Cult of Ezzell

WHYYYYY can’t I be consistent in my writing???  I have half a mind to just hit publish on the millions (exaggerating only slightly) of partial posts I have hanging around just to prove I am making attempts.  Sigh.  Someone light a fire under me? Suggestions welcome.

Here’s an adorable family.

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A couple nights ago*, someone, who shall remain nameless, locked one of our dogs outside overnight and let the other one inside. This morning when questioned, Nora said it was probably Swiper. Now, if you don’t have a toddler/preschooler, you may wonder who the heck this is who Nora is convinced broke into our home for the sole purpose of locking our dog outside.  Oh, you hypothetical person who lacks knowledge of all things Swiper, I envy you.  Swiper is a cartoon fox on the horrible, horrible television show, Dora the Explorer.

Just typing the name I hear the theme in my head and it sends chills down my spine… We do not watch Dora at our house anymore. Nora watches it with her grandparents or friends, but it’s outlawed from our house, at least when I am home. Daddy is occasionally still a sucker (love you!), but for the most part I successfully avoid this show.  When Nora was smaller, there was no avoiding it.  It was the only show to hold her interest for quite awhile.  This child, apparently in rural Mexico, is running around unsupervised with a monkey and a magic backpack or some such nonsense, and this fox keeps taking her stuff and throwing it away.  He doesn’t even keep what he steals, just doesn’t want her to have it.  This somehow resonates with Nora on a deep level on all sides of the equation.  She has had mixed feelings about Swiper for a long time…  Sometimes she claims Swiper is her best friend.  Sometimes she is afraid that Swiper will kill either me or her father, or kidnap her sister, or just take our stuff and throw it somewhere as Swiper does on the television show.

“Swiper’s going to take our toilet! And daddy’s tools! And my broken shovel! Well, he can take my broken shovel, but not all our stuff!”

“You’d better keep a hand on those Legos or Swiper will swipe them!”

(When asked why she was sad) “I just really don’t want Swiper to steal my baby sister.  I just like her and don’t want Swiper to take her.”

We had a break of probably 8 months or so where Swiper was rarely, if ever, blamed for the goings on in our home.  I’m not sure what inspired the resurgence of Swiper attacks, but I have a sneaking suspicion it may have been Nora’s inability to convince us that Emeline (8 months old, currently) was perpetrating the sneaky crimes in our household, such as missing socks, spilled glasses, hidden cell phones… Damn that sneaky, sneaky fox.

*This started out as “Last night,” but I am really great at getting distracted as of late…  Hey, at least I finished it eventually!

I haven’t kept up with my daily gratitudes, but I am still feeling grateful, and that’s what’s really important, right?  Right!

I’m going to attempt to get back into the blogging swing at the very least.  For your entertainment, here are two middle of the night Nora sleepisms:

Mommy, I just need the CD back on so I can do that dance.  I need to do the dance of the dog thing so I will be beautiful, but I just need the music!

 

Mommy, here is your order.  It’s in this box and I ordered it to your house.  I ordered it just for you!

She’s pretty awesome.  On nights when I can’t sleep, I’m grateful for her sleep talking.  It is usually pretty entertaining.  On nights when I have the potential to sleep well, I am less grateful for it… But I still adore her with every fiber of my being.

This Friday at First Friday downtown, she got to meet some pretty special ladies…

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For Thursday…

1. Solo time with my firstborn.  Nora and I went to the circus and had an awesome time, just the two of us. I love doing things as a family, but there’s something extra special about just me and my girl out on the town.
2. I am so grateful that my husband is not afraid of the baby.  There are a lot of men (and quite a few women!) who would not spend an evening at home with an infant out of pure fear, but my girls have a wonderful daddy.  He doesn’t love the sitting still, but he loves his girls.
3. THE EVENT CENTER, holy cow!  Having something like that in our town… I would not be able to take Nora to a circus on a Thursday if it was anywhere else.  We stayed through the whole thing and she was still in bed about 9:45 (late for a three year old, but okay in my book for special occasions).
4. I’m adding a fourth… But it’s a begrudging fourth… I’m thankful that the circus was in town on a weeknight on the week of the dreaded DST.  Made her 9:45 bedtime feel a little closer to 8:45… Though I still am not happy about the loss of my hour.

Nora story after the pictures…

Me: Nora, what was your favorite part?
Nora: The puppies.
Me: Not riding on the elephant?
Nora:  No, just the puppies.  We should have taken our dogs on leashes.
Me:  Well, sweetie, you can’t just take any dogs to the circus.  Those dogs were trained.  That’s their job!
Nora:  Our dogs are a kinda trained.  They’re not all the way trained, but they’re a little trained.  (pause) Well, Joe is kinda trained.  He’s kinda a little trained, but he could get all the way trained.  Joe could be in a circus.

If you know our dogs, you know… No circus possibilities in their future! Little girl, big dreams.

There’s a park next to my house.  This is not new, but the BRAND NEW PARK EQUIPMENT IS WAY NEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is apparently waiting for another load of nearly hypo-allergenic, shredding not chopped, super kiddo friendly wood chips, but someone may have made a little gate yesterday.  Reasons I’m grateful for the park:

1. IT’S A PARK
2. THERE ARE SPINNY THINGS
3. ONE BILLION SLIDES (okay, only like 8, but ALL THE SLIDES)
4. MY GATE OPENS INTO THE PARK
5. IT’S A PARK
6. NORA LOVES IT
7. IT’S A PARK!!!!!!!!!!!
8. IT HAS SHADE
9. MY HUSBAND MADE IT HAPPEN
10. IT’S A PARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ben started going to Enid Park Board meetings to try to address the issues of Glenwood Park a couple years ago.   Our park has always been highly attended, but the equipment was in a horrible state.  This is the issue that moved the husBen to decide to run for city commission.  The parks all over the city are awesome, awesome, awesome, and we have played in almost all of them.  Our kid is a park lover for sure.  The joy on her face when she first saw the park going up next to our house was priceless.  I’m overwhelmed with excitement and will be even more so on Monday or whenever they finish it for realsies.  I AM EXCITED.  I am grateful.

The diva doesn’t want to be seen with us. Tough luck, kid.

1. My kid loves music.  We were in the car listening to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, and Nora starts asking questions.  Her favorite question when a song starts that she isn’t familiar with (after “Can’t we just listen to Let It Go again?!”) is “Is this song a sad song or a happy song?”  I attempted to explain to her that music is complex!  It’s full of all the emotions, ESPECIALLY when Freddie Mercury is involved!  She was not impressed, so I told her to just listen and deal with the emotions.  She spent most of the song muttering, but toward the end I hear her little voice loudly state, “Mommy, I like this song!”  I beamed with pride, but, of course, any song she likes I am no longer allowed to sing.  Double-edged sword, parenting, I tell ya.
2. I am SO GRATEFUL for the Enid Farmers Market.  Ben and I have been there since the second planning meeting and watching it grow and flourish just fills my heart with pride and, most importantly to this post, gratitude.  I am so grateful for all of those who have been vendors and volunteers, whether or not we see them this season.  I have a feeling this season is going to bring big things.  For one thing, we officially have our 501(c)(3) submitted and that means if you give us money you can deduct it!  If you’re interested in being a vendor or volunteer, I would LOVE to give you more information.  Our first vendor meeting will be April 15th and that is also deadline for first round of application submissions.  I actually submitted the first application this year to have my jewelry at the market…  Fun!
3. I am grateful for honesty in all its forms.  Nora was playing with one of the other EFM board member’s children and the other little girl said that Nora wasn’t sharing… I asked Nora about it and she said, “Well… I just said that she would never ever touch it again!”  Honesty, kid.  I love it.  Makes life so much easier to talk through, parenting so much easier to approach.  I know she won’t always tell me the truth, even now she doesn’t always tell the truth, but to hear the earnestness in that tiny voice is music to my ears, regardless of what she’s done.

So, if you’ve been reading my little series, you’ll notice that I’m doing them the day after.  I mentioned my love of sleep yesterday… I generally end up sleeping rather than writing at night.  Eh.

1. Amazon instant.  No discs, no tapes, no nothin, BAM new kids’ movies.  Last night we got Enchanted and Nora was totally sucked in, but not too sucked in to not show us her “ballet” and try to do gymnastic moves over her sister.  Perfection.
2. Gratitude/disappointment, but I’ll count it:  Emeline is trying SO HARD to crawl.  She’s so close.  She’s been doing some backward stuff for awhile, but now… This is legitimate moving forward.  Nora didn’t really crawl.  She wanted to be standing and walking all the time, did not want anything to do with the crawling position.  She crawled for maybe two weeks before she was full time walking, and that was only when it was an absolute necessity.

Penny is back there sneakily attempting to hoard Emeline’s hedgehog and teddy bear… And yes, I need to vacuum.

3.    THIS WEATHER OH MY WORD IT IS MAGICAL.

Here’s the deal.  I love to complain.  It is one of my most favorite pastimes.  It has brought me close together with some of my best friends.  I am grateful for all that I have, all the wonderful things I get to experience, all the love and flowers and butterflies and good feelings in life, I really am, but… Somehow it just isn’t as fulfilling as a good bitchfest sometimes.  For Sunday, as I am told that Lent doesn’t actually count Sundays, I am writing a bit about something I am not grateful for: Daylight Savings Time.

I’ve tried, okay.  I’ve tried HARD.  Yeah, I guess more time in the evenings with light to do stuff with the family, but that happens eventually anyway.  I just feel robbed.  It makes me feel every so slightly unsafe in all elements of my life to have someone sneak up at TWO O’CLOCK ON A SUNDAY MORNING and steal ONE WHOLE HOUR OF MY LIFE.  Yeah, it’s nice that they give it back in the fall, but I was using that hour!!!  Mostly for sleep!!  No, I have never cared much for the horrible practice referred to as “DST.”  I really prefer to call it DST, because that sounds like it could be a disease or something, whereas “Daylight Savings Time” sounds almost serene, and is, therefore, full of lies.  

Sleep and I have had a pretty good relationship for most of my life.  I could sleep upwards of 12 hours if given the opportunity.  Problem is… Wait for it… I have two small children and an adult man-child.  I have put family before sleep on occasions too numerous to count.  My husband, God bless him, is many things, but he is not a sleeper.  If he stays in bed until eight on a weekend, he feels like he has ruined his day, somehow.  The day is something to be seized and sleep is something to be utilized out of necessity now and again.  My girls seem to get their sleep habits from their father.  I sleep on the edge of the bed on my left side and don’t move unless I must and nearly always (used to be always always, but as I’ve aged I’ve started sleeping a little harder sometimes) wake partially before I move even a little.  Those three…. They flail.  They talk.  They lash out.  They are not good at being still, waking OR sleeping.  I miss my sleep.  We have encounters now and again, but our relationship is nothing like it used to be.  I had weekends when I would hardly leave my bed at all!  Oh, glorious days spent reading, watching television, snacking, and nap after nap after nap… How I miss you.

So, DST, you are on notice.  I am hostile and sleep-deprived.  We are NOT FRIENDS and I am NOT GRATEFUL FOR YOU.

I’m grateful for snow. It’s pretty, even though I’m over winter and would like some warmth.

I am grateful for the theater. I could write many volumes on the depth of my gratitude, but I’m sleepy, so I won’t. We saw the children’s show at Gaslight today and it was awesome.

My mom was a tree and she was awesome.

I’m grateful for sleepy baby snuggles. Goodnight!

I am grateful for the amount of sass in my eldest. She is strong and she is confident and those things will serve her well as a woman in today’s world. This morning as we were getting ready, she starts fake crying, so I asked her what was wrong. She said, “I can’t climb the wall and it makes me sad!” She’s something else.

I am grateful for Enid’s growth. We came back here determined to help make our city somewhere our girls will want to stay or return to, however their lives play out. Tonight was the first sold out concert at the new Event Center and it was wonderful.

Here are all the acts together, David Nail, Eli Young Band, and Darius Rucker. It was PACKED!

I am grateful for the bond my girls have with their grandparents. Emeline reached for someone else while I was holding her for the first time last night and it was my mom. I have a pretty close relationship with my extended family, but having both sets of grandparents close enough to spend quality time with multiple times a week is a rare and wonderful thing.

I wrote this last night but forgot to actually publish it… Actually staying out in the evening is not something we do well anymore!