Last Laugh

Its a funny thing how life ebbs and flows...One day the world is yours for the taking, and the next you feel like the butt of a joke everyone is in on except you. Or is that just me? Please tell me its not.

Our days are unpredictable right now. Dealing with an injured little kid and a puppy and jobs and neglected friends and what the fuck are we going to have for dinner and omg it snowed overnight and now my car is buried and we're out of money until payday and you KNOW that big ER bill is coming and so are the holidays and the puppy just peed on the rug and and and...

...its exhausting. And really seems like someone, somewhere is laughing their ass off at the silly people killing themselves just to make it through the day.

But the strange thing is: its sort of fulfilling in a really weird, masochistic way. While (most days, really) I dream of being able to lounge around all day in yoga pants, eating popcorn and reading fiction, in reality I know that if I were granted that wish and my days were suddenly emptied of supermom/wife/employee-dom, I'd feel...empty. Purposeless. Are you with me? Anyone?

I'm realizing that it feels like This is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. This crazy, exasperating, exhausting, maniacal dance of day to day life. I'm really in It. Immersed. As Royal Tenenbaum says, "fightin' and scrappin' and lovin' every minute with this damn crew."

Which is not to say that I don't need more time for myself. Because I do. I know I do. There have been moments in the last week where I have felt dangerously close to completely losing my shit. But I'm reciting the old, worn out mother's mantra: This too shall pass. And it will. And honestly, I think I will look back fondly on these days.

Because along with the aggravating things, the beating-me-over-the-head-with-a-brick-things, there are also magic moments: A little boy's delighted giggle when a soft, warm puppy snuggles his legs. Meeting the amused gaze of my husband across the dinner table as the same blue-eyed boy recites Where the Wild Things Are almost verbatim, from memory. Crawling into a warm, down comforter-covered bed after a long, silent walk in the snow.

So really. If this is all a joke, I kind of feel like I might be getting the last laugh. Sort of.

I'll leave you with a crappily taken cell-phone picture of what it looks like outside my office window today:

Like getting involved in a land war in Asia

Getting a puppy while you have a two-year old might be right up there with the other classic blunders but nothing prepared us for this weekend. Not by a long shot.

On Sunday afternoon, we were all at the park having a wonderful time. It was a beautiful fall day- bright, crisp sunshine, green grass, a cute puppy rolling around in the crunchy leaves and an even cuter little boy enjoying the playground. He climbed, he swung, and we must have watched him go down that slide 25 times over the course of the hour we were there.

The last time however (you knew this 'however' was coming, didn't you?), his foot caught just before the bottom and he tumbled off the end of the slide, landing with his arm hyper-extended behind him. At first I thought he was just crying because it was scary. Then I thought he was crying because he twisted it or something. But when snuggling, breastfeeding and even (yes I went there) a piece of halloween candy had no effect and we realized that he was refusing to use the arm and screamed whenever it was moved, I knew something was really wrong.

Thirty minutes after the fall, we were at the ER and three hours after that, it was official. My baby had broken his arm just above the elbow. Its not a clean break, rather what the ER doc referred to as a "green stick" break. Whatever it is you could tell it hurt like hell and it broke my heart to see my little boy stoically holding his tears back as they took x-rays, poked and prodded and then finally splinted up his hurt little arm.

I kept him home the last two days and we had lots of Popsicles and Pixar movies which did nothing to ease my parental guilt at allowing something like that to happen. I know its not the end of the world and there are MANY MUCH WORSE injuries but I've never had a broken bone in my life (knock on wood) and here is my little guy already with a busted arm under his belt.

Gah.

So, we've been dealing with a crazed puppy, and a tired, hurting, splinted little kid along with the normal stressors of jobs and bills and all that boring adult crap that comes along with being a 'grown up.' Oh and have I mentioned that I'm not on speaking terms with one of my brothers? Yeah.

Can I be a 10 year old for Halloween? Things were so much simpler then.

Otto and Ruby before The Incident.

Just call me Ebert

I interrupt this non-blogging due to puppy mania to bring you my exclusive review of the movie Watchmen. I know its been out forever but we just got it from Netflix.

My review:

The action scenes = The Matrix
The characters = The X-men
The soundtrack = Forrest Gump

That said, its still kind of a fun movie.

Carry on.

The Cat Did It

Just checking in to say:

WHAT THE HELL WERE WE THINKING?!?!

Really. A toddler and a puppy? Why didn't any of you try to talk me out of it??? I hold you personally responsible for the chaos now underway in our previously semi-peaceful houshold. Heh.

Actually? It's not all bad. Ruby is too freakin' cute. And she's learning a lot. And fast. I'm convinced that the chaotic element will lessen significantly very soon. For realsies.

She has had a great start with house training...only 2 accidents since we got her on Saturday and both of those were Monday. She's already learning not to jump up and nip at us. This is the behavior that scares Otto the most and makes our lives hell when the two of them are in the same space. If Ruby is in the room, Otto is like a rat on a sinking ship- climbing to whatever high ground he can find- usually up into our arms.

Each day has been better than the last and I really do think that we will all adjust to the new family dynamic pretty soon.

Except for the cat who I am certain is plotting horrible, bloody revenge scenarios from her self-imposed exile in the basement.

(I'll try to post puppy pics soon...she's nothing if not completely, exasperatingly adorable. :-)

K2TOG

Oh. My. Goodness. This yummy fall weather is tugging at my knitter's heartstrings. There are so many awesome patterns and yarns out there that my hands almost ache with longing to hold bamboo needles and some sort of deliciously soft fiber. Seriously. Its a disease.

So I've been busying myself with yarn-p0rn on the internets.

Socks. From Knitty.




And this. Also from the new issue of Knitty. OMG drool.


As it is, I have some delicious alpaca at home that is slowly transforming into a big chunky, fringe-y scarf of my own design. Because that's about the most complicated knitting I can stand at the moment. But it doesn't stop a girl from dreaming!

The husband and I are working half days next week to help our new puppy (!!!) adjust so maybe I'll get some knitting time in there somewhere...Puppies sleep alot just like babies...right?