The Sprague Lab

I think it was 1 kabillion degrees here today. BLEH.

Add to that a humidity level with almost visible water droplets in the air, and it was yuck city. Welcome to July in North Carolina. And now we know why our house has two air conditioners and a ceiling fan in almost every room (still don’t know why it has a fireplace, though…).

Early Funny

Rowen came and woke us up at 7 this morning, as usual. We were both up pretty late last night, so 7 came kind of early, and I only remember half of our conversation, which centered around her wanting pictures for her wall, “real pictures, with Mama, and Daddy, and trains, and grandma.” All the important stuff. :)

She also brought all her blankets in from her bed and then took a piece of clothing from everyone in the family and made each of us a “blanket nest” on the floor. Jared had her pink flannel blanket and a pair of his shorts swirled around in a perfect little nest, and next to it was my nest, her blue blanket with one of my shirts.

Good Read (Hopefully)

I was chatting on Friday night with my sister Julie, whose wedding I recorded in this layout (May 2007 CK):

Click for Larger 

We were talking books. We’re always talking books. We’ve both got degrees in English, and she’s got a Masters in Education Administration, and is starting a Ph.D program in Linguistics this fall. She loves reading as a hobby and is lightning fast, and we like many of the same kinds of books, so it’s what we talk. :)

Right off, she recommended Twilight.

She’s the third person to have recommended it in the past couple of months (Candice was the first, and Britney was the second), and like a typical woman, I put a strong store in the personal recommendations of people I know.. so.. I’m going for it.

Julie also said, now don’t be afraid, and I said, why? It’s not a (*gasp*) romance is it?

And you know those lags in chat when someone is typing and then RIGHT after you chat them, their next line appears, and hers says,

It is a vampire romance. 

And then she says (knowing what I’m going to say), vampire is the key thing here.

To make matters worse, I found it in the Young Adult section of Borders. Right next to the Babysitter’s Club (I kid, I love lots of teen/YA fiction). But I’m still going for it. Not so much into the vampire OR the romance, but what the hey right? Julie liked it. Candice liked it. I can’t remember if Britney said she liked it, or just that she said she read it on Candice’s recommendation. But still. That’s a lot of critical weight in the Yes column, as far as I’m concerned. :)

Ali linked up a VERY cool web site:

Good Reads

I’m going to put these books in there as I read them. Plus the few or so that are sitting here awaiting a good read. :)

Today

I haven’t really taken the opportunity in several days to just sit down and think about the day. To do some untangling of the massive ball of yarn that my days sometimes feel like. We went to the gym this morning, and I dropped the kids off in the really amazing childcare center, and went and worked out, AND showered, AND there was nobody else in the room - at least not in the little shower with me. So nice. :)

But.

I went to pick up the kids, and Rowen decided (sometimes this girl can be so unpredicatble. This whole emotional overflow thing has just started in the last few weeks) that she didn’t want to leave, that she wanted to stay and watch the Wiggles. Well, I admit that I can’t compete with the Wiggles on ANY level in the eyes of a toddler, except perhaps that I offered snacks, but she wasn’t having it. It was a full-on tantrum. The running away from me. The screaming. The throwing herself on the floor, heels drumming, tears flowing kind of tantrum that she rarely produces. Why today? Why the Wiggles?

I finally rounded them both up (since of course during this Elliott had been running in the other direction), and we went down to the little cafe, because Mama had to own up on her promise of one of the teeny boxes of cold cereal they sell there at the cafe. We get to the cafe, and I’m looking for my credit card to pay for the aforementioned cereal, and they’re both off running in the cafe. *sigh* Lots of glances and glares from people in front and behind me in line at this point.

After we eat, I’m looking for my car keys, and in the 12 seconds it takes me to find them in my purse, both kids have wandered over to the coffee table at the far end of the cafe, and have discovered a display tray of little fake plastic fruit, JUST the size for a toddler to hold in his or her hand. By the time I make it over there, they have managed to fling half of the fake fruit across the floor of the cafe.

I’m so done by this point with living in Toddlerville. So ready to move in to Napville (a suburb, I think, of Diet Mt. Dewville), if only to rent an apartment for a couple hours. We made it home. We played. They napped. The day went on.

And yet.

I know that of the entire day, this little part, while vivid to me still, wasn’t the most important part. THAT part was sitting down to dinner together as a family tonight, eating broccoli and rice and steak (for the Bigs) and hot dogs  (for the Littles) under the words on our red wall: “Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life.”

The most important part was listening to my kids talking about the movie they wanted to watch for Family Night (Rowen: The Little Engine that Could; Elliott: Baby Galileo by Baby Einstein). Or perhaps it was hearing the sounds of Jared chasing the kids around the living room before bathtime, screaming and laughing with delight. Or perhaps it was holding a freshly washed and sleepy small Elliott on my lap while we read his new favorite book, full of pictures from the Hubble telescope, and pointing to the various planets (he knows all their names), and then laying him down in his bed, and he says, “Night niiiighht” in the sweetest singsong as I leave the room. Now THAT is important stuff. The most important part comes a little quieter than the less important parts, I think. And I have to be paying attention or I’ll miss them.

But I think my heart is somehow deepened and widened by experiences like today, which is sort of a microcosm of my life (half publicly frustrating, half blissfully sweet, with a naptime’s worth of time to work, and a load of laundry thrown in somewhere). At least, it feels that way tonight.

Gonna go start Twilight. :)