I've been in a funk for the past couple of days. The up-side of this is that the kids have been re-learning how to play together without expecting intervention every time they have a conflict. Some days this re-learning is difficult, but this weekend has actually been rather nice. They've played lots of new games together and have been having pleasant conversations about all sorts of things.
This morning I was lying in my bed considering getting up it was, after all, nearly noon. Tim was in the shower and the kids were playing in their room across the hall. The advantage to being in bed at 11:45 is that they think I'm in a coma and don't pay any attention to me. You hear very interesting things when nobody thinks you are listening. Like this one:
Matthew: I think it must have evaporated!
Mara: No it didn't.
Matthew: What is evaporated, anyway?
Mara: That's when things turn to water vapor, like steam, and they go into the atmosphere. That's evaporated.
Matthew: So it could have evaporated.
Mara: No it didn't. I'm telling you! Only water evaporates!
I could have interrupted the magic to find out what "it" was (and to clarify that water is not the only thing that evaporates) but that would have wrecked the whole thing. Ahaha, but it is possible to ask now. So I just did. Apparently they were discussing a piece of paper that had disappeared.
Mara just now, exasperated: "And Matthew kept asking, what evaporates what evaporates, so I had to explain about water evaporates"
Matthew, just now, elated: "And then I said did paper evaporate?"
So that explains it. I can't get my brain wrapped around these kids. Really I can't. And yes, I am still in a funk. And no, I don't want to talk about it. And no, I am not mad at you. Any of you. Except maybe Dan. Nahhh, he is too tall to be mad at....
Oh, if you knit and are either a) close to NYC, or b) have the ability to travel to NYC on March 22nd, you should check out Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's website -- she is aka the Yarn Harlotand she is planning a giant book premiere and Knit-in for her next book just to show the world that there ARE knitters enough to warrant booking a big hall. Go read the entry called "Represent" and that will clarify what I'm talking about.
I'm pretty certain I can't make it because it's a Wednesday and that's just too tricky, also too expensive, though I would sure stay with you and have a ball, Debowah! So you may have to round up some of your funky friends and go in my place! I would LOVE to be there for this one. She is amazing!
And that's that.
Yesterday I registered Matthew for kindergarten. Sigh.
I am so proud of him and I am so glad he's going to be ready for this next step.
But.
You know. This is it. My baby is leaving me. My last baby. Who is, of course, not a baby at all anymore. Sigh.
The visit to Boston was mostly good. I missed the snow on the way home, thankfully, but I had kinda paid my dues on the way to Utica. Lovely to see my friends and deliver the huge bag of hand-me-downs for Rosie-Posie, but part of me wishes I'd just mailed all the stuff. That was one stupid trip! On the plus side, we now know for sure that the van handles very well in the snow. And I also learned what those idiotic rumble strips are for on the side of the road. Not because I was falling asleep, but because I was being very daring and driving at 40 mph in the crazy snow from Buffalo to Utica in the dark. That was not pleasant at all!
But terrific to see my mommy and my sister. I think she was a little overwhelmed by having us both there together. Actually, I don't think that, I know it for sure because by Saturday evening she was already lying on the bed curled up in a fetal position wailing, "I can handle them separately, but they're just too much together!" (And I'd only been there about three hours!)
It was very cute and very pathetic and she is going to kill me for posting it here. But I feel the same way about the two of them, so I hope she will cope and realize that I post with love and a desire for accuracy. You know accuracy is important.
Deb, I did contemplate calling you on my way home on Monday and asking if you could have lunch, but driving into Manhattan just for lunch when I still had another 12 hours to go seemed even dumber than the whole trip (which was pretty dumb by itself). I really would have loved to see you though -- and I STILL haven't ever seen New York City, so it was very tempting indeed.
I also considered asking Meg if I could invite you to the shower, but I pretty much anticipated that Mom and I were going to be stressful enough without the added bonus of another big sister to help us sing "Stairway to Heaven" -- you know that famous hit by Def Lepard... [Now she's really gonna kill me.... Hee hee. Kisses little sister!] I also don't know where you would have slept because Mom and I were taking up the futon and the cats were on the sofa.
Matthew's Magic Schoolbus video is almost over, so I need to go give him some attention now. Hope you are all well, and thanks for all the positive vibes while I was driving. Now start thinking thoughts of spring, because we are tired of ice!