Possibly a post

[ailbhe]

I've been busy doing housework. But.

At lunchtime today, Linnea, Emer and I did eyebrows and winking. I raised my eyebrows at Emer over something - I have no idea what, now - and she raised hers back, perfectly competently and to the manner born. I raised mine again. She raised hers. I bounced my eyebrows - raised them twice quickly - and she bounced hers. Neither of us giggled but we were both suppressing smiles very hard. I raised my eyebrows once again. So did she. I bounced mine. So did she. I raised mine three times; she raised hers twice and looked confused. Once again. Once. Twice. Twice.

Then Linnea tried, and she can't do it. Very strange.

Linnea showed that she can wink, if closing both eyes tight and opening one an almost imperceptible slit counts. I can wink too. Emer can't.

I can wink and bounce my eyebrows at the same time. I totally win.

Also, lunch was French toast made by all three of us, for today, Linnea learned to crack an egg tidily. Also, she knows how to multiply up a recipe; we had an adult and two children leave on Sunday, so I asked how much she'd need for them too, and she worked out that that would mean twice as much and what that was. We had a subtraction problem earlier - I added an egg to the mix when she wasn't looking, and asked her to work out what was in the bowl from what was left in the pack; the egg we lost to the floor complicated the mental arithmetic, as did her basic assumption that I wouldn't sneak an egg in without telling her. But I am mean and nasty.

Someday I will show her how simple these sums are when you write them down; she may not believe it.

Before dinner Emer had a huge meltdown and screamed that she wanted me to leave so I walked out the door. Linnea followed me anxiously, which meant I could give her a wink and a thumbs-up so she wasn't worried, and she comforted Astrid while Emer cried that I had left WITHOUT ASTRID and worried about that. they could, of course, both see me on the doorstep through the glass in the door. Then I rang the bell and asked Emer what she wanted me to do and she said I couldn't leave without Astrid and I must take her with me. So I picked Astrid up and stepped outside the door again. After a bit I rang the bell again and asked Emer what she wanted, and she indicated that she wanted me to come inside.

She apparently still wanted me to leave as soon as Rob came home but not until then, so I was able to get the rest of dinner ready without huge screaming. Either this will be a useful lesson or an amazing foundation for her therapist's retirement.

After dinner we mended a torn game and pottered around. I've been doing Emer's teeth with a story - she lies in bed and I start by saying "Oh dear, Emer has gone to sleep without brushing her teeth!" and I can brush them while she pretends to sleep. This is much easier than holding her down while she fights it and everyone is happier and her teeth are cleaner.

Bedtime was a little late due to prolonged toilet trips but for the first time since Rob went away (8 days ago) Emer went to bed and to sleep like one would like her to.

Then it was Astrid's turn; I played Row, Row, Row Your Boat with her, which she loved, and grabbing things, and Bop, Bop, Boopsie, and standing her up and sitting her down, and all sorts. She has found her hands and they are FASCINATING, and also tasty, so I must trim her filthy nails and bath her, tomorrow.

---

I used to write poems; I have figured out why I stopped. I wrote things when they occurred to me, and posted them in the conversations where they were appropriate, and sometimes that meant the Pomes journal and sometimes other places, and the negative feedback I got in the Loos really shook me, so I stopped posting them there, and that was where most of the inspiring conversations took place. So ask me to write one for you, about something, and I will. I do mean doggerel, mostly, but I'd love to be writing things in response to people again.

Comments

[rmc28]

Emer's lesson made me laugh out loud. I hope it's useful :) I don't think "my mother took me seriously" is a regular candidate for therapy ....

[supermouse]

I want one about walking, or about heavy rain. I've been a bit wobbly on my pins today, and sitting listening to the rain hammering down on the attic windows.

[serene]

Brilliant, creative solutions to the toothbrushing thing and the asking-you-to-leave thing. I wouldn't have responded as well, nor gotten as good a result. Which opinion of mine is borne out by the fact that in anger last night, I told the kid she has to start looking for a new place to live. Oy. I suck so much sometimes.

[nitoda]

Oooh - I went to a queer salsa dancing class on Wednesday, met lots of lovely people and enjoyed the dancing all the time I could stop myself wincing from the volume of the music and the terrible sound quality ... is there a poem in that do you think? I asked them if they could turn it down, but it didn't happen - afterwards we decided the teacher had abused his ears for so long that he was deaf and HE couldn't hear it if it was turned down. I don't know if I will go again, but if I do I will have to try using earplugs.

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

I'd love a poem about the crishy crashy sea. I am thinking about my North Sea, but the Atlantic will suffice, if you haven't had much North Sea experience. :-)

[ailbhe]

Crishy crashy splishy splashy
Prancey dancey splosh
Inny outy run abouty
Roary shouty wash

--

Grey and cold and uninviting,
Irresistable, enticing -
Hostile, vast, and unexplored,
Feared and hated and adored -
So the woman, so the water,
So the sky's own sons and daughters.

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

Oh Ailbhe, I love that! I adore it, it's brought tears to my eyes.

I will print it out large, and put it on Hugh's wall!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

[ailbhe]

It should read "irresistible" though!

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

May I request another one?

A short one, 3/4 lines, on how bumps and scrapes and knocks are all part of being a child, and Just What Happens. :-)

[ailbhe]

Oops, whoops, bumps-a-daisy -
That's what makes the learning baby
Learn to walk and run and climb
We kiss it better all the time!

[jexia]

I loved your poems. I'd love one about my twins... they're currently spotty and dotty with a viral rash, if that helps.

[ailbhe]

It's not quite this, it's not quite that,
Spots like the babies round and fat,
It's not meningitis, it's not rubella,
Not measles or even varicella,
No chickens, no lickens, no poxy pox
If they don't have scratch mittens, you can always use socks.

[jexia]

Perfect! Thanks!

[caerleon.livejournal.com]

I can wink and bounce my eyebrows at the same time. I totally win.

Can you wiggle your ears too?..

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Possible potential pomes:

Big sister(s).
A moment of quiet.
The Library.

[ailbhe]

The public library

Singing and dancing we rush through the door
The quiet leaps on us, hushed up through the floor
Over the carpets and into the shelves
Quietly reading our books to ourselves

Singalong, storytime, computer games
The things that we do here are never the same
Paper books, cardboard books, books full of flaps
But mostly books full of the biggest Perhaps.

==

Our library

In our house
We have a library
The sun pours from the south
The table by the window
Has chairs pulled close about
The sofa seats all four of us
The benches full of toys
The boxes full of music
My small chair full of noise
The playmat in the middle
The toy kitchen by the wall
And books are all around us
Spilling out into the hall

In our house
We have a library
We're not sure what it's for
But this is where we keep our worlds -
How many worlds there are!

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Lovely.

[1ngi.livejournal.com]

Really glad you want to write again :) I love your stuff.

[helenprev.livejournal.com]

I love your pomes. And you may like to know that I keep finding the two books of yours we have in the bathroom where my eldest has been devouring them - I think you are a real poetic inspiration to her!

Please write one about the eyebrow bouncing and winking!

[nicolap.livejournal.com]

I loved the pomes too. The Loos are frequently Wrong.

Child number 3's superpower is being able to raise one eyebrow at a time quizzically. She has been doing this to great effect since she was about 3, and is very proud that Nobody Else Can Do This.

[wingedkami.livejournal.com]

When she starts to say things like 'don't let me detain you' it's time to worry. Or encourage her to take up politics.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

We once lined up three of our friends who could all raise both eyebrows independently, numbered them one to six, and then spent ten minutes getting them to do eyebrow Mexican waves and other more complicated patterns.

[pauamma]

"Don't point that thing at me, it might be loaded!"

[snorkel-maiden.livejournal.com]

I'd love to read a pome about autumn leaves, and pretty trees and scuffing in wellies if that can be fitted in.

[ailbhe]

That might have to wait until we find some autumn leaves. Maybe. I was still swearing it was summer when they were begging for conkers.

Autumn, dammit!
-
Leaves are scattered sparsely on the ground
Linnea piles them up into a mound
And jumps into the middle full of glee
Piles of manky leaves around her knees

Water's barely falling from the sky
Emer and her wellies stomping by
Forcing from the thinnest film of water
Splashes for the Autumn in my daughter

In Britain in the "summer" they all do it
Huddle in the gales to barbecue it
But my girls headlong rush for Autumn's chill
They bend the spinning seasons to their will.

[cabbagemedley.livejournal.com]

Oh, sod the Loos. I liked your pomes.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Yes!

[quentinwrites.livejournal.com]

I loved your poems when you used to post them to the Loos and I think if you start writing again, you should definitely post them here so we can read them. :o) You might also try deviantart.com - I share all my poetry and prose there and get some wonderful feedback!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I would love a poem about the universality of spirals.

visual inspiration

Also, I love Emer freaking about you leaving without Astrid.

[k425.livejournal.com]

I can wink and bounce my eyebrows at the same time.

I can wink, and I can bounce my eyebrows, but simultaneous attempts turn into squinty nose scrunching.

You totally win.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I read some of your poems before I was brave enough to actually LJ friend you and thought they are really beautiful. Independently and later I joined and left the Loos community.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

(Because the Loos turned out on balance to be mean, I should have added)

[ailbhe]

They were lovely 4 years ago! and 6 years ago! But not so much lately.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

i'd love to see some "now we are three" pomes about your kids!

[ailbhe]

Sharing Astrid's playmat
-
"We are twins, you're our Mammy," my Emer said,
"And we look just the same, as you see;
But I grow the fasterest, and that's why my head
Is so big, but our age, is both three."

[rachel cotton (from livejournal.com)]

No idea about WHAT the loos are, which I suspect is a lucky escape, but if you wanted, there are a few hours left for this: http://readingimages.epixtech.co.uk/extra/Websiteentry060810.pdf The theme is "home"