09.20.08

Piper Strikes Back .

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:03 pm by Anne

Yesterday we went to a brand new playdate with a brand new person. We had initially met this family while lunching at a new sandwich place in town. It was one of those days when you go out dressed like a comfortable but shabby vagabond and of course, you either wind up seeing everyone you know or else meet new people and make a poor impression. So there we were, waiting in line…Lily and Emma racing around, scouting out other kids in the shop, while Piper howled and struggled to keep up. A cute little girl walked up and immediately joined in the scrum and as I worked at containing Piper, a voice next to me commented, “Little girls always seem to find one another don’t they?” It was a very nice woman who didn’t immediately start judging me for my inabilities! I liked her right away.

She volunteered to host the first playdate and everything went fine…well, as fine as one can go…and we started chatting idly, breaking up minor disagreements, distributing snacks, changing Piper’s dipes…yes. About that. So towards the end of the playtime, Piper’s hindquarters let it be known that she had poo’d. I changed her and started rounding the other two girls up. New friends with new toys always create a crazy-frantic environment, and it was a trial getting them out the door, much less strapped into the car. While my new friend went back inside the house to retrieve Lily’s flipflops, I stayed out front holding Piper and keeping tabs on the girls as they worked in one last scampering jog. Shifting Piper to the other arm, something felt…wrong. Wrong in a very unpleasant way. In a very wet and slimy and stinky way.

Sure enough, there, on my white shirt, one of two white shirts in my entire wardrobe, the newest and cutest one…there were light brown streaks, staining the exact area where Piper had been pressed against me. It was flipping sick. and embarassing. and well, it sure as heck didn’t smell like a bouquet of fresh cut flowers unless those flowers had been dipped in a stagnating bucket of shit.

My new friend played it off like it was no big deal and I don’t know her well enough yet to determine whether she was just being polite or not but right now I just want to thank someone very special and near to my heart. Thank you Piper. Thank you.

I just hope the stains come out. Please cross your fingers.

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09.18.08

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:04 pm by Anne

action packed fun

Originally uploaded by Dux

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still here

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:02 pm by Anne

I don’t know if you have picked up on how crazy Piper makes me. If she isn’t wailing to be held or shrieking “NO!”, or climbing the table, then she is waking me up in the middle of the night, or throwing her dinner all over the floor. This 19 month old kid…she wears me out. I don’t understand how I got managed through this age twice before without massive quantities of alcohol and painkillers.

Then, a few nights ago, while Shan put the older girls to bed, I took Piper to her room. A diaper was changed, soft pajamas were put on, and instead of just plunking her down in the crib and zipping her in to the cribtent for the night, I sat down in the rocking chair.

She nestled her little head against my shoulder, and I slowly rocked her back and forth, back and forth, while patting her back and singing a little to her. It was a rare and perfect moment we were sharing and all of a sudden I felt guilty for being in a seemingly constant state of irritation at her ‘babyness’. I remembered at last that this time is brief, even though it seems indeterminately long, that in a flash she too will be in kindergarten spending most of her day, and I will be basically childless, with only memories of these three babies I’ve had the exquisite joy of bringing up.

Sometimes it is just impossible for me to remember these things.

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09.11.08

baby captivity

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:26 pm by Anne

Piper is, typically, a fitful sleeper. Up until very recently, she would wake up at least once in the middle of the night, needing a change and a small bottle of something to drink. I am fully aware that she is altogether TOO OLD to be pulling this stuff but whatever, I suck and am a middle-of-the-night-wake-up-enabler. For the past few weeks, I’ve been enjoying relatively peaceful slumbers.

Well, that is until a few nights ago when The Great and Powerful Pipez decided to climb out of her crib but instead fell down and let loose her terrible shrieking YAWP at 12:45 in the morning. I stumbled blindly after Shan and we found her crying on the floor. It was scary and unique for us since the first two girls never spent any time at all in the crib. Yeah, you know it. We were co-sleeping freaks.

So that was that.

The very next day we took a little trip to Babies R Us, ie “Hell by a different name”, and puchased this little number. BabyJail. there will be no more of this Piper escapeeism…now she’ll just have to behave like the other loonies in this bin and drag/bump her little sippee cup against the crib slats when she wants to come out. And the thing was pretty easy to put togther. I even poked a hole (which would have pissed off the pope) in it and it still works.

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09.07.08

agony

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:55 pm by Anne

Lily let me know that the teachers at school would prefer her to wear non-laceup shoes. I guess they don’t like me double-knotting her present skater sneakers, for whatever reason but okay. Since we were in the area today after a nightmarish lunch(long story short: Piper was way past her naptime and spiralling downward ), we ran in to try some on. I envisioned her choosing a nice pair of Sketchers but after testing them out she turned her little nose up. Imagine my disappointment when she happened on these clunky numbers and picked them out instead. Lily has the HM lunchbox, the HM backpack, an HM t-shirt, HM underwear…and now, she is the proud owner of Hannah Montana velcro sneakers.

(gag)

I almost said, “Hon…the other kids are going to make fun of these ‘baby’ shoes.” But I didn’t. Maybe everyone else will think they are as awesome as she does. I don’t know. It’s important to let her make these kind of decisions, right? RIGHT?

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09.06.08

it sucks

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:07 am by Anne

It sucks when you think something is wrong with your email program,
since you haven’t been receiving anything for a few hours.
Then you learn that no, in fact, no one has sent you anything.

wahhhhh.

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prosey

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:13 am by Anne

A small, enamel painted fish

With green scales,

found me in Chinatown

And I took it home,

Where it flipped and glinted, spinning

On the cord around my neck.

My father smiled when he saw it

So I gave my charm

To the bigger fish who

Kept it in his front pocket.

Bumping against spare coins and peppermints

During the day, at night it

Slept on the counter.

Then one sad and strange moment he left us,

And the little fish was nowhere

To be found,

(Did he take it with him?)

But at the last goodbye,

I dropped a new one

Into his large, cold hand.

It was blue.

My favorite color.

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09.04.08

undercover

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:08 pm by Anne

Emma went to the dermatologist’s office with me today. After a 15 minute agonizing wait in the entry (Emma had methodically gone through all four of the junior highlights magazines and was getting ready to bore both of us with the Big Print Reader’s Digest) we were called back. I was there to get two moles burned off my back and a cyst taken off my temple. While Emma sat in a highbacked chair, I laid on my stomach and the Dr. went to work. He injected a local anaesthetic into each spot, which felt like miniscule, very sharp, shards of ice going into the skin. Next he started burning my tissue. You know that smell of burning flesh, right? Well, It’s pretty unsettling when it is your own flesh that is on fire. At one point I felt water spray out on my back and decided one of the moles must have popped like an overwhelmed zit.

Bandaids and ointment were put over the spots and I was free to go. “Why was there blood on your back MaMa?” “Why do you have a bandaid on your face?” “I have to go to the bathroom.” “Do birds poop in their nests?” Emma, like her big sister, is a curious girl.

Did you see me driving home? I was the super-dork with a small, circular, would-be flesh-toned bandaid on my temple. It is impossible to feel cool with one of those on your head but I managed. Cool ran out years ago.

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