The Nanny

This is Locutis. Of Cat.

(You can read his story here.) He's a pretty good boy most of the time, he's an old boy too. He just turned 14 this year. He usually looks like this:


But he thinks he looks like this:


I guess I can see a bit of a resemblance...

He's my buddy. He hangs out with me all the time. He tries to help me with my work (he's crashed out on my notebook as I type, he seems to think it's helpful to lay directly on top of my papers), he feels very dejected if I don't let him sleep on the bed at night (and he will go down and pester the kids if he can't get in the room) and he likes (to think he can share my) tea,


and he thinks he's a good baby sitter.



He's very tolerant and has only ever given a nip when it was really deserved. He's actually a bit of a 'fraidy cat and he got beat up by a hamster. But he asked me not to tell you about that. He's very lovey and often shows concern for those who are hurt or upset. Well, for me or very small people anyway, maybe not so much for the man. But whenever I or the baby is very upset he will come running to check on us and make sure we are ok. He's very compassionate like that.


Today Locutis felt that I was slacking off in my parental duties. I thought he was just butting in.

You see I had a headache this morning. I had gotten up with every intention of getting a bit of exercise and being fully productive today. I was going to go for a brisk walk in the morning sun and get some fresh air on this lovely fall day, I was going to clean up the kitchen a bit and maybe do some more preserving. (I am just learning how to can foods and I had veggies from one end of my kitchen floor to the other. The pile has slowly gotten smaller but there's still a bit to do and I really want my kitchen back.) I was even going to balance the checkbook (bleh) and take the kids to the library.

But then I got up. My morning consisted of me getting the children up to start on their chores (and their school work, but they managed to avoid that today) and going right back to bed. Locutis followed me to the room and took up his usual spot at the end of the bed. I never fell asleep, (how could I with 4 children arguing and "cleaning" and having run of the house?) so I could hear everything that was going on. Baby Boy has been 'a bit of a pill' recently some might say. (I say he was being a brat) He is the 1st child I've had that has had bonafide 'terrible twos'. And his fits usually have to do with food. That boy can eat.

Well, he was pitching a fit about something or other and the girls were trying to get him to chill out, and I was ignoring it because I knew it would blow over in a minute and he would find something else to occupy himself. But Locutis was certain that something was really wrong and not only came to get my attention, but stood on top of me and yowled in my face. As if to say, "hey, the baby is really upset, you'd better go check it out." I tried to assure him that Boy was just fussing but he continued to yell at me. I explained that I had no intention of getting up and dealing with it right now because I knew Boy was just having a fit and I had a headache and didn't feel like bothering with giving him any attention for said fit.

Locutis was rather annoyed with me, but as Boy has stopped screaming, he laid back down.


Then Boy started screaming again. (Apparently sister had something he wanted so he bit her. This is new to me as none of my girls were biters, but sister just scolded him and put him the corner for right now since I was currently unavailable for toddler training sessions.) He yelled a good one and a few seconds into it Locutis was in my face again frantically yowling and swatting at my face to get me up. Again I said 'No! He's just being a brat right now.' but Locutis would have none of it. He yowled and swatted at me and when I rolled over and refused to listen he left to check for himself. By this time Boy had stopped hollerin' and found something else to eat so there was really nothing to see. But when Loc came back he gave me a dirty look anyway. As if he just knows that I'm somehow being neglectful. Never mind that there are 3 other people and I was still awake and listening. Never mind that if there was a real problem they would have said and would be out there in a heartbeat (and my house is tiny so it really isn't far).


Never mind that you're just a cat.

I'm just the mom, so what do I know? Sheesh.

Things I Want To Be Cool At

I have a list that I wrote out about 3 years ago. Before my surprise son, before Gabe lost his job and we had to short sell our house. And before the renters destroyed our 1st house and stopped paying us so that we had to kick them out and move (for the 3rd time in a year) back in after gutting the place. (We even had to replace walls, it was so gross).

I called it my 'Things I want to be cool at' list and I saved it in my palm pilot (and forgot about it because I only use the palm for a glorified calculator and grocery list.) In looking at the list, I see that there are many things I wrote that I haven't really made any headway with, some that I started to but circumstances changed, many that I would still like to try and some that I think I've changed my mind about.

Here is a partial record of my list.

Exercise: do P90X, be stronger, strengthen core---
I actually did this, then I got lazy and didn't really exercise much, not consistently. Then I had a surprise pregnancy-he's 8 months old now-and I was sick for the first 4 months so my plan to keep exercising was altered and I craved nothing but nachos for the rest. So I currently can not do the X anymore. But I aspire to get there again.

Sports and Recreation:
archery--I'm still interested, and daughter #1 plans to take lessons this summer too.
croquet, juggling sticks,--I have a nice set of sticks and I was pretty good at first, better than Gabe even. But he is kinda obsessive over techniques and stuff so he ended up getting much better than me. Which annoyed me. I still like playing with them but I don't do anything real fancy.
hiking, surfing.--OK, first of all, I can't swim. And second the friend that tried to convince me that surfing is good and I don't need to know how to swim moved far, far away. Also, I live in Colorado. I've heard some very resourceful ones figured out how to surf here, but I'm still gonna fall back on the I don't swim excuse.

Parenting:
Be consistent with Love and Logic, Share my love and my time, do things with the girls-outings, cooking, enjoy their company. Commend their positives and be empathetic to their negatives.---

I have not been consistent. I have a drill sergent personality, I want it done and I want it done now! I also have a hard time being empathetic to stupidity-especially in adults-this is a hard one to break. My mom used to belittle me at times and I work really hard not to do that to my kids but I still need to be more empathetic I think.

I read a quote somewhere that said "children spell love T I M E" and I can totally see that. They don't need the fancy toys (they don't really play with them when they get them anyway, the stuff just gets lost or broken.) but they relish the time we spend. I instituted 'Mom and Me day' a few years back, (maybe when I first wrote this list, I don't remember) its a time where I spend the day with just one of them. We don't even do anything fancy, I run errands or we go for a walk or do some baking, but its just the 2 of us. All the the girls love it and ask when our next one will be. I wish I could do it more, I don't want to be one of those moms that thinks they know their kid when they really have no clue. These are each individual people and I want to know them all.

Jewelry:
necklaces, bracelets, earrings, anklets, ropes---these I've done many of.
pins, charms, hair sticks, pmc-these I sill want to try or do more.

Art:
painting, drawing, masks, (paper mache, resin...) collage, stamps, paper, clay, altered books, furniture (paint, cover, build)---
Many of these I've done but not nearly enough. I started a project as an anniversary gift for a friend about 3 years ago which is still not done. I wanted Gabe to sculpt part of it for me as that is his area of expertise, and he still has not finished, so neither have I.
I have not experimented with the masks yet but I still think they would be cool. I am in the middle of making covers for a few pieces of furniture, but I'm such a beginner when it comes to sewing that the stitch ripper is my best tool.

Playing:
bass--Gabe is a bass player. He's played since he was about 14, he doesn't play everyday so he claims he's not that good. He needs to stop comparing himself to Les Claypool. He is good and has written some great bass songs. And his fingers are abnormally long and stretchy because of it. However I have learned that I can't learn from him. Not well anyway. His teaching style is a complete opposite of my learning style and I get very annoyed when he takes over stuff. He's trying to get better at that, but maybe that's why he hasn't showed me a lot of stuff I asked him to show me. He used to teach bass in school and his students went on to perform but after 14 years I still don't know how to play. Maybe that's my fault? Nah.

Meliss

Toadily

In the future I hope to get more organized with my posts. Though I have seen that I'm not the only one that's not. I have also seen others consistently share great stuff. I think I'm in between.

That said, I wanted to share some pictures of a piece I made a while ago. It has since been sold, so I'm afraid you wont be seeing it in Tweedlepox's Etsy store. (Which I opened pretty much on schedule. Amazing!)



Toadily Beautiful is a favorite that I created while working a booth at a craft fair.


The fabulous toad bead is by Green Girl Studios. He reminds me of the Frog and Toad stories that were my favorites when I was little.


Another item that is not for sale, and I did not make. (Maybe I made him fat.) I found this in my photo booth after taking a few shots.








Also, the dress that I spoke of is almost finished. It is taking far longer than I tend to think it should, but seeing as sewing is not my best skill, and my machine repeatedly binds up when I'm almost done, I should be happy that I have anything to show for it.

The skirt half is a white satiny material with a ribbon of toile along the bottom. Very cute.


I am so ridiculously close to being finished with the entire thing, that my sewing machine is sure to spontaneously combust. I'm sure i just need to get it tuned up, but unfortunately that will have to wait.



I haven't had any revelations recently (they come and go) so I'm afraid I don't have anything really fabulous to say. I can't be fabulous everyday. I have decided to be more proactive in my efforts to discipline (as in "to teach") my children as opposed to yelling. I discussed this with them this morning and they seemed to agree with the plan. We shall see if they continue to agree once I lay the empathy on them after they learn they wont be joining me for a movie later. If I keep a positive attitude about the whole thing, it promises to be amusing. For me.

Meliss