The little me

My mother has been converting the family slides to digital images. It is a huge task. This morning I received two images of me as a baby around Wren's age, neither of which I had seen before. The black filaments on the image are mould. I am hoping we can find some way to clean them in photoshop.

This first one is of me with my Granny Audrey who died of breast cancer many years ago:



This second one is of Uncle Mike, my Dad, Grandad and Mum. See how wonderfully young they all are. Grandad is now 96!

Robins are flocking

Wren woke at his usual 5.30am after a very rough night. He was up for almost an hour between 11pm and 12pm (denying me my best sleep of the night) and was up again at 3am and 4.30am. I ignored 4.30am again but he woke within 45 minutes for the day. During the night Joshua and I decided he was definitely ill and perhaps had an ear infection. This morning it was clear he was fine. Later, it was clear he was irritable. Now I don't know. He has no fever, no sign of pain and is just sleeping worse than usual and being less self-sufficient during the day. He wants carrying and seems to be a bit more tired at naptime.

As a result of his whining and need for entertainment Wren is being allowed increasingly inappropriate toys to distract him. This morning I let him play with the large cowries and gave him a pen to hold. He promptly hit the cowrie on the floor repeatedly for the banging sound and drew on his face with pen. Bad mommy.

Because Wren continues to wake so early and be noisy AND I am so exhausted we head out every morning Foraging for pears. There is an old pear tree overhanging the road a block away and every morning a small harvest of pears has fallen into the street and parking strip. I collect them in a fleece hat and stuff them under the stroller. I have a great sense of satisfaction in foraging in this way. Pears are selling at $2.99 a lb at Wholefoods and these are sweeter and more plentiful. Sure, I have to cut out the bitten portions sometimes but I have frozen a week's supply of Wren's Pearfood and will have another couple of weeks when I cook up the next 8 pears tomorrow.

Interestingly, other people have the same idea. This morning was so beautiful (cool, quiet, the sun like butter) that I walked around Dahl Field with my gathered pears. While there I noticed a small man in a grey tracksuit climbing a tree and shaking it. He held a stick with a long rope on the end. When we came closer I saw that he was gathering pears and had heaped them in the grass.

I know its still summer but its becoming fall. The robins are flocking. Mornings are chill and at 6.30am I had to walk all the way up the ridge before we reached the sunlight that makes Wren squint and twist sideways in the stroller choking and spluttering because he ate the spike of lavendar I gave him to hold. When we came home Frost was up. He and Wren greeted each other with squeals and joy. Frost's joy turned quickly to concern:

Frost: "Wrennies hands are freezing! Feel Wrennies hands they're freezing! Feel them! Come, come. They are SO COLD"

On the way to the Morningstar Bakery I wondered whether Frost knew the names for jobs people do. I asked him what a baker was, a dentist, a doctor. Those, he had figured out. He even knew pediatrician: a doctor for kids. It was when we got to Software Engineer (what Josh is) that things became interesting:

Frost: A software engineer.... hrmmm... a Software Engineer comes and does the pipes and the paint inside a house when its been built.

This is kind of true in our house but not really in the job description.

"A meteorologist studies comets and the stars"

Parents of six year olds, illuminate me. Why does Frost suddenly greet my every announcement with "NO."

Me: Frost, we are going out in a few minutes to buy a zester.
Frost [from bedroom]: NO
I shrug at Josh as if to say "see what I put up with all day"
Josh: I think he said "Oh"
Me [voice raised as I call to bedroom]: Pardon, what did you say Frost?
Frost: NO
Josh: He did that to me last night too. I said 'time to clean teeth' and he said "NO"

In the past he would have asked what a zester was. Why I wanted one. If he could get candy. Now its just a flat NO. Silence.

I need to check my parenting books between Wren's whines and thuds and fallings over.

Things that go "CLICK" in the night

This was another of those mornings that has me hugging my coffee mug before 6am. As September approaches, it is becoming increasingly dark for my morning stagger clutching the slightly soggy Wren in his oversize and overdamp diapers.

We think he is teething. I guess that is an overused excuse for an old-enough-to-know-better-baby waking all night (and getting fed for it) but he has been very whiney and not-put-downy during the day and is gnawing stuff more than usual. I gave him Tylenol and he slept 6.15pm-11.15pm and then yelled so much that Josh and later I went in to calm him. He had another Tylenol and nursed and slept till 3am, then 4.30am (ignored that one) and then 5am and napped in bed with me (in his room) till 5.30am and was up.

When he wakes up he crawls right off the bed unless grabbed so I have to lurch forward and grab his legs as soon as I feel him leave the warm blanket. Its hard. I am motivated though because a couple of days ago he fell off the bed with an almighty thud and it was the same day he fell into the table and hit his head on the bookcase while standing so I feel I have to prevent more bonks. He always crawls towards the nightlight and then to the guitar. He thwacks the guitar strings until they sound a discordant getup and go for me.

If I don't get up and go the guitar would fall over. Why do we have a guitar in his room. Gosh, at 5.57am I can't answer that.

Wren is crawling around at my feet and I swear I can hear milk sloshing in his belly. I see him as a vampiric hippo. You know? Vampires are always depicted as scrawny beasties but think how much a vampiric hippo would drink during the dark hours? That's Wren.

To top it all Frost had trouble going to sleep in his room because he could hear "a strange clicking sound. Its like this CLICK. It isn't "click click click" its just CLICK. It doesn't happen often, perhaps it won't happen again tonight"

Me: "Okay, goodnight"

Frost: (5 minutes later) "I heard it again. What is it?"

Me: Let me come and listen.

Frost: It probably won't happen again. I've only heard it about 3 times. ITs like CLICK.

Me: Where does it come from? The bed? BEds creak sometimes

Frost: No.. it doesn't come from anywhere. Its just THERE. Its like IN THE ROOF. [looking upwards]

Me: Shhhhh let me listen

Frost: What? What is it? What are you listening?

Me: I am listening for the click, I can't hear anything.

Frost: It probably won't come again.

[We sit in silence for about 20 seconds]

Me: I can't hear anything. Okay, goodnight.

Frost: But I hear this CLICK!

Me. There ARE noises in a house. Its nothing dangerous. You are quite safe.

Frost: Can I sleep in your room?


At least I noticed we were out of coffee yesterday and ground a whole lot of it. It is my company for this belated dawning.

Diapers Out of Stock... still?

I am frustrated. Once again, Stage 3 Seventh Generation diapers are out of stock EVERYWHERE. Wren is having to use Stage 4 which are saggy round the leg and have caused some exciting moments of leakage. The most thrilling was the 'poop down my arm' incident at the library. I'd left the diaper bag at home since it was supposed to be a quick trip.

I tried Bartells, PCC, Wholefoods and no-one has Stage 3.

On a side-note, Natasha is very keen that I compost our diapers with worms. This disturbs me but she has a number of friends who do it in Australia. Hrmmm. This is still very much in the Under Consideration bucket, pile, whatever..

About that poppyseed cake..

After all that, I forgot to mention the orange poppyseed cake in my last post. Yesterday Natasha and I held an Australian tea party. On offer was Harrods Tea, Orange Poppyseed Cake and Remarkable Lemonade Scones with homemade (2004) Raspberry Jam and cream.

It was delicious and we managed to polish off all but one slice of the cake and all but 3 scones. We had 5 guests to tea, which helped.

Wren had a fabulous night's sleep. He woke only once - at 3am. I nursed him and put him back in his crib and he woke again at 5.40am for the day. That is not bad considering he went to bed at 6pm.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with mothers whose babies wake all night - I woke all night even when he didn't. At 2am I was wide awake waiting for a shriek. When none came I got up and peaked in his room at his sleep snuffling form.

I was doze-waking at 4am but he didn't wake then either so I had my own little night-waking party all on my own. Thankfully, I had all that nice cake and spa relaxation to think about and got back to sleep fairly quickly each time.

Cranky, grumpy but lots of poppyseed cake

Wren was rather fractious today. He cried quickly and was not content to crawl around, eat and explore as usual. Instead he liked to be carried and seemed very drooly and perhaps a bit warm at times.

We have decided he is either a bit sick or teething. I put him to bed early (6pm) because he really could not keep his head up or stop crying. I gave him tylenol and he was out like a light. I hope the rest of the night is uneventful.

Tash and Douglas are leaving for Burning Man tomorrow morning and we are taking them to the airport early and going to a 7th birthday party in the afternoon.

I am going to have some tea and then sleep. I am very tired because I went to the Olympus Spa in Lynnwood this morning and am so very relaxed :)