Time For A Break

Today was one of those days when I really, most definitely, needed a break in the action.

Last night, about 3 a.m. -yes, of course I was still awake then - I was no longer the only person awake in the house though as Kurtis decided it seemed like a darned good time to keep Grammy company.

Truth be told, (and this is how these awakenings by him usually happen) I was just about ready to go to bed when he pops up, starts making some noises, holds his bottle up away from the playpen and simultaneously begins to holler "More, more" while making the sign language indicating "more" too! Just wants to make sure I understand his wants and needs I guess.

So I got him more milk, gave it to him. As I did this, I said to him "Say 'thank you," and he looks up at me and says "an oo" which in Kurtis vernacular is "Thank you!" (Remember he has a tendancy to either substitute the letter "n" for the first letter of many words or else he just plain drops the first one or two letters of what he is saying. In this instance, he drops the "th" from thank and the "Y" from you but we're getting a bit more accustomed to his speech now so I knew what it was he was saying then to me.

Three hours later and -in this order -two more bottles, a half a toasted bagel, a diaper change and then a third bottle of milk, he finally bit the dust, fell back to sleep then a little after 6 a.m. Even though he did say "Thank you" to me as well as identifying some people on some photos Maya had apparently had out and left laying on the floor, I still wasn't ALL that impressed with his choice of the time of day to do this!

THe photos though -now that was a bit of a surprise. One photo was of his Grandpa -my ex -referred to as "Poppy" to and for the kids -as when I showed him one picture of Poppy holding Maya when she was about 2-3 years old, I asked him who that was and then also told him "That's Poppy." I went on to show him a picture of Mandy -which he just got this big smile when he saw that, one of Maya, which he did respond to and said "Nia" -his version of Maya, one of me which he just pointed to -no verbal response and yet another photo of his "Poppy" and Uncle Clate seated at the counter in the kitchen and taken at about the same time as the earlier photo I had shown him of Poppy and Maya. When I asked him who that was -pointing to the ex -he immediately responded and said -quite clearly too -"Poppy!" Even though I was tired, really did want to go to bed, that response from him did impress me a good bit!

I cooked today - a big batch of corned beef, potatoes, onions, carrots and cabbage and we adults in the house had a nice Irish feast, for sure! The kids ate other leftovers cause there was no way at all we were going to be able to convince either of them to try the concoction I had cooked, even though Maya wanted to know what it was and feigned interest in it until we sat up to the table to eat and the worm turned as she did exactly as I had expected and turned her fine little nose up at that offering! That's ok -fortunately we had some leftovers from lunch today which was something she and Kurtis both liked so neither of them went hungry.

Shortly before supper though, all hell broke loose here! Maya apparently wanted to put a different set of clothes on and Mandy had told her "no dice" which sent Maya into a massive, extremely loud, screaming meltdown, most of which we couldn't even understand what it was she was saying -or trying to say to us. Her noise then -when things like that happen -tends to upset Kurtis so he then begins to scream and cry too! All I want for Easter -or sometime before then maybe -is a nice, really good set of earplugs!

Although, Mandy and I are both fairly accustomed to these things and many times when she goes off on us like that -especially when it is something really petty, we both then sit and just laugh and sometimes, that actually makes her laugh then and the meltdown ends somewhat easily then. Well, sometimes but not all times that works. Tonight was one of the times it took a bit longer for her to settle down. It also meant that she went up to her room on three separate occasions, brought down three different outfits and put them on too -all that done after her Mom ran up the road for a few minutes to visit a friend of hers. Sneaky little kid she can be ya know, at times.

Tonight though, I decided it was imperative I take a much needed break in the embroidery action though. Why? Well, for one thing I am really way behind on my book reading -WAY BEHIND! I have three different books I started since last July and have yet to finish any of them, plus Mandy bought us a new book too about two weeks ago, which I had read a chapter or two of it and put it up to return to the embroidery stuff. This book -the newest one by our favorite author, Jodi Picoult, is called "Handle With Care" and I decided tonight I was going to spend some quality time -provided I could stay awake that is -and read a bit more of it.

Now, I've shown you all the embroidery stuff I have completed to date or at least I think I have anyway. And the stuff I work on is actually not very complex, not the absolute finest of fabric either on some things -like the table cloths or the pillow cases, but it's passable for my purposes. The point here is that these items are not made of stuff like oh, say Sferra products but because I've been doing so much of this kind of work lately, my right thumb and my right index fingers are really sore from all the pin pricks! And whether these items are really great quality fabrics or not, I really don't want to get blood stains on them before they get used or possibly ruined and that I wouldn't be able then to use them as the gifts I may have initially intended them to be in the first place.

So for the next couple of days, I'm just gonna let the flying fingers and those needles rest a bit, try to do some "catch-up ball" with my reading and play with the blog here and there then too! I'm about half-way finished with the second pillow case in the set I was working on so it won't put me all that terribly much behind, I guess.

Maybe I'll even get a chance to go to bed a bit earlier than my "normal" 4-5 a.m. and actually get some decent sleep tonight too!

You can cross your fingers for me please, cause mine hurt a bit much right now to do that!