Category: thoughts

homebodies

Posted on by Phoebe Gleeson

We sure did a lot more when Clementine was Perry’s age. I think it’s harder now for a few reasons, but the biggie is now we only have the one car. So to go anywhere I have to take Sean to work and then come back (an hour of car for Perry) then do whatever we’re doing and usually come home again (another hour for Perry) then go get Sean and come home (third hour of car for Perry.) All that kinda sucked before he was born but it’s just awful after. I’ve managed once and we were an hour and a half late to get Sean. (The tardiness was due to several factors. First I was late leaving Walmart, then stopped to nurse Perry, twice, then got stuck in rush hour traffic. By a huge mall, a week before Christmas.)

Perry in the car is like everywhere else that is Not Mama’s Arms: about 15 minutes tops before he is inconsolable. That doesn’t really work when you live thirty minutes from anywhere. We stop so I can nurse and console but it’s exhausting and gets very old for the other kids. And it lasts maybe five minutes.

So that’s the big reason, but a secondary one is nursing Perry. I want him to eat every single time he can. He’s 80-90th percentile for length and head circumference and 15th percentile for weight. I don’t know whether he’s a string bean by nature or because of his feeding troubles, so I just feed him whenever he will nurse. That’s tricky with eight other kids sighing and getting bored.

And the third reason is the autistic toddler. She will not hold still anywhere, so she needs a dedicated minder. Whoever that is won’t be able to do anything but pay attention to Clementine to keep her from getting lost, getting hurt, or breaking something. That gets really tiresome in all but a few environments. She happens to like a moving view, so if she’s in a cart or a stroller she’s content, but you have to keep swimming like a shark or you’ll die. I was the person to do that but now it’s everyone else.

I guess now that I’ve typed it out, having a second car would only help one of the issues. Huh. We can’t afford one now anyway so it’s moot. Maybe by the time we can afford one Perry’s weight gain will be better and Quine will be more biddable and less truculent in public.

The menace to society:

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New year in gear

Posted on by Phoebe Gleeson

Sean goes back to work tomorrow so I guess that means the Christmas break is over – but I’m not taking the tree down until Saturday, after Epiphany. Oh, that reminds me; I need holy water and chalk for Sean to use to bless the house. I know where the chalk is but we don’t have holy water. Sometimes churches have special Epiphany water!

The Chalking of the Doors

Anyway!

Sean will be gone so it’s back to normal. That currently looks a lot like sitting in one place and endlessly nursing the skinny baby. Which is great but everyone is kinda tired of that except me and the baby. I’ll make a trip to Walmart this week. You know it’s boring when the kids want to go to Walmart. Tomorrow Perry’s godmother-to-be and her kids are coming over. The house is a real mess but it is so dull when people go on about their messes in their blogs. It is how it is, there’s very little I can do about it, and there is no actual filth anywhere, just stuff. It’s obvious eleven people live here, that they don’t care much about tidiness, and that the one person who does care isn’t doing anything.

(I know I just said it was dull, but permit me an anecdote. A few weeks ago I ventured into the upstairs bathroom for the first time in about a month. I was greeted by an askew shower curtain, six moldering towels, four empty toilet rolls, countless shreds of toilet paper, five pairs of underpants, and an unspeakably dirty toilet. I closed the door, backed away slowly, and told Sean we have the worst. roommates. ever. Then sent the kids to at least pick up the clothes and towels. Ugh!)

All of that will change pretty quickly. It’s just how it is for now.

New year, let’s see

Posted on by Phoebe Gleeson

We started the year with champagne and fireworks. Sean and the six older kids trooped out at 11:58, coats over pajamas and sockless feet hastily shoved in shoes. I remained inside where it was warm, I mean, in case one of the babies woke up. Then champagne for all and to bed, or in my case and Sean’s, an episode of everyone’s favorite alter-Nazi history show, The Man in the High Castle. 

I was tired when Clementine woke me at 7:21. Sweet Sean got up with her and I slept another hour and a half. An excellent beginning to 2017.