This and That

• So my ears have faded. I no longer look like a walking reason to not dye your hair at home. 
• Ev seems to be recovered from The Tick Incident. Man, am I glad because I was getting tired of checking her head and rubbing a placebo on her scalp! ( the placebo in question is Vaseline in a tube)
• Last night Ev and I were making pizza and out of the blue it was like a hole was torn in my heart. I wanted Liam home so bad right then. 
• My cat had been pouting for two days now. I am unaware of any blatant neglect or abuse so I am not sure what his issue is. Have any of you ever had a cat stare at you incriminatingly for 48 hours? It's un-nerving. I even cleaned the litter box twice yesterday! AND he got "double tuna"! What's up?
• At dinner 3 nights ago we had Penne. So Ev grabs up a pasta tube and started wheezing thru it. She had a eureeka moment. She said " hey! This is why Darth Vader breathes weird! He's breathing thru a noodle!" 
• We have the living room nearly done. But I have decided that I want it all to be red instead of just a red accent wall. I swear Leslie nearly wept when I told him (though he agrees with me). It just means two more days of painting instead of a quick rolling on of the second coat. Ah well, if we weren't painting we'd be just- what? Oh! Living in a house that's not torn apart.

Art From Tragedy

Lest you underestimate the trauma caused by the TICK in the previous post, here is how Ev is working through her feelings.

Let me dissect it all for you. The yellow head with crazy brown hair is Ev. The red circles about her are her stroller. The small red thing above the stroller top is Papa pushing the stroller (love the perspective). The big gray thing is the tick. The yellow line is the needle he would have used to stab her head and drink her blood. Yes she actually said "stab her head and drink her blood".

Why no vanquishing Mama? Hummm....

An Angry Mama with Brown Ears

Two things happened yesterday. We went for a walk in the park and I dyed my hair.
Fine. But how did these two events coincide to leave me with ears stained brown, a brown stain on my forehead and residual anger?
Let me 'splain....
While walking in the park, well the parentals were walking, The Empress was being strolled. So ok. On the last bit of the walk, Ev sees a leafy branch laying on the ground, she picks it up and starts wielding it over her head like a leafy, magical canopy. All was well until I saw a TICK in her hair and running for her scalp. I shrieked "Drop that branch!" Les stops strolling and look all around on the ground and he's yelling " What?!?! What is it?!?!?! What's going on?!?!?" I couldn't answer because I was busy chasing a TICK around Ev's head and she was sitting stock still and silent (also a little pale), so I KNOW she was freaked. I got the gross disgusting thing and stomped it into oblivion on the pavement. Les goes " AGGHHH A TICK THEN?" and I'm all like "YES!! A TICK!" Then we frantically search the rest of Ev's little person. AND the stroller.
Then Ev's starts in with the asking, what's a tick and Les tells her. And she remembers us digging them outta Billy Bones in North Carolina. And her freak out elevates to the nth degree. She refuses to get back in the stroller and she starts complaining about total body itching.
Eventually we get her calmed down and the evening moves on.
Long cuddles and into bed.
Then I start dyeing my hair.
I get to the point where I set the timer and I am trying to wipe the spillage off of my skin.
Then Ev comes storming out of her room and claiming that her head is itching like "madness". I try to blow her off and then I remember the TICK. I think "oh crap! I missed one".
So I call her over and check her head.
Nothing.
I say "Ev were you in bed obsessing over the tick and your head started itching?" And she says yes. And I send her back to bed after some reassurance.
But it was too late for my ears and forehead.
Now I am angry. With brown ears.


Note to self: Unless kid is actually on fire next time, do not stop wiping the dye from your skin. Also? The husband can be called on for Ground Support.

Caterpillars and Life Lessons or Avery Shuffles Off This Mortal Coil

It's hard to stand by and watch your child go from innocent wonder and the "safekeeping" of small creatures to the realization that their influence means certain death for the very creature they long to protect and befriend.

Evelyn's first lesson? Well, that's happening now, with a tiny black caterpillar in a jar, in the back, that has been named Avery.

It seems that Kate and Ev crossed paths with Avery yesterday afternoon around 3 pm. After introductions were made, the girls set out to " make him a home" and "keep him safe". Les and I were busy painting so I couldn't really supervise much at all. I do know that Avery's new domicile involved rocks, chalk, flowers, water and paper (Ev's contribution of course). By the time I got out to look at Avery, around 5 pm, it seemed to me that he was already ummmm, traumatized and on his way out of this realm of existence.

I found a jar anyway. Put him in there. With his paper and flowers.

And now? I am dreading the moment that Ev wants to go check on him. He will be nothing but a tiny corpse.

Maybe?

Maybe it won't be that bad. She did just say that "Avery sure was tired yesterday!" "Or maybe hurt but probably tired" . 

I might just play it off like Avery was tired and is in a deep deep sleep. (The Big Sleep- but I may not clarify what that means).

This does mean that one night very soon ( before the rot starts) that I will be out there in my backyard, in the dark, secreting away the tiny remains of my daughter's friend.

Why, Avery? Why?

The Bean Giveth and The Taketh Away

I forgot to take a picture and I should have because the best part of my Mother's Day was the gift I got from Ev. It was a red, sparkly Christmas bag, filled up with various treasures. It had a wrench, a bit of scotch tape, a plastic jewel or two, several bits of paper with different meanings, a receipt, and a tiny screw driver: a typical Evelyn gift then. It also had the sweetest hand written card that said : "To Mama From Evelyn Dillon Like, Evelyn Dillon".
All was well in our little kingdom. I had my gift bag and it was being kept in the "place of honor" in the dining room. It stayed there until last night, when the poo hit the fan around here.
You see, I must explain. Ev has, for the first time in her life, become a picky eater. A vocal and picky eater. Now I have very little patience with this - it's true. I have handled this sitch-ee-ay-shun very well for a couple of weeks, I have just tried to be patient, cut out all sugary and junk treats- hoping that she would right herself.
She outlasted me.
Last night I had the unmitigated gall to put a schmear of refried beans on her taco.
I KNOW!!!!
Well, this resulted in what we now call "The Refried Bean Incident of 2010".  A far as my ability to loose my grip goes, this was nothing because, shortly after she uttered the words "I DO NOT like this. With THESE beans" - you know the tone of voice she used? Well let's just say it was perfectly accompanied by a turned up nose and a defiant toss of the head.
Now the OLD me would have lost it completely and yelled and.....other things .Last night I just looked at Les and said "you better handle this".
She seemed unrepentant after a talk with Papa. The offending taco sat there cooling.
I looked at her and said "girl you might want to get somewhere else right now because I am mad and getting madder. Please go up to your room so I don't end up yelling at you for an hour. Let me calm down"
She went up.
I calmed down.
Les negotiated a treaty.
A few minutes later she said sweetly "mama did you notice? Where is your gift?"
The red sparkly bag of goodies was gone.
Revoked.
She was mad at me too, so she took her gift back. Smugly.

With good behavior I earned it back this morning around 10:30 am. I am glad because I desperately needed that old Dairy Queen receipt.

All Things Boy

First of all- let's take a look at the boy in question. Not a new picture but cute all the same.

We now have a legitimate excuse for robots....

and penny racers.....

oh! and dump trucks!

Ray Guns!!!!

And things hand-made with not a hint of pink!

How fun is this? ALOT of fun. I have found that I love the clothes for girls best but the toys for boys? Better than "girl stuff" any day! 

Now alot of these toys are things that were bought for Ev( 'casue I'm all about breaking gender roles) and now Liam gets to play with them. Let's just say he will not be getting her hand me down clothes ! ha!

Right. Mother's Day Did Happen....

On Sunday I spent the day.....wait for it........
Cleaning closets! Yes!!! How lucky am I?
No, that was NOT sarcasm. I was really and truly happy to be  re-organizing closets. Why? Because it was to get Liam all moved in!!
Was there something, anything better than that? Finally being able to make real changes in our home that reflect the fact that we have a boy coming?
Early morning and mid-morning AND early afternoon passed with no one here even mentioning that it was Mother's Day. At lunch time Les mentioned that he had been pulling my gift together.
He had tickets for the three of us to go to Grease!
The tickets were for last night so that was our "official" celebration.
We all got dressed up. We went out for obscene amounts of sushi.
We got to the show.
It was Ev's first play/show and also her first real "Big" night out with us.
We had so much fun together.
It was perfect. I loved every minute.