5/10 The Day of Being On the Evolutionary Path

Pouring over my recently installed statcounter on my blog and finding that I have readers all over the world. The continental US and Hawaii, Costa Rica, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Mumbai! Wow. Those can’t all be family.

Pollywog check. They are beginning to climb out of the pond like some sort of instant evolutionary path. Now they look more like frogs than fishes.

Feeling like the possibilities I have been working on for, oh, years… maybe decades are starting to come together. Or maybe the momentum towards these activities is picking up again after so many years.

See more progress on: list three things every day that made me happy

5/9 The Day of the Pollywog

Bedtime is going back to being fun and not an ordeal. Still a small struggle, but much better. They both get into bed with their various toys for the night and blankies and bobos and books to “read” to themselves. The boy, at least, does not really go to sleep right away, and often is up for quite some time, but I think he’s developing some strategies to deal with his wakefulness, especially combined with his newfound awareness of good guys and bad guys and the scary monsters.

One really sweet ear of corn that was just yummy. Not until I tasted the others did realize the difference between really good corn and just corn.

Pollywog check: Ladies and gentlemen, we have pollywogs. One of them was sitting on top of a lily pad. Another was floating in the pond off to the side. G and Ivy both got to see it before the boy made some loud noise and scared the pollywogs away.

G calls tatertots “babies.” I thought that was cute.

Animal crackers.

See more progress on: list three things every day that made me happy

5/8 The Day of the Training

Here come the sitcoms! Yay until the summer hiatus, anyway.

I trained at the new restaurant and it looks like it will work out. It’s casual and laid back, and I think I can get some decent part time schedules, and I am probably the most experienced of the new hires, so if someone goes, it won’t be me. I saw that I could totally handle the job. It’s an old restaurant that has new owners and is being opened again after a few months of being closed, so there was some worry about have a clientele, but this was the first day of reopening, and the regulars were all coming back which means we will make some money [knock on wood]. I think I was really lucky that my step father saw the hire sign the day I was job searching, because there’s not much hiring being done these days.

Sitting with my mom and step dad in the new job after I was done training, chatting and having a beer with them before they dropped me home.

Coming home from training to see the little guys, read them a story and tuck them in.

Going to work was like being on vacation! Lets see if I feel that way after a full day’s work.

Finally getting statcounter to work on my blog and finding I have more than ZERO readers. A couple dozen, in fact. Surprised the heck out of me. Maybe I’m coming back into the world.

See more progress on: list three things every day that made me happy

5/7 The Day of Monsters Painting

ANTM. Almost to the end. We’re down to three “pretty girls standing here before me.” I was too full for my brownie batter tradition, so I had a couple small pieces of chocolate and was good with that.

Dinner at Biff Burger with Grandma and Grandpa Rick. Kids had lots of fun. There were tater tots and motorcycles, and a new toy, and of course grandma. Happy for grownups, too, because we got to have a little relax time.

Ivy went to Grandma voluntarily. No crying, no hiding. She wasn’t exactly running up and hugging her, but she’s getting there.

Went to a thrift store and wandered through the toys and videos. How much fun did the kids have then? I think it might have been fun for G to have to pick only one toy. Choosing is fun, even if putting toys back is not. He ended up getting a Hotwheels Dragon castle thing.

Painting with the kids. They really enjoyed it. Ivy said “paint, paint.” Sometimes I forget how young she is, because she sure talks a lot more than G did at her age.

I finally picked up my paint set and painted a little drawing I had in my journal of animal/people in the woods. G and Ivy were enthralled. That’s why we took out their paints, too.

I think I want to go back to the old idea of selling my artwork on etsy. Or maybe down here in Florida, because for all of it’s weirdness, St Pete is a very artsy town. But the idea I had a long time ago to make a monsters alphabet is coming back. I can see how I might achieve it. The planning I did before being overtaken by the need to move is actually starting to make sense. And my uncle thought it was a great idea, too.

See more progress on: list three things every day that made me happy

5/6 The Day of "Man! This is Good!"

Tacos for dinner. G said, “Man! This is good!” which was really nice, because his verbal ability has been kind of spotty. He’s been talking a lot more since we came down to Florida. I don’t know if it was the change, or he was just ready to start talking. Of course, he didn’t eat the tacos straight up. He basically had tortilla chips dipped in mild salsa and topped with taco meat. No tomatoes or lettuce. Little cheese. He did however ask, quite clearly, for chocolate.

Looks like I got a part time job waiting tables. I’m going in to train on thursday and I have a tentative Saturday and Sunday evening shift. Phew. Let’s see how it goes.

The kids were playing out in the garden with some water “gun” sea animals. They really enjoyed it, although Ivy couldn’t quite shoot the shark or dophin water projectile. Lots of laughter. Lots of wet kids.

My back is slowly getting better. Still hurts, but not constantly, and I can go some time without using the back brace.

I am still on the email list for G’s playgroup and they sent some photos today. It’s a little bittersweet, because I miss my mom friends, but I like to see how big the kids are growing.

The way Ivy struts when she walks.

See more progress on: list three things every day that made me happy

5/5 Cinco de Mayo or The Day of the Job Search Continues

Went out with my stepfather to troll the restaurants in the neighborhood filling out applications. It doesn’t sound romantic…well, I take it back. It does sound a little romantic to me. Waiting tables part time while staying at home the rest of the time with my kids. I had a lot of fun waiting tables in my 20s. It wasn’t all fun, but a lot was. Had a good lead, in fact the guy says he’ll call me tomorrow, so I might even have the job, and we ended up with my step father buying me a burger and beer at Biff Burger, this outdoor bar and grill he likes to go to. He says that’s my vacation from the kids.

In my wanderings, I found an English style pub that not only has guinness, but also has a little play ground where the kids can run around while the parents watch from the porch tables! And it’s only about five blocks from our house! As soon as one of us gets a job, we can have some outings there. S misses his pub.

G and Ivy chasing each other. They both were laughing the entire time. And they stopped this short from actual wrestling. They are getting very close to being able to really play together. I guess this is the benefit to having them so close together.

See more progress on: list three things every day that made me happy

5/4 The Day of the Light Saber

I went through the last month’s photos on my computer and deleted probably hundred of photos. I feel good about this because I have so many photos in there that I have no more space on my computer. And also because I have so many photos it is too overwhelming to do anything with them. I’m going to take it as a creative, editorial endeavor. I am hoping that from now on, I will save fewer, but better photos, and not have this problem. And hopefully it is one more step to me getting my photo load under control and maybe posting more pictures.

Emails with old friends. There’s been a lot of that this month, thanks to facebook. No, I don’t need another addiction, but I really do want to be more social and keep in touch.

I made G a light saber out of a flashlight and a rolled up tube of paper taped to said flashlight. He loved it. He watched Return of the Jedi again while swinging it.

Ivy says “beans!” now. It’s very cute. “What do you want for lunch, Ivy?” “Beans!” even though it sounds more like “Bee! Bee!”

Tadpole check. Saw another tadpole with tiny legs growing, not a pollywog yet, I don’t think. Any day now and the froggies will be jumping all over the place. How big do they get? I’ve never actually seen tadpoles go through the process before. It’s neat.

See more progress on: list three things every day that made me happy