We went to what was theoretically SCA archery practice on Sunday, but in reality was a bunch of people hanging out while the kids frolicked in the wading pool and under the sprinkler.
All of the kids had fun, but oh my, Alec is apparently part selkie. He splashed in the pool, he splashed in the water table. He climbed in and out of the pool through sheer force of will. Finally, he crawled over and just sat under the sprinkler, occasionally waving his arms in joy, too exhausted to play any more but utterly unwilling to leave all of the wonderful water.
Incidentally, I have to say that I'm very impressed with the waterproofness of Bumgenius pocket diapers. I had put one on him without any absorbent material as a swim diaper, and it would take on water when it gapped, but then wouldn't let it drain, so he routinely had a cup of water hanging off of his crotch. As I said, impressive water retention abilities there. I finally just took the diaper off and let him frolic naked. I figured everyone there knew what baby boys look like under their diapers and there's really such a short in your life that you're allowed to have no modesty at all.
*****
It was K's last day of school today. They had a short ceremony to celebrate moving up to kindergarten with the parents looking on proudly (and brilliant people that we are, we remembered the camera but forgot that the battery was still in the charger). It was particularly nice that the teacher they had the longest this year came back to be part of the ceremony and say good bye to the kids. Her class had four teachers this year. The regular teacher had to take a leave of absence for health reasons, so they got a long-term sub who was a retired fifth grade teacher. He was pretty good, especially considering he wasn't used to being surrounded by four year olds every day. His training wasn't in preschool, but he tried hard. But then the school district informed him that if he taught past a certain point, he would start losing retirement benefits, so he had to leave six weeks before the end of the year. Then they got the sub who seemed entirely unprepared to deal with small children. My opinion of her was cemented the day she informed me that K had had a tantrum over something and I was supposed to talk to her to keep it from happening again. I... see. One, what on Earth are you doing teaching preschool if you can't handle a tantrum, and two, if only I had realized the way to put an end to tantrums was to talk to her. And here I had been sending her memos, which didn't seem to work at all! Yeesh. But she left after a couple weeks, and they got the final teacher who thankfully seemed to actually know about preschool.
And now I need to figure out what to do with us for the next three months. We can't afford any sort of day camp (do they have camps based on the theme "Get this kid out of my hair for a few hours"?), but I'm thinking I need to figure out at least child care for Fridays. B and I had been switching off working Fridays and Saturdays, which was tiring but at least we got one day a week off together the weeks I didn't work Sundays. But since the branch libraries have stopped Saturday hours for the summer, I'm only going to be able to work Saturdays and Sundays. And since he also managed to get a bunch of Sunday hours at the Central Library downtown, there's going to be something like a seven week period this summer that I will have to work every Saturday and we will switch off who works on Sunday. Meaning that we won't have a day off for nearly two months if I can't get some child care and work some Fridays. Yikes.
As for what to do with the other four days of the week, I foresee taking heavy advantage of museum memberships and trying to schedule a lot of playdates. I really want to get her in some swimming lessons, but that may have to wait depending on what our finances look like.
First, though, we have the kids' birthdays to get through next week and then a pilgrimage Midwestward. I'm looking forward to going home for a while.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Alec at eleven months
My goodness, eleven month olds are exhausting. It's not even so much the chasing Alec around as the sheer physical effort of preventing nearly thirty pounds of determined baby straining towards the object of his desire from actually getting it, or trying to continue holding him up when he's decided he wants to be on the ground and either stops holding on with his legs at all, or attempts to pivot in my arms until he's nearly head-down.
He has gotten very, very fast at crawling and is ready to take advantage of this at the first opening, whether it's finding the gate downstairs open so he can go play in the cat food or his bedroom door unwisely left open during a diaper change, so he can flip over mid-change and crawl hellbent for freedom, naked poopy butt waving jauntily in the air (why am I changing him on the floor instead of the changing table? Because at least when he pulls those maneuvers on the floor, he can't fall off anything. He's perfectly happy to roll over and try to start crawling or scale the wall while on the changing table without regard for trifles like gravity. Babies are kind of dumb like that). I don't think he's made much real progress on the gross motor front beyond getting faster and more confident at crawling and cruising. The closest he comes to standing independently can best be describe as "briefly balancing before toppling in the other direction" or "falling a bit more slowly than normal." He shows no interest in trying to take steps behind a wheeled toy or while we hold his hands. So I would be shocked if he were walking by his birthday. By the same token, I would be surprised if he waited until 16 months like K. 13-14 months maybe? Honestly, I'm not in a hurry for him to have that much more scope for destruction. Imagine what he'll be able to do to a room once he has his hands free.
Despite making him sound like a whirling dervish, Alec is actually remarkably good at quietly entertaining himself for long periods of time, methodically working his way through a room, examining everything he finds with scientific intensity and subjecting them to stress tests. He's gotten much more interested in books as well, and happily pages through them or listens to us read to him.
One thing I like about this age is that he's starting to find ways to communicate with more than just crying. There are the obvious things, like bringing over a book and hitting us with it, and more subtle, like the time he let me know he was thirsty by sticking my finger in his mouth, sucking it for a moment and then giving me a meaningful look.
He's still a little charmer and a flirt. He knows just how to act to get people swooning over him in public. I mean, most babies get attention in public, but he's a master of the coy smile moving into wide grin that really gets people. I'm not sure how the product of my genes could be such a people person. He periodically comes up to me for a cuddle break in the middle of his busy play schedule. He also periodically comes by and bites my toes, or bites my shoulder when I pick him up. He's such a cute little piranha.
He has gotten very, very fast at crawling and is ready to take advantage of this at the first opening, whether it's finding the gate downstairs open so he can go play in the cat food or his bedroom door unwisely left open during a diaper change, so he can flip over mid-change and crawl hellbent for freedom, naked poopy butt waving jauntily in the air (why am I changing him on the floor instead of the changing table? Because at least when he pulls those maneuvers on the floor, he can't fall off anything. He's perfectly happy to roll over and try to start crawling or scale the wall while on the changing table without regard for trifles like gravity. Babies are kind of dumb like that). I don't think he's made much real progress on the gross motor front beyond getting faster and more confident at crawling and cruising. The closest he comes to standing independently can best be describe as "briefly balancing before toppling in the other direction" or "falling a bit more slowly than normal." He shows no interest in trying to take steps behind a wheeled toy or while we hold his hands. So I would be shocked if he were walking by his birthday. By the same token, I would be surprised if he waited until 16 months like K. 13-14 months maybe? Honestly, I'm not in a hurry for him to have that much more scope for destruction. Imagine what he'll be able to do to a room once he has his hands free.
Despite making him sound like a whirling dervish, Alec is actually remarkably good at quietly entertaining himself for long periods of time, methodically working his way through a room, examining everything he finds with scientific intensity and subjecting them to stress tests. He's gotten much more interested in books as well, and happily pages through them or listens to us read to him.
One thing I like about this age is that he's starting to find ways to communicate with more than just crying. There are the obvious things, like bringing over a book and hitting us with it, and more subtle, like the time he let me know he was thirsty by sticking my finger in his mouth, sucking it for a moment and then giving me a meaningful look.
He's still a little charmer and a flirt. He knows just how to act to get people swooning over him in public. I mean, most babies get attention in public, but he's a master of the coy smile moving into wide grin that really gets people. I'm not sure how the product of my genes could be such a people person. He periodically comes up to me for a cuddle break in the middle of his busy play schedule. He also periodically comes by and bites my toes, or bites my shoulder when I pick him up. He's such a cute little piranha.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Baker's quarter dozen
* Alec still drinks several bottles a day, but we're starting to make the transition to straw cups with water or whole milk during meals and when we go out. I hadn't thought before about the fact that I have very little experience with the way milk behaves in a straw cup; K was allergic to milk until she was two, so hers was always rice milk, and we tend to bring water for her these days. So I hadn't realized quite how... chunky milk gets in such a short time. Yeeurgh.
*Speaking of milk, it's been about three weeks since the last time I pumped. I had wanted to make it the entire year, but my supply drops pretty quickly if I reduce my schedule even slightly, and it just felt so good when I reduced my schedule down to three times a day that I couldn't make myself go back even when it was clear my supply was drying up. And once I was producing less than 10 ounces a day, it wasn't worth it any more to try to limp across the finish line. Alec is a gigantic, robustly healthy baby who is doing just fine drinking formula for a month. I figured out recently that I produced a quart a day for five months, and 25 ounces a day for at least three more months. It's a rough calculation, but I pumped 62 gallons of milk in the past year. Moo. But a rather accomplished moo.
* We finally enrolled K in kindergarten a couple weeks ago. We finally landed on public school because the one she's currently going to is one of the best in the city and she would already know some kids in her class. It has some green space and a playground next to it, and it's two minutes away from B's library. We still have reservations about Philadelphia schools, but it seemed like a good situation for early elementary school.
So you can imagine our reaction when we discovered that that's not the school K will be attending. Her preschool program isn't available in every school, so we were assigned to the nearest one with a Bright Futures class, but we don't actually live in that school's area. Our actual school is surrounded by asphalt and doesn't have a playground. And its test scores are a great deal worse. Now I certainly don't think that test scores are any sort of measure of how good a school actually is. But in the era of No Child Left Unscathed, my worry is that a school with poor scores will have to spend a great deal more time prepping for the tests than a school with good scores. And a kid like K, if she takes after her father and me at all, will be shunted aside on the assumption that she'll provide a good score and doesn't need any attention.
So I'm not sure what we're going to do. In the positive column for the new school, when we went to our current school, the office staff was unspeakably rude to us, whereas the reaction of the office staff at the new school was a cheerful "Welcome!" That was enough not to make me immediately run to request a voluntary transfer and at least wait and see to find out what it will be like in September. We're hoping to move when our current lease is up in December, so the simplest solution would be to find a place in the area of the school we like. Failing that, a transfer is a possibility. Or we'll start looking at public school alternatives again.
Or maybe we'll actually like this school. But I feel badly for K, who has spent the past year making friends including a couple best friends, and now she's going to be in a completely different school from them.
*Speaking of milk, it's been about three weeks since the last time I pumped. I had wanted to make it the entire year, but my supply drops pretty quickly if I reduce my schedule even slightly, and it just felt so good when I reduced my schedule down to three times a day that I couldn't make myself go back even when it was clear my supply was drying up. And once I was producing less than 10 ounces a day, it wasn't worth it any more to try to limp across the finish line. Alec is a gigantic, robustly healthy baby who is doing just fine drinking formula for a month. I figured out recently that I produced a quart a day for five months, and 25 ounces a day for at least three more months. It's a rough calculation, but I pumped 62 gallons of milk in the past year. Moo. But a rather accomplished moo.
* We finally enrolled K in kindergarten a couple weeks ago. We finally landed on public school because the one she's currently going to is one of the best in the city and she would already know some kids in her class. It has some green space and a playground next to it, and it's two minutes away from B's library. We still have reservations about Philadelphia schools, but it seemed like a good situation for early elementary school.
So you can imagine our reaction when we discovered that that's not the school K will be attending. Her preschool program isn't available in every school, so we were assigned to the nearest one with a Bright Futures class, but we don't actually live in that school's area. Our actual school is surrounded by asphalt and doesn't have a playground. And its test scores are a great deal worse. Now I certainly don't think that test scores are any sort of measure of how good a school actually is. But in the era of No Child Left Unscathed, my worry is that a school with poor scores will have to spend a great deal more time prepping for the tests than a school with good scores. And a kid like K, if she takes after her father and me at all, will be shunted aside on the assumption that she'll provide a good score and doesn't need any attention.
So I'm not sure what we're going to do. In the positive column for the new school, when we went to our current school, the office staff was unspeakably rude to us, whereas the reaction of the office staff at the new school was a cheerful "Welcome!" That was enough not to make me immediately run to request a voluntary transfer and at least wait and see to find out what it will be like in September. We're hoping to move when our current lease is up in December, so the simplest solution would be to find a place in the area of the school we like. Failing that, a transfer is a possibility. Or we'll start looking at public school alternatives again.
Or maybe we'll actually like this school. But I feel badly for K, who has spent the past year making friends including a couple best friends, and now she's going to be in a completely different school from them.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Happy-making things:
- We got a donation of some Bobbsey Twins books at work today, the really classic original ones from 1904. I read them as some of my first chapter books when I was seven or so, but haven't read any in about 25 years. I was paging through the first book and while I had remembered a lot, I had completely forgotten the bit where Nan's foolhardy friends tried to jump rope 100 times in a row and collapsed in a dead faint from the strain. This didn't come as a surprise to Mr. Bobbsey, who had known of multiple little girls who had DIED from jumping too much. I hadn't realized jump rope had such a high fatality rate.
I think I need to read some more of these, because they're entertaining on the same level that a Victorian novel I once read was (or I should say, helped read aloud to friends while we howled with laughter), where a man from a village populated with a freakish number of redheads kills his wife and then develops guilt-induced meningitis. Even as a child, I recognized that things like the book that takes place in Holland, Michigan where they discover everyone there lives in the traditional Dutch fashion (they don't) and prominently featured an abandoned windmill as a plot point (there's one windmill in Holland, and it's a major tourist attraction) was pretty ridiculous, but clearly there's a lot more absurdity to be found by reading these as an adult.
- A new Thai restaurant opened up around the corner from us. One of the more disappointing aspects of where we live in the city is that while there are plenty of takeout and delivery places for food, you have a varied menu available of Italian, Italian, Chinese and Italian. We were excited when the first delivery menu arrived after we moved here, and then the next twelve thousand ninety-six arrived and we discovered that they all had exactly the same menu. We love and really miss Thai food, so it was an exciting day when we spotted the new restaurant to provide something a little different in the sea of cheese steaks that makes up the local restaurant scene. We were both braindead by Friday evening, so we ordered it and it was lovely. They had all of my favorite dishes, with just exactly the right amount of spice. I can handle a lot of spice, but I've actually found with some foods that I prefer it not be too spicy because there are other flavors I like that you can't taste if your tongue is being reduced to a carbon cinder. But my Drunken Noodles were just about perfect. And they even offer some Chinese food, so we were able to order an egg roll for K to make sure she would have something we knew she would eat (sometimes she is quite adventurous with how she eats. And other times, she decides to be four instead).
- I love three day weekends. Of course, in our case that means we only had today off together. But it was still a day off together when normally we would have had to wait until next weekend for that to happen. And since it was today instead of a Sunday when we have to get up for church, I got to sleep in. Bliss. And my mother arrived today for a visit. She was in Oberlin this past weekend for her college reunion, and decided that since she was already halfway here, she might as well come all the way. We're actually planning to be in Michigan at the end of June, but Mom being here now means we can spend less time with her then and take the extra time to go up to B's parents instead. It's a longer trip to them and they're able to travel to us more easily than my mother, so we don't get there nearly as often as we visit my mother. I think it's been three years since I was at their house, so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully we can get some good beach time in.
- I hesitate to even say this, but right now, we have two children sleeping in their own beds in their own rooms. FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE ALEC WAS BORN! We had decided to co-sleep with Alec when he was born, with the assumption that like K, he would let us know when it was time for him to sleep on his own. For K, she was always very sensitive to outside stimulus and it was a gradual process of her sleeping less and less if she was in the same room with us, until it became clear that co-sleeping was impossible. Alec, on the other hand, has been our little cuddlebug from the beginning, and for a long, long time wouldn't sleep unless he was in contact with another body. But over time, we've been able to put him down more often, until recently we realized we could put him in the pack and play next to us for naps and in the evening and he was sleeping a nice chunk of time. Long enough that I began to wonder how long he might sleep if there wasn't anything interesting around when he woke up to keep him from getting himself back to sleep. Or if he might be able to get through the night without a bottle if there weren't parents conveniently right there to provide a little snack when he woke up. And sure enough, so far tonight we've heard a few whimpers over the monitor but nothing that required any intervention. I'm really curious how long he's going to go.
We managed to get K back in her room a few weeks ago, after months of her in our bed. It was actually largely my fault, because we usually cuddle her for a while as she's going to sleep, and when I was eight months pregnant it was too difficult to get in her bed. So I would put her in my bed, which somehow turned into her in our bed every night. And once the baby came, we didn't have to energy to try and change it. But like Alec, she started to show signs that she would probably be willing to go back to her bed if we pushed, so we did. And bribed a bit. But it worked, so I'm not arguing.
I think I need to read some more of these, because they're entertaining on the same level that a Victorian novel I once read was (or I should say, helped read aloud to friends while we howled with laughter), where a man from a village populated with a freakish number of redheads kills his wife and then develops guilt-induced meningitis. Even as a child, I recognized that things like the book that takes place in Holland, Michigan where they discover everyone there lives in the traditional Dutch fashion (they don't) and prominently featured an abandoned windmill as a plot point (there's one windmill in Holland, and it's a major tourist attraction) was pretty ridiculous, but clearly there's a lot more absurdity to be found by reading these as an adult.
- A new Thai restaurant opened up around the corner from us. One of the more disappointing aspects of where we live in the city is that while there are plenty of takeout and delivery places for food, you have a varied menu available of Italian, Italian, Chinese and Italian. We were excited when the first delivery menu arrived after we moved here, and then the next twelve thousand ninety-six arrived and we discovered that they all had exactly the same menu. We love and really miss Thai food, so it was an exciting day when we spotted the new restaurant to provide something a little different in the sea of cheese steaks that makes up the local restaurant scene. We were both braindead by Friday evening, so we ordered it and it was lovely. They had all of my favorite dishes, with just exactly the right amount of spice. I can handle a lot of spice, but I've actually found with some foods that I prefer it not be too spicy because there are other flavors I like that you can't taste if your tongue is being reduced to a carbon cinder. But my Drunken Noodles were just about perfect. And they even offer some Chinese food, so we were able to order an egg roll for K to make sure she would have something we knew she would eat (sometimes she is quite adventurous with how she eats. And other times, she decides to be four instead).
- I love three day weekends. Of course, in our case that means we only had today off together. But it was still a day off together when normally we would have had to wait until next weekend for that to happen. And since it was today instead of a Sunday when we have to get up for church, I got to sleep in. Bliss. And my mother arrived today for a visit. She was in Oberlin this past weekend for her college reunion, and decided that since she was already halfway here, she might as well come all the way. We're actually planning to be in Michigan at the end of June, but Mom being here now means we can spend less time with her then and take the extra time to go up to B's parents instead. It's a longer trip to them and they're able to travel to us more easily than my mother, so we don't get there nearly as often as we visit my mother. I think it's been three years since I was at their house, so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully we can get some good beach time in.
- I hesitate to even say this, but right now, we have two children sleeping in their own beds in their own rooms. FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE ALEC WAS BORN! We had decided to co-sleep with Alec when he was born, with the assumption that like K, he would let us know when it was time for him to sleep on his own. For K, she was always very sensitive to outside stimulus and it was a gradual process of her sleeping less and less if she was in the same room with us, until it became clear that co-sleeping was impossible. Alec, on the other hand, has been our little cuddlebug from the beginning, and for a long, long time wouldn't sleep unless he was in contact with another body. But over time, we've been able to put him down more often, until recently we realized we could put him in the pack and play next to us for naps and in the evening and he was sleeping a nice chunk of time. Long enough that I began to wonder how long he might sleep if there wasn't anything interesting around when he woke up to keep him from getting himself back to sleep. Or if he might be able to get through the night without a bottle if there weren't parents conveniently right there to provide a little snack when he woke up. And sure enough, so far tonight we've heard a few whimpers over the monitor but nothing that required any intervention. I'm really curious how long he's going to go.
We managed to get K back in her room a few weeks ago, after months of her in our bed. It was actually largely my fault, because we usually cuddle her for a while as she's going to sleep, and when I was eight months pregnant it was too difficult to get in her bed. So I would put her in my bed, which somehow turned into her in our bed every night. And once the baby came, we didn't have to energy to try and change it. But like Alec, she started to show signs that she would probably be willing to go back to her bed if we pushed, so we did. And bribed a bit. But it worked, so I'm not arguing.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
So if I'm going to go this long without posting, I shouldn't do it after writing all about my terrible parenting moments, should I? We're all still alive and unscathed, I swear.
We had a busy, social weekend. Our barony had a small, mellow event on Saturday, with no site fee and a potluck for feast. It was remarkably similar to a church picnic, except with heavy fighting and hobby horse races instead of volleyball. We went and hung out, and enjoyed the fact that with all of the other children there, we barely had to pay attention to ours. There were several older kids happy to carry Alec around as much as he would tolerate. I got more knitting done than I have in the past six months. K won a prize for coming in first among the little kids in the hobby horse races. A good time was had by all.
I'm rather proud of the fact that I started working on the childrens' garb a whole TWO nights before the event, which is a model of early preparedness by the standards of these things (in my years of SCA and cosplay, I've discovered the great uniting factor is that it isn't the night before a convention/event if you aren't frantically sewing). And I managed to do it without spending any money. I pulled out an old SCA peasant blouse I didn't like and cut it down into a dress for K, and Alec got a tunic that started life as a pillowcase. Someone at the event gave us some baby garb too, so he's pretty well set for a while.
Then last night, we went and hung out at the baron and baroness's house for the evening. We were theoretically there to play music, but somehow never got around to it and wound up watching Big Bang Theory and Iron Chef America while discussing all of the tv shows and books we have in common instead, as the children chased each other around shrieking. We haven't had an evening like that since pretty much since we left Indiana, and it felt really good.
If things continue going this way in our social life, I suspect my goal of getting back to the Midwest will be revised to simply getting the hell out of the city.
We had a busy, social weekend. Our barony had a small, mellow event on Saturday, with no site fee and a potluck for feast. It was remarkably similar to a church picnic, except with heavy fighting and hobby horse races instead of volleyball. We went and hung out, and enjoyed the fact that with all of the other children there, we barely had to pay attention to ours. There were several older kids happy to carry Alec around as much as he would tolerate. I got more knitting done than I have in the past six months. K won a prize for coming in first among the little kids in the hobby horse races. A good time was had by all.
I'm rather proud of the fact that I started working on the childrens' garb a whole TWO nights before the event, which is a model of early preparedness by the standards of these things (in my years of SCA and cosplay, I've discovered the great uniting factor is that it isn't the night before a convention/event if you aren't frantically sewing). And I managed to do it without spending any money. I pulled out an old SCA peasant blouse I didn't like and cut it down into a dress for K, and Alec got a tunic that started life as a pillowcase. Someone at the event gave us some baby garb too, so he's pretty well set for a while.
Then last night, we went and hung out at the baron and baroness's house for the evening. We were theoretically there to play music, but somehow never got around to it and wound up watching Big Bang Theory and Iron Chef America while discussing all of the tv shows and books we have in common instead, as the children chased each other around shrieking. We haven't had an evening like that since pretty much since we left Indiana, and it felt really good.
If things continue going this way in our social life, I suspect my goal of getting back to the Midwest will be revised to simply getting the hell out of the city.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Multitasking
Well, the anniversary party at work yesterday went off fine. I had to take two overtired children with me because B was working (K was up late the night before, Alec had only napped for half an hour that morning), but they did surprisingly well until the inevitable meltdown, which K was kind enough to hold off until 3, when the party ended.
Working while taking care of small children wasn't too bad. It worked mostly because we have a new library science student volunteering, so I sat behind the desk holding Alec and told her what to do while she did all of the physical work that I couldn't do one-handed. Still, I have to assume that the tiredness and distraction was what led to my two most stellar parenting moments of the day:
1. I finally figured out how to adjust the labyrinth of straps on the baby carrier I bought a while ago and had quite a bit of success using it to wear Alec on my back. However, I had not anticipated that his habit of leaning way over to the side when walking onto the elevator, resulting in an unfortunate head-bonking incident. And I may or may not have knocked it a bit more trying to take him off my back so I could comfort him. All with a large audience, of course. Sigh. Sometimes you go out in public and feel like the very model of ideal parenting. And then most of the time you find yourself worried people are about two minutes away from calling CPS.
2. I took some of the balloons we had for party decorations for K when we left, since what else were we going to do with them? And I put Alec on my back, put K in the stroller because she was in no shape to walk, and very carefully watching our clearances, got on the elevator and left to go to the car. We got to the car. I shoved our bags and the balloons in. I worked on getting Alec off of my back without dropping him on his head. Then I realized how hot it was in the car and opened all of the doors to let it cool off.
I didn't realize what I had done until I had everyone finally in the car and strapped in and K asked, "Where are my balloons?" Oh shit. Cue heartbroken wailing from an already overwrought child. And I just could not contemplate getting everyone back out to go back in. But as I was driving past the museum, I realized there were balloons on the outside, so I stopped the car, hopped out and stole those suckers.
As I was walking back to the car with the balloons, a man approached me and I braced myself for being yelled at either for taking balloons or leaving my children in the car within my sight with the windows down and the engine off for a whole minute. But he actually just had a question about the museum. So I guess I'm safe from CPS for another day despite my best efforts.
Working while taking care of small children wasn't too bad. It worked mostly because we have a new library science student volunteering, so I sat behind the desk holding Alec and told her what to do while she did all of the physical work that I couldn't do one-handed. Still, I have to assume that the tiredness and distraction was what led to my two most stellar parenting moments of the day:
1. I finally figured out how to adjust the labyrinth of straps on the baby carrier I bought a while ago and had quite a bit of success using it to wear Alec on my back. However, I had not anticipated that his habit of leaning way over to the side when walking onto the elevator, resulting in an unfortunate head-bonking incident. And I may or may not have knocked it a bit more trying to take him off my back so I could comfort him. All with a large audience, of course. Sigh. Sometimes you go out in public and feel like the very model of ideal parenting. And then most of the time you find yourself worried people are about two minutes away from calling CPS.
2. I took some of the balloons we had for party decorations for K when we left, since what else were we going to do with them? And I put Alec on my back, put K in the stroller because she was in no shape to walk, and very carefully watching our clearances, got on the elevator and left to go to the car. We got to the car. I shoved our bags and the balloons in. I worked on getting Alec off of my back without dropping him on his head. Then I realized how hot it was in the car and opened all of the doors to let it cool off.
I didn't realize what I had done until I had everyone finally in the car and strapped in and K asked, "Where are my balloons?" Oh shit. Cue heartbroken wailing from an already overwrought child. And I just could not contemplate getting everyone back out to go back in. But as I was driving past the museum, I realized there were balloons on the outside, so I stopped the car, hopped out and stole those suckers.
As I was walking back to the car with the balloons, a man approached me and I braced myself for being yelled at either for taking balloons or leaving my children in the car within my sight with the windows down and the engine off for a whole minute. But he actually just had a question about the museum. So I guess I'm safe from CPS for another day despite my best efforts.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Behold my complete lack of focus tonight
We're having a party for our 100th anniversary at work this weekend. It should be quite the shindig - live music, refreshments and a velocipede. After all, no party is complete without a velocipede, is it?
Mind you, we wanted a barbershop quartet, and a clown who could do face painting and balloon animals. But our Friends have recently gone from merely refusing to pay for anything over $25 that they haven't approved to not even paying for the things they had voted to pay for. After they were already purchased, natch. So it was a no-go on the barbershop quartet, and the clown, and the only reason we have the velocipede is that we got an outside donation for half of the money and we're paying the other half out of petty cash. It's a shame - for $500 we could have something really kickass and the Friends could easily have made the money back from refreshment sales and other fundraising at the event. But they've worked themselves into a state of cranky paralysis where they can't agree on anything long enough to do anything useful. There have been a number of times recently (most recently when someone who's been in the group for years and has known me for over 2 years had to ask me my name, and then asked me to explain the work I was doing as if it never occurred to her that the books don't magically appear on the shelves courtesy of the paraprofessional fairies) that I have pondered how much of a factor dementia is in our dealings with some of most difficult members.
But! It should still be a great party. I got to go into the books from the original collection that are in storage to make a display. As it turns out, there are many, many Victorian novels that have remained in well-deserved obscurity for very good reason. For every Vanity Fair, there are 20 of things like "Erma's Engagement."
I also went through the circulating collection and was able to pull out a number of hundred year old books to put into a display that we'll actually let people touch, along with the 1913 Encyclopedia Britannica. And most exciting, we got a big donation last Friday that included some fantastic old children's books. There were some hundred year old school books, and two of the original Bobbsey Twins books from 1904, the original ones where they were 4 and 8 and didn't solve mysteries. So right next to the original library ledger, we'll have some gorgeous old children's books for people to look at too.
We're going to have people in costume and we blew up a couple pictures of people in Victorian outfits and cut out their faces so people can have their pictures taken. It will still be kickass, just working around the Friends.
***
I think there is a special circle of Parenting Hell where you find yourself humming the electronic music played by your childrens' toys.
***
You know, one of the things I've liked most about Glee is how well they've done the disabled characters for the most part. They're real people, who don't either unrealistically ignore their disabilities or sit around all day meditating on their tragic lives. They live their lives and their disabilities make life harder to greater or lesser degrees, but mostly they get along with what they have as if they were actually real people or something, not just disabilities.
Which is why it's all the more irritating to see them trot out a quadriplegic to be both pitied and inspirational in this week's episode. It's like we suddenly walked into an episode of Seventh Heaven. I know, he talked about all the things he found in his life that he could do without being able to move, but he was still mostly a disability lying in a bed, there for our Inspiration. This is the same version of disability we've seen ad nauseum on tv, where the disabled person pops up to teach an Important Lesson, because of course the purpose of the disabled is to 1) inspire us all with their saintly suffering, and 2) allow us normal people to prove how great we can be by treating the defective just like they're normal. It's condescending and demeaning. Which is par for the course of how people with visible disabilities get treated in real life, but surely the benefit of scripted television is the writers have time to stop and think before they trot out the thoughtless stupidity?
And I know this isn't a subtle show, but couldn't they have dialed it back a little and just hit us with a Message baseball bat, not two by four?
And for the record, it's really pretty common for people with spinal cord injuries to still have some movement and feeling below the level of their injury. It's called an incomplete injury, versus a complete, which involves severe injury to the spinal cord and results in the complete loss of movement and feeling that people seem to think is what comes along with paralysis. But the likelihood that someone would get hit hard enough to cause a complete injury in high school football? Pretty darn low, even given it was a freak accident. My mother is a C4, which is what the quadriplegic character was, and she has some use of her right hand and enough use of her legs to walk a bit with a walker and to stand enough to make it a lot easier to transfer her from her wheelchair. And from what I saw when she was in the rehab hospital, that's not that uncommon. She was luckier than many, but even the horrifying diving accidents often had at least a bit of hand movement, enough to drive a chair with their hands (and can I just say, after five months visiting a rehab hospital every day, I am never, ever, ever diving into any body of water ever again, no matter how clear it looks).
***
Since looking this over, this is kind of a complainy post, I will leave on an amusing quote.
From a recent episode of Phineas and Ferb, the main villain was listening to Tom Sawyer on tape, translated into Evil: "Tom's dislike of Aunt Polly was only rivaled by his hatred of puppies."
Mind you, we wanted a barbershop quartet, and a clown who could do face painting and balloon animals. But our Friends have recently gone from merely refusing to pay for anything over $25 that they haven't approved to not even paying for the things they had voted to pay for. After they were already purchased, natch. So it was a no-go on the barbershop quartet, and the clown, and the only reason we have the velocipede is that we got an outside donation for half of the money and we're paying the other half out of petty cash. It's a shame - for $500 we could have something really kickass and the Friends could easily have made the money back from refreshment sales and other fundraising at the event. But they've worked themselves into a state of cranky paralysis where they can't agree on anything long enough to do anything useful. There have been a number of times recently (most recently when someone who's been in the group for years and has known me for over 2 years had to ask me my name, and then asked me to explain the work I was doing as if it never occurred to her that the books don't magically appear on the shelves courtesy of the paraprofessional fairies) that I have pondered how much of a factor dementia is in our dealings with some of most difficult members.
But! It should still be a great party. I got to go into the books from the original collection that are in storage to make a display. As it turns out, there are many, many Victorian novels that have remained in well-deserved obscurity for very good reason. For every Vanity Fair, there are 20 of things like "Erma's Engagement."
I also went through the circulating collection and was able to pull out a number of hundred year old books to put into a display that we'll actually let people touch, along with the 1913 Encyclopedia Britannica. And most exciting, we got a big donation last Friday that included some fantastic old children's books. There were some hundred year old school books, and two of the original Bobbsey Twins books from 1904, the original ones where they were 4 and 8 and didn't solve mysteries. So right next to the original library ledger, we'll have some gorgeous old children's books for people to look at too.
We're going to have people in costume and we blew up a couple pictures of people in Victorian outfits and cut out their faces so people can have their pictures taken. It will still be kickass, just working around the Friends.
***
I think there is a special circle of Parenting Hell where you find yourself humming the electronic music played by your childrens' toys.
***
You know, one of the things I've liked most about Glee is how well they've done the disabled characters for the most part. They're real people, who don't either unrealistically ignore their disabilities or sit around all day meditating on their tragic lives. They live their lives and their disabilities make life harder to greater or lesser degrees, but mostly they get along with what they have as if they were actually real people or something, not just disabilities.
Which is why it's all the more irritating to see them trot out a quadriplegic to be both pitied and inspirational in this week's episode. It's like we suddenly walked into an episode of Seventh Heaven. I know, he talked about all the things he found in his life that he could do without being able to move, but he was still mostly a disability lying in a bed, there for our Inspiration. This is the same version of disability we've seen ad nauseum on tv, where the disabled person pops up to teach an Important Lesson, because of course the purpose of the disabled is to 1) inspire us all with their saintly suffering, and 2) allow us normal people to prove how great we can be by treating the defective just like they're normal. It's condescending and demeaning. Which is par for the course of how people with visible disabilities get treated in real life, but surely the benefit of scripted television is the writers have time to stop and think before they trot out the thoughtless stupidity?
And I know this isn't a subtle show, but couldn't they have dialed it back a little and just hit us with a Message baseball bat, not two by four?
And for the record, it's really pretty common for people with spinal cord injuries to still have some movement and feeling below the level of their injury. It's called an incomplete injury, versus a complete, which involves severe injury to the spinal cord and results in the complete loss of movement and feeling that people seem to think is what comes along with paralysis. But the likelihood that someone would get hit hard enough to cause a complete injury in high school football? Pretty darn low, even given it was a freak accident. My mother is a C4, which is what the quadriplegic character was, and she has some use of her right hand and enough use of her legs to walk a bit with a walker and to stand enough to make it a lot easier to transfer her from her wheelchair. And from what I saw when she was in the rehab hospital, that's not that uncommon. She was luckier than many, but even the horrifying diving accidents often had at least a bit of hand movement, enough to drive a chair with their hands (and can I just say, after five months visiting a rehab hospital every day, I am never, ever, ever diving into any body of water ever again, no matter how clear it looks).
***
Since looking this over, this is kind of a complainy post, I will leave on an amusing quote.
From a recent episode of Phineas and Ferb, the main villain was listening to Tom Sawyer on tape, translated into Evil: "Tom's dislike of Aunt Polly was only rivaled by his hatred of puppies."
Friday, May 7, 2010
Alec slept for approximately fifteen minutes this evening, which then gave him a second wind that let him play for another two hours. He worked his way through the room, shrieking with happiness, like a tiny little drunk at closing time staggering around declaring his love for everyone.
We finally gave him a snack in case Mr.. Hollowleg Growth-Spurt was hungry again and he went back out very quickly after that. I'm glad he's out for the night, but I didn't really mind him being up late because my goodness, that is one cute child.
*****
One of the nice things about joining SCA is that it plays into my existing hobbies so well, particularly sewing. It has, however, thrown a gigantic wrench in my sewing plans. I had been planning to make K a couple sundresses and at least one new princess dress in time for her birthday, and have been experimenting with converting t-shirts into rompers for Alec. I'm also trying a couple different ideas for carriers for Alec that won't break our backs in an effort to avoid spending the money on an Ergo.
Now, however, we're planning to go to a local event on May 22. Which means garb. Alec has none, and while K's cloak will be passable, pride will not allow me to let her go wearing any of her current decidedly non-period princess dresses. B has very rudimentary garb, but really needs something better. Most of my garb from college still fits, and once I stop breastfeeding, I think virtually all of it will. Not bad for thirteen years and two babies later.
So first priority, I think, is K. While she has some dresses that wouldn't get us kicked out of the event and Alec has nothing, he's also young enough that we could get away without putting him in anything at all, or I could go out and buy him a plain shirt a couple sizes too large and call it a tunic. But I really want K to be in something relatively authentic. I found some pretty embroidered pink cotton that would make a nice surcote, and it won't be hard to dig up some plain fabric for a gown to go underneath. For Alec, I would eventually like to knit him some hose, but for now, I'll make him a peasant shirt and put it over dark pants.
For B, I was looking at a long gown he wore several years ago for a cosplay sketch we did at Acen and realized that if I just cut it off at mid-thigh, it would make an acceptable tunic. Not hugely authentic, but good enough for less than three weeks' prep time. I would love to make myself something new, since I'm a much better seamstress than I was when I was making my garb ten years ago and none of it is stellar in its accuracy, but I'm pretty low on the priority list for the immediate future.
Well! I seem to have very effectively filled up the next couple months of crafting and then some. I foresee a lot of thread in my future. This should be fun.
We finally gave him a snack in case Mr.. Hollowleg Growth-Spurt was hungry again and he went back out very quickly after that. I'm glad he's out for the night, but I didn't really mind him being up late because my goodness, that is one cute child.
*****
One of the nice things about joining SCA is that it plays into my existing hobbies so well, particularly sewing. It has, however, thrown a gigantic wrench in my sewing plans. I had been planning to make K a couple sundresses and at least one new princess dress in time for her birthday, and have been experimenting with converting t-shirts into rompers for Alec. I'm also trying a couple different ideas for carriers for Alec that won't break our backs in an effort to avoid spending the money on an Ergo.
Now, however, we're planning to go to a local event on May 22. Which means garb. Alec has none, and while K's cloak will be passable, pride will not allow me to let her go wearing any of her current decidedly non-period princess dresses. B has very rudimentary garb, but really needs something better. Most of my garb from college still fits, and once I stop breastfeeding, I think virtually all of it will. Not bad for thirteen years and two babies later.
So first priority, I think, is K. While she has some dresses that wouldn't get us kicked out of the event and Alec has nothing, he's also young enough that we could get away without putting him in anything at all, or I could go out and buy him a plain shirt a couple sizes too large and call it a tunic. But I really want K to be in something relatively authentic. I found some pretty embroidered pink cotton that would make a nice surcote, and it won't be hard to dig up some plain fabric for a gown to go underneath. For Alec, I would eventually like to knit him some hose, but for now, I'll make him a peasant shirt and put it over dark pants.
For B, I was looking at a long gown he wore several years ago for a cosplay sketch we did at Acen and realized that if I just cut it off at mid-thigh, it would make an acceptable tunic. Not hugely authentic, but good enough for less than three weeks' prep time. I would love to make myself something new, since I'm a much better seamstress than I was when I was making my garb ten years ago and none of it is stellar in its accuracy, but I'm pretty low on the priority list for the immediate future.
Well! I seem to have very effectively filled up the next couple months of crafting and then some. I foresee a lot of thread in my future. This should be fun.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Hindsight
When I started college, it took me a while to find my groove socially. I spent most of my time with my suitemates, with whom I got along to greater or lesser degrees (sometime remind me to tell some of the tales of the woman who was forever after known to my friends as THE Amanda because she was so infamous). But who I was really looking for was the geeks. There wasn't a gaming or science fiction society on campus, so there didn't seem to be any ready-made groups for tracking down geeks. Aside for an incident of making a bit of a fool of myself trying to make friends with a likely-looking person and instead managing to give him the impression I was romantically interested (I wasn't), I went through my freshman year without really connecting.
Then my sophomore year, someone I had started to make friends with said she wanted to go to an SCA meeting. I had seen ads for their dance practices the previous year but didn't think much about them. But I thought this time that it sounded interesting, so I went along. And immediately it became clear that this was where the geeks were hiding. I had found My People. Anyone who knows anything about the SCA would immediately think "Duh," but remember, this was pre-Web days, and that sort of information wasn't as easy to come by. But with the wisdom of hindsight, I often wonder how different my freshman year would have been if I just gone to a dance practice. As it is. I met both my husband and my best friend through that SCA group, so I can't complain much.
Fast forward thirteen years, when we move to Philadelphia and abruptly leap from a very active social life to almost total social isolation. There I was, alone with a toddler all day for the first time in six months, completely alone in a new city. And then my father died! It was SUCH a happy time, I can't even tell you. Anyway, we looked at a lot of possibilities for meeting people, but the combination of weird work schedules and having a small child made everything seem impossible. Or we would do things like go to a gaming group, only to discover that they only played board games and actively looked down on roleplayers, the people we were actually looking for. I wanted to meet other parents, but didn't want to just sign up for a random playgroup because I really wanted to find someone I more things in common with than just children. I wanted to find geek parents.
In three years, things have improved but I certainly wouldn't call us social butterflies. More like social three-toed sloths, possibly with bad breath. And then, last Saturday, we went to a newcomer's event held by our local SCA. I think you can see where this is going, can't you? There they were. People with the same interests we have, who also have small children. K happily tore around with other kids while we sat and enjoyed geeky conversations, and got a possible in with a roleplaying group. Sunday, we went to a regularly-scheduled archery practice at the Baron and Baroness' house. They have an almost three-year-old and were delighted to find that B plays recorder and I sing. We're probably going to get together for dinner soon. From socially adrift to Bam! Instant social life, in two days.
We keep looking at each other and wondering why we didn't do this three years ago. There were a bunch of reasons - things like dancing and fencing were on nights we couldn't go, we weren't sure what to do with K because we didn't know if there would be other kids around, all of the activities were on the other side of the city, the newcomer events were always on days we couldn't go... And of course, the fact that my father died and I felt massively ill for most of my pregnancy did a lot to make it hard to put myself out there for large chunks of the past couple years. But last weekend, we could go, and a bunch of activities have moved closer to our side of the city, and we decided that we would go anyway even if we couldn't fence or dance. And I'm so glad we did.
Then my sophomore year, someone I had started to make friends with said she wanted to go to an SCA meeting. I had seen ads for their dance practices the previous year but didn't think much about them. But I thought this time that it sounded interesting, so I went along. And immediately it became clear that this was where the geeks were hiding. I had found My People. Anyone who knows anything about the SCA would immediately think "Duh," but remember, this was pre-Web days, and that sort of information wasn't as easy to come by. But with the wisdom of hindsight, I often wonder how different my freshman year would have been if I just gone to a dance practice. As it is. I met both my husband and my best friend through that SCA group, so I can't complain much.
Fast forward thirteen years, when we move to Philadelphia and abruptly leap from a very active social life to almost total social isolation. There I was, alone with a toddler all day for the first time in six months, completely alone in a new city. And then my father died! It was SUCH a happy time, I can't even tell you. Anyway, we looked at a lot of possibilities for meeting people, but the combination of weird work schedules and having a small child made everything seem impossible. Or we would do things like go to a gaming group, only to discover that they only played board games and actively looked down on roleplayers, the people we were actually looking for. I wanted to meet other parents, but didn't want to just sign up for a random playgroup because I really wanted to find someone I more things in common with than just children. I wanted to find geek parents.
In three years, things have improved but I certainly wouldn't call us social butterflies. More like social three-toed sloths, possibly with bad breath. And then, last Saturday, we went to a newcomer's event held by our local SCA. I think you can see where this is going, can't you? There they were. People with the same interests we have, who also have small children. K happily tore around with other kids while we sat and enjoyed geeky conversations, and got a possible in with a roleplaying group. Sunday, we went to a regularly-scheduled archery practice at the Baron and Baroness' house. They have an almost three-year-old and were delighted to find that B plays recorder and I sing. We're probably going to get together for dinner soon. From socially adrift to Bam! Instant social life, in two days.
We keep looking at each other and wondering why we didn't do this three years ago. There were a bunch of reasons - things like dancing and fencing were on nights we couldn't go, we weren't sure what to do with K because we didn't know if there would be other kids around, all of the activities were on the other side of the city, the newcomer events were always on days we couldn't go... And of course, the fact that my father died and I felt massively ill for most of my pregnancy did a lot to make it hard to put myself out there for large chunks of the past couple years. But last weekend, we could go, and a bunch of activities have moved closer to our side of the city, and we decided that we would go anyway even if we couldn't fence or dance. And I'm so glad we did.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Sleepy
It's not terribly original to say that once again I haven't been posting much because I'm tiiiired, but it's true. Lately though, it's more that I'm sleepy. I keep drifting off in the evening, and a little worrying, am having a little trouble with feeling sleepy while I'm driving. Falling asleep too easily is a problem I have never had in my life. No, whatever else you can say about lifelong insomnia, at least you don't have to worry about falling asleep at inconvenient times. But it's like someone attached weights to my eyelids and they're doing their best to clang shut.
I'm not sleeping any less than normal, and in fact probably a bit more because I keep falling asleep involuntarily, so I'm not entirely sure what's up. I would say that this sort of tiredness normally comes with the first trimester for me, but I'm really really really really sure I'm not pregnant. Really. I'm starting to wonder if we should start casting a suspicious eye towards my thyroid again (although despite a strong family history of hypothyroidism and many, many doctors taking one look at my neck and ordering thyroid tests, in my many years of problems with chronic fatigue, it has never been my thyroid), or maybe check my iron or vitamin D levels. I'm wondering if I should wait until I'm completely done breastfeeding though, to let my hormones shake out. I'm slowly drawing down to pumping three times a day, which is producing about 12 ounces. It's about half of what Alec is drinking these days, which feels fine. I'm pumping enough that I don't feel like I'm giving up, but infrequently enough that I don't feel quite so chained. I think I would like to be done by the time we drive to Michigan at the end of June, because sitting the car and pumping in the parking lot of a Burger King in Ohio, trying to keep myself covered in case of passersby getting too close was not exactly the highpoint of our trip home last Christmas.
***
I'm starting to realize that it's less than two months until my children have their birthdays. That really doesn't seem possible. I've been trying to think up gift ideas for both of them, with mixed results. I can find lots of things K might like, but nothing is standing out as IT, so it's hard to choose. I have a bunch of ideas of things I could make, but again, I need to choose which ones because I can't possibly finish them all in six weeks. I've been sewing play food, so I'll continue with that, and probably do a couple dresses, but I have more exotic ideas that may or may not work. Alec is the opposite problem - I can't think of anything for him. I'm never good at thinking of presents for one-year-olds in general, and he already has all of K's old baby toys, and all he's really interested in is K's current toys. He's played with her kitchen far more than she has the past couple weeks.
What I would love to get them is a swing set, but I don't think that's in the cards financially this summer. The only playground within walking distance of our house is across a twelve lane raod, so we don't go nearly as often as we might. I'm also thinking that the playground will be difficult when Alec starts walking, since he'll be mobile enough to constantly put himself in danger but not big enough to use any of the equipment. I've been scanning Craigslist for cheap swing sets, but there seems to be some sort of time vortex on that site that allows them to sell before they've even been listed. We also need something pretty small, so while there are any number of lovely looking wooden child Habitrails out there, I think they would stretch past our property line.
And here ends the litany of First World problems for the night. I'm off to pump and possibly start sewing a felt orange.
I'm not sleeping any less than normal, and in fact probably a bit more because I keep falling asleep involuntarily, so I'm not entirely sure what's up. I would say that this sort of tiredness normally comes with the first trimester for me, but I'm really really really really sure I'm not pregnant. Really. I'm starting to wonder if we should start casting a suspicious eye towards my thyroid again (although despite a strong family history of hypothyroidism and many, many doctors taking one look at my neck and ordering thyroid tests, in my many years of problems with chronic fatigue, it has never been my thyroid), or maybe check my iron or vitamin D levels. I'm wondering if I should wait until I'm completely done breastfeeding though, to let my hormones shake out. I'm slowly drawing down to pumping three times a day, which is producing about 12 ounces. It's about half of what Alec is drinking these days, which feels fine. I'm pumping enough that I don't feel like I'm giving up, but infrequently enough that I don't feel quite so chained. I think I would like to be done by the time we drive to Michigan at the end of June, because sitting the car and pumping in the parking lot of a Burger King in Ohio, trying to keep myself covered in case of passersby getting too close was not exactly the highpoint of our trip home last Christmas.
***
I'm starting to realize that it's less than two months until my children have their birthdays. That really doesn't seem possible. I've been trying to think up gift ideas for both of them, with mixed results. I can find lots of things K might like, but nothing is standing out as IT, so it's hard to choose. I have a bunch of ideas of things I could make, but again, I need to choose which ones because I can't possibly finish them all in six weeks. I've been sewing play food, so I'll continue with that, and probably do a couple dresses, but I have more exotic ideas that may or may not work. Alec is the opposite problem - I can't think of anything for him. I'm never good at thinking of presents for one-year-olds in general, and he already has all of K's old baby toys, and all he's really interested in is K's current toys. He's played with her kitchen far more than she has the past couple weeks.
What I would love to get them is a swing set, but I don't think that's in the cards financially this summer. The only playground within walking distance of our house is across a twelve lane raod, so we don't go nearly as often as we might. I'm also thinking that the playground will be difficult when Alec starts walking, since he'll be mobile enough to constantly put himself in danger but not big enough to use any of the equipment. I've been scanning Craigslist for cheap swing sets, but there seems to be some sort of time vortex on that site that allows them to sell before they've even been listed. We also need something pretty small, so while there are any number of lovely looking wooden child Habitrails out there, I think they would stretch past our property line.
And here ends the litany of First World problems for the night. I'm off to pump and possibly start sewing a felt orange.
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