kids – annathepiper.org

What with solarbird being out of town this weekend, I’ve taken it upon myself to have some quiet me time, which I really rather needed. Just getting caught up on my sleep is a win. But so is doing various and sundry small chores and errands that needed doing, such as getting the checkbook caught up, buying reflective red tape to go over the broken lens on our right rear taillight*, picking up some more long and therefore work-appropriate shorts to wear to work as well as some badly needed sports bras, and washing clothes and sheets and towels.

Friday night we had all the Bothell crowd as well as jennygriffee come over for more tabletop gaming, and while that was quite hectic, it was also fun. I continue to be full of Win for little Moira and Lillian, and this time around I also got little William’s attention; the boy thought it was great fun to try to help me play my guitar. He’s shyer than the girls and doesn’t talk nearly as much, so it was pretty neat to see him perk up.

Lily and Moira love going up our stairs and peeking in my bedroom because I have a big bed they can bounce on, and also, we have a cache of stuffed animals in there. But they also love making me (as well as any other convenient grownups) chase them in circles around the main floor of the house. Lily in particular commanded me to “be a dinosaur!”, so I apparently need to get right to work on my T-rex impersonation. ;) Meanwhile, Moira wanted to further investigate our DVD collection, and when she spotted the pink boxes that contain our Cardcaptor Sakura anime episodes, I went ahead and let her watch that figuring that it wouldn’t be too scary for her or Lily. kathrynt tells me that Lily in fact is experimenting with being scared, and likes to identify things as “scary”.

This led to one of the cutest things I’ve heard coming out of a two-year-old mouth lately: “scary toilet paper lady” to describe the antagonist character in the movie I showed them. Hee.

And, Moira insisted that I “protect” her while she was watching the movie, and sat in my lap. Aw. <3 It should also be noted that Lily furthermore kept asking me for "Donkey Riding", and when she spotted the background pic of Great Big Sea on my computer, pointed at it and said "that's a picture of Donkey Riding!" She's still a little shaky on which name goes with the band and which name goes with the song, but she clearly now knows the faces of Great Big Sea when she sees them. Mostly. She also thought Eddie Izzard on my T-shirt was Sean, I think. I put her straight! Yesterday morning Q then IMed me to tell me that Lily told her "we put on shoes and go over to my Anna's house!" I am apparently now Lillian's Anna! Who knew? Unrelatedly, last night while working on checkbook balancing, I re-watched TOS's "Doomsday Machine" episode (some awesome mileage of The Kirk), Master and Commander (which I think is now well and solidly my favorite Russell Crowe movie Ever), and another 4th season episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (which is still bringing the wacky).

* Why the hell can’t I buy just a replacement lens for that taillight, anyway? The light itself is intact, it’s just the outer lower bit of the lens that’s broken. But according to the guys at Schuck’s the assembly is all they have, and they wanted $130 for it. I bought a $5 roll of reflective red headlight repair tape instead and used that. Which should do me for now and hopefully satisfy the next cop that tries to pull me over for having a broken taillight.

So Friday night kathrynt IM’d me out of the blue saying that she and emmacrew were going to dash down to Berkeley for a show they were desperate to see, since they’d scored very cheap roundtrip airfare, and would it be at all possible for me to come over and watch her little girl Lillian since Lily’s daddy llachglin was going to be occupied with an all-day RPG session?

Sure, I said, since I like Q and Erik and I like their kid too. Q obligingly came over to pick me up for my chiro appointment yesterday morning and then bought me tasty food at Caffe Ladro, and then I hung out with Lily for a couple of hours and engaged in various methods of Entertaining a Two-Year-Old. Mostly this involved running around after her in circles in the backyard, giving her a ride on my shoulders, and joining her in throwing balls of various sizes in random directions. We did also have a cogent discussion (well, cogent for a two-year-old) about why the airplane she spotted making a line across the sky would not in fact be able to “come here!”

That was all fun. Then last night several friends came over for pleasant tabletop gaming: jessicac and her little girl Moira (who is good friends with Lily), gargoyd, wrog and his little boy William, and jennygriffee! For extra bonus child amusement, we also had Lily since Jessica had taken over Lilywatching, until Erik could come by our place and pick her up. That was all fun too.

However, I didn’t get in as much of the cardplaying as the other grownups did–because the children decided that I was the best possible play participant. Apparently I won quite a few points by putting on the Great Big DVD and playing “Donkey Riding”, which Lily and Moira both adore. (And I’m telling ya, folks, there are few things cuter than a pair of two-year-olds trying to beat on a big drum and singing “Donkey Riding” as best they can in their not-yet-developed voices, right along with my B’ys.) I got more points by playing the Lift Them Off the Edge of the Couch Game, in which my part was to hoist them up over the edge of the couch every time they went “I CAN’T REACH!” Related to this, there was also the Who Could Possibly Be Behind Me? Game, in which my job was apparently to sit in my usual spot on the couch while small persons got behind me and giggled while I said “I wonder who this is behind me?” and they’d say “ME!”

Moira asked me at one point if I was a mommy, and I told them no, I was their mommy’s friend and that my name was Anna. This apparently stuck. Q IM’d me this afternoon to inform me that her little girl was saying, “I want my Anna. I want to go see my Anna. I want my Anna back. I DO need my Anna!”

I win at making friends and influencing two-year-olds. <3

Tag: kids

Quiet weekend

I win at two-year-old!