I'll always take care of you

Today was a bit chaotic, with much accomplished, but often left half-done for a while, so the detritus of entertainment, cooking, and laundry was littered through the house.  Also, we have a shower that doesn't leak and a baby who can fall asleep in places other than her crib!

Late in the day after prepping a dinner for Tadpole and another for R and I, I set a few dishes to soak and headed upstairs to check on R and the baby.  We chatted for a bit and then headed downstairs to discover that not only had I left the water running, but the seal I applied on the kitchen sink the last time we discovered it leaked when it overflowed was not as watertight as hoped.

With a bit of prompting, I got some towels.  A bucket under the sink caught most of the water, and was mostly filled with things that can take getting wet.  It was, in the grand scheme of things, just one more of the ways in which life was chaotic today, but all worked out for the best.

Tadpole (of course) wanted to help, which was the last thing I felt up to dealing with as I pulled various cleaning supplies out & set them to dry.

Daddy, are you sad?

No, I'm not sad.  I'm just very ... frazzled right now.

Oh.  OK.

(long pause)

Mommy, daddy is very frazzled.  Frazzled is like sad.  I'm going to bring my friends to watch from back here.

(aside - I *love* watching her try to figure out how words and concepts fit with words and concepts she already knows.  Even in the midst of cleaning up overflowing sink, this was fascinating and delightful!)

Later that night, as we were getting ready for bed:

Daddy, I'll always take care of you when you're frazzled.

Thank you Tadpole.  (big hug).

Yes, I'll help when there are spills, and I'll always be here to take care of you.

Hopefully she'll feel the same way when I'm in my dotage.  But for now, there are days when Tadpole's driving me to distraction, and others where she's the one saving me from it.  Today was the latter, and I needed that.

Overheard Today

This morning, while I was feeding Sprout, Tadpole decided an extra spoon was needed.  Sometimes we give Sprout a spoon to keep her hands occupied.  As she's become more coordinated, I've backed off this technique because the second spoon becomes a hindrance.  Tadpole was having none of this.  She was in a "helpful" mood, and determined to help whether I liked it or not.  Second spoon was coming, and if I didn't accept that a tantrum was in order.

Through strategic use of deep breathing exercises, the threat of exiling a favorite toy (I try to stomp pretty hard on defying something I've just said), and requests to use her words, she finally let me explain why I did not want a new spoon. Which she accepted, and then came these magic words.

Or, I could get a new spoon and we could put it on the table in case you want it.

Yes, Tadpole.  Yes.  That will absolutely work.

Solved that problem!

(Repeated three or four times while I laughed and agreed.)

Driving home from a school event, we got this (unprompted) gem:

Friends are coworkers because these four reasons.

1. That's how the world works.

2. Coworkers are coworkers

3. Coworkers use work because coworkers get money to buy other things*

4. It's the absence of work that's how coworkers get money.

That's what Tadpole's are for.

* OK, 3 was shorter, but we forgot & asked her to tell us again for posterity & that's what she came up with.

Finally this evening after we'd read bits of One Fish, Two Fish, I got this gem while she was washing up:

Ned doesn't have a good bed.  We should get him a new bed.  I wouldn't like his bed because it has holes in it.  I would cry if I had a bed with holes in it.  When I had a crib, I didn't fit in it and I cried a lot.  I had to sleep on the floor because it has holes in hit.  But now I have a big girl bed.

So there's that.  We need to get a new bed for Ned.

Overheard Today

While Sprout was fussing in the car:

Tadpole: don't worry Sprout, I'll take care of you. I have to go to school some days, but Tadpole will always come back. I'll take care of you. I'm a good big sister.

Later, on news that she was going to do a solo play date with a friend while Sprout naps:

I'm going to see A. She's a good friend and coworker.

Making beer - the three year old edition

I've mentioned before that I homebrew beer periodically.  The last batch got a bit too excited.

Tadpole's been doing her own "brewing" too.

Here, she's boiling the wort, with my last batch in the background.  This (I've been informed) is vanilla beer.

Beer starts out as wort (or beans) in a carboy.

After putting the beer in a carboy, you need to add an airlock.

It's important to syphon out some beer in order to weigh the original and final gravity

But first you have to separate out the yellowish crud at the bottom.

You need to get the finished product into a bottle.

Cap the bottle, of course.


And eventually, you get to drink the finished product!

So this happened

Just, y'know, doing some laundry a few days ago with the girls.

Tadpole decided that the cat needed a blanket to help him sleep

Make that two blankets.  Sprout is growing curious.

Another view.  Note how long he's just sitting and letting the girls play around him.

The cat finally got up to move, but not far.

Bedtime Songs

Tadpole doesn't really let me do bedtime songs very often anymore.  We have the bedtime routine, with books and teeth brushing and potty (often twice) and climbing into bed and a story.  And once upon a time, there were songs, but she doesn't usually let me sing bedtime songs anymore.  Now she kicks me out.  So that she can "read" her books for a while, and then maybe ask mommy to sit with her, and eventually fall asleep.  Which, as long as she doesn't wake her sister up, is fine with me.

When she does let me sing, the current rotation is:

"Puff, the Magic Dragon" (substituting her name for little Jackie Paper, and little girls instead of little boys)
"The Child Song" ("Circle Game" by Jonie Mitchell, which I learned sometime in grade school because my Friend's School was weird).  Again, substituting girl for boy where appropriate.
"Bring me a Rose in the Wintertime", again a favorite from grade school.

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone" has mostly worked its way out of the rotation.  And I can't do "When the Saints Go Marching In" anymore because Tadpole yells "Nine!" on "... in that number" now, so it's not exactly a bedtime song.

I'm looking forward to singing some of these with Sprout, when she gets to the bedtime song phase.  And after I can't do counting songs like "Twelve Days of Christmas", "Green Grow the Rushes O", and "Children, Go Where I Send Thee"

Mock my bedtime songs, I dare you.

Beer

I may have mentioned before that R decided a while ago I should get into beer brewing.  I have about 40 bottles of batch 5 downstairs trying desperately to bottle condition.  The flat beer (a very strong and hoppy ale) is pretty good, but I'd like to get a bit of carbonation ...

Yesterday we had friends over and started Batch 6 (Northern Brewer's Caribou Slobber, which I'm making again because it was so good last time)

This morning the cat woke me up, I stumbled downstairs to feed him and heard an intermittent buzzing, which I at first took to be a big.

That's a 5 gallon batch overflowing a 6 Gallon Carboy.  There's clearly wort in the airlock.

This is exciting (yay! Beer is fermenting! My yeast is active!) but also kind of scary (google homebrewing blowouts if you're curious)

So: gameplan:

Sterilize a new bung and airlock, along with syphon hose. Fill a big tub with enough sterile water that the syphon hose can reach. Guide the hose down and use a tub of water as my sterile airlock.

I've done this before with a 1 gallon batch. What could possibly go wrong? :)