Eustace has begun volunteering at a local daycare, in recent days.
He insists that the babysitting of our granddaughter is a very important task, and one that will need a helper! He’s taken it upon himself to pursue a baby training course. They’re offering a class right down the street, at a local childcare center.
The camel reasoned that if I were ever in need of his assistance, he’d be prepped and ready. I don’t think it will last, however, once he’s expected to change a diaper.
I’ve answered this prompt on several occasions, but last years response is still my favorite!
Enjoy…
I had to laugh when I saw this prompt, as it brought up a memory that had been lost to me… so thank you, WordPress!
I swear that I might have been born in the wild, because my earliest memories include riding bareback while still in diapers… ya, I have a mind like a steel trap!
Anyways, camping is something that came naturally to this girl, and so, I passed it on to my children. My daughters have been camping since before they were born, as I freely went camping during my pregnancies. When my girls began to grow, we began traveling with a group of about 4 or 5 other families during the summer months, camping and fishing throughout the great Northwest. From southern Oregon, across Idaho and into Montana, and even into British Columbia.
Needless to say, my family are avid campers, fishers, hikers and hunters! They weren’t always so experienced at this stuff, and it took a great deal of training and practice, especially in the bathroom department, if you know what I mean? I had three girls!
How does one raise a little girl to be a tough camper, and yet still be a little lady? Like I said, we traveled with a huge group of camping families, which meant cooking together, bathing in close proximity to others, and yes, using the restroom in groups, for security!
With little ones running around, we grown ups thought it was easiest to make an appropriate code word, to signal our restroom intentions. If one needed to use the restroom, we simply said, “I have to go camping”, and anyone who needed to go, simply agreed to come along.
Now, this went on for nearly an entire summer before one of my girls finally asked, “Mamma, how come the grown-ups keep saying they’re camping and then disappear into the woods?”
I explained that it was a polite way of saying that we needed to use the restroom, without saying it in front of others. She didn’t question me further, and seemed not to even understand what I’d said. About a week later, all the families gathered at our home to plan the next upcoming adventure.
There we all were, standing around the kitchen talking, when my daughter marches into the midst of the group and boldly announced, “Everyone, I need to go camping… that means I have to go poop!”
I nearly dropped the plate in my hands!
The entire room went silent for a moment, and then erupted into laughter!
All of the adults in the room knowingly laughed themselves silly, while my daughter marched off to the bathroom. The rest of the day was filled with children running around the house, loudly claiming they needed to camp and then laughing about it!
Is it possible to overdose on too much exposure to adorable?
While I absolutely think it’s possible, I don’t think that the long lasting side effects are all that bad… feeling giddy and light headed, smiling til your cheeks hurt, and having a general desire to hug anyone within reach.
Can you believe Maisie’s over four months old now? Every time we see her, she just keeps getting cuter… and happier! I swear she is the happiest baby I’ve ever encountered. I can attest that her mother was NOT this happy all the time. In fact, my daughter was a very sick baby for the first several years of her young life.
But, as you can see from the above image, she got better. She had some hard knocks here and there, as a teenager, but my daughter is nothing, if not tenacious, when it comes to overcoming things.
I couldn’t be more proud of the woman she’s become, as well as being a fantastic mom!
So much will be changing for us, here in just about a month, as Maisie will be spending three days a week in our care. I’m thrilled, yet a little scared, also. It’s been over 30 years since I was caring for my baby girls. Things have changed dramatically since those days, when it comes to how babies are raised. Nearly all the baby stuff looks foreign to me, though I’m fairly certain I can still use a thermometer.
Thankfully, we have a small apartment, and there isn’t a lot of furniture and/or clutter, which I’m eternally grateful about. I’m never going to get any housework done, or anything else productive, for that matter. She is so cute, and I simply forget about everything else, the moment I pick her up.
How hard can it be, right?
We put a crib in our bedroom, and I’m decorating it to be as similar as possible to what she has at home. This way she’ll hopefully not be fearful of her surroundings, when she naps.
We still need to get a table and chairs for the kitchen area, so as to have a place for a little attachable high chair. She’s already trying foods, folks. Anytime a baby is born so big, I swear they start eating real food much earlier than normal. She loves bananas, squash, oatmeal, and her mamma is planning on offering her avocado next. We just make it with our little Ninja mixer. The plan is to make everything fresh, and with nothing added. I forgot how much work it takes being a mom. My daughter is going to be exhausted when she goes back to work.
Well, I’m just glad we can be helpful. My son-in-law’s mother will share childcare with us, so that our kids have a chance to be financially stable. Childcare these days is ridiculously overpriced. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can actually afford to work, when they have to pay so much for babysitters, as well as all the other added costs of a growing family.
It’s about to become a whole different schedule for this Meemaw, but I don’t actually mind. Though I’ll not having as much free time available, once she arrives, it’s a fantastic trade-off. Maisie is far better than any video game, or Netflix series that I’ve already binge watched numerous times. I’ll have to adjust my writing schedule for when she’s napping, or playing with her Papa. If that doesn’t work then I’ll do it on the days she spends with her other Grandma. I might even switch to writing in the evenings, when it’s quiet.
In truth, I don’t think there’ll be anything productive going on when she arrives, which is as it should be…
While I’m nowhere near finished tweaking things, I’ve come up with what I hope will be a fitting addition to Live Novel Friday’s tale.
While I can’t tell you the story yet, it is coming along rather nicely. I won’t say anything on names, as of yet, but I wanted to give you a chance before Friday to offer up some names and more ideas for this weeks episode of The Wharf.
Let me know what you think so far…
He still needs to become more animated, so as to match up with the visuals I’m using for our story.
Oddly, Norbert offered up a rather realistic looking baby, though he’s a bit too real to work with if I want him to blend into the story properly…
I’m nowhere near done, but once we’ve gotten a good number of images for him, I’ll create his permanent Avatar. I like the second image better than the first, but I want to fix his teeth to match up with the first image. Those teeth should be on the second of the two images, as well as the first. This way, the final Avatar will always have baby orc teeth in his mouth. We want continuity.
Tell me you wouldn’t binge watch videos of children’s antics during an Easter Egg hunt, but you’d be fibbing.
Watching one child take eggs out of the basket of another who isn’t looking, or following another child around, only to steal his or her egg find? You’ve never watched? It’s a riot! I’d binge watch that Olympic sport for hours, if I could.
An egg hunt is the best place to determine whose going to be the next pastor, and/or who will be the next politician… just sayin!
Quite honestly, I’m not sure I was thinking in terms of my future career when I was five years old. Baby dolls, kittens, puppies, candy apples at the fair, and how much I hated liver and onions are mostly all that I was thinking about at that age.
Being born and raised on a farm, my early days were spent on the back of a horse or eating all of the strawberries that my mother was trying to pick for making jam.
Though I may not have thought of my future career when I was five, it’s funny that I ended up doing one or more of my childhood activities for adult pursuits, i.e. raising babies, baking, gardening, camping, hunting, fishing, breeding dogs, homeschooling my children, and now, becoming a writer.
The writer part is the result of the thousands of books I read from the time I was tiny… that and watching Willy Wonka, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Sound of Music, just for starters!
I think that maybe that’s what a five year old should be doing at that age… not dreaming of a career, but dreaming of magic, miracles and adventure, pure and wonderful!
Who knows, though, maybe I was just slow to develop in that regard. Maybe I just watched too many cartoons, and/or read too many silly adventure books. Oh well, I’m still glad I spent my childhood with Gene Wilder, Julie Andrews, Dick Vandyke, and Angela Lansbury, aren’t you? Why? Because, my imagination was born there…
How come grown-ups smile when they’re sad, but cry when they’re happy?
Why do we always have to clean our rooms? It took me hours to mess it up.
How come grown ups say “eat all your vegetables”, which are sometimes yucky, but they say “don’t fill up on sweets” when we eat fruit? We need both, I’m thinking.
Will I be allowed to ride the bus to school with Tommy, next door?
Surely, people have met trolls before. Miss Wiwohka doesn’t think it’s a good idea, because some folks can be sort of mean about the whole ‘pointy’ ears thing.
If I climbed those rafters with one of Wiwohka’s pillow cases, I think I might be able to float down without getting hurt. Maybe I’ll spread some hay on the floor, just in case.
I wonder if Pumpkin would be willing to give out rides across the pond, this summer…
If you’re wondering why today’s Thursday Thoughts are brought to you by me, Peanut, it’s because I never get to write for our barnyard, because Lilly and Eustace always hog the computer. It’s not fair, I say.
Well, things are about to change!
Today, this troll got here first!
And, I’ve been writing my thoughts out while she was taking her shower. Don’t judge! A troll’s gotta do what a troll’s gotta do, right?!
Pssssstttt! (whispers the troll) I’m getting out of here before she comes out… (Wiwohka’s voice can be heard in the background) … hey, what have you been up to, Peanut? … nothin (an adorable little red headed troll peeks out from the bedroom doorway).
I couldn’t put her down, no matter how hard I tried!
A bottle, a burp
and a change of her nappy
We rocked for an hour
leaving us both quite happy…
But then mom came home
and she forgot about me
Mom needs to leave more often
So Meemaw and Papa get baby time for free!
This image is of my daughter, but the two of them look alike, aside from their hair and eye color. Maisie has about three inches of hair going in every direction, and she has her daddy’s black brown eye color.
She’s a stunning baby… and I’m most certainly biased!
Honestly, though, she really is one of the prettiest babies I’ve ever seen. Give me time, and I’ll get her mamma to approve an image for me to share.
There was a time that I could lose myself in my children, my crafts, my pets, camping, church… and friends.
Times changed, however, bringing circumstances and life interruptus’ that, in one way or another, robbed me of the entire lot!
I will always cherish the memories, treasuring each and every moment of love given and time spent… but life goes on, and as they say, time waits for no man, or woman for that matter!
Admittedly, at no point in all those years did I fully walk with God!
That has changed… thanks be to the grace offered by my heavenly father.
Currently, my days are filled with walks along the river, as I listen to music and fellowship with Him. I lose myself for hours in study of His written word, seeking the lifegiving wisdom within its pages. When I work on any of my literary work, I can easily forget to stop and eat, or even drink a full cup of coffee before it gets cold. It is normal for me to re-heat my coffee or tea repeatedly, before drinking the whole cup. My hubby actually has begun tapping me on the shoulder when I’ve gone too long without eating or drinking.
I believe that though we live day to day with very little, in terms of material things, I feel rather blessed with all the time God spends in molding this vessel. Thankfully, I’m so very lost in HIM, that there is nowhere else that I would rather be found…
Well, I think last weeks tinkering session was a total success!
Not that I’ll be winning any academy awards, or anything. I just mean that I challenged myself to do a thing (creating a new character on Tuesday, and then writing a story about it by Friday), and it worked out.
So, it got me to thinking (I know, dangerous pastime)… what if I sought to write a whole series of children’s character books, only employing my tinkering sessions and a two day rest before kicking out a little story, song, or poem to accompany the images. I don’t see why I couldn’t, what with todays insta book mentality flooding across the web.
While I get my jabs in at all the ai created mumbo jumbo being printed out there, currently, I’m not being snarky when I say that I believe it’s possible to actually write imaginative content without my computer telling me how… or worse, doing the writing for me. Not on my watch!
Anyway, getting back to the tinkering plans I’ve set for us, I plan on making a habit of mixing up writing styles, as well as, continuing to expand my illustration skills. My hands on learning is all that can be afforded, at this present moment, so if I wish to become a better writer, more brain stretching work is involved.
I know your probably saying, “Great, now she’s gonna start wearing even bigger hats on her noggin.” Maybe I will, maybe I won’t, but if I do then that means my cookies will need to be bigger, as well.
Go big or go home, right?!
For today’s next challenge, I went with another water baby, but on an entirely different patch of sand…
This isn’t the finished character, by the way, but it was the first image offered by the ai. All I typed in was “a photorealistic image of an adorable baby walrus”.
While the little guy seems awful cute and chubby, we’re nowhere near satisfied. He’s got no nostrils, for one thing. So, I used the auto-enhance on the prompt…
“a photorealistic image of an adorable baby walrus, trying to learn to swim along the shore of a beautiful sandy beach”
Getting a better shot of his nose, but now his eyebrows look like they were individually stuck into his little forehead. It made him look too much like a plushie toy.
Again, I returned to the auto-enhance feature, asking it to expand the prompt even more…
“Imagine a photorealistic scene at a picturesque sandy beach where gentle waves lap against the shore. The sun casts a warm, golden glow across the landscape, illuminating the fine grains of sand and sparkling blue waters. In the foreground, an adorable baby walrus, with soft, wrinkled gray skin and big, curious eyes, awkwardly paddles in the shallow surf. Its flippers splash playfully, sending droplets gleaming in the sunlight, while a few sea gulls circle overhead, drawn by the joyous scene. The sandy beach is dotted with tufts of sea grass swaying in the light breeze, enhancing the serene atmosphere of this tender moment.”
At least he has more expression with his eyes, even if he lost his eyebrows. His facial expression seems far more realistic, though his fat rolls look rather like sweatshirt material than skin. I kept at it for nearly a half hour before, coming up with numerous images that were similar to this one, but with differing poses and expressions.
Now that we’ve come this far, let’s give the ai our best 10 images. From there, we’ll generate some possibilities for a solid Avatar.
I’ll be right back! Give me about 10 minutes, or so….
Everyone, meet our newest character…
I’ve decided to name him Booker, though I’ve ne earthly idea why! The ai decided to give him tusks, even with him only being a baby, but I think it makes him super cute.
Norbert gave me several differing shots, but I think he looks most realistic in this one…
… minus the grown up tusks, mind you.
I don’t think Booker took nearly as long to create, as it took me last week, during pumpkin’s creation.
Now that he’s here, I’ve only til Friday to create his story, so I best get moving!
Journey With Me! 