join Andrew as the fates allow. Sometimes it works. The other day he texted me a winky face (ooooh boy, all my salivary glands start kicking in when that yellow face gets saucy just so). I texted back that it might be a few minutes because Allan had just screamed "let's break this!!!!" before throwing her Kindle on the floor and adding "I want the whole house to be broken!! And never fixed!"

 I hastily worked through the complex bunny-Kindle dynamics until they had reconciles. Then ran past the yeowling cat who lurks outside the bedroom demanding attention. Made it into our bedroom and slipped into bed. We bantered a bit and got snug together over the dulcet sounds of the cat screaming bloody murder. I'd fed her a treat early in the hopes she'd go away and be peaceful, but ah well. As the cat went silent, Andrew said he really wanted me to come in so he could tell me about Agile (program design method used for software development). I said probably that too but I think he had something else in mind. 

We got comfy. The imaginary Barry White got playing and then ADELLAAAAAAAAAA bam bam bam door knock door knock. I reassembled myself in a new outfit I pieced together along the floor, and asked what she needed. "ADELLAAAAAAAAAA!!! The Eufy is beeping" (this is our roomba knock off and I had left it running in her room like an idiot). It'd been trying to eat Alan's pajama pants apparently. I thanked her and went to turn it off. Got back past the yeowling cat, and back into the groove, trying to ignore the series of doors opening and closing between tromping child's feet and surprised sounding cat. The door slammed a few more times and we heard the heavy tromping noises of a million rhinos. The cat started meowing more fervently and scratched at the door in a mild panic. We heard some shaking booms coming from Allan's room and assumed, naturally, aliens had finally invaded and made the tactical error of landing in our crazy daughter's room (they will never be heard from again).

 Mood broken, we hid in bed together while he told me all about the intricate relationship of Agile and mechanical engineering... until Allan came yelling for me again because she wanted to show me something urgent. When I came back to her room she showed me a game she's playing in her Kindle and announced "it's a duck" before plopping across my lap. Andrew went to do something with the garden. Froggy continue to meow. 

Thank goodness for sneaking back to bed in the morning before Allan gets up. It keeps my snug batteries charged. I mean the cat and the bunny-girl are all about cuddling too, but Froggy makes my eyes get all swollen and Allan is a squirmy beast who may at any moment turn around and start poking her companion in the eye. 

At any rate, Happy MLK Day Weekend. I hope everyone is having a peaceful reflective time with only a minimum of angry art throwing and only the happiest of screaming. 

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