“Did you write ‘Sugarlump’?” September 24, 2008

I have this thing I do with the boys when I’m snuggling with them. I say “who’s my sugar lump?” and they smile big and say “ME!” and I say “Right!”

Of course, DS2 has developed his own variation on this because, of course, nothing is more fun than teasing. So, his version now goes like this:  Me, “Who’s my sugar lump?” DS with the trademark twinkling eyes, makes a face like he’s thinking hard, “ummmmm…” then he’ll go into a string of guesses that is usually in an order something like this

a skunk? (this is almost always first, he thinks it’s hilarious),

thunder?

random object he sees in the room 1 / 2/ 3 /etc.

Rex? (the dog)

DS3?

DS1?

Daddy?

then a long pause, a big grin and “ME?”.

At this point I say “YES!!” and give him a big shaking hug and he giggles like we haven’t done the routine 400 times before.

So, a week or so ago there was an informational forum at the school in the evening where you meet the teacher and they give you the lowdown on how they do things and run their classroom, etc. It’s parents only. Before this night, they have the kids make a folder and other cute little projects for you that they put all the paperwork (with which they love to inundate me) into. Usually, they also have the kids write you a note to say thanks for coming and whatever else. Then you write them one back and leave it on their desk for them to read in the morning. It’s kind of sweet and the kids get a huge kick out of it.

So, a couple days later I asked DS2 if he got the note I wrote for him. He looked confused so I figured he obviously hadn’t gotten the note. So I asked if he remembered writing a note to us for that night and he did. So I told him that his teacher told us we could write one back and leave it for him on his desk. He grinned at me and said “did you write Sugarlump in the note?” I hadn’t thought of it at the time but when he asked I wished I had. Luckily, I get another chance. And another and another …

Project and kid stuff I found in my office September 20, 2008

I painted my office. Now, 5.5 years after moving in, I’m down to the master bedroom and the laundry room still in ugly old builder white (something that it gives me immense pleasure to cover with color!)

Anyway, of course, the ugly part of that job is the putting everything back. The reason I procrastinated it for so long is because there is one large wall that is covered 80% by hanging shelves. Onto these shelves have gone a) everything my husband has no need of but can’t bear to part with b) everything I plan to go through / do X with “someday” or when I have time (aka never) as well as anything else that seemed it should be kept but had no other place to go. And, of course, all your usual office stuff.

So, anyway. It’s a lot o’ crap. It had been living on the floor of the master bedroom all week (to the delight of my husband, no doubt. It wasn’t in the way as that room is a fine example of wasted space in a floorplan but unfinished projects (mine, in particular) make him a little twitchy. Yesterday was cleaning lady day so it was relocated into my office (seems like maybe it’d be easier to have just gotten it gone through last week rather than moving it 2 more times first…) Today, it all either going back onto the shelves in an orderly fashion or it is going to find a new home.

I just wanted to record 2 pics here because there’s a 50/50 chance I will lose the items I’ve scanned here. The first one is a pic of a stencil I had painted on the wall in my kitchen in Jamaica. This was one of my projects that I was most proud of. And which I would never, ever attempt again. I had found some way cool pepper fabric that I made the kitchen window treatments out of (and maybe some other stuff – I don’t remember). I took a blank piece of “make your own stencil” plastic stuff, lay it over the fabric and traced about a 24″ strip of the repeating pattern of peppers. Cut it out with an exacto knife and then stenciled it to approximate the colors of the peppers in the fabric. This required buying one bottle of stencil paint in approximately every shade of red, orange, yellow, and green known to man. (This is the sort of thing for which my husband has bestowed nicknames upon me which imply that I, perhaps, get carried away with an idea from time to time).

Anyway. I loved that fabric and that stencil. I just came across the photo of the stencil on the wall.

The other thing was from a day when DS1 was in first grade, I think. That’s my best guess based on how long it’s been in my office and based on the writing. I was sick one day on the weekend. He took it upon himself to go get the stuff he needed to make me this little card. Notice the Now and Later faces. I thought it was very sweet but also very funny, and clever.