...fun with words.

Today in the change room at Jackson's swim lesson he asked me to help him get undressed.

Jackson: "Can you help me with my coffee shirt?"

Me: "Ok. Say, why do you call it a coffee shirt? Is it because it's brown like coffee?"

Jackson: "Well ... no ... what do you call this again?" He pointed to the front of his shirt.

Me: "Oh, you mean that guy? He's a crawdad, or crayfish."

Jackson: "No, I mean the whole big thing? What's it called? It's not a coffee shirt?"

Me: "OH! You mean like a 'tea' shirt? It's a T-shirt!"

He just gets cuter!

As long as he never wears a smoking jacket.

...sweet dreams!

This is funny. My mom recently got Jackson a bunch of really cool pirate stuff, including a large pirate flag. The pirate skull nightlight she made for him was already plugged in next to his bed but we hadn't found a place to hang the flag yet. He sleeps in the bottom bunk of a set of bunk beds and we've never decorated the bottom of the top bunk so he just looks up at some wood slats.

Before bed one night last week I snuck in and tucked the corners of the flag up under the slats so that he would be suprised, and I imagined excited, to see it up above his pillow. Darren always lies down with him for a story before he goes to sleep so I wasn't witness to the following, but couldn't stop laughing when he told me about it a few minutes later. Here's what happened:

Darren and Jackson crawl into the bottom bunk and turn out the overhead light.

Darren and Jackson see a menacing, glowing skull about 10 inches above their noses. (I didn't know it was glow-in-the-dark paint!)

Darren: "Hmmm...."

Jackson: "Ummm.... Papa?"

Darren: "Look! Mommy hung up your pirate flag! You'll have your very own pirate protecting you while you sleep!"

Jackson: "Is he a good pirate?"

Darren: "Sure he is, see - he's smiling at you."

Jackson: "............. I don't think he's smiling, Papa."

Darren: "Yeah, maybe we should find another place for him to sleep."

What was I thinking?!

...COOL!

This is Jackson's very first stick man. :-D

age 4

...hammock!

Finally! My new hammock has arrived. The old one got eaten by rats at the old house. It was a Mayan string hammock, perfect for Tucson - this one is a Brazilian hammock, perfect for the breezier cooler climate here. It took me all of 20 minutes to get it unpacked and ready for lounging. After Darren weight-tested it (briefly, because he was scared), and I relax-tested it (breifly, because of the kids), the kids wrestle-tested it.

...summer fun

For Darren's birthday I bought him a little metal chiminea to help him stay in touch with his inner caveman. He and Jackson lit a fire in it last night and we toasted marshmallows over it. It was the kids' first taste of toasted marshmallows and they had a great time. Afterwards Jackson thought it would we should all dance a Hawaiian dance around the fire. What a fun kid!




All our boxes are emptied now, but I haven't finished arranging the furniture and things are a bit of a mess so ... no pics yet, but soon.

I built a cover/cabinet thingy for our new dishwasher out of plywood and I'll take a picture of that too - after I clear up the crumbs and stuff - you know.

...not so cuticle

Hi, tiny fanclub. I know it's been a while and I promise that next week, or the week after, I'll get some pictures of the new house up and share some moving stories. We've been here for a week and a half now and we LOVE it. It's so great it's like our whole lives have changed for the better.

Except for one thing that is not so great that I'll tell you about now. It has nothing to do with the house. It has to do with my annoying sensitivity to things that don't bother most people. No, not the sound of my mother eating popcorn (hey, mom). I'm talking about sensitivity to chemicals.

On great recommendation I got a bottle of Nail Magic to try to turn my pitiful, peely little fingernails into great, long super claws of steel. Or at least long enough to paint and feel good enough about to not want to self-consciously curl them in towards my palms out in public.

After one application I broke out in an unbearably, firey, itchy case of allergic contact dermatitis.



I really wanted this to happen for me, but I guess I should have expected something like this given my past history of reactions to various things. Like the time I put some floor refinisher down on an old wood floor and ended up with stroke-like symptoms 4 hours later.

Anyhoo, I'll catch you up on events later. Thanks for checking in!