We’ve been hearing this about five hundred times a day for the past couple of months. We used to get about five hundred polite requests for books – now we get demands.

October 2009

Some of Hazel’s current favorites/demands:

Eric Carle’s Draw Me A Star (We are in the middle of a star fixation. Warning, there is a definite penis implication in an illustration of Adam & Eve. Lately, whenever we get to the photo of Eric Carle at the end of his books, Hazel exclaims “Pa!” each time – my dad and E.C. are beard twins, don’t you know?)

Mem Fox’s Whoever You Are (aka, “Ebbewa Awe”. This book taught her the word “blood”.)

Liz Garton Scanlon’s All the World (aka, “Ebbewa Wowd”. This book taught her the word “couple”, because I said “look Mikey, I think there’s a gay couple at the farmer’s market, too”… upon close inspection after reading a bad amazon review about the “lesbian couple on the swing”. *sigh*)

Jane Belk Moncure’s My “h” Book (I could have goodwilled the entire alphabet for $6.50, but… we’re moving soon.)

Dr. Seuss’s Yertle the Turtle (such a socially & politically PERFECT book… I do declare.)

Marie-Louise Gay’s When Stella Was Very Very Small

Sherry North’s Because I Am Your Daddy (Grandma hit the ball out of the park with those last two picks.)

Bob Barner’s Stars! Stars! Stars! (thank you Mrs. Hall for consigning this and your classroom’s entire Eric Carle collection.)

Catherine Walters’ Time to Sleep, Alfie Bear! (thanks again, Mrs. Hall, and other Grandma for financing this particular stack of books! This is a perfect summer book.)

Eric Carle’s From Head To Toe (she has owned this board book since she was teensy, and is all of a sudden obsessed with it – “I ‘tan do it! I ‘tan do it!”)

The past couple of weeks have been so busy and so strange and I feel so mentally unhinged that today I organized, purged, and then rainbow-ordered Hazel’s books as a means of destressing. It worked wonderfully.

EmmaLee & Hazey reading my current favorite & most perfect & wonderful book: All the World. I was so taken with the text that for the first twentysomething reads I overlooked the illustration of a breastfeeding mother (not uncommon for me to see in real life, so it didn’t register for awhile that it’s so uncommon to see in a BOOK). Also: community, various family arrangements, farmer’s market, old Volkswagen bus, dogs, peace and fiddling. What else do you need?

Slip, trip, stumble, fall
Tip the bucket, spill it all
Better luck another day, all the world goes ’round this way

I can think of about 47 adults off the top of my head who could benefit from reading this book :)

…when I can hit three different Goodwill stores in my regular errands & travels. The past four days have been good to me: a pile of books for Hazel; an overstock plate from Target with the “ABs” on it (she picked that one out herself – “ABs!! ABs!!”); toy enamel kitchenware for her that I’d wonder the dating of if it didn’t have Ikea stickers on the bottoms; a Pyrex bowl; a carafe that I’ve already got two of (eek); a little tin bucket for her kitchen utensils (I picked up tiny bamboo forks, spoons, knives, and a mixing spoon in Chinatown in TO for a quarter each); a small piece of fabric; a cheery metal tray and two Fire King mugs.

Parkersburg.

Morgantown.

Clarksburg.

How is it that I can make 17 fruitless thrifting trips in a row and then when it rains, it pours? Is this still spring cleaning? I’m getting really excited about Hazel’s play kitchen plans – I need to start getting to the ReStore a few times a week to look for furniture to hack. The more I think it about it, that seems much more fun than building from scratch.

I am so, so, so close to having not a single Etsy thing that needs to be photographed. This feels so good. I have about five things that I knew needed to be redone but forgot to add to today’s mix, a little box of vintage earrings to price/sort/photograph, and anything I might come across that needs to be redone from the hundreds of photos I took today and yesterday… almost, almost, almost there. Almost caught up on photographs means almost 100% caught up with Etsy in general. I’m still trying to decide if I even want to finish a big batch of resin pendants that are partially done, since I’ve started making glass ones that I like much better and will soon start listing. Other than that I have no projects in the works – everything is DONE. Promo things are done. I’ve got a bit of packaging supplies to finish. It’s going to be so strange to be caught up and be able to start working on brand new things for my shop. I will have enough packaging and promo stuff to last me through part of the summer, at least, so I can just MAKE things. New things that have only existed in my brain. Weird.

If I hadn’t “lost” my macro filters for three months I’d be so much further along. “Lost”… because all along they were in a box clearly labeled “camera stuff”. Mikey kept saying “are you sure they aren’t in that box?”… and I’d say “yes, I’ve had them out since we moved home”… and ugh. I can’t trust my own memory anymore. Is this what it feels like to be 75? Is it the same as having a toddler?

Since I unearthed my filters two days ago and could finally dive into everything I had waiting, Hazel has been so ignored for the past two afternoons while the light is right for pictures. Today when I finished I tried to make it up to her by reading her a massive pile of books, including these spring-ey books. Then I gave her my old cell phone to play with while I cooked supper – she had many long and important conversations, with lots of gestures and yelling. She looked like a tiny executive. I don’t know where she learned this. Mikey and I don’t yell at people on the phone.

Here’s last week’s resolution, which I kept forgetting to photograph: a garbage bag full of clothing and toys to consign whenever we get out of the house and down the interstate:

Listening: Tom Petty
(I am) Reading: The No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers
(Hazel is) Reading: all of the above
Working on: blanket; pajamas; Etsy catch-up