September, 2009

Rick B from Dylan Gunnett

I found this video on a flickr stream that I follow quite a bit. I love looking at the art this family creates. Some of the pieces are similar to the kinds of things that I do (in secret for reasons that will sound totally insane).

The family is large (6 kids) and when they are all sitting around at the table, I get warm memories of my childhood – except that the pizza in the video would have had to be 4 pizzas and would more resemble my family dinners if the video was accelerated greatly due to the race to “get your share” that tends to happen in large families. It took me awhile to get used to this, actually – the knowledge that if one is still hungry, chances are that there will still be something left on the table.

I still yearn for a large family. Of course, mine wouldn’t have a Rick Beerhorst soundtrack and the children would probably be a little less civil to each other but this kind of chaos makes me happy. A large family prepares you for life in so many ways. How to negotiate with others, how to care for your own children, how to take responsibility for your actions and how to see the ways people, even from the same home, can see and feel things so very differently.

My sister’s wedding was on the 19th of September. My entire family was there to celebrate. My older brother and his wife, my two younger brothers, and my parents were all together. This doesn’t happen very often anymore. We are all over the globe and it is rare that we have the time or money to gather in the same place.

I miss my family.

jane austen festival in bath, originally uploaded by obenson.

A short while ago I was reading Jane Austin’s “Emma”. It seemed to be one of those books in which I was totally immersed in the 1800 world of Hartfield, Highbury. Even my emails to people were full of “pray, tell me this” and “surely, you jest” or even “badly done, Eliza! Badly done”

Yes. I’m an idiot.

This usually happens when I get into a book. I doubt it is a rare occurrence. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens to most people. Sometimes I blather on about something and people may think i’m all “Look at this shit! Look at how amazing individual I am / my family is / my life can be” when really? Really, I know it’s all really, really ordinary.

Ordinary with a dash of spelling and grammar mishaps thrown in just to annoy the A-types.

While reading “Emma” I saw someone I work as Miss Bates. Not the most flattering comparison when you examine the character but if you saw the world through my ordinary eyes, you’d understand that it is really quite endearing. I’ve also got an unexpected Jane Fairfax gliding around, am constantly frustrated with too many hippie, politically correct versions of Augustas, used to date a Frank Churchill (dodged a bullet with that one) and I seem to be raising a bit of a Mr. Woodhouse.

It’s all good. Austin is such an amazing writer that even when certain personalities start to wear my patience, it’s good to know that I’m not alone. Everyone goes through this. Everyone deals with Miss Bates – dull and talkative and never understanding social cues. Everyone deals with Augusta – pretentious, ignorant and incredibly intruding. Everyone worries that they could be raising Mr. Woodhouse and everyone wonders what the hell I’m talking about…

Last night, my sister rented me the Gweneth Paltrow version of “Emma”. It looks good but both this version and the Kate Beckinsale version both seem forget that Harriet is supposed to be a “pretty young thing” and only comic relief in action, not appearance. There is going to be a 2009 BBC version coming this October and it looks as if their Harriet will actually be well cast. I’m excited.

Well, as excited as I can be to wait until some nice soul puts the series up on youtube so I can watch it in short bursts at work while I eat my lunch.

Jane Austin helps me get through my day.

flamingo staring me down, originally uploaded by shuttershrink.

Eliza has been sick with an ear infection for the last little while. I know it seems that she’s sick a lot. In fact, we asked the doctor if her propensity for ear infections meant tubes in the future. Apparently not. She gets ear infections but not as often as those with the tubes. Just enough to cause much pain, sleepless nights and Mom missing a ton of work days only to require her to go at night and do double shifts.

Thank Goodness she doesn’t need tubes.
(actually, in all seriousness, we are relieved. Surgery is not high on my list of ways to keep my child quiet during the night)

However, antibiotics kind of suck as well. She hasn’t had enough of the medicine for her to be familiar with the concept but it has been enough for us that we now know the names of what works and what, if a Medi-Clinic doctor tries to prescribe something insane, most certainly does not and “where did you get your medical degree?!?”.

So Eliza’s not a fan of the thick pink stuff. Ugh. The smell makes me gag so I don’t blame her. Unfortunately, giving this to her every 8 hours makes it difficult come the 12:30am dosage. Waking up a peacefully sleeping baby to give her foul smelling and foul tasting medicine doesn’t go well. The first night was a total disaster. The second night she only screamed bloody murder. We’re at the 8th or 9th night now. She’s resigned to it.

Of course, Dickson also found a secret weapon – Franklin.

If Franklin is cheering her on, she’ll suck that syringe down like its straight icing sugar. All of a sudden, it’s the coolest game in the world. By now, when we give her the medicine, she’ll see the syringe and start chanting,

“Go Eliza Go! Dji Dji! Go Eliza Go!”*

Then we’ll all start cheering as I send it down the hatch.

It’s quite similar to a university crowd chanting on the newest first year in her novice attempt at drinking through a beer bong. We’re preparing them both for post-secondary school. We’re over-achieving parents.

This success for the past few days have me eternally grateful to both Dickson for suggesting the idea and Franklin’s patience and willingness to stop whatever he’s doing to cheer her on. In the middle of the night, in our combined sleep haze, I’m whispering “Go Eliza Go!” in order to remind her of why she likes this stuff.

So far, so good.

*(Dji Dji is her name for Franklin. We have no idea how this one evolved but it’s cute and we’ve starting calling him this as well)