Oct
23
October 23, 2006
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love hearing about your weekend plans. Probably because I am incredibly fucking nosy a student of life. Also, can I just say that the fact so many of you were planning to run various sorts of races involving the letter “K” or actual no-shit MARATHONS makes me feel a little guilty about my own weekend, which involved both candy corn AND cheesecake?
JB’s parents have departed, which does mean a return to normalcy in our household’s consumption of clean dishes, thank christ, but sadly it also means a 2-person reduction in Team Riley. Having a couple of doting grandparents hanging around the house sure makes life a hell of a lot easier. If someone would have told me a few years ago that someday soon I’d be practically clinging to my in-laws’ pantlegs as they prepared to leave and begging them to consider staying an extra day or two, I might have laughed airily and inquired as to the exact amount of crack they had been smoking – not because I didn’t get along with them, but hosting their visits used to seriously jack up my personal Stress-O-Meter, you know?
These days I feel no pressure to meet anyone’s expectations, real or imagined. There might be dust bunnies in the living room and schmutz on the kitchen floor, but I have produced a GRANDCHILD, by god. A grandchild whose company delights them to no end, which means FREE TIME FOR MAMA.
Riley loved having them around, too. He was happy almost all weekend, with very few instances of Toddler Meltdown. There was so much activity, and so many people to play with. There was always a family member available who was happy to pick him up, or read a book to him, or feed him. If one person got tired or had something they wanted to do, someone else stepped in.
My god, it DOES take a village. Or perhaps a small hamlet.
Having them here this weekend was so nice, actually, in so many ways, I realize how things might be if we lived closer. That would mean moving to Oregon, because they’d never move here (the traffic alone would give JB’s dad a coronary in about one week). JB would love to get back down there someday, to live in a more rural area where he can teach Riley how to skin an elk with his bare teeth or whatever, and I like the idea of wider spaces too (for the many, many pygmy goats I shall have).
Both of us are pretty invested in our jobs, though, so there are no moving plans on the immediate horizon. For now we’ll just have to trade off on that I-5 slog in order to reunite the hamlet.
Mmmm, hamlet sandwich. Jesus, is it lunchtime yet?
Anyway, here are a few photos from the weekend:
The boy is walking more and more, although some of his movements would be more accurately described as “lurching”. Here he is lurching down the hall, clutching his Halloween bear and looking suspiciously as though he’s got a loaded diaper on board.
I made JB’s parents take approximately one billion photos of our little trifecta, since we rarely have a chance to get such an image. All attempts to get Riley to smile at the same time the camera was operational failed miserably.
Does it make me a bad parent if I admit I was holding a cigar just out of Riley’s reach in order to get this photo? It’s not like I let him smoke it.
We found the best teeter-totter on Sunday – not that I’m exactly a teeter-totter aficionado (I do not subscribe to Teeter-Totter Monthly, although sometimes I read it in line at the grocery store), but this one had big springs underneath the opposite seats so you didn’t go flying up or down too violently. Also, you could teeter all by yourself, if you felt like engaging in such an activity.
Riley still fits in the backpack, although it’s a little more of a workout these days.
I love how Riley’s peering at JB like he’s wondering what in the hell he’s doing in this picture. For the record I believe they were engaged in some sort of tree-themed peekaboo activity.
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So, check it out:
Oh yeah, baby. 2GHz of pure Intel Core Duo power. That right there is my brand new MacBook, courtesy of Workplace’s fan-fucking-TASTIC hardware benefit policy, which allows employees to accrue money they can spend on computers to use at home.
I love it very, very much; it’s zippy as hell and is an overall joy to use so far. The experience of setting it up went like this:
• Open box
• Turn on MacBook
• Tell Mac OS X I speak English
• The End
It found our wireless connection, it came fully charged, and it just. Started. Working. No setup, no configuration, no cords to mess with, nothing. Nicely done, Apple.
Having a mobile computer is super handy in a thousand little tiny ways. I don’t think I’ll necessarily be online more often, but it will be more convenient for me to do so.
Now to learn how to type on a laptop-sized keyboard. If my typo-production skyrockets for a while, I apologize.
Oct
19
October 19, 2006
To those of you who commented on my last post, thank you so much for sharing such thought-provoking, respectful points of view. I feel like that conversation actually changed my perspective on the whole difficult subject, in a good way. A broadened way. That’s some pretty awesome blog-post fallout, you know? So: thank you.
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We had friends stay with us last night, a couple we’ve known for years who recently spent 12 months traveling around the world. They started in New Zealand, moved on to Asia, and then went to Africa before coming back home. I thought it might be awkward to spend time together, I thought that compared to traveling the Kalahari in a Land Rover and camping in Thailand the life we’ve been living for the last year would seem excruciatingly boring.
I mean, they’ve been doing this. And seeing things like this. While we’ve been, uh, changing a lot of diapers.
But of course we are all living rich and interesting lives in our own way, and they seemed as excited by Riley’s development (and even the progress on our remodel, which was awfully damn nice of them to care about being as how I personally find the subject about as thrilling as, say, watching drywall dry) as we were in their travel experiences.
The last time they visited was over a year ago when Riley was a tiny little suctopus who brought all conversation to a startled halt when he turbo-horked a geyser of milk all over the sofa, floor, and JB’s lap. This time I thought he would be infinitely more charming, but whether it was end-of-day weariness, the stimulation of having new people around (and their massive, friendly Golden Retriever), the alignment of the planets, or some combination thereof, Riley basically morphed into a human spider monkey whose temperament veered dizzily from Cackling with Insane Glee to Howling in Great Sorrow while he clambered around falling into things because he was too hyper to keep his freaking balance.
If this couple decides against having children, I think we’ll all know who’s to blame, is what I’m saying.
Tonight JB’s parents are coming to stay for a couple days, which certainly brings up the monthly average of our bed-and-breakfast hosting activities. I’m hoping their presence will allow JB and I to escape for a while on Friday or Saturday night; maybe see a movie, or eat a meal that doesn’t involve being anywhere near those godforsaken Gerber “Pasta Pickups”.
I’m guessing our weekend will involve lots of sitting around and talking, marveling over the grandchild, and if the weather cooperates, some park-walks or geocache outings. I know it’s only Thursday, but indulge me again, won’t you? – (and give me something to read when I sneak away from all the festive family bonding to the computer) – what are you doing this weekend?
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