My daughter and I are having a lovely visit with Nana.  My daughter is really enjoying my mom’s attentions and they have stayed quite active.  Lots of zoo and playground trips!

On Friday I wanted to  go down to the arts festival and hear some music, but it looked like it would storm so I thought we shouldn’t go.  Between the rain and my daughter’s terrible fear of thunder, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to calm her down if it stormed.  It did storm, and she did get upset even at home, so I am glad we didn’t go, though sad to have missed some very very good Cajun music.

Saturday turned out to be a lovely, more cool than expected day.  In the morning I tried to get the house somewhat cleaned up while mom did a whole bunch of gardening.  The yard is looking fantastic!  I am just NOT a gardener!  After my daughter napped, we headed down to the arts festival.  We got lucky and found a free parking space, hence not paying the typical $4-6 we were expecting.  We headed down to the festival and started checking out the vendors.  The cooler than expected day felt awfully warm with the sun beating down and no shade and so many people!  We saw about half the vendors and then discovered a lovely area, shaded, with man-made water falls going down steps.  I strode off to have an uninterrupted look at vendors while mom stayed with daughter playing in the water.  By the time I was done, I was feeling rather hot and gooey and ready to leave, until I took my shoes off and waded in the water with daughter!

We began to get hungry but mom thought that perhaps it would be nicer to go somewhere semi quiet to sit and eat rather than eating at the festival.  So we headed over to a local restaurant and had some pasta.  My reviews of the place were mixed, but nonetheless, it served its purpose by being somewhere nice and a bit quieter and cooler to spend some time.   After we finished there we thought we would walk back toward the festival briefly to pick up some of those lovely roasted pecans that we had been smelling and craving and then head home.  On the way, there was a firetruck out on display.  They were letting kids sit up in the seat of the truck and giving out suckers and coloring books and stickers.  My daughter is very fearful of firetrucks, and though she sat briefly in the seat, she did not really want to be up there long enough for a picture.

It really was a lovely day with things just working themselves out in order that we could enjoy ourselves.  Very memorable.  I will post pictures later!

I see blog posts all over the blogosphere about Father’s day.  I haven’t had an opportunity to do so yet, as it has been rather busy.

I think my favorite memories of my father happen when we are driving together.  I don’t know why that is.  Even at the more anxious times in my life, he was the one person I never felt nervous riding with.  He is such an observant man that perhaps I just always assumed he had a pretty good handle on what was going on around him when it came to traffic.  When I learned to drive, he taught me with such a low stress attitude over the whole thing.  Rarely did he act nervous, even if he was, and was often quiet, making me learn things for myself.  He would ask gentle questions even in my panic over a situation, causing me to have no choice but to think rather than stay in panic mode.  Since we often had cars which were…..not of the most modern nature, the tricks he taught me were often valuable even after I left home.  I truly believe that his teaching made me a very good driver, thinking quickly in various situations, not taking unnecessary risks even though it might look fun for the moment, and has perhaps contributed to the fact that I have never been in a car accident which was caused by me.

As I grew into an adult, and learned to love driving, we often shared driving time on family trips.  When I look back on such car rides I can only think of warm late night camaraderie as the rest of the car tries to sleep.   Perhaps the two of us are at our best together when we are undistracted by the world and have the open road ahead of us and a goal of getting to where we are going safely.  Even now, when I go to visit and fly into the airport, I enjoy the gentle banter and laughs at various situations on the car ride from the airport to their house.

When I was a child, I had long hair and a sensitive head.  Not a great combination.  My mother, my nana, and my aunt were NOT gentle when they combed my hair.  The prevailing attitude I think was do it, get it done, and get it done right so it stays, often ending up in tight braids or pony tails specifically designed to last all day.  But sometimes, in the evenings, after a bath, my mom would give me the yellow wide tooth comb and send me to my dad, who would then comb my hair with the utmost gentleness even though it took a long time.

Now that I have a daughter of my own, I am eager to hear how she remembers my father.  She loves her Poppop and I feel confident that she will be gaining little memory treasures as the time goes by as well!

I hate alarm clocks.  Because I am an early riser, usually I don’t need them.  When I do need them, the alarm is so loud that I am in a bad mood for a good portion of the morning.  So I no longer use my alarm, instead I choose to set my cell phone alarm which has a much softer and more pleasing sound.  It is strictly a back up since I rarely need it. But because of this, I make sure my phone is on at night.

2 nights ago I got a wrong number call at midnight.  I was annoyed but just let him know he had the wrong number.  Last night, I got a call at 2 AM.  Since I am the mother of a young child, it amazes me how fast I can go from deep slumber to fully awake and functional.   Also, sometimes the depth of my sarcasm amazes even me.  I suppose annoyed at 2 AM I am rather unfiltered even though generally I would keep it to myself.  The conversation went like this:
Me:  Hello?

Voice: Hello?

Me:  Who is this?

Voice:  Who is this?

Me: OK, you called me, so protocol is that I get to ask you who you are.

Voice:  I must have the wrong number.

Me:  How astute, indeed you do.

Voice:  Sorry sorry!

My daughter was returned to me last night after visiting with her father.  I could hear the screaming before he even opened the car door.  She was mad, and it was the kind of mad that only tired and hungry could produce.  I took her inside and realized there was going to be no calming her down any time soon.  I asked if she had anything to eat, he said that she had a piece of cheese and some toast.  I gave her some soy milk, though she wouldn’t drink it.  It was apparent nothing was going to go right and what she really needed was sleep.  So we got her diaper on and took her upstairs.  Once up there, the screaming continued, then, as quickly as it started, she wanted to cuddle with her father and was quiet.  I asked her if she needed some time with her dad and if she wanted me to go downstairs (I felt a little silly hovering as I was, and I didn’t seem to be needed).  She said yes.

I went downstairs and turned the monitor on, and a few moments later down came her father.  He sat down, and I asked, “What was going on!”  I told him that she cannot come home like this!   That if it continued, she needed to be home earlier so that she can get to bed earlier.  He said that it was a misunderstanding.  He wanted to drive her through the park as he often does, and asked her if she wanted to do that.  She said yes, and once they were there it quickly became apparent she had taken this to mean “Do you want to go TO the park.”  She thought she would get to go on the slides.  Since she was tired and hungry, as soon as she realized that she wasn’t going on the slides, she just threw a fit.  Well, I can understand that, and he did get her calmed down and she slept very well.  I also noticed that she hadn’t eaten her lunch at school either.  Dangerous combinations, no food, exhaustion, and misunderstanding!

It has been an exhausting week.  And it is only Tuesday.  Is it Tuesday or Wednesday?  Wait, I can’t remember.  Yes, I am that tired.  It must be Tuesday.

Anyhow, it has been tiring and stressful and I hate that when I get home I have little patience for my daughter.  Small things she does that normally roll off my back make me absolutely insane.  I have to really work hard at controlling myself and my tongue.  I have to really remember she is 2.

Last evening I popped in Cinderella since we were so wiped out (That means I was wiped out, she was just fine!)  She wanted to sit on my lap.  I wanted to knit.  That’s ok, she usually cuddles me while I knit in the evenings anyhow.  Trouble is, I wanted to knit at my Creatures of the Reef shawl.  So I did, and the shawl tickled her legs.  Eventually that was frustrating and she sat up quick, causing me to lose about 20 stitches off my needles.  I did not yell.  I did not speak harshly.  I did take a huge intake of breath and asked her to get down for a minute.  I managed to get it all back together, and I wasn’t that mad, because I knew I should have saved lace till she was in bed, but I have decided being a mother takes inordinate amounts of self control.  Some days there is more self control to go around. Yesterday there was not much left.  (I suppose if you spend your whole day at work wanting to kick a door and scream, it isn’t likely to change when you get home!)

I was recently contacted by an old friend from back east. Always was a nice guy and we always got along well. Our major activities were motorcycle riding and cooking. I remember him having a penchant for all the latest technology and apparently that hasn’t changed much. So I am now getting emails sent from a blackberry. This morning I got an email from him while he was apparently sitting in NJ traffic. After berating him for trying to type and drive at the same time (even though I was aware that he was probably stopped, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up!) he sent me a message that it was “eat to toe.” Well, since some of what he says is slightly cryptic to me, I sat and thought this through for awhile. Nope, I could not come up with ANYTHING resembling or meaning “eat to toe.” So I had to ask……when I got a response, he was finally in the office. This was the response….”eat to toe = easy to type (I guess not)…. LOL”

Cracked me up all morning long!

Oh, and since he said I could…..