I was going to talk about shopping on a bicycle this evening (as some have asked about the logistics of it all) but I am tired and my brain is just working too darn slow right now. So instead I’m posting a photo of my daughter, trying to casually walk off with Caswallon’s hat, because I am a mother and oversharing photos of my children is just what I like to do sometimes.
I would just like to say, with my usual complete bias, I think she is utterly adorable. I love her so much.
With my daughter’s room the other week, we finished the tour of the upstairs portion of the new house, so now we are ready for downstairs. I’ll redirect you back to the entryway for a refresher, or an even quicker one. Split level home, going down…
If you follow this blog you know I don’t own a car, but I still have two car seats for the kids. Mostly they stay in my ex-husband’s car but they stay here on weekends he doesn’t have them, just in case family wants to take us out anywhere. They live beside the fireplace.
I love that fireplace. It is natural gas and actually our primary way of heating the whole house. It works really well and is incredibly efficient. Since the basement was converted to a fully finished area (the bottom part of the split level) there is really no corner for a forced air furnace without ripping a lot of stuff apart.
The door by the desk leads to the backyard. It has a doggy door but it has been sealed off for now (no dog… and little kids.) I also moved the hanging bookshelves I made for the kids down into the living room recently. I like them better this way.
Most of the downstairs is carpeted (whereas most of the upstairs is wood) which I would like to remedy at some point. Wall to wall carpeting is such a pain in the neck to keep clean. Especially with this main area of the downstairs is the kid’s play area. I think all the older stuff has gotten shifted downstairs into the living room because of this. The futon that really needs a new mattress, the desk that probably cannot handle being moved much more and my little 13 inch tv.
Speaking of the tv, when my ex moved out he took the tv we had with him (which was a gift, he had a right to it, no bashing please.) So I have this little 13 inch tv you see here, it doesn’t have the remote anymore so I have no way to switch it to imput, so I can’t use my Wii with it. Or can I? Does anyone have an answer for me? (That is not buying a new remote, the tv was $10 I shouldn’t have to pay more then that just to get it to switch to imput donchathink? No there is no imput button on the physical tv, yes it can switch to imput, I did it once upon a time with a remote.)
Anyhow they covers the main area downstairs. There are four more rooms down here, the den, the pantry, the bathroom and my son’s room, that I will cover in some order or another next.
Remember the other day when I said we went to see Avengers? When we went we were actually sporting these “repulsor” fingerless gloves. I designed and knit up last past week. Caswallon’s were Iron Man ones (red) and I had War Machine ones (gray.) It knit them from yarn that was in my stash and used fleece and felt from my sewing supplies for the repulsor disks, which made the cost pretty much nil for me. It was also my first time knitting thumb gussets (so learning experience for the win!)
The fleece repulsor disk makes a nice layer of padding between my hands and my bike’s handle bars, so I have actually been using these for cycling ever since we first rode to the theater with them. Woo for comfort and nerdiness.
Cuz you know a nerd’s gotta nerd.
Today was Free Comic Book Day, so we headed down to Merlyn’s and picked up our two comic books each. We picked them with SpaceFox in mind, so yes I knew I just had to pick the one with robots AND dinosaurs! (It is actually nicely drawn and quite sarcastic, I like it.)
The dice are also for my son, because, you know, it is Just Good Parenting to get your child his first comic books and dice for his fourth birthday (less then a month away now!) StarBear, who might confuse these small dice with candy still, has a giant D20 I gave her a few months ago, just in case you feel she was left out. Now to settle on a knit dice bag design for SpaceFox (rocket ship dice bag maybe?)
Also last night we went to see Avengers. Oh. My. Goodness. Loved it! First movie in a long time I actually feel was worth the ticket price (with popcorn even.) I would even go again if I could.
Just in case our nerd doesn’t show plainly enough on this blog, hopefully these two photos make it plain as day. To delve deeper into our fanpersonness, I’ll freely admit we already have our tickets for Avengers which is coming out this Friday. (OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod.) More then that we will be going sporting Iron Man repulsor fingerless gloves which I am working on at the moment for both Caswallon and I.
In a clear sign of nurture over nature, the moment SpaceFox saw the repulsor disks I was cutting he wanted one for his chest. (I used a piece of elastic, which I sewed into the desk so he can put it over any shirt he wants.) Initially I thought he wanted to use it as Iron Man’s chest-mounted unibeam, but apparently his preschool aged nerdery forks from us adults here and he is now using it as a creature power disk from the PBS cartoon Wild Kratts. (The creature power disk goes in a creature power suit and enables you to change into the animal profile loaded onto the disk.) So Cute!
Of course StarBear wants one too, but as it was bedtime when I finished the one, I promised to make her one tomorrow. I’ll probably make it in orange and white, so that I can tell them apart if they decide to, ehm, disagree over who’s is who’s.
Are you going to see Avengers?
I occurred to me last week while rearranging my son’s room that I never finished the home tour series I was doing awhile ago. This might have been because my exhusband was living as my roommate in the house at that time, so the whole next part felt awkward. He has moved out though, so I have no reason not to continue beyond my own forgetfulness.
So the next room is my daughter’s. I love how bright and colourful it is, with the striped comforter and the lovely handmade quilt from her grandma. The blanket on the floor was actually crocheted by my aunt for my son when he was born, but StarBear has adopted it as her own. The pink dresser is a hand-me-down from family (which I initially thought was hideous but somehow fits in the room, and my daughter loves pink, whether I do or not.) The wall decals were a birthday gift from my friend (who also sells them through Hydra Creations,) StarBear picked all the designs herself.
I do not like the curtains of the closet “door”, which came with the house. Whenever finances allow, I will be replacing the closet curtain with folding doors and the window curtain with something less bland and more of my daughter’s chosing.
Next up is the downstairs family room.
In the closet of the craft room downstairs, we have our tomato starts. My son is the self appointed waterer of said starts and does so every night before bedtime. Sometimes he even blows kisses them goodnight and wishes them sweet dreams.
As if that was not heart meltingly sweet enough, two nights ago he noticed the old guitar (missing string and all) in the corner of the craft room and asked if he could play the tomatoes a song. I let him. Soooo heart melting. He did it again this evening and I couldn’t resist snagging a photo.
I think he sings to the tomatoes in the most adorable random way only a four year old boy can summon.
“Goooodniiight Matoesss. Sweeet dreamsss. I luuuvs yoou!” some random guitar playing “I luvs the suns, you luvs it alsos… and waters ‘n stuffs. Goooodnight Matoesss, luuuvs yooous.”
Oh. My. Goodness.
Be still my Mommy heart.
We have quite possibly the most loved tomato plants in the entire world.
