Archive for July, 2007

SUMMER COMES ROARING BACK

Friday, July 20th, 2007

My last post seems so naive, so…young.

The basement remodel is not yet done. Its hunger for our time and energy has been insatiable. We still do not have final inspection — we could not sell the house and include its footage as living space, but HJ has moved back in. As of yesterday, her bathroom downstairs has a toilet that does not leak. The shower is still problematic; the concrete vanity top we hand-poured and finished leaves much to be desired. The moldings around all the window and door openings remain undone; we hired a team of energetic young Ukrainian finish carpenters whose energy concealed their lack of actual skills, and did not invite them back for a second day of work. (big sigh)

In other words, this has been a wonderful opportunity to let go of our desire for perfection and embrace the real. It has been zen, in a Thai Buddhist sort of way.

But wait, this is The GusBlog! Why have I been nattering on about non-Gus events? Some cute things:

  • He sings songs when we put him to bed at night. We have always sung him to sleepiness, but now we can say, “Gus, do you want to sing a song about…..ham?” (solemn The Gus nod) “”OK, go ahead and sing!” “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah… aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah… ham… aaaaaaaaaaaahh.”
  • He likes Altoids. When I drive him to work (and only then) he knows to ask for a mint. “Meeeeeeen!” I bite off most of one and give him a quarter of a mint or so. He grins big and munches on the mint for a couple of blocks. Then he asks for more, but I put him off by reminding him of all the fun he will have at school that day. “You’ll see all your friends: July, and Carver, and Havana, and Parker, and Meseret, and Addie, and Solveigh…” (this is really just a mnemonic device to get me to remember who Gus spends his days with.)
  • He is finally old enough to appreciate Kruger’s Farm. We went, for the first time this year as a whole family, and Gus danced to the music, and ate roasted corn. He also plucked the salt off of a soft pretzel and ate that straight, but that shames us and we will speak no more of it.

    • He is more independent than ever. This evening at Kruger’s he went stomping down a dirt farm road with not even a look back for more than a hundred yards before I corralled him (it was time to go). He was resentful of my exercise of dominion over him until I distracted him with chickens. That’s the advantage and disadvantage of being a grown-up — you get jaded about chickens.

    Pics to follow.

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