blogspot

Well, it's happened. Yes, I like the fonts and lots of other fun things on Xanga, but I'm tired of them always redirecting me to their upgrade page, trying to get me to pay to blog. So I'm switching to Blogspot. It doesn't have all these cool fonts, but I can add pictures, which make it so much more fun. You can read all my future blogs (and past ones from here, too) at www.willowbirds.blogspot.com.

Enjoy!

Nicole

a morning in the life of Skyler

7:30 Wow, look, it's light in here! I'd better tell everyone! I'm awake, morning has broken, and there are a zillion things to do! Get up, everybody! SCREECH! Hi, Seth! How are things over in your crib? Look, here's Mommy! Yay! I wonder why she always looks sleepy in the morning. I'm not sleepy. Why be sleepy, when I just slept a LOOONG time? I've finished sleeping! I never want to sleep again! Grownups are so weird.

7:35 Mom's strapping me into a high chair. Yay, food! Looks like Mom's mixing up some of that goop with applesauce and cereal. Maybe I can get my hand on the spoon when she's not looking. I know I could feed myself if she would just give me the bowl. And wouldn't THAT be a blast?! I had so much fun with that pasta yesterday. The only problem with feeding myself is that they always try to scrub my face off afterward. I like my face! Why don't they leave it alone?

8:00 No more, no more, I'm stuffed! Let me out! Hey, look, there's a toy car! Hahaha, nobody's got it! Vroom, vroom!

8:05 Here comes Sethie. Oh, no, he wants my CAR! MY car, MINE! I've got to run, run like I've never run before! But he's so fast! There's no hope! He's going to take it! SCREEEEECH! There, Mommy heard me and she's stopping Sethie from his wicked purpose. Hahaha! I love Mommy!

8:07 Look, here's that orange punching balloon! Who cares about a stupid car? This thing is flat, but I know what to do. I saw Mommy blow it up the other day. It turns into a ball! It's the coolest thing! I just need to put this end in my mouth and blow...blow...blow...how come it isn't getting bigger? It's just getting wetter. That's kinda cool, but not what I had in mind. Hmmm. These things are so weird. SCREECH! There, Mommy is coming. Hey, you're taking my balloon! SCREECH! How can you do this to me? It was mine, mine! I had it first! No fair! Mommy, you're so unbearably mean! Oh, wait, she's blowing it up! It's getting bigger! Yay! Me, me, me! I want it! Don't let Sethie have it! Oh, yes, yes, yes, I have it! Look, I can throw it! Hey, don't touch it, Sethie! SCREECH!

8:30 Here's a broom! I love sweeping, love it, love it, love it! Mommy does too, obviously, because she does it all the time. Especially the dining room. She likes to push the Cheerios around. So I do too, before I eat them. I'm getting so big now that I can walk, I'm going to be just like Mommy soon. Only she doesn't eat the Cheerios after she pushes them around. That's silly, in my opinion. Enjoy them in all the ways you can, I say.

8:45 There's Seth with a sippy cup. Hey, I want a drink! In fact, now that I think about it, that's the only thing in the whole world that I want. I want it! I need it! Give it to me! SCREECH! Hahaha, I got it! Hey, quit howling! He's always howling. Oh well--hey, gimme back that sippy cup! SCREECH! Mommy! Seth just stole my sippy cup! Here, if I fall down on the floor and bury my face, you'll see just how intense my anguish is. How can you allow him to keep drinking that when you knows it's MINE? You're so mean, Mommy! This is the ultimate injustice! Life is so unfair! Oh, she's filled one up for me! Yay, my own sippy cup! I love sippy cups! I love Mommy!

9:00 Where's my binky? I want it! I need it! The world isn't as nice as it was when I woke up this morning. How come nobody gives me what I want when I want it? Mommy must know I want it. I'll go hang on her leg. SCREECH!

9:05 Look, Sethie has a doll stroller! Yay! I love strollers! This one makes a great noise and is so much fun to push. I'll go take it from Sethie. Hey, give it to me! How can you do this to me? Don't you know that's the only thing in the whole world I've ever wanted? Gimme! SCREECH! This is so unfair! Everyone in the world is bigger than me! I said GIVE it to me! Aaaaa--oh, look there's another one! Yay! Look out, here I come! I'm so glad I have a brother to chase!

9:10 Did I just hear Mommy say, "bath"? Oh, yay, yay, I love baths! Who cares about strollers? Maybe if I zip in there in time, I can reach in the water from outside the bath, and get my sleeves wet. That is so cool. I wonder if that neat little pool is open. Nope, Mommy closed the lid. Sigh. She always does that. Augh, she's caught me! Well, there go my pajamas! She peels me like she peels a banana (and have I mentioned that those are the most incredible things in the whole world?) and pops me in the water. Yay, this feels great! I love baths! Here comes Sethie! Look, Sethie, can you splash like this? Whee! Let's kick our feet too! Hey, let's throw things out of the bathtub! Where's that cup? Here, I'll throw this, you get the washrag...Uh oh, here comes Mommy with our clothes. Why does she always yell when she comes in the bathroom?

9:20 Hey, gimme that! I wonder where my binky is? How come nobody does what I want them to do? I'm warm, I'm comfy, but I feel grouchy. Hey, why is Mommy taking me out of the bathtub? SCREECH! I hate this! Don't dry me off! Hey, is that my binky? Yay! I love binkies! I love Mommy! Oh, she's dressing me in that adorable "My Parents Are Exhausted" shirt! I like that one! Yay!

9:30 I'm feeling so snuggly, so warm, so...sleepy...Ah, bed at last! It seems like hours since I was in here!

10:30 Whoa, I think I slept a LOOOOONG time! Won't Mommy be excited to see I'm awake? SCREECH! Yay, here she is! First I need a snuggle as we down the hallway. OK, that's all I'll need of THAT today! Listen, is that music playing? Yay, I love music! My favorite sport is be-bopping to Vivaldi! Sethie and Anaya are already spinning around in the living room. Oh no, they never see me when they spin. I guess I'm below their line of vision. Oh well, maybe this time will be different. Wheeee! Ouch! SCREECH! I'm down here, don't hit me! Wheeee!

10:45 Look what I found, a book! It has bright pictures! I love books! I love pictures! I wonder if the pictures in this book can be pulled out. The ones I found the other day could, but Mommy didn't like that I took them out. I don't know why. I thought it was fun. Grownups are so weird.

11:00 Look, there are plants in the windowsill! Actually, they're the same ones that were there yesterday, but hey, I didn't get my fingers into them yesterday. Maybe I can reach them today. Yay, something new to explore! I think I can reach those green things! Yay! I...can...almost...get...uh oh, here comes Mommy! Sigh. Okay, another day, guys. Someday I'm going to get a good mouthful of you.

11:30 Look, Anaya and Sethie are running up and down the hall yelling! What a fantastic idea! Why do they get all the good ideas? Oh, never mind, I can always join the fun! AAAAAUGH! This is great! I love running! I love yelling! I love doing whatever Sethie and Anaya are doing! So much fun all packed into one moment!

11:35 Hey, look, there's a room at the end of this hallway. Let's go inside! I just remembered, there's another little room off of this one, and in THAT room is that little tiny room with the wet floor! I LOVE that place! That is simply the coolest place in this whole house. Let's stop on the way to see if the pool is open. Nope, Mommy closed the lid again. But look, the tiny wet-floored room is open! Yay! Wet socks! I LOVE wet socks! Let's dance in it! Yay! Oops, I fell down. Hey, my butt is wet. SCREECH! Oh well. Yay, let's chase each other down the hallway again!

11:45 Hey, my socks are cold! Mommy! SCREECH! How come you dressed me in cold socks? You always do that to me! My butt is wet too, but I don't know why. Oh well, I don't have to walk on it, anyway. Thanks for the dry socks, Mommy. Yay! Let's run down the hall again! Anybody have a ball to throw?

11:50 Hey, what are you doing in the kitchen, Mommy? Hey, food! I'm hungry! Hungry hungry hungry! What's for lunch, Mommy? Hey, you're not picking me up! You're not paying attention to me! SCREECH! I wanna see what's up there! Don't you know I'm starving, I'm so hungry, there's nothing else in the entire world I've ever wanted like this. Please! You've got to help me! Mommy! I'm desperate...oh, hey, look, there's a marker cap on the floor! Have you ever seen one of these things? They're the coolest thing in the world! Look, I can fit it on my finger and point it! Yay! I love marker caps!

12:00 Lunchtime! Yay! I love lunch! I'm so hungry! Hey, what is this stuff, sweet potatoes? You fed me this yesterday! Yeah, I KNOW I liked it yesterday, but that was yesterday! You can't feed it to me again! Yuk! SCREECH! I hate sweet potatoes! Why are you doing this to me? I want...something. Something else! What else do you have? Lentil soup with carrots and fresh basil, please. Or some Cheerios. And why are you calling me Screech?

Quotes of the week

If I'm not blogging very regularly, it's no indication that my children are getting any less cute. If anything, it's that they're just doing more stuff than ever, hence giving me no time to write about it. But I thought I would write down a few events from this week.

(After I asked Anaya why she had just unbuttoned her shirt.) "Oh, I just wanted to be sure it was okay in there."

"What was okay?" I asked.

"I wanted to see if there were any spiders and crabs inside," she responded.

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I've been trying to get Anaya to understand that she needs to clarify when she is describing real situations versus pretend ones. Please, no more dashing in from outside yelling, "There's a snake chasing me!" Instead she has been instructed to scream, "There's a pretend snake chasing me!" But as I was getting into the car after putting all three kids in the back seat, Anaya squealed, "Mommy, we have a 'mergency back here! But it's not a real 'mergency," she assured me quickly, "So don't call 9-1-1."

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This week we decided the boys were old enough to understand not to touch a fire, so we started building them in the fireplace. So I built a fire, gathered the boys close and explained the dangers to them in terms I hoped they could understand. "Hot! Owie! Not for Sethie! Not for Skyler! No, no!" They watched wide-eyed and avoided the fire obediently while I was in the room. I congratulated myself on having such well-behaved, obedient toddlers.

A few minutes later I heard a suspicious rattling. I came back into the living room to see my boys attempting to poke twigs through the fireplace screen.

Then again, should I be surprised? Their uncles are the ones who set fire to the field behind their house and burned down the servants' quarters as kids. (Their father, of course, insists he was just watching wide-eyed the whole time.)

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Seth continues to amaze us with his sudden language skills. Rather than practicing all the time, and getting very frustrated when we don't understand his garbled words (like Anaya when she was learning to talk), Seth tends to wait until he can say the full sentence. He silently picked out his star stickers for his chore chart (on the refrigerator) by pointing to the one he liked, until one day he announced, "I choose g'een skicker!" One day when his exhausted parents sneaked in a nap while all three were sleeping, we were jarred out of our beds by Seth's sudden bellow from the next room. "Daddy, get me OUT!" (Where did he learn to say that without practice?!)

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Skyler's little language skills are improving, too. He is now faithful in saying "thank you" ("dit-duh"), and even "please" (peeze?). He will cheerfully meow like a cat or tweet like a bird on command. Dogs and ducks still growl--we're working on that.

The evolution of a husband

This post is not actually about my real husband. Well, I guess it sort of is, but it's mostly about my perception of who my ideal man would be, or should be.

My ideal husband has evolved considerably. When I was five, my ideal man simply had to hate onions and mushrooms.

When I was ten, he still needed to hate onions and mushrooms. But it would be nice if he was cute. And even nicer if he were Michael Perham. (Who, incidentally, I haven't seen since I was eight, for those who were wondering.)

At fifteen, I became more practical. He didn't need to absolutely HATE mushrooms and onions. It would be more practical if he tolerated them, but didn't insist on eating them at home. He needed to relish adventure. Ideally, he would love rock climbing.

At twenty, he needed to be a Christian. And he needed to be nobody I had ever met, because I was such a hopelessly awkward adolescent I never wanted my husband to have to endure remembering what I USED to be like. He also needed to be a missionary type. Except I was pretty sure he didn't exist, since a) I couldn't imagine anyone quality could ever possibly want to marry me, and b) I wanted to live my life on the edge, maybe minister to the homeless in New York City or the people living in longhouses in Borneo. I figured I might not live long, and I didn't want to burden a husband and children with my death. Besides, it was lots of fun to just put a pack on my back and go wherever I wanted. Why waste time hoping to get married?

At twenty-five, I realized onions weren't the worst thing in the world. I actually used them when I was cooking for a slew of Net 99 Bible workers in Manhattan. (Though, the first time I cut raw onions, I couldn't sleep that night because I could still smell them on my hands, no matter how much I scoured them. I finally had to stuff my hands under my pillow to be able to endure being in the same room with them.) But I still was pretty sure I hadn't met the man of my dreams, and that he didn't exist. I couldn't even imagine getting married, so surely it was impossible, right? Anyway, if he did exist, he needed to be as passionate about running a revolutionary school as I was, and I had a hard time imagining he was out there. And I was beginning to realize that if we wanted to run a school, he had better have some good communication and conflict management skills. (Not to mention, they might be useful for living with me...)

At twenty-six, I met Alan. And since he didn't strike me as my type, I kind of ignored him, but figured he was a nice guy to hang out with. He was obviously harmless, since he didn't flirt with me and apparently was smart enough to figure out it was hopeless to pursue anything with me, since he lived in Africa and I lived in America.

At twenty-seven, lo and behold, love found me. Before I knew it I was caught up in a whirl of wedding plans. Then the next thing I knew, I had moved to Africa. And I discovered that my new husband:

a) Could endure onions and mushrooms, but didn't demand them or even request them.

b) Was adventurous (he had eaten flying ants--ew!) and able to do without (having grown up in Africa).

c) Is not just cute--he's the most attractive man in the whole world!

d) Has no memories of me before age twenty-five. Whew!

e) Is a genuine, wonderful Christian, and so well-rounded a communicator and conflict manager he amazes everyone (including me).

f) Has a passion to run a school, and enjoys visioning with me about what that will mean. Yay!

Now if I could just get him out there rock climbing with me... Nobody warned me that getting married might cause kids, which could considerably hinder me having hobbies or getting anything else in life accomplished! (But oh, what fun they are....)

a sticky problem

LOL...OK, you guys are going to love this one. Seth just came to me pretending he had something for me to eat. Now, he loves to do this, and usually he just holds out an empty cup for me to pretend to sip from in delight, or holds an imaginary delicacy pinched in his little fingers. So when he came to me and held his fingers to my lips, I pretended to eat whatever he was offering. "Oh, yummy, thank you!"

Then I saw that he actually held something in his fingers. It looked like a seed. On closer inspection, I thought of something else. "Sethie, um, where did you get that?"

He grinned and pointed to his nose.