Lovelihood

I've developed a little case of tattoo fever. And while I labor over questions of what and where and when, questions that could go years before finding satisfaction, I've gotten my first (of many, I'm sure) shipments of Tattlys to keep my ink lust in check. I suppose similar temporary satisfaction could be achieved with pen to skin, but where's the fun in that?

The popsicles were doled out as a token of understanding that they'd just spent a rough couple of hours at the doctor's office, receiving seven shots between the two of them. And they did enjoy their popsicles, taken on the back deck (always on the back deck), where it was still a little damp and chilly this morning. Still, for two kids enjoying popsicles, you'd expect at least a glimmer of a crack of a smile.

Difficult to tell, but that's a tiger, a scavenger hunt prize picked out by The Boy earlier this month at a friend's annual Independence Day shindig. He filled the cage up with water, was several times reminded that it would take a few days to grow into full tiger size, and tucked it in a bucket where other little toys are sequestered, out of the way and forgotten. Tidying up the other day, he pulled out the cage, tiger now fully grown, and was so excited about its growth you would have thought a living, breathing animal had actually made its way into the cage, instead of the bloated mass of whatever that material is, shedding murkiness into the water that helped it grow. Boy wants to attach it to his backpack. I rather like it on my shelf.

I tried, last week, to instill in The Boy my love of school supply shopping. Armed with our modest list of items a Kindergartener needs to attend school in this town, and warnings not to deviate from the list, lest it turn into a novelty pencil popularity contest, we bombed out at every school supply purveyor we hit up. Who knew a 12 pack of Crayola washable markers would be so elusive? So with more than a little bit of shame I ordered the neccessary accoutrements online. To ease the sting a bit, I also snuck two sweet little bento boxes into our order, to be filled up with lunchtime goodies when the big day arrives.

In about a month, The Boy will commence with pre-Kindergarten activities at his new school. Are we prepared? Physically, phychologically, intellectually or otherwise? Most likely not. But during some downtime today, I sat him down while I worked through some things on the computer, and had him read to me from this gem of a book-grab find. He slogged through a good chunk of it admirably, all that Montessori phonetic learning kicking in. And when he tired of that, he opened up the little goodie bag notebook he scored from yesterday's birthday party and took down some notes from the reading. Vampires.

Took the last of that Echino laminated linen, paired it with the last of my gray wool felt, and whipped up a gift bag for yet another in a seemingly endless line of birthday parties. That laminatted fabric was such fun to work with, I'm tempted to grab up some more in, like, every pattern available.

The other half of yesterday's haul, the proof press, sat in the trunk of our little car until we worked up the energy to heft it out and into a cool corner in the basement. I've been saying it's the heaviest thing I've ever carried (with help). And while I'm not entirely sure about the veracity of that statement, I do know that the car, when I took it out to the store afterward, was notably happier for not having the press weighing the trunk down over the rear axle. In the press' near future will be a good deep cleaning.