It’s starting to look like fall outside but every time I go out in my boots and coat I end up sweating my face off.
She only ate the fries, then deconstructed the sliders and used the buns and patties to make a tower.
Sym needed to print out some old pictures for a project at school and I can’t get over this one. Her sweet little face! This was just a few weeks after her second birthday, so a little older than Gwen is now.
A custom drippy banner for Halloween.
Literally the first time I successfully caramelized onions in my entire life.
Waking up daddy.
Happy Friday-before-the-long-weekend-we-all-need-and-deserve! At least I need it; this week has been interminable for some reason. We are going over to the Island to spend Thanksgiving with my mom & some of my family for the first time ever so today I need to clean the house and pack everything so we can catch the ferry at 8:30 tomorrow morning. (Aside: Taylor just used voice commands to turn off the Xbox, and I CAN’T WAIT until Gwen starts talking and learns how to turn it on and off all the time. I mailed all the paperwork back to the speech therapists but we don’t have an appointment for her to see one yet, although she is scheduled for a hearing test on December 1st. Also on December 1st I’m supposed to go off my thyroid medication to see if my thyroid is functioning normally on it’s own so that’s gonna be a fun month! Phew this was quite the aside.)
Anyway
Tiny Acorns
Yesterday after school drop-off (now that the strike is over I’ve been looking after a kindergartener before & after school) Gwen and I went for coffee & took a walk on the Seawall with a woman I know from preschool drop-offs. Making friends when you are old and grizzled is hard and I’m happy to have made a new one who is local and a mom and idk, likes tiny stuff and crafts and coffee and dogs and the Seawall and living downtown but also imagining moving to the country. At one point on the walk Gwen became very fussy in her stroller so I let her out so she could bobble around in her little green boots and red coat. While we were standing there my new friend realized the trees we were under were some kinda ornamental oak trees and the ground was covered (COVERED) in teeny-tiny little acorns. We both love tiny things and Gwen loves picking up stuff off the ground so we all crouched down and started stuffing our pockets with little acorns & acorn caps. I’m sure we looked deranged to all the people walking by but who cares? Tiny acorns! Now I have a cup full of them and Im not exactly sure what to use them for. An autumnal display, I guess. A miniature pumpkin and some twigs with wild rose hips and a scattering of little acorns would be perfect.
The Tale of Elke
During my many years of doing childcare I’ve known lots of kids with a lovey toy they NEED to have in order to fall asleep, both at bedtime and at naptime. Usually it’s one of those toys that like a small blanket with a teddy bear head on one corner, and it needs to go back and forth between home and daycare or WOE BETIDE. I can’t even tell you how many times I had a parent knocking on my door at 8pm because they forgot the lovey here, or they’ve had to run home in the morning after dropping off their kid to fetch it because there is NO WAY a nap will be happening without that special sleepy-time friend.
When I was pregnant with Gwen I discussed this lovey situation very seriously with Taylor and we decided that whichever toy it was, we’d buy two. Not that Gwen would be going to daycare somewhere else but in the event of the lovey being misplaced or even just needing to be washed we’d have a backup. We chose one of those toys with the animal head on one corner, except instead of a bear it’s a deer. We named it Elke and Gwen took to it immediately.
Having two Elkes worked perfectly; if ever we couldn’t find one we’d have the other ready to tag in, and I was able to wash whichever one was dirty as needed (which was often because baby Gwen liked to chew on Elke’s nose, or just hold its nose to her nose, even when she had a cold). Then a few months ago, everything went to Hell. One morning Gwen woke up and brought Elke out to the living room with her. When it was naptime I couldn’t find Elke so I grabbed the spare and when she woke up from nap she brought that Elke out to the living room and we had a double-Elke situation. Taylor found the first Elke in the dining room and went to put it in the wash, but I told him it wasn’t dirty so instead he put it…
Somewhere. And we haven’t seen it since! Neither of us can remember where he put it, all we know is it’s somewhere in the house where Gwen couldn’t see it or reach it, and we’ve looked all those places! Every shelf, every cupboard, every drawer, every place has been searched. We’ve emptied boxes and bags and peered under beds with a flashlight. We’ve dug through closets full of clothes, craft supplies and camera equipment. No one can find this damn thing! This morning Taylor was putting Gwen’s bedclothes on to wash and he decided to pop the only remaining Elke in as well since it was supremely gross, and Gwen stood in front of the washing machine and cried and cried. We spent another couple hours searching all the places we’ve already searched and still had no luck.
My apartment isn’t that big, and there are a finite number of places what Gwen can’t get into. So. Where’s Elke?
You know, I’m quite certain that some stuff just falls into a black hole for a few days/weeks/months just to screw with you, and reappear at random. I don’t know if I was a full-time glasses wearer when I last saw you when I lived in Vancouver, but I am now, and have since shelled out for two ~nice~ pairs of glasses. I had a pair disappear in their case in my small apartment for approximately three months. I kicked them out from under the bed at random, despite having looked under there multiple times (like 3). I’m confident it will turn up at random!