The incredible imaginations children have

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Throughout today, I was repeatedly struck by the expansive creativity in my boys' imaginations. Before we picked J up at school, I was folding laundry in my room, and O was in and out as I worked.At one point, he called, quite seriously, "Mommy, come here!" I said, "What, where are you?" "In Jack's room; there is a huge, black, seahorse by his bed." "Really?" I exclaimed. "Yes, come see him; he is so nice."

O told J about this when we got home and for the next 30 minutes, they were seahorse catchers and caretakers. There was some crazy element of, "oh, here is a dead seahorse; well, let's show Mommy his skeleton" but overall it was darling to watch them romp with their seahorse lassos.

Just now, I went in to check on them both, and where did I find J? On the floor in what must have been an attempt to approximate a cowboy bedroll. He legs were tucked into a pillowcase, pillow on the ground, and he'd changed his outfit from button-down tucked into jeans with a belt to a striped thermal shirt and jeans. Good lord, Cowboy J.

On tap tomorrow are honey-glazed root vegetables and something drawn from the hat of fabulous to-make recipes I attempted to organize today. Will keep you posted. Good night.

Late afternoon psychosis -not me!-, dresses to Half the Sky, desirous of wine

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Hells Bells...my eldest son just morphed into a raving lunatic just as I answered the phone and was giving Verizon a real piece of my mind. I think the fact that I'm so hoarse and stopped up that I sound like a man really helped the FiOS guy take me seriously. J was going on so ridiculously that I actually had to ask the guy to call me back. We had just returned from an art-supplies date, and almost immediately I had to take them away due to psychotic in-fighting. Really burst the loving family experience bubble I was in. I finally got J to his room and was about to put dinner on the table for Oliver when he said with a look of great concern, "I feel sick, Mom. My bottom hurts." So we haul ass back upstairs and make it to his potty just in time. I tried to praise him endlessly while simultaneously trying not to look as my queasy stomach was lurching a bit. Ultimately, he seemed quite proud, and hopefully this will start a keep-the-potty-training-going-in-a-more-advanced-direction trend. Now they're chowing down; hopefully feeling sated will preclude any additional meltdowns before bedtime. If you think I am not wishing in a big effing way that I could have a glass of wine tonight, you are wrong. However, I am fully aware that this would be an unwise decision due to the previously described nasty-ass sinus infection that is currently plaguing me. Sigh.

I did get my dresses mailed off to Nick Kristof's Half the Sky repository, so if you do want to send anything to Jane, here's the address: Half the Sky, c/o Show of Force, 430 East 10th Street, Suite 3A; New York, NY 10009 If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, Jane is a Kenyan woman about whom Kristof recently wrote. She was a prostitute for 5 years after her husband left her homeless and with young children. Then she came upon an anti-poverty organization and with their guidance and support has now started a sewing business that has enabled her to buy a home for her and her children and send them all to school. Click this link for additional information about this inspiring story.