don’t let a goat sell your apples

This morning was a real mommy slammer. I started off a bit rocky due to insufficient sleep. It never fails that on the nights that both kids sleep relatively well, potentially giving the grown-ups a chance for good sleep, one of the four-legged animals stages a late night riot. Normally, it is our long shepherd, Faucet Alexander. Last night however, or more accurately – early this morning, it was our elusive feline, Waylon. She’s been making the blog more than usual lately… maybe she wants her fifteen minutes of fame.

We got up and began our predictable AM routine – cuddle with Ossian, cuddle with Nola, cuddle together, use the little potty, jammies off, eat cereal, change nola’s diaper, feed mommy, etc. By now, it was 7:30 am and just before it was time to feed low-blood sugar mommy, everybody got a little needy. I started cooking pasta to take with Ossian to her playdate/babysittee gig. Nola was growing increasingly frustrated with her inability to scoot forward toward the toy piano she loves to play – her giggly cooing slowly getting louder and morphing into yowliness. Piles of paper, art supplies, and shoes crashed onto the floor, ejected by the accelerating vibration of the eagerly spinning dryer upon which they’d been perilously perched. This startled Faucet who whined and jumped. I pulled out the overflowing kitchen garbage bag which had been impregnated by droves of greedy gorgonzola ants (have I explained the gorgonzola ants? – another post). They were so greedy that they immediately ran up my fingers and wrists when I disrupted them. (No matter what the situation, Gorgonzola Ants inspire a visceral rage that starts in my spine every time I tangle with them). I was planning my response to the swarm of ant pests climbing up my limbs while trying to calm nola’s escalating irritation when Ossian hollered that she needed to be wiped. The teapot launched into a whistle as the phone rang, sending Faucet back into whiny land. I stepped over the ringing phone as I passed a now shouting baby, noticing that the dying fire needed a log or we’d be chilly on this rainy day and quickstepped to Ossian. As I reached her, my nose unleashed it’s congestion leaving me desperate for a kleenex. In that instant, Ossian spotted Faucet gulping her unattended cereal from her perky green bowl. He is such an opportunist. She became hysterical, charging after Faucet, pantless and poopy, shrieking, “NO, Faucet. That’s not ok!!” I’m sure you’ll recall previous posts which illustrated my approach to triage in this type of situation – live and uncontained poop gets priority. Sorry to mad Nola, nervous Faucet, the darkening fire, overflowing garbage bag now spilled on the floor, unidentified caller, my running nose, outraged teapot, stolen cereal, and my own growly low blood sugar – all of whom had to take a back seat for this moment. I had to wipe that now sprinting and hysterical toddler. A moving target is more of a challenge, especially when Gorgonzola Ants are circling your neck. I did the job while flinging gorgonzolas off with spastic jerks of my body, and scooped up Nola. Off went the teapot, back in the bag went the garbage, a dry log hit the fire, a new bowl of cereal was poured, my nose was attended to along with Nola’s, Faucet received enough attention to soothe him (don’t want to overdo it), and the frenetic energy slowly left the room. I squatted down in front of Ossian to apologize for using a snappy voice when I impatiently told her to hold still so I could wipe. She gave me a knowing smile, hugged me with her whole body then pulled her sweet head back to make eye contact before telling me, “it’s ok mommy, I love you still.” Still? Where did she come from… this little angel in my kitchen.

We finished getting dressed, reading books, packing up lunch, changing Nola, driving trucks, and playing on the feltboard before donning dino boots and raincoat to head to Nick’s house. On the way to the car, Ossian chanted, “Jesus, the ants are everywhere!,” more times than I care to reveal here. Where could she have learned that?

On the other side of Lighthouse Road, mischief of another kind was sneaking around this morning. On my way back from Nick’s house, I interrupted a party of delightedly guilty looking goats who had escaped their acreage and were gorging themselves on the tasty apples at our favorite apple stand (ok -it’s also the only one).

We have somehow been fast-forwarded to pseudo winter with daily torrents of relentless rain and chilly evenings. Some windstorms to boot. Rumor has it that the waves down the road are supposed to roll 30 feet high for the next couple of day. It’s invigorating. Such weather makes for lots of spontaneous rainbows, little treats that emerge during our fleeting sun breaks. One such rainbow, the girls and I attempted to capture in a photo below. Sometimes what’s at the end of a rainbow is your silverstreak trailer, not a pot of gold.

With the winter weather, we are also re-awakening our fire tending selves. Our house is heated exclusively with wood so we need an ample and dry supply, like…yesterday. We didn’t have any free time anyway but somehow, with an entire season free of fire tending, the return to the woodstove routine means yet another consistently time-consuming chore to fit in. Blase has been on the gathering and cutting of firewood. A photo below depicts him on a water break during a wood hunt mission – one of his favorite things.

In other random news… Nola is driving: see photo below. Nola is also sitting up with minimal capsizing.

The last photo is a bit of challenge… can you tell if it’s Blase or mini-Blase?