Touch

Mr. Man loves to cuddle and snuggle and we're a very touchy family. In particular Mr. Man loves to squeeze, fondle and caress our "squishy" (aka fatty) parts, particularly arms. I mean he really likes it. I wonder what it means for his future lovers. (No, baby, let me just cuddle your softness...) Chuckle. I feel quite protective of Stonetree, who is the one to whom he demands, "Let me play with your squish."

Then there's his obsession with sniffing body areas. Largely, he's obsessed with smelling my armpits. Inevitably when we lay down to go to sleep he shoves his little face in my pits, sniffs and squeals in a high-pitched voice, "Eeeewwww!" If it smells bad, it's not a deterrent because he keeps going back for more. I was very happy to have my breasts back when he stopped nursing (at 4) so his new infatuation and attachment to my space is a bit disappointing.

It's truly a blow to the ego to be reduced to smelly fat in the eyes of your child.

Children and touching is charged with so many yucky social constructs. We all know the negative, destructive stuff that happens when children are touched against their will. How does a child turn out when they've had good, healthy touching as a norm? What is the child like for whom touch is plentiful, welcome and positive? I don't know many people for whom that was the case, so I wonder what it means. Does it mean the moms go nuts because he always wants to be touching us? When does how much he touches us cross a line or become just plain weird? Is it harmful if kids touch "too much" in a respectful way?

Just when I think it's bad...

because our son has emotional outbursts and some wicked tantrums, I read Dooce and her struggles with Leta seem much harder than ours. She also makes motherhood look human and I like that.

Meanwhile, I've got two 4yos watching a video and I'm blogging while drinking vodka and cranberry juice. Maybe I'm getting too relaxed with the human aspect of motherhood...

4 pointed it!

Just got my grade for my summer class and I got a 4.0! I know grades mean nothing and its all about what you learn, but damn, I learned enough to get a 4 point! Thanks to Rockstar and The Chief for the books, it helped me to keep my wallet flushed. I am simply excited that after five years out of school, I did so well in a class I thought I would not like much less pass. Excuse the grammar. I worked my butt off for this class. Particularly the last week before Festival. I was studying into the wee hours just to maintain what had to be done before I left. I had a moment where I seriously thought I would just fail and go back to work for $8/hour. Glad I wiped the sweat from my forehead and continued.

Now, 2 more years of this.

Pickles, Anyone?

I made another batch of pickles tonight...before I went out to the garden and picked 20 more cucumbers!!! Rockstar and Sonya - if you liked the pickles, bring back your containers for a refill! Anyone else wanting pickles should bring me a big container with a lid. The are still plenty of young cukes in my yard, so it may be raining pickle cucumbers for two more months! (Mr. Man and I went a little nuts and planted most of the seed packet...)

In other good news, we harvested a lovely green zucchini just before Festival. Not teeming with zucchini yet. We were a bit more restrained in the sowing of zucchini seeds.

ahh, quiet.

It is kind of strange being on this side of the Festival exodus. I wonder how things are, if people are having a good time etc. I am also sort of enjoying the emotional quiet of having so many people gone. :)

Seafarer, Mr. Man and I depart tomorrow. Lots of mixed emotions about this. All of us will be back on Monday. Hold the fort, as it were.

Good times, Good Vibes, and Good laughs

Thanks for the shout out, Rockstar. You know I got your back with the soft porn!
Today is a good day for me. Its the last day at Goldenrod, and though I will miss the experiences and people I have shared here, I am very excited to begin a new phase in life. One where I am not working 40 hours a week for bucket change. Not the overflowing bucket of a nickle slot machine in Los Vegas of the 80 year old pair of ladies who played 60 hours straight surviving on a gin and uppers just to get the bank to pee out all these nickles. Nope, more like the bucket of the person sitting next to them, who was just playing that damn machine until these 2 gin smelling ladies bullied her out her spot and she only has the 5 nickles in her bucket that pooped out of her machine.

Ooops, got lost in metaphor. Anyway, life is really good right now. I have been overworked and cannot wait to take some well deserved and needed vacation on the land next week. I'm gonna spend my five nickles getting a dove bar at night stage, people! I have worked hard in my life to get to this place...this place not just being at the threshold of school, but also a state of mind where I can flow with change and hear the undercurrents of possibility rather then just living in fear that the tides will only pull me down. This place is a knowing that wherever life takes me, I know I will be there to embrace myself. Today, I have the priveldege to embrace a Maslownian awareness that though I have much work to do for myself ahead of me on all the levels and much to contribute to this world, I am capable of living up to the challenge, because again, no matter where I am at, I will be right there.

I wanted to take the moment to pass along the good vibes to Rockstar today for her interview. May you rock, Rockstar, and shine brighter then any other applicant!

I like this blog. I like the fact that we all, every single one of us can share our lives, our thoughts, and our typos to each other in between life's to does.

Okay, peeps. I got to maintain focus and get my work done since it is my last day at Goldenrod! Did I mention that? ;o)