I Can See Five...
Dec. 11th, 2005 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liralenIn just the last two weeks Jet's undergone some kind of transformation. He's sleeping all night, most nights. He's being tremendously polite, saying the "Please" and "Thank You" and even "You're welcome" like he did much more of when he was two. He's starting, again, to experiment a little with what foods he's eating, taking to canned peaches and trying half a dozen things that he hasn't liked, but I'm just amazed and happy that he TRIES them.
I'm amazed. We talk about things, now, and he tells jokes and we have a lot more fun on our days "off" together than before.
Friday we mostly watched cartoons in the morning, played a bit with John's Lego train (after Jet had to call Dad to ask if it was okay to play with Dad's train), and then in the afternoon we went shopping for Dad. Okay, so nearly every shelf was a "Can we buy this for me?" but the one thing that I couldn't get Jet to relinquish was a little notebook with a cardboard cover and snap. Something I would have wanted, and he's been writing so much, lately, it seemed right to give it to him.
Yeah. Writing. He's really, really into writing ever since that incident at the Discovery Store where he asked the counter girl for a pen and me for some paper and he started writing his Christmas list. He's now trying to write everything down in his little book, and he's taken one of my Pelikan roller ball pens to do it with. He likes swapping in and out different colors and really, really likes being able to write red with a green pen or blue with a yellow pen. The mismatch makes him giggle.
We did get John a present.
Then we headed to "the tiny McDonald's" and had lunch where he was exceptionally well behaved and just sat with me and played with me for the meal. From there we hit Crackpots to make some gifts, and he loved "painting with Mom". Wow.
We then got home, and had dinner. I've been craving baked macaroni and cheese, so finally made it and it was solid enough with the new Barilla Plus macaroni (has spelt, legumes, and whole oats in the mix, so lots more fiber, protein, etc. than regular pasta) that we just had that and some vegetable and were good. Jet then went to Seven Oaks for a few hours, to have a little party with some friends and John and I did a bunch of Jet-related shopping. It was good to be able to do that. I really am glad that the pre-school does that. We also had a great dessert at a local Italian restaurant, and were back in plenty of time to wrap all of Jet's gifts and get them under the tree.
Saturday was mostly just sitting around the house until about 2. We just all did our own things, Jet mostly played with the train in his pajamas. I read all of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and squinted a little afterwards. It was an excellent example of a teenage book where now that I'm not a teenager I can squint at. I do have less patience than I used to with teenage angst and attitudes that I now think of as being stupid. So it is. There were some excellent bits. I do admit that I read every page of it, too.
At 2, Jet went off to a birthday party. John dropped him off, did some shopping, and then came home, and then we packed a bunch of warm clothing up and picked Jet up and went to the Longmont Christmas parade on Main Street. We bunched Jet up with his BIG coat that my Mom got him last year, his elbow length mittens from his cousin Marina, the Muppet scarf he'd asked for himself earlier this year, the fur ear flap hat Cathie and Walt gave him when he was a baby, and the wool socks I'd knit him a year ago. I had my big wool scarf, my down coat, and the fur hat.
"Mom... people die rabbits to wear their fur?" asked Jet.
"Yes, Jet."
"Why?" asked Jet
"Because the fur is very warm and soft."
"Why is the fur warm and soft?"
"I'm not sure, Jet, but I think it's because the fur hairs are very, very fine, and the hairs themselves are very smooth. Wool has barbs on the shaft, so wool can be very itchy, but rabbit fur doesn't have any of those barbs."
"Why doesn't it have any barbs, Mom?"
"I don't know, Jet."
"But why..."
And it went into a why rampage, but it was fun.
We sat on my scarf on the curb and it was enough insulation to make it bearable. The parade had ever cub scout pack and girl scout troop in the city, most of the schools, and a large number of businesses. The power company's truck was completely lit with a grid of lights that was pretty cool. I LOVED the garbage truck with the little lit tree on the arm. There were hair salons, realtor, and lots of small clubs that all had a contingent along with the local theater, which advertised their play for the winter on little handouts. I had packed a lot of hot chocolate, the non-chile version of the Dagoba hot chocolate and Jet and I sipped it to keep warm between bits.
It was a good forty-five minute parade with small candy breaks, bands from all the high schools, and plenty of small entertainments. The streets were lined with people.
The cool thing about living in a small town is nearly everyone was there, and we could recognize a few. Plus when the parade was over it only took us an extra ten minutes to get out instead of half an hour. We hit Saigon Express along with three other families, and the hot noodle soup was very, very welcome. Jet ate all of his and got an instant ice cream headache when he gulped his strawberry Boba. Me, too. My sinuses HURT when I drank it too fast.
Jet fell asleep on the way home, so he and I did the pajama thing when we got home. It took a lot longer for him to get to sleep, but that was okay.
John and I watched some TV, and went to bed. It's in the teens now, at night, so not quite as desperately cold in the night, but Jet was up at 4 am, complaining that his bed was cold, and he kicked me and turned and tossed for a good hour while I tried to go to sleep. I finally got to my bed at about 7, and slept like the dead for half an hour before I had to get up, shower, and get to church to make a ton of coffee for the choir's performance today. There were a lot more people in at church, early, than usual. So what coffee I did make got drunk a lot faster than I thought it would. But we had to leave before the service because Jet had an 11am birthday party to get to.
I went home and went to sleep. John took him to the party, did a few things. Dean was there, and took Jet home with him. Jet had a blast at the party and was the only boy, though he didn't really seem to notice that. Dean said that Jet was getting all the girl's phone numbers. He just had fun. His teacher had said that Jet was someone that seemed to be able to play with both the boys and the girls and
I guess this proved true. He then went to Mikayla's with Macy and the three of them had a blast until just about now.
I slept for three hours. Then I watched the Read or Die OVA. Wow. Nancy is cool. But I had to really wonder what happened to her for her to be as she is in the TV series. Yeesh. And Mr. Joker makes my head hurt now But so it is.
I feel like I've wasted the day, but it's actually been pretty good, all in all.
I finally did something I've been dreaming about and dug through my spice cabinet and found whole cinnamon, whole cloves, whole green cardamom pods, whole peppercorns, and whole dried ginger. I had to chop the dried ginger a little, but then I was able to make a pretty tasty chai spice blend, which I whirled in my spice grinder (an old coffee grinder that I don't use for coffee anymore) and following the World Spice chai instructions I made myself a sixteen ounce pot of rooiboos based chai that was quite good.
I'd bought a box of Fair Trade chai that was a complete disappointment. I'm happy that the farmers got their fair share of the proceeds, but I'm really disappointed in the quality of the tea and spices. Seems wrong that in order to do a fair deal I actually don't get good quality on my end of the deal. I'll likely toss it and just go with my own blend, now.
I'm amazed. We talk about things, now, and he tells jokes and we have a lot more fun on our days "off" together than before.
Friday we mostly watched cartoons in the morning, played a bit with John's Lego train (after Jet had to call Dad to ask if it was okay to play with Dad's train), and then in the afternoon we went shopping for Dad. Okay, so nearly every shelf was a "Can we buy this for me?" but the one thing that I couldn't get Jet to relinquish was a little notebook with a cardboard cover and snap. Something I would have wanted, and he's been writing so much, lately, it seemed right to give it to him.
Yeah. Writing. He's really, really into writing ever since that incident at the Discovery Store where he asked the counter girl for a pen and me for some paper and he started writing his Christmas list. He's now trying to write everything down in his little book, and he's taken one of my Pelikan roller ball pens to do it with. He likes swapping in and out different colors and really, really likes being able to write red with a green pen or blue with a yellow pen. The mismatch makes him giggle.
We did get John a present.
Then we headed to "the tiny McDonald's" and had lunch where he was exceptionally well behaved and just sat with me and played with me for the meal. From there we hit Crackpots to make some gifts, and he loved "painting with Mom". Wow.
We then got home, and had dinner. I've been craving baked macaroni and cheese, so finally made it and it was solid enough with the new Barilla Plus macaroni (has spelt, legumes, and whole oats in the mix, so lots more fiber, protein, etc. than regular pasta) that we just had that and some vegetable and were good. Jet then went to Seven Oaks for a few hours, to have a little party with some friends and John and I did a bunch of Jet-related shopping. It was good to be able to do that. I really am glad that the pre-school does that. We also had a great dessert at a local Italian restaurant, and were back in plenty of time to wrap all of Jet's gifts and get them under the tree.
Saturday was mostly just sitting around the house until about 2. We just all did our own things, Jet mostly played with the train in his pajamas. I read all of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and squinted a little afterwards. It was an excellent example of a teenage book where now that I'm not a teenager I can squint at. I do have less patience than I used to with teenage angst and attitudes that I now think of as being stupid. So it is. There were some excellent bits. I do admit that I read every page of it, too.
At 2, Jet went off to a birthday party. John dropped him off, did some shopping, and then came home, and then we packed a bunch of warm clothing up and picked Jet up and went to the Longmont Christmas parade on Main Street. We bunched Jet up with his BIG coat that my Mom got him last year, his elbow length mittens from his cousin Marina, the Muppet scarf he'd asked for himself earlier this year, the fur ear flap hat Cathie and Walt gave him when he was a baby, and the wool socks I'd knit him a year ago. I had my big wool scarf, my down coat, and the fur hat.
"Mom... people die rabbits to wear their fur?" asked Jet.
"Yes, Jet."
"Why?" asked Jet
"Because the fur is very warm and soft."
"Why is the fur warm and soft?"
"I'm not sure, Jet, but I think it's because the fur hairs are very, very fine, and the hairs themselves are very smooth. Wool has barbs on the shaft, so wool can be very itchy, but rabbit fur doesn't have any of those barbs."
"Why doesn't it have any barbs, Mom?"
"I don't know, Jet."
"But why..."
And it went into a why rampage, but it was fun.
We sat on my scarf on the curb and it was enough insulation to make it bearable. The parade had ever cub scout pack and girl scout troop in the city, most of the schools, and a large number of businesses. The power company's truck was completely lit with a grid of lights that was pretty cool. I LOVED the garbage truck with the little lit tree on the arm. There were hair salons, realtor, and lots of small clubs that all had a contingent along with the local theater, which advertised their play for the winter on little handouts. I had packed a lot of hot chocolate, the non-chile version of the Dagoba hot chocolate and Jet and I sipped it to keep warm between bits.
It was a good forty-five minute parade with small candy breaks, bands from all the high schools, and plenty of small entertainments. The streets were lined with people.
The cool thing about living in a small town is nearly everyone was there, and we could recognize a few. Plus when the parade was over it only took us an extra ten minutes to get out instead of half an hour. We hit Saigon Express along with three other families, and the hot noodle soup was very, very welcome. Jet ate all of his and got an instant ice cream headache when he gulped his strawberry Boba. Me, too. My sinuses HURT when I drank it too fast.
Jet fell asleep on the way home, so he and I did the pajama thing when we got home. It took a lot longer for him to get to sleep, but that was okay.
John and I watched some TV, and went to bed. It's in the teens now, at night, so not quite as desperately cold in the night, but Jet was up at 4 am, complaining that his bed was cold, and he kicked me and turned and tossed for a good hour while I tried to go to sleep. I finally got to my bed at about 7, and slept like the dead for half an hour before I had to get up, shower, and get to church to make a ton of coffee for the choir's performance today. There were a lot more people in at church, early, than usual. So what coffee I did make got drunk a lot faster than I thought it would. But we had to leave before the service because Jet had an 11am birthday party to get to.
I went home and went to sleep. John took him to the party, did a few things. Dean was there, and took Jet home with him. Jet had a blast at the party and was the only boy, though he didn't really seem to notice that. Dean said that Jet was getting all the girl's phone numbers. He just had fun. His teacher had said that Jet was someone that seemed to be able to play with both the boys and the girls and
I guess this proved true. He then went to Mikayla's with Macy and the three of them had a blast until just about now.
I slept for three hours. Then I watched the Read or Die OVA. Wow. Nancy is cool. But I had to really wonder what happened to her for her to be as she is in the TV series. Yeesh. And Mr. Joker makes my head hurt now But so it is.
I feel like I've wasted the day, but it's actually been pretty good, all in all.
I finally did something I've been dreaming about and dug through my spice cabinet and found whole cinnamon, whole cloves, whole green cardamom pods, whole peppercorns, and whole dried ginger. I had to chop the dried ginger a little, but then I was able to make a pretty tasty chai spice blend, which I whirled in my spice grinder (an old coffee grinder that I don't use for coffee anymore) and following the World Spice chai instructions I made myself a sixteen ounce pot of rooiboos based chai that was quite good.
I'd bought a box of Fair Trade chai that was a complete disappointment. I'm happy that the farmers got their fair share of the proceeds, but I'm really disappointed in the quality of the tea and spices. Seems wrong that in order to do a fair deal I actually don't get good quality on my end of the deal. I'll likely toss it and just go with my own blend, now.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 01:54 am (UTC)And what a kick in the teeth the tv series was after that. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 02:01 am (UTC)(Yay milestones! I think most of ours have been in half-years. Or a couple weeks. Or something. Gleeeeeb.)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 02:04 am (UTC)Um. Forget anything I may have said. ;)
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Date: 2005-12-12 03:16 am (UTC)Yes. :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 10:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 02:32 am (UTC)Yay Jet writing! May he always enjoy the scribbling, like his mom.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 03:17 am (UTC)And, yes, Maggie is awfully lovable. Hee.
Yay Jet writing!!