Month: September 2020

Communicating in mysterious ways

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Jack identifies which song he wants to hear by describing the album cover (because that’s what shows on the screen for Amazon Music and Pandora).  So “car” or “black car” is Pompeii by Bastille.  “Blue car” is Feel It Still by Portugal. The Man.  (The image is a black car on fire, but the reflection looks kind of blue.)  Today, he requested “popple” (which is how he says people – it’s so freakin’ cute).  Well, a lot of album covers have people on them.  I started with the playlist that has both of the car songs on it.  We scrolled through the whole playlist, trying each song, and he said no within five seconds of the start each time.  We scrolled through the recent songs – none of those.  I tried Huey Lewis and the News, since the album cover of Fore shows the band leaning against a wall.  Not any of those.  Then he looked at me very seriously and said “white people” (which came out as “woot popple” and I’m giggling remembering it).  John was there, too, and we both told him he was exactly right – Huey Lewis and the News are as white people as you get.  But that’s not what he meant.  The song he wanted was “white people”.  He grabbed my phone and pointed.  Of course, it was at a song we’d already tried and he had already rejected, but he wasn’t wrong about his description.

Those are white people wearing very white shirts.  Right on, Jack.

(It was Shut Up and Dance by Walk The Moon.)

Me: 1, Bug: Dead

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This morning, at before-the-sun-comes-up early, I went into the bathroom and found a bug in my bathtub.  I froze.  It froze.  It might be scary that it, you know, SAW me and froze, but at least it gave me time to think.  Normally, I would grab a shoe and crush the hell out of it, but it was 6am and John had been up with Jack from 4ish to 5:30ish.  Both were finally asleep again – if I smashed the bug to make myself feel better, I might wake them both up.

This wasn’t just any bug.  It’s called a house centipede, I think.  You’re welcome to google it.  I did that once, and I’m never doing it again.  This one’s body was as long as my thumb, and then it had legs.  LOTS of legs, long and skinny, and it raises its body up on those legs, which is WAY scarier than slithering round with its belly on the floor.

I figured I could trap it under my water glass and get John’s help to deal with it once he got up, or at least wait until everyone else woke up so I could beat the crap out of it with a shoe.  So I poured my water onto it.  That got it moving (shudder), and it skittered in my direction.  I did NOT squeal or yelp or make any other noises (except there might possibly have been some uncontrollable muttered swearing), and I DID manage to turn my glass upside down over it and trap it inside.  It stopped moving, and I grabbed what I needed and left.

I worked for a while, not thinking about the bug, and then I went back upstairs a little after seven to get in the shower.  THE SHOWER IS SEPARATE FROM THE TUB.  It’s important to point that out.  I was NOT going to climb into that bathtub.

I used my caps too soon.

THE BUG WAS NO LONGER UNDER THE GLASS.  Luckily, it was still in the tub, near the glass, and it was kind of curled in a c-shape and not moving.  Maybe it hurt itself getting out from under the glass.  Maybe (likely) the edges of the glass weren’t flush against the tub, since it isn’t a perfectly flat surface.

It was time to get John.  I would do the killing, but I thought I might need backup if I still wanted to do it quietly so I wouldn’t wake Jack up.  The timing worked out pretty well.  John was awake, and Jack woke up while I was telling John about the bug, so I brought Jack in to hang out with John and grabbed a shoe.

Meanwhile, in the Batcave bathtub, the &$*^#%@ bug had moved again.  But now, fully awake and without worries about waking others, and, most importantly, armed with a big-ass shoe, I was ready to take this thing down.

So I smashed it.  One hit, no skittering, left a flattened bug with two little legs waving.  An excessive amount of toilet paper was needed to gather up the remains, and then bye-bye bug.

I win!

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Started: 9/18/20
Gave up: 9/19/20

I gave up on this one, but not through any fault of its own.  I just wasn’t in the mood. It’s set in early 20th century Mexico, and maybe it’s fantasy and maybe it’s magical realism (which I generally do NOT like), but there are gods and bargains and LOTS of discussions of towns and their histories, and yeah.  Not in the mood.  It has really good reviews, so I feel bad about giving up, but not that bad.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

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Started: 9/9/20
Finished: 9/18/20

I was really looking forward to this one – it was nominated for a Hugo this year, I loved the short story she was nominated for last year, and I liked the short story she was nominated for this year.  The book didn’t start well for me.  It was interesting, and the premise is interesting, but the writing felt…amateurish.  It got better (I think), but the book within a book thing took too long to pay off.  I did eventually get hooked, but I found myself thinking about giving up on it a couple of times.  If I had read it between the ages of 10 and 18, maybe, I probably would have loved it.

Mickey D’s

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We got SUPER lazy Saturday evening, and after a fun wander around the grounds of the lighthouse at Beavertail State Park, we went through the drive-thru at McDonald’s and got Jack his FIRST Happy Meal!  We let him unpack the box himself, which resulted in a cascade of fries all over his high chair tray.  He dipped his fries and his McNuggets all by himself and totally ignored the apple slices (which is a little surprising – lately he’s been all about the apple slices).

When dinner was over, we let him open his first Happy Meal toy!  It was a weird potato-looking thing that we eventually figured out was an egg that opened to reveal a dinosaur.  Jack was thrilled about the egg and totally freaked out about the dinosaur.   (It’s a 2-inch tall T-rex with jaws that open and shut.)  We put it safely away back in its egg, and he eyed the whole thing warily until bedtime.

He warmed up to the dinosaur when we tried again this morning, emphasizing that it’s a baby dinosaur, and look, it’s saying hello with a baby rawr.  I found it later, stuffed between the couch cushions.  We may have to put it away for a while.

Linesman by S.K. Dunstall

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Started: 8/30/20
Finished: 9/9/20

Spaceships and FTL travel and psychic powers, oh my!  It’s the first book of a trilogy that feels like it was written 30 years ago but only came out about five years ago.  That’s not a dig – I really enjoyed it.  While I was reading it, I felt like I did when I read books in middle and high school.  It’s partly the subject matter and partly the style and the lack of awareness of current events.  The characters are diverse and interesting without any point being made about it. Except that they exist without making any points about it, which is a point in itself.

He must be a changeling

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We had a major breakthrough at the beach yesterday.  Like, BIG.

Are you ready?

Jack – wait, I don’t feel like you’ve prepared yourself enough.  I’ll give you another few seconds.

Okay.

Jack played in the water.  For reals.  He was hesitant to go in at first, but he was willing to take one slow step at a time in, his back up against my legs and his hands in mine, all the way up to mid-shin.  Then he scrambled to get up in my arms, but from there, he pointed imperiously out to sea.  “Mama, DAT!”  So I did.  We waded out together, John close behind, until I was waist deep and waves were splashing us both.  He kicked his legs and splashed with his hands, laughed when waves got him in the face (He LAUGHED!  He still wails when we get water in his face in the bathtub!), and giggled when we spun him around in circles with his hands trailing in the water.  When he got too heavy for both of us (we were taking turns holding him), we went back to where he could stand, and he marched and splashed and played, and it was like he was a whole different kid.  And he protested getting out of the water!  I promised him we would come back after the holiday weekend, and he agreed to come out.

What a nice surprise.

New cutest things

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Jack keeps adding cute things to his repertoire, and I must share them:

  • You already know that Jack calls any vehicle trailer a choo-choo, any truck pulling a trailer a choo-choo guck, and any boat a boop.  Unsurprisingly then, the first time he saw a car pulling a boat on a trailer, he pointed and shouted “Choo-choo boop!”
  • A sheep is a baa, and he knows that sheep say “baa baa”, and one day while changing his diaper, he was repeating “baa baa baa baa”, so I started singing “Baa-baa-baa Baa-baa-baa-ran”.  He requests it now.
  • For a while (sadly, he doesn’t do anymore), while he was (not) trying to fall asleep in his crib, he would sing to himself.  “E-i-e-i-guck,” and then immediately “Yay!” and clap for himself.  Over and over.  He still says yay and claps when songs end.
  • He pretends to give his stuffed animals drinks from his water cup.
  • He pretends to have his Elmo doll (and others) walk and run across the floor.
  • He picks up anything that looks remotely like a smartphone, holds it to his ear, says “Hello-bye!” and puts it down fast.
  • He tells jokes!  Okay, one joke.  He looks at me, says “Hi, Dada!”, waits for my shocked expression, and laughs like a loon.  Then he’ll say “Hi, Mama!” to John.  Then we’ll ask him who we are, he’ll get us both right, and then he’ll point to himself and say, “Dada!” and laugh some more.
  • He calls himself “you”.  When the three of us are together, he likes to point it out.  “Mama, Dada, YOU!”  And if there’s something he wants to do for himself (like turn on the light) and one of us tries to do it first, he’ll say, “No, YOU!” which was very confusing at first.