Still Life with Wyliekat » 2009

Archive for February, 2009

Oh . . . boy.

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Dearest Buddy,

I adore you. We all adore you. So when I say the following, you’ll know it’s said with love, right?

When your much beloved (RIGHT?) fiancée tells you that your equally beloved and ailing daughter (with the *real* itis of the tonsular persuasion) should not be having a lot of acidic foods, whyfore would you opt to feed the aforementioned ailing child pop rocks?

Is this the great mommy/daddy divide that we’ve encountered? Have we stumbled upon the real Venus/Mars split? If we put all the mommies and daddies in the world into a room and did a survey, how many mommies would feed pop rocks to a child with tonsillitis? And how many daddies would it take to change the light bulb in the room?

Just askin’.

Love,

Wyliekat

Posted in Being a girl, Health, In the mother/stepmother 'hood, Juniper, Rant, buddy, family | No Comments »

Eight days later . . .

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

I’m finally crawling out of the nasty hole of illness that’s been my home address of late. I can assure you that I have not been this ill in many, many years. But today, while I still sound like a bullfrog attempting to attract mates, I can finally say that I am very much on the mend.

Allow me to recommend apricot brandy in hot water as an excellent alternative to a hot toddy or Neo-Citron. Tastes surprisingly decent, and is a great comfort to those who are drinking the beverage in between sessions of being comatose. Special thanks to T-dot and her maternal line for this tried and true flu comfort.

Speaking of unpleasant - geez, I leave my site alone for a few days and it gets all mucked up. Am still fixing the fixes (again).

Posted in Health | 8 Comments »

I have the itis.

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Or whatever else you want to call a superpowered cold - a flu? Anyway, am dying of the itis. Or I feel like I am. Or I wish I were. Or something.

Will emerge from the microcosmic flora infestation I am currently undergoing. At some point.

Off to swill more tea.

Posted in Health | 4 Comments »

Selma Hayek and the media feeding frenzy.

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Well, hell – go, Selma!

So Selma Hayek decided to take a moment and feed another woman’s child. Go her, say I. Why? Because that child needed milk, and probably won’t ever again in his life have the quality of nutrition she stopped to provide him.

Is it a political statement? Maybe. But only in the sense that motherhood is political. Which it is. Most definitely.

However, I can’t imagine anyone premeditating something like this. It would be awful to think that way. I much prefer the idea that a mother in need found a mother who could and did provide for her child. More, that we’d all do the same, if put in the same position – and with as little forethought as this act appeared to have.

But then, I guess we’re a long way off from the day that mothers helping other mothers doesn’t make international front page news.

Why do you think it’s international news?

Posted in Being a girl, Health, In the mother/stepmother 'hood, feminism | 7 Comments »

Okay.

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

I’m back in business on this here website, thanks in large part to technically savvy and highly charitable assistance from over the pond. *waves*

Thanks to Buddy for the new banner (which is me, through the eyes of love and significant editing), which started the whole process. It was a Valentine’s Day gift, one that I wasn’t expecting, as we’d agreed to no gifts. Evidently, that meant just me. I get to be the arse who didn’t bother to ignore our agreement.

Good thing I love him. Damned good thing he loves me.

I’m still ruffling my feathers and inspecting my modified nest. It feels like home, but it’ll take a while for me to get properly settled, and have my bric-a-brac where it belongs.

Am also wrapping my head around the imprudence of showing Rosebud “A Little Princess”, the movie. Apparently (for her), the happy ending was overshadowed by the moment where the father doesn’t remember his daughter, and nearly lets her get dragged away by the police.

Cue heartrending tears and an impromptu call to Dada, to confirm that he remembers his daughter, and that he loves her.

Will also ignore my own tears as she told him she wanted to live with him. Which she then later modified to “I just miss him. Just a little crying. No big deal. I have snot.”

No big deal. Sure. As soon as my heart returns from its Siberia-like hideaway in my throat, it’ll be no big deal.

In all fairness, I’m sure the phone call didn’t do much for her father’s emotional well-being, either. It’s just one of the many side effects of having a child with parents in two homes. We’ll all have to learn to live with it.

Posted in In the mother/stepmother 'hood, Rosebud, buddy, divorce, family, metablog | 8 Comments »

Oh, the lulz.

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Have just realized what the previous title might do to an innocent voyeur doing an innocent search. For all of you looking to espy something interesting, sorry to have disappointed.

Posted in geekery | 3 Comments »

Public nudity.

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

Which is what this feels equivalent to. We are suffering from technical difficulties*, as www.wyliekat.com undergoes a bit of a face lift. We’ll be all better soon.

*Let it be noted, I am the technical difficulty.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

And, there again.

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Every once in a while, you get a moment of parenting clarity. A little message from your little ones that you might actually *gasp!* be raising them right.

I had one of those moments on the way to work this morning.

Rosebud: Mama! Ducky* peed in the car.

Mama: Oh no!

Rosebud: S’ok. I talked to him.

Mama: What did you say?

Rosebud: That I’m not mad or sad, I just want him to be more careful.

It’s not often that you get this kind of very clear repetition of a lesson back to you. For Rosebud, the things I said around potty training and the like have obviously stuck with her. Transmission received. It’s not the end of the world if you have an accident, and we’re not mad or upset - we just want you to think about it a little more carefully.

Pretty damned awesome, eh? These beloved little beggars actually are paying attention to all my aforementioned spew.

*Ducky is one of her many stuffed “Buddies”, but may actually be her personal favorite.

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By they way - there are many, many words that are languishing near death - homeless, hopeless and about to be pulled off of life support. Go on, adopt a word today. I have chosen sophronize, as I daily attempt to sophronize my children, and rarely get the results noted above. But still - I will continue to sophronize them until I keel over from wounds resulting from my scaevity, or other such beast.

Posted in Happiness, In the mother/stepmother 'hood, Rosebud, family | 7 Comments »

I am the Why (Y?)

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

You know what I just realized I do to my kids? I explain. I explain a lot. I border on sheer windbaggery, and may even unintentionally waltz into droning. Don’t believe me? Ask me about the time that we explained the Canadian political process to a (then) eight-year-old Juniper, including nuances of pink (Lloyd) liberalism and the ruddier shades of orange.

I s’plain. Lots.

I mean, I know why I do it. From the start, I was a why kinda kid. I wasn’t interested in the mechanics of what made things work. I wasn’t all that worried about how, or who or where, or when. If you could provide me with my why, you’d get my cooperation.No surprise then, to discover that I’m a why adult. I’ll do most anything asked of me, if only ta-gawd the asker would just explain the why of it.

I guess that’s why my ex’s departure was so hard for me to accept, initially. I couldn’t get the why of it. The who, where, what, when and how were much less important than the why. I remember sitting in a Target parking lot, placing a long distance cell phone call, simply to say “I just don’t understand. Can you tell me why?”

Sadly, there really wasn’t a good and satisfactory answer. There may never be. It took me quite some time to come to a place where I realized not everything (or everyone) has a why. Sometimes it (and they) just are. Is. Esque.

However, this doesn’t stop me from explaining things to the girls. Why the sun isn’t out in the mornings at this time of year. Why they can’t have unending bowls of cheerio mix. Why matching clothing isn’t the end of the world. Why dinner is taking so long. Why they must go to sleep. Why they must have chores.

I provide them with explanations. More, to be honest, than has been (or ever will be) asked for. But I try to leave no explanatory stone unturned.

Even if it means that I have to derail my own explanation, halfway through an expose on the relative demerits of Bratz dolls, as it’s only at that point that I realize I’m careening toward some stones that might be better left unturned ‘til puberty.

Why? Because half an explanation is still better than no explanation. May I be put out to parental pasture if the phrase “because I said so” ever passes my lips.

Posted in In the mother/stepmother 'hood, Thunks, divorce, family | 6 Comments »