so November is National Novel Writing Month…

…and in honor of that I declare my participation in a lesser festival, International Dissertation Writing Month!

Basically, this means nothing–as every month is Dissertation Writing Month–except that I’m going to keep a word count for November. This may be a crazy idea because I may not actually want to know.

Mary and her dolly

Cute, eh?

why I haven’t blogged in a week

Almost a week, anyway–I am busy. Want to know why? Here’s what we’re doing:

* Conor just finished indexing a book…at, like, 8:00 this morning. So all weekend I have been wrangling kids and keeping the house running while he worked on that.

* Grading papers. I always forget how long it takes. I used to be able to just put myself in grading jail until they were done; however, grading jail is a lot less effective when you’re jailed with two toddlers.

* Working on my dissertation–which is going well. I’m cruising along. Me and Graham, we’re buddies.

* Canning applesauce. This was yesterday’s project. I put in three big bags of apples, got three jars of sauce. But it is totally delicious. They are, at least, quart jars. This whole canning thing, which I’ve never done before this summer, really reduces your “huge pot of whatever” to a “sort of emptyish huge pot of whatever.” Plus the kids ate it.

* Feeding Wesley [and Mary]. Wesley’s in a growth spurt and he is…well, he’s back to the phase that Conor called the “very hungry Wesleypillar.” And he is still hungry. [Still waiting on the two weeks in the cocoon part.]

* Helping get Grandma set up with a new computer [she’s finally going Mac! yay!] and high-speed internet. Conor’s uncle is fielding the high-speed changeover, but Conor spearheaded the change to Mac [and the new computer in general]. This is totally necessary, because Grandma’s old computer was…well…I’m not sure what it was doing. It was clearly about to die spectacularly. So, she’s up and running and will be getting her cable internet tomorrow.

So, no real blogging going on! But I’ll do better soon, I promise; I plan to take some pictures. That’s always good for a post or two.

this is just to say

I have eaten
the brownies
that were in
the freezer

and which
you were probably
saving
for dessert.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

[sorry, WCW.]

the sun came back

…so we went to the park.

Mary is so big.

Wesley says, “What? It is SO for going up.”

Mary watched some bigger kids.

And she ran around.

Wesley snuggled the dinosaur. [It is not, in case you’re wondering, the least bit soft or snuggly.]

Kids!

Wesley made a friend.

Wesley also explored the world wearing his first big-kid shoes.

We ended our trip with a swing session:

Where’s your tummy?

Here!

Mary=genius

We’ve been watching “A Hard Day’s Night.” Mary saw Paul’s grandfather come into the picture and exclaimed, “He’s a king mixer!”

I said, “Is Wesley a king mixer?”

She said, “No! Wessy not a king mixer! Wessy a toddler!”

Wesley: destined for social greatness

Earlier today, Conor made a hot dog for lunch. He dribbled some ketchup and mustard on his shirt, so he licked it off.

Wesley stared at him, fascinated. Conor saw him looking and said, “In this manner I shall make you in my likeness.”

Wesley licked the condiments off of his piece of hot dog bun.

There is no hope that this boy is ever going to get a date.

conversation with a waking-up Mary

Mary just got up from her nap. We had the following conversation:

Me: Ready to get up?
M: I was dancing in the bed!
Me: really? You were dancing in your bed?
M: I was!
Me: Is that a silly place to dance?
M: Yes, it WAS!

[Wesley appears from dining room]
M: Wesley needs a new diaper!
Me: He does! I just got him out of his bed.
Mary: Wesley, you need a new diaper!
Wesley: NO!
Mary: Wesley, you NEED one!
Me: Yes, Wesley does need one.
Mary: Wesley’s too young to potty train!
Me: Yes, he’s too little to use the potty.
Wesley: NO!
Mary: Honey, you can’t say no! You need a diaper!
Me: Here, want me to change your diaper?
Wesley: NO!
Mary: You don’t get a choice! You can’t use the potty, so you need a diaper! Here! [thrusts diaper in his direction] I’ll get the wipes!

Apparently she has a firm grasp on reality, though perhaps not tact.

Chickadee Cowl: complete!

I finished the cowl! It is totally cute, if I do say so myself. But here’s some proof…

I used Conor’s built-in iSight camera to take these pictures…so, well, you’ll see the difficulty. The first couple went okay:

Then Wesley said, “Dude! Is that a camera?”

“Let me see too!”

Mary said, “Mary wear cowl!”

She stole it.

I got it back, though. I love it.