Chickens on vacation

Fall is here, and egg production has gone on hiatus at the Gilden-Holmes Chicken Farm. The girls may be molting - it's hard to tell, at least for me - which further reduces their egg production. Lately we've been getting one egg every other day, which is kind of pathetic, though normal. I had to actually buy eggs the other day. Actually, I asked Jeff to buy them, and he got some sort of off-brand factory eggs that had pale yolks and runny whites. It was a stark contrast to the firm orange gems we get. I could light up the coop at night to increase the girls' output, but that also appears to decrease their life span. So I will have to buy eggs during the winter, I guess, and keep the chickens longer. Apparently we should be getting more eggs again in February or March.

"I just climbed out"

Last week Melina mastered the art of climbing out of her crib, which filled both Jeff and I with horror. Melina was very proud of her accomplishment, but we were NOT ready for her to sleep in a toddler bed, bouncing up out of bed all night long. Then we discovered the crib tent. This ingenious device keeps toddlers in their cribs, and if you present it to them as a very special tent just for them, they love it. Melina is WAY into it. Last night when Jeff was putting her to bed, he was stroking her face trying to get her to sleep when she said, "please zip it closed." We haven't had a problem with her climbing out since. Maybe we will use it when we go camping to keep out the mosquitos - though I have to say it's a *bitch* to assemble (it was next to impossible to get one of the pole ends into its sleeve). I can't imagine voluntarily taking it down and putting it back up again.

Holidays

Melina is just starting to learn about Halloween and Christmas. I think I've thoroughly confused her by reading her The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is about a Halloween skeleton that takes over Santa's job and botches it up. So now Melina probably thinks that Santa is a skeletal creature with ghost reindeer who brings little vampire toys to children. Anyway, the other day I told her that Santa brings toys to little girls and boys. "To me?" she said, excited. I think this will be a fun Christmas.

For Halloween, I bought some fake fur and my friend Sue helped me make a little cavegirl outfit. She tried it on yesterday and complained that it was itchy, so it may take some tweaking before I can get her to wear it. I don't think she knows yet that Halloween means candy, but she knows it means pumpkins. It will be a fun Halloween, too.

Stories

Melina is now both now a listener and a teller of fairy tales. On those rare occasions where I put her to bed (Jeff usually does it), she wants to hear stories about herself, her friend Amanda, Amanda's mother Molly, and now all the kids at preschool - Aria, Sanju, and Hank seem to be favorites. And she's very particular that stories start with the words "One day..." instead of "Once up on a time." After that, she doesn't seem to care much where they go, although sometimes she makes special requests for trains or cars. So my stories usually go something like this:

One day, Melina and Amanda got in the car and Melina drove them to the beach. They drove and drove, over the mountains and through the woods and through the valleys and through the forest. Finally, they got to the beach. And there, they hired a little boat and rowed out into the ocean. They rowed and rowed and rowed, and suddenly along came a huge whale. "Hello," said the whale, "What are you doing way out here in the ocean?" "We're having an adventure," said Melina. And the whale said "Well, come on down to my palace under the sea and I'll show you around." So Melina and Amanda and the whale swam down to the whale's palace, and while they were there they came upon a teeny tiny jellyfish that was looking for its mama...

For some reason (maybe because I work in fisheries?) it seems like 90% of my stories (and Jeff's, for that matter) revolve around swimming deep down in the ocean or flying through the sky on the back of a bird. Usually there is some sort of animal that needs help - often a bear with a thorn in its paw. It's interesting to think about where these stories come from.

Melina has also been telling some stories of her own. Usually they're pretty short, like "Once upon a time there was a car. The end." (Unlike us, she is allowed to say "once upon a time.") Her stories are getting more complex, though. I will try to remember some and write them down here.

Two point five

Melina is now firmly established in her twos. Every once in a while I think "oh, this two thing isn't so hard," and I assure my friends that their 1.5-year olds are much more difficult. And then there comes a day like today, when somebody seemed to have whisked Melina away to another dimension and replaced her with the Child From Hell. I suspect that she did not sleep at preschool (they went to the pumpkin patch, which was probably way too exciting). Around 5:30 she started on a major meltdown that lasted about 45 minutes. She had been playing with water and got her teeshirt wet, and she was determined to take it off herself. On the other hand, her alternate personality wanted help taking off the teeshirt. At one point she was yelling "I want to do it MYSELF!! HELP ME!". What are you supposed to do with that? I tried helping and got thoroughly screamed at, but if I didn't help she broke down in tears and began banging her head against the floor, screaming. I approached her, I ignored her. I ate my dinner (Jeff was at a work party). I finally forcibly removed the objectionable item of clothing (which she had pulled down around her waist), and she became hysterical. Finally she calmed enough so I could hold her, and we lay down on the couch for a few minutes. Then she ate dinner (only the outer edges of the tortellini) and took a bath. In the bath, she was completely manic, sloshing the water around and wanting to stand up and "swim" in the bathtub. She was completely and utterly over-tired. I read to her for about an hour and told her endless stories about how Melina and her little friend Amanda swam through the ocean finding the mommies and daddies of little lost jellyfish. Finally, exhausted, in denial, she fell asleep. And now I probably will too.