libertybelle diaries

Boys are a path of non-stop destruction… even when they are toddlers…

My oldest daughter’s playpen was in pristine condition when she got done with it.  My next child, a son, never sat in that playpen, except occasionally he would sit a few minutes with little plastic books, look at them a minute, then try to tear them apart with his teeth.  Most of his time in the playpen, he would run from one side to the other and throw himself against it.  He did that over and over until he tipped the playpen over and crawled away.  For his next escape tactic, he pushed his face against where the mesh met the netting and CHEWED A HOLE THROUGH NYLON THREAD….. trying to escape.  Finally he stomped in the middle, where the hand holes, for folding up the playpen were, while  holding onto the side of the playpen.   He stomped a hole in the bottom of that playpen, by the hand holes.

My mother had come to visit, because I was due to have my third child, another boy.  My mother, who had seven children,  said she had never seen anything like this.

First, my mother was appalled that I no longer had the nice cushioned playpen pad in the bottom of the playpen.  I had tossed in a small baby blanket.  I told her that he would demolish it, but she insisted on going to the store and buying a  replacement playpen pad.  I think that pad lasted a few hours, until he had it torn into pieces and was gleefully throwing the pieces over the sides of the playpen, onto the floor .

My very chubby son, wearing the infamous brown, high-top baby shoes.

Next my mother, never one to accept defeat easily,  went and bought a very nice wooden playpen and proudly told me, “He won’t be able to break that!”  He couldn’t tip it or escape, but he found other paths to destruction.  My mother told me that babies should have shoes and socks on.   So, off we went to the mall, so she could purchase some Stride Rite, brown leather, high top baby shoes.  We went to another store to purchase new socks and my mother even insisted on buying those little bells that attach to the shoelaces.

My mother proudly dressed Andrew and she was so happy with those expensive brown leather baby shoes, that she said looked so nice with the new outfit  she had put on him. My mother sat him in the wooden playpen and within minutes he had his leg up to his mouth.  He began chewing and within minutes, he had the socks unraveled down to the tops of his lovely expensive high top baby shoes.  My mother was so frustrated.

I got sick of those brown leather high top baby shoes, which my mother proudly boasted had nice thick soles.  Whenever I held my son on my lap, all he did was kick the heck out of my legs with those amazing soles on those, oh so wonderful, brown leather high top baby shoes.

When we moved to my husband’s next duty station, I found out what life was like with two toddler boys running amok in my home. You’d think pulling himself up and standing at the side of the playpen would be a child development benchmark for my second son. Nope, you would be wrong. He stood there holding on to the side of the playpen, having just learned to do that and immediately worked his leg up to the top on the playpen rail. He hooked his toes over the railing and pulled himself up, so that he was perched on top of the playpen railing.  Then he shifted his weight and dropped to the floor and crawled away.  He did that maneuver in his crib too except  his crib rail was pretty high and a scary drop to the floor – didn’t stop him.

My husband put a lock on the gate at the chain link fence in our backyard. Many times my elderly next door neighbor called me to tell me that my sons had escaped again. She told me her husband had them so, they couldn’t get any further. My husband and I walked around the backyard pondering solutions and I remember one time muttering, ” I don’t think it’s legal to use concertina wire on a residential fence.”   My husband did smile at that idea.

One time I walked into my kitchen and there was my second son sitting on top of our side-by-side refrigerator, gleefully waving his arms. We figured that he had climbed up to the counter using the drawer handles on the section of four-drawers, as toeholds.  How he made it to the top of the side-by-side refrigerator, I have no earthly idea.

Another day, I was in the kitchen washing dishes and I had noticed my sons making several trips from our backyard into the small bathroom on that side of the house. I decided that I had better see what they were up to.  They had taken our oldest daughter’s play kitchen pots and filled them with sand from outside.  In the sink of that little bathroom, they poured in potfuls of sand and mashed in nilla wafers, from their snack, then turned on the water.

It was like cement in that drain.  I made three trips to the Shoppette for various drain cleaners and nothing made a dent.  I called my elderly neighbors for suggestions, because that elderly man seemed to have a solution for every home dilemma and maintained a beautiful home and yard.  Within a few minutes, he was at my door and he came in and told me he would snake it.

When my husband came home, he said, “How was your day?”

Oh, it was just an ordinary day dealing with my husband’s sons…

One time I didn’t hear them get up and I woke up when I heard the vacuum cleaner start.  I rushed into the living room and there was my oldest daughter, trying to vacuum, as my sons, each with a box of cereal in hand, gleefully waving them around – throwing cereal everywhere.  My daughter looked at me apologetically and said. “Mom, I tried, but I couldn’t get them to stop.”

Yep!

Boys are definitely different…

More paper sorting today.  I found this print of a lady reading a letter, which I purchased in Prague, shortly after the Wall came down.  Very quickly, shopping trips to several Eastern bloc cities became a booming tourist industry.  I took one of those bus trips with my husband’s company commander’s wife and her sister, who had come to Germany to visit.

Thinking back on that trip several things struck me as worth mentioning.  The first thing I noticed when we entered Czechoslovakia was the towns looked very run-down and nothing like the towns in West Germany.  I was on a tourist bus with other U.S. Army wives and we were all excited, because of the lure of fine crystal and other high-quality wares available at bargain basement prices in Prague.

I purchased this print. despite it having a good bit of water-staining on it, because there was just something so romantic about this elegant little lady, reading her letter.  It was dirt cheap, just like just about everything else in Prague back then.

Now, thinking back on this trip, several things would assuredly not pass PC muster today.  The truth though is they were based on living in a fact-based world,  rather than a Leftist’s hazy ideological cloud.

Clowns I bought for my sons

As the miles rolled by, the tour director, an American lady, stood at the front of the bus and went through a rather lengthy list of rules, customs and above all else strong warnings about how to safely shop in Prague.  Can you imagine lengthy and detailed warnings about how to be on the look-out for and tips on how to deal with bands of gypsies, who really were thieves.  Yes, we were given a long list of things to keep your eyes peeled for, to avoid being mugged or even kidnapped by roaming bands of gypsies, who preyed the streets of Prague.

One of two wooden toy soldiers I bought for my sons (they never paid any attention to the knickknack gifts they received and most of them they left here at home)…

Along with warnings about the gypsies and bands of thieves, she went through a long list of dos and don’ts to avoid any problems with the Czech police.  By the time the briefing was over, I was wondering if perhaps, I should have just stayed in nice, clean, safe West Germany, but you know “bargain basement prices” sure worked to allay any fears.

Nice print

I have the worst sense of direction, of anyone I have ever met.  For decades my family laughed, because I frequently got lost getting off of and back on interstates, frequently being headed in the wrong direction.

Prague tested me.

Prague plate that refuses to hang straight

So, there we were my friend, the wife of my husband’s company commander’s wife and her sister, who had come to Germany to visit, and me.

Very quickly into this shopping trip it became obvious that Prague was a very different shopping environment.  There were not only numerous bands of dubious people, easily spotted as soon as we got off of the bus and headed from the train station into the center of the city.  Everywhere your eyes turned, as you scanned the shopping area, there were some of the sketchiest characters imaginable. , .  It should have registered as a really dangerous location. Every little side street or place you turned there were significant criminal dangers.  There were aggressive taxi drivers, just waiting to lure unsuspecting Western European shoppers into less than stellar neighborhoods.

We were also warned about how to deal with any interactions with the Uzi-wielding police.

Most of our day went off without any problems, until shortly before it was time to head back to the train station, to load up and head back to West Germany.  I forget exactly how my two shopping partners and I got separated.   It was one of those, “we’re going to run in this store, while you run in that last shop you didn’t want to miss” situations.  And with dirt cheap prices – let me tell you, most women will overlook a pretty risky-security shopping environment.

Pretty bowl

So, somehow when I came out the store, where I had been making my last great purchase, I didn’t see my friends in the store they had gone in.  I went in that store walked around and they were nowhere to be found.  I looked in every direction scanning crowds of shoppers and … a whole array of sketchy-looking people lurking everywhere I looked.

Oh, no, I thought, I am lost in Prague…

Well, immediately I began walking, head held high, a little swagger in my step, acting like I had a purpose, because they warned you not to stand around…. “looking lost”.  I kept glancing at my watch, worrying that each step might be taking me in the opposite direction of the train station.

Neat wooden abacus for my kids

We were also warned that the buses weren’t waiting around – so we needed to be there on time.  I walked a couple of blocks and then I made my second totally unPC decision of the day.  I spotted a small group of black ladies coming out of a shop. I made a beeline to them and asked them if they were Americans and they said they were and then I asked them if  they were part of the tourist groups parked at the train station.  Yes, I racially profiled… big time.

They told me they were just getting ready to head back to the train station, so I asked them if they minded if I stuck with them.  When I arrived at our bus, my friends were already there and they told me how they had searched for me and had no idea how we got separated. I assumed they were hunting in the store I had been in, while I as searching their store.

The amazing part of all this is we were so excited about all the amazing stuff we bought, that warnings of dangerous bands of gypsies and ruthless taxi drivers had made not even a dent in our enthusiasm;-)

I needed a break from the SPIN info war today – so sick of the FOX crap show… Very pathetic and it will fall apart quickly if they have to run more aggressive agitprop. It’s already looking very bizarro. But hey, agitpropeteers are going, to um, well agitprop,lol.  Every time I walk out in the sun room to check on my husband,  I laugh at this effort. My husband reacts to all of their agitprop salvos – I can tell when a new one launches, because I can hear him swearing at the TV about damned liberals trying to take our guns, immigration hysteria, and on and on.

Thank God, he is doing what I advised him to do, take some FOX breaks and listen to some country music. Yes, we do manage to get some peace here, when he turns off the FOX agitprop incitement.

I started working on another tissue box cover – same easy quilt block patterns. This one is the same old arrowhead pattern for one side. Not too sure of my color choices.  Too pastel?  This one will have to be for a little girl I think – maybe one of my oldest daughter’s foster daughters.  I still have several children’s plastic canvas projects that I need to get done.

Oh, I found this pink spooled yarn at Hobby Lobby.  $1.39 for 20 yards, which in plastic canvas projects goes a long ways – it’s an option to consider rather than buying full skeins of yarn for projects, where you don’t need a lot of one color.

If you buy a full skein of yarn, of which you only need a small amount, you will have a lot of extra yarn sitting there.  Crafting options in buying yarn for craft projects, I think, depend on whether you’re trying to acquire a variety of yarn colors, so you have them on hand for future projects or if this project is a one-time effort.  I used to advise my customers, when I was a department manager in a fabrics and crafts department, that you really need to decide what kind of crafter or stitcher you are.  Are you just planning to do this one project or are you planning to really throw yourself into this type of craft or needlework medium?

Let me assure, Craft Hoarding is real, LOL.

It’s very easy to want to buy everything when you start a new type of crafting or needlework endeavor.  Take some deep breaths between craft shopping sprees.  Start thinking about how much crafting stuff is “enough” and when you start to see the craft piles beginning to grow, here’s my craft hoarding advice.  Stop watching more YouTube crafting and needlework videos, because you will see a zillion more things that you want to rush out and buy.  Start organizing your craft and needlework supplies (yes, heal thyself here for me – because mine still needs a lot of work).

I have probably 6 or 8 packs of homecraft needles.  Over the years, because my craft and sewing room looks more like an episode of Hoarders, than an organized work space, when I find myself needing just one particular needle in that pack  (a curved needle, which I use very occasionally, like when I am repairing the wool-blend braided rugs in my kitchen), when I do need one, often after a half-hour of looking through bags, boxes, totes and baskets of disorganized supplies, I usually just give up and run to Walmart and buy another pack of homecraft needles.

This yarn says it is made in Turkey and although it is 100% acrylic craft yarn, it sort of has a “wool yarn” feel to it.  I didn’t know how it would go as far as coverage, but it works fine and can be used with other acrylic yarns.  Well, ya know… leave it to Turkey to produce a 100% acrylic yarn that looks, really, much like quality wool yarn, lol…

https://thegraphicsfairy.com/cute-retro-valentine-boy-image/

Happy Valentine’s Day!  No politics today, except to report that Debbie Wasserman Schultz must be the bimbo to beat all bimbos in America…  worthy of banners across the bottom of the screen to warn you , so you can prepare yourself…  Good, God, Almighty…

I had another allergy shot this morning.  There’s a required half-hour wait after these shots, so I sit in this small waiting area, near where they administer the shots at a local Army hospital.  So, I’m sitting there trying to block out some Congressional hearing that is playing on the TV, tuned to C-Span, then DWS speaks…  Anyway, rather than go on, here’s the link to the C-Span hearing and I’ll let you judge for yourself: HERE.

Quiet day here, with my big plans to get off this computer and go bake more chocolate chip cookies for my husband.  He asked if I could make him more cookies yesterday afternoon, so I ran to my local Walmart Neighborhood Market store to get more cookie ingredients… as usual, just after getting back from a trip to that store, for some other stuff.   He loves chocolate chip cookies, correction, he loves homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Did I ever mention, why I am getting allergy shots?  My husband has 4 dogs that sit with him in the sunroom and they are his only company.   He has made taking care of the dogs his daily work, invests way more money than anyone should in their vet care, with three of them being on several medications.  A lot of days, I believe those dogs are the only thing that keep him getting up each day and having the will to go on.  He doesn’t have any friends who come to visit him and because he has a mental disorder, people avoid him.  He started drooling sometimes too.  His short-term memory loss is profound, yet he still sits every day and tries to read books, because he has always loved to read.

I am allergic to dogs, so I decided to try the allergy shots, because the dogs aren’t leaving.  I started last September.  Honestly, I think they’re starting to help too:-)

Have a nice afternoon!