Conversations with Lucy (and a note about some new posts)

I have a large backlog of Conversations with Lucy (TM) to share, so I'll try to get some down while I have a minute.

Back around Easter, there was much cause for confusion:

Lucy: What do we celebrate when we celebrate Easter?
Me: Well, the Easter bunny comes.
Lucy: No, what do we CELEBRATE?
Me: Uh, well, for some people, it's about Jesus.
Lucy (without missing a beat): Why are there eggs?  What do eggs have to do with Jesus?  Were they his favorite food?





Anyone want to jump in on that one?  I mean, it's pretty late now, but, maybe for next year?  The conversation continued from there, with this:

Lucy: Who brings the eggs?
Me: Uh, who do you think?
Lucy: Santa Claus!
Me (totally befuddled by this): Why do you say that?
Lucy: How can a bunny carry a basket?

All I can think of is David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day and his hilarious "The rabbit of Easter.  He bring of the chocolate" when he finds out that in France, a big bell flies in from Rome to deliver Easter delights to the children.  If you've never read that story before, I highly recommend it.

So I've taken a little time to go back and fix up some old posts, and while doing that, I discovered a couple of unpublished drafts that never actually went live.  One of them is just a tiny kitchen update, which you can read here:
http://www.thischarmingoldhouse.blogspot.com/2013/02/so-it-took-us-few-years.html

And the other is a much more detailed story of my trip to Savannah, with lots of pictures, which you can read here:
http://www.thischarmingoldhouse.blogspot.com/2013/02/notes-from-savannah.html

Spring semester was really insanely busy, with lots of unexpected things happening; I talked about that a bit in my long April post about the very bad week, which was really mostly a very bad month; in general, it seemed like the world was upside down and I never found a moment to sit and write.  Most of the time, I try to post the new things at the top, and I haven't backdated entries before.  But these ones just seemed to belong in their chronological place, so that's where I put them.  I know regular readers might miss them otherwise, so that's why this note is here.

Things I've been meaning to blog about, and the things that have kept me from doing that blogging

There are numerous blog entries in my head that need to get out here, but there hasn't been enough time. For the past 16 hours, I've been on the phone dealing with the disaster that is having your wallet stolen. Lame! Actually, it's going fairly well, given that it's a crappy thing to happen. Here's what I've done:
*ordered a new driver's license ($25)
*canceled debit card
*canceled three different credit cards (which also cancels Jake's cards -- kind of a hassle!)
*filed police report
*called campus security (they'll give me a new ID for free since I filed the police report)
*called CVS about a gift card (actually, their customer service was AWESOME and they are sending me a new card)
*put a fraud alert on my profile with all the credit agencies
*looked through trash cans at the place it was stolen (grossness, and to no avail)

I didn't lose much money in the whole deal, which is a relief, but dealing with it has been such a time suck. And I'm guessing the grabber probably took the money and tossed the wallet (apparently pretty common, and there has been no activity on any of the cards). There's a bunch more cards I still have to deal with, but none of them critical (library card, zoo membership, health insurance, AAA, prescription card, union card, etc.) so I'll be listening to a lot of hold music in the next few days, I'm sure. Sigh.

So those other things I've been meaning to blog:

Lucy is potty-trained. We started last Friday with an intensive weekend of mostly staying home so that we were always close. Against my previous wishes/hopes/plans, we ended up going with a treat-reward system. She gets an M&M for a successful potty use. There is a more complicated system for particular forms of, uh, elimination, with a higher ratio of treats (2M&Ms PLUS a jellybean!). Friday and Saturday went pretty well. On Sunday, we went for some seriously advanced action: we went to Boston for the day. Aside from one accident, all went well, even with strange restrooms. We actually brought the potty seat in the trunk. So far this week, she has had success for two days at school: she has come home in the same underwear & pants that she went to school in. This is victory. Wow! Still doing diapers for nap and bedtime, but still, this is big. She's not even 18!

There's more, but not more time at the moment. Happy Spring to all!

Updates and Conversations with Lucy (TM)

It is Spring Break here at 83 Durant Street, which doesn't mean all that much -- or at least, doesn't mean a trip to Bermuda or other sunny climes. On the up side, it does mean that things have warmed up a bit here, which is nice. The iceberg in our driveway has gotten a bit smaller, and the iceberg at the end of our driveway has nearly disappeared, so hopefully, someday soon, we will have the full range of parking options at the house. Woot!

The inspiration to write today comes from Lucy, namely, today's hilarious Conversations with Lucy (TM). After I picked her up from school today, we went downtown to get her a haircut. We go to Angela Salon (91 East Merrimack Street, Lowell), which we love. They know her (and the whole family) and she enjoys it there. And it's totally reasonably priced, which, if you're aware of the frequency of haircuts needed amongst the hirsute members of our family, you know means something to our bottom-line budget. When we left with her bangs nicely trimmed, there were a lot of nicely-dressed office workers heading home on the street in downtown Lowell. We were walking behind a woman, and Lucy asked:

"Mom, do you have sticky-outy shoes?"

By this, she meant "high heels." I thought that "sticky-outy shoes" is the best Lucy-ism I had heard in a while, and so obviously, I needed to post. And yes, by the way, I do own a few pairs of sticky-outy shoes.

This evening, when I put her to bed, Lucy asked out of the blue:

"Mom, do I have stink waves coming off of me?"

She had just had a bath, so I really didn't notice an offending odor, but I did think the question a bit odd, until I remembered that she and Jake had been listening to the audio book of The Witches by Roald Dahl, which totally explains her concern regarding stink-waves.

The other exciting update is that Lucy successfully used the potty this evening after her bath. This represents a huge milestone, as for sometime now, she has screamed bloody murder at the mere mention of using the potty or wearing big girl underwear. Her daycare teacher told me last week that in her twenty years of experience with kids, she has never encountered a potty training challenge like the one our daughter has been presenting. We always knew she was exceptional. It's good to have that feeling validated.

What was particularly impressive was how thoroughly she had reasoned things out regarding her choice to use diapers instead of the potty. She had an answer to every objection an adult could pose.

Adult: But Lucy when are you going to use the potty?
Lucy: When I'm eighteen! I will wear big-kid diapers! They have them at CVS!

Lucy: I want to be Super Girl for Halloween next year!
Adult: Lucy, you know, Super Girl wears underwear, not diapers.
Lucy (after thinking for a moment): I will be Baby Super Girl.

Adult: Lucy, why don't you want to use the potty?
Lucy: It's uncomfortable.
Adult: Having a diaper rash is more uncomfortable.
Lucy: When you use the potty, you get a potty rash. All over your body.

There was no reasoning with her. After a nuclear meltdown this evening, we had potty success, and then she was riding high on the excitement. She still wore a diaper to bed, but she said (on her own) that she wanted to use the potty in the morning and wear big kid underwear to school. We'll see how that goes. Fingers crossed. Maybe legs, too.

February's Post

So we've fallen woefully behind on the blogging; sorry, readers. Things have been busy here, mostly with the ills of February, by which I mean both the nasty weather and the illnesses that seem to have dominated this month. Ugh. We've had way too much snow, and way too many illnesses, including the flu, strep throat, scarlet fever, and cabin fever. Blargh!

In between illnesses, we did manage to have some visits: Grandma came for President's Day weekend and Phuc & Sue & Phoebe were here this weekend. Good times!

There have been a lot of hilarious Conversations with Lucy (TM) lately, but I can't recall the specifics of any great ones at the moment. But a new thing she has started to do is to introduce things she wants to tell us by saying "I read on my computer...." which is pretty funny. Apparently she has two computers (a blue one and a pink one) and the computer tells her all sorts of things, like what the weather will be and that she can have Hershey kisses for dessert. Computer says yes!

I write today in eager anticipation of the Academy Awards, also known around here as "Carter's Big Night." He's excited to see all his buddies, and he has his acceptance speech ready. C'mon, look at this picture:


He totally deserves the Oscar.

Good Grief!

Well, 2011 is off to a dismal start in terms of blogging. Blargh. But a quick update on what we've done so far since last year:
-Flew out West for family & work obligations. Ran out of diapers on the plane (not because I didn't pack a totally reasonable number of diapers). Yikes.
-Did a bunch of stuff for work that took a long time. Blargh.
-Hung out with family & friends in WA. Hooray!
-Recovered (mostly) from the various sicknesses that plagued all three of us at various times on the trip. Achoo.
-Returned, not-so-triumphantly, to find our house snowed in under 18 inches of snow. Crazy.
-Shoveled, not terribly well, in order to make the way safe for the delivery of mail and necessary entry/exit to the car. Exhausted.
-Now awaiting another butt load of snow. Yes, I wrote "butt load." It's a technical term for the amount of snow here. Seriously.
-Got the car fixed, or maybe not. It's entirely possible that they did absolutely nothing at the shop. We are suspicious.
-Went to work to find a complete and utter lack of any normal resources that one might find at work, such as: an office, a copier, a mailbox, a working e-mail account. Blarg.
-Listened to knock-knock jokes made up by Lucy. They made pretty much no sense, but were nonetheless delivered with glee, and thus amusing. Hee hee.

That's all I can manage for now, but know that we've been busy with the traveling and the returning and the oh gee where did the semester break go already now I have to go. Ack!

Updates of Various Sorts

This will be a bit of an update pot-luck, containing the bits and pieces I've been meaning to write for a while:

Paint Update:

Quite some time ago, we blogged about the array of paints we found in the basement. While my mom was here, we got around to doing something about those cans of paint that we will surely never use, like the hot pink that was once in the (now blue) living room, the bright orange that was in the basement, and several other random cans of unknown origin. There were a few that were dried out, so they went to the trash. Then there were several that had paint in them, so we used mom's solution of drying them out using sand. Grandma and Lucy had a very regular job for several days that involved checking on the paint cans. Lucy LOVED this and was very diligent about bringing sand around and checking on the cans VERY often. Today, Grandma would be happy to hear, the painted was deemed dry by local authorities (me) and the sandy-paint cans went out to the trash. Hooray! A job well done.


Infestation Update:

I don't know how or why this happened, but the three plants in our bathroom have become infested with some manner of tiny, flying bugs. It got so bad, I moved them all outside, as I'm not so keen on bugs inside the house. We've had the plants for quite some time. One is a Christmas cactus that Jake got me on our first Valentine's day, one is a spider plant we inherited from Jess when she moved across the ocean, and the third is a leafy guy that one of our neighbors gave us when we moved in here. About a month ago, I re-potted all of them in nice, new, matching blue pots that I got at Target. Could it be that the soil was infested? Any suggestions, readers? I liked having plants there, but (call me species-ist) I'm really not in favor of supporting an insect habitat indoors. Here they are, sadly outside, waiting for further action:


Seating update:

A while back, as documented in a photo from this post, Jake purchased two Adirondack chairs at our local Ace Hardware. He put them together a while ago, but they were bare wood, and we thought some paint or stain would be a good idea. Grandma to the rescue again: while we were off in New Hampshire getting away for an overnight, she gave our new chairs a good coating of stain/protectant. So now we have two quite lovely folding Adirondack chairs for the next time you come visit us!
Additionally, we should note that our new walls, both out front and out back, provide pretty awesome (if hard) seating, should you wish to visit us and rest your feet.

Garden Update:

Between the building of the wall, our various travels, and the lack of rain lately, our garden has not been doing so well. Lucy did just harvest a small array of tiny tomatoes:

They were delicious, and also kept Lucy busy with the picking, arranging, cleaning, and distributing of them. But other than that, there's not a whole lot going on in the garden. That's OK. Our CSA farm share has been terrific, and the local farmers' markets have been bursting with goodness. Tonight, Jake made a tremendous dinner of super-fresh local ingredients, including corn on the cob, a lovely green salad w/ ingredients from our CSA, and absolutely amazing omelets featuring eggs from Matt & Mary. Have we mentioned our friends Matt & Mary? Well, they are awesome. They have chickens (5 of them) in their yard, and they share the eggs with us. They're away for a few days, so we're minding the chickens. This means we get lots of eggs. They are awesome and amazing and delicious. YUM!
By the way, the tomato omelet is topped with Jake's home-made herbed creme fraiche. YUM!

Media Update:

During our travels, our friends recommended a variety of fabulous television shows, movies, and blogs that we think deserve mention here.

First and foremost, we are now officially fans of the fabulous British sitcom, The IT Crowd (thank you, Tamara!). There are three seasons, all available on Netflix to watch instantly. They are funny. As Jake IS the IT department at his office, so he has many opportunities to experience some of the scenarios in the show. Also, Season 3, Episode 5 features a plotline involving "FriendFace" that totally explains why I am not on Facebook. [I'm not. Don't ask me to join. Jake's on if you want to poke him or whatever it is you people do on the Facebook with your Interwebs.]

My new favorite blog is Hyperbole and a Half. This might not be appropriate for some readers, but it is very, very funny. And often quite dark. Just as we like it. The new pain rating scale located here, is one of my very favorites. Be forewarned, there is some language that may offend some readers. And some shocking images rendered in childish cartoon drawings.

In recent movie releases, while at the beach, we went to see Inception. It was very enjoyable, and worth seeing on the big screen. These days we tend to wait until movies are out on DVD so we can watch them at home, thus saving on the babysitter front. We've been burned too often by the likes of Wolverine to get a sitter for a movie with questionable reviews. Fellow parents, I decree, Inception is babysitter-worthy.

In recent DVD releases, while at my brother's house, we watched Star Trek -- the one from last year with Chris Pine as Kirk and Eric Bana as the baddie, and Winona Ryder as Spock's mother (WHOA!). Some of you may be aware of my Star Trek issues. For those of you unaware and those who need a refresher, here is the deal: when my Mom was going into labor with me, my Dad told her to wait until the episode of Star Trek he was watching was over, and then he would take her to the hospital so she could give birth to their first child (me). I am not kidding. I've not quite managed to forgive him or Spock for this choice. So I'm not a big fan. My brother, on the other hand, can safely be referred to as a Trekkie. I mean, he owns the latest Star Trek film, and most of the other ones (feel free to correct me here, Brendan) and (I believe) various items signed by various members of casts of the various Star Trek franchises. Despite my misgivings, we sat down to watch Star Trek on Brendan's considerably large television. It was good. Very good. We thoroughly enjoyed it. As has happened previously with breakfast sandwiches and cream cheese, I have learned that the things I once despised and mocked are actually pretty good. I stand corrected.

That's the media round-up for today. Readers, feel free to suggest additional films, TV shows, blogs or Twitter feeds that we should be watching so that we can catch up with the rest of the world.