Tatiana's Wanderings

After COFFEE TIME and a phone call from Rishu which didn't involve me going out to the boonies of Richmond and a risk of being LATE, I went out at 3:05 on a 401 to help with the kids, and I had Beckett's stuffed Santa dog this time. I got to Marine Drive early and saw some Vermont Curry at the supermarket - what?! The 3 was a bit delayed - waiting in the freezing weather was still better than not having transit at all, I had to remember. I finally got to the house at 4:40 (no thanks to some "lady" wanting to get on with her milk crates and huge walker), and Hiero was "dancing" with Beckett, who didn't seem to like it much. When I'd washed my hands, Beckett was on the floor and Hiero showed me how he was going to make an envelope with scissors and paper. Ayler was just playing piano and making something else on the mat. When I gave him the stuffed Santa dog, he threw it on the floor and then associated its eyes with his own and mine. Yes, we ALL have eyes - you're getting so smart!

Beckett showed me the magnets and his collection of balls on the far windowsill (which actually went with the colorful magnetic rods) which he had put there. I guess it combines his two favorite things right now: balls / projectiles and looking out the window at any (reflected) lights he can see! Jon and Harmony should take him to see the indoor Christmas light displays at the Hyatt and other places again this year, for sure. Beckett went to the window and spouted gibberish at me about the lights across the street multiple times: I told him "good job" every time he "found" the lights again! He also liked trying to fit the balls into a wooden toy with circular holes, likes the emotion egg, threw blocks around, and has enough strength to make the baby pop-up toy work by himself about half the time. "Pop! Ball-ball!" he told me. Yes, even more evidence of being smart! He laughed at the toy, and was enjoying himself rocking out with Holly's light-up musical toy, so he gave me a big cheesy smile - so cute! I introduced him to saying "hahahaha" when he finds something funny, too!

We had more Waterzooi de Poulet with buttered bread and grapes and "hash browns" for dinner. Beckett started throwing food pretty early, but also had apparently been awake for six hours in a row, and had been awake for nine hours in a row yesterday - that's so long for him! We talked about CAPS LOCK and Shift keys on a keyboard (Ayler's learning typing at school), how old teenagers are, Beckett yawning, ZELDA, Chrystal and Vivian travelling together, the tall kids at school, the kindergarten class being sick, and my seeing Steph next month. Ayler would like me to say hi to her for him - sure, why not? Then he asked if he was taller than me yet - nope! Harmony wondered what was going on, being preoccupied with Hiero not eating. I told her Ayler just wants to be taller than me. We said that Steph would probably think they were tall because I basically see them all the time, unlike her.

Then he wanted to ask Uncle Joe if they could have crab next time he saw them since Auntie Wing Yee sent them a photo of some. "Is it really Friday? Maybe it's Tuesday. It's Friday, but it feels like a Tuesday!" Yes, because I had basically switched days this week with Uncle Joe and Auntie Wing Yee. I later had to suppress a laugh because he told me, "See you next Tuesday." (CUNT) I read one story to Hiero, who sat on my lap - he told me that "oh my God" was a swear word, so I said that it kind of was, but it IS mild. Then he asked me what "mild" meant - I wasn't sure how to explain that. I bet that was a fun bedtime discussion when I left at 7:30.

I waited for quite a while for the next 3 Marine Drive bus (which finally showed up at 8:10), but a guy passing by told me that I'd dropped my Compass Card "on the floor." GEEZ, I ALMOST LOST IT AGAIN! I thanked him politely without mentioning that the "floor" was ACTUALLY the GROUND (he looked white so he should know the difference...), and made sure to zip up my winter coat pocket. I was lucky and was one minute ahead of the Brighouse train, and managed to get out of the Brighouse station a few minutes before the 401 and 407 showed up, no thanks to other people wanting the elevator and then SLOW-ASS people on the way out of the station. (including someone looking at their phone / consulting something IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PATH... MOVE YOUR ASS TO THE SIDE!) I get in my apartment at 9:05, none too soon!


Knorr Chicken Fried Rice Sidekicks for lunch!




That's a suitcase handle, not a weapon or an axe!




I borked my suitcase... no handle! QUATCHI!




Maybe this "zipper" is from my mom?




From Julie: California is banning all words with the prefix "man" in them. So this is now called a bitch biscuit...

After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 3:10 on a 407 to help with the kids, bringing along the rest of the Almond Butter Nature Valley granola cups. I had just enough time to stop in at Tim Horton's briefly to buy a Boston Creme doughnut and take a photo for posting purposes, thanks to the lineup inside! Then I quickly left to catch the 3, which is when I finally texted Harmony. When I got to the building, some guy answered when I buzzed to be let in. Luckily, some lady with a stroller was entering the building, so I quickly explained to her what my deal was. Then I took the stairs since the elevator is pretty small, and knocked on the suite's door while explaining to Harmony what was going on. Beckett was awake and standing with the piano bench for support, and was outside the bathroom door when I finished in there. Yes, he was excited to see Auntie! :D

Ayler was playing the piano (telling me about his piano books and music) and putting up with Beckett banging away at the keys he could reach, while Hiero wanted me to read various MR. MEN books to him and see all his paper planes and swords. Beckett wanted to play catch, but then also throw some things around. At least it wasn't as bad as a couple of months ago! He wanted to turn on the printer and play with it, whereupon Ayler showed me where the power button was - SO HELPFUL! Beckett had found his purple and yellow baby pop-up toy, and wanted me to pop the yellow shell right-side up on it: At least he laughed at that after a while, and tried popping it with his finger! Silly Beckett - you're not strong enough for that to work! He turned it upside-down and had fun sticking his finger into the hole. Then he was upset when I was trying to collect the pop-up toy and a couple other toys: he stretched his arms out towards me! So I put the shell on the table temporarily while I picked him up. YAY!

We had squash, purple noodles, soup, kale, salad, and other things for dinner while discussing Kids Night / my NOT being psychic about their Halloween costumes / math quizzes during dinner / the impending bus strike / Rice Krispies not being real food for a meal / hot chocolate sort of being like dessert / what packaging was / less waste. Beckett pointed at the ceiling lights - oh, he'll love Christmastime if he likes babbling at those! Harmony said that Jon was coming home at about 6 so she could go to a school meeting. My nephews were singing "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear" at dinner. Oh boy. Then they were asking me what a ding-dong was because an adult asked them if another kid was one for spilling his milk. Yikes.

Later, Beckett ACTUALLY WALKED TEN LITTLE STEPS ALL BY HIMSELF! His motivation was the big bag of toys! I actually saw this, and was surprised as was Harmony. He usually just toddles one or two steps and then falls into her arms. Hiero said, "Text Daddy!" Oh, she did! Later, I told him not to force him to walk - he'll do it at his own speed, and new things can be confusing. WOW, HE CAN ALSO STAND WITHOUT SUPPORT!

Then Beckett was crying and upset and hit his head on the wooden floor when Harmony had to leave (what a delay tactic...), so of course he got comforting (hopefully) cuddles and hugs from me and Harmony! I read to him and tried making him laugh with the orange alphabet and animal sounds board, which at least was a distraction. He liked the shapes and blocks that the older boys used to play with, and showed me how he could put a couple of blocks together and then throw them around. Of course I used his bib to wipe his nose - I'm sure it's had worse on it, so whatever! It's handy! After I left at 7:15 (hearing Beckett babbling to himself in his crib), I wasted time at Save-On because all the exotic pasta was too heavy and somehow didn't photograph well in the brightly-lit store. UGH!

Then the 3 had a few delays, what with the "timing point" for two minutes at 41st and Main, then the bus alarm going off TWICE! (four stops before Marine Drive Station, THEN right before the station at 70th!) Once I finally got to Brighouse, I killed time at Shoppers Drug Mart since the mall was at least warm: NEW President's Choice frozen small sweet green peas / frozen peaches and cream corn, plus NEW on-sale Uncle Ben's Canada wholegrain brown rice! Got home at 9:05 on a 407, and it was definitely time to switch to warm wintry wear like a toque and Grandma's purple lined Alia coat and stash a scarf and mittens in my bag, especially if more walking is on the agenda with this upcoming transit strike...

At home, I had some (After Eight) hot chocolate, which I also need to restock in general. Random stuff from Mom and Dad inside an Indigo, Chapters, and Coles plastic bag: a can of Chef Boyardee Beefaroni, Colgate Cavity Protection toothpaste, and a random pair of thin white socks. I left the socks and plastic bag at the bus stop since I didn't need them. The garbage bags were STILL outside at 10 PM!


From Julie M. and Wish: Spooky grinning skull medieval toilet paper holder for Halloween 2019!




One of my neighbors evidently decided to give up on their garbage bags just outside the front door this afternoon, halfway to the dumpster...




Boston Creme doughnut time at Tim Horton's!




( Shoppers potential purchases! )

After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 3:30 on a 401 to help with the kids. It wasn't raining in Richmond, then was very little rain at Marine Drive, but it was like Noah's Ark Flood when I got off at Mount Pleasant! Turns out Beckett was sleeping when I was almost soaked as I got to Jon's place, but that was fine - I finished a book and started another one before he woke up. Jon plopped him on the mat and Beckett just stared at me for a while. Eventually, I gave him a toy and he played with it, doing "catch" for a while until Harmony came home with Hiero and Ayler from swimming. Beckett wanted to climb on me because he liked my San Francisco tie-dye shirt's colors, Ayler told me about his origami and connect-the-dots books (and said he'd test me on the taped crane next week), and Hiero had tantrums and wanted to encourage Beckett to eat random stringy stuff he found on the mat OR to crawl out the balcony window. NO! Hiero also wanted me to read about trains to him, which is fine.

We had stew soup, nectarines, green beans, pasta, and minestrone for dinner. The kids were worried about Hurricane Dorian and wondered whether Los Angeles had hurricanes, then Hiero asked what a sleeping bag was. Harmony said that Mom had sent them five or six emails about "swatch the watch" - I have no idea what that means, but maybe it has something to do with the watch repair place at the Public Market, so I eventually gave her both watches in my wallet just to be safe. We called Dad because Ayler wanted to ask what time he'd be there tomorrow to take him to Brooke's building. Then we also talked about exactly WHY Mom would think I know Spanish... not like I've retained it!

Later, Beckett chewed on my pants and was going to go for my socks, but I stopped that. He made himself laugh by pressing a lot of buttons on a light-up toy which had stars on it, and another one which had noisy letter and animal buttons on it. After trying the baby pop-up toy and laughing, he looked at me and clapped for himself, so of course I smiled and clapped along - cute! Ayler wanted to see if he was taller than I am, and I asked whether he would help me with stuff once he was taller - he said yes, so that's good. Beckett babbled and wanted to grab a Classic Munsch book, so he had fun flipping pages. He also liked when I put him in my lap to "read" a 100 Words book, but was upset when I took him away from the window. Then he invaded the bathroom again when Ayler was taking a shower - I said that I didn't see anything, and closed the door with Beckett in my other arm. Ayler told me that he wasn't strong enough to hold him, but I did appreciate that he kept the baby from crawling out the window.

Some people are such dipshits to the bus driver! Tonight, some people told the driver to shut the fuck up and that he needed more training because he didn't magically stop at 43rd and Main. Then there was the idiot with a huge bag full of pop cans who played the bus equivalent of Ding Dong Ditch. He made like he was going to get off at a few stops (thereby wasting everyone's time), actually got off at one and THEN somehow beat the bus to the next stop, then was going to get off at the stop two stops from Marine Drive... then argued with the bus driver who wondered if he was going to get off the bus, saying "Did I get off the bus or just touch the door?" I swear, this guy made me miss the Brighouse train by two minutes, and it didn't help that the next train stopped for another two minutes for no reason in the middle of the track near Aberdeen, so that made me miss the 9:26 407. I finally got home at 10. SIGH.


From Youtube: Jeanine Mullen, Waltfredo Davis-Mullen, Jaseri Mullen, and Jaion Mullen?! BAD SPELLING OF JANINE!

After SHOWER TIME, I went to see Rishu at Touchstone at 2 today. Thank goodness that she was understanding about yesterday and was able to get me in today because of a cancellation! I browsed Richmond Public Market for a while - no food was appealing. Went to London Drugs for NEW Dare Foods Cookie Butter cookies, NEW Watermelon and Lime Tictacs Mixers, Arm and Hammer toothpaste, a pack of six grey MARTEX cloths, store brand scour pads, 2000 Flushes with chlorine, Secret socks, and on-sale Swiss Cheese crackers. I also mailed Fraser's birthday card and stickers for $2, but forgot to address the envelope before leaving the house. LUCKILY, I had my notebook handy! I finally got home at 4:40 on a LATE 407!


2000 Flushes Blue plus Bleach!




( Crackers and cookies! Egypt and jerks! )