Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of Sept 2005. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Thurs, Sept 29, 2005 (11:45am - with an addition at 12:45pm) Serenity We've currently got plans to catch the premiere of Serenity at Sherwood Park's Galaxy theater this Friday. Don't have the times yet, but it'll be a late show... probably an early-ish late show if there are multiple showings (meaning if there's a 9:15pm and a 10:00pm, we'll be aiming for the 9:15). Anyone want to come with us? Rumor has it that Starlin' may be supplying blue Nitryl gloves for anyone who wants to wear them to the show. In other news, Kalen is 5! We celebrated her birthday yesterday, amid much chaos. Chaos was supplied in abundance by Gareth & family, and was muchly appreciated, since of the 5 kids Kale invited, Gareth was the only one who actually made it. Other invitees either didn't get the message properly, or had parents working late, or had Ukrainian dance class, or just no-showed. Oh, well. There was cake (some gluten-free cake, even, which Connor loved), and Play-Doh, and helium balloons, and candy, and treats, and even a few presents. It only took 2 1/2 hours to clean up after the party, so Shades and I had time to watch an ep. of Battlestar Galactica before collapsing into bed. Speaking of Battlestar Galactica, the following conversation was simply too good not to be posted: Shades: I have a dilemma.Shades just sent me a Quick Comment, which I am posting in-line: Comments : The followup to that conversation at Eric's being "It would be trying to provide two beautiful women with the same thing at the same time in two different places, and if there's one thing I learned from watching Three's Company, it's that that is never a good idea. See? TV is good for you."- - - A Connor Report Yesterday, while heading out the door to catch the school bus, Connor and I had to stop briefly because Kalen wanted to give her brother a goodbye hug and kiss. Connor tolerated the hug as well as he usually does (stand still and wait for it to be over) but when Kalen went to kiss him, he actually looked at her, and pursed his lips for a kiss, making "mmmm" noises. |
| Mon, Sept 26, 2005 (9:55am) A Connor Report On the weekend, when Shades was watching the kids, he had the boys together playing a game on Connor's bed. It was the kind of rolling/bouncing/hiding/bundling in blankets and squishing with pillows game that young kids like. A little later that day, when the kids were hanging out in the living room, Connor came running up to his Daddy, giggling, and took him by the hand. Then he dragged Shades over to Jasen, tried to pull the baby up with his other hand, and drag both of them to the bedroom. He wanted to play the game again! What's really fantastic, though, is that he wanted to play it again with his brother! Not bad for a kid who avoids socializing, and generally pretends the baby doesn't exist. |
| Mon, Sept 19, 2005 (6:55pm) Toilet training has been going well. Accidents do still happen, but are (relatively) uncommon. We still need to remind Connor to go on a regular basis, but sometimes he goes without reminders, and once he even asked for 'toilet time' in a grocery store. (Okay - he didn't so much 'ask' as suddenly jump up and do the 'gotta-go!' dance... but that little dance is a very important bit of communication. It means he realizes that he needs to go, and that the middle of an grocery aisle is not the place to do it, and would really like some help, please. The dance may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but let me tell you, it beats the heck out of a soggy pants and a 'Clean-up in Aisle 13' call any day.) Since things were going well, I decided to teach Connor about toilet paper today. Normally I just rip some off and hand it to him when needed. He really liked the idea of doing it himself, though. So I let him practice. I came back in 5 minutes to the sudden realization that perhaps this was not such a smart move on my part. (click here for pic) |
| Thurs, Sept 15, 2005 (11:55pm) I knew there was something I'd been planning to post last week, and Lazarus reminded me what it was: Star Wars LARP! Before heading out to the cabin for the long weekend, I played an (ex-) Imperial spy in an outer rim system, with an assortment of other humans, and not-so-humans, and had a very good time. Didn't shoot anyone with my blaster, either. Not this time, at least... usually Jahn gets to shoot someone. This event ended pretty amicably, and everyone seemed to enjoy the game. Then I drove home, and Shades and I packed the kids into the van (in thier PJs, in the rain) and drove to Saskatchewan. I haven't processed any of the pics from our weekend, but pics of the very cool Star Wars LARP can be found here. |
| Thurs, Sept 8, 2005 (11:15pm) Kay - I am officially the mother of a School Aged Kid, now. Sure, she's just in Kindergarten, and it's only half-days, but it's real school. Just ask her! Connor is back to school again, too. He's got morning classes at REACH in Ardrossan, and Kale has afternoon classes here in Sherwood Park. In order to make life easier on me (so that I don't have to be in two places at once) Connor is now bussing to Ardrossan. When he gets home, we have time for a quick lunch, and then his therapist gets here at noon to start working with him. That's when I get to walk Kale to school. If Jasen is napping, the therapist can work with Connor and mind a sleeping baby while I do the 10 minute walk. If Jase is awake, he'll be coming with us to drop Kalen off. When the therapist is done at 3pm, I get to wake Jase up from his nap, take him and Connnor, and head out to pick Kalen up from school. All of us should get home around 3:30, and I can start working on what's for supper. Supper is supposed to be on the table by 5:30pm. I don't comprehend this early supper thing, myself - I'm more of a 7pm supper person - but it's the only way I can have the kids done supper by 6, and start getting them off to bed at 6:30. In theory, they should all be in bed by 7pm. They have to be up to startthe whole routine again early the next morning, after all. Toss into this mix some Occupational Therapy and Speech/Language Pathology appointments for Connor (a couple of hours per week) and home visits from the REACH teachers, and co-ordinator meetings, and the usual slough of dentist/doctor/immunization appointments for all 3 kids, and things get a bit busy. Add my own agenda to that (Yes, I have an agenda - it involves things like buying groceries, trying to clean occasionally, and sometimes trying to meet up with friends who I rarely see anymore due to busy schedules) and I feel as if I'm running around like a madman. Given time, however, it'll probably mellow out. I just need to get used to the kids' school schedule and it won't feel quite so crazy. I was going to say other things in this weblog entry, but I can't remember what. Probably stuff like, 'Had a good time at the cabin on the long weekend. No trips to ER. Kids had fun!' or maybe 'Finished watching CSI season 3 last week' or possibly just 'Mmmm... Fabricland has a good sale on'. Ya know, things that make me sound like a person who leads an interesting life, with hobbies and interests... not just a harried mother of three. Meh. Things are getting better. Slowly. Someday, all of them will be in school, and then I will spend my days sipping margueritas and playing Sims 2 all day long. Or, at least for a couple days before getting bored and finding new ways to complicate my life. Don't believe for a second that I'm not enjoying the insanity - if it wasn't there, I would be bored. - - - A Connor Report Today the Con-Man was accident-free at school. And at home, too! We had an accident-free day. I hope we'll see more of these in the future. |
| Friday, Sept 2, 2005 (3:15pm) Woohoo! I just got my Official Gen-Con SoCal Volunteer Package via email. That means they I'm going to southern California for a week in November, and they're paying my airfare, hotel, and convention pass. I still have to cover my own meals, and any cool gamer stuff I buy (anime, whimper?) but that's pretty minor (as long as I don't buy too much anime. And it's not like I need anime, right?) I'm kinda excited about this (especially since I wasn't on the priority volunteer list. The fact that they're flying me down from Canada means that they're bypassing other potential volunteers who live closer by, but who haven't proved their mettle in dungeon set up, break down, or all the stuff in between.) It also means a week away from the kids, for me! My Mom will be watching the kids while Shades works, and he'll be a single parent in the evenings, but they've both said it's okay for me to go and do this crazy volunteer thing. I'm very lucky to have supportive family in this, I know. They're fantastic. |
