The niece has picked up skateboarding in the past year or so. Last year for Christmas I sent her a board because the “baby” board she was using wasn’t very good. She didn’t bring it with her when she came here this go around and it’s already been packed up and sent on its way to Germany. So she decided to use the gift cards/money that she received this Christmas to pick out a new board.

She was super excited to learn that there’s a skate park in our town. To go though, you have to have a waiver on file with the city and buy a pass. The park is only open at night and on the weekends and I took care of the paperwork so she could go last night. She had been bugging the hell out of me to go since she got the skateboard on Tuesday.

We got there last night and the place was crawling with teenaged boys. No girls and the boys were zooming all over the place. Sylvie was to nervous to go out there amongst everyone so we decided to just scope the place out and come back this afternoon. (Some days skateboarders can use the facility from 4 to 6 and some days from 6 to 8. The place is also used by kids on bikes.) We decided to tell Sweety and the boys that I wouldn’t let her skate because it was too cold and I didn’t want to sit in the cold. She was afraid the boys would tease her for being a chicken. But we agreed that we’d go today as soon as the place opened because maybe it would be less crowded.

And we did.

When I picked her up from school today, I asked her what I ask the kids every day:

What did you have for lunch?
A Slushie.
A Slushie? Didn’t you have one of those yesterday because it was the first day back to school?
Yeah.
And don’t you like to have one to “celebrate” Friday so you’ve earmarked tomorrow for one?
Yeah.
Why did you have one today? You need to eat real food.
Well, I knew you were talking to my Mom about me getting to stay the rest of the year and I figured she’d say no. Sooo…
So, you needed a Slushie to console yourself?
Yeah! To console myself!
Hrmph. Have real food tomorrow. No Slushie.
Hey! Did you know they have mochas at school?
Hey! Did you know I can look on the computer and see what you’ve eaten every day?
Really? That’s…not cool. Not cool at all, Aunt Anna.

speak up!

I spoke with my sister and Sylvie will stay here until the end of the school year. We go on vacation every year to stay in a cabin near my Mom’s house and we always go pick up Sylvie so she can go with us. She’ll go with us this year and “say goodbye to everyone” (her words) and then will go to Germany the end of June or July.

I. Am. So. Glad. I’m beyond relieved that my sister was okay with this.

I know it was hard on Sylvie (and me!) not having a definite date for anything. “whenever we can get your passport and ticket” isn’t very reassuring to a kid. This way, we know the time that she’s leaving and she can actually live here and do some extracurricular activities instead of being in limbo. This reminds me that I now need to find somewhere close by to rent a cello.

See this happy baby?

How can this little baby take what is probably no more than 4 ounces of milk going down and turn it into a half-gallon coming up? It’s her superpower. I am pleased that she’s learned to power launch spit-up over my shoulder and miss her own clothing. I think she’s doing it that way because she hates to change clothes but loves to barf. I need to get a rubber sheet for our mattress.

In that photo she’s smiling at the ceiling fan. We call it her best friend. I felt like a neglectful parent for letting her lie down under a home appliance for amusement but have since found out that babies in general are enamored with ceiling fans. So, that makes me feel better. It’s not like I plop her under it with no other stimulation. I’m not running a creepy orphanage here.

speak up!

Right now I’ve got a tit flopped out, a baby asleep on the Milk Bar (what we call the pillow I put her on when she’s eating) on my lap and I can’t quit crying.

I talked to my sister this morning. She got to Germany yesterday and she’s not being deployed with her unit. So my niece will be going over there sooner rather than later. This way, she will be able to go to school over there and hopefully make some friends before this summer.

I know she’s not my kid. But damn, in my heart she may as well be and I’m really not liking the idea of her being somewhere that I’m not able to hop in the car and drive to.

speak up!

Sweety is busy demonstrating how awesome he is. In the past 7 weeks:

He existed in the house with my mother and father (I hadn’t slept under the same roof with them in 20 years. There is a reason they’re divorced.).

He was home alone with Bean while Mom and I were gone and my Dad showed up with his lady-friend that none of us had ever met – we didn’t know he was bringing her to our house.

He’s totally okay with my niece living with us indefinitely.

He’s been okay with me having lots of company since Bean’s birth. We were home alone with her the first week but have had visitors ever since. I like that. The week that I was home alone with her, I had a giant case of The Weepies and I just looked at her and cried about who-knows-what every spare moment. I’m still a little off feeling and having someone around helps keep that away.

He surprised the hell out of me on Christmas. I’d told him that I didn’t want anything. On Christmas morning though there were presents for me under the tree – hand sanitizer, scissors and garbage bags. When cleaning up all of the present-opening carnage, Sweety told me to look under the couch and there was one more present for me there – a MacBook. He rocks.

Right now he is dancing around the living room with Bean telling her, “Your Mama couldn’t have done any better with you. Nope, she couldn’t have done any better than having a baby with me.” Heh.

I’ve gotta say – she is an awesome baby. The only time she really cries a lot is late at night when she’s tired. She goes right back to sleep after waking up to eat in the night and generally lets me lie her down when she sleeps during the day. I spend much time petting her while she sleeps.

Right now she sleeps with us at night in a basket that fits on our bed between us. My grand plan is to let her keep sleeping with us after she outgrows the basket but Sweety isn’t on board with that yet. He said he doesn’t want a kid sleeping with us forever. I told him it won’t be forever. I mean, she probably won’t be 13 and crawling into bed with us.

See this?

Notice the little fist in the top right? She’s screaming because she’s pulling her own damned hair. She likes to pet her head when she’s eating and this can happen way too easily.

Heh, something funny that happened with BB…He had told his girlfriend’s 13 year old sister that when the new Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn, came out that if she remembered to ask him that he’d take her to the opening showing that started at midnight. He was telling me about it and he was saying that he didn’t think she’d remember. I told him that she would definitely remember and she did.

The best part? BB’s girlfriend didn’t want to go see the movie at midnight because she didn’t want to be tired at school the next day so BB had to take her little sister alone. I kept calling him a creeper and told him that from now on when I see a guy on a date with a girl who looks way too young for him that I will assume that she’s his girlfriend’s sister and he’s taking her out because he opened his mouth and made a stupid promise. He hadn’t seen any of the Twilight movies and spent a couple of days watching them so he’d know what was going on. When I asked him the next day how the movie was with her, his only answer was, “Awkward. Very awkward.”

For the first New Year’s Eve in 17 years, I’m not drinking in the New Year. My beverage of choice tonight is Caffeine Free Coke. Usually I drink the caffeine-free and diet version but decided to walk on the wild side for New Year’s Eve. I’m really looking forward to what 2012 has in store for us.

Happy New Year!

speak up!