Another small fan.

About a week ago, I noticed that the bedtime routine between Mommy and Mozart had lengthened.  I found myself wondering if she started reading Harry Potter to him. I had no real reason to suspect this, aside from her unwavering love for all things Harry Potter.  I mean, I knew it would happen sometime, but I thought it would be when he was closer to seven.  I listened to snippets of story telling from in the room, but nothing seemed to suggest anything out of the norm.

My suspicions have been confirmed over the last week, however, when Mozart began wanting to "fly 'round the house."  When he, out of the blue, yells, "Gryffindor!" at the top of his lungs and when the following conversation occurs:


Mozart: I just wanna play magic. I need a magic wand.
Mommy: You have to be 11 to have a magic wand.
Mozart: I am 11.
Mommy: Not yet. You need to turn 3, and then 4, and then 5, and then 6, and then 7, and then, well all the way up to 11.
Mozart: No. I wanna play magic. Turn me into 11.
Mommy (attempting with all her might to lock the window): Oh, Farqwod.
Mozarti: Oh, God.
Both moms laugh hysterically for several minutes.
Mozart: You did it Mommy? You gonna turn my hat in a toad? 
And so it goes...

Sister Crime Boss Speaks Again.

As I was writing about the bat, I was reminded of how fascinated Sister Crime Boss was about the first incident.  Today, when I updated her that we are again awaiting the results of rabies testing, she said that she hopes it turns out ok.  I misunderstood and thought she meant that she hopes the bat is ok.  I reminded her that the bat has certainly met its demise due to the testing.

Her response?  "Oh, good."  And then to clarify, "I'm a lover of all creatures great and small, but it a bat came around, that's it."

As a reminder, she prefers freezing them to death rather than anything less pleasant.

Bats, Cats, and Gym Rats

The other night The Wife was making a horrible racket - I was more than a little put off by being woken, but snapped awake when she said, "Something is in the house!"

I jump out of bed in a daze and follow her.  She grabs a shoe. I think, that doesn't make sense, but ok, we don't have any baseball bats, so she could throw a shoe...  My heart was apoundin' as I trail her, armed with that shoe, from room to room and downstairs.  Finding nothing, we head back to bed.  Me somewhat perplexed and her saying, "I am not hallucinating!"

'Course, I did think she was hallucinating or at least that her imagination was a bit overactive.  I went back to sleep and thought not of the incident again.

Until the next night, when, shortly after I'd gotten to sleep, I am once again not-so-gently roused, and this time she was saying in a voice somewhere between a whisper and a scream, "I saw it, there is a bat, get up, GET UP, you have to get the BAT!"

I jump out of bed and follow her.  Again.  Now I recall the shoe from the night before and it suddenly makes more sense - not an intruder, but a much smaller thing.  I follow her, but this time I find myself in the lead.

I look in the bathroom.

Nothing.

I ruffle the curtains.

Nothing.

I go in the spare bedroom.

Ack!  There is a bat hanging out on the wall!  I shut myself in the room with the thing and instruct TW to go immediately and get a Tupperware.  She does, gives it to me, and leaves me alone with the little creature.

It is a stand-off.  I swear that thing was eyeing me.

Nonetheless, I gathered my courage (I may have shrieked once or twice before gathering it) and miraculously got the Tupperware over it.

We debated  just letting the thing go, but remembered the warnings from DPH before and kept the poor thing to turn over to animal control for rabies testing.   Hopefully the results will come back with less suspense than last time.  The animal control guy did say that there hasn't been a case of bat rabies in two years, so that is somewhat reassuring.  I will update on this if testing comes back positive, but otherwise just assume we are in the clear again.

On to other things.  Namely CATS.  So, if you've been reading past posts, you know that BatCat and Stubby have been expelled from the house and are now porch kitties.  I can't recall if I mentioned that I made them a cat house.  I am extremely proud of said cat house:

Do you see how I built it directly into the porch.  It was big enough for both cats and was fully insulated so that it would be a proper shelter come winter.

Well, turns out - and I guess I knew it all along - these two cats can barely tolerate each other.  And BatCat, formerly known as Bitchy Queen, will have none of this sharing business that was suggested by having only one house.  She would sit inside and should Stubby, also known as Scaredy Cat, get anywhere near the door, a yowling fest would occur.

So I had to remake the cat house.  I should have done it this way in the beginning - with two door.  Would have been so much better for the remake, but I just wanted them to be the warmest, and two cats huddled would be much warmer than one cat huddled.  So I got to work.  I had some leftover board from the first project, so all I had to do was get more trim and something for the cat doors (missing piece from the last one).  The boards weren't long enough for the whole facade, so I had to saw and refashion it to make it long enough and accommodate doors.  Then once the facade was done I had to redo the insulation on the inside so that instead of one long house, it was two smaller houses.  I'd planned on spending two or so hours on the project.  I spent 8.5 hours on it.

But Voila!


Not bad, if I do say so myself.  You can see that BatCat is turning up her nose at it, but by morning she had gotten her act together and had made herself at home in the right kitty condo.

I don't know where Stubby is keeping warm, but at least now I can be assured that he has a proper shelter should he choose to use it.

And on a final note: I am back at the gym. Hallelujah! It has been two full months now and I've gone every morning, M-F, and only missed one day from being sick.  Mozart is finally sleeping in the morning long enough that I can sneak out before he stirs and then I get back just about the time he wakes up.  This was foiled only once, and I packed him up in the stroller and walked to the gym where he stayed while I did my weights and then we walked back.  That, of course, won't happen in the snow, but that was an especially accomplished morning.  And the other gym rats thoroughly enjoyed him.  They now ask about him regularly.

And best of all.  I feel great!

Less than five minutes:

"I am a MONSTERRRRR! No! I am a Wise Old Owl. Costume not on - I gonna wear it."
Get's distracted.
"This is my mail truck." 
He emits an extremely loud squeal/scream/rawr. 
"That's a big sound. That was a big sound right there. It was. Mama, Mama, Mama! Carry my Cycle Mot - No!" 
He picks up his ride-on and puts it on the couch. 
"I am putting up on couch. There, put it up my couch. My motorcycle big. I better fix it. Get that. Get my tool thing."
He looks at me and touches the bottom of the computer.
"That's hot. I wanna watch Nana, Grandad 'puter. I better fix my motorcycle."
Moves toy work bench next to ride-on.
"There. See. It's next to motorcycle. I can fix with you. I fixing house. Make a mess. Santa Clause is watching me fix. I fix the door off. Whoaoa! I love fixing. There."
Takes out stacking block and starts putting them on work work bench.
"Now things go here, here, here, and here."
And it goes on...

Toddler News.

Mozart's new words today are: "Hedgehog" as in, "That hedgehog gonna be cute."  And Amazing, as in "Yook! That truck is AMAZING!"

His new idea for the day: "We gotta go home, make cookies.  They for Santa."

The thing that made him screech when I forgot what we agreed on: When ordering pizza (we were running late tonight), I dared to order delivery instead of pick-up, "So we can go to pizza house, get pizza, yeah!!"

The most frequent denial of late: "It not dark out right now."  

The cat that caught the canary.

That would be BatCat.  Camouflaged within the leaves that had blown onto our porch, was a bright yellow bird.  Feet up and long gone.  BatCat was looking at me, expecting praise, I imagine, as she gets when she brings a mouse.  I couldn't look at her.

Poor Tweetie.

Life with a two-year-old.

We started the day delayed and showed up at the the coffee house for breakfast with all of us starvin'.  We made our order and got a piece of sweet potato pie for immediate consumption.  Mozart wanted a brownie, but we'd tried to pick the most nutritious item in the case.  As it is given to us, he screeches, "NO! I want brownie!"  Mommy explains, "No brownies for breakfast.  You don't have to eat it, we will."  To which he screeches louder, "NOOO! My potato pie!"  He consumed the whole thing.

While breakfast was generally enjoyable, the lack of prompt food (and caffeine) generally put all of us in kind of a sour state.  We'd hoped to go to Mike's Maze, but between the non-listening skills and increased occurrence of the whine that happened during our morning errands, we opted to go home to nap instead.  On waking, we were all feeling much better and set out for the Pumpkin Fest.  Mozart got to ride a real school bus for the first time for the shuttle.  Both TW and I were amazed at how small the seats and aisles were, and were taken back to memories of childhood.  We had good times.  Mozart was recognized by more people than we were.  Popular kid.  We had pumpkin fries and pumpkin pizza.  We ran into Prancer, who we'd lost track of for a month or so.  It was good.  Then we caught the shuttle back.

Mozart, ever so excited to be getting on a bona fide school bus AGAIN, announces: "We are back!"
And then he put his hand directly on a young lady's breast and gave it a full groping.
I apologized profusely and whisked him along as fast as I could.

Now at the back of the bus, we were chatting with the folks in the next seat up.  Mozart took my finger and stuck it into his nose.  The lady I talking to guffaws, as I note that I've told him not to pick his nose, and then tell him that nobody should pick his nose, ever, unless in the bathroom.

Dinosaur bites and other ailments.

The other day when I picked up Mozart, he pointed out an owie on his arm.  It looked worrisome.  I don't know that it would have looked worrisome had his little friend, Goose, not come down with a staff infection earlier in the week.  But Mme. Child sent me a photo and the owie looked suspiciously similar - angry red with a whitehead in the middle.  I called the after hours line for the doctor and described it.  Got the advice to put antibiotic cream on it and to make an appointment the next day.

Meanwhile what Mozart had been describing as his "bug bite" got promoted to his "dinosaur bit".

I just love this kid.  He hears that we seem to be more concerned about something than his usual owie - generally bug bites, and so obviously, what he has must be something much more serious!

But then, fast forward to going to seen doctor the next day.  He was very impressed with his band-aid (Elmo characters) all morning long, but when the doctor asked him why he came in he says, with a very serious tone, "I just got this cough from Kiki's."

Really?  I mean, I did notice that he had been a little congested, but from the moment he said "dinosaur bite" all he talked about was going to the doctor to have it checked!

So I pointed out the owie, which did look better by then, and the doctor said that maybe it was and maybe it wasn't staff, but it was too early to tell.  In the end, Mozart stayed home from Kiki's, the owie resolved itself with the OTC antibiotic cream and no script needed, and true to his prediction Mozart developed a little cough that turned into a bit of a bigger cough over the weekend.

He seems to be feeling better.  I now seem to have acquired his little cough.  So with that, I will turn in early and try mightily to kick this little cough to the curb.

The power of sleep.

Mozart wore me out.  I am only now recovering after more than 24 hours.

He did not nap while at daycare on Tuesday.  The plan HAD been to swoop in, pick him up, have dinner and head to the Y.  There is free childcare on Tuesday nights, he loves it, and it give me some extra time at the gym for myself.

They say something about the best made plans...  I don't think they had what followed in mind.  I feel like what they had in mind would have been much more positive.

The daycare provider calls Mozart (and other kids) "ugly" when describing the behavior and nastiness that only toddlers can exhibit.  Well, lemme tell ya, he was UGLY on Tuesday.  It started when he wanted to stop by my office, which we do sometimes, but this was not in the schedule.  The screaming commenced.  And did not stop.  It continued all the way home, into the house, through a time out, and even past the time TW got home.  As I say, first it was the office NOW, then it was going to the Y NOW, certainly NOT going home for dinner, then it was having a snack NOW, with TV - and NOW!  The kid was just coming apart at the seams.  I decided, since the time out didn't work, we would try a time in.  This sometimes works when a kid feels so out of sorts.

It didn't.

Thank-fully, TW did come home early and put together his dinner.  By that time it was clear that he just needed to go to bed.  Somehow we got him to be calm enough to sit at the table.  And even got a laugh out of him every once in awhile - but the tantrum was constantly threatening.

I was frazzled, he was fragile, and we all needed a break.  TW brought out some elderberry syrup for him.  He was thrilled.  He loves the stuff, and says, "I do need my medicine!"  And so I asked him what kind of medicine he needs, thinking he's say something that referred to the syrup.  Instead I got a blank stare, and so, well... I told him he needed a tranquilizer.*  He repeated that very funny sounding word several times with some approximation to the proper pronunciation.  I tell you, it's funny to hear a kid say, "I need my tranquilizer now."  

After dinner he was brought up to bed and I got to get away to the gym for a bit.  He slept very soundly and was in a much better space yesterday!

* Just a note that while we joke that he needs a tranquilizer (sometimes a bear tranquilizer), we have never and will never give him such a thing!

Procurement, prepping and putting up - or tossing out *sigh*

What?! Are you kidding?  The weekend is over??  But I didn't even digest the week yet!

Seriously, this working full time business is tiring.  And much more tiring when one is attempting to manage a two year old and four CSA's.  The food procurement, prepping and putting up is about doing me in.  It was before my hours got bumped up, but now...  I'm just trying not to let things rot or otherwise go to waste.  At least it's going to the compost and not into a landfill, but still, not ideal.  We have to rethink some of this business.

The fish went to waste last week.  There was just too much.  They made a mistake and had packaged the portions too small, so they gave us two packages of ... whatever it was last week, I think it was haddock.  Very good, but just too much - even with having company over.

Today I put another 7 or so lbs of apples into the dehydrator - only lost three or so pounds to rot.  Have another 10 lbs that we got on Wednesday.   If I'm still standing at the end of the day tomorrow, I may make more sauce.

But the veggies.  Oh, Lord, they are going to waste.  Two eggplants, a squash, three tomatoes (the last of the season - oh, come on!), two heads of lettuce... the list goes on, I'm sure, with things haven't yet unearthed.

The meat, thank goodness, all comes frozen.  And it does seem to be just about the right amount for what we use.

The bright side for the week/end? I've gotten into the swing of things with my kefir production.  So much so that I have frozen some grains and am drying some. Yesterday I learned how to make sauerkraut - if I can just get to that cabbage before it turns.  I made mayonnaise today.  And ranch dressing with that mayonnaise and kefir (in lieu of buttermilk).

I do not have the work I was supposed to get done for work done this weekend, but I feel a bit justified as I worked two and a half hours over on Friday and the task for this particular project was very late in the getting.  So here I go.  Off to another week.  I've a feeling 5am will be coming all too soon...