Un-tent gone, bye-bye. MISSing. Mommy, GET un-tent. GET NOW!

Recently every day feels as if I've waded through a week of days and its Friday. Not that the weekend is particularly different except the doctors are unlikely to call on the weekend, Joshua is home to play jump and leap and chase with Wren and Frost has soccer matches. Okay, it is a bit different. We eat more icecream and I cook less.

Anyway, right now I can get my bearings pretty quickly by running my mouse across my Firefox menu bar.

• I am told it is September 23rd, Tuesday [so Dr Krabill may call?]


• I am reminded that I am in the United States of America [not Australia, or South Africa where the political machinations of Mbeki's resignation is working its way out.]


• I am within range of 7 wi-fi networks [Caliroomies, THEBIGBADPIG, cloudcitycoffee,2L8ICU,megargelville, Wendy and 2WIRE888]. My laptop has autoconnected to cloud city since it is the only one that is open.

I had my school workshift training this morning and now have a break at Cloud City Coffee. Its one of the most civilized things about Seattle that almost every coffee shop has its own culture and its own wifi network so you can get a cup, have lunch and catch up on work while enjoying some public privacy. Its so much easier than the old days when you could only hang out as long as you felt comfortable with your book and then had to get BACK to things. Now I get right back to things over a grilled vegetable wrap, among adults, out of the house. Its so just-what-I-need that I really don't want to waste babysitting time going out for dinner.

Anyway, I digress with this mildly mopey tone. I opened blogger to write about Wren's vocabulary which makes me laugh 100 times a day, that, and the smell of the top of his head. As I am thinking about toddler vocab there are a group of parents behind me in the play area conversing on the same subject. Their toddlers are a bit older than Wren and are crawling around playing with trucks.

"Its amazing how fast their sentence structure starts forming. It blows your mind!"
"Yeah, but they come to things at different paces"
"He is making really complex sentences these days!"
"Owen, don't put the truck in your mouth honey"
"You like orange? Huh? Orange is a fruit!"
"You turn it, it goes different ways"

A new toddler is dragged in the door on his car. He comes in backwards and looks bewildered.

Perhaps I should bring Wren here one day - but I am not sure its a good idea to expose him to germs. We are still a safe distance from either surgery date and I am already considering Airborne, draconian hand-washing and isolation to try and keep him safe from respiratory conditions on surgery day. If he had a cold or flu at the time he would not be able to have anesthesia and we would be delayed for some time. With things like surgery I become a bit of a control freak. It feels that if I can keep things going as expected - even if expected is awful - then I can cope. So, I am expecting bumps, delays but I am trying to avoid a virus.

Argh, another digression. What I came here to post about was Wren's speech. He has suddenly taken a leap in his communication. He was always very articulate but he now uses many words in long, sometimes unstructured, strings. For example he spoke the Title sentence while I lay in pre-6am denial on the mattress in his room.

[SHANNON IS LYING WITH HER NOSE POKING OUT FROM UNDER A BLANKET WHILE WREN DIGS AROUND IN THE TOY CUPBOARD]

WREN: Un-tent gone, bye-bye. MISSing. Mommy, GET un-tent. GET NOW!
Me: What is an untent?
Wren: UNTENT!
Me: Where is the untent?
Wren: GONE!
Me: Where are you looking? Do you want me to get the tent?
Wren: Untent gone. Anmals.
Me: Oh, the untent! Its in the bath.
Wren: Door? Open?

[SHANNON STAGGERS OVER TO THE BEDROOM DOOR AND OPENS IT. KITTY HAIKU COMES IN AS WREN RUSHES OUT TO THE BATHROOM WHERE HE SEES UNTENT IN THE BATH OUT OF REACH]

Wren: HELP! Mama, help get untent. NOW!!

[SHANNON GETS A BURST OF SPEED AND MAKES IT TO THE BATHROOM BEFORE WREN WAKES FROST IN THE NEXT ROOM. SHE RETRIEVES UNTENT [ELEPHANT] FROM THE BATH WHERE HE WAS SWIMMING LAST NIGHT]

Wren: UNTENT!!! Get more animals. More animals now.

So, I pile all the animals into Wren's arms and he carries them into his bedroom then comes back for more, opining loudly about them as he takes them back. They are wet, very wet, they are "raffes" and "horse" and "pigs" and "bear, raaah" and "BIG Animals" (dinosaurs).

Unfortunately, all this ruckus wakes Frost and its finally 6.15am and we are all on the floor with Wren, the only one wired and ready for the day, and I am certain we will play "train tacks", "block tower, big, very big. Fall down, now. HIT it." and "read book, diggers, many diggers.. WOOOOAH!" as well as "animals, out, now" at least once, before I get my first cup of decaf coffee.

Speaking of which, its time for one of those.