Quick Takes
by Melanie Bettinelli on February 10, 2012
1. Well, now that Anthony has been on antibiotics for a week and is feeling chipper again, Ben has an ear infection. Sigh. After several nights of crying at bedtime and being up in the middle of the night, he finally admitted it hurt and agreed to go to the doctor.
2. This morning I called the pediatrician and got an afternoon appointment. When I told Ben I’d take him to the doctor after lunch, he said, “My belly’s full.” So I tried to explain that his appointment was in three hours and not dependent on when or whether he ate lunch. No dice. “I want to go somewhere,” he insisted. I repeated that we’d go in about three hours. A few minutes later he appeared in the kitchen wearing his boots and holding his coat. Persistent little fellow. It makes sense in his world. We’re always telling him if he gets his boots and coat we can go. Thus, he’s got his boots and coat, we can go, right? So we went for a walk to get out of the house while Anthony slept and my sister stayed with the girls.
It turned out to be exactly what I needed. Fresh air, sunshine, a long stroll at a two year-old’s pace with a sweet little hand tucked in mine. I haven’t been able to get much of a break in the past few weeks with all the sick kids. I thought I desperately needed some time alone. A lot of time alone. But perhaps a walk with Ben was even better medicine for what ailed me.
3. Sophie began to cry as we were heading out the door for our walk, “I don’t want you to leave! I don’t want you to leave!” She’s still feeling pretty rotten. (In fact she claimed she had an earache but the doctor said they looked fine.) While we were walking I found a tiny pine cone and gave it to Ben. He was delighted and held it in his mittened hand for a minute and then declared, “I’m going to give it to Sophie. To help her calm down.” So sweet and thoughtful. My heart is melting.
4. Sophie tells me that Miss Irwin is going to fall off the holy mountain and die. Bella corrects her and tells me that it is called the Mountain of Death. And now Bella tells Sophie that she has to be the mean person who pushes her off the mountain. And Bella asks if Sophie will bury her while she’s lying on the ground with a burial sheet. Evidently Miss Irwin has graduated from firefighter to martyr. (Of a sort?)
5. Bella: “What kind of air is in a balloon that makes it float?” (The lady at the grocery store gave Anthony a free Super Bowl balloon on Monday.)
Sophie: “Affection.”
Bella: “No, it’s helium.”
6. Sophie’s most recent song has been stuck in my head: “Boo didda didda dadda, boo didda didda dadda, on Patrick Frank Day.” She says it means Christmas is coming. (To something very like the tune of “Did you Ever See a Lassie?”)
7. Ben found the train pajamas with the hole in the toe that I hadn’t got rid of fast enough and put them on tonight: “There’s a hole in my jamas! I want somebody to cut the hole off! Cut the hole off!”
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Seven Quick Takes
by Melanie Bettinelli on December 30, 2011
It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve done a quick takes post.
1. This week in the stable: The angel, St Joseph, and the donkey are going for a ride in the school bus while Mary changes Baby Jesus’ poopy diaper.
2. I’m sewing again. A bit. I’ve decided a realistic goal is to do just a little something or other on one Sunday afternoon a month. No sense of having to get anything finished, just make a little progress on my ongoing projects.
Before I could jump into my ongoing project I had to placate three children who were utterly fascinated by the whole thing. I promised to make each of them a dolly quilt. Sophie’s was first. She picked a bunch of fabrics and I stitched them together and then used some scraps I had for binding. For Ben I used some pre-sewn scraps that I’d been fooling around with a long time ago. It came together pretty quickly. Bella opted for a more complicated bunch of fabrics and is insisting that the dolly blanket is for one of her cousins intead of for herself, which I’d be all for except I suspect the cousin in question is a bit old to be interested in a doll quilt.
I also made each of the big kids a dolly pillow using some squares I already had stitched together. All I had to do was make the final seams and stuff them. All of them are so happy about these little projects and it’s been nice for me to have something that was easy to finish and therefore had an immediate payoff. I’ve got some bigger projects that it will take much longer to finish. The last time I was actively sewing was before Ben was born and I was able to get bigger things done more quickly because I had larger chunks of time to work with. I now know I can make progress in smaller increments but it does take some patience when I’m not progressing as fast as I’d like.
3. Here is Ben’s dolly blanket. (I couldn’t find any of the pillows or Sophie’s blanket to photograph. Which is another difference between now and then. Back then I’d never have let a project leave my hands till I’d photographed it thoroughly.)
Here’s the back side:
I love the fact that even with a dolly blanket you can see he’s all boy. He’s put it on the iguana, which he insists on calling a dinosaur.
4. My sister is teaching Bella to crochet. I hope they both stick with it and don’t get distracted. It makes Bella so happy to be able to imitate her aunt and to make something for herself.
5. Ben found the box of tri-color rotini in the shopping bag and insisted he wanted some for lunch. When I said I needed to cook it first he threw a fit. Stubborn child! Rather than admit he was wrong sat there with a bunch of dried pasta on his plate trying to eat it with a fork. Finally he declared, “I’m done!” and agreed to let me cook him some. At least he did like it when it was cooked.
6. The other day in the car Bella was playing a game in which she and Sophie were firefighters in New York City. This is a recurring game but this was the first time I understood the full context of the game. There’s a huge cast of characters: John, Frank, Bernie, Sam, Patrick, Miss Irwin, Miss Jelsie, and Miss Leen, who is the fire chief. Sam and Miss Jelsie are the silly ones. Bella is Miss Irwin, I think. Sophie is Miss Jelsie. I think the name Miss Jelsie comes from Sophie’s mishearing the words to the GloriaL in excelsis Deo became first in dusty’s deo and then in Miss Jelsie’s Deo
7. Last Sunday at bedtime Ben told me, “I told God no.” Not sure what that was about except that Father’s homily that morning was about Mary’s fiat and telling God yes.
It was all I could do not to laugh. At least I didn’t have to keep a straight face because the light was out. This was during his nightly 20 minute winding-down monologue, which would be hilarious if I weren’t so tired and wanting to just go have some me-time before going to bed.
Bonus take:
Is there anything in the world better than a sleeping baby on your lap?
Well, maybe a baby who really, really wants to take a bath. (This was about fifteen minutes after he woke up, about two minutes after he threw up.)
For more quick takes visit Conversion Diary.
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