Queen of Rambles

Sorry to scare you all last night. I was beyond tired and Lost was about to come on. You can only expound upon the joys of toddler temper tantrums so many times, before you start to sound like a broken record. At least when I was a teacher there were enough children to make the craziness unique each day. Sure, there were the same tired excuses on a daily basis, but there was usually just enough crazy to come up with blog fodder that was worth writing down.

I’m reading a book called Your Two Year Old: Tender or Terrible. It’s not a very good book, mainly because it is totally outdated. It came out the year I was two, so it’s been a while. I was laughing at the wise advice to set a precedent for your child to always sit in the back seat so you can pay attention to driving instead of having your active toddler pushing all the dashboard buttons. True, that. I can’t imagine trying to drive with a toddler on the loose in my front seat.

There are some helpful items, including a list that tells you about life with a two year old. Here’s two pearls of wisdom that are SO INCREDIBLY TRUE:

Never expect your day to go smoothly or to accomplish what you set out to accomplish.
You will be unduly fatigued at the end of each day.

At least it’s not just me. Also interesting was the advice to NEVER try to teach a two year old to read or to try to formally teach a two year old anything. I would question the very idea that some crazy person is out there trying to teach a two year old to read, but I know people who do that very thing.

I finished the top of Erik’s quilt last night! It’s needed the four borders for months, but I always drag my feet on finishing up because that means the next step needs to be done immediately: quilting. The problem? Where can I lay the quilt to baste it? Argh!

I would love to get it quilted this weekend, but I don’t think it’s in the cards. Saturday we are looking at houses (the prices keep going down down down! Yay!), going to lunch, and having a girls night out. Sunday we are steaming the carpets. When will there be time for rolling around on the floor with a hot iron and yards of cotton?

I think I won the battle on the steaming front. Mike did the carpets when we were in Oregon last September so he said it was my turn to steam them this time. I say he’s the one who knows how to do it and he would do a better job, so he can go ahead and keep the job. In the end, I think I am taking Erik to the gym and he is going to work on it while we are both out of the house. I can’t believe how gross a carpet can get when you have a kid in the house. It’s nasty. And my mom wants me to get a dog? I think not!

In random, meaningless news, there was a hummer on the balcony two days ago! I went nuts and spent an hour searching for the hummingbird feeder. So far, it hasn’t returned but it’s only a matter of time.

My poor balcony is looking a little bare this year. I tried to buy petunias last weekend, but the store didn’t have any except those already in hanging baskets. I am very concerned about food prices, oil prices and the potential of a Parable of the Sower* situation, thus I bought food plants instead. My little herb garden seems to be doing well, but I don’t think strawberries were meant to grow in a pot. I told one of my local friends about my strawberry pot and she got a strange look on her face and basically told me I’m crazy. I admit it. I know NOTHING about gardening and it is probably an idea doomed to failure. As I told her, though, what’s the worst that can happen? The plants will die and I’ll be out six bucks. All in all, not anything to get worked up over.

Guess I better go take a shower. We’re supposed to go to a playdate in an hour.

*Excellent, horrifying sci-fi by Octavia Butler. In the near future food and water shortages lead to a lawless America with a return to (corporate run) slavery.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 7:57 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.