Snippets, Because That’s All I’ve Got Brain For

December 11, 2008 @ 9:01 am | Filed under: Family, Snippets

I’m reaching the point in the pregnancy where if I’m quiet for a day or two people start to wonder if they’ve missed some big news. But no, I’m just sparing you the incoherent ramblings of a scattered mind. Except right now I’m not sparing you. Blame it on the sweet people who’ve written to ask if all’s well. :)

All is well. Baby’s still very happy in there, doing a lot of enthusiastic rib-pummeling. Matter of fact, Beanie thinks “Pummel” would be a good name. (I guess it’s a step up from Peccatoribus.) Rose and Bean have already given the child the obligatory superhero name. All children in this family must have one, I’m told. Apparently I am the mother of the mighty “Airborne.” I am not sure what this bodes for the delivery.

The day before yesterday I returned to my car after an OB appointment and discovered a very large pickup truck was parked so close to my vehicle that I could not possibly squeeze my enormous belly into the space between. I had to climb in from the passenger side. This maneuver attracted the attention of a small, amused crowd. Which turned out to be a boon, because it took the help of a small crowd to get my minivan backed out of the ridiculously tight space without scratching the Very Large Truck.

That same day was Wonderboy’s 5th birthday. And Scott’s 40th. I think it’s awfully sweet that my boys share a birthday. And not just because it means I can get away with baking just one cake. Actually, my big girls do most of the cake-baking around here. This year we tried something new: a peppermint cake, because mint is Scott’s favorite. We added a few drops of red food coloring to the white frosting with the intention of making swirly red lines like on a candy cane. But, um. Everyone wanted a turn at the swirling. By the time we got the cake frosted, there was no swirl action left—just a smooth and lovely blending of red and white. Which is to say: pink. That’s right. We gave our boys a pretty pink cake.

Of course they didn’t care what it looked like. It tasted goooood.

We’ve always tended to go minimalist with birthday presents, and this year even more so. Wonderboy’s present from us was so simple and small-scale it will probably horrify some people, but it has been even more beloved than I expected. We gave him a bag of these sweet crayon rocks from Stubby Pencil Studio. He is enchanted by them. I ‘wrapped’ them in a plain paper gift bag, which he immediately set to work coloring with his wayo-wocks. For the past two days, he has toted that gift bag everywhere, pausing anywhere there’s a low, flat surface to take out his wocks and add a few more swirls of color to the bag. This may be my favorite gift I’ve ever given, just because it has brought my little guy such satisfaction.

(Oh, I just remembered Scott’s guitar. OK, then, it’s a tie.)

Comments

Comments RSS | TrackBack URI

  1. Rebecca says:

    I think Pummel Peccatoribus has kind of nice ring to it. :)

  2. Melissa Wiley says:

    Pummel Peccatoribus Peterson, no less! LOL!

  3. Beth says:

    Hey, pink is the best color for frosting! :)

    Here’s hoping these last weeks go smoothly. How wonderful to be so close to giving birth during Advent.

  4. Melissa Wiley says:

    So true, Beth–we get to prepare for the coming of TWO babes! :)

  5. Meredith says:

    Happy birthday to the sweet boys :) Glad things are peachy!!

  6. almamater says:

    I had a forced passenger side entry during my last pregnancy. It was particularly challenged by the fact that I was driving my husband’s mobile office that day, so I had to crawl over an Immense Amount of Stuff in order to accomplish the already monumental task.

    Love that your boys got a pink cake!

  7. sarah says:

    A belated happy birthday to your boys. It must make Scott so happy to share his day with his son.

    I laughed over your car-entering episode but felt little sympathy for you (sorry). When I was pregnant we had a low-lying sports car and getting into it was like getting into a bath tub. Towards the end I needed someone to help haul me out.

    Hold on tight there with the pregnancy and have yourself a lovely Capricorn ;-)

  8. mamacrow says:

    Lola (in a Charlie & Lola) clearly states that pink icing is the tastiest (after she made pink iced fairie cakes for Charlie’s monster party)

  9. MelanieB says:

    I’m in great sympathy over the car entering. That happened to me when I was pregnant with Bella, minus the audience, fortunately. Also greatest sympathy with the snippet blogging format. I hate the way my brain turns to mush while I’m gestating.

  10. Heidi @ GGIP says:

    I definitely had the same type of parking problem when I was pregnant. Glad to hear you got out of it!

  11. Laurie says:

    I still can’t forgive myself for a similar parking problem when James was only a couple weeks old and in the car seat. We were leaving a Dr. Check up and I couldn’t open any car door enough to get him in. So I set him on the ground behind the car next to me, pulled my car out enough to get the doors open and then put him in the car. New Mommy mistake… but what else could I have done?

    Happy Birthday Lissa! And Scott & WB.

  12. 2008 in Posts — Here in the Bonny Glen says:

    [...] a month of Twittered moments, and birthdays, and sewing, and books, and Advent moments both magical and mucky. And now it’s 2009, and [...]

Leave a Reply

Comment a lot? Register here. Already registered? Login here.

Want your own gravatar? Get one here.


Welcome to

the Bonny Glen—

the online home of

children's book author

Melissa Wiley




In the Archives

you'll find posts about:


and much more!



booknotes2


Contact Me

My review policy


 Subscribe to my feed

Subscribe to my comments by email or feed


Where to find unabridged Martha & Charlotte Books


My Bonny Clan

Jane, 14 yrs old
Rose, 11 yrs
Beanie, 9 yrs
Wonderboy, 6 yrs
Rilla, 3 yrs
Huck, 14 months

and Scott, the love of my life



Every Face I Look at Seems Beautiful






Book Log 2010


March


Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith
by Deborah Heiligman
(shows up in posts
here and here)

February


Mare's War
by Tanita Davis

Betsy and Joe
by Maud Hart Lovelace

Mockingbird
by Kathryn Erskine
(notes)

Liar
by Justine Larbalestier

Winona's Pony Cart
by Maud Hart Lovelace


January


Essays of E. B. White
(selections)

Carney's House Party
by Maud Hart Lovelace

How to Say Goodbye in Robot
by Natalie Standiford

Kendra
by Coe Booth

Secret Keeper
by Mitali Perkins

The Prince of Fenway Park
by Julianna Baggott
(I interviewed her here)

The Kitchen Madonna
by Rumer Godden

Asterios Polyp
by David Mazzucchelli


Book Log 2009

(A roundup post with links to my notes and reviews)


Book Log 2008



chestertonbaby



snidely200

boys


rosebaby

3littles

3932141947_a5a702c941

rillachin

bbb



Hey, what happened to all those booklists you used to have in your sidebars at the old blog?

They're still accessible at melissawiley.typepad.com, where this blog lived from January 2005-March 2008. You can also find all my Lilting House posts there, or try the search bar here. All my previous Bonny Glen and Lilting House posts have been imported to this site.



My Big List of Booklists


Boy with the Perfect Heart


The Green Ways of Growing


Some Breezy Open


Scary Junkyard Dogs


The Quiet Joy


Way Leads on to Way


At the Museum


Balboa Park Posts


Favorite Fictional Families


The Barcelona Journal








Search This Blog



ASL Sign Lookup
(I use this a lot)


Find my books at IndieBound

Shop Indie Bookstores



I Heart the Kidlitosphere

Check out this big list of children's-book-related blogs at Kidlitosphere Central

Author and Illustrator Blogs


Recent Comments





Recent Posts



A Word about How I Blog

Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.

(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)




Be Like the Bird

Be like the bird
Who, pausing in flight
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath her,
Yet sings,
Knowing she has wings.

—Victor Hugo




From My Feed Reader



Twittered

Twitter Updates



    How We Learn

    “Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”

    Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?

    And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?

    (from a post called Way Leads on to Way)


    Our Family "Rule of Six"

    Six Things to Include in Your Child's Day:

    meaningful work
    imaginative play
    good books
    beauty (art, music, nature)
    ideas to ponder and discuss
    prayer

    Whence It Came





    Meta