I’m Blaming It All On the Full Moon

Actually it was mostly a very fine day. A fitting end to a long week about which I will only say transitions & change at work are never always smooth & there were a couple rough days last week.

My Aunt C, Uncle L, their daughter J & her daughter K are in town this weekend. I haven’t seen J & K since my Gramma’s funeral 8 years ago. K is now 9. Before I get ahead of myself, I’m going to start in chronological order because… because that’s how I’m going to do it.

So, as I’m logging off the computer on Friday (which seems like a bazillion years ago even though that was just last night), P picks up the phone & it’s C. C says “I can’t get anyone at Gramma’s house to pick up the phone, can we come make pies at your house tonight.” (No — they’re never questions, they’re weirdly phrased statements of what is to come). Sure, that’s fine (since that’s what will happen regardless, no point in saying no).

Maybe *just* a little extra background for those of you not filled in on family history. My Aunt and I have not always seen particularly eye to eye on pretty much anything. But, I do have to say in the past few years we’ve both relaxed somewhat. In many ways she’s really quite a lot like me, and I think that could be part of what has always irked me. It’s the parts of me that I find abrasive in myself that I find abrasive in her as well. Although I’d never write “dust me” on a tiny ledge in a bathroom in a house someone else was living in, no matter how deep the dust. It just shouldn’t be done. And I don’t like arguing just for the sake of the argument. But she’s a lawyer by trade, and That’s What She Does. I know a lot of very bad lawyer jokes. But as I said, we’ve both relaxed somewhat in the past few years.

Ok, ok, so back to the story. So they all are coming over to make pie. Around 8:30 at night. Whatever, they’re bringing K, who M1 has been insanely excited to meet for the last long time. K & M1 (M2 is long ago asleep by the point they show up) hit it off right away. They are two peas in a pod, they are. K looks suspiciously like J at her age, much as M1 looks suspiciously like me. And of course, when I was little, I adored J & her sisters, much like M now adores K. So they retreat to M1’s bedroom to play. There was momentary drum playing at one point, but that quickly ended when all the adults freaked out that they were going to wake the baby. :) J is delightful as she always has been. I still rather adore these three particular cousins, and I see them only very very rarely. J asks if she can take some rosemary cuttings as her rosemary doesn’t do well where they live & my rosemary is attempting to take over the world. I say of course. She keeps asking “am I taking too much?” I keep telling her “I can’t even tell that you’ve cut any yet — please, I have four huge bushes of the stuff, and it all needs pruning!” I still can’t tell that she took any. C makes the pies. Then they all go back to the hotel.

So much for a quiet evening at home.

This morning, which also feels a bazillion years away from right now, is ok. My Mom calls & says they don’t know what the plan is, if they’re not home when we get there to fix lunch & they’ll be home when they get home. So we get there, they’re not home, we eat lunch & eventually they show up home with J & K. M1 & K disappear into the backyard reappearing only for food. J & I hunt them down for periodic pictures. I didn’t take enough pictures.

M2 only slept in the car on the way down. Around 3 she is starting to need an afternoon nap. By 4, she definitely needs one. Never did happen. Instead she does what kids do so they don’t fall asleep on their feet. She runs. She goes faster, gets into more, climbs up more things, empties more things out… So tired from chasing her. So I try putting her down from her nap three different times. No go. She climbs up a bar stool that’s taller than she is, miraculously without tipping it over on herself. Within the next fifteen or so minutes, she’s got so much red bell pepper stuffed in her mouth that she can’t chew it all. So she spits it out. sigh. Then she gets a hold of a coke can and splits her finger open. P comes into the kitchen & says “Sus, you’re bleeding!” Shit, no I’m not, it’s her. So the Gramma-Mommy-Daddy triage squad goes to work. It’s a real gusher. There’s some discussion of going to see if she needs stitches. I nix it. She doesn’t need stitches. So we eventually get her to hold still enough to get a bandaid applied so she stops flinging & smearing blood everywhere. She doesn’t like bandaids & peels three of them off in the course of the rest of the day. At least by the time the second one comes off, she’s stopped bleeding.

So then I go back to trying to find something she’ll eat that she won’t do the chipmunk thing with. Snow peas seem to be working as long as I hold it and let her take bites. That’s working well, so I grab a handful, let her hold the one I was feeding her, grab the high chair, and go to put her in it. Meanwhile, she’s stuffed the entire pea in her mouth & decided it’s too much. Repeat scene with red peppers with snow pea. Yep. She spits the whole damn thing out on to Gramma’s floor. Gramma says no more snow peas for Madeleine. Back to square one. Then my poor Mommy apologizes. I say it’s ok & go to drag the chair outside, come back in try to find something else. She apologizes again & I burst into tears because I’m just so freaking tired of chasing M2, picking up after M2, rescuing things from M2, rescuing M2 from things, & then having to chase her down again. God, she’s busy. So, by bursting into tears, I make my poor Mommy feel really bad, but it’s about M2, not her. We give Madeleine some cut up snow peas & some other stuff. Dinner goes reasonably well. Only some salmon, potatoes, tomatoes, peas, and crackers end up on their deck. In fact the rest of the evening goes reasonably well. Still chasing, etc, M2, but she hasn’t had a nap so she’s slowing way down.

When we leave, P accidentally catches M1’s fingers in the car door. My first clue that something has happened is my Dad lunging trying to catch the door & M1 shrieking & then shrieking “IS THERE BLOOOOOD?” No blood. Yay. Because we’ve already dealt with that. So, Daddy, Gramma, Grampa triage goes into effect getting ice & stuff while I pry M2 (who has waved and already said “Bye-bye-bye-bye”) out of her car seat. I pass M2 off to P, who looks as miserable as he no doubt feels, and pull M1 up on to my lap to hold ice around her fingers. M2 looks confused. Once M1’s calmed down, and we’ve acertained her fingers all move (I don’t know that they’re even going to bruise, but they’re going to be sore for a bit, I bet), Gramma says she’s not attached to the towel & we can take it & the ice home with us, so we do.

No further incidents. We get back in the car safely, and home safely. M1 told P she knew it was an accident and that he didn’t mean to do it. Then she mostly talked about how great K was, and when I started wondering if she was *ever* going to fall asleep, she finally fell asleep. And it was quiet. She woke up briefly, just in time to see the Wheedle in the Needle, and then slept the rest of the way home.

Kids went down, P went down, and I’m here. As usual. I’m blaming it all on the full moon.

Tomorrow is a different cousin’s wedding shower. Madeleine is staying home with P. I can’t chase her any more. She’s adorable, but she’s not fun for Mommy to take out in public right now. Marian is the flower girl so she’s going. And she (usually) behaves a little better in public.

I’m going to need a weekend from this weekend.