So today started out with another healthy dose of grossness, this time with worms. As we were walking down to the Montessori to pick up V, CT stepped on this HUGE squishy worm in the alley. It has been worm central around here this spring and this guy was a juicy one- when CT stepped on it I heard a very distinct SQUELCH. “Ew” I said, “CT, why did you step on him (he’d done it on purpose)? That was really gross!” My question were rewarded by this speech about what happens when you step on worms:
You shouldn’t step on worms because you know why? They get in you. They go in your skin and climb up your body to your mouth. They go in your throat and you choke like you’re choking. You go *barf noises* and then you throw up from choking! Which is what happens when you step on worms
Lovely.
CT is three and a half, one of the new kids who started at the beginning of March. I have to call him by his first name & last initial because there is another little boy, a part timer, with the same first name. These are all the other kids I have enrolled currently:
V is four years old. He’s been coming here since April of 2007 and was one of the first kids to enroll after I got my child care license. Since last fall he’s been going to the local Montessori for morning preschool, so he’s only here in the afternoon now.
CP is also three and a half. He attends part-time, usually only one or two days a week. His mom is my friend/former neighbor’s ex-fiance/babydaddy’s sister (so complicated!) which is how I met her and how her son came to be enrolled here.
K is two almost three. He is my other part timer. His mom works a weird, four-week schedule so the days she needs child care on change every month. This fluctuating schedule makes it very difficult to fill the other part of the space and I kind of regret ever agreeing to it.
B is twenty months old, and is the sweetest, funniest, smartest little toddler I know. Her mom is expecting a new baby in August (CP’s mom is also expecting in August), so I guess she’ll be leaving here, which is SO SAD because she’s such a great kid.
M is the baby, one year old. She started in March with CT, and it’s been difficult. Since she’d never been in child care/away from her mom regularly, it was a huge adjustment for her which has involved a lot of screaming. Screaming, screaming, screaming. She’s definitely more comfortable and happier being here now, but it’s been pretty rough getting to this point.
Yesterday I woke up in a really, really good mood. I thought, FINALLY! I was feeling so great that nothing was going to get me down, and it’s a good thing too because oh my goodness yesterday was a total GROSS OUT.
One of the daycare kids had this terrible diaper and it made my whole house smell like a horse barn. What does a baby even eat that would smell like that??? It was sick, I had to open all the doors and windows to air the place out.
My bathroom sink had been draining really slowly and although I’d tried everything to try and clear it nothing had worked, so yesterday I very very bravely took a straightened out paperclip (hooked on one end) and just pulled out all the stuff clogging the sink. It was so sick, I couldn’t even look what I was doing or I’d start gagging. It’s draining much better so it was obviously worth it, I just hope everyone else who lives here appreciates my sacrifice.
After work I walked my dog, and when we got back to the house I let him off his leash in the yard to try and get him to chase Symphony. Instead he bolted towards this scraggly flower bed next to the gate and started eating what turned out to be poop! The worst part it I don’t even know what it’s from- it was too big to belong to any of the neighbor dogs and I never let my dog do his business in the yard. He was eating MYSTERY POO OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN.
This is less gross and more traumatic, but last night for dinner we went for Japanese and in a fit of spasticity I dumped an entire bowl of scalding hot miso soup on my lap. I mean, SCALDING HOT. Plus, once all the liquid part of miso soup soaks into your jeans, what’s left looks less than appetizing. I had to get a damp cloth from the waitress and scrub my thighs clean and when we went home my jeans were all cold and wet and clammy. Not my finest moment, but I laughed my face off about it. I think Symphony was pretty pleased- a couple years ago in that same restaurant she knocked over a pint mug of ginger ale all over me, and every time we go back I remind her “Don’t spill your ginger ale on me!” but now, I’ll have to remind myself “Don’t pour miso soup on your lap!”
The Dragonbone Chair, 26/104; The Stone of Farewell 27/104; To Green Angel Tower 28/104
These are the books I bought to read on my flights/vacation, and although I read a lot it took me until last night to finish them all. Why? They are CRAZY LONG. The first two books are about six- or seven hundred pages each and the third one is like 1,100 pages. When it was originally released in paperback it was split into two parts because it was too long for one book, and this is something that pissed me off, but the kindle edition (or at least, the only one I could buy) is also in two parts! So stupid since it doesn’t matter how many pages a kindle book is, but I still had to pay for two books to get the whole story. Lame. ANYWAY.
I first read these books in high school. One day I was just really itching for a new book so my parents and brother and sister and I took a family trip to the bookstore, but I couldn’t find anything I liked the look of that wasn’t part of a series. Afterwards we went to the library, where I picked up The Dragonbone Chair. I’d seen the paperback at the bookstore, but the library edition was hardcover and didn’t say “book one of an enormous series that will eat your life” anywhere on the front and I couldn’t remember why I hadn’t bought it. Trickery! So I read it and I loved it and just when it was getting really epic and exciting it. just. ended. I thought there was another chapter but it was an appendix with lists of characters and locations and translations of the made-up languages. I was so mad! I had to wait six months until the second book, The Stone of Farewell, came out in paperback, and then it was another year and a half before the final book, To Green Angel Tower, came out. My then-boyfriend bought me the thousand-page hardcover as a gift with the stipulation that I was not to read more than one hundred pages a day, although I finished it in a week so clearly I didn’t stick to that! A friend of mine was reading the series at the same time and I remember us at a party sitting behind the couch discussing the last book for hours. At a party, you guys.
After that I reread these books every year, but I kept having to buy new copies because people would always borrow them and not give them back, or straight up steal them and move to Halifax. The last copies I had, which were old and crack-spined fuzzy around the page edges, I lent to a girl I worked with at Club Monaco, but when she got hired for a job I’d applied for at a different company she felt awkward and stopped talking to me so I never got them back. Consequently I hadn’t read them in a few years before now, but you know what? I STILL LOVE THESE BOOKS. Maybe fantasy novels with princesses and dragons and what-have-you are cheesy, but I don’t care. These ones are good, and in a surprising departure from the Song of Ice and Fire books Taylor is reading (and which owe A LOT to these books), there are likable characters and NO RAPING. I know, it’s crazy!
Since it took me so long to finish this series I was worried I would be behind in my goal, but this is the 14th week of the year and I’ve read 28 books, so I’m actually keeping a perfect pace. Also, with finishing The Dragonbone Chair, my 26th book this year, I am one quarter of the way to my goal! I think for my next book(s) I’ll choose something a little shorter though.
Sorry about the lack of posing recently. I’ve been having a pretty crummy month so far and I’m sure no one wants to hear me whine more about being sick and having to deal with frustrating people. I’m going to try and get back to my stay posi self this week though 🙂
After having a particularly awful day yesterday, both health-wise and emotionally, today I was ready to just have a nice time with no sadness or stress. I slept in a little and then Taylor and I went for brunch at Glowbal. The service there is so ridiculously good- today we got our food before we got our coffees!
Taylor wanted to go shopping for new gym pants- he only had one pair he liked and he’s been going six days a week (luckily I also do laundry six days a week). He made a deal with himself/me that if he worked out five days in a row he could get poutine from La Belle Patate on Thursdays aka TV Night, and he’s really been sticking to it! It kind of makes me mad that I haven’t been able to go with him, even though I’ve wanted to, because I’ve been so sick, but I’m almost completely well so hopefully I can start this week.
Before going to the sports store I made him cut through Holt Renfrew with me so I could look at purses, and I am very proud to say that although I found two adorable and almost-affordable grey bags that I liked, I didn’t buy any. We might be going to Seattle in May for the long weekend and I’m going to try to hold off until then since (if the loonie stays up!) they’ll be cheaper.
Another thing I didn’t buy today is a new couch, although I think I found one that I really like. Currently we have this sectional of leather Ikea Kramfors pieces, but one of the chaises is totally ruined. Whatever the finish or coating they put on the leather melted. It’s so weird, like first it started looking all dull, and then you could see it was drooping and sliding down the surface of the seatback and now it’s all peeled off in patches. Gross. Luckily you can’t really see it because my couch it basically just a mass of throws and pillows, but I still hate it and want to replace it. I could just get a new chaise, since the two other pieces are in perfect shape, but it pissed me off and I just want to sell them and buy a whole new couch.
This is the one I’m thinking of. I saw it on the store’s website last week but I didn’t like it because the colour was so blah and oatmeal-y, but in real life it’s much nicer looking and a little darker. Also, it’s basically the PERFECT size for our living room- the “couch wall” is 3 meters long and this couch is 294.64cm. Obviously it’s fate! Now I just need to find some money, haha.
To make me feel better since I’ve been sick, Symphony drew me this picture of the Moon Princess
I am actually starting to improve- the cough is still hanging around but I don’t have the crippling aches and fever anymore- knock on wood! Even the world seems to be feeling better- for the past week it’s mostly been grey and rainy but today it’s clear and windy. It’s still cold but to me there is nothing more wonderful than a clear, windy spring (or fall) day!
Honey. I’m sick of drinking tea so I’ve just been mixing honey & hot water.
A water spray bottle AND a water bottle. Basically any kind of water I can put on or in my body.
Tylenol Cold Daytime & Nighttime.
My Kindle, since all I can do is lie around and read, and this way I won’t lose my place when I pass out from all the Tylenol Cold Nighttime I’m about to eat.
Not pictured: the very old sweatshirt I keep putting on and taking off, the hand towel I chilled it the freezer to drape across my poor, burning face, and my oh-so-wonderful husband, who woke up at 2:40 to pick Sym up for me since I was too sick to go across the street to the school.
Today I took some time to search the internet for pictures of the planets for Elina’s mural. Some of them are going to be ridiculously easy to paint.
Really, Uranus? Turquoise? That’s all you got?
Others, like Jupiter, are more complicated.
Here’s my sketch:
I kind of like it! The line down the middle is because I had to tape two pieces of paper together to get my actual-size diameter of 9″.
I think Earth is actually going to be the most difficult- like Jupiter it has a lot of detail, but it’s going to be much smaller and I’m not going to be able to swirl the colours together as much to get the right look. I really wanted to start working on the actual paintings today but I am sick like a dog so I’d probably end up messing them up. Instead I’m going to figure out the sizes for each planet and do more sketches. Another one I’m looking forward to is Neptune:
PERIWINKLE BLUE!
Anyway I’m already really enjoying this project because for some reason I’ve felt compelled to actually research each of the planets and all that big outer space stuff makes me feel existential and mindfreaked, haha.
For the past couple years I’ve been slowly painting and decorating my apartment, and as I finish it I’d like to share it with you, one room at a time.
The foyer was actually the first room I painted, and since it’s literally the first part of my home that anyone (especially potential clients!) sees, I want it to look really nice and fun, while still being practical. With my child care business I have half a dozen people going in an out of this room every morning and every afternoon, dropping off and picking up their kids, as well as the regular use by my family and pets.
The wall colour is Honolulu Blue by Benjamin Moore. I chose to use a semi-gloss paint over my usual eggshell preference, both for durability and ease of cleaning. This room gets REALLY muddy and I need to be able to scrub everywhere!
On the inside of the door I have two Three by Three Seattle magnet strips that I use to put up signs (like Symphony’s fire safety certificate) and notices (like the list of days that I’m closed this year that everyone seems to conveniently forget about). The “OPEN AT 7:45” sign dates back from when I had a couple of clients who had the intensely annoying habit of showing up 10-15 minutes early every day and banging on the door and yelling until I let them in.
To the left of the door on the south wall is a giant window. I keep my attendance binder on the windowsill and above that I have a clear plastic shelf (it’s by Umbra but I can’t seem to find it on the site) that holds things like stamps, Post-its, extra pens and some of my collection of Dunnies. It sticks right to the window and is shallow enough that I can still close the blinds.
The east wall also has a window, except it looks into the living room. This drove me crazy because unless I kept all the foyer blinds closed (which makes the house too dark), anyone who came in the backyard could see right in! To solve this annoying problem without blocking all the light, I wired together three canvases and hung them in the opening, and on the living room side I put up a bamboo roller blind to hide the ugly backs of the canvases. Light still gets in but we have some privacy!
Beside that there is a weird little alcove where we mounted a clothes rail for our coats. Below the coats are crates for our two dogs and bins for winter accessories (hats scarves gloves, etc). On the edge of the wall are blue & white bird patterned hooks for keys and apparently the food necklaces I made last year.
Next is the bird & cloud wall. I actually bought these little wall decals from Elephannie on Etsy a couple years ago but I never got around to putting them up until last night. In the frames are lists of emergency numbers and a floor plan like the one pictured above, but with all the rooms and escape routes labeled.
Below the clouds & birds is my “Tanie” bench. It was given to me by my friend James, his grandfather made it for him and it used to say “Jamie.” I filed away at the letters until it looked more like my name and repainted it- before it was orange and white. Unfortunately I didn’t do a very good job and it’s chipped and scratched badly. The seat opens up and inside is where we store all our athletic equipment, ie running shoes, my gym bag and some badminton racquets.
Beside the bench is a retractable babygate, which I use to keep the kids out of the dog food. It doesn’t keep dogs in though, as this video will demonstrate.
Opposite the bench is the cubby wall. This was originally just another useless shallow alcove, but the previous tenant installed these shelves, which just happen to be exactly the right width for 4 baskets from the dollar store. Each daycare child (and everyone who lives here!) get a cubby.
Even the dogs have a cubby under the reminder board!
Below the cubby shelves are hooks for coats, but since it’s the weekend these are empty.
The foyer floor is linoleum, so to keep it from turning into a sick wet muddy mess I have these boring utility mats everywhere. To make them a little less utilitarian I cut them in curves to echo the clouds painted on the wall and canvases. By the way, the floor isn’t dirty there, when the previous tenant put up the shelves she dripped some adhesive on the floor and I can’t seem to get rid of it no matter what I try.
Between the door and the cubbies is a small wall with a window (the paper taped in it is a reminder that I’m closed Friday and Monday this weekend). Below the window is another set of hooks for Symphony’s coats and bags, with another utility mat for our shoes and boots. Above the light switch I have my first aid certificate and child care license in frames that match my emergency lists.
And if you look up…
I changed the light fixture from an ugly “titty” light to an Ikea Smila Sol sun light. It’s super cute, but it’s always filling with dead bugs, and to change the bulbs you have to pull the sun’s centre out and all the dead bugs fall on you. As for the “Happy Birthday” sign, well, I put it up in November for Symphony’s birthday, but every time I think about taking it down I realize it’s almost someone else’s birthday (mine, one of the daycare kids, etc). I think it’s just part of the decor now.
Also partially pictured throughout is my stroller, which I love. It’s a B.O.B. Duallie Iron Man sport utility stroller that I bought last year with a grant. It’s bright yellow with a bright yellow rain cover, and really allays my paranoid fears of some inattentive driver plowing into us when we’re crossing the street, since you would have to be literally blind to miss it!
Symphony and I went out this afternoon and bought this Crazy Forts fort-building kit.
I actually wanted this for myself for Christmas, but when Taylor went to buy it for me it was sold out. I saw a bunch at Chapters a few weeks ago and I knew I had to go pick one up. If there’s one thing I love, it’s a good fort!
We made an “igloo” frame and then I draped it with a bunch of saris Symphony’s grandma gave us years ago. From the outside it looks a little silly…
but from the inside…
Symphony took in a little pink flower lamp, a pillow, her stuffed Chococat and her latest Daisy Meadows Rainbow Magic fairy book and made herself right at home.
I LITERALLY could not be more thrilled with this purchase.
I really can’t think of a better way to transition back into work after a vacation than by having two short weeks in a row. I have today and Monday off, and really, is there anything better than a four-day weekend? I’ve been looking forward to it all week, except for one thing- because he took so many days off for our trip, Taylor had decided to work today (well, last night/this morning, his shift is 12am-8am in order to “make up” one of the days off, so he didn’t have a long weekend with me and would be sleeping all day today.
We decided to go out last night anyway, just for burgers & beer with our friends Rich & Jenn. Afterwards we came back here and hung out with the dog while Taylor go ready to go to the work. He left at 11:15, but then at 11:40, just as Rich & Jenn were leaving he came back in a panic- he’d lost the swipe card to get into the office! Luckily he’d stopped to get coffee and realized the card wasn’t in his wallet and was able to come home to search for it. I immediately started helping to look and also offered to give him cash to take a cab to work so he wouldn’t be late. Suddenly he turned to me and yelled “April Fool’s!” I was confused (and a little drunk) so I was like “… you didn’t lose your card?” I thought, what a stupid prank, now you’ll be late to work- oh wait! “You’re not going to work!!” What dedication to pranking! He kept the lie up all week, only had 2 drinks at dinner and went all the way to Starbucks after 11 just to trick me. Obviously he’s been learning from me- the other day I was in the bath and he busted it and threw ice cubes on me, which was HILARIOUS. I guess the student has finally become the master.
Since he didn’t have to leave we stayed up and watched the new episode of Fringe, which we’d forgotten was back on. I have to say I don’t know why more people don’t watch that show, it is SO GOOD. I don’t want to spoil anything, so i’ll just say that I bawled like a baby through the whole show!
This morning I slept in, which was awesome, and then Taylor and I went to the gym. We just got back and Symphony was just dropped off, so I think we’re going to hang around here for a while and then go out to buy new dog crates for the foyer- right now I have these ugly, awkward plastic ones, so I’m going to replace them with metal ones, which I think are less intrusive into the design of the room, plus they are a bit bigger, which is nice for the dogs themselves!
For Kichou, 24″ x 18″ x 19″, this is about the same length as his current crate but its way wider AND taller:
For Dougal, 36″ x 23″ x 25″, this one is a little bigger than his current crate:
As for the rest of the weekend, I don’t know yet what I’m going to do. I know I want to get my foyer ready to photograph, and maybe spraypaint some picture frames in there red, although that depends on whether or not it ever stops raining. I have tons of work to do on Elina’s mural- it’s just a bunch of blue canvases right now.
Not so exciting yet, but they will be soon!
