Friday, July 28, 2006

Tickle Wars: on hold

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.

-- W. H. Auden


I'm missing my kids. You heard me right, I miss them. Really, I do.

For the most part.

I miss Unruly climbing into bed with me in the morning and yammering away about her dreams the night before and her grandiose plans for the day. I miss it when she tries to hold me down and tickle me until I have no breath left to speak, much less laugh with every wiggle of her fingers across my belly and sides. I struggle to get away, and protest just enough to make her think she's really holding me captive, but deep inside, despite my fabulously theatric protestations, I love her brand of "tickle torture"

I miss it. The house has been so quiet without the girls around. I think the dog is depressed, too, without his girls to play with.

I talked to Wild for about 2 minutes yesterday morning. It's amazing how she can spend hours on the phone with her friends, but I have to drag more than 5 words from her that amount to more than a few grunts or mumbled one word answers. Further proof that I am something to be shunned and avoided at all costs. I might *GASP!* embarass her!

She didn't even bother to say "hi mom!" The first words out of her mouth were "Can I dye my hair red?" My immediate response: "Ummm...no. I don't think so." Because I know "red" doesn't mean a nice shade of Sara Ferguson red...red means shiny candy apple or fire engine red. And I hate being ambushed with questions like this. My immediate response is almost always "No" when she comes to me five minutes before a school dance with the request to go or with girlfriend in tow asking to spend the night,tonight. I require a little advance notice, perhaps a little buttering up.

Grumbling, whining and general malaise ensue (not from me...from her). I have a few more minutes to consider her request (demand). She's 14. It's her hair and at some point she's going to have to start taking responsibility for her decisions and realize that not every idea is necessarily a good idea.

"Okay, go ahead. I don't care. It's not my hair so I don't have to live with it. However, do remember that you are starting a new school in a couple of weeks, as a freshman, so, if it winds up badly, you will have to live with it."

I don't know what she decided. I guess I'll find out when I drive up north to pick them up in two weeks.

On the clean-up front:

I spent two hours, yes, TWO hours, scrubbing one bathroom at the new house last night. I think I used an entire shelf of cleaning chemicals to get the grime out of the tub and the scale out of the toilet. It now shines and sparkles and smells divinely sanitary. Only two more bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room and family room left to scrub and sanitize!

Oh, and the painting thing, that gets started Saturday.

I can't wait to get outside and start working in my new yard, my new 13.95 acres of "yard." *grin*

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